_Red-hot_ BALLS are fired out of mortars, howitzers, or cannon. Use which you will, the ball must be made red-hot, which is done upon a large coal fire in a square hole made in the ground, 6 feet every way, and 4 or 5 feet deep. Some make the fire under an iron grate, on which the shell or ball is laid; but the best way is to put the ball into the middle of a clear burning fire, and when red-hot, all the fiery particles must be swept off. Whatever machine you use to throw the red-hot ball out of, it must be elevated according to the distance you intend it shall range, and the charge of powder must be put into a flannel cartridge, and a good wad upon that; then a piece of wood of the exact diameter of the piece, and about 3¹⁄₂ inches thick, to prevent the ball from setting fire to the powder; then place the ball on the edge of the mortar, &c. with an instrument for that purpose, and let it roll of itself against the wood, and instantly fire it off. Should there be a ditch or parallel before such a battery, with soldiers, the wood must not be used, as the blast of powder will break it to pieces, and its own elasticity prevent it from flying far; it would in that case either kill or wound your own people. For this deficiency the wad must be double. See _American Mil. Lib_. article ARTILLERY. _Chain_-BALLS are two balls linked together by a chain of 8 or 10 inches long, and some have been made with a chain of 3 or 4 feet long; they are used to destroy the pallisadoes, wooden bridges, and chevaux-de-friezes of a fortification. They are also very destructive to the rigging of a ship. _Stang_-BALLS are by some called balls of two heads; they are sometimes made of two half-balls joined together by a bar of iron from 8 to 14 inches long; they are likewise made of two entire balls; they are for the same purpose as the before-mentioned. _Anchor_-BALLS are made in the same way as the light-balls, and filled with the same composition, only with this addition, that these are made with an iron bar two-thirds of the ball’s diameter in length, and 3 or 4 inches square. One half is fixed within the ball, and the other half remains without; the exterior end is made with a grapple-hook. Very useful to set fire to wooden bridges, or any thing made of wood, or even the rigging of ships, &c. for the pile end being the heaviest, flies foremost, and wherever it touches, fastens, and sets all on fire about it. _Message_-BALLS. See SHELLS. BALLIUM, a term used in ancient military history. In towns the appellation of ballium was given to a work fenced with pallisades, and sometimes to masonry, covering the suburbs; but in castles it was the space immediately within the outer wall. BALLOON, a hollow vessel of silk, varnished over and filled with inflammable air, by which means it ascends in the atmosphere. It has during the war been used by the French in reconnoitering, and with great success at Fleurus.