MECHANICS. (Gr. Mnxavn, machine.) That science in natural philosophy treating of forces and powers, and their action on bodies, either directly or by the intervention of machinery. The theory of mechanics is founded on an axiom or principle, called the law of inertia, namely, that a body must remain for ever in a state of rest, or in a state of uniform or rectilineal motion, if undisturbed by the action of an external cause. Theoretical mechanics consists, therefore, of two parts: - Statics, which treats of the equilibrium of forces; and dynamics, or the science of accelerating or retarding forces, and the actions they produce. (See Book II. Chap. I. Sect. 8.) When the bodies under consideration are in a fluid state, these equilibria become respectively hydrostatics and hydrodynamics.

MECHANICAL CARPENTRY.

That branch of carpentry which relates to the disposition of the timbers of a building in respect of their relative strength and the strains to which they are subjected. See Book II. Chap. I. Sect. 11.

MECHANICAL POWERS. See MACHINE.

MEDALLION.

A square, or, more properly, a circular table, on which are embossed figures, busts, and the like. MEDIEVAL ARCHITECTURE. The architecture of England and the Continent during the middle ages, including the Norman and early Gothic styles. MELSONBY. See ARCHITECTS, list of, 113.

MEMBER. (Lat.) Any part of an edifice or any moulding in a collection of mouldings, as of those in a cornice, capital, base, &c.

MENAGERIE. (Fr.) A building for the housing and preservation of rare and foreign animals. The ancient Romans of opulence usually had private menageries, a sort of small park attached to their villa, and in them various kinds of animals were placed. MENSURATION. (Lat.) The science which teaches the method of estimating the magnitudes of lines, superficies, and bodies. See Book. II. Chap. I. Sect. 7.; as applied to measuring and estimating buildings, see Book II. Chap. III. Sect. 14. MERCIER, DE. See ARCHITECTS, list of, 262.

MERIDIAN LINE. A line traced on the surface of the earth coinciding with the intersection of the meridian of the place with the sensible horizon. It is therefore a line which lies due north and south. In Italy we often find these lines in large churches, as at Santa Maria del Fiore at Florence, the Duomo at Bologna, &c. They are traced on brass rods let into the pavement of the church, and marked with the signs, and otherwise graduated. A hole in the roof permits the sun's rays to fall on them at his culmination, thus marking

MERLIANO. See ARCHITECTS, list of, 204.
MEROS. (Gr.)
order.

The plane face between the channels in the triglyphs of the Doric

MESAULE. (Gr.) Described by Vitruvius as itinera or passages; they were, however, smaller courts. Apollonius Rhodius, in describing the reception of the Argonauts at the palace of Eetes, conducts them first into the vestibule, then through the folding gates into the mesaula, which had thalami here and there, and a portico (abovσa) on every side. META. (Lat.) A mark or goal in the Roman circus to which the chariots, &c. ran. METAL. Gr. Μεταλλον.) A firm, heavy, and hard substance, opaque, fusible by fire, and concreting again when cold into a solid body such as it was before; generally malleable under the hammer, and of a bright glossy and glittering substance where newly cut or broken. The metals conduct electricity and heat, and have not been resolved into other forms of matter, so that they are regarded as simple or elementary substances. Modern chemists have carried the number of metals to forty-two, only seven whereof were known to the ancients; namely, 1. Gold, whose symbol is thus marked ; 2. Silver, ); 3. Iron, ; 4. Copper,; 5. Mercury, ; 6. Lead, ?; 7. Tin, 4. The metals of most use in building are treated of in Book II. Chap. II. Sections 5, 6, and 7. METATOME. (Gr. Mera, and Teuvw, I cut.) The space or interval between two dentels. METOCHE. (Probably from Merexai, I divide.) In ancient architecture a term used by Vitruvius to denote the interval or space between the dentals of the Ionic, or triglyphs of the Doric order. Baldus observes that in an ancient MS. copy of that author, the word metatome is used instead of metoche. This made Daviler suspect that the common text of Vitruvius is corrupt, and that the word should not be metoche but metatome, as it were section.

METOPA. (Gr. Mera, between, and Orŋ, a hole.) The square space in the frieze between the triglyphs of the Doric order: it is left either plane or decorated, according to the taste of the architect. In the most ancient examples of this order the metopa was left quite open, whereof notice has been taken at p. 57. in the body of the work. METRODORUS. See ARCHITECTS, list of, 52.

MEZZANINE. (Ital. Mezzano, middle.) A story of small height introduced between two higher ones.

MICHELOZZI. See ARCHITECTS, list of, 148.

MIDDLE POST. In a roof, the same as KING POST.

MIDDLE QUARTERS OF COLUMNS. A name given to the four quarters of a column divided by horizontal sections, forming angles of forty-five degrees on the plan.

MIDDLE RAIL. The rail of a door level with the hand, on which the lock is usually fixed. MILE. (Lat. Mille passuum, a thousand paces.) A measure of length in England equal to 1760 yards. The Roman pace was 5 feet; and a Roman foot being equal to 11-62 modern inches, it follows that the ancient Roman mile was equivalent to 1614 English yards, or very nearly eleven twelfths of an English statute mile. The measure of the English mile is incidentally defined by an act of parliament passed in the 35th of Elizabeth, restricting persons from erecting new buildings within three miles of London, in which act the mile is declared to be 8 furlongs of 40 perches each, and each perch equal to 16 feet.

MILK ROOM. See DAIRY.

MILLSTONE GRIT. A coarse grained quartzose sandstone. It is extracted from the group of strata which occur between the mountain limestone and the superincumbent coal formations.

MINARET. (Arab. Menarah, a lantern.) A slender lofty turret, rising by different stages or stories, surrounded by one or more projecting balconies, common in Mohammedan countries, being used by the priests for summoning (from the balconies) the people to prayers at stated periods of the day.

MINION. An iron ore which, mixed with a proper quantity of lime, makes an excellent

water cement.

MINSTER. A church to which an ecclesiastical fraternity has been or is attached. The name is applied occasionally to cathedrals, as in the case of York Minster.

MINUTE. (Lat.) A term given to the sixtieth part of the lower diameter of a column, being a subdivision used for measuring the minuter parts of an order.

MISCHIA. See SCAGLIOLA.

MITCHEL A name given by workmen to Purbeck stones of twenty-four by fifteen inches when squared for building.

MITER OF MITRE. See BEVEL.

MIXED ANGLE.

MIXED FIGURE.

An angle of which one side is a curve and the other a straight line.

One composed of straight lines and curves, being neither entirely the

sector nor the segment of a circle, nor the sector nor segment of an ellipsis, nor a parabola, nor an hyperbola.

MNESICLES. See ARCHITECTS, list of, 14.
MNESTHES. See ARCHITECTS, list of, 20.

Thus

MOAT. (Lat.) An excavated reservoir of water surrounding a house, castle, or town.
MODEL. (Lat.) An original or pattern proposed for any one to copy or imitate.
St. Paul's may be, though not strictly so, said to be built after the model of St. Peter's
at Rome.

The word is also used to signify an artificial pattern made of wood, stone, plaster, or other material, with all its parts and proportions, for the satisfaction of the proprietor, or for the guide of the artificers in the execution of any great work. In all great buildings, the only sure method of proceeding is to make a model in relievo, and not to trust entirely to drawings.

MODILLION. (Fr.) A projection under the corona of the richer orders resembling a bracket. In the Grecian Ionic there are no modillions, and they are seldom found in the Roman Ionic. Those in the frontispiece of Nero at Rome consist of two plain faces separated by a small cyma reversa, and crowned with an ovolo and bead. In the frieze of the fourth order of the Coliseum, the modillions are cut in the form of a cyma reversa. For further information on the subject the reader may refer to p. 797. in the body

of the work.

See MODULE.

MODULAR PROPORTION. That which is regulated by a module. MODULATION. (Lat.) The proportion of the different parts of an order. MODULE. (Lat.) A measure which may be taken at pleasure to regulate the proportions of an order, or the disposition of the whole building. The diameter or semi-diameter of the column at the bottom of the shaft has usually been selected by architects as their module; and this they subdivide into parts or minutes. Vignola has divided his module, which is a semi-diameter, into 12 parts for the Tuscan and Doric, and into 18 for the other orders. The module of Palladio, Cambray, Desgodetz, Le Clerc, and others, is divided into 30 parts or minutes in all the orders. Some have divided the whole height of the column into 20 parts for the Doric, 22 for the Ionic, 25 for the Corinthian, &c., one whereof is taken for the module by which the other parts are to be regulated.

There are two ways by which the measures or proportions of buildings may be determined. First, by a constant standard measure, which is commonly the diameter of the lower part of the column, termed a module, and subdivided into sixty parts called minutes. In the second there are no minutes, nor any certain or stated divisions of the module, but it is divided into as many parts as may be deemed requisite. Thus the height of the Attic base, which is half the module, is divided into three to obtain the height of the plinth, or into four for that of the greater torus, or into six for that of the lesser torus. Both these species of measurement have been used by ancient as well as modern architects, but the latter was that chiefly used by the ancients, and was preferred by Perrault. Vitruvius having lessened his module in the Doric order, which in the other orders is the diameter of the lower part of the column, and having reduced the great module to a mean one, which is a semi-diameter, Perrault reduces the module to a third part for a similar reason, namely, that of determining the different measurements without a fraction. Thus, in the Doric order, besides that the height of the base, as in the other orders, is determined by one of these mean modules, that same module furnishes the height of the capital, architrave, triglyphs, and metopa. But the smaller module obtained from a third of the diameter of the lower part of the column has uses considerably more extensive, inasmuch as by it the heights of pedestals, of columns, and entablatures in all the orders may be obtained without a fraction

MODULUS OF ELASTICITY. A term in relation to elastic bodies, which expresses the weight of themselves continued, which would draw them to a certain length without destroying their elastic power.

MOLE. (Sax.) A pier of stone for the shelter of ships from the action of the waves. Amongst the Romans the term was applied, as in the case of the mole of Adrian (castle of St. Angelo at Rome), to a kind of circular mausoleum.

MOMENTUM. (Lat.) The impetus, force, or quantity of motion in a moving body. word is sometimes used simply for the motion itself.

The

MONASTERY. A house for the reception of religious devotees, but more properly applied to one for the habitation of monks.

MONKEY. See FISTUCA.

MONOLITHAL. (Gr. Movos, one, Aidos, a stone.) A work consisting of a single stone; such works are found in many parts of the world.

MONOPTERAL. (Gr.) A species of temple of a round form, which had neither walls nor cella, but only a cupola sustained by columns. See TEMPLE.

MONOTRIGLYPH. (Gr.) A term applied to an intercolumniation in which only one tri

MONTEREAU, Dɛ. See ARCHITECTS, list of, 116.

MONUMENT. (Lat. Moneo.) A structure raised to perpetuate the memory of some eminent person, or to serve as a durable token of some extraordinary event. Monuments at first consisted of stones built over the graves of the dead, on which were engraved the name and frequently a description of the actions of the persons whose memory they are to record. Monuments were differently formed. Thus some are pyramids, others obelisks; in some cases a square stone, in others a circular column serves the purpose. MOORSTONE.

A species of granite found in Cornwall and some other parts of England, and very serviceable in the coarser parts of a building. Its colours are chiefly black and white, and it is very coarse. In some parts of Ireland immense beds of it are found. MORESQUE ARCHITECTURE. The style of building peculiar to the Moors and Arabs. See ARABIAN ARCHITECTURE, Book I. Chap. II. Sect. 10.

The word Moresque is also applied to a kind of painting in that style used by the Moors. It consists in many grotesque pieces and compartments, promiscuously, to appearance, put together, but without any perfect figure of man or animal. The style is sometimes called Arabesque. MORTAR. (Dutch, Morter.)

The calcareous cement used in building, compounded of burnt limestone and sand. See Book II. Chap. II. Sect. 10. MORTICE OF MORTISE. (Fr. Mortoise, probably from the Latin Mordeo, to bite.) In carpentry and joinery, a recessed cutting within the surface of a piece of timber, to receive a projecting piece called a tenon, left on the end of another piece of timber, in order to fix the two together at a given angle. The sides of the mortice are generally four planes at right angles to each other and to the surface, whence the excavation is made. MOSAIC. (It. Mosaico.) A mode of representing objects by the inlaying of small cubes of glass, stone, marble, shells, wood, &c. It was a species of work much in repute among the ancients, as may be gathered from the numerous remains of it. It is supposed to have originated in the east, and to have been brought from Phoenicia to Greece, and thence carried to Rome. The term Mosaic work is distinguished from marquetry by being only applied properly to works of stone, metal, or glass. The art continues to be practised in Italy at the present day with great success.

MOSQUE. (Turk. Moschet.) A Mohammedan temple or place of worship. The earliest Arabian mosques were decorated with ranges of a vast number of columns, often belonging originally to other buildings. Those of the Turks, on the other hand, are more distinguished for the size and elevation of their principal cupolas. Each mosque is provided with a minaret, and commonly with a fountain of water, with numerous basins for ablutions.

MOSTON. See ARCHITECTS, list of, 170.

MOULD. A term used to signify a pattern or contour by which any work is to be wrought. The glazier's moulds are of two sorts, one whereof is used for casting the lead into long rods or cames, fit for drawing through the vice in which the grooves are formed. This they sometimes call the ingot mould. The other is for moulding the small pieces of lead, a line thick and two lines broad, which are fastened to the iron bars of casements.

The mason's mould, also called caliber, is a piece of hard wood or iron, hollowed on the edge, answering to the contours of the mouldings or cornices to be formed. The ends or heading joints being formed as in a cornice by means of the mould, the intermediate parts are wrought down by straight-edges, or circular templets, as the work is straight or circular on the plan. When the intended surface is required to be very exact, a reverse mould is used, in order to prove the work, by applying the mould in a transverse direction of the arrises.

MOULDS, among plumbers, are the tables on which they cast their sheets of lead, and are simply called tables. They have others for casting pipes without soldering.

The moulds for foundery are described Book II. Chap. III. Sect. 11.

MOULDINGS. The ornamental contours or forms applied to the edges of the projecting or receding members of an order. The regular mouldings are the fillet, listel, or annulet; the astragal, or bead; the torus, the scotia, or trochilus; the echinus, ovolo, or quarterround; the cyma reversa, inverted cyma, or ogee; the cyma recta, the cavetto, or hollow, See p. 684.

Mouldings are divided into two classes - Grecian and Roman The first are formed by some conic section, as a portion of an ellipse or hyperbola, and sometimes even of a straight line in the form of a chamfer. The Roman mouldings are formed by arcs of circles, the same moulding having the same curvature throughout.

For Norman mouldings, see p. 174.

MOUTH, BIRD'S. See BIRD'S MOUTH.

MUEL, LE. See ARCHITECTS, list of, 254.

MULLION OF MUNNION. In pointed architecture, the vertical post or bar which divides a window into several lights.

MUNIMENT HOUSE. A strong, properly fire-proof, apartment in public or private buildings, for the keeping and preservation of evidences, charters, seals, &c., called muni

ments.

MURAL. (Lat.) Belonging to a wall. Thus a monumental tablet affixed to a wall is called a mural monument; an arch inserted into or attached to a wall is called a mural arch; and columns placed within or against a wall are called mural columns.

MUSEUM. (Gr. Movσelov.) A repository of natural, scientific, and literary curiosities, or of works of art. See Book III. Chap. III. Sect. 10.

MUSTIUS. See ARCHITECTs, list of, 45.

MUTILATED CORNICE, One that is broken or discontinued.

MUTILATION. (Lat.) The defacing or cutting away of any regular body. The word is applied to statues and buildings where any part is wanting. MUTIUS, C. See ARCHITECTS, list of, 31.

MUTULE (Lat.) A projecting ornament of the Doric cornice, which occupies the place of the modillion in the other order, and supposed to represent the ends of rafters. The mutule has always been assumed as an imitation of the end of a wooden rafter; hence, say the advocates for a timber type, they are properly represented with a declination towards the front of the coronas.

MYLNE. See ARCHITECTS, list of, 311.

N.

NAIL. (Sax. Nagel.) A small metal spike for fastening one piece of timber to another. The sorts of nails are very numerous. The principal are here enumerated. Back nails, whose shanks are flat so as to hold fast but not open the wood. Clamp nails, are for fastening clamps. Clasp nails, or brads, are those with flatted heads, so that they may clasp the wood. They also render the wood smooth, so as to admit of a plane going over it. The sorts of most common use in building are known by the names of ten-penny, twenty-penny and two-shilling nails. Clench nails are such as are used by boat and barge builders, sometimes with boves or nuts, but often without. They are made with clasp heads for fine work, or with the head beat flat on two sides. Clout nails, used for nailing clouts on axle-trees, are flat headed, and iron work is usually nailed on with them. Deck nails, for fastening decks in ships and floors nailed with planks. Dog or jobent nails, for fastening the hinges of doors, &c. Flat points are of two sorts, long and short; the former much used in shipping, and useful where it is necessary to hold fast and draw without requiring to be clenched; the latter are furnished with points to drive into hard wood. Lead nails, used for nailing lead, leather, and canvas to hard wood, are the same as clout nails dipped in lead or solder. Port nails, for nailing hinges to the ports of ships. Ribbing nails, used for fastening the ribbing to keep the ribs of ships in their place while the ship is building. Rose nails are drawn square in the shank. Rother nails, chiefly used for fastening rother irons to ships. Scupper nails, much in use for fastening leather and canvas to wood. Sharp nails, much used in the West Indies, and made with sharp points and flat shanks. Sheathing nails, for fastening sheathing boards to ships; their length is usually three times the thickness of the board. Square nails are of the same shape as sharp nails, chiefly used for hard wood. Brads are long and slender nails without heads, used for thin deal work to avoid splitting. To these may be added tucks, the smallest sort whereof serve to fasten paper to wood; the middling for medium work; and the larger size, which are much used by upholsterers. These are known by the name of white tacks, two-penny, three-penny, and four-penny tacks. See ADHESION. NAIL-HEADED MOULDING. One common in Norman buildings, and so called from being formed by a series of projections resembling the heads of nails or square knobs. p. 174.

See

NAKED. A term applied either to a column or wall to denote the face or plain surface from which the projections rise.

NAKED FLOORING. See p. 540.

NAKED OF A WALL. The remote face whence the projections take their rise. It is generally a plain surface, and when the plan is circular the naked is the surface of a cylinder with its axis perpendicular to the horizon.

NAOS OF NAVE. (Gr. Naos.) See CELL.

NATURAL BED OF A STONE. The surface from which the lamina were separated.

In all

masonry it is important to its duration that the lamina should be placed perpendicular to the face of the work, and parallel to the horizon, inasmuch as the connecting substance of these lamina is more friable than the lamina themselves, and therefore apt to scale off in large flakes, and thus induce a rapid decay of the work. NAUMACHIA, (Gr. from Naus, a ship, and Maxn, a battle.) In ancient architecture, a place for the show of mock sea engagements, little different from the circus and amphitheatre,