Shells should be loaded with no more powder than is requisite to burst them into the greatest number of pieces, and the length of the fuzes should be exactly calculated according to the required ranges; for, should the fuze set fire to the powder in the shell, before it falls on the place intended, the shell will burst in the air, and probably do more mischief to those who fired the mortar, than to those against whom it was discharged. To prevent this, the fuzes are divided into as many seconds as the greatest range requires, consequently may be cut to any distance, at an elevation of 45 degrees. Mortars are not to be fired with two fires; for when the fuze is properly fixed, and both fuze and shell dredged with mealed powder, the blast of the powder in the chamber of the mortar, when inflamed by the tube, will likewise set fire to the fuze fixed in the shell. BOMBARDIERS, artillery soldiers, who are employed in mortar and howitzer duty. They are to load them on all occasions; and in most services they load the shells and grenades, fix the fuzes, prepare the composition both for fuzes and tubes, and fire both mortars and howitzers on every occasion. In the English service, shells and grenades, composition for the same, fuzes, &c. are prepared in the laboratory by people well-skilled in that business. In most other armies both officers and soldiers belonging to the companies of bombardiers, have an extraordinary pay, as it requires more mathematical learning to throw shells with some degree of exactness, than is requisite for the rest of the artillery. In the British service a specific number is attached to each company of artillery, and do not form a separate corps as in other countries. BONAVOGLIE, _Fr._ a man that for a certain consideration voluntarily engages to row. BONNET, in fortification, implies a small but useful work, that greatly annoys the enemy in their lodgments. This work consists of two faces, which make a salient angle in the nature of a ravelin, without any ditch, having only a parapet 3 feet high, and 10 or 12 feet broad. They are made at the salient angles of the glacis, outworks, and body of the place, beyond the counterscarp, and in the faussebray. See FORTIFICATION. BONNET _à Prêtre_, or _Priest’s Cap_, in fortification, is an outwork, having three salient and two inward angles, and differs from the double tenaille only in having its sides incline inwards towards the gorge, and those of a double tenaille are parallel to each other. See FORTIFICATION. BORDER, in military drawings, implies single or double lines, or any other ornament, round a drawing, &c. BOOKS. There are different books made use of in the army, for the specific purposes of general and regimental economy. _The general orderly_ BOOK is kept by the brigade major, from which the leading orders of regiments, conveying the parole and countersign, are always taken.