Search the Dictionary

A central office in which the wires of telephones may be connected to permit conversation.

The degree of stretching to which a wire, cord, piece of timber, or the like, is strained by drawing it in the direction of its length; strain. Gwilt.

um, dynamo, or electric motor, usually provided with binding screws for the attachment of wires by which a current may be conveyed into or from the machine; a pole.

A union of two conductors, as bars or wires of dissimilar metals joined at their extremities, for producing a thermoelectric current.

changes in temperature (hence in length) due to pulsations of the line current in a fine wire connected with the receiver diaphragm.

Stock ticker, an electro-mechanical information receiving device connected by telegraphic wire to a stock exchange, and which prints out the latest transactions or news on stock exchanges, commonly found in the offices of stock brokers. By 1980 largely superseded by electronic stock quotation devices. ticker tape parad…

ith gold or silver threads, or embossed with figures. A robe of tissue, stiff with golden wire. Dryden. In their glittering tissues bear emblazed Holy memorials. Milton.

To furnish with teeth. The twin cards toothed with glittering wire. Wordsworth.

That force with which a thread, wire, or rod of any material, returns, or tends to return, to a state of rest after it has been twisted; torsibility. Angle of torsion (of a curve) (Geom.), the indefinitely small angle between two consecutive osculating planes of a curve of double curvature. -- Moment of torsion (Mech.…

That part of a torsion balance from which the wire or filament is suspended.

Of or pertaining to torsion; resulting from torsion, or the force with which a thread or wire returns to a state of rest after having been twisted round its axis; as, torsional force.

Having only one thread; involving the use of only one thread, wire, fiber, or the like; as, unifilar suspension. Unifilar magnetometer (Physics), an instrument which consists of a magnetic bar suspended at its center of gravity by a long thread, constituting a delicate means for accurately measuring magnetic intensitie…

A piece of strong steel wire with the ends curved and pointed, used on toe or quarter cracks to bind the edges together and prevent motion. It is clasped into two notches, one on each side of the crack, burned into the wall with a cautery iron.

e d'amour], a viol, larger than the viola, having catgut strings upon, and brass or steel wires under, the keyboard. These, sounding sympathetically with the strings, yield a peculiarly soft and silvery sound. It is now seldom used.

ut having a rectangular form, like the small piano. It had strings and keys, but only one wire to a note. The instrument was used in the sixteenth century, but is now wholly obsolete. It was sometimes called a pair of virginals.

Any voluta. Volute spiring, a spring formed of a spiral scroll of plate, rod, or wire, extended or extensible in the direction of the axis of the coil, in which direction its elastic force is exerted and employed.

A perforated steel die through which wires or tubes are drawn to form them.

A small culinary instrument made of wire, or the like, for whisking or beating eggs, cream, etc. Boyle.

A line- or ribbon-shaped material (as wire, string, or bandaging) wound around an object; as, the windings (conducting wires) wound around the armature of an electric motor or generator. Winding engine, an engine employed in mining to draw up buckets from a deep pit; a hoisting engine. -- Winding sheet, a sheet in whi…

The act of one that wires anything.