P L O
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P L U
small piece of lead, which is attached to | Plong£e da rempart , Fr. The slopesome packthread, so that it may be sus- ; of the upper part of the parapet, be-
pended in a perpendicular direction. Itis used by miners. The packthread bywhich it hangs is called fouet, or whip-cord.
Plomb also comprehends, in its sig-nification, all sorts of shot, except can-non-shot, used in fire-arms. The French say, la ville a cte forcee de capituler,fautede plomb , (i. e. balles de mousquet) et depoudre , the town was forced or obligedto capitulate through the want of shotand gunpowder.
longing to the rampart, is so called. Theslope is likewise named talus sup&ieur,or upper talus.
PLONOEONS, Fr. artificial fire-works, which are shut into water, andrise again without being extinguished.
Plongp.ons, Fr. plungers or divers.Men of this description ought always toaccompany an army, for the purpose ofswimming under bridges of boats, &c.and making apertures in their bottoms.
PLUNGER, Fr. literally to plunge:a term used to signify all discharges
sition of any body or substance. &»ej which are made by cannon, musketry,
muraille esi d plomb , a wall is m astraight perpendicular direction.
Donner d Plomb, Fr. to fall verti-cally, as the rays of the sun do in certainlatitudes.
Eire d Plomb , Fr. to stand upright.
Marcher d Plomb, Fr. to march witha firm, steady pace.
Tliis word is sometimes used as a sub-stantive, viz. per dr e son aplomb, to loseone's balance.
Manquer d'aplomb , Fr. to be unsteady.
PLOMBANT, Fr. plumbing or try-ing the straightness of a work by aplumb-rule.
PLOMB de sonde , Fr. sounding-line.
Plomb a chas , Fr. an instrumentmade of copper or brass. See Plumb-Rvle.
Pi.omb de Mine, ) F , , , , ,
Mine de Plomb , \ Lr ' tllack leack
Plomb noir, Fr. common or ordinarylead. The French say, figuratively, Cetqfficicr a du plomb dans la tete, that offi-cer is a deliberate, cool man.
Plomb , Fr. bullets; shot. Le plombrole, the bullets fly about. The French say, Craindre ni plomb , ni fer , not tofear either gun or sword.
PLOMBAGINE, Fr. lead and silverore intermixed.
PLOMBATUltE, Fr. solder of leador tin.
PLOMBEAU, Fr. a plummet, or anyweight of lead ; whence Le poids a plom •beau , the Roman beam, or stelleer.
Plombeau d y une epee , Fr. the pom-mel of a sword.
PLOMBEE, Fr. a pellet of lead.
PLONGEE, Fr. a term used in artil-lery to express the action of a bomb, &c.which fiom the highest point of thecurve it describes, takes a downward di-rection to strike its object.
from any height, such as the rampart,&c. into the fosse, or upon the adjacentcountry.
PLUG, or breech patent, called, also,chambered plug. In a book entitledScloppetaria , there is, in page 115, thefollowing observation relative to thisarticle: “Patent breeches, o>r cham-bered plugs, are acknowledged to re-quire less powder, and to be i*ess liableto stop up, than the plugs commonlyused. The excavation of th«e breechshould he made to contain, ais nearlyas possible, the exact quantity of pow-der intended to be used. Thus exca-vation having been thus made: to con-tain the charge of powder, in order topreveut the grains from being:; bruisedby the force of the ramrod in drivingdown the ball, the upper part s-hould bebored away, or countersunk, so> as to becapable of receiving about a quarter partof the lower hemisphere of the ball.”
PLUIEde /ew, Fr. literally ;a showeror rain of fire. It signifies at certainquantity of artificial fireworks whosedischarge falls in regular sparks, with-out ever deviating into a serpentine di-rection.
PLUMASSTER, a word taken fromthe French , signifying a dealer or chap-man in feathers.
PLUMxE, the iron plates >of whichthe pieces of ancient armour were com-posed, for the defence of tine chest,arms, thighs, and legs. They were socalled from their resemblance© to thefeathers of a bird. Hence the cuirassesthemselves, or coverings for thie thighs,&c. were called piumata:.
PLUMB, PLUMMET , a l.eaden orother weight, let down at the end of astring or piece of catgut to regtulate anywork in a line perpendicular tc0 the ho-40