Cornaontaingne (1736) greatly improved thelravelin by giving it the figure represented at Q Q, FORTIFICATION, making the length of each face about 130 yards, and directing that line to a point between 20 and 30 yards from the shoulders of the bastions. He reduced the terreplein, or space between its parapet and the connterscarp of the redout Ty to 27 feet, in order that the enemy might not find room on it to form batteries for the purpose of breaching the redout of the ravelin; and the faces being unbroken in direction, not only are the shoulders of the bastions covered, but the enemy is prevented from breaching any part between the shoulder and the retrenchment x. The gorge, or rear line, of the ravelin, instead of coinciding with the general direction of the conntersearp of the main ditch, is made parellel to the curtain of the place, in order to take away a part of the terre plain which would have been seen by the enemy from his counter batteries on the glacis of the bastion. It appears that Connentaingne wished to give the ravelins a greater length of face than that which has been mentioned, and that he was prevented from doing so through the opposition of his contemporaries. For the advantages to be derived from very salient ravelins, see FORTIFICATION.
The only change which has since been made in the position of the myelin is that which was proposed by Bousinard (1S03), and followed in the works executed by order of Napoleon about Alessandria (1807) by Chaseeloup de Laublit. It consists in placing the work beyond the glacia of the enceinte, at the foot of which glacia its ditches terminate; the covered-way and glade before the bastions being continued unin terruptedly along the exterior of the main ditch. It thus becomes impossible to breach the enciento by artillery placed anywhere on the glade of the myelin ; and, when the direction of each face is broken, as that engineer recommended, the probability of the rampart being enfiladed is much diminished. It might perhaps be objected that the
ravelin so detached is liable to be attacked at the gorge ; but if the covered-way of the myelin be made to join that of the collateral bastions, and if its flanks or those of the redout, are disposed so as to allow a fire of musketry to be kept up in the direction by which the enemy must approach the gorge, this danger may be obviated.
The relief of the or its elevation above the level of the ground, should be two or three feet leas than that of the enceinte, in order that the defenders of the curtain may be able to direct a plunging fire into the work when it is occupied by the enemy. But if in the interior of the ravelin there should be a redout, this last aught, for the same reason, to have less relief by two or three feet thau the curtain ; and then, in order to afford a plunging fire from the redout into the myelin, the latter should be two or throe feet lower than the former. It ought however to have a command of six or seven feet over the glacis in its front, that the fire of its artillery may net annoy the defenders on the banquette of its covered-way. There fore, if the command of the enceinte over the ground is 18 feet, and that of the glacis is 7 feet, the differences between the heights of the enceinte and redout, and of the redout and ravelin, may be 2 feet successivelia RAY. Lioirr.) RE, in 14 usic, the name given by the Italians and French to the second note of the diatonic scale, and generally throughout Europe to the second of the syllables used in SOLMIZATION.