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Cambridge History of American Literature: volume 3 (ed. Trent, William Peterfield, 1862-1939., Erskine, John, 1879-1951., Sherman, Stuart Pratt, 1881-1926., Van Doren, Carl, 1885-1950.) 114 0 Browse Search
James Russell Lowell, Among my books 80 0 Browse Search
Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History (ed. Benson Lossing) 50 0 Browse Search
George Ticknor, Life, letters and journals of George Ticknor (ed. George Hillard) 46 0 Browse Search
Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Carlyle's laugh and other surprises 38 0 Browse Search
Cambridge History of American Literature: volume 2 (ed. Trent, William Peterfield, 1862-1939., Erskine, John, 1879-1951., Sherman, Stuart Pratt, 1881-1926., Van Doren, Carl, 1885-1950.) 32 0 Browse Search
Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Henry Walcott Boynton, Reader's History of American Literature 30 0 Browse Search
Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Atlantic Essays 28 0 Browse Search
Frank Preston Stearns, Cambridge Sketches 28 0 Browse Search
Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia (ed. Knight) 20 0 Browse Search
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Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia (ed. Knight), B. (search)
d to have an antiquity of a thousand years. Rameses and his ladies played checkers. Chess came from India; so did cards. Backgammon is mentioned by Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Bacon as playing the tables, — a name by which it was then known. Back-gear. （Turning.) The set of variable speed gear-wheels in the headstock of acribe the gorgeous counterpanes. The bedsteads had canopies, but we do not read of curtains or testers. The bed, or rather bedstead, of Ware, mentioned by Shakespeare, is still in existence, and is to be seen at one of the inns in that village. It is twelve feet square. Many innovations have been made on the old-fashioned fy during the sixteenth century. The invention is generally ascribed to Henrique Devigne, an artist in the reign of Charles IX., 1571. The game is spoken of by Shakespeare. In 1578, during the reign of William, Prince of Orange, permission was given to some residents of Amsterdam to keep billiard-tables. Up all of us and to
Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia (ed. Knight), C. (search)
a horizontal bar fixed at right angles to an upright arbor, and the movement was accelerated or retarded by diminishing or increasing the distance of the weights from the arbor. This clock, which had no regulating spring, was the type of the astronomical clocks used by Tycho Brahe (1582), and by many less illustrous but worthy and useful observers, at and about the same date. Clocks were in possession of private persons about 1500, and about the same time watches were introduced. Shakespeare refers to a watch in the play of Twelfth Night, where Malvolio says: — I frown the while, and perchance wind up my watch, or play with some rich Jewel. Mr. Pierce showed me the Queene's [the Portuguese princess, wife of Charles II.] bedchamber, and her holy-water at her head as she sleeps, with a clock by her bedside, wherein a lamp burns that tells her the time of the night at any time. — Pepys's Diary, 1664. The pendulum, which engaged the attention of the Spanish Saracens in the
Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia (ed. Knight), H. (search)
e wire and acted as a damper. Whether the modes of twanging the strings by a plectrum or quill, in imitation of the action of a harpist, preceded all the devices for striking the string, it is not easy now to determine; but the latter mode, which appears to have originated in the clavichord, has entirely superseded the quill. An early and obsolete predecessor of the piano was the virginal, which had keys and jacks, but only one string to a note. See virginal. It is mentioned by Shakespeare, — Still virginaling Upon his palm Winter's Tale. And also by Gabriel Platte, who, in the succeeding century, describes a dibbling machine as formed of iron pins, — Made to play up and down like virginal jacks. The clavichord, d, is said to have consisted of a range of brass wires placed above the keys, which latter had wires on the rear ends, acting as hammers upon the strings when the keys were struck. A muffling-piece on the string limited the portion involved in th
Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia (ed. Knight), L. (search)
lass.) (Fr. lunette.) A hole connecting the glass-melting furnace with the arch. Lin′seed-mill. （Lint, Flax.) A mill for grinding flax-seed for oil. See oil-mill. Lin′seed-oil. Oil expressed from flax (lint) seed. Lin′sey. （Fabric.) A country-made fabric, of linen warp and worsted filling, undressed; hence the name linsey-woolsey. Lin′stock. A lint-stock. A gunner's forked staff, to hold a match of lint dipped in a solution of saltpeter. It is referred to by Shakespeare: — And the nimble gunner With linstock now the devilish cannon touches. Henry V. Lint. Raveled or scraped linen reduced to a soft state and used for dressing wounds or ulcers. As formerly prepared, it consisted of scrapings from the surface of old linen cloth, which was drawn beneath a knife, the weft-threads being pushed back from time to time, and the scrapings being obtained from the threads of the warp. A machine has been used for the purpose, the straight, blun
Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia (ed. Knight), P. (search)
were struck by small pieces of quill affixed to minute springs adjusted in the upper part of the jacks, which were planted in the keys and directed perpendicularly upon the strings. The name is derived from the instrument being deemed suitable for girls, or from its being used in accompanying hymns to the Virgin. o is a triangular virginal from the Syntagma Musicum of Praetorius. The instrument is frequently mentioned in works and inventories of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Shakespeare refers to it. p is a curious drawing of an upright virginal from a collection of pen-and-ink drawings of ancient musical instruments, executed at the latter end of the sixteenth century. The virginal of Mary Queen of Scots was of oak inlaid with cedar and elaborately ornamented with figures of warriors, ladies, and birds. The colors are yet bright. q is the spinet, named from spina, a thorn or quill, the tone being produced by a crow's quill inserted in the tongue of the jack. As desc
Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia (ed. Knight), U. (search)
a harp, and played by means of hammers and keys. It was one of the precursors of the piano-forte, and was well known to the musical profession and the cultivated classes of society in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; how much earlier we do not know. See n, Plate XL. A book of exercises for the virginal, written for Queen Elizabeth, is still extant. The pit-a-pat motion of the fingers, so different to the clawing action of the hands in playing upon the harp, gave occasion to Shakespeare to compare to it the love-taps of his heroine, — Still virginating Upon his palm. This man, whom nothing escaped, made words as he wanted them. A century later Gabriel Platte describes a dibbling-machine as formed of iron pins. Made to play up and down like virginal jacks. After many essays and various changes in movement and application, after the virgina's, manichords, clavichords, harpsichords, and spinets had their day, the piano came forth, beyond all question th
Knight's Mechanical Encyclopedia (ed. Knight), W. (search)
at noon, but the may have had some system of correction for aught we know. See Mahiner's compass. Watches are mentioned in an Italian sonnet of 1490, by Gaspar Visconti: Henry VIII had a watch; the Emperor Charles V. had several of them; Shakespeare refers to one in Twelfth night :— I frown the while; and, perchance, wind up my watch or play with some rich jewel. — Malvolio. Also in the answer of the priest of Olivia:— Since when; my watch hath told me, towards my grave I have the width of ground covered by the 4 pipes is 6 3/4 feet. The area of the surface watered from 1 barrelful in the time mentioned will be over 4 3/4 acres. Wa′ter-ing-pot. Mentioned by Pollux, and much later by Montfaucon, Du Cange, and Shakespeare. Wa′ter-in-ject′or. A form of pump used on steam-boilers. See injector. Wa′ter-laid. （Rope.) Coiled against the sun, that is, over to the left. Cablet. Wa′ter-laid rope. Rope laid up and twisted against the su