are wooden cylinders to put into the mouth of the guns, howitzers, and mortars, in travelling, to prevent the dust or wet from getting in. They are fastened round the muzzle of the guns, &c. by leather collars.
They are sometimes used to put into the chambers of mortars, over the powder, when the chamber is not full.
Tampions, in sea-service artillery, are the iron bottoms to which the grape-shot are fixed, the dimensions of which are as follows, viz.
Diameter.
| 42 | pounders, | 6⁶⁄₁₀ths inches. | |
| 32 | ditto | 6 | |
| 24 | ditto | 5⁴⁄₁₀ths | |
| 18 | ditto | 4⁹⁄₁₀ths | |
| 12 | ditto | 4³⁄₁₀ths | |
| 9 | ditto | 3⁹⁄₁₀ths | |
| 6 | ditto | 6³⁄₄ths | |
| 4 | ditto | 2⁹⁄₁₀ths | |
| 1 | ¹⁄₂ | ditto | 2¹⁄₁₀th |
| ¹⁄₂ | ditto | 1⁴⁄₁₀ths |
TAMPON, Fr. A wooden peg or instrument which is used to plug up cartridges, petards, &c. A stopper.
TAMPONS, Fr. In mason-work are wooden pegs by which beams and boards for floors are fastened together.
Tampons, Fr. Flat pieces of iron, copper, or wood, which are used by the French on board their men of war, to stop up holes that are made by cannon-balls during a naval engagement.
Tampons de canon, Fr. The apron made of cork or lead, which is put over the vent of any piece of ordnance.
TANGENT, (Tangente, Fr.) In trigonometry, is a right line raised perpendicularly on the extreme of the diameter, and continued to a point, where it is cut by a secant, that is, by a line drawn from the centre, through the extremity of the arch, whereof it is the tangent.