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in equilibrium; esp., a puppet valve which is made to operate easily by the admission of steam to both sides. See Puppet valve. -- Hydrostatic balance. See under Hydrostatic. -- To lay in balance, to put up as a pledge or security. [Obs.] Chaucer. -- To strike a balance, to find out the difference between the debit…

s, and security. It [piety] is the right ballast of prosperity. Barrow. Ballast engine, a steam engine used in excavating and for digging and raising stones and gravel for ballast. -- Ship in ballast, a ship carring only ballast.

The slope of a bank, especially of the bank of a steam.

A double-decked passenger or freight vessel, towed by a steamboat. [U.S.]

the rear of the vent. -- Base plate, the foundation plate of heavy machinery, as of the steam engine; the bed plate. -- Base ring (Ordnance), a projecting band of metal around the breech, connected with the body of the gun by a concave molding. H. L. Scott.

tc., to water, vapor, hot air, or the like; as, a cold or a hot bath; a medicated bath; a steam bath; a hip bath.

eel or pencil points; -- used for drawing or describing large circles. -- Beam engine, a steam engine having a working beam to transmit power, in distinction from one which has its piston rod attached directly to the crank of the wheel shaft. -- Before the beam (Naut.), in an arc of the horizon included between a lin…

The exhaust steam from and engine, driving a column of air out of a boiler chimney, and thus creating an intense draught through the fire; also, any draught produced by the blast.

The exhaust pipe of a steam engine, or any pipe delivering steam or air, when so constructed as to cause a blast.

t it coldly at another; or to appear both to favor and to oppose. -- To blow off, to let steam escape through a passage provided for the purpose; as, the engine or steamer is blowing off. -- To blow out. (a) To be driven out by the expansive force of a gas or vapor; as, a steam cock or valve sometimes blows out. (b)…

A blowing off steam, water, etc.; -- Also, adj.

The cleaning of the flues of a boiler from scale, etc., by a blast of steam.

pilot boat, packet boat, passage boat, advice boat, etc. The term is sometimes applied to steam vessels, even of the largest class; as, the Cunard boats.

e agitated, or tumultuously moved, as a liquid by the generation and rising of bubbles of steam (or vapor), or of currents produced by heating it to the boiling point; to be in a state of ebullition; as, the water boils.

wrought iron plates riveted together, or a composite structure variously formed, in which steam is generated for driving engines, or for heating, cooking, or other purposes.

vel of the sea. -- Boiling spring, a spring which gives out very hot water, or water and steam, often ejecting it with much force; a geyser. -- To be at the boiling point, to be very angry. -- To keep the pot boiling, to keep going on actively, as in certain games. [Colloq.]

A clerk who registers passengers, baggage, etc., for conveyance, as by railway or steamship, or who sells passage tickets at a booking office.

n office where passengers, baggage, etc., are registered for conveyance, as by railway or steamship.

To form or enlarge by means of a boring instrument or apparatus; as, to bore a steam cylinder or a gun barrel; to bore a hole. Short but very powerful jaws, by means whereof the insect can bore, as with a centerbit, a cylindrical passage through the most solid wood. T. W. Harris.

An apparatus for testing the power of a steam engine, or other motor, by weighing the amount of friction that the motor will overcome; a friction brake.