MACE. A heavy blunt weapon, having a metal head: a club.
MACHICOULIS, or Masse-coulis, Fr. In ancient, and sometimes in modern fortification, that upper part of the wall which is sustained by brackets or corbels, jets out and overlooks the gate or ditch.
When a place is besieged, detached parties of the garrison may be posted in the several machicoulises. Through the intervals of the corbels, or supporting brackets, they may easily observe every thing that passes at the foot of the wall; and if the besiegers should be hardy enough to penetrate as far, they may easily overwhelm them by throwing down large stones, combustible materials, hand-grenades or bombs. These brackets or supporters, which in ancient fortification were of a slight construction, might be made of solid materials. The machicoulis, in fact, is susceptible of great improvement; and in many instances might be adopted in order to defend the lower parts of angular forts or turrets.
MACHINES. Machines, Fr.
Machines used in war by the ancients. Every species of instrument or machine, which was employed before the invention of fire-arms, for the purpose of demolishing the fortifications of an enemy, or of rendering them accessible to the besieger, came under the denomination of machine. For a full and elaborate explanation of the different machines that were adopted by the ancients, we refer our military readers to the second volume of the Recueil Alphabetique, page 73.
Machines Infernales, Fr. Infernal machines. Although the first idea of these machines has been attributed to France, the invention, nevertheless, is by no means new. Frederic Jambelli, an Italian engineer, was the first that used them, when Alexander, of Parma, besieged Antwerp. The prince of Orange likewise had recourse to the destructive effects of an infernal machine, in order to bombard Havre-de-Grace, and to set it on fire. The Dutch and English, in conjunction, attempted to destroy St. Malo by the same means. The first instance, however, upon record, in which the French made use of this machine, was when Louis the XIVth ordered a vessel, carrying an enormous shell, full of every species of combustible matter, to be dispatched to Algiers, for the purpose of demolishing its harbor. This, the English say, suggested to other nations the adoption of fire-ships, and other destructive machines, which have frequently been used against maritime places, although they had been in use a century before.
The author of Oeuvres Militaires, tom. xxii. page 222, speaking of the infernal machines, observes, that if he were to be in a situation which required the use of so dreadful an explosion, especially to destroy a bridge, he would prefer having the machine made simply with different strong pieces of wood joined together, so as to be in the shape of an egg, or of a cone reversed. The whole must then be made compact with cords twisted round it. This method, in his opinion, is not only the best, but can be executed in the most easy and expeditious manner. He further adds, that in order to burn and blow up wooden bridges, and even to destroy such as are constructed upon arches, several sorts of barges or boats might be used, which should be filled with fireworks, bombs, petards, &c. It would likewise be extremely easy to construct these machines upon floating rafters, carrying several thousand pounds weight of gunpowder, which might be confined within strong pieces of wood, put together in the manner already described.
These machines should be piled one above the other, and long iron bars must be thrown across the floats, or be fixed like masts, so that when the whole of the combustible materials is beneath the centre of the bridge, the rafters may be stopped. Great care must be taken to dispose the matches in such a manner that no fire may be communicated to the gunpowder before the machine reaches the exact spot which is to be destroyed.
MACHINE, in general, whatever hath force sufficient to raise or stop the motion of a heavy body.
Machines are either simple or compound: the simple ones are the seven mechanical powers, viz. lever, balance, pully, axis, and wheel, screw, and inclined plane. See [Mechanical Powers].