Float

(flot.) [From A.S. flota.] (Naut.) A raft, or number of logs or pieces of timber fastened together and floated down a river with the tide.-Also, one of the paddle-boards of a steamship.-(Mach.) A fiat piece of stone, iron, ., attached to a valve in the feed-pipe of a steam-engine's boiler, and supported on the surface of the water by a counter-weight; it serves both to show the height of the water, and to regulate its supply from the cistern. [s. 369]