A Treatise Containing the Elementary Part of Fortification, Regular and Irregular: With Remarks on the Constructions of the Most Celebrated Authors, Particularly of Marshal de Vauban and Baron Coehorn, in which the Perfection and Imperfection of Their Several Works are Considered. For the Use of the Royal Academy of Artillery at Woolwich. Illustrated with Thirty-four Copper Plates

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F. Wingrave, successor to Mr. Nourse, 1799 - Fortification - 240 pages
 

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Page 8 - But this is no derogation to their truth and certainty; no more than it is to the truth or certainty of the three angles of a triangle being equal to two right ones, because it is not so evident as, " The whole is bigger than a part," nor so apt to be assented to at first hearing.
Page 212 - Some gabions are five or six feet high, and threefeetin diameter : these serve in sieges to carry on the approaches under cover, when they come pretty near the fortification. Those used in field-works are three or four feet high, and two and a half or three feet diameter. There are also gabions about...
Page 206 - It is most commonly situated within the bastion, and made much in the same form. Sometimes the cavaliers are placed in the gorges, or on the middle of the curtain ; they are then made in the form of a horse-shoe. Their use is to command all the adjacent works and surrounding country.
Page 217 - Palifades, are a kind of ftakes made of ftrong fplit wood of about 9 feet long, fixed 3 feet deep in the ground in rows about 6 inches afunder; they are placed in the covert-way at 3 feet from, and parallel to the parapet or ridge of the glacis, to fecure it from being furprifed. Parapet, is a part of the rampart of a work, of...
Page 46 - When the revetement of a rampart goes quite up to the top^ 4 feet of the upper part is a vertical wall of three feet thick, with...
Page 40 - ... to the points b, c, will be the faces of the places of arms. If lines are drawn, parallel to the lines which terminate the covert-way, and the places of arms, at 20...
Page 32 - The fecond fort defend the ditch much better than the firft, and add a low flank to thofe of the baftions ; but as thefe flanks are liable to be enfiladed, they have not been much put in practice. This defect might however be remedied, by making them fo, as to be covered by the extremities of the parapets of the oppofite ravelins, or by fome other work.
Page 132 - E mofl eflential principle in fortification, confifts in making all the fronts of a place equally ftrong, fo that the enemy may find no advantage in attacking either of the fides; this can happen no otherwife in a regular fortification fituated in a plain or even ground; but as there are but few places which are not irregular, either in their works or fituations, and the nature of the ground may be fuch as makes it impracticable to build them regular, without too great...
Page 34 - ... are only 20 toifes. > Thefe. kind of works may make a good defence, and -are no very great expence ; for as they are fo...
Page 146 - ... examine, whether by cutting off fome parts of the old wall or rampart, and taking in fome ground, the place cannot be reduced into a regular figure, or nearly fo ; for, if that can be done without increafing the expence confiderably, it...

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