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on of parallel and great circle sailing. -- Composite ship, one with a wooden casing and iron frame.

Used for condemned persons. Richard Savage . . . had lain with fifty pounds weight of irons on his legs in the condemned ward of Newgate. Macaulay.

be diminished in size or extent; to shrink; to be reduced in compass or in duration; as, iron contracts in cooling; a rope contracts when wet. Years contracting to a moment. Wordsworth.

An iron block, usually bolted to a ship's deck, for controlling the running out of a chain cable. The links of the cable tend to drop into hollows in the block, and thus hold fast until disengaged.

bs.] Which story . . . Catullus more elegantly converted. B. Jonson. Converted guns, cast-iron guns lined with wrought-iron or steel tubes. Farrow. -- Converting furnace (Steel Manuf.), a furnace in which wrought iron is converted into steel by cementation.

A retort, used in the Bessemer process, in which molten cast iron is decarburized and converted into steel by a blast of air forced through the liquid metal.

become less hot; to lose heat. I saw a smith stand with his hammer, thus, the whilst his iron did on the anvil cool. Shak.

Green vitriol, or sulphate of iron; a green crystalline substance, of an astringent taste, used in making ink, in dyeing black, as a tonic in medicine, etc. It is made on a large scale by the oxidation of iron pyrites. Called also ferrous sulphate.

A mineral consisting principally of sulphate of iron; white copperas; -- so called because found in the province of Coquimbo, Chili.

The iron head of a tilting spear, divided into two, three, or four blunt points. [Written also cronel.] Grose.

The iron head of a tilting spear; a coronel. Crose.

ion or effect of corrosive agents, or the process of corrosive change; as, the rusting of iron is a variety of corrosion. Corrosion is a particular species of dissolution of bodies, either by an acid or a saline menstruum. John Quincy.

ion, pressure, bending, or otherwise; to wrinkle; to purse up; as, to corrugate plates of iron; to corrugate the forehead. Corrugated iron, sheet iron bent into a series of alternate ridges and grooves in parallel lines, giving it greater stiffness. -- Corrugated paper, a thick, coarse paper corrugated in order to giv…

A strong inclined frame, usually of wrought-iron bars, in front of a locomotive engine, for catching or throwing off obstructions on a railway, as cattle; the pilot. [U.S.]

A framework of timbers, or iron bars, moving upon ways or rollers, used to support, lift, or carry ships or other vessels, heavy guns, etc., as up an inclined plane, or across a strip of land, or in launching a ship.

Those engaged in any trade, taken collectively; a guild; as, the craft of ironmongers. The control of trade passed from the merchant guilds to the new craft guilds. J. R. Green.

A device, usually of iron bent at the ends, used to hold together blocks of stone, timbers, etc.; a cramp iron.

A cramp iron or cramp ring; a chape, as of a scabbard. [Written also crampit and crampette.]

A clutch formed of hooked pieces of iron, like double calipers, for raising stones, lumber, blocks of ice, etc.

limited lateral distance. In one form it consists of a projecting arm or jib of timber or iron, a rotating post or base, and the necessary tackle, windlass, etc.; -- so called from a fancied similarity between its arm and the neck of a crane See Illust. Of Derrick.