GIRASOL 



3536 



GIRDLE 



parisiennes (1843). She was also 

 the author of several romances and 

 plays. As a politician fimile de 

 Girardin first supported the conser- 

 vatives, but later became a repub- 

 lican. He also wrote some indiffer- 

 ent plays and a novel, fimile, 1827. 

 He died at Paris, April 27, 1881. 



Girasol (Ital. girasole, from 

 girare, to turn, sole, sun). Gem 

 which reflects bright red or yellow 

 light apparently coming from its 

 interior. The most remarkable 

 form is the fire opal, which gives 

 bright hyacinth, yellow, or fire- 

 red reflections ; the finest examples 

 have been found at Zimapan, 

 Mexico, and in the Faroe Islands. 

 A sapphire, presenting a radiate 

 flamboyant interior, and known as 

 star sapphire or asteriated sap- 

 phire, found in India, has also the 

 property of a girasol. At one time 

 girasols were highly esteemed, but 

 they can be imitated artificially 

 with facility. See Opal. 



Giraud, ALBERT (b. 1860). Bel- 

 gian poet. Born and educated at 

 Louvain, he was prominent in the 

 renaissance of Belgian poetry 

 headed by Emile Verhaeren. His 

 contributions to La Jeune Bel- 

 gique, from its beginning in 1881, 

 marked him as one of the most 

 promising of the young poets. In 

 1894 he succeeded Iwan Gilkin 

 (q.v.) in the editorship of that re- 

 view. The delicacy of his technique 

 was well displayed in Pierrot 

 Lunaire, 1884, and Pierrot Nar- 

 cisse, 1891, its richness and 

 strength in Hors du Siecle, 1888- 

 94. Giraud was profoundly in- 

 fluenced by the work of Charles 

 Baudelaire. His most noteworthy 

 later volumes are La Guirlande 

 des Dieux, 1910, and La Frise 

 empourpree, 1912. 



Girder. Beam, supported at 

 each end and carrying a load be- 

 tween its supports. 



Steel girders consist essentially 

 of top and bottom flanges or booms 

 which resist the horizontal com- 

 ponents of the bending stress, and 

 webs perpendicular to and uniting 

 the flanges, which resist the ver- 

 tical shearing stresses. Compound 

 girders comprise more than one 

 web. Steel joists are rolled with 

 web and flanges in one piece with- 

 out a joint. In plate girders the 

 webs consist of plates secured to 

 the flanges, usually by angles anil 

 rivets. 



In a triangulated or lattice 

 girder, diagonal and frequently 

 vertical bracing is introduced in- 

 stead of a plate web. Subject to 

 the amount and nature of the load, 

 steel joists are employed for spans 

 up to 40 ft, plate girders for spans 

 up to 70, and even 100 ft., and tri- 

 angulated girders for spans of from 



20 ft. upwards. Cast iron and 

 wrought iron have been almost 

 superseded by steel for girder 

 work; the former because of its 

 low tensile resistance, the latter 

 owing to its greater cost and in- 

 ferior strength. 



Wind girders resist wind pres- 

 sure on structures. A continuous 

 girder has three or more supports. 

 Cantilever girders have one or both 

 ends projecting beyond their sup- 

 port, and are loaded on the pro- 

 jecting portions. Reinforced con- 

 crete girders are a combination 

 of concrete and steel bars in which 

 the steel is disposed to resist 

 the tensile stresses. See Bridge ; 

 Engineering; Steel. 



Girdle. Belt worn round the 

 waist to draw in loose outer gar- 

 ments, to keep up breeches or pet- 

 ticoats, or to carry weapons or 

 other articles in constant employ- 



ment. From these primitive uses 

 an article of apparel developed that 

 lent itself to rich decoration by 

 armourer, broiderer, and gold- 

 smith, and led to the formation of 

 a distinct craft in the Girdlers' 

 .Company (q.v.). 



The use of the girdle as an 

 obvious convenience for carrying 

 sword or dagger is very ancient. 

 Cingulum deponere, to lay down the 

 belt, was the Roman phrase for 

 leaving military service ; and in the 

 days of chivalry his girdle was an 

 elaborate part of the knight's 

 equipment, heavily bossed and fas- 

 tened with enamelled or jewelled 

 buckles. In the 15th and 16th 

 centuries civilian extravagance 

 brought the girdle within the pur- 

 view of the sumptuary laws. After 

 the 16th century it gradually dis- 

 appeared and now only survives 

 in a few distinctively national 



Girder. 1. Rolled steel girder or I beam. 2. Part of simple lattice girder. 



3. Plate and box girder. 4. Bowstring girder. 5. Arched or hog-back plate 



girder, much used in railway construction. 6. Trussed I beam, employed in 



Pullman and other railway passenger cars 



