Excavation,-Entonnoir,
the pit or hole made by a mine when sprung.
Focus, the centre of the chamber where the powder is lodged.
Fougas, a kind of small mine.
Fourneau, SeeChamber.
Miners’ Tools, are augers of several sorts, levers of different sorts, needles for working in rocks, rakes, spades, shovels, sledge-hammers, masons’ hammers, pick-axes, picks, mattocks, chissels, plummets, rules, a miner’s dial, &c.
Line of least resistance, is a line drawn from the centre of the space containing the powder, perpendicular to the nearest surface.
Gallery, the passage leading to the powder.
Saucisson, is a pipe or hose made of coarse cloth, whose diameter is about an inch, and filled with gunpowder; then laid in a trough or auget, which extends from the chamber to the entrance of the gallery, that the miner who sets fire to it, may have time to retire before it reaches to the chamber.
MINING, inmilitary affairs, is the art of blowing up any part of a fortification, building, &c. by gunpowder. The art ofminingrequires a perfect knowlege both of fortification and geometry; and by these previous helps, the engineer may be qualified to ascertain correctly the nature of all manner of heights, depths, breadths, and thicknesses; to judge perfectly of slopes and perpendiculars, whether they be such as are parallel to the horizon, or such as are visual; together with the true levels of all kinds of earth. To which must be added, a consummate skill in the quality of rocks, earths, masonry, and sands; the whole accompanied with a thorough knowlege of the strength of all sorts of gunpowder
MINION, a piece of ordnance, of which there are two kinds, the large and ordinary: the large minion has its bore 3¹⁄₄ inches diameter, and is 1000 pounds weight; its load is 3¹⁄₄ pounds of powder; its shot three inches in diameter, and 3³⁄₄ pounds weight; its length is eight feet, and its level range 125 paces. The ordinary minion is three inches diameter in the bore, and weighs about 800 pounds weight: it is seven feet long, its load 2¹⁄₂ pounds of powder, its shot near three inches in diameter, and weighs threepounds four ounces, and shoots point blank 120 paces.
MINISTER, according to Johnson, is one who acts not by any inherent authority of his own, but under another. Thus in England all ministers act under a supreme authority, which is vested in the king, lords, and commons, to whom they are responsible. In military matters, there is not only a war minister, but a secretary at war, who likewise acts conjointly with the secretary of state. All dispatches and papers of consequence relating to the army must first pass through the secretary of state, and the war minister, before they are laid before parliament, or otherwise acted upon by the secretary at war. The common arrangements of corps, directions with respect to marching, &c. are transmitted to the secretary at war, and to the quarter-master general’s office, without previously passing through the secretary of state, or war minister.
Ministrede la guerre,Fr.Minister of the war department. The appointment of minister and secretary at war, among the French, first took place in the reign of Henry the II. in 1549. SeeWar.
MINUTE, a hasty sketch taken of any thing in writing. Hence minutes of a general or regimental court-martial.
Minutesof council in the military department. The notification of orders and regulations, which are directed to be observed by the British army in India, is so called. These minutes receive the sanction of the governor-general in council, and are the result of previous communications from the court of directors in Europe. They answer to the French wordRésultat, which was prefixed to all orders and regulations that were occasionally issued by the military boards, or conseils de guerre, for the government of the army. The term,jugement d’un conseil de guerre, corresponded with our minutes of a general or regimental court-martial, and expressed not only the minutes but the sentence of the court.
MINUTE, the 60th part of each degree of a circle; and, in computation of time, the 60th part of an hour: it also denotes a short memoir or hasty sketch taken of any thing in writing. SeeMeasure.
LaMinute,Fr.The original of a sentence or decree.
ToMISBEHAVE, in a military sense, to act in any manner unbecoming the character of an officer or soldier.
ToMisbehavebefore the enemy, to abandon the colors, or shamefully give way in action, &c. SeeWar.
MIQUELETS,Fr.A banditti that infest the Pyrenean mountains, and are extremely obnoxious to travellers.
MIQUELETTI. A small body of mountain fusileers, belonging to the Neapolitan army.
MIRE,Fr.In the French artillery, a piece of wood about four inches thick, one foot high, and two feet and a half long, which is used in pointing cannon.
Coins deMire,Fr.Wedges made of wood, which serve to raise or depress any piece of ordnance. They are likewise used for the same purpose in mortars.
MIRZA,Ind.Sir, lord, master.
MISCELLANEOUS, an item or charge in the estimates of the British army, so distinguished asmiscellaneous services; the same as our contingent expenditures.
MISERICORDE,Fr.a short dagger, which the cavalry formerly used, for the purpose of dispatching an enemy who would not ask quarter or mercy.
MISSILE,-MISSIVE,
any weapon which is either thrown by the hand, or which strikes at a distance from the moving power.
MITRAILLE,Fr.small pieces of old iron, such as heads of nails, &c. with which pieces of ordnance are frequently loaded.
Tirer àMitraille,Fr.To fire with grape shot. This term is frequently used by the French, to express the bribery which is practised in war time by one nation upon another, for the purpose of fomenting civil insurrections. Hencetirer à mitraille d’or.
MITRE,-MITER,
a mode of joining two boards, or other pieces of wood together at right angles.
MOAT, A wet or dry ditch, dug round the walls of a town, or fortified place. When an enemy attacks a town, which has dry moats round it, the rampart must be approached by galleries under ground, which galleries are run beneath the moat; when the place is attempted through wet moats, your approaches must be made by galleries above ground, that is to say, by galleries raised above the surface of the water. The brink of the moat next the rampart is called the scarp, and the opposite one the counterscarp.
Dry-Moat, that which has no water. It should invariably be deeper than the one that is full of water.
Flat bottomedMoat, that which hath no sloping, its corners being somewhat rounded.
LinedMoat, that whose scarp and counterscarp are cased with a wall of mason work made aslope.
MODEL, a mould; also a diminutive representation of any thing. Thus models of warlike instruments, fortifications, &c. &c. are preserved in the British laboratory at Woolwich.
MODERN, something of our own times, in opposition to what is antique or ancient.
ModernTactics,andModernArt of War, That system of manœuvre and evolution, which has been adopted since the invention of gunpowder, and particularly the system improved by the French within twenty years. SeeAm. Mil. Lib.
Ancient Tactics, and ancient art of War.The system which was pursued by the Greeks and Romans, &c. before the invention of gunpowder and fire arms.
MOGNIONS, from the French Maignon, signifying the stump of a limb. A sort of armor for the shoulders.
MOGUL, the emperor of India, from whom the nabobs (properlyNaib, a deputy,) originally received their appointments, as governors and superintendants of provinces.
MogulTartars, a nation so called that made considerable conquests in India.
MOHUR,Ind.A golden coin, of which there are several values, but generally goes for fifteen or sixteen rupees; a rupee half our dollar.
MOIENNE,Fr.A piece of ordnance, which is now called a four pounder, and which is ten feet long, was formerly so called.
MOINEAU, a French term for a little flat bastion, raised upon a re-entering angle, before a curtain which is too long, between two other bastions. It is commonly joined to the curtain, but sometimes separated by a fosse, and then called a detached bastion. They are not raised so high as the works of the place.
MoisRomains,Fr.a term used in Germany, to signify a particular tax or contribution, which the emperors had a right to demand on urgent occasions. This tax grew out of an old custom which originally prevailed when the emperors went to Rome to be crowned, and which served to defray their expences thither. Thus when the tax was required, it was called for as a contribution of so manyRoman months; implying a certain sum for so many.
MOISSON,Fr.Harvest. This word is used in various senses by the French, particularly in two of a poetical and figurative kind, viz.Il a vu cinquante moissons; he has lived fifty years, literally, has seen fifty harvests.
Moissonde lauriers,Fr.a succession of victories, &c. literally a harvest of laurels.
Moissonde gloire, is taken in the same sense.
MOISSONNERdes lauriers,Fr.To reap laurels.
Moissonnerles hommes,Fr.To kill off, &c. To mow down men.
MOLLER,Fr.Literally means to wax soft. It is used figuratively among the French to signify, in a military sense, the yielding or giving way of armed men, viz.les troupes mollisent, the troops gave way.
MOLLESSE,Fr.in a figurative sense, signifies want of firmness or resolution.Je crains la mollesse de vos conseils; I mistrust the pliant tendency of your advice or counsel.
MONDE,Fr.in a military sense, means men or soldiers, viz.
Ce capitaine n’avoit que la moitié de son monde; such a captain had only half his complement of men.
On a perdue beaucoup de monde,Fr.They lost a considerable number of men.
Il a un monde d’ennemis sur les bras,Fr.he is assailed by a multiplicity of foes.
Aller à l’autre monde,Fr.This expression bears the same import in English that it does in French, viz. to die—literally, to go into the other world.
Le Nouveau Monde,Fr.This term is frequently used to denote America. HenceL’Ancien et le Nouveau Monde, means the two continents.
MONEY-matters. An expression in familiar use to express all pecuniary concerns. It cannot be too strongly recommended to every responsible military man to be scrupulously correct on this head. More than half the breaches of friendship and common acquaintance that occur in life, may be traced to irregularity: but in no instance are its effects so fatal, as when the soldier is wronged, or is induced to think so by the omissions, &c. of officers or serjeants.
Of the Monies, Weights, and Measures, of Foreign Nations respectively with those of England.
In order to the attainment of a just comparison of foreign monies with our own, the following tables are subjoined.
Thefirst tablecontains the denominations of the principal foreign monies of account, and their intrinsic value in English money, calculated upon the existing proportion between gold and silver in the respective countries.
Thesecond tableshews the names of the principal foreign coins in gold, their weight, their fineness, their pure contents, and the intrinsic value of each in relation to the gold coins of Great Britain.
Thethird tablerelates to silver coins, upon similar principles to those of the second.
The comparison of the weights and measures of foreign nations with those of England is established by the following tables.
Thefourth tablebespeaks the names of the weights used for precious metals, the quantity which each contains in grains troy-weight, and the relation of the several foreign weights to 100 pounds troy-weight.
Thefifth tabledenotes the names of the weights used in the sale of merchandize, the quantity which each contains in troy-weight, and the relation of foreign weights to 100 and to 112 pounds avoirdupois-weight.
Thesixth tablerelates to the measures used in the sale of corn, to the number of English cubic inches of the internal measurement of each, and to the relation of foreign measures to 10 quarters Winchester measure.
Theseventh tablecomprises the measures for liquids, the quantity of English cubic inches which each contains internally, and the relation of foreign measures to 100 gallons English.
Theeighth tablerelates to cloth measures, to the length of each in lines, and to the relation of foreign measures to 100 yards and to 100 ells.
Theninth tableis descriptive of measures of length for measuring masts, timber, and other solid bodies, of the number of lines contained in each, and of the proportion between foreign measures of a similar description and 100 feet English.
Thetenth tablerefers to land measures, to the quantity of English square feet which each contains, and to the proportion between foreign measures of this description and 100 acres.
The eleventh andlast tableis founded upon itinerary measures, the length of each in feet, and the proportion between the measures severally adopted in different countries and a degree of the equator.
Independently of the facility which will be afforded by these tables in the comparison of the monies, weights, and measures of foreign nations with those of England, it will not be difficult to find the relation of the monies, weights, and measures of foreign countries, in respect to each other, by the guidance of the explanations at the foot of each of the tables in question.
It will be observed, that in order to avoid the multiplicity of the denominators of fractions, and to give to the several calculations a greater degree of exactitude, the unit has constantly been divided, in the following tables, into 100 parts.
Table,which shews the intrinsic Value of the monies of account of Foreign Nations expressed in pence sterling.
Monies of Account.
The following example will shew in what manner the relation between the monies of account of any two given countries may be ascertained.
Example.
Let it be required to express, in pence Irish, the value of a marc banco of Hamburgh.
The marc being worth 18,45 pence sterling, and the pound Irish 221,54, according to the table prefixed, I state the following equation:
Table,which shews the Weight, Fineness, and pure Contents of the principal Gold Coin of foreign Nations, as well as their intrinsic Value, expressed in English Money.
Gold Coins.
In the first column of this table is shewn the weight of each foreign coin in grains troy-weight; in the second column, the degree of the fineness in carats and grains of a carat; in the third column, the contents of fine gold in grains troy-weight; and in the fourth, the intrinsic value expressed in shillings and pence sterling.
The following example will be of guidance to ascertain the value of foreign coin in other money also foreign.
Example.
It is required to express the value of a louis d’or of France coined since 1785 in the money of Portugal.
As it is seen by the prefixed table that the louis of 24 livres tournois contains 106,37 grains of fine gold, and that the joanese of 6400 reis contains 203,39 grains of fine gold, I state the following equation:
Table,which shews the Weight, Fineness and pure Contents of the principal Silver Coins of foreign Nations, as well as their intrinsic Value, expressed in English Money.
Silver Coins.