Reduce Frontage to Help Maintain Alignment of Ranks

Maintaining rank and even file alignment while wheeling, especially wheeling upon the center, requires undivided attention on the part of each soldier who must remain acutely aware of his relationship to those immediately around him, especially to sidemen (a.k.a., those two soldiers at each side in the rank).  "Handy Hints form the Infantrie Garden: Wheeling and Countermarching" by 'Seed Drill' made a recommendation to aid the maintenance of rank alignment by closing up the frontage to the point that each soldier in a rank senses his comrade's changing position by touch. Unfortunately, that Web page no longer appears.