Brasset. A casque or head-piece of armor.
Braunau. A town of Bohemia, Austria; captured by the French, October 28, 1805.
Bray. A small town in the department of Seine-et-Marne, France; it was occupied by the allies, February 12, 1814.
Brazil. An empire in South America, was discovered by Vincent Pinzon in February, and Pedro Alvarez de Cabral, a Portuguese, driven upon its coasts by a tempest, in 1500. The French having seized Portugal in 1807, the royal family and nobles embarked for Brazil, and landed March 7, 1808. Brazil declared war against Uruguay in February, 1865; entered into a treaty with Uruguay and the Argentine Republic against Paraguay, governed by Lopez, in May, 1865, and war was waged with varying results up to 1870.
Breach. Rupture made in a fortification to facilitate the assault. The operation by which the opening is produced is called breaching, and the guns used for this purpose are breaching batteries. To repair a breach, is to stop or fill up the gap with gabions, fascines, etc., and prevent the assault. To fortify a breach, is to render it inaccessible by means of chevaux-de-frise, crow’s feet, etc. To make a lodgment in the breach. After the besieged are driven away, the besiegers secure themselves against any future attack in the breach. To clear the breach, that is, to remove the ruins, that it may be better defended.
Breach of Arrest. See Appendix, Articles of War, 65.
Bread and Water. A diet used as a military punishment.
Break Ground. Is to commence the siege of a place by opening trenches, etc.
Breast-height. In fortification, the interior slope of a parapet.
Breastplate. A plate worn upon the breast as a part of defensive armor.
Breastwork. In fortification, a defensive work breast-high, hastily thrown up, of earth or other material.
Brechin. A place in Scotland; sustained a siege against the army of Edward III., 1333. The battle of Brechin was fought between the Earls of Huntly and Crawford; the latter was defeated, 1452.
Breech. In ordnance, is the mass of solid metal behind the bottom of the bore, extending to the cascabel. The base of the breech is its rear surface.
Breech-block. The block of metal which closes the bore in breech-loading arms.
Breech-loader. A fire-arm that receives its load at the breech.
Breech-loading. Receiving the charge at the breech instead of the muzzle. A feature of modern small-arms. The principle, however, is very old, as some of the earliest guns were breech-loaders. A gun of the time of Henry VIII. still extant is substantially the same as the modern Snider. Puckle’s revolver of 1718 was mounted on a tripod, and was very much like the Gatling gun in its general features. The first American patent was to Thornton & Hall, of Massachusetts, 1811. These guns were extensively issued to U. S. troops. There is a specimen in the West Point Museum. Prior to 1861 the best known breech-loading small-arms were Sharps’, Burnside’s, Maynard’s, Merrill’s, and Spencer’s. See Small-arms.
In modern times the breech-loading principle for heavy ordnance has gained and lost favor at different epochs. On the continent of Europe it is generally accepted. Italy, however, has committed itself in the largest calibers to the enormous 100-ton muzzle-loaders of Sir William Armstrong. The same inventor introduced his breech-loading field-piece in England about 1850. His principle was approved and adopted for various calibers about 1858, but partial failures in his system led to an investigation by a committee of the House of Commons, 1862–63, and after a tedious discussion, the breech-loading principle was officially discarded (1866), though many of the guns were retained in the service. The successful application of hydraulic machinery in handling and loading heavy guns (1876) confirmed the government in its choice of muzzle-loaders. The difficulty of muzzle-loading in a turret and the impossibility of employing the great length of bore necessary to obtain the best results was, up to this time, the strong argument in favor of breech-loaders. Loading by hydraulic machinery from beneath the deck through a trap-door outside the turret obviated these objections to muzzle-loaders, and gave the gunners ample protection by closing the port, thus placing these guns for the time being on a par with breech-loaders. The bursting of the 38-ton gun on the “Thunderer” (1878), however, which has been generally attributed to double loading, has shaken confidence in hydraulic ramming, and now there is a strong current in favor of a return to breech-loaders. The splendid performance of Krupp guns on the practice-ground at Meppen, 1879, and the numerous misfortunes which have recently befallen the Woolwich and Elswick systems, have doubtless had their weight in this change of opinion.
Breech Mechanism. The mechanism used for opening and closing the breech of a fire-arm and securing it against the escape of the gas. In small-arms this is readily accomplished. The use of the metallic cartridge-case renders any special gas-check unnecessary, as the case itself by being expanded against the walls of the chamber serves the purpose. The various mechanisms used in small-arms have been classified as follows: 1st, Fixed chamber; 2d, Movable chamber. The second class is now obsolete. The fixed chamber class is subdivided into—1st, Barrel moves; 2d, Breech-block moves. The first class comprises many of the shot-guns in use, the second, the best known of military arms. Under this latter class are the following subdivisions: 1st, Sliding block; 2d, Sliding and rotating; 3d, Rotating about an axis. We find excellent guns under each of these classes which are further subdivided as to the direction of the motions. The Sharps’ may be taken as typical of the first of these classes, the Hotchkiss magazine gun of the second, and the Springfield of the third.
A similar classification may be made for breech-loading devices in heavy ordnance, but the problem here is not so simple. The pressure is much greater, the masses of metal much larger, and the cartridge must be used without a case to check the gas. Breech-loaders were impossible until the problem of checking the gas had been solved. The inventor of the first successful gas-check was an American, L. W. Broadwell, now residing abroad. The term Broadwell ring has been applied to all similar devices. This is a steel ring which fits in a recess reamed out in the rear of the chamber and abutting upon the breech-block. The inside of the ring is so shaped as to be pressed by the gas outwards and backwards, thus closing both the space outside of the ring and between it and the block. Broadwell is also the inventor of a breech mechanism which, with a few modifications, is that used by Krupp for all of his guns. The breech-block slides horizontally through a rectangular slot in rear of the chamber. In the Armstrong breech-loader, the block called the vent-piece is taken out and put in through a rectangular orifice on the top of the gun. It is locked in place by a hollow breech-screw. The French use a breech-screw with the threads cut away in longitudinal rows. The female-screw being similarly arranged, a very small rotation enables it to be entirely withdrawn. Among American devices are Thompson’s, a breech-block which rolls to the side and opens or closes the bore. Sutcliffe’s, a cylindrical block, with its axis parallel to the one hanging on a pin projecting from the front periphery of the hollow screw. The block is raised and locked by turning the screw, and falls into a recess below when the screw is half turned back. Mann’s, in which the gun rotates upwards about the trunnions something like a shot-gun, and many others.
Breech-pin. A strong plug firmly screwed in at the breech of a musket or other fire-arm.
Breech-sight. In gunnery, an instrument having a graduated scale of tangents by means of which any elevation may be given to a piece. Correctly speaking, the breech-sight gives the angle made by the line of