readiness 
The greater number of these tests are to detect recdi- 
ness, lamination, or looseness in the flbrous structure of 
the iron, these defects occurring more frequently in an- 
gle, T, and beam irons than in plates. 
Thearle, Naval Arch., 332. 
reeding (re'ding), . [< ME. redynge; verbal 
n. of reed 1 , v.] 1. Thatching. [Obsolete or 
prov. Eng.] 
Redynge of howses. Arundinacio. 
Prompt. Pan., p. 427. 
2. In arch., a series of small convex or beaded 
moldings designed for ornament ; also, the con- 
vex fluting or cabling characterizing some types 
of column. 
These [external walls of Wuswus at Wurka] were plas- 
tered and covered by an elaborate series of reedings and 
square sinkings, forming a beautiful and very appropriate 
mode of adorning the wall of a building that had no ex- 
ternal openings. J. Fergusson, Hist. Arch., I. 162. 
3. The milling on the edge of a coin. 4. In 
silk-weaving. See the quotation. 
Reeding and harnessing are subsidiary processes in put- 
ting the warp in proper shape on the loom. These consist 
in putting each warp thread through its proper slit in the 
reed and eyelet in the harness. 
Harper's Mag., LXXI. 256. 
reed-instrument (red'in"str<j-ment), n. A mu- 
sical instrument the tone of which is produced 
by the vibration of a reed; especially, an or- 
chestral instrument of the oboe or of the clari- 
net family. 
reed-knife (red'nlf), H. A long knife-shaped 
implement of metal for reaching and adjusting 
the tuning-wires of reed-pipes in a pipe-organ. 
Also called tuning-knife. 
reedless (red'les), a. [< reed 1 + -Jess."] Desti- 
tute of reeds. 
Youths tombed before their parents were, 
Whom foul Cocytus' reedleis banks enclose. May. 
reedling (red'ling), n. [< reed 1 + -ling 1 ."] The 
bearded tit, Panurits or Calamophilus biarmicus, 
a common bird of Europe and Asia: so called 
from frequenting reeds. Also called reed-pheas- 
ant. 
reed-mace (red'mas), n. The cattail ; any plant 
of the genus TypTia, chiefly T. latifolia and J. 
angustifolia, the great and the lesser reed-mace, 
the two species known in England and North 
America. T. latifolia is the common plant. It is a tall, 
straight, erect aquatic with long flag-like leaves and long 
dense spikes of small flowers, brown when mature. The 
abundant down of the ripened spikes makes a poor ma- 
terial for stuffing pillows, etc. ; the leaves were formerly 
much used by coopers to prevent the joints of casks from 
leaking, and have been made into mats, chair-bottoms, 
etc. It is so named either directly from its reed-like 
character and the resemblance of its head to a mace 
(club), or (Prior, "Popular Names of British Plants ") from 
its being placed in the hands of Christ as a mace or scep- 
ter in pictures and in statues. Less properly called bvl- 
riish. In the United States known almost exclusively as 
cattail or cattail flag. 
reed-mote (red'mot), n. Same as fescue. 1. 
Salliwell. [Prov. Eng.] 
reed-moth (red'm6th), . A British moth, Ma- 
crogastcr arundiiiis. 
reed-motion (red'mo'shon), w. In weaving, the 
mechanism which, in power-looms, moves the 
batten, carrying the reed for beating up the weft 
between the threads of the warp. The term has 
also been inappropriately applied to a "stop-motion" 
whereby, when the shuttle is trapped in its passage 
through the warp, the movement of the batten is stopped, 
to prevent breaking warp-threads by the impact of the 
reed against the shuttle. See stop-motion. 
reed-organ (red'6r"gan), n. A musical instru- 
ment consisting essentially of one or more grad- 
uated sets of small free reeds of metal, which 
are sounded by streams of air set in motion by 
a bellows, and controlled from a keyboard like 
that of the pianoforte. The two principal varieties 
are the harmonium, which is common in Europe, and the 
so-called Ainerican organ, the chief essential difference 
between which is that the former is sounded by a com- 
pression-bellows driving the air outward through the 
reeds, and the latter by a suction bellows drawing it in- 
ward through them. The tone of the harmonium is usu- 
ally keener and more nasal than that of the American 
organ. The apparatus for compressing or exhausting the 
air, and for distributing the current among the various 
sets of reeds and among the channels belonging to the 
various digitals of the keyboard, is not essentially differ- 
ent from that of a pipe-organ, though on a much smaller 
scale. (See organ*.) The bellows, however, is usually 
operated by means of alternating treadles. The keyboard 
is exactly similar to that of the pipe-organ or the piano- 
forte, and has a compass of about four or five octaves. 
The tone-producing apparatus consists of one or more sets 
of small brass vibrators or reeds (see illustration) ; the 
pitch of the tone depends on the size of their vibratile 
tongues, and its quality on their proportions and on the 
character of the resonating cavities with which they are 
connected. Each set of vibrators constitutes a stop, the 
use of which is controlled by a stop-knob. The possible 
variety of qualities is rather limited. The treadles operate 
feeders, which are connected with a general bellows, so 
that the current of air may be maintained at a constant 
o028 
tension ; but in the harmonium the waste-valve of the 
bellows may be closed by drawing a stop-knob called the ex- 
pression-si oj>, so that the force of the tones may be directly 
varied by the rapidity of the treadling. In the American 
organ the force of the tones is varied by a lever, operated 
by the player's knee, which opens or closes a shutter in 
the box inclosing the vibrators. The harmonium some- 
times has a mechanism called the percussion, providing a 
little hammer to strike the tongueof each reed as its digi- 
tal is depressed, thus setting it into vibration very prompt- 
Reed-organ. 
(T, case ; 6, stop-rail and stops ; r, music-rack ; d, keyboard ; e, one 
of the pedals or treadles ; /, one of the pedal- or treadle-straps which 
operate the bellows / h, pedal-spring which lifts the pedal after the 
latter has been relieved from the pressure of the foot ; /, bellows- 
spring which opens the bellows after compression ; / and k, upper 
and lower boards of wind-chest, inclosing space into which air is deliv- 
ered from the bellows: J , reed-board, which supports the reeds in 
slots formed therein (see cut under reed 1 ); k', k, swells (see cut 
lielow) ; /, reed-valve; m. valve-spring which closes the valve after 
the latter is opened by push-pin shown in the cut below. There is 
one of these valves for each key. admitting wind to one or more 
reeds of a set or such sets of reeds as are allowed to act by the stops 
pulled out. and of a particular tone corresponding with the key ; 
, stop-arm ; o, key-frame. 
ly. A tremulant Is often Introduced, consisting of a re- 
volving fan, by which the current of air is made to oscil- 
late slightly. More than one manual keyboard and a pedal 
keyboard, with separate stops for each, as in the pipe- 
organ, occur in large instruments. Occasionally a set of 
pipes is also added. Various devices for sustaining tones 
Stop-action of Reed-organ. 
6, stop-rail ; *', stop-knob ; *", stop-shank ; ft, stop-arm ; ', rock- 
lever, connected at n" to the lever r, the latter being pivoted to a 
rail at s. A downwardly projecting ann engages the crank of an- 
other rock-lever /. connecting with and actuating the stop-valve u ; 
*, k. swells ; /. reed-valve opened by the push-pin v, and closed by 
the spring m. 
in the bass after the fingers have left the digitals, or for 
emphasizing the treble, are sometimes introduced. Piano- 
fortes are made with a harmonium attached (sometimes 
called an eeolian attachment). The reed-organ has become 
one of the commonest of musical instruments. Its popu- 
larity rests upon its capacity for concerted music, like the 
pianoforte and pipe-organ, combined with simplicity, 
portability, cheapness, and stability of intonation. Ar- 
tistically regarded, its tone is apt to be either weak and 
negative or harsh and unsympathetic. A variety of re- 
cent invention, the vocalion, has a remarkably powerful 
and mellow tone. 
reed-palm (red'piim), n. A ratan-palm ; a palm 
of the genus Calamus. 
reed-pheasant (red'fez"ant), n. The bearded 
titmouse or reedling, Panurus biarmicus: so 
called in allusion to the long tail. Also called 
simply pheasant. [Norfolk, Eng.] 
reed-pipe (red'pip), . In organ-buiMing, a pipe 
whose tone is produced by the vibration of a 
reed or tongue : opposed to flue-pipe. Such pipes 
consist of a foot or mouthpiece containing the reed, and a 
tubular body furnishing a column of air for sympathetic 
vibration. The term reed is applied to both the vibratile 
tongue and the mechanism immediately surrounding it. 
reef 
In the latter sense, a reed consists of a metal tube connect- 
ing the foot and the body of the pipe ; at its lower end is 
an oblong opening or eschallot, over or in which is flxed 
the brass tongue or reed proper. The effective length of 
the tongue is controlled by a movable spring or tuniny- 
wire, the head of which projects outside the pipe-foot. 
The pitch of the tone depends primal ily upon the vibrat- 
ing length of the tongue, but is modified by the length of 
the air-column in the body of the pipe. A reed-pipe, there- 
fore, is tuned botli on the reed and on the top of the pipe. 
The quality of the tone depends somewhat on the form of 
the tongue, but chiefly on that of the body as a whole. 
The force of the tone depends on the pressure of the air- 
current, on the size of the inlet to the foot, and on the 
exact adjustment of the tongue to the eschallot. Most 
reed-pipes have striking reeds, but free reeds are occa- 
sionally used. A set of reed-pipes is called a reed ttop. 
reed-pit (red'pit), n. [ME. reedepytte; < reed 1 
+ nit 1 .] A fen. Prompt. Pun. (Halliwetl.) 
reed-plane (red'plan),. In joinery, a concave- 
soled plane used in making beads. 
reed-sparrow (red'spar"6), . Same as reed- 
bun ting. [Local, Eng.] 
reed-Stop (red'stop), n. In organ-building, a set 
or register of reed-pipes the use of which is con- 
trolled by a single stop-knob: opposed to flue- 
stop. Each partial organ usually has one or more such 
stops, though they are less invariable in the pedal organ 
than in the others. They are generally intended to imitate 
some orchestral instrument, as the trumpet (usually placed 
in the great organ), the oboe (usually in the swell organ), 
the clarinet (usually in the choir organ), the trombone 
(usually in the pedal organ), the cornopean, the clarion, the 
contrajagotto, etc. They may be of eight-feet, four-feet, 
orsiiteen-feettone. (Seeori/oni.) Reed-slops are specially 
valuable because of their powerful, incisive, and individual 
quality, which is suited both for solo effects and for the 
enrichment of all kinds of combinations. The most pecu- 
liar reed-stop is the vox humana. A reed-stop is often 
called simply a reed. 
reed-thrush (red'thrush), . The greater reed- 
warbler, Acrocephalus titrdoides. 
Specimens of the . . . reed-thrush, to use its oldest Eng- 
lish name. 
YarreU, Brit. Birds (4th ed.), I. 365. (Encyc. Diet.) 
reed-tussock (red'tus"ok), . A British moth, 
Orgyia csenosa. See tussock. 
reed-wainscot (red'wan"skot), . A British 
moth, Xonagria eannse. 
reed-warbler (red' war"bler), n. One of a group 
of Old World sylviine birds, constituting the ge- 
nus Aerocephalus. The species to which the name 
specially applies is A. streperus or A. arundinaceus, also 
called Calamoherpe or Salicaria arundinacea. Another 
species, A. turdoides, is known as the greater reed-zcarUer, 
reed-thrush, and reed-uren. 
reed-work (red'werk), n. In organ-building, 
the reed-stops of an organ, or of a partial organ, 
taken collectively: opposed to flue-work. 
reed-wren (red'ren), n. 1. The greater reed- 
warbler. 2. An American wren of the family 
Troglodytidif and genus Thryotlioms, as the 
great Carolina wren, T. carolincnsis, or Bewick's 
wren, T. bewicki. There are many species, chiefly of 
the subtropical parts of America, the two named being 
the only ones which inhabit much of the United States. 
reedy (re'di),. [<reed 1 + -y 1 . Cf.AS.itreodiht, 
reedy.] 1. Abounding with reeds. 
Ye heathy wastes, immix'd with reedy fens. 
Burns, Elegy on Miss Burnet. 
2. Consisting of or resembling a reed. 
With the tip of her reedy wand 
Making the sign of the cross. 
Longfellow, Blind Girl of Castel Cullle, 1. 
3. Noting a tone like that produced from a 
reed-instrument. Such tones are usually some- 
what nasal, and are often thin and cutting. 
The blessed little creature answered me in a voiceof such 
heavenly sweetness, with that reedy thrill in it which you 
have heard in the thrush's even-song, that I hear it at this 
moment. O. W. Holmes, Autocrat, far. 
4. Noting a quality of iron in which bars or 
plates of it have the nature of masses of rods 
imperfectly welded together. 
reef 1 (ref), . [Formerly riff; < D. rif= MLG. 
rif, ref, LG. riff, re/ (> G. riff), a reef, = Icel. 
rif = Dan. rev, a reef, sand-bank ; akin to Icel. 
rif a, a fissure, rift, rent, = Sw. rcfva, a strip, 
cleft, gap; Sw. ref eel, a sand-bank, = Dan. 
revle, a sand-bank, bar, shoal, a strip of land, a 
lath; prob. from the verb, IceK rif a, etc., rive, 
split: see rice 1 . Cf. rift 1 ."] 1. A low, narrow 
ridge of rocks, rising ordinarily but a few feet 
above the water. A reef passes by increase of size 
into an island. The word is especially used with refer- 
ence to those low islands which are formed of coralline 
debris. See atoll, and coral reef, below. 
Atolls have been formed during the sinking of the land 
by the upward growth of the reefs which primarily fringed 
the shores of ordinary islands. 
Darwin, Coral Reefs, p. 165. 
The league-long roller thundering on the reef. 
Tennyson, Enoch Arden. 
2. Any extensive elevation of the bottom of 
thesea; ashoal; abank: so called by fishermen. 
