1261

GLOSSARY.
If cheese Le to be made, a room is required for the cliecso-press, and another for drj'ing
and storing the cheeses.
Dais. (Fr.) The pUitform or raised floor at the iipp^^r end of a dining-hall, where the
high table stood ; also the seat with a canopy over it, for the chief gxiests who sat at
the high table.
Dam. See Coffer Dam.
Damp Course. In order to prevent the damp
rising np the walls from the soil on which
a house is built, a course of some impermeable material is laid on the foundation
walls a short distance (about a foot) above the level of the outside soil. This damp
course, as it is called, is formed of a layer of powdered charcoal mixed with pitch or
resin and powdered pitcoal ; or of two courses of slates set in cement ; of asphalte
;
or of the stoneware hollow tile manufactured for this purpose.
Dampness. A moisture generally attendant on buildings finished hastily on account of
the materials not being dry
;
or the walls not being made of good well-burnt bricks
;
or
with bad moitar; or the joints not flushed up, anil allowing: wet to come through.
Dancette. The chevron, or zigzag moulding, in Norman architecture. See Jig.
1381.
Day or Bay. Iq Gothic architecture, the compartment in windows formed by the tran-
soms or horizontal pieces and muUions or vertical pieces.
Dead Shore. A piece of timber worked up in brickwork to support a superincumbent
mass until the brickwork which is to carry it has set or become hard.
Dkafexing SotJND-BOARDixo. The pvgging used to prevent the passage of sound tlirough
wooden partitions. See Boarding.
Deal. (Sax. Delan, to divide.) Properly the small thickness of timber into which a piece
of any sort is cut up ; but the term is now, thouoih improperly, restricted in its signifi-
cation to the wood of the fir tree cut up into thicknesses in the countries whence deals
are imported, viz. Christiania, Dantzic, &c. Their usual thickness is three inches, and
tlieir width nine. They are purchased by the hundred, which contains 120 deals, be
their thickness what it may, reduced by calculation to a standard thickness of one inch
and a half and to a length of twelve feet. Whole deal is that which is one inch and a
quarter thick, and i.'/<Y deal is half that thickness. Clean deal refers to picked or
selected deal, which is always used for stair treads for good work. See Board.
Decagox. (Gr. Ae/ca, ten, and Toivia, an angle.) A geometrical figure liaving ten sides
and ten angles. If the sides and angles are all equal, the figure is a regular deaigon,
and capable of being inscribed in a circle.
Decastylb. See Coeonnade.
Decimal. (Lat.) A term applied to a system of arithmetic in which the scale of numbers
proceeds by tens.
Decimal Equivalents of Inches, Fket, and Yards
;
and of a Shilling.
Fractions of an Inch.
Dccim.ils of D
an Inch.
jcimals of
a Foot.
1 1-0000 0S333
15
9.375 07812
11
12
9165 07638
7
8750 07201
15
8125 06771
3
or
5
4
"^
8

7500 06250
12
7499 06219
u
6875 05729
5
8
6250 Oo'208
7
T2
5833 04860
5625 04688
1
5000 04166
7_
4375 03645
A.
4166 03472
3
3750 03125
^
1
3
3333
02777
10
3125 02604
lor|. 2500 02083
_3_
1875 01562
1
.
1666 01388
1
1250 OlOtl
1
12
0833 00694
1
IG

0625 00521
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Decimals of
a Foot.
0833
1666
2500
3333
4166
5000
5833
666
7500
8333
9166
1 0000
Decimals of
a Yard.
00277
0555
0833
nil
1389
1666
1944
2222
2500
2778
3055
3333
Decimals of a Shilling.
J
0416
1
0833
u
1-249
2
l(;6
'4 2082
H
'2500
M,
2916
4
.!:!33
n
I'.-.IO
5 41fi6
r,A
4583
u
OOliO
rf.
6i
7
'h
8
?i
!)
9i
10
lOJ
n
"i
12
s.
5416
5833
C250
ficr.e
7083
7500
7016
83."!3
8750
91 (i6
9583
1-0000