TIN n.
An elementary substance found as an oxide in the mineral cassiterite, and reduced as a soft white crystalline metal, malleable at ordinary temperatures, but brittle when heated. It is not easily oxidized in the air, and is used chiefly to coat iron to protect it from rusting, in the form of tin foil with mercury to for…
TOPAZ n.
A mineral occurring in rhombic prisms, generally yellowish and pellucid, also colorless, and of greenesh, bluish, or brownish shades. It sometimes occurs massive and opaque. It is a fluosilicate of alumina, and is used as a gem.
TOURMALINE n.
A mineral occurring usually in three-sided or six-sided prisms terminated by rhombohedral or scalenohedral planes. Black tourmaline (schorl) is the most common variety, but there are also other varieties, as the blue (indicolite), red (rubellite), also green, brown, and white. The red and green varieties when transpare…
TRAIN v.
To trace, as a lode or any mineral appearance, to its head. To train a gun (Mil. & Naut.), to point it at some object either forward or else abaft the beam, that is, not directly on the side. Totten. -- To train, or To train up, to educate; to teach; to form by instruction or practice; to bring up. Train up a child in…
TUB n.
A box or bucket in which coal or ore is sent up a shaft; -- so called by miners. Tub fast, an old mode of treatment for the venereal disease, by sweating in a close place, or tub, and fasting. [Obs.] Shak. -- Tub wheel, a horizontal water wheel, usually in the form of a short cylinder, to the circumference of which sp…