Siege
literally a sitting down. When the assault of a fortified place would be too hazardous and costly and its reduction by blockade too slow, recourse is had to the "regular siege or systematic attack."
In order to cross the open ground swept by the fire of the fortress with as little loss as possible the besieger makes use of sunken roads or trenches. The revetments having been breached by his artillery or mines, he continues these roads through the breaches into the place. To prevent these "approaches" being enfiladed by the guns of the fortress they are made at first in zigzags; the prolongations of which are directed so 23 to clear the directed so as to clear the works of the fronts attacked, and, when a direct advance becomes necessary, they are provided with traverses at short intervals, or "blinded sap" is used-i.e., a trench covered in with timber and earth. Two or three such lines of approach are used.
To protect and connect them lateral trenches are formed from which large bodies of troops can fire upon any sortie that may be made. These are termed "parallels," being parallel to the general front of the parts attacked.
The ancients used to surround the place attacked with a high bank of earth, called a "line of circumvallation" and protected themselves against attack from the outside by another called a "line of contravallation," and a similar arrangement was in vogue till the middle of the 19th century. Now a covering field army is employed, which by its greater mobility, is able to meet the relieving army many miles from the besieging force, and a chain of fortified localities takes the place of the continuous line of circumvallation.
In order that a siege may be safely undertaken the strength of the besieger should be about four times that of the garrison.
In 1870 Strasburg, with a garrison of with a garrison ison of 20,000, was captured by a besieging force of 60,000 strong. Metz was starved into surrender, the presence of so many men (some 170,000) besides the proper garrison only hastening that result. The "siege parks," or main depôts, for the artillery and engineer trains must be out of range of the enemy's guns, containing as they do powder, ammunition, guns. and warlike stores of all descrip- SIEGE ARTILLERY tions. The batteries necessary are "enfilade" batteries, placed on the prolongations of all the important works attacked; "counter" batteries, to overcome the fire of the works bearing upon the field of attack; "mortar" and "howitzer" batteries, to search by high angle fire the interior of all the works attacked; and "breaching" batteries, to breach by curved fire the scarps and flanking casements.
Light pieces, such as the seven-pounder mountain guns and machine guns, are placed in the second and third parallels, and in the "demi-parallels" or lodgments, 100 to 150 yards long, made on each approach about half way between these parallels.
SIENA workshops at Berlin. He early showed scientific tastes, and in 1841 took out his first patent for galvanic silver and gold plating. He was of peculiar service in developing the telegraphic system in.
Prussia, and discovered in this connection the valuable insulating property of gutta-percha for underground and submarine cables. In 1849 he left the army, and shortly after the service of the state altogether, and devoted his energies to the construction of telegraphic and electrical apparatus of all kinds. The well-known firm of Siemens and Halske was established in 1847 in Berlin; and subsequently branches were formed, chiefly under the management of the younger brothers of Werner Siemens, in St. Petersburg (1857), in London (1858), in Vienna (1858), and in Tiflis (1863). Besides devising numerous useful forms of galvanometers and other electrical instruments of precision, Werner Siemens was one of the discoverers of the principle of the self-acting dynamo. He also made valuable determinations of the electrical resistance of different substances, the resistance of a column of mercury one meter long and one square millimeter cross section at 0° C. being known as the Siemens unit. His numerous scientific and technical papers, published in the "Proceedings" of the Berlin Academy (of which he became a member in 1874), in Poggendorff's "Annalen," in Dingler's "Polytechnische Journal," etc., were republished in collected form in 1881. In (1799), Genoa (1800), Saragossa (1808-1886 he gave 500,000 marks for the 1809), Ciudad Rodrigo (1810, 1812), New founding of an imperial institute of Beyond the third parallel the besieger will probably be met by counter mines, and himself have to resort to mining in order to carry out the crowning of the covered way. The World War developed a more or less new system of siege. See WORLD WAR: ARTILLERY.
Siege in History. -Among great sieges in the world's history may be mentioned those of Troy, Tyre (572, 332 B. c.), Syracuse (396 в. c.), Saguntum (219 в. c.), Jerusalem (A. D. 70), Acre (1192, etc.), Calais (1347), Orleans (1428), Constantinople (1453), Haarlem (1572-1573), Leyden (1574), Breda (1625), Rochelle (1628), Magdeburg (1631), Breisach (1638), Taunton (1644-1645), Londonderry (1689), Gibraltar (1731, 1779, 1782- 1783), Prague (1741-1744), Leipsic (1757, 1813), Quebec (1759-1760), Seringapatam Orleans (1814), Antwerp (1832), Rome (1849), Sebastopol (1854-1855), Kars (1855), Lucknow (1857), Delhi (1857), Gaëta (1860-1861), Vicksburg (1863), Charleston (1864-1865), Richmond (1864- 1865), Metz (1870). Strasburg (1870), Belfort (1870-1871), Paris (1870-1871), Plevna (1877) (1877), Khartum (1884), Ladysmith (1900), Port Arthur (1904), Adrianople (1912); Liége (1914), Przemysl (1914-1915); Verdun (1915-1916). 2 SIEGE ARTILLERY. See ARTILLERY.