VEKILCHARES. A word used among the Turks, which signifies the same as Fourrier in the French, and corresponds with quartermaster.
VELITES. Roman soldiers, who were commonly some of the Tiros, or young soldiers of mean condition, and lightly armed. They had their name, a volando, from flying, or a velocitate, from swiftness. They seem not to have acted in distinct bodies or companies, but to have hovered in loose order before the army. Kennett’s R. A. page 190. Their arms consisted of a sword and javelin, and they had a shield or buckler which was sufficiently large to cover its man, being round and measuring three feet and a half in diameter.
They generally wore wolf’s skins, or some other indifferent ornament upon their heads, to distinguish them during an action. Their javelins were a sort of dart, the wood of which measured three cubits in length, and was about the thickness of a finger. The point was about a hand’s full breadth in length, and was so thin and brittle, that it snapped off the instant it reached or penetrated its object, so that the enemy could not return it. It was distinguished in this particular from other darts and javelins.
VELOCITY. The quickness of motion with which bodies are moved from one place to another.
Initial velocity of military projectiles, as ascertained by the experiments with the Ballistic pendulum at Woolwich, in 1788, 1789, and 1790. These experiments were made with shot of equal diameters, powder of equal strength, and under a mean height of the barometer; and shew,
1. That there is very little difference in the velocities of shot fired from guns of the same length, but of unequal weights; the advantage being sometimes in favor of one and sometimes of the other.
2. That velocities arising from firing with different quantities of powder, are nearly in the proportion of the square roots of the quantities or weights of powder.
3. That the velocities decrease as the distances increase, arising from the resistance of the air, which opposes the progress of the shot, in a proportion somewhat higher than the squares of the velocities throughout; and only to a small variation.
4. That very little advantage is gained in point of range, by increasing the charge more than is necessary to attain the object, the velocities given by large charges being very soon reduced to those by moderate charges: those for instance given by half the shot’s weight are reduced to an equality with those by one third, after passing through a space of only 200 feet.
5. That very little advantage is also gained by increasing the length of guns; the velocity given by long guns of 22 calibres length of bore, being reduced to an equality with those of the short guns of 15¹⁄₂ calibres with similar charges, after passing through the spaces as follows: