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Any wheel for propelling machinery or for other purposes, that is made to rotate by the direct action of water; -- called an overshot wheel when the water is applied at the top, an undershot wheel when at the bottom, a breast wheel when at an intermediate point; other forms are called reaction wheel, vortex wheel, turb…

A board attached to the rim of a water wheel to prevent the water from running off the floats or paddies into the interior of the wheel. W. Nicholson.

A water wheel, on which the stream of water strikes neither so high as in the overshot wheel, nor so low as in the undershot, but generally at about half the height of the wheel, being kept in contact with it by the breasting. The water acts on the float boards partly by impulse, partly by its weight.…

One of the receptacles on the rim of a water wheel into which the water rushes, causing the wheel to revolve; also, a float of a paddle wheel.

A water wheel having a vertical axis, and an inner and outer tapering shell, between which are vanes or floats attached usually to both shells, but sometimes only to one.

e. See Flote, n. Float board, one of the boards fixed radially to the rim of an undershot water wheel or of a steamer's paddle wheel; -- a vane. -- Float case (Naut.), a caisson used for lifting a ship. -- Float copper or gold (Mining), fine particles of metallic copper or of gold suspended in water, and thus liable…

Hurry; tumult; agitation of the mind; confusion; disorder. Pope. Flutter wheel, a water wheel placed below a fall or in a chute where rapidly moving water strikes the tips of the floats; -- so called from the spattering, and the fluttering noise it makes.

A contrivance applied to steam engines, water wheels, and other machinery, to maintain nearly uniform speed when the resistances and motive force are variable.

atmosphere; -- said of steam, air, water, etc., and of steam, air, or hydraulic engines, water wheels, etc.

the distance in a horizontal plane to which a gun will throw a projectile. -- Horizontal water wheel, a water wheel in which the axis is vertical, the buckets or floats revolving in a horizontal plane, as in most turbines.

In California, a water wheel with radial buckets, driven by the impact of a jet.

A penstock for a water wheel.

l in which the water flows. -- Mill tooth, a grinder or molar tooth. -- Mill wheel, the water wheel that drives the machinery of a mill. -- Roller mill, a mill in which flour or meal is made by crushing grain between rollers. -- Stamp mill (Mining), a mill in which ore is crushed by stamps. -- To go through the mi…

A large water wheel, turned by the action of a stream against its floats, and carrying at its circumference buckets, by which water is raised and discharged into a trough; used in Arabia, China, and elsewhere for irrigating land; a Persian wheel.

From Overshoot, v. t. Overshot wheel, a vertical water wheel, the circumference of which is covered with cavities or buckets, and which is turned by water which shoots over the top of it, filling the buckets on the farther side and acting chiefly by its we'ght.

One of the broad boards, or floats, at the circumference of a water wheel, or paddle wheel.

A form of impulse turbine or water wheel, consisting of a row of double cup-shaped buckets arranged round the rim of a wheel and actuated by one or more jets of water playing into the cups at high velocity.

A close conduit or pipe for conducting water, as, to a water wheel, or for emptying a pond, or for domestic uses.

d motion as supplied by some natural source, and apply them to drive other machines; as a water wheel, a water- pressure engine, a steam engine, a hot-air engine, etc. (c) Fig.: The original or the most effective force in any undertaking or work; as, Clarkson was the prime mover in English antislavery agitation. -- Pr…

The current of water that turns a water wheel, or the channel in which it flows; a mill race.