Plate.
1. (Carpentry.) a. A beam on a wall or elsewhere to support other portions of a structure. A capping-piece. a, rafter-plate. b, purlin-plate. c, crown-plate. d, wall-plate.
2. (Nautical.) a. An iron band or bar: as the back-stay plate connecting the dead-eye of the backstay to the after channel; futtock-plates; channel-plates, etc. b. A sheet of metal forming a portion of a strake on a ship's side. 3. A thick sheet of metal for forming a portion of a boiler or similarly constructed object. Weight of a Square Foot of Cast and Wrought Iron, Copper, Lead, Brass, and Zinc, from 1/16 to 1 Inch in Thickness. (Haswell.)
| Thickness. | Cast-Iron. | Wrought-Iron. | Copper. | Lead. | Brass. | Zinc. |
| Inch. | Lbs. | Lbs. | Lbs. | Lbs. | Lbs. | Lbs. |
| 1/16 | 2.346 | 2.517 | 2.89 | 3.691 | 2.675 | 2.34 |
| 1/8 | 4.693 | 5.035 | 5.781 | 7.382 | 5.35 | 4.68 |
| 3/16 | 7.039 | 7.552 | 8.672 | 11.074 | 8.025 | 7.02 |
| 1/4 | 9.386 | 10.07 | 11.562 | 14.765 | 10.7 | 9.36 |
| 5/16 | 11.733 | 12.588 | 14.453 | 18.456 | 13.375 | 11.7 |
| 3/8 | 14.079 | 15.106 | 17.344 | 22.148 | 16.05 | 14.04 |
| 7/16 | 16.426 | 17.623 | 20.234 | 25.839 | 18.725 | 16.34 |
| 1/2 | 18.773 | 20.141 | 23.125 | 29.53 | 21.4 | 18.72 |
| 9/16 | 21.119 | 22.659 | 26.016 | 33.222 | 24.075 | |
| 5/8 | 23.466 | 25.176 | 28.906 | 36.913 | 26.75 | |
| 11/16 | 25.812 | 27.694 | 31.797 | 40.604 | 29.425 | |
| 3/4 | 28.159 | 30.211 | 34.688 | 44.296 | 32.1 | |
| 13/16 | 39.505 | 32.729 | 37.578 | 47.987 | ||
| 7/8 | 32.852 | 35.247 | 40.469 | 51.678 | ||
| 15/16 | 35.199 | 37.764 | 43.359 | 55.37 | ||
| 1 | 37.545 | 40.282 | 46.25 | 59.061 |
4. (Steam-engine.) To plate a port is to close it by the land or unperforated portion of the plate of a slide-valve.
5. (Horology.) One of the parallel sheets of metal in a watch or clock into which the principal wheels are pivoted.
6. (Dentistry.) The portion which fits to the month and holds the teeth of a denture. It is of gold, silver, aluminum, or vulcanite.
7. (Metallurgy.) A flat metallic piece in a furnace, usually a part of the bed or bosh.
8. (Hat-making.) A plate-hat is one of which only the outer layer is fur.
9. (Printing.) A page of type, stereotype, or electrotype, for printing.
10. (Engraving.) a. The metallic surface in which an engraving is cut. Hence the names plateengrav-ing, copperplate, etc. b. An impression from such an engraved plate. 11. A piece of metal to be attached to an object; as a name-plate to a trunk, a door-plate, a coffin-plate, a finger-plate, to keep the stain of fingers from a door, etc. 12. A piece of service of silver, gold, or their imitations. The Roman patera or patella (a plate, dish, or saucer) was of metal or earthenware, often highly ornamented, and sometimes with a handle. In the latter condition it looked like and was occasionally used as our griddle. The patina seems to have been deeper, like a bowl, and sometimes had a cover. A large bowl was crater: the ladle, cyathus; a drinking-cup. poculum. See Smith's “Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities,” Patera; Patina. 13. A small, shallow vessel for table service; one at a time for each guest, in contradistinction to the dish which holds the viand from which a guest is helped. Pepys complains that at the Lord Mayor's dinner, London, 1663, the major part of the guests had “no napkins nor change of trenchers, and drank out of earthen pitchers” and ate from “wooden dishes.” Pewter and wood were the ordinary ware for many centuries. Afterward, common earthenware. Imported ware from China gave the fillip to some persons of ingenuity and taste, the principal one of whom was Wedgewood. See pottery; porcelain.
