Engineering Dictionary
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An alphabetical listing of General terms and items. |
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The force of acceleration due to gravity equal to 32.1739 ft/sec2 or 386 in./sec2.
A wickerwork basket which was filled with earth and used to build field works, such as revetments and parapets, also used by sappers as cover from musket shot, as they advanced their trench the gabion was rolled before them.
A field work which was constructed using gabions.
A measure of the ratio of the relative change of resistance to the relative change in length of a piezoresistive strain gage.
The distance between two points where the measurement of strain occurs.
Absolute pressure minus local atmospheric pressure.
A transducer which measures pressure in relation to the ambient pressure.
The amount of amplification used in an electrical circuit.
A passage connecting the inner and exterior works of a fortification, which was either built of masonry or an underground passage. See caponier, traverse (2).
A defensive position situated in the counterscarp or the outer side of the ditch of a fortification, which was used to flank the ditch, also known as a counterscarp gallery.
An instrument that measures small electrical currents by means of deflecting magnetic coils.
A German castle under the multiple ownership by different parts of the same family. Separate homes were set up in different parts of the castle. See hauser.
A tower which guarded a gateway, usually two such towers were used to flank the gateway, one on either side. See gatehouse, great gatehouse.
The structure which was used to guard the principal entrance of a fortification. A gatehouse usually consisted of the following
A piece of turf which was cut into a wedge and used with others to line the outside of earthworks such as parapets and the traverses of galleries, to hold them in place. See cespites, revetment. (Fr. gazon, grass).
A dome composed of short, straight pieces joined to form triangles; invented by Buckminster Fuller
An engineer who evaluates and stabilizes foundations for buildings, roads, and other structures
(1) The area outside the ditch which was scarped into a gentle slope running downwards from the covered way towards the open country, which was kept deliberately free of any form of cover. The glacis brought an approaching assailing force into clear view from the parapet of a fortification under attack. See declivity. (2) The masonry sloped scarp of a curtain wall, a design which was developed to offset the effect of artillery fire. See talus. (L. glucies, ice).
(1) The interior side or entrance of a bastion or other outwork, which is usually the interval between the two flanks of the work. (2) The rear or any part of a work which is next to the body of the place at the counterscarp of the ditch where there is no rampart.
Russian fortified settlement
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Volumetric flow rate in gallons per hour.
Volumetric flow rate in gallons per minute.
A Spanish fortress dating from the 15th century, which was built in the shape of a great battle ship. The enceinte provided with mural towers formed the bow and the stern while the keep formed the bridge, normally situated on hill tops. The term literally means great ship.
A dam constructed so that its great weight resists the force of water pressure
The gateway of a castle was always a major weak spot in the defences, which later developed into the strongest part of a fortifications perimeter. The development in gatehouse design known as the great gatehouse has been compared in strength to the keeps of earlier castles. Using the same principles as in the gatehouse, the great gatehouse was provided with a pair of large flanking towers projecting forward from the line of the curtain wall, while two smaller flanking towers projected into the inner ward. The gatehouse was provided with a number of defences such as; machicolations, slits and battlements, the passage way itself was defended by a porticullis at each end and murder holes in the vaulted roof above. The chambers above the passage way were used to house the machinery for raising and lowering the porticullises and the drawbridge if one was provided, the rest of the remaining area was used as accommodation for the garrison or sometimes as residential appartments for the Lord or castellan of the castle. See keep gatehouse.
See keep.
A Slavic fortress.
1. The electrical neutral line having the same potential as the surrounding earth. 2. The negative side of DC power supply. 3. Reference point for an electrical system.
A form of construction of a thermocouple probe where the hot or measuring junction is in electrical contact with the sheath material so that the sheath and thermocouple will have the same electrical potential.
GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications: originally from Groupe Spécial Mobile) is the most popular standard for mobile telephony systems in the world. The GSM Association, its promoting industry trade organization of mobile phone carriers and manufacturers, estimates that 80% of the global mobile market uses the standard. GSM is used by over 1.5 billion people across more than 212 countries and territories. Its ubiquity enables international roaming arrangements between mobile network operators, providing subscribers the use of their phones in many parts of the world. GSM differs from its predecessor technologies in that both signaling and speech channels are digital, and thus GSM is considered a second generation (2G) mobile phone system. This also facilitates the wide-spread implementation of data communication applications into the system.
See curtain wall.
Italian turreted buildings used as watch towers by the Langobards.
A merlon provided with a V shaped apex, common around the 14th century. See merlon.
A small opening in a wall, or a small door in the gate of a fortification. See wicket.
A combination of a camp and a field work used in 15th century Russia, the term means moving train. Wagons were fitted with large shields provided with loop holes, and when they camped or attacked the wagons were drawn into a circle, thus presenting a fortified perimeter. See carrago.
An aperture through the wall of a fortification for firing guns through at an enemy. Their purpose was the same as an arrow loop, which was to provided covering and flanking fire. They took many forms but the main types were
An unroofed platform which was specially built to provided an area for the cannons of a fortification. The gun platform was a much better solution to artillery defence than gun ports because the noise and fumes of gun fire in the confined space made it very uncomfortable to fire more than a few rounds. See cavalier.
Any of several low-explosive mixtures used as a blasting agent in mining and tunneling; the first such explosive was black powder, which consists of a mixture of potassium nitrate, sulfur, and charcoal
A fort which was constructed of mud, and the walls were flanked by towers, and sometimes ditches surrounded the fort, used in India. (H. garh, hill fort).
An Okinawan word for castle, this type of castle differs basically from those of mainland Japan, dating from the 15th century, they were built extensively of stone, lacking the timber superstructures which were typical of the mainland castles.
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