Riding-Master. In the British service, in cavalry, artillery, and the army service corps, is an officer whose duty it is to instruct the officers and men in the management of their horses. He is most commonly selected from the ranks. The riding-master has the relative rank of lieutenant, and, after an aggregate service of thirty years, including at least fifteen years as riding-master, he has the right to retire on 10 shillings a day, with the honorary rank of captain. He is assisted in his duties by rough riders. (See [Rough Rider].)
Riff, The. A portion of the coast of Morocco which extends from Tangier on the west, to near the western frontier of Algeria. The name in the Berber language, which is that of the inhabitants, signifies a mountainous and rugged coast. The inhabitants of the Riff were formerly engaged in piracy. On account of the injuries inflicted by them on merchant vessels, most of the maritime states of Europe agreed to pay an annual sum of quit-money. However, in 1828, Austria declined further payment of the tax. A Venetian vessel was seized by the pirates in the harbor of Rabat, but the arrival of an Austrian fleet off the port produced restitution of the ship and its cargo, as well as the formal renunciation of all further claims. France followed the same course by declaring war against the sultan of Morocco, and obtained compensation in 1844, since which period piracy has much diminished. Its example was followed by the Spaniards in 1859.
Rifle. A fire-arm having a number of spiral grooves cut into the surface of its bore, for the purpose of giving the projectile a motion about a line coinciding with the direction of its flight. See [Ordnance], [Small-arms], [Magazine Guns], and [Lyman’s Multi-charge Gun].
Rifle Projectile. See [Projectile].
Rifled Cannon, or Rifle-cannon. A cannon of which the bore is rifled.
Rifled Musket. A musket of which the bore is rifled.
Riflemen. A peculiar kind of light infantry, consisting of experienced marksmen, armed with the most improved rifles. In the British army there are two battalions of the rifle brigade and of the 60th Rifles, the Ceylon Rifles, and the Cape Mounted Riflemen.
Rifle-pit. A pit dug for the shelter of sharpshooters.
Rifling. The yielding nature of lead renders the application of the rifle principle of easy accomplishment in the case of rifle-muskets, but such is not the case with rifle-cannon where the projectiles are made of iron. The object of the most recent experiments is to determine the safest and surest means of causing the projectile to follow the spiral grooves as it passes along the bore of a rifled piece. For description of the manner of doing this, see [Projectile].
Form of Groove.—The form of a rifle groove is determined by the angle which the tangent at any point makes with the corresponding element of the bore. If the angles be equal at all points the groove is uniform. If they increase from the breech to the muzzle, the grooves are called increasing; if the reverse, decreasing. The inclination of a rifle groove at any point is measured, accurately, by the tangent of the angle which it makes with the axis of the bore, which is always equal to the circumference of the bore divided by the length of a single revolution of the spiral, measured in the direction of the axis. Grooves are of two kinds,—[uniform] and [variable].