element (element)

[ composing the body of an animal, or of the pieces which have united to form any part. Thus, the thorax of an insect is composed of three principal elements or rings, the epicranium is formed of several elements or pieces which are soldered together, etc. (i) In elect., a voltaic cell. See cell. The bichromate of pota ium batteries, composed of four troughs with six compartments, making twenty-four elements in circuit. A mercury commutator enabled us to use at pleasure six, twelve, eighteen, or twenty-four elements, and thus to obtain four different speeds of the screw [of an electric balloon]. Science, III. 154. 2. One of the four things, fire, water, earth, and air (to which ether was added as a fifth element), falsely regarded by the ancients as the constituents of which all things are composed. Water, as an element, consists of all that is in the rain, the rivers, the sea, etc.; fire, of lightning, the sun, etc.; these, together with the air and earth, were supposed to make up the matter of nature. The elements often means in a particular sense wind and water, especially in action: as, the fury of the elements. "It is a water that is maad, I seye, Of elementes foure," quod Plato. Chaucer, Canon's Yeoman's Tale (ed. Skeat), G. 1. 1460. ze haue thanne in the ampulle ij. element is : that is to IMG:content-0312.png:[blocks in formation] Manganese Mercury Nickel Niobium Nitrogen Osmium Oxygen. Silver Tin... Titanium. Tungsten... Uranium Vanadium Ytterbium Yttrium Zinc Zirconium There are a number of other bodies which have been named as elements (as phillipium, norwegium, etc.), whose properties have, however, not yet been sufficiently investigated and defined to warrant their inclusion in the list. 4. The proper or natural environment of anything; that in which something exists; hence, the sphere of experience of a person; the cla of persons with whom one naturally a ociates, or the sphere of life with which one is familiar: as, he is out of his element. We are simple men; we do not know what's brought to pa under the profe ion of fortune-telling. She works by charms, by spells, by the figure, and such daubery as this is, beyond our element: We know nothing. Shak., M. W. of W., iv. 2. This Tim is the head of a species: he is a little out of 3. A kind of matter undecomposable into other his element in this town; but he is a relation of Tranquillus, kinds. The elements as enumerated by Empedocles, and generally recognized in antiquity, were four-fire, water, earth, and air. (See 2.) The older chemists, of the fifteenth century and later, recognized three elements-sulphur, mercury, and salt. In modern chemistry an element, or elementary body, is regarded merely as a simple substance which has hitherto resisted analysis by any known chemical means. The list of such elements is a provisional one, since it is po ible, and not improbable, that many bodies now considered elementary may be proved to be com pound. There are about 70 elements at present (1889) recognized by chemists, commonly divided into two groups, namely, metals and the non - metallic bodies or metalloids. The non-metallic elements are hydrogen, chlorin, bromine, iodine, fluorin, oxygen, sulphur, selenium, tellurium, nitrogen, phosphorus, arsenic, antimony, bismuth, boron, silicon, and carbon. (See metalloid.) The remaining ele. ments are regarded as metals. (See metal. ) Five of the elements, oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, chlorin, and fluorin, are gases at ordinary temperatures; two, bromine and mercury, are liquids; the rest are solids. The properties of all the elements bear a close relation to their atomic and his neighbour in the country, which is the true place of residence for this species. Steele, Tatler, No. 85. [ Circulating element. See circulate . - Double element. See double.- Element of a figure, in the calculus, an infinitesimal part of it. - Elements of a crystal. See parameter . - Magnetic elements of a place, the declination and inclination of the magnetic needle and the intensity of the earth's magnetic attraction. Osculating elements. See osculating . elementt (el'ē-ment), v. t. To compound of elements or first principles. Whether any one such body be met with, in those said to be elemented bodies, I now question. Boyle . 2. To constitute; form from elements; compose; enter into the constitution of. Dull, sublunary lover's love (Whose soul is sense) cannot admit Of absence, 'cause it doth remove The thing which elemented it. Donne, Vindication Forbidding Mourning. element These [good life and good works] are the two elements, and he which is elemented from these hath the complexion of a good man, and a fit friend. Donne, Letters, xxx. elemental (el-e-mental), a . and n. [= Sp. Pg. elemental; as element + -al.] I. a. 1. Of, pertaining to, or of the nature of an element or elements. In and near the photosphere, or underneath it, matter must be in its most elemental state. C. A. Young , The Sun, p. 295. There is spectroscopic evidence which seems to show that, starting with a ma of solid elemental matter, such ma of matter is continually broken up as the tempera J. N. Lockyer , Spect. Anal., p. 126. ture is raised. 2. Pertaining or relating to first principles; simple; elementary. [Obsolete or archaic.] Some elemental knowledge, I suppose, they [the druids] had; but I can scarcely be persuaded that their learning was either deep or extensive. Burke, Abridg. of Eng. Hist., i. 2. 3. Of or pertaining to the elements of the material world: more especially used of the mobile elements, fire, air, and water, with reference to their violent or destructive action. See ele ment, 2 and 3. If dusky spots are vary'd on his brow, And streak'd with red, a troubled colour show; That sullen mixture shall at once declare Winds, rain, and storms, and elemental war. Dryden, tr. of Virgil's Georgics. But all subsists by elemental strife; And pa ions are the elements of life. Pope, E ay on Man, i. 169. Elemental law of thought, a first principle; a fundamental belief. II. n. A spirit of the elements; a nature spirit. See I., 3, and element, 2 and 3.