CAP, the cover of the end or head of Caps were not worn by the Romans for many ages. When either the rain or sun was troublesome the lappet of the gown was thrown over the head; and hence all the ancient statues appear bareheaded, excepting sometimes for a wreath or the like. The same usage prevailed among the Greeks, to whom at least during the Heroic Age, caps were unicnown. The sort of caps or covers of the head in use among the Romans on divers occasions were the pitra, pileus, cucullus, galerus and pallicdum, which are often confounded by ancient as well as modern writers. The general use of caps and hats is referred to in the year 1449. The first seen in Europe were used at the entry of Charles VII into Rouen. From that time they began to take the place of chaperons or hoods. When the cap was of velvet they called it mortier; when of wool simply bonnet. None but kings, princes and knights were allowed to use the mortier. The cap was the head dress of the clergy and graduates. Pasquin says that it was anciently a part of the hood worn by the people of the robe; the skirt,s whereof being cut off, as an encumbrance, left the round cap an easy, commodious cover for the head; which cap, being afterward assumed by the people, those of the gown changed it for a square one first invented by a Frenchman called Patrouillet. He adds, that the giving of the cap to the students in the university was to denote that they had acquired full liberty, and were no longer subject to the rod of their superiors, in imitation of the ancient Romans, who gave a peens to their slaves in the cere mony of making them free: whence the prov erb vocare servos ad pileum: hence, also, on medals, the cap is the symbol of Liberty, who is represented holding a cap in the right hand by the point.
Cap of Maintenance, one of the ornaments of state carried before the, sovereigns of Eng land on the occasion of their coronation. It is also applied to an ornament borne before the mayors of certain cities on state occasions, and to a device in heraldry.
In ship-building a cap is a square piece of timber having two holes cut through it,— one square, to fit on the squared or tenon head of the lower mast; the other round, to take the heel of the upper mast. Also a similar con trivance affixed to the end of the bowsprit, through a round hole in which the jib-boom is rigged; and a covering of metal or tarred can vas to protect the end of a rope from fraying.
In mining a mass of unproductive rock overlying valuable ore. In coal mining, the bluish halo of ignited gas which appears above and around the flame of a safety-lamp when a dangerous amount of fire-damp is present. In physical geography a similar mass, as of ice overlying the surface of a country; as, the ice cap of Greenland. The word is also used in carpentry, in book-binding, in machinery and in ornithology to denote coverings for protec tion. The term as used in military parlance is percussion cap, a small copper cup containing fulminating powder, used in a percussion lock to explode gunpowder.