Camber-Beams

Beams which are cambered.

Camberated

Archedor vaulted.

Campanile

A tower for bells. In Italy they are usually separate from the church, and are, in general, highly ornamented and costly edifices. The celebrated one at Cremona is 395 ft. high. That at Florence, built from a design by Giotto, is 267 ft. high, and 45 ft. square. The most remarkable campanile in the world is doubtless that at Pisa: it was built about the year 1174, and is commonly known as the "Leaning Tower." It is cylindric in plan; is 50 ft. in diameter, and 150 ft. to the platform, on which are the bells. From this platform a plumb-line falls, on the leaning side, nearly 13 ft. from its base. Its entire height is 180 feet.

Campshot

The sill or cap of a wharf or wall.

Cant

An external corner or angle of a building. Among carpenters, the term is also used to denote the act of turning a piece of timber.

Canthers

In ancient carpentry, the ends of the jack-rafters of a roof. They are considered by some to have given rise to the mutules of the Doric order.

Capstan

A strong and massy column or cylinder of iron or wood, at the top of which is a circular cap, with horizontal mortises or holes around it at equal distances to receive bars or levers, for the purpose of turning it, and thus winding up a rope, the other end of which is attached to the weight to be raised, or to apply the power of the machine to any thing requiring removal.

Carcass

The unfinished state of a building before it is partitioned off into rooms, the floors laid, etc.

Carpenter

In America this word is often used indiscriminately to signify an artificer who begins and completes the entire wood-work of an edifice. The term properly denotes one who does the framing, raising, boarding, and partitioning off the rooms of a wooden building. The finishing of its several parts is done by the joiner. In shipbuilding the carpenter hews out the timbers, sets up the frame, and planks it; while the ship-joiner completes the work.

Carpenter's Rule

An instrument by the use of which carpenters take dimensions, etc. It is figured in inches, and parts of inches; and to some kinds is affixed a slide, the figures upon which enable the artificer to make calculations in multiplication and division, besides many others which constantly occur in his practice.

Carpenter's Square

An instrument made of steel, one leg i of which is 24 in. long and 2 in. | wide, and the other 16 in. long and 1 1/2 in. wide; the legs being figured in inches, and parts of; inches. This instrument is used not only as a square and measuring-rule, but, with a plummet and line, to determine levels. The joiner's square has one leg of wood, and the other of steel without figures.

Carpentry

The work performed by carpenters, or the art of hewing, framing, and joining the timbers, and all the heavier parts of a building. Also a structure of framed timbers; as a roof, a floor, or an arch-centering.

Carriage

The diagonally notched plank which is placed in an oblique position for the support of the treads and risers of a flight of stairs.

Cassion

A large and strong chest, made water-tight, and used in the construction of the piers of a bridge, where the rapidity and depth of the river present a difficulty in building the foundation. The floor of a cassion is so constructed that the sides may be detached from it when desired. The bed of the river is levelled at the site of the proposed pier; the cassion is launched, and floated to the location, and sunk. The pier is then built therein as high as the level of the water; the sides of the cassion are then removed, the pier resting on the foundation prepared for it. The tonnage of each of the cassions used in the construction of Westminster Bridge, over the Thames, was equal to that of a forty-gun ship.

Casting

A term denoting the bending or twisting of a board or any piece of wood from its original state. It is synonymous with warping.

Catenary Curve

The curve formed by a chain or rope, of uniform density, hanging freely between two points of suspension. Galileo is supposed to have been its discoverer: and it is certain that he proposed it as the proper figure for an arch of equilibrium; supposing it, however, to be identical with the parabola. James Bernonilli. an eminent mathematician, born at Basil in 1654, investigated its nature; but its peculiar properties were afterwards demonstrated by John Bernouilli, his brother. Their opinion was adopted and advocated by Iluy-gens and Leibnitz.

Ceiling

The surface of a room opposite the floor.

Centre

A point which is equally distant from the extremities of a line, figure, or body: the middle point or place of any thing.

Centering

The temporary frame or woodwork whereon any arched work is constructed.

Chalk

A variety of carbonate of lime. Red chalk is an indurated or hardened ochre, and takes its name from its color. French chalk, used by tailors, is a soft magnesian mineral, of the nature of steatite, or soapstone.

Chamfer

A furrow, slope, or bevel. A beam or joist is said to be chamfered when the arris is so cut as to convert its original right angle into an obtuse angle, at the lines where the slope intersects with the plane of the other sides.

Cheeks

Two upright, similar, and corresponding parts of any timber-work; such as the studs at the sides of a door, window. etc.

Chip

A piece of wood, or other substance, separated from a body by any cutting instrument. As a verb, it signifies to separate into small pieces or chips by gradually hewing or cutting.

Chisel

A well-known instrument, made of iron, faced at the bevel, or cutting end, with steel. Those used for paring, being thin, are called paring-chisels .• those used for framing are heavier and thicker, being called firmer or framing chisels.