weigh shaft (washaft)

In a steam-engine, a rocking-shaft or rocker-shaft. weight1 (wat), n. [Formerly also waight; vægt, weight; with formative -t, anybody that weight was a force. Gravity, so far as com mon observation shows, draws bodies to the earth alone, and that in parallel lines, and Galileo had shown that it accelerates all bodies alike, whether they are great or small, so that there was nothing to suggest the idea of force, especially as that idea was then in its infancy, and had not attained its present prominence in the minds of men. Weight in those days being looked upon as a property of single bodies, and not as subsisting between pairs of bodies, was nece arily confounded with ma ; and a mental inertia, or natural clinging to old conceptions, kept up the confusion after Newton had demonstrated the true law of gravitation. For the units of weight, see def. 5. Abbreviated wt. Allas that I bihighte Of pured gold a you sand pound of wighte . Chaucer , Franklin's Tale, 1. 832. So Belgian mounds bear on their shattered sides The sea's whole weight , increased with swelling tides. Add is on, The Campaign. Though a pound or a gramme is the same all over the world, the weight of a pound or a gramme is greater in high latitudes than near the equator. Clerk Maxwell , Matter and Motion, Art. xlvii. 2. Ma ; relative quantity of matter.-3. А heavy ma ; specifically, something used on account of its weight or its ma . Thus, the usefulne of the weights that a man holds in his hands in leaping or jumping lies in the addition they impart to his momentum, and their dragging him down is a disadvantage; but the weights of a clock are for giving a downward pull, and their momentum is practically nothing. A man leapeth better with weights in his hands than without. Bacon , Nat. Hist., § 699. Both men and women in Cochin account it a great Gall an trie to haue wide eares, which therfore they stretch by arte, hanging waights on them till they reach to their shoulders. Purchas , Pilgrimage, p. 494. IMG:content-2210.jpg:[graphic] weight Impartial Justice holds her equal Scales, Till stronger Virtue does the Weight incline. Prior, Ode to the Queen, st. 10. "When I said I would match you, I meant with even weight; you ride four stone lighter than I." "Very well, but I am content to carry weight ." Scott , Rob Roy, iii. 4. Specifically, a body of determinate ma , intended to be used on a balance or scale for measuring the weight or ma of the body in the other pan or part of the scale (as the platform in a platform-scale).-5. A system of units for expre ing the weight or ma of bodies. Avoir dupois weight is founded on the avoirdupois pound (see pound1 ), which is equal to 453.5926525 grams. It is divided into 16 ounces, and each ounce into 16 drams; 112 (in the United States commonly 100) pounds make a hundredweight, and 20 hundred weights (Seeton1.) The stone is 14 pounds. Troy weight is founded on the troy pound, which is 373.242 grams. It is divided into 12 ounces, each ounce into 20 pennyweights, and each pennyweight into 24 grains. But formerly the penny weight was divided into 32 real grains. There was also an ideal subdivision of the grain into 20 mites, each of 24 droites, each of 20 peroits, each of 24 blanks. The goldsmiths also divided the ounce troy into 24 carats of 4 grains each for gold and silver, and into 150 carats of 4 grains each for diamonds. Troy weight, formerly employed for many purposes, is now only used for gold and silver. Apothecaries' weight , still used in the United States for dispensing medicine, divides the troy ounce into 8 drams, each dram into 3 scruples, and each scruple into 20 grains, which are identical with troy grains. For weight in the metric system, see metric3 . 6. Pre ure; burden; care; responsibility. A wise Chieftain neuer trusts the waight Of th' execution of a braue Exploit But into those whom he most honoureth. 6872 Some of the [balance] poles are weighted at both ends, but ours are not. Mayhew , London Labour and London Poor. 2. In dyeing, to load (the threads) with minerals or other foreign matters mixed with the dyes, for the purpose of making the fabrics appear thick and heavy. Barytes. is used for weighting , that is, for giving weight and apparent body and firmne to inferior goods. O'Neill , Dyeing and Calico Printing, p. 74. 3. In founding, to bind (the parts of a flask) together by means of weights placed on the top, in order to prevent the bursting of the flask under the pre ure of the liquid metal. weight2 (wat), n. See wecht. weightily (wa'ti-li), adv. In a weighty manner. (a) Heavily; ponderously. (6) With force or impre ive ne ; with moral power.