MAGAZINE (a word derived from the Arabic makhzan), literally means any place -where stores are kept; but as a military expression magazine always means a powder magazine, although arms may at times be kept in it. A magazine inay be a depot where vast quantities of g,unpowder are held in reserve, an entrepot for the supply of several advanced works, a battery magazine for the wants of a fortress during ft siege. or merely an expense magazine for the daily requirements of the special battery in which it may be situated. The last is usually' temporary, and hollowed out in the back of the ram part; but the other forms require most careful structure. They must be bomb-proof, and therefore necessitate very thick walls; they must be quite free from damp; and they should admit sufficient daylight to render the use of lanterns within generally unnecessary. Magazines are commonly built of brick, the solid masonry being arched over within, and a thickness of earth sometimes added above the brick-work to insure impermeability to shells. The entrance is protected by shot-proof traverses, lest an opening should be forced by ricochet shots. Within, a magazine is divided into bins or compartments, and one of these should always be kept empty in order that the barrels of powder may frequently be moved from rpm place to another, a process necessary to.
keep it in good condition. A battery magazine commonly contains 500 rounds for the guns dependent on it. Depot magazines should, when possible, be limited to 1000 bar rels of powder.
In a ship the magazine is strongly built in the hold; it is divided by a transparent screen from the light-room, in which are kept properly provided lanterns, the introduc tion of fire in any.form into the magazine itself being absolutely forbidden. The explo sion of the magazine is, of course, equivalent to the destruction of the ship, and there fore means are devised by which, on the least appearance of fire in its vicinity, the magazine may be immediately flooded.
The term magazine has been applied to a well-known class of periodical publications, usually issued monthly, and containing miscellaneous pieces in prose and verse, to which at one time was appended a chronicle of public events. The oldest of this class of works is the Gentleman's Magazine, begun by Edward Cave in 1731.