MECHANICAL TERMS. Words, com pound words and short phrases, having definite meanings other than those of ordinary usage and specifically applicable to the use of tools and other mechanical appliances; to the con struction and operation of machines, and to the methods employed and the manipulations re quired in the working and manufacture of the various kinds of materials used and the articles employed for engineering, structural and other industrial purposes.
A great many of these terms have been in use from the very beginning of the present period of industrial and manufacturing de velopment, and are satisfactorily employed at the present time according to their original significance; but the creative mechanical effort of the last 40 years has either developed or produced so great a variety of mechanical dr vices and machines that the mechanical ter minology has been expanded to include a much greater number of terms, which are more or less familiar to every one excepting those by whom they are habitually used in the execution of the particular line of work to which they are applicable.
Furthermore, the specializing, methods of modem manufacturing systems, involving the restricted use of special terms, has not only tended to develop a class of one-sided work men who are unquestionably skilful in their special lines of work and deplorably poor if not absolutely deficient in all other lines ; but, the use of such methods has tended to increase the ever-widening gulf which separates any one class of workmen from the rest, by eliminating the necessity of a mutual knowledge of the special terms used in allied processes, by the special classes of workmen employed therein.
At the present time the number of mechan ical terms amounts to several thoirt2nds. Eliminating those of a more or less fanciful character, and also those employed in individ ual shops, the terms having definite meanings capable of universal or wide application prob ably exceed 12,000 in number, the great major ity of which are employed in the metal manu facturing and metal working industries.
A superficial examination of this terminol ogy conveys the impression that a definite classification of the various terms would be either impossible or quite difficult, hut a closer inspection shows that they may be very con veniently divided into several general classes according to the character of the work, ma chines and structures to which they are ap plicable, as follows: (1) Terms applicable to the processes and methods employed in the pro duction of raw materials and rough work, and in the preparation of rough work for subse quent finishing operations; (2) terms applicable to the methods, processes and machines em ployed in the working of suitably prepared raw material into the form of simple articles, into the parts of complex machines and into struc tural shapes in general; (3) terms employed in the work connected with the preliminary and final erection of machines, engines and struc tures; (4) terms used for the purpose of de scribing special forms of mechanical appliances and mechanical movements according to their field of application; (5) terms employed in operating the various classes of engines and machines; (6) general terms employed in con nection with the execution of mechanical and structural engineering work; and (7) terms employed in connection with the use of the tools and appliances, and the application of the various methods and processes, in the reproduc tive arts.
In considering the matter of the application of technical terminology it is well to prescribe marked lines of demarcation between the terms employed in connection with the different kinds of work, as for example — between the terms applicable to mechanical work and those em ployed in connection with electrical work. As a rule, the distinction is quite clear, but when the terms are used for the purpose of describ ing appliances, devices and apparatus the line of demarcation becomes somewhat indistinct, and the precise meanings of the terms require careful consideration.