ARTILLERY. 
Tn its modern acceptation the word fignifies cannon, or 
fire-arms, mounted on their carriages and ready for aCtion, 
with their balls, their bombs, their grenades, &c.- If we 
take the term in a more extenfive meaning, it includes the 
powder, the matches, inftruments for fire-works, the uten- 
fils of ordnance, the machines which facilitate their mo¬ 
tion and tranfport them, the vehicles over which they tra- 
verfe rivers, every thing neceffary to them, and all that 
enters into the form of a train of artillery. The fame 
word, ftill farther extended in its meaning, likewife com¬ 
prehends the men deftined for the fervice of the artillery ; 
the people who provide the artillery with materials and 
implements when engaged, the cannoniers, the bomba- 
diers, the officers of every rank, and engineers of every 
kind. By artillery is likewife underftood the fcience which 
the officers of artillery ought to poffefs. This fcience 
teaches to know the nature of all the materials and ingre¬ 
dients which enter into the compofition and the iirudfure 
of every thing relative to the artillery, fuch as nitre, ful- 
phur, charcoal; the properties of air and fire; the com¬ 
pofition and preparation of gunpowder; the materials for 
fire-works; the conftruCtion, proportions, &c. of the diffe¬ 
rent warlike machines; the arrangement, movement, and 
whole management, of cannon, &c. in the field or in fieges, 
in fuch a manner, that each of them, according to the 
length of its tube and the diameter of its bore, may be 
fituated in the bed place and at the propereft difiance for 
execution, and that the whole train taken together may 
reciprocally al'lilt and fupport each other with the greatefi 
advantage. 
Artillery has undergone many changes from its origin to 
the prefent time. The artillery or warlike engines of the 
ancients were the fcorpion, the catapulta, the balifta, the 
onager, &c. The moving powers of mofi of thefe diffe¬ 
rent machines depended on the elafticity of twilled cords 
formed of the bowels of animals, (inews, human hair, flax, 
and hemp. The fcorpion was only a large crofs-bow, the 
baliffa was at firft chiefly tiled for throwing ffones, and the 
catapulta for lancing darts or arrows; but by degrees they 
were confounded, and indifferently appropriated to both. 
The fcorpion, which is reprefented at jig. i, of the an¬ 
nexed Plate, was the fmalleft machine of its kind. It con¬ 
futed of a bow made of ffeel, or of fonre elaftic wood, 
having a cord ftretched from one end the other, and fixed 
through holes made for that purpofe at its extremities ; in 
the middle was placed the regula BB, which had in its 
upper furface a channel cut in the fhape of a fwallow’s 
tail, the lower part being the broadeft; this regula w’as 
called the fyrinx ; it was fixed on a board DE, fomewhat 
exceeding it in length and breadth, called catagogis; up¬ 
on the fyrinx was placed another regula, equal to it in 
length and breadth, having a mafculus, fwallow-tailed, 
fitting exaCtly into the fwallow-tailed channel or groove 
cut on the fyrinx, and which was joined to it in its lower 
part; this laft regula was called the dioffra, and, being 
placed on the fyrinx with its mafculus inferted into the 
fwallow-tailed groove, it would Aide backward and for¬ 
ward, without rilk of feparation. In the upper furface 
of this dioftra was a femicircular channel C, of its whole 
length, called epitoxis, wherein the arrow was placed; 
at the end of which were two perpendicular plates of iron, 
called catochas, fixed on the dioffra, at a fmall diftance 
one from the other; between them was placed a hook or 
hand of iron G, called chira, and manucla; one of thefe 
extremities was bent back like a hook, and was flit, fo as to 
be able to receive the thicknefs of the arrow between its 
two parts; its other extremity I, terminated in a point; 
through the fides of the catochas, and of the chira, was 
placed an iron axis H, fo that the chira could turn verti¬ 
cally about; under the pointed extremity I, of the chira, 
was the end of a thin bar of iron, which was fixed upon 
the upper furface of the dioffra, to the left of the epitoxis, 
by an iron pin, on which it turned horizontally; this bar 
was called the fehafferia, and, whilft its extremity I, refted 
••tinder the end of the chira, it hindered the latter from 
Vo l. II No. 6$. 
turning on its axis; but, when it was difplaced by pulling 
forward the other extremity K, it permitted the hooked end 
of the chira to turn over, and to put itfelf in the place of 
the pointed end I, which confequently turned under, and 
put itfelf in the place of the hooked end, there being an 
opening cut in the dioffra purpofely to let it pafs. The 
points AA of the bow were bent upwards, fo that the 
firing or cord could pafs freely over the upper furface of 
the dioffra, although the middle of the bow was lower 
than the mafculus; the catagogis was hollowed out at its 
extremity D, wherein the engineer leant his body, and 
then puffied the dioffra forward, until the chira G, came 
to the cord of the bow, which he then put upon the hooks 
of the chira; and, to prevent it from turning, arid confe¬ 
quently letting go the cord, he put the fehafferia under 
its extremity, which ended in the point I; he then puffied 
with all his force the end F of the dioffra againff forne 
wall, or againff the ground, keeping his body in the cavi¬ 
ty D, of the catagogis." In this manner he drew to him 
the dioffra and the chira; the chira having feized the firing 
of the bow, this was. in like manner drawn towards his 
body, arid the bow thereby bent. The following mecha- 
nifm was made to hinder the bow from drawing the diof¬ 
tra backwards: there was a rule with teeth LL, fixed on 
both fides the fyrinx, and a hook of iron M, called cata- 
clida, which turned vertically on an iron axis, on both 
fides of the dioffra; when the dioftra was puffied forwards, 
the cataclida fell fucceffively between the teeth of the rule, 
which hindered the dioftra from going backwards. When 
the bow was bent, the engineer placed the arrow in the 
epitoxis, inferring its feathered end between the parts of 
the chira, quite to the firing of the bow, which entered 
into a cut made purpofely at that end of the arrow ; he 
then raifed the machine, and took his aim by looking along 
the arrow, and talcing the end K, of the fehafferia, drew- 
it towards him, and confequently drew the other end of 
the fehafferia from under the chira, which by the tenlion 
of the firing of the bow inftantly turned on its axis, and 
difengaged the firing, whereby the arrow was difeharged 
with a great velocity. This machine w r as called gajtra „ 
pheten, becaufe the bow was bent by the aCtion of pufliing 
with the belly. 
The catapulta, which is reprefented at Jig. 2, of the fame 
Plate, was a machine which ferved for a (imilar ufe, but 
acted with greater ftrength and velocity. To encreafe its 
force, without much augmenting its magnitude, fome of 
the mechanic powers were added. Inftead of a bow, as 
in the fcorpion, the catapulta had a rectangular frame of 
wood, confiding of four uprights, placed at a convenient 
diftance, and two horizontal traverfes, one above, and the 
other beneath, the four uprights, to which they were 
ftrongly joined by tenons and plates of iron; the horizon¬ 
tal traverfes were called fcutulae by the Romans, and pe- 
ritretas by the Greeks, becaufe they had perforations on 
all fides. The two outfide uprights were called parafta:, 
and the two others on the infide mefoftie. Vitruvius gives 
to all the frames the name of capitule, and Hero of plinthe : 
the holes were pierced perpendicularly through the two 
peritretae ; in the middle between the parafta and mefofta, 
on the right and left fides of the capitule, oppofite the holes 
of the peritretae, were placed two ffrong bars of iron; and 
and two others were alfo applied oppofite, in the holes un¬ 
der the lower peritreta; thefe bars of iron were called 
epizygis. They then tied to the upper epizygis one of the 
ends of a cord, the other end being paffed through the 
holes of the two peritretae to the lower epizygis, it was 
ftretched round it, and paffed again through the fame holes 
to the upper epizygis, about which it was ftretched, and 
again in like manner to the lower epizygis; the fame ope¬ 
ration was repeated till the holes were filled, and that the 
cord could no longer pafs there ; they afterwards inferted 
in the middle of this aflemblage of cords the end of an 
arm of fteel, or elaftic wood; the other end projected out 
beyond the face of the parafta near it, and the two epi- 
zyges were afterwards turned, fo that the cords were ex- 
3 N tremely 
