machicolation 
Machicolations. Castle of Coucy, France ; I3th century. 
tion of medieval maehicolated construction, 
without openings. 
machicoulis (ma-shi-ko'le), n. [< F. machicou- 
lis, machecoulis, OF. maschecoulis (in ML. ma- 
cliicollamentum), prob. < masche, F. mdche, mash 
(melted matter) (ef. machefer, iron-dross, slag), 
+ coulis, a flowing: see mash* and cullis^.] 
Same as machicolation. 
machina (mak'i-na), re. [L. : see machine.] A 
machine : used only as a Latin word Deus ex 
machina. See machine, 5. Machina Electrica, an ob- 
solete constellation, formed by Bode in 1797 out of parts 
of the Whale, Sculptor, Fornax, and Phoenix, and Intended 
to represent an electrical machine. 
machinal (mak'i-nal), a. [< L. macMnalis, per- 
taining to machines, < machina, a machine: 
see machine.'] Pertaining to a machine or ma- 
chines. Bailey. 
machinate (mak'i-nat), i>. ; pret. and pp. machi- 
nated, ppr. machinating. [< L. machinatus, pp. 
of machinari (> OF. F. machiner, > E. machine: 
see machine, v.), contrive, plan, devise, plot, 
scheme, < machina, a machine, contrivance, de- 
vice, scheme : see machine."] I. trans. To plan, 
contrive, or form, as a plot or scheme: as, to 
machinate mischief. 
Such was the perfldiousness of our wicked and restless 
Countrymen at home, who, being often receiv'd into our 
Protection, ceas'd not however to machinate new Disturb- 
ances. Milton, Letters of State, June, 1658. 
II. intrans. To lay plots or schemes. 
Though that enemy shall not overthrow it, yet because 
it plots, and works, and machinates, and would overthrow 
it, this is a defect in that peace. Donne, Sermons, xii. 
machination (mak-i-na'shon), . [= OF. ma- 
chination, F. machination = Pr. machination = 
Sp. maquinacion = Pg. maquinacao = It. macchi- 
nazione, < L. machinatio(n-\ < machinari, con- 
trive: see machinate.'] 1. The act of machinat- 
ing, or of contriving a scheme for executing 
some purpose, particularly a forbidden or an 
evil purpose; underhand plotting or contri- 
vance. 2. That which is planned or con- 
trived; a plot; an artful design formed with 
deliberation ; especially, a hostile or treacher- 
ous scheme. 
machinator (mak'i-na-tor), . [= F. machina- 
teur = Sp. Pg. maqnindaor = It. macchinatore, 
< L. machinator, a contriver, inventor, < ma- 
chinari, contrive: see machinate.] One who 
machinates; one who schemes with evil de- 
signs. 
He hath become an active and earnest agitator, a mnr- 
murer and a machinator. Scott, Ivanhoe, xxxv. 
machine (ma-shen' ), . [= D. machine = G. ma- 
schine = Dan. maskine= Sw. masking F. machine 
= Sp. mdquina = Pg. maqvina, machina = It. 
macchina = Turk, makina, < L. machina, a ma- 
chine, engine, contrivance, device, stratagem, 
trick, < Or. piixavfj, a machine, engine, contri- 
vance, device ; of. //ifaof , means. Perhaps akin 
to AS.matian, 'E.malce: see maTce 1 . Of. mechan- 
ic, etc.] 1. An engine ; an instrument of force. 
With inward arms the dire machine [wooden horse] they 
load. Dryden, ^Eneid, ii. 25. 
2. In mech., in general, any instrument for the 
conversion of motion. Thus, a machine may be de- 
signed to change rapid motion into slow motion, as a crow- 
bar; or it may be intended to convert a reciprocating recti- 
linear motion into a uniform circular motion, etc. The 
lever the wedge, the wheel and axle, the pulley, the screw, 
and the inclined plane are termed the simple machine*. In 
practical mechanics the word has a restricted meaning: a 
single device, as a hammer, chisel, crowbar, or saw, or a 
very simple combination of moving parts, as tongs, shears, 
pincers, etc., for manual use, although comprised in the 
strict technical definition of machine, is always called a 
tool (which see) ; a device for applying or converting nat- 
ural molar motion, like that ol falling water, or of winds 
(as a water-wheel or windmill), or for converting molec- 
ular motion into molar motion (as a steam-engine, gas- 
engine, air-engine, or electric engine), is more generally, 
3560 
though not uniformly, called a motor. The distinction be- 
tween the words tool and machine becomes quite indefinite 
with increased complication of parts. Such machines as 
are used in shaping materials in the construction of the 
parts of other machines, and many of those which per- 
form work, such as sawing, boring, planing, riveting, etc., 
formerly done only by hand and still performed manually 
to a greater or less extent, are variously called machines, 
machine-tools, engine-tools, or simply tools, although their 
structure may involve much complexity ; the terms ma- 
chine-tool and engine-tool are more frequently employed, 
the latter being preferable as being more in accord with 
best usage. Machines receive general or special names 
from the work they perform or are designed to execute, 
either with reference to departments of the arts or of 
industry, as agricultural machines, hydraulic machines, 
wood-working machines, etc., or to their specific work, as 
planing-machines, sawing -machines, mowinff-machines, etc. 
This science will define a machine to be, not, as usual, an 
instrument by means of which we may change the direc- 
tion and intensity of a given force, but an instrument by 
means of which we may change the direction and velocity 
of a given motion. Ampere, tr. by Willis. 
3. A vehicle or conveyance, such as a coach, 
cab, gig, tricycle, bicycle, etc. [Great Brit- 
ain.] 
A pair of bootikins will set out to-morrow morning in 
the machine that goes from the Queen's Head in the Gray's 
Inn Lane. Walpole, Letters, IV. 12. (Dames.) 
He had taken a seat in the Portsmouth machine, and pro- 
posed to go to the Isle of Wight. 
Thackeray, Virginians, Ixii. 
4. A fire-engine. [Colloq., U. S.] 5. In the 
ancient theater, one of a number of contri- 
vances in use for indicating a change of scene, 
as a rotating prism with different conven- 
tional scenery painted on its three sides, or a 
device for expressing a descent to the infernal 
regions, as the " Charonian steps," for repre- 
senting the passage of a god through the air 
across the stage (whence the dictum dews ex 
machina, applied to the mock supernatural or 
providential), etc. Such machines were very 
numerous in the fully developed Greek theater, 
and were copied in the Eoman. 
Juno and Iris descend in different Machines: Juno in a 
Chariot drawn by Peacocks ; Iris on a Rainbow. 
Congreve, Seraele, ||. 1. 
6. A literary contrivance for the working out 
of a plot; a supernatural agency, or artificial 
action, introduced into a poem or tale; ma- 
chinery. [Archaic.] 
His [Milton's] design is the losing of our happiness ; . . . 
his heavenly machines are many, and his human persons 
are but two. Dryden, Orig. and Prog, of Satire. 
7. Any organization by which power not me- 
chanical is applied and made effective; the 
whole complex system by which any organiza- 
tion or institution is carried on: as, the vital 
machine; the machine of government. 
Thine evermore, most dear lady, whilst this machine is 
to him, HAMLET. Shak., Hamlet, ii. 2. 124. 
The human body, like all living bodies, is a machine, all 
the operations of which will, sooner or later, be explained 
on physical principles. Huxley, Lay Sermons, p. 389. 
8. A strict organization of the working mem- 
bers of a political party, which enables its man- 
agers, through the distribution 
of offices, careful local supervi- 
sion, and systematic correspon- 
dence, to maintain control of 
conventions and elections, and 
to secure a predominating in- 
fluence in the party for them- 
selves and their associates for 
their own ends; also, the body 
of managers of such an organ- 
ization. [TT. S.]-Atwood's ma- 
chine, an apparatus for illustrating 
uniformly accelerated motion, consist- 
ing of a pulley-wheel turning with very 
slight friction in a vertical plane and 
carrying a cord with equal weights sus- 
pended from ita ends. In the common 
experiment there is an excess of weight 
at one end of the cord, due to a plate 
which rests on the weight and is caught 
when the latter passes through a fixed 
ring ; the weight is set free from a state 
of rest at a measured position above this 
ring, so that the acceleration takes place 
through a known distance ; and the ve- 
locity per second after the removal of 
the excess of weight is observed to be 
proportional to the square root of the 
distance through which the accelera- 
tion takes place. The machine is named 
from its inventor, G eorge Atwood (1746- 
1807), an English mathematician. 
Bulldog machine, a combined sound- 
ing- and dredging-machine invented 
during the voyage of H. M. S. Bulldog 
in 1860, under the command of Sir Fran- 
cis Leopold M'Clintock. It is an adap- 
machine-gnn 
centrifugal. Duck machine, in Cornwall, a kind of ven- 
tilating-machinc on the same principle as the ordinary 
blowing-engine, furnished with a piston and valves, and 
usually worked by the pump- rod. Also called Hartz blower. 
Dynamo-electric machine. See electric machine, un- 
der electric. Effect of a machine. See effect Electric, 
funicular, geocyclic machine. See the adjectives. 
Extemporizing-machine. See p.rt ;<;/ ra-.--Holtz ma- 
chine. See electric machine, under electric. Hungarian, 
hydro-electric, infernal, etc., machine. See the ad- 
jectives. Logical machine, a machine which, being fed 
with premises, produces the necessary conclusions from 
them. The earliest instrument of this kind was the dem- 
onstrator of Charles, third Earl Stanhope ; the most per- 
fect is that of Professor Allan Marquand, which gives all 
inferences turning upon the logical relations of classes. 
The value of logical machines seems to lie in their showing 
how far reasoning is a mechanical process, and how far it 
calls for acts of observation. Calculating-machines are 
specialized logical machines. Reduced inertia of a 
machine, according to Rankine, the weight which, con- 
centrated at the driving-point, would have the same ener- 
gy as the machine itself. To run with the machine, 
to accompany a fire-engine to a fire, either as a member of 
the fire-company or as a hanger-on : a phrase used when 
the members of fire-companies (in large cities) were volun- 
teers, and service at fires was gratuitous. [U. S.] 
machine (ma-shen'), v.; pret. and pp. ma- 
chined, ppr. ' machining. [< OF. machiner, F. 
machiner = Pr. machinar = Sp. Pg. maqninar = 
It. macchinare, < L. machinari, ML. also machi- 
nare, contrive, plan, devise, etc., < L. machina, 
a machine, contrivance: see machine, n. Cf. 
machinate.] I. trans. If. To contrive. Pals- 
grave. (HalUweH.) 2. To apply machinery to; 
form or effect by the aid of machinery; espe- 
cially, to print or sew by means of a machine. 
This side then serves as a basis from which the body 
may be machined square and true. 
W. W. Greener, The Gun, p. 240. 
3. To furnish with the machinery of a plot. 
It is not, as a story, very cunningly machined. 
The Academy, June 1, 1889, p. 874. 
II. intrans. 1. To be employed upon or in 
machinery. 2. To act as or in the machinery 
of a drama; serve as the machine or effective 
agency in a literary plot. 
The stage with rushes or with leaves they strew'd ; 
No scenes in prospect, no machining goof. 
Dryden, tr. of Ovid's Art of Love, i. 120. 
machine-bolt (ma-shen'bolt), n. A bolt with a 
thread and a square or hexagonal head. E. H. 
Knight. 
machine-boy (ma-shen'boi), n. In English 
printing-offices, a boy who serves as helper to a 
machine-man. In the United States known as 
feeder or press-boy. 
machines! (mach-i-nel '),n. Same as manchineel. 
machine-gun (ma-sheu'gun), n. A gun which, 
by means of a variously contrived mechanism, 
delivers a continuous fire of projectiles. Such 
a gun may have a single barrel, or a series of barrels ar- 
ranged horizontally or about a central axis. Machine- 
guns may be divided into two classes : those firing small- 
arm ammunition (also called mitrailleuses), and those fir- 
ing shot and shell (called revolving cannon). The rapidity 
of fire of the most rapid machine-guns of the first class is 
about 1,000 shots a minute. (See Qatlinggun, under gunl.) 
V 
Maxim Field-pin, with bullet-proof shield. 
The Maxim gun is a single-barreled machine-gun invented 
by Hiram Maxim, an American. In it the force of recoil 
is utilized to load and prepare the next charge for firing, 
and a water-chamber surrounding the machinery keeps the 
parts cool. It is a very ingenious and efficient invention. 
The Lowell battery-gun has four barrels capable of being 
rotated by a lever, independently of the lock- and breech- 
mechanism. The flringis confined to one barrel atatime, 
until this becomes heated or disabled, when it may be 
rotated to one side in order to bring another barrel into 
action. One lock only is used. The Taylor machine-gun 
Atwood's Machine. 
tation of Sir John Ross's deep-sea clam, with the additi' 
of Brooke's principle of the disengaging weight. The chief 
credit of the invention is given to Mr. Steil, assistant engi- 
neer on board the Bulldog. Centrifugal machine. See 
Two-barreled Gardner Gun on Tripod. 
