PRACTICE, in Arithmetic. See there, No 16. &c.
Gun-PRACTICE, in military education. In the spring, as soon as the weather permits, the exercise of the great guns begins, with an intention to show the gentlemen cadets at the royal military academy at Woolwich, and private men, the manner of laying, loading, pointing, and firing the guns. Sometimes instruments are used to find the centre line, or two points, one at the breech, the other at the muzzle, which are marked with chalk, and whereby the piece is directed to the target: then a quadrant is put into the mouth to give the gun the required elevation, which at first is guessed at, according to the distance the target is from the piece. When the piece has been fired, it is sponged to clear it from any dust or sparks of fire that might remain in the bore, and loaded: then the centre line is found as before; and if the shot went too high or too low, to the right or to the left, the elevation and trail are altered accordingly. This practice continues morning and evening for about six weeks, more or less according as there are a greater or less number of recruits. In the mean time others are shown the motions of quick-firing with field-pieces.
Mortar-PRACTICE, generally thus. A line of 1500 or 2000 yards is measured in an open spot of ground from the place where the mortars stand, and a flag fixed at about 300 or 500 yards: this being done, the ground where the mortars are to be placed is prepared and
Practice, and levelled with sand, so that they may lie at an elevation of 45 degrees; then they are loaded with a small quantity of powder at first, which is increased afterwards by an ounce every time, till they are loaded with a full charge; the times of the flights of the shells are observed, to determine the length of the fuzes. The intention of this practice is, when a mortar battery is raised in a siege, to know what quantity of powder is required to throw the shells into the works at a given distance, and to cut the fuzes of a just length, that the shell may burst as soon as it touches the ground.