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An evergreen Chinese shrub of the Magnolia family (Illicium anisatum), and its aromatic seeds; Chinese anise; star anise.

A utensil, as a bucket or cup, used in bailing; a machine for bailing water out of a pit.

A wheel which imparts regularity to the movements of any engine or machine; a fly wheel.

A machine, invented in the 17th century, worked by a form of reaction wheel. The water flows into a vertical tube and gushes from apertures in hollow horizontal arms, causing the machine to revolve on its axis.

d round a cannon at 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.

sound beating with a stick or cudgel. Specifically: A form of punishment among the Turks, Chinese, and others, consisting in beating an offender on the soles of his feet.

A part of a brick with one whole end. Bat bolt (Machinery), a bolt barbed or jagged at its butt or tang to make it hold the more firmly. Knight.

Act of taking a bath or baths. Bathing machine, a small room on wheels, to be driven into the water, for the convenience of bathers, who undress and dress therein.

A number of similar machines or devices in position; an apparatus consisting of a set of similar parts; as, a battery of boilers, of retorts, condensers, etc.

of holes made to receive it, and which thus serves to engage or disengage parts of the machinery. Bayonet clutch. See Clutch. -- Bayonet joint, a form of coupling similar to that by which a bayonet is fixed on the barrel of a musket. Knight.

A portable punching machine.

The foundation or the more solid and fixed part or framing of a machine; or a part on which something is laid or supported; as, the bed of an engine.

A machine in which fabrics are subjected to a hammering process while passing over rollers, as in cotton mills; -- called also beetling machine. Knight.

pulls and in changing the direction of bell wires at angles of rooms, etc., and also in machinery.

An instrument, utensil, or machine, which, by alternate expansion and contraction, or by rise and fall of the top, draws in air through a valve and expels it through a tube for various purposes, as blowing fires, ventilating mines, or filling the pipes of an organ with wind. Bellows camera, in photography, a form of ca…

lar ridge or series of ridges. Belt lacing, thongs used for lacing together the ends of machine belting.

The material of which belts for machinery are made; also, belts, taken collectively.

A slubbing or roving machine.

An animated picture machine for screen projection; a cinematograph.

An animated picture machine for screen projection; a cinematograph (which see).