Aigremore. Pulverized charcoal, proper for fire-works.

Aigrette. An imitation in fire of the aigrette; like the aigrette of glass.

Ailerons. They are used in making rockets.

Amadou. A kind of tinder made with agaric.

Ame. This is more particularly used to express the kind of work, put in the head of a rocket. The term, however, is arbitrary.

Amorce. Priming: a paste of powder and spirit of wine.

Arquer. A name given to a particular shaped case.

Artifice, feu d'. Fire-works; artificial fire.

Auget. The wooden trough to contain the saucisson, which communicates fire to a mine.

Baguette. A rammer, roller, former, &c.

Baguette À charger. Rammers or chargers, pierced with holes in their length, more or less, to receive the piercer. They are applicable to the charging of rockets, if they are to be driven hollow; if not, solid rammers are employed.

Baguette À feu. Fougette; East Indian rocket. See page 529.

Baguette À rouler. A former, on which the pasteboard or paper is rolled, in forming cases for rockets, port-fires, &c. &c.

Baguette de fusÉe volante. Rocket stick. A stick, attached to the rocket, before it is set off.

Baguette en massive. Rods or rammers, which are not bored.

Bague suspendue aux cendres d'un fil. A ring suspended to the ashes of a thread.

Ballon. Balloon; a bomb or shell, made of pasteboard, which is thrown in the air by means of a mortar.

Ballon À bombes. A large globe, filled with bombs, grenades, &c. fired by means of a fuse, and thrown into the works of the enemy.

Ballon d'Artifice. A bomb, or spherical case, containing sundry compositions.

Ballons d'air. Air-Balloons.

Ballons d'eau. Water-Balloons.

Battage. The process of pounding, grinding, and mixing, with water, the three substances, composing gunpowder, to reduce them to a proper consistency. It is performed in wooden mortars, with wooden pestles, furnished with a brass box to agitate the water. The time, employed in the battage in France, is from 14 to 22 hours.

Bateau-poisson. A diving boat.

Billot À charger. A billot for charging; used occasionally in the place of a mallet.

BoÎte. A species of small mortar. It is used, also, to express a piece of wood or pasteboard, used in the arrangement of some fire-works.

Bonnetage. The covering of priming over a case, or fuse.

BouffÉes. Literally puffs, or blasts: in Pyrotechny, a kind of fire-works, used in theatres, to represent the flames, issuing from gulfs, or the caves of Cyclops. They are also called Cornets, from their resembling horns in their shape.

Boute feu. Lintstock.

Bouton. The extremity of the culot is sometimes so called.

Brin. Frame. The frame on which are placed or fixed, fire-pots, saucissons, &c. Hence pots de Brin, &c.

CarabÉ or KarabÉ. Yellow amber.

Carte de Moulage. Means in general, the paper for cases.

Chapiteau d'artifice. Conical head of a rocket.

Chasse. Charge of grained powder for mortars, &c.

Chevelure de feu. A species of furniture for rockets, in the form of serpents.

Chelingues. A marine term. A kind of flat bottomed boat, used on the coast of Coromandel.

Corde À feu. Match rope. Slow match. A match to preserve a small quantity of fire.

Courantin. A messenger, runner, or flying dragon; a rocket, that flies along a rope or string. See page 345.

Courantin simple. A line-rocket. A rocket fixed on a cord, stretched horizontally on which a rocket moves.

Courantin double. Two line-rockets.

Courier pigeon. Carrier pigeon. See page 490.

Culot. Bottom; the thickest part of a shell, opposite to the eye; also called reinforcement. The round iron plate, fixed upon the sabot, or shoe, for cannister shot, or at the bottom of the cannister, to project the shot with more force:—The bottom, or block, which supports the piercer and mould for charging rockets, (see plate, fig. 1):—That part of a cannon cartridge, which remains in the piece after firing.

Camouflet. A small fougasse, to act against the enemy's miners, who are heard at work, to suffocate them and poison their branch.

Dauphin. A fire-work in water.

Debonneter une fusÉe. The paper cover, put over the priming of a fuse.

Eaux de cuite. Literally, water of boiling. The strongest lixivium obtained in extracting nitre from plaster rubbish. It must mark more than five degrees of BaumÉ's areometer, and is called water of boiling, on account of its being sufficiently strong, to be immediately subjected to boiling, for further concentration.

Eaux forte. Lixivia from plaster rubbish, which mark between three and five degrees of the areometer.

Eaux faibles. Lixivia from plaster rubbish, whose strength is under three degrees of the areometer.

Eclair, ou jet de flame. Several fire-works are so called from their effect.

Eclatante. A case charged with brilliant fire.

Epoussetage. The process of separating the dust from gunpowder; also of separating mealed powder, from that which is not reduced.

Eprouvette. Gunpowder triers: an instrument for proving gunpowder.

Etoile. Star.

Etoiles À pet. Stars which explode.

Entonnoir. The crater or tunnel of a mine, as formed by its explosion.

Etoupille. Quick match, leader, match of communication; cotton or thread mixed in a paste, composed of meal-powder, spirits, and a small portion of gum.

Etrangler. Strangling; choaking. The closing of a case, and tying it.

Fanaux de Mer. Ship lights;—Beacons for vessels in the night;—watch-lights.

Feu blanc Indien. Chinese fire.

Feu brilliant. A bright vivid fire. Thus the fire, produced by steel and iron, in fire-works, is denominated a brilliant fire.

Feu commun. Common fire. A fire produced by the mixture of powder and charcoal.

Feu mort. Dead light; dead fire. See page 485.

Feux de Gouvernement. State or public fire-works.

Filagere. The thread used for strangling.

Flamboyante. A species of rocket, which, from its effects in the atmosphere, is called the comet.

Foudres. Thunderbolts, lightnings; in pyrotechny, the preparations, used to imitate thunderbolts; thunder powder.

Foudroyante. A case or rocket, which imitates thunder: Fougette. (See Baguette À feu.)

Fougasse. A small mine.

Fougues. Small rockets, without sticks.

Fourneau. Furnace. A mine. The chamber of a mine.

FusÉe. Any sort of composition, put in a cylindrical case. In English, however, the term fuse is confined to particular compositions; as fuse for bombs, howitzes and grenades.

FusÉes chevelues. Bearded rockets. See page 424.

FusÉes d'amorce. Priming fuses.

FusÉes volantes. Flying or sky-rockets.

Garniture. Garniture, furniture, embellishment, ornament: in pyrotechny the small fire-works, such as stars, serpents, marrons, &c. which are put into the pots of sky-rockets, into fire-pots, &c. The petards with which the pots of incendiary rockets are charged.

Gargousse. Cartouch, cartridge. It more properly means the sack, or bag for containing the charge of powder for a cannon, when the bag is made of paper or parchment; but when it is made of serge, it is called sachet. (See sachet.)

Girandole. Chandelier: in pyrotechny, two or more horizontal wheels, placed above one another and turning upon the same vertical axis. When of different sizes, these wheels resemble a chandelier; hence the name.

Girande. A cluster, or assemblage, of several hundreds or thousands of rockets, thrown up at the same time. Several clusters may be arranged in different boxes, and fired separately with regular intervals, or all at the same time. In either case, the assemblage is called a Girande. It is also called gerbe. See gerbe, and page 455.

Gerbe. Sheaf; a fire-jet case, charged with the composition for brilliant or Chinese fire, which is thrown out in such a manner as to represent a luminous sheaf. A group of fuses, or fire-jets, fired at the same time, also bears this name: A Chinese tree.

Grenage. The graining of gunpowder.

Glace Inflammable. Inflammable ice.

Lissage. The glazing of gunpowder.

Lardon. This term generally signifies all those small fire-works, which are sold in shops; such as serpents, squibs, crackers, &c.; but, more strictly, it signifies the largest, and strongest kind of serpents.

Lance À feu. Squib, fire-lance, or simply lance.

Lance de feu. A species of lance used by garrisons against scaling parties.

Lance À feu puant. Stink-fire lances, used by miners.

Lanterne. Literally lantern; a copper spoon, or ladle, used instead of cartridges for conveying the charge to the bottom of a cannon. They were formerly used in all pieces, but at present only in siege and garrison pieces.

Larmes À feu. Fire-tears, or drops; tears.

Lianes des Marais. A species of convolvulus; bind weed.

Marquise. Marchioness; a rocket having an interior diameter of two-thirds of an inch. When it has the diameter of five-sixths of an inch, it is called a double marquise.

Machine Infernale. Infernal machine.

Mosaique. Mosaic; the imitation of mosaic in fire-works.

MeurtriÈres. Literally Murderers: applied to those modifications of any species of fire-work, which fit them for the destruction of an enemy.

Partement. See fusÉe de partement.

Partement, fusÉes de. Sky-rockets, having an interior diameter of half of an inch. When the diameter of the rocket is only one-third of an inch, it is called Petit Partement.

Paratonnerre. Lightning rod.

Patte d'oie. A goose's foot: a kind of fire-works, so called from their resemblance to a goose's foot:—A term in mining to signify three small branches, which run out at the extremity of a gallery.

Pots À feu. Fire pots: they are thrown upon the enemy in the attack or defence of places; but are not so much used as fire-balls and carcasses: pot granado.

Pots des Brins. See page 364.

Pots de Chasse. See page 360.

Pots des Saucissons. The pots of saucissons.

Pluie d'or. Golden rain.

Poudre d'or. Gold powder.

Porte feu. Port-fire; also a leader.

PiÈce pyrique. This name is generally given to all kinds of fire-works; composed of fixed and turning pieces, which would require a great number of words to describe separately; but it is more particularly given to a kind of mechanical contrivance of fixed and turning wheels, one of which communicates fire to the other, and vice versa. See page 412.

Ricochet. A bound, leap, or skip, such as a flat piece of stone makes, when thrown obliquely along the surface of a pond: The bounds, which are made by balls, fired with small charges, and under angles of little elevation, either upon land, or water: Fire-works, which leap or roll on the ground.

Roche À feu. Fire-stone.

SÉchage. The process of drying either gunpowder or fire-works.

Saucisson. Sausage: in pyrotechny, a sort of fuse or petard, still larger than the lardon:—A cylindrical bag of powder to convey fire to a mine:—A bundle of sticks, used in fortification.

Soleil montant. Rising sun.

Sachet. Satchel: the bag or sack of a cannon cartridge, when made of serge.

Tourteaux. Links: see page 500.

Tourteaux goudronnÉs. Tarred links.

Tourbillon. Whirlwind, vortex: a table wheel.

Tourbillon de feu. A whirlwind of fire; fire-wheels, which rise or fall in the air; also called rising or falling suns.