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Grenadier Guards Officers
A grenadier ( , ; derived from the word ''grenade'') was historically an assault-specialist soldier who threw hand grenades in siege operation battles. The distinct combat function of the grenadier was established in the mid-17th century, when grenadiers were recruited from among the strongest and largest soldiers. By the 18th century, the grenadier dedicated to throwing hand grenades had become a less necessary specialist, yet in battle, the grenadiers were the physically robust soldiers who led vanguard assaults, such as storming fortifications in the course of siege warfare. Certain countries such as France ( Grenadiers à Cheval de la Garde Impériale) and Argentina ( Regiment of Mounted Grenadiers) established units of Horse Grenadiers, and for a time the British Army had Horse Grenadier Guards. Like their infantry grenadier counterparts, these horse-mounted soldiers were chosen for their size and strength (heavy cavalry). In modern warfare, a grenadier is a specially tr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thunder Crash Bomb
The thunder crash bomb (), also known as the heaven-shaking-thunder bomb, was one of the first bombs or hand grenades in the history of gunpowder warfare. It was developed in the 12th-13th century Song and Jin dynasties. Its shell was made of cast iron and filled with gunpowder. The length of the fuse could be adjusted according to the intended throwing distance. History Thunderclap bomb (''pilipao'') The ''zhentianlei'' (thunder-crash/heaven-shaking-thunder) bomb was not the first bomb. Gunpowder bombs had been mentioned since the 11th century. In 1000 AD, a soldier by the name of Tang Fu (唐福) demonstrated a design of gunpowder pots (a proto-bomb which spews fire) and gunpowder caltrops, for which he was richly rewarded. In the military text '' Wujing Zongyao'' of 1044, bombs such as the "ten-thousand fire flying sand magic bomb", "burning heaven fierce fire unstoppable bomb", and "thunderclap bomb" (''pilipao'') were mentioned. However these were soft-shell bombs and did ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tennis Ball
A tennis ball is a small, hollow ball used in games of tennis and real tennis. Tennis balls are fluorescent yellow in Professional sports, professional competitions, but in Amateur sports, recreational play other colors are also used. Tennis balls are covered in a fibrous felt, which modifies their aerodynamic properties, and each has a white curvilinear oval covering it. Specifications Modern tennis balls must conform to certain size, weight, deformation, and bounce criteria to be approved for regulation play. The International Tennis Federation (ITF) defines the official diameter as . Balls must have masses in the range . A tennis ball generally has more of a nitrogen and oxygen mixture than the sea level ambient air pressure. Yellow and white are the only colors approved by the ITF. Most balls produced are a fluorescent color known as "optic yellow", first introduced in 1972 following research demonstrating they were more visible on television. What color to call the ball ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gunpowder
Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, charcoal (which is mostly carbon), and potassium nitrate, potassium nitrate (saltpeter). The sulfur and charcoal act as fuels while the saltpeter is an oxidizer. Gunpowder has been widely used as a propellant in firearms, artillery, rocketry, and pyrotechnics, including use as a blasting agent for explosives in quarrying, mining, building Pipeline transport, pipelines, tunnels, and road#Construction, roads. Gunpowder is classified as a Explosive#Low, low explosive because of its relatively slow decomposition rate, low ignition temperature and consequently low brisance, brisance (breaking/shattering). Low explosives deflagration, deflagrate (i.e., burn at subsonic speeds), whereas high explosives detonation, detonate, producing a supersonic shockwave. Ignition of gunpowder packed behind a projectile generates ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Piebald
A piebald or pied animal is one that has a pattern of unpigmented spots (white) on a pigmented background of hair, feathers or scales. Thus a piebald black and white dog is a black dog with white spots. The animal's skin under the white background is not pigmented. Location of the unpigmented spots is dependent on the migration of melanoblasts (primordial pigment cells) from the neural crest to paired bilateral locations in the skin of the early embryo. The resulting pattern appears symmetrical only if melanoblasts migrate to both locations of a pair and proliferate to the same degree in both locations. The appearance of symmetry can be obliterated if the proliferation of the melanocytes (pigment cells) within the developing spots is so great that the sizes of the spots increase to the point that some of the spots merge, leaving only small areas of the white background among the spots and at the tips of the extremities. Animals with this pattern may include birds, cats, c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jester
A jester, also known as joker, court jester, or fool, was a member of the household of a nobleman or a monarch kept to entertain guests at the royal court. Jesters were also travelling performers who entertained common folk at fairs and town markets, and the discipline continues into the modern day, where jesters perform at historical-themed events. Jester-like figures were common throughout the world, including Ancient Rome, China, Persia, and the Aztec empire. During the Post-classical history, post-classical and Renaissance eras, jesters are often thought to have worn brightly coloured clothes and Cap and bells, eccentric hats in a motley pattern. Jesters entertained with a wide variety of skills: principal among them were song, music, and storytelling, but many also employed acrobatics, juggling, telling jokes (such as puns and imitation), and performing Magic (illusion), magic tricks. Much of the entertainment was performed in a comic style. Many jesters made contemporary ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Janissaries
A janissary (, , ) was a member of the elite infantry units that formed the Ottoman sultan's household troops. They were the first modern standing army, and perhaps the first infantry force in the world to be equipped with firearms, adopted during the reign of Murad II (r. 1421–1444, 1446–1451). The corps was established under either Orhan or Murad I, and dismantled by Mahmud II in 1826. Janissaries began as elite corps made up through the '' devşirme'' system of child levy enslavement, by which indigenous European Christian boys, chiefly from the Balkans, were taken, levied, subjected to forced circumcision and forced conversion to Islam, and incorporated into the Ottoman army. They became famed for internal cohesion cemented by strict discipline and order. Unlike typical slaves, they were paid regular salaries. Forbidden to marry before the age of 40 or engage in trade, their complete loyalty to the Ottoman sultan was expected. By the 17th century, due to a drama ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Evelyn
John Evelyn (31 October 162027 February 1706) was an English writer, landowner, gardener, courtier and minor government official, who is now best known as a diary, diarist. He was a founding Fellow of the Royal Society. John Evelyn's Diary, John Evelyn's diary, or memoir, spanned the period of his adult life from 1640, when he was a student, to 1706, the year he died. He did not write daily at all times. The many volumes provide insight into life and events at a time before regular magazines or newspapers were published, making diaries of greater interest to modern historians than such works might have been at later periods. Evelyn's work covers art, culture and politics, including the execution of Charles I, Oliver Cromwell's rise and eventual natural death, the last Great Plague of London, and the Great Fire of London in 1666. ''John Evelyn's Diary'' was first published posthumously in 1818, but over the years was overshadowed by that of Samuel Pepys. Pepys wrote a differen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dutch States Army
The Dutch States Army () was the army of the Dutch Republic. It was usually called this, because it was formally the army of the States-General of the Netherlands, the sovereign power of that federal republic. This army was brought to such a size and state of readiness that it was able to hold its own against the armies of the major European powers of the extended 17th century, Habsburg Spain and the Kingdom of France, France of Louis XIV, despite the fact that these powers possessed far larger military resources than the Republic. It played a major role in the Eighty Years' War (opposite the Spanish Army of Flanders) and in the wars of the Grand Alliance (League of Augsburg), Grand Alliance with France after 1672. Precursors Despite the fact that the standard work by Ten Raa and De Bas about the States Army in its title proudly proclaims that the foundation of the army was laid in the first year of the Dutch war of independence, 1568, modern historians put the start date later, b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jean Martinet
Jean Martinet (d. 1672) was a French lieutenant colonel and Inspector General from 1667 to 1672, and one of the first great drill masters of modern times. Martinet served during the reign of Louis XIV, helping to instill discipline in the aftermath of the 30 Years War and the Franco-Spanish War. He was active during the War of Devolution under the command of the Secretary of State for War, François-Michel le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois He was a severe drillmaster, which made him unpopular among his troops, and "vigorously imposed discipline on both men and officers: henceforward the latter had to obey commands given to them by superior officers regardless of their own social status." Martinet revolutionized the early modern army by instituting a standardized system capable of turning raw recruits into a disciplined fighting force, thereby eliminating the mercenaries, who had been the mainstays of earlier armies. He also introduced the bayonet and the depot system into ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
French Royal Army
The French Royal Army () was the principal land force of the Kingdom of France. It served the Bourbon dynasty from the reign of Louis XIV in the mid-17th century to that of Charles X in the 19th, with an interlude from 1792 to 1814 and another during the Hundred Days in 1815. It was permanently dissolved following the July Revolution in 1830. The French Royal Army became a model for the new regimental system that was to be imitated throughout Europe from the mid-17th century onward. It was regarded as Europe's greatest military force for much of its existence. Early history The first permanent army of France, which was paid with regular wages instead of being supplied by feudal levies, was established in the early 15th century under Charles VII. It was formed due to the need for reliable troops during the Hundred Years' War, though the Army was not disbanded because it saw continued use by the Kings of France following the conflict. Upon the outbreak of a conflict, an ordonn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
