Handbook for Light ArtilleryDyer, A. B. (Alexander Brydie)
History
Handbook for Light Artillery
Dyer, A. B. (Alexander Brydie)
Artillery, Field and mountain
It should not be opened in damp weather if it can be avoided. The
ventilators must be kept free, and no shrubbery or trees allowed to
grow near so as to screen the building from the sun. The yard should
be of sand or clay and well drained. The moisture of a magazine may be
absorbed by chloride of lime kept in an open vessel and renewed from
time to time. Quicklime is dangerous, and should not be used. Candles
in lanterns are used for lighting the magazine. No one should enter
without first removing his shoes or putting india-rubbers over them. No
cane, sword, or anything which might occasion sparks must be carried
in.
Barrels of powder must not be rolled in transportation; they should be
carried in handbarrows, or in slings made of rope, canvas, or leather.
All implements used in the magazine or on the barrels should be of
copper or wood. The barrels must never be repaired in the magazine.
When it is necessary to roll them for the better preservation of the
powder and to prevent its caking, it is done with a small number at a
time on boards in the yard.
Neither loaded shells, fireworks, nor composition for fireworks, fuzes,
nor friction-primers, etc., will be stored in a magazine with powder.
Shells should be filled in the filling-room of the service-magazine.
=Transportation of Powder.=--In wagons. The barrels of powder must be
packed in straw, secured in such a manner as not to rub against each
other, and the load closely covered with canvas. Sufficient guard
should accompany the train to prevent all fire or smoking near the
wagons. No camp-fires should be allowed near the park. On railroads
each barrel should be tightly boxed and packed so as to avoid friction;
the cars, if practicable, should have springs similar to those of
passenger-cars.
=Fuzes and Friction-primers= are kept as far as possible in their
original packages, and are stored in the driest and safest place in the
storehouse.
=Filling Cartridge-bags.=--The powder is carried in barrels from
the magazine to the filling-room. _Under no circumstances will the
filling be done at the magazine._ Handle powder carefully. Implements
required: 1 copper hammer, 1 wooden drift, 1 counter-brush, 1 scoop, 1
counter-scale and weights (brass or copper), 1 filling-funnel, 1 set
of powder-measures, cartridge-bags and twine. When the cartridges are
to be used with projectiles, each charge is carefully weighed; if for
blank cartridges, it is measured.
One man holds the bag open and another pours the powder into it through
a funnel. The bag is then securely tied with twine close to the
powder. When filled, each should be marked in pencil, showing kind and
weight of powder, and for what piece to be used.
=Filling Projectiles.=--The bursting-charge should be weighed and
carefully placed in shell through copper funnel, the nose of which
should pass below the end of the screw-thread. Then carefully wipe the
thread of both fuze and fuze-hole before inserting the fuze.
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