Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XV.djvu/683

 TENT 653 ning of the revolution, and during the wars of the empire even the officers were rarely provided with them. It was not until about 1830, during the Algerian war, that the tente abri or shelter tent began to be regularly fur- nished to troops. This is made of two rec- tangular pieces of canvas, each 5 ft. 9 in. long and 5 ft. 4 in. wide, which are buttoned to- gether and raised upon two sticks so as to form a roof open at both ends. Each soldier carries one of these pieces, one of the support- ing sticks, and three pegs, which together weigh 3 Ibs. 11 oz., and every two men are thus enabled to provide a shelter for them- selves. This is still the French regulation tent, and was used in the Crimea, in Mexico, and in the Franco-German war. Besides this the French have three troop tents : the bonnet de police, which has the form of a triangular prism, to each end of which is joined a hemi- cone ; the tente elliptique or Tacconet, a slight modification of the former ; and the tente co- nique or marabout, a cone 22 ft. 4 in. in di- ameter at base and 10 ft. 8 in. high, with an interior curtain 14 in. high, which drops down around its base, leaving an interior diameter of 18 ft. 8 in. Each of these tents has two doors, opposite to each other. The French use also a marquee for general officers and a tente de conseil, the latter a round wall tent 20 ft. in diameter, with a conical roof. In the British service the use of tents was more generally adhered to after their introduction than in the continental armies. The troop tent principally used is the " bell " tent, a con- FIG. 2. 1. French Tente elliptique. 2. English Bell Tent. ical-roofed round tent with a wall one or two feet high. Its diameter at the base is 14 ft. and its height 10 ft., and it is intended to shel- ter 12 to 15 men. The British have made but little use of shelter tents, although many mod- els have been proposed. The Prussian troop tent is similar to the bell tent ; but in the cam- paigns of 1866 and 1870 the German armies were not furnished with tents. In the Aus- trian service a "marching" tent is used, which resembles the French bonnet de police. It is 18 ft. long, 14 ft. wide, and about 7 ft. high, and accommodates 10 men. The Theurekauf troop tent is rectangular, and 26 ft. long by 22 ft. wide. It has a conical roof, with side walls 3 ft. high, and triangular end walls 7 ft. 6 in. high to the apex. An officers' tent, made after the same model, is also used. The Rus- sian infantry tent is square, with a centre pole and four corner poles. It is 14 ft. in diameter and the side walls are 7 ft. high ; it is intended for 14 men. The officers' tents are like those of the men, excepting that the roofs are of double canvas. The Italians use shelter tents, conical tents, and marquees. The shelter tent is formed of three rectangular sections, one of which is spread on the ground. The pieces are a little larger than those of the tente abri. and are supported by muskets instead of sticks. Ihe conical tent, which is used by officers, is a modification of the French tente conique. FIG. 3. 1. Theurekauf s Austrian Tent. 2. Sibley Tent. A similar tent is in use in the Turkish army also, for both officers and men. In the United States the tents used most commonly have been the wedge, the Sibley, and the shelter. The wedge tent is 6 ft. 10 in. long, 8 ft. 4 in. wide, and 6 ft. 10 in. high ; it is intended for five or six men. The Sibley tent is a modi- fied Comanche lodge; it is a cone about 13 ft. high, with a diameter at base of 18 ft., and will shelter 12 or 14 men. During the last years of the civil war the shelter tent was used almost exclusively. The sections of the regu- lation tent are each 6 ft. long by 5 ft. 6 in. broad, and are made of cotton cloth with a coating of caoutchouc. Each section has a slit in it, through which the head may be passed, thus forming a poncho on the march, in rainy weather. It can also be used as a blanket. Shelter tents are sometimes formed in the American service into " half -faced camps," by fastening together two or three sections and stretching them from a ridge pole to the ground, thus making a back and roof. The triangular ends are then closed with other sections, and a fire built in the front, which is left open. This contrivance makes a very comfortable shelter, the heat which is reflect- ed from the roof and sides keeping the men sufficiently warm. The coverings of tents are now made generally of flax or cotton, hemp being rarely employed. The French tissue is of Belgian or Picardy flax, the English of the best long Baltic flax. The Austrian and the German canvas is also linen. The Italian gov- ernment uses cotton canvas for large tents, and the Turkish government uses it altogether. In the United States army tents are made of cotton only, which is cheaper here than linen, while in Europe linen canvas can be produced at a lower price than cotton. The relative merits and demerits of the two tissues depend greatly on their mechanical structure and on