a round body of which the centre is at the same distance from every point of the circumference; as is the case with Shots, Shells, &c.
SPHERES d’artifice, Fr. Iron hoops with matches, steeped in combustible matter, fixed round them. When there is only one hoop it is called Circle d’artifice; when there are two or three, one within the other, the assemblage of them is called sphere d’artifice, from its resemblance to that figure.
SPHERICAL. Round.
SPHEROID, an oblong body, approaching the form of a sphere.
| SPIES, | - | |
| SPIALS, |
in war, are persons employed to give intelligence of what the enemy is doing. They should be well paid: who pays them ill, is never well served. They should never be known to any but the general who employs them, nor should they know one another. When they propose any thing very material, their persons, or their wives and children, should be secured and kept as hostages for their fidelity. If they are apprehended, they immediately suffer death.
Spies are found in the cabinets of princes, in the closets of ministers, amongst the officers of an army, and in the councils of generals; in towns belonging to the enemy, and in monasteries. The greatest generals strongly recommend them, whatever expence they may occasion; and indeed a commander had better be in want of many particulars, however necessary, than be destitute of spies. Nothing should be spared to procure them; and even the promises made to them should be observed with the most inviolable integrity. By making a proper use of these necessary creatures, the most secret designs of an enemy may be discovered, the positions his armies are to take, the stations of his fleets, and even the manner in which the former is to be secured by masked batteries, or the latter be kept firm with chain moorings; as was the case off Boulogne in 1800.
To SPIKE a gun. This term is chiefly used at sea, and signifies to fasten a quoin with spikes to the deck, close to the breech of the carriages of the great guns, so that they may keep firm and close to the sides of the ship, and not break loose when the ship rolls. It is likewise used in military matters to signify the choaking up the touch-hole of a piece of ordnance, so as to render it useless. See [To Nail].
SPIKES, in gunnery. See [Hand-Spikes].
SPIN, or to spin hay, is to twist it up in ropes, very hard, for an expedition; by which means it is less bulky, and less troublesome for the cavalry to carry behind them. An expert horseman can spin five days forage into a very narrow compass.