Scantlings

A term sometimes used to denote small timbers; as joists, etc.

Scarfing

The joining, or splicing, two pieces of wood, so that the whole may appear as but one piece.

Scribing

Fitting the edge of a piece of wood to the surface of another.

Section

A geometrical representation of a part of the interior of a building as cut by a vertical or horizontal plane. A section not only exhibits the lines where the separation is made, but also the elevation of those parts of the building exposed to view, if the nearer sectional part was actually removed. A longitudinal section is one on a line with the length of the building; a transverse section is one on a line with its width, or across it; and a horizontal section shows the floors, being usually called the plan. The term section also denotes a part, or portion, considered as separate from the rest.

Segment

A part or piece cut from any thing, particularly the portion contained between the chord and arc of a circle.

Severy

A compartment or division of scaffolding.

Shake

A crack, or fissure, in wood, caused by its being dried too rapidly. A piece having many slits, or clefts, is said to be shaky.

Shore

A prop, or brace, standing in an oblique position against a wall to retain it in its proper place. To "shore up a wall" is to put shores against it.

Shoulder

The plane at the tenoned end of a stick of timber, which is transverse to its length, and at right angles with the tenon projecting from it.

Sill

The lowest principal piece of timber in the frame of a structure which lies in a horizontal position.

Site

The situation or lot of land on which a structure stands.

Sleepers

Pieces of timber which he horizontally on the ground, under the principal timbers of a ground-floor.

Sliding-Rule

One haying a figured slide, which, being moved against logarithmic lines, determines various arithmetical calculations.

Socket-Chisel

Same as firmer-chisel.

Span

The distance, or spread, between the eaves of a roof, the abutments or piers of a bridge, etc.

Spax-Roof

A roof consisting of two simple inclined sides in contradistinction to shed-roof.

Spire

That part of a steeple which diminishes as it ascends. Any tapering body.

Splayed

A term denoting a side which makes an oblique angle with that adjoining. The jambs of a window are often splayed; thus, by making the aperture larger in the room, admitting more light.

Square

A figure of four equal sides, and as many right angles. Also an instrument used by carpenters and joiners for laying out and squaring their work. (See Carpenter's Square.) A thing is said to be square when its angles are right angles.

Stage

A floor on which actors perform in a play-room. In ancient theatres, the stage was called the proscenium. This term in modern times denotes more particularly the front of the stage at the line where the curtain rails.

Stanchion

A prop, or sup-port. The term is nearly synony-mous with post.

Starlings

An English term denoting piles driven about the piers of a bridge, or the sides of a timber-wharf, to give them support.

Stay

Any thing performing ' the office of either a tie or a brace, which prevents the swaying of the work to which it is affixed.

Steeple

The lofty erection, ending in a point, which surI mounts a church. It is composed of a tower and spire. The tower extends from the ground to the line where the steeple begins to diminish. From this point, the remainder is called the spire.

Where the edifice has a porch or projection in front, the steeple is considered to begin at the top of the porch named.

Story

That vertical division of a building occupying the space from the top of one floor to the under side of that immediately over it. A building is said to be as many stories high as there are alternate spaces of this description from the top of the sills to the top of the plates at the eaves. In America, the principal story is usually on the first floor: in England, it is on the second. In this country, we usually denominate the first story above the ground the principal or entrance story; that above this, the chamber-story; and those above them, the third, fourth, fifth stories, etc.

Story-Post

A post between two adjoining stories of a building, for supporting a superincumbent weight.

Strain

The force exerted on any material which tends to destroy the cohesion of its parts.

Straining-Piece

A piece placed between two opposite pieces of timber to prevent their nearer approach. It is always in a state of compression.

Strap

An iron plate, bar, or band for confining together two or more pieces of timber.

Striated

Marked with small furrows, or channels, as those in a piece of wood sawed by a large saw in the direction of its length. When, in sawing lumber, the saw is not firmly fixed in the frame, the sides of the timber are made rough or ridgy, and are then said to be striated.

Striking

This term denotes the act of lining out, or marking off the surface of any piece of timber, for making mortises, tenons, etc.; also removing the centering on which a vault or arch has been built.

Strut

This term is nearly synonymous with brace; and, if it may be more properly used in any case, it is when it denotes a timber designed to keep extended those parts of the work against which its ends come. The term brace may be used as a substitute for strut, but not strut for brace. A strut, therefore, is always in a state of compression, while a brace may be either compressed or extended.

Stubshod

A term in common use among carpenters and joiners to denote the roughly split wood at the end of a piece of timber, not sawn through, but split or cleft apart, after the log was removed from the track over the saw-pit.