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Spile Boards. Boards used in mines for shoring up passage-ways. 



Spiles or Spigots. Wooden pegs for casks containing fermenting 

 liquid. Usually made of American red or porous oak and 

 termed " Spile-pegs." 



Spindle Machine. A vertical moulding and shaping machine, 

 so called because the cutter spindle is visible for a greater 

 portion of its length than in. other machines. 



Spine. A trade-term, especially amongst ship-carpenters, for 

 the heart -wood of oak, as distinct from the sapwood. See 

 " Satin-wood " and " Heart-wood." 



Spinney or Spinny. A small thicket or grove with undergrowth ; 

 a clump of trees. 



Spiral. Implies a round or cylindrical substance, associated 

 with the sense of a twist. This is a form observable in 

 certain plants and the stems of forest trees. See " Spiral 

 Grain." In architecture it is an ancient form of staircase 

 twisting round a newel, the latter in modern instances being 

 deleted and its place taken by an open " well " or " well- 

 hole." See " Staircase." 



Spiral Grain. A rounded, twisted grain. This may often be 

 seen on the outside of a round bole of a tree, or on the crown 

 of a wainscot log or billet, possibly traceable on the outer 

 bark also. See " Spiral." 



Splay. A large chamfer. 



Splice and Spliced. Refers largely to wood, beams, etc., joined 

 or married in lengths, instance " tie-beams " or " principal 

 beams " in roofs of abnormal span, " crane-beams," etc. ; in 

 a lesser but more popular degree splicing is pursued in fixing 

 handles to " cricket bats," where the art is brought to great 

 perfection. 



Splint and Splinter. (1 ) To split or rend wood into long thin 

 pieces ; (2) a piece of wood split off, or broken away from 

 a saw, or wrought into serviceable form as a surgical appli- 

 ance. In the instance of a tree struck by lightning the 

 pieces may be " splinters " or " shivers," the latter remini- 

 scent of the sailor's term, " Shiver my timbers." 



Split and Splitter, as Lath-splitter. See "Rive and River." 



Splits. Ordinary pit-props split in the middle. By splits and 

 back is meant ordinary splits from which a thin slab has 

 been sawn off the back, thus being an intermediary between 

 sleepers and splits. 



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