beam (1), beame, beem, be me, bem, bealme

[A.S. beam = (1) a tree; (2) a beam-post, a stock of a tree, a splint; (3) anything proceeding in a straight line, a sunbeam; (4) a wind instrument, a horn, a trumpet ( Bosworth, .). O. Sax. bom, bam; O. Fries. bam; Sw. & Dan. bom = a bar, & boom; Ger. baum = a tree, a beam, a bar, a boom; O. H. Ger. baum, boum, poum; O. L. Ger. bôm; O. Icel. badhmr = a beam; Goth. bagms a tree.] [Воом.] I. Ordinary Language: 1. Of trees: A tree, i.e., one living, and not dead and cut up. The same as the Ger. baum . (See etym.) This sense of the word is obsolete, except in a few cases, as Hornbeam, Whitebeam . 2. Of wood from trees, or anything similar: (1) A large, long piece of timber "squared," or rather made rectangular, on its several sides; specially one used to aid in supporting the ordinary rafters in a building. It is distinguished from a block by being longer than broad. "A beam is the largest piece of wood in a building, which always lies cro the building or the walls, serving to support the principal rafters of the roof, and into which the feet of the principal rafters are framed. No building has le than two beams , one framed he No building Into these the girders of the garret floor are also framed; and if the building be of timber, the teazel-tenons of the posts are framed. The proportions of beams , in or near London, are fixed by Act of Parliament. A beam fifteen feet long must be seven inches on one side its square, and five on the other; if it be sixteen feet long, one side must be eight inches, the other six, and so proportionable to their lengths.' -Builder's Dictionary. "For many a busy hand toiled there, Strong pales to shape and beams to square." Scott: Lay of the Last Minstrel, v. 9. In Matt. vii. 3-5 the word is used in this sense. (2) A similar support to rafters, though made of iron and not of wood. (3) The pole of a carriage which pa es between the horses. "Juturna heard, and, seiz'd with mortal fear, Fore'd from the beam her brother's charioteer." Dryden: Virgil ; Eneid xii. 687, 688. (4) The transverse iron rod or bar in a balance, from the extremities of which the scales are suspended. "If thus th' important cause is to be tried, Suppose the beam should dip on the wrong side." Cowper: Hope. (5) The rood-tree, the cro . "His bod i bledde on the beem , " IMG:content-1148.png:[blocks in formation] (6) The main part of a plough, that to which the handles are attached, and to which also the animals designed to draw it are yoked. 3. Of what is branched: The third and fourth antlers of a stag's horns. (The metaphor seems to be that of a branching tree.) (See No. 1.) "And taught the woods to echo to the stream His dreadful challenge, and his clashing beam ." Denham . 4. Of what radiates or is radiated: (1) Lit. A ray of light, or, more strictly, a collection of parallel rays of light, emitted from a luminous body; anything resembling such a ray or collection of rays. (a) Emitted from the sun. "To make the sun a bauble without use, Save for the fruits his heavenly beams produce." Cowper: Hope. (c) A radiating line. (2) Fig .: Anything imparting intellectual, moral, or spiritual light; a ray or emanation of splendour. "Where fancy's fire, affection's mental beam, Thought, genius, pa ion, reign in turn supreme. Hemans: To the Eye. II. Technically : 1. Arch . There are many kinds of architectural beams, such as a tie -beam, a collar - beam , a dragon- beam , . [See these words.] 2. Naval Arch . & Naut. Language: (1) The beams of a ship are the great main cro -timbers which prevent the sides of the ship from falling together, and which also support the deck and orlops. Broad in the beam: Broad from the bulwarks on one side to those on the other. "Broad in the beam , that the stre of the blast, Pre ing down upon sail and mast, Might not the sharp bows overwhelm." Long fellow: Building of the Ship. Beam is also used technically for the width of a ship. The beam nearest the mainmast is called the main beam , the next to it the second beam, the next again the third beam ; and so on with the rest. The midship beam is the one, as its name indicates, situated in midships. It is the greatest one in the ve el. Abaft the beam: In an arc of the horizon subtended by the angle of which one side is constituted by a line cro ing the ship transversely from beam to beam at right angles, and the other by a line running from the stem to the stern of the ve el. Before the beam: In an are of the horizon intervening between that now described and the bow of the ve el. (2) The beam of an anchor: The straight part or shank of an anchor, to which the hooks are fastened. 3. Mach .: A heavy iron lever in a steam engine, one end of which is connected with the piston, and the other with the crank of the wheel-shaft. It transmits motion from the piston to the wheel-shaft. 4. Math .: An axial line, a radius. 5. Curriery: The board on which skins are laid to be shaved. beam-engine, s. 473 Mech. A steam-engine, in which power is transmitted by a working beam, in contradistinction to one in which the piston-rod is attached directly to the crank of the wheel shaft. Newcomen's atmospheric engine is an example of this form of engine.