[12] In the instructions issued in August 1909 one of the principal advantages of grouped sections is stated to be the neutralization of ranging errors at ranges over 1000 yards. At a less range, it is laid down, grouped guns form too visible a target, unless the ground is very favourable.
[13] The British instructions of August 1909 direct the grouping of guns in the decisive attack (if circumstances and ground favour this course) and their use by sections “if the brigade is deployed on a wide front,” i.e. on the non-decisive front; further, that it is often advisable to disperse the sections of the leading battalions and to group those of units in reserve. In any case, while the 2, 4 or 8 guns must be ready to act independently as a special “arm,” their normal work is to give the closest support to the neighbouring infantry (battalion in the holding, brigade in the decisive, attack).
[14] In Germany, however, the tendency is not to make holding attacks but to keep the troops out of harm’s way (i.e. too far away for the enemy to counter-attack) until they can strike effectively.
MACÍAS [O NAMORODO] (fl. 1360-1390), Galician trovador, held some position in the household of Enrique de Villena. He is represented by five poems in the Cancianero de Baena, and is the reputed author of sixteen others. Macías lives by virtue of the romantic legends which have accumulated round his name. The most popular version of his story is related by Hernán Nuñez. According to this tradition, Macías was enamoured of a great lady, was imprisoned at Arjonilla, and was murdered by the jealous husband while singing the lady’s praises. There may be some basis of fact for this narrative, which became a favourite subject with contemporary Spanish poets and later writers. Macías is mentioned in Rocaberti’s Gloria de amor as the Castillan equivalent of Cabestanh; he afforded a theme to Lope de Vega in Porfiar hasta morir; in the 19th century, at the outset of the romantic movement in Spain, he inspired Larra (q.v.) in the play Macías and in the historical novel entitled El doncel de Don Enrique el doliente.
See H. A. Rennert, Macias, o namorado; a Galician trobador (Philadelphia, 1900); Théodore J. de Puymaigre, Les vieux auteurs castillans (1889-1890), i. 54-74; Cancioneiro Gallego-Castelhano (New York and London, 1902), ed. H. R. Lang; Christian F. Bellermann, Die alten Liederbücher der Portugiesen (Berlin, 1840).
MACINTOSH, CHARLES (1766-1843), Scottish chemist and inventor of waterproof fabrics, was born on the 29th of December 1766 at Glasgow, where he was first employed as a clerk. He devoted all his spare time to science, particularly chemistry, and before he was twenty resigned his clerkship to take up the manufacture of chemicals. In this he was highly successful, inventing various new processes. His experiments with one of the by-products of tar, naphtha, led to his invention of waterproof fabrics, the essence of his patent being the cementing of two thicknesses of india-rubber together, the india-rubber being made soluble by the action of the naphtha. For his various chemical discoveries he was, in 1823, elected F.R.S. He died on the 25th of July 1843.
See George Macintosh, Memoir of C. Macintosh (1847).