LAB

LAB

•Balls. See Balls.

ingredients are put into iron shells,liaving4ho!es each, to let out the smoke,and are thrown out of mortars.

Stink-Foisoned-Red-hot-Cliain-Stang-Anchor-

Mcssage-Bulls. See Shells.Fire-Barrels are at present not muchused: they were of different sorts; somemounted on two wheels. The inside ofthe barrel is loaded with powder, andthe outside full of sharp iron points, in-termixed with grenades loaded, andfuses fixed. Sometimes they are placedunder ground, and made use of to an-noy the enemy’s approach.

Carcass, in military affairs, was for-merly of an oval form, made of ironbars, and filled with a composition ofmealed powder, saltpetre, sulphur, bro-ken glass, shavings of horn, pitch, tur-pentine, tallow, and linseed oil, covered"ith a pitched cloth; it is primed withmealed powder and quick match, andlired out of a mortar. Its design is toset houses on fire, &c. See Carcass.

None but round carcasses are used atpresent, the flight of the oblong onesbeing so uncertain. The compositionis, pitch 2, saltpetre 4, sulphur 1, andturned powder 3. When the pitch ismelted, the pot is taken off’ and the in-pedients(well mixed) put in; then theearcass is filled with as much as can bepressed in.

Cartridges are made of various sub-stances, such as paper, parchments, bind-ers, aud flannel. W lien they are made“■ P a P er > the bottoms remain in thePiece, and accumulate so much, thatwe pruning cannot reach the powder;oesides other inconveniences. Whenley aremadgof parc i uneilt or bladders,el hre S ' n , Vels them U P> so that theythat 1 the* t ie vent Jbecome so hard,

theai

husb

priming iron cannot remove

so as to clear the vent. N othing

us«i „T lme ’ wlli . cU is the only thingof :,ll P U '’ C:U,: ^ or artillery cartridgesfc „r tS; , beC ? USe Adoes "it keepdents in 0 1 '? ret ? re uot hable to acci-°f powder / e . l0at a'" : but ’ as dl e dustment co vJ m>,SCS tbr ? u gh them, a parch-u 1S sometimes made to put

over them, which is taken off whenused.

The best way of making flannel car-tridges, is to boil the flannel in size;which will prevent the dust of powderfrom passing through, and render itstiff) and more manageable; for with-out this precaution cartridges are sopliable, on account of their size, and thequantity of powder they contain, thatthey are put into the piece with muchdifficulty.

The loading and firing guns with car-tridges is done much sooner than withloose powder, and fewer accidents arelikely to occur. The heads of cartridges,especially for musquetry, are sometimeswrapped in coarse cotton.

In quick firing, the shot is fixed to 'the cartridge by means of a woodenbottom, hollowed on one side so as toreceive nearly half the shot, which isfastened to it by two small slips of tincrossing over the shot, and nailed to thebottom; and the cartridge is tied to theother end thereof. They are fixed like-wise in the same maimer to the bottomsof grape shot, which are used in fieldpieces.

Grape-shot, in artillery, is a combi-nation of small shot, put into a thickcanvas bag, and corded strongly toge-ther, so as to form a kind of cylinder,whose diameter is equal to that of theball which is adapted to the cannon.

To make, grape shot, a bag of coarsecloth is made just to hold the bottomwhich is put into it; as many shot arethen thrown in as the grape is to con-tain ; apd with a strong packthreadthe whine is quilted to keep the shotfrom moving.. The bags, when finish-ed, are put into boxes for the purposeof being conveniently carried.

The number of shot in a grape variesaccording to the service or size of theguns: in sea service 9 is always thenumber; but by land it is increased toany number or size, from an ounce anda quarter in weight, to four pounds. Ithas not yet been determined, with anydegree of accuracy, what number andsize answer best in practice; for it iswell known that they often scatter somuch, that only a small number takeeffect.

Of the three different sorts of cannonwhich are used for throwing grape shot,3 F 2 the