POINT 



straight across country. The word 

 is also used in the sense of an 

 important feature, outlook, etc.. 

 e.g. point of honour. 



Point. In music, a dot employed 

 in medieval notation and placed 

 either after a note or above the 

 staff, in order to affect the value of 

 certain notes. The principal dots 

 were known as points of (a) 

 augmentation ; (6) perfection ; 

 (c) alteration; (d) division. Point 

 was also an old term for a note. 



Pointe a Pitre. Town of 

 Guadeloupe, French West Indies. 

 The chief commercial centre of the 

 colony, it has a good harbour with 

 a trade in sugar, vanilla, and cacao. 

 The town was almost destroyed by 

 an earthquake in 1843, and by 

 Hre in 1871. Pop. 19,000. 



Pointer. Old breed of sporting 

 dog of Spanish origin, which in 

 its British type has been crossed 

 with the foxhound and the grey- 

 hound. It is characterised by the 

 habit of pointing, or stopping dead 

 and remaining rigid when it finds 

 game at close quarters. 



The pointer, which belongs to the 

 hound group, hunts by scent, but 

 follows the body-scent, not the 

 foot-scent, of the game, wherefore 

 it should carry its head high when 

 working, and not low as the fox- 

 hound does. A large specimen 

 stands about 24 ins. high at the 

 shoulder and weighs nearly 60 Ib 



Pointer. Prize-winning specimen of 

 the breed of sporting dogs 



In general appearance it is not 

 unlike a foxhound, but is always 

 parti-coloured, liver and white be- 

 ing the favourite combination. See 

 Dog, colour plate ; Kennel. 



Pointillism. In painting, the 

 representation of vibrating light 

 and atmosphere by means of pure 

 colours laid on in juxtaposed points 

 or dots. This technique was an off- 

 shoot of the Impressionist doctrine 

 of the division of tones, and was 

 adopted by Camille Pissarro (q.v.) 

 and others. See Nee-Impres- 

 sionism, 



Pointing. In music, the method 

 of marking the prose Psalms so as 

 to ensure correct accentuation and 

 unanimity in singing them to the 

 Anglican chant. At one time the 

 rendering seems to have been 

 empirical, and was probably not 

 unsatisfactory with singers con- 



Points. Crossings and points at York station, England. 

 A. Single junction. B. Diamond crossing. C. Single 

 slip. D. Doable slip. E. Cross-over road. F. Scissors 

 crossing. G. Special scissors crossing. Top, diagram 

 snowing disposition of rails for a single junction 



stantly rehearsing together, but 

 when it became more general to 

 chant the prose Psalms in place of 

 the metrical versions, it was 

 necessary to devise some way more 

 useful to the average choir. Many 

 attempts were made, but the 

 method now in vogue is based upon 

 the application to the words of the 

 bar-lines in the music, so that in 

 the mediation and the cadence, 

 the syllables may coincide with the 

 notes, all redundant syllables being 

 sung to the reciting note. 



Point Lace. Light embroidery 

 employing a foundation usually 

 of hexagonal net, and hand- 

 worked with the point of a needle, 

 whence its name. Seen under a 

 magnifying-glass the more solid 

 portions of the design are found to 

 consist of looped (not of twisted or 

 plaited) threads. By old custom 

 certain patterns of pillow lace (q.v.) 

 are also, though incorrectly, called 

 point, Bucks point and point 

 d'Angleterre, for example. See 

 Lace and colour plate. 



POINTS 



Points. Device 

 by means of which 

 a railway track 

 branches into two 

 or three separate 

 tracks.or by which 

 a train is enabled 

 to pass from one 

 track to another, 

 also known as 

 switches and turn- 

 outs. At a given 

 point in the track 

 the two outer rails 

 are laid so as to 

 diverge, one or 

 both of the rails 

 being curved out- 

 wards for the pur- 

 pose. From the 

 same point, in the 

 case of a single 

 turnout, an addi- 

 tional rail tapering 

 to a knife-edge and 

 known as a tongue 

 rail is laid on the 

 inside of each of 

 the main rails, one 

 being arranged 

 tangentially to one 

 outer rail and the 

 other tangentially 

 to the other outer 

 rail, so that these 

 tongue rails con- 

 verge to a crossing 

 point; they are 

 rigidly cross-con- 

 nected by bars or 

 rods, and rest 

 upon metal plates 

 called chairs. 



Two tongue rails 

 with their con- 

 nexions are known 

 as a switch and are connected by 

 rodding to switch levers in a signal 

 cabin or at the side of the track, by 

 means of which the knife-edge of one 

 may be drawn tightly against the 

 inner edge of one of the outer rails, 

 leaving a space between the other 

 knife-edge and the other outer rail 

 or vice versa. By this means the 

 knife-edge guides the wheel flanges 

 of railway vehicles on to one of the 

 tracks, the space on the opposite 

 side allowing the opposite wheel 

 flanges to pass. At the point 

 where the tongue rails, continued 

 as ordinary rails, would other- 

 wise cross, their ends are splayed 

 apart, and the pointed end of 

 two other rails spliced together 

 is inserted between them, leaving 

 a clear space for wheel flanges. 



The spliced rails in turn diverge 

 and, continued, form the two extra 

 rails required for two separate 

 tracks. The pointed end of the 

 spliced rails is called a frog, and, 

 with the splayed ends, constitutes 

 what is known as the crossing. 



