KETTLE, a vessel used to boil composition for fire-works.
KETTLE-Drums. See [Drums].
Kettle-drum cart, a four wheel carriage which is drawn by four horses, and is used exclusively by the British artillery as a pageant.
The ordnance flag is planted on the fore part, and the drummer with two kettle drums is seated, as in a chair of state, on the back part. This cart is finely engraven and richly gilt. It has not been in the field since the year 1743, when the king was present. It is kept in the tower.
KEYS, in a general sense, are instruments with which locks are opened.
Keys, in artillery carriages, may be considered under three specific heads, viz.
Fore-lock Keys, which serve to pass through the lower end of bolts, in order to fasten them.
Spring Keys may be used in the same manner, but are differently made, for instead of being of one single piece, they are of two, like two springs laid one over the other. When they are put into eye-bolts, they are pinched together at the ends, and when they are in, they open again; so that the motion of the carriage cannot disturb or shake them out. Spring keys are peculiarly useful in travelling carriages.
Keys with chains and staples fixed on the side pieces of a carriage or mortar bed. They serve to fasten the cap squares by passing through the eyes of the eye-bolts, with or without.
Key stone, in architecture, is the middle stone of an arch, by which the sweep of the arch is bound together.