MAGAZINE (OF., Fr. magazin, It. magaz, zino, from Sp. maga•en, from .A.r. makhazin, plural of mukh,:an, storehouse, from khazuna, to store up). A storehouse, or a place or building set apart for the safe keeping of stores; in mili tary usage a powder storehouse. Modern ndli Lary magazines are used solely and entirely as of powder a ml ammunitbm and not as formerly. when they were practically complete armories. An expense magazine is usually one from which is issued the daily ammunition re quirements of the troops to which it belongs. In fortifications—field or coast, permanent or tem porary—the expense magazine is within easy access of the point of employment, and is an im portant consideration in the general scheme of defense. They are constructed according to the general designs of the fortifications of which they are a part and may be of underground con struction or built in the defenses and protected by bomb-proofs and similar devices. See FORTI FICATION.
On board ship magazines are compartments de signed solely for powder or for fixed ammunition of large calibre guns. They are placed as far away from the engine and fire rooms and as low down in the ship as practicable; and their tops are always well below the water-line. In re cently built modern ships magazines are wafer tight compartments At ith bulkheads or walls of steel lined with thin sheets of fire-proof wood or asbestos board and having fire-proof wood grat ings on the deck or floor. In some ships the bulkheads surrounding the magazine are double, the air-space between assisting to keep the maga zine walls from becoming too warm; and the magazines themselves are fitted with ventilating pipes for the escape of hot air and with other pipes to bring cool air from the refrigerating plant. The artificial cooling is only necessary
in the tropics. and rarely then, but modern smokeless powders give more even and regular results if the temperature is kept below 100° F., and long storage at temperatures exceeding 110° is liable to cause them to deteriorate. Maga zines. ammunition rooms. and shell rooms are lighted by electric lamp,: in light boxes, with glass in the sides: these boxes can only be en tered from the deck above and not from the magazine. and if the electric lamps fail oil lights or candles are substituted. For further safety magazines. ammunition rooms. etc., are fitted with flood-cocks so that they may be filled with water if the ship is on fire near them; also with drain pipes for letting the water out. As a pro tection against fire in action the ammunition hoists do not extend into the magazines, but down to ammunition passages or handling rooms leading to them, the ammunition being passed out of the magazines through holes in the doors, which are kept closed. As a further precaution men working in the magazines wear a special magazine dress, shoes without nails, and a long smock shirt or jumper of light serge; and no iron or steel fittings or tools are allowed inside the magazine doors.