Of the various constructions and processes seen during these tours they make notes and drawings, which are embodied in the form of reports to the director, and are subsequently bound up with the other parts of the course.
General Note.—Further explanations of the mode of filling up the details of the course, and of the forms for the notes and drawings, are given in the special instructions.
(f.) Demolitions.
The ignition of gunpowder or other explosives by powder hose and Bickford’s fuze as well as by electricity, both on land and submerged under water, is taught to all officers.
In order that the best methods of using gunpowder or other explosives for the demolition of works and buildings by mining may be thoroughly understood, each officer is required to make projects for the following demolitions, viz.:
1. A front of fortification, or some similar work, exhibiting various sorts of revetments, and requiring the simultaneous explosion of a large number of mines.
2. A casemate, powder magazine, or other substantial military building under two suppositions: 1st, that there is plenty of time, that sufficient men and tools are available, and that it is required to effect complete demolition without wasting gunpowder unnecessarily; 2d, that time presses, and that the demolition must be effected in the most expeditious manner possible.
3. A bridge or viaduct under two different suppositions, as in No. 2.
The mines in some cases are directed to be tired by powder hose, and in others by electricity.
Each of these projects consists of a memoir and explanatory drawings. The memoir comprises,—