Search the Dictionary

tions (the wheel and axle and the pulley), the inclined plane with its modifications (the screw and the wedge), which convert a small force acting throught a great space into a great force acting through a small space, or vice versa, and are used separately or in combination. -- Mechanical solution (Math.), a solution…

A name for two trees of the southwestern part of North America, the honey mesquite, and screw-pod mesquite. Honey mesquite. See Algaroba (b). -- Screw-pod mesquite, a smaller tree (Prosopis pubescens), having spiral pods used as fodder and sometimes as food by the Indians. -- Mesquite grass, a rich native grass in We…

y by the two halves of a bisected lens which are movable along their line of section by a screw, and distances are determined by the number of screw revolutions necessary to bring the points to be measured into optical coincidence. When the two images are formed by a bisected objects glass, it is called a divided-objec…

edges of, or to cut fine grooves or indentations across the edges of, as of a coin, or a screw head; also, to stamp in a coining press; to coin.

A pipe fitting, consisting of a short piece of pipe, usually provided with a screw thread at each end, for connecting two other fittings. Solder nipple, a short pipe, usually of brass, one end of which is tapered and adapted for attachment to the end of a lead pipe by soldering.

To cut with reeding or fluting on the edge of, as coins, the heads of screws, etc.; to knurl.

A perforated block (usually a small piece of metal), provided with an internal or female screw thread, used on a bolt, or screw, for tightening or holding something, or for transmitting motion. See Illust. of lst Bolt.

Eng.] -- Paddle steamer, a steam vessel propelled by paddle wheels, in distinction from a screw propeller. -- Paddle wheel, the propelling wheel of a steam vessel, having paddles (or floats) on its circumference, and revolving in a vertical plane parallel to the vessel's length.

A genus of endogenous plants. See Screw pine.

A step; a degree; esp. in the slang phrase "To take one down peg." To screw papal authority to the highest peg. Barrow. And took your grandess down a peg. Hudibras. Peg ladder, a ladder with but one standard, into which cross pieces are inserted. -- Peg tankard, an ancient tankard marked with pegs, so as divide the li…

no vicarage is endowed. Blackstone. -- Perpetual motion. See under Motion. -- Perpetual screw. See Endless screw, under Screw.

heet piling. See Sheet piling, under Piling. -- Pneumatic pile. See under Pneumatic. -- Screw pile, one with a screw at the lower end, and sunk by rotation aided by pressure.

The length, measured along the axis, of a complete turn of the thread of a screw, or of the helical lines of the blades of a screw propeller.

A contrivance for propelling a steam vessel, usually consisting of a screw placed in the stern under water, and made to revolve by an engine; a propeller wheel.

To run too fast at times, as a marine engine or screw, when the screw is lifted out of water by the action of a heavy sea.

lm (Bot.), a Brazilian palm tree (Iriartea exorhiza) which has strong aërial roots like a screw pine. The roots have a hard, rough surface, and are used by the natives for graters and rasps, whence the common name.

pling (Pipe fitting), a coupling the opposite ends of which are tapped for a right-handed screw and a left-handed screw, respectivelly. -- Right angle. (a) The angle formed by one line meeting another perpendicularly, as the angles ABD, DBC. (b) (Spherics) A spherical angle included between the axes of two great circl…

m left to right; dextral; -- said of spiral shells. See Illust. of Scalaria. Right-handed screw, a screw, the threads of which, like those of a common wood screw, wind spirally in such a direction that screw advances away from the observer when turned with a right-handed movement in a fixed nut.

especially, a bony neckpiece of meat; hence, humorously or in contempt, the neck. Lady MacScrew, who . . . serves up a scrag of mutton on silver. Thackeray.

the absence of the fisherman. -- Set nut, a jam nut or lock nut. See under Nut. -- Set screw (Mach.), a screw, sometimes cupped or printed at one end, and screwed through one part, as of a machine, tightly upon another part, to prevent the one from slipping upon the other. -- Set speech, a speech carefully prepared…