Search the Dictionary

t of the aluminium group found in some minerals, as certain pyrites, and also in the lead-chamber deposit in the manufacture of sulphuric acid. It is isolated as a heavy, soft, bluish white metal, easily oxidized in moist air, but preserved by keeping under water. Symbol Tl. Atomic weight 203.7.

A covering of linen, silk, or tapestry, spread over a table in a chamber or a dressing room.

High flight; elevation. [Obs.] Johnson. Gay Lussac's tower (Chem.), a large tower or chamber used in the sulphuric acid process, to absorb (by means of concentrated acid) the spent nitrous fumes that they may be returned to the Glover's tower to be reemployed. See Sulphuric acid, under Sulphuric, and Glover's tower, be…

The loosely woven substance which lines the chambers within the gleba in certain Gasteromycetes.

The vane of a cross-staff. Chambers.

A bend, sag, or partitioned chamber, in a drain, soil pipe, sewer, etc., arranged so that the liquid contents form a seal which prevents passage of air or gas, but permits the flow of liquids.

ough side holes by a stream of water within, is carried down with the water into a box or chamber below which it is led to a furnace. [Written also trompe, and trombe.]

ony or cartilaginous plates which support the olfactory and mucous membranes of the nasal chambers.

which the water acts by its impulse or reaction in flowing either outward from a central chamber, inward from an external casing, or from above downward, etc.; -- also called turbine wheel.

A chamber in the anterior part of the syrinx of birds.

Having, or consisting of, a single chamber; -- said of a legislative assembly. [R.] F. Lieber.

An officer or servant who has the care of the door of a court, hall, chamber, or the like; hence, an officer whose business it is to introduce strangers, or to walk before a person of rank. Also, one who escorts persons to seats in a church, theater, etc. "The ushers and the squires." Chaucer. These are the ushers of M…

To confirm; to render valid; to give legal force to. The chamber of deputies . . . refusing to validate at once the election of an official candidate. London Spectator.

der Balance. (b) A valve for permitting air, steam, water, etc., to pass into or out of a chamber so as to establish or maintain equal pressure within and without. -- Valve chest (Mach.), a chamber in which a valve works; especially (Steam Engine), the steam chest; -- called in England valve box, and valve casing. See…

of the cavities, of an organ, as of the larynx or the brain; specifically, the posterior chamber, or one of the two posterior chambers, of the heart, which receives the blood from the auricle and forces it out from the heart. See Heart.

The porch or entrance into a house; a hall or antechamber next the entrance; a lobby; a porch; a hall. Vestibule of the ear. (Anat.) See under Ear. -- Vestibule of the vulva (Anat.), a triangular space between the nymphæ, in which the orifice of the urethra is situated. -- Vestibule train (Railroads), a train of pass…

A small vibration. [R.] Chambers.

ished by authority of Parliament in British possessions beyond the seas. Abbott. -- Vice chamberlain, an officer in court next in rank to the lord chamberlain. [Eng.] -- Vice chancellor. (a) (Law) An officer next in rank to a chancellor. (b) An officer in a university, chosen to perform certain duties, as the conferri…

d by the recoil, assisted by the pressure of gases from the muzzle, which expand in a gas chamber against a disk attached to the end of the barrel, thus moving the latter to the rear with increased recoil, and against the front wall of the gas chamber, checking the recoil of the system.

a curiosity, such as those found in museums or private collections. I had thoughts, in my chambers to place it in view, To be shown to my friends as a piece of virtù. Goldsmith.