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Of or pertaining to rudiments; consisting in first principles; elementary; initial; as, rudimental essays.

hissing sound; uttered with a hissing sound; hissing; as, s, z, sh, and zh, are sibilant elementary sounds. -- n.

of being decomposed into anything more simple or ultimate by any means at present known; elementary; thus, atoms are regarded as simple bodies. Cf. Ultimate, a.

That which, like a spark, may be kindled into a flame, or into action; a feeble germ; an elementary principle. "If any spark of life be yet remaining." Shak. "Small intellectual spark." Macaulay. "Vital spark of heavenly flame." Pope. We have here and there a little clear light, some sparks of bright knowledge. Locke.…

The doctrine of the elementary requisites of mere thought. Sir W. Hamilton.

An elementary sound, or a combination of elementary sounds, uttered together, or with a single effort or impulse of the voice, and constituting a word or a part of a word. In other terms, it is a vowel or a diphtong, either by itself or flanked by one or more consonants, the whole produced by a single impulse or uttera…

ry and naval evolutions. It is divided into grand tactics, or the tactics of battles, and elementary tactics, or the tactics of instruction.

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…

One of the elementary materials or fibres, having a uniform structure and a specialized function, of which ordinary animals and plants are composed; a texture; as, epithelial tissue; connective tissue.

An elementary substance found combined in the minerals manaccanite, rutile, sphene, etc., and isolated as an infusible iron- gray amorphous powder, having a metallic luster. It burns when heated in the air. Symbol Ti. Atomic weight 48.1.

ra. See Illustration in Appendix. Vortex atom (Chem.), a hypothetical ring-shaped mass of elementary matter in continuous vortical motion. It is conveniently regarded in certain mathematical speculations as the typical form and structure of the chemical atom. -- Vortex wheel, a kind of turbine.

splitting wood, rocks, etc., in raising heavy bodies, and the like. It is one of the six elementary machines called the mechanical powers. See Illust. of Mechanical powers, under Mechanical.

-- Measuring wheel, an odometer, or perambulator. -- Wheel and axle (Mech.), one of the elementary machines or mechanical powers, consisting of a wheel fixed to an axle, and used for raising great weights, by applying the power to the circumference of the wheel, and attaching the weight, by a rope or chain, to that o…