"B" Sheet

"B" size sheet

"B" size sheet

11" x 17".

Baccarat

Crystal glassware first made in 1818 in France. It is exceptionally beautiful and much sought after.

Bachelors chest

An eighteenth century English chest with a leaf under the top that opens to provide a desktop.

Back

To provide with a proper back; to finish the back of; especially, to trim or adjust the back or top of a rafter, joist, or the like, to the proper level of the whole tier. Often with a preposition, back priming

Backgammon table

A game table that was 44 inches square and had drawers on both ends. It dates as far back as the Middle Ages and was very popular in the eighteenth century.

Backing

Materials (fabrics or yarns) comprising the back of the carpet as opposed to the carpet pile or face. (a) Primary back : in tufting, a woven or nonwoven fabric in which the pile yarn is inserted by the tufting needles. Usually woven or nonwoven polypropylene woven jute for carpet and often cotton duck for scatter rugs. (b) Secondary back: fabric laminated to the back of carpet to reinforce and increase dimensional stability. Usually woven jute or woven or nonwoven polypropylene. Backings of woven carpets are the "construction yarns" comprising chain warp, stuffer warp, and shot or fill which are interwoven with the face yarn during carpet fabric formation. The material that forms the back of the carpet. It can be of wool, kraftcord, jute, cotton, rayon, polypropylene, or other material or a combination of materials depending on the dye and the quality of the carpet.

Backing out

Wide, shallow groove machined in back surface of members.

Back order

An order that is to be shipped sometime in the future.

Back painting

A procedure in which a glass pane is made transparent by gluing on print and painting or tinting the back.

Back priming

A coat of paint applied to the backside and edges of woodwork or exterior siding to prevent excessive absorption of moisture.

Back putty

After the glass has been face puttied, it is turned over and putty is run into any voids that may exist between the glass and the wood parts.

Back seams

Installation seams made with the carpet turned over or face down. Opposite of face seams made with the carpet face up. Both of course are on the back of the carpet.

Baffle

An opaque or translucent element that serves to shield a light source from direct view at certain angles, or serves to absorb unwanted light.

Baguette

A frame made with a bead molding. A small semicircular section molding.

Baker's rack

A stand used to exhibit art objects but was originally used to display bread. It was developed in France, has four shelves and is made of wrought iron.

Balance

Equal value of weight on the right and left sides of a room.

Balancing species

A species, of similar density, to achieve balance by equalizing the rate of moisture absorption or emission.

Balcony

A platform projecting from wall, door or a window sill and enclosed with a railing. It may be cantilevered or supported by brackets or columns.

Ballast

An auxiliary device consisting of induction windings wound around a metal core and sometimes includes a capacitor for power correction. It is used with fluorescent and HID lamps to provide the necessary starting voltage and to limit the current during operation.

Ball flower

A globular ornament frequently occurring in the hollow moldings of English Gothic architecture. It suggests a flower with three, or rarely four, petals nearly closed over an inner ball, and is repeated at short intervals to give points of light in the darkness of the hollow. Isolated four-part flowers are sometimes found in late Norman work.

Balloon framing

In the United States, a system of framing wooden buildings in which the corner posts and studs are continuous in one piece from sill to roof plate, the intermediate joists being carried by girts spiked to, or let into, the studs, the pieces being secured only by nailing, without the use of mortices and tenons, or the like.

Baluster

(Banister) One of a set of small pillars that supports a handrail (or balustrade) on a stairway. It is also used as decoration on furniture.

Balustrade

A short series of pillars or balusters terminated on top with a rail.

Bamboo furniture, imitation

Furniture turned out of beech and simulated to look like bamboo. It has been popular since the eighteenth century.

Banding

A piece of wood used for decoration on furniture of a different color or grain.

Banister-back chair

An open back chair with splats or banisters.

Banjo clock

An American pendulum clock from the nineteenth century in the shape of a banjo.

Banquette

(French) Bench. A bench or a built-in seat with upholstery.

Bar

An area, usually in the den or the family room, used to store liquor or other beverages. The bar's table surface can be used to serve condiments and cabinets would be helpful to keep things organized.

Barcelona chair

Classic chair made of chromium steel, popular with architects and upholstered with leather cushions. It was designed in 1929 by Mies van der Rohe. It is still popular.

Barometer

An instrument, popular in the eighteenth century, used to measure the pressure of the atmosphere.

Barrel chair

A deep concave backed chair that is upholstered.

Barrier-free design

A design for handicapped people used to make movement easier. An example of this kind of design would be a ramp in addition to stairs. These designs were implemented in 1971 due to the American National Standards Institution.

Barriers

Obstructions which interfere with the intended use of a space.

Bars, to fill a given opening

It may be either open or glazed.

Basaltes

Earthenware made by Josiah Wedgewood and copied by Spode.

Base block

A block of any material, generally with little or no ornament, forming the lowest member of a base, or itself fulfilling the functions of a base; specifically, a member sometimes applied to the foot of a door or window trim.

Base line

(A) In architectural drawings, the lowest horizontal line; the line which marks the base or bottom of the design; especially, in perspective, the trace of the picture plane on the ground plane. (B) In engineering and surveying, the first line determined upon, located, and measured as a base from which other lines, angles and distances are laid out or computed in surveying or plotting a piece of ground for a map or plan.

Base-shoe

Molding applied to a wall where it meets the floor in order to prevent damage.

Baseboard

A board skirting the lower edge of a wall.

Basement

(A) The lower part of the wall or walls of any building, especially when divided from the upper portions in an architectural way, as by a different material, a different and perhaps more solid architectural treatment, smaller and fewer windows, or the like. The basement may occupy only a small part of the whole height of the structure, or it may be even more than half of that height, as in some palaces of the Italian Renaissance, especially in northern Italy. It frequently happens that there is a double basement; that is to say, the basement proper, serving as a foil and a support to the more elaborate story or stories above, has itself a still more massive basement, probably without openings. (B) The story which comes, in the construction of the building, behind the piece of wall above described; in this sense, an abbreviation of the term "basement story." Originally, this story would have its floor almost exactly on a level with the street without, or with the courtyard; but in some buildings it is raised several steps above the street, and in others its floor is some distance below the street, as, notable, in city dwelling houses.

Bas-Relief

(A) A form of sculpture in which the figures project but slightly from the general background; low relief; as, for example, in the frieze of the Parthenon. (B) Any sculptured work thus executed in low relief. Bas-relief is especially used as an adjunct to architecture. The contrasting treatment of sculpture is high relief or alto-rilievo.

Bathroom

A room equipped with a toilet, shower and/or bathtub and a sink.

Batik

A fabric whose pattern is made by a resist wax printing process. A method of partially dyeing fabrics, covering a part of it with wax to repel the dye. The wax then is melted in boiling water

Batiste

A lightweight, frequently printed, sheer fabric.

Battersea enamel

A method of fusing into a metal base a painted or printed enameled design.

Batting

Stuffing for quilts or comforters made of cotton or wool.

Batwing distribution

Candlepower distribution which serves to reduce glare and ceiling reflections by having its maximum output in the 30° to the 60° zone from the vertical and with a candlepower at nadir (0°) being 65% or less than maximum candlepower. The shape is similar to a bat's wing. In fluorescent luminaries the batwing distribution is generally found only in the plane perpendicular to the lamps.

Baxter prints

A patented method of oil-color printing discovered by George Baxter in 1835. A block for each color is added.

Bay window

Originally, a large window, often of many parts, or subdivisions, and related to the modern Italian term, balcone.

BCF

Bulked continuous filament. Continuous strands of synthetic fiber formed into yarn bundles of a given number of filaments and texturized to increase bulk and cover. Texturizing changes the straight filaments into kinked or curled configurations.

Beading

Long fiber fuzz on fabrics. Caused by fiber snagging and inadequate anchorage.

Bead molding

Cylindrical molding with ornament resembling a string of beads. Common in Romanesque architecture.

Beakhead

Roll molding ornamented with a row of bird or animal heads. Common in Norman architecture.

Beam

A transverse horizontal timber used in roof construction. Horizontal timbers supporting floor or ceiling joists. A piece or member of which the transverse dimensions are small relative to its length; intended generally to be supported at two or more points to resist forces acting in a direction normal to its axis; but sometimes secured at one end only and sometimes acting as a member of a truss, in which case its purpose may be that of a strut, but always occupying a more or less horizontal position. By extension, however, the term is still used to designate any piece of a form intended primarily for the purpose described although put to another use

Beam

Large, horizontal cylinders or spools. Warp yarns are wound on beams and located on line in back of the weaving operation.

Beam

Light rays that are almost parallel.

Bearing

(A) That part of a lintel, beam, or similar horizontal weight- carrying member which rests upon a column, pier, or wall. Thus, it may be required that a beam of a certain size, and with a certain should span, have at each end an 8-inch bearing. (B) The whole length or span of a lintel, girder, or similar structure between the two points of support, that is the whole distance between the two bearings, in sense A. Of these two meanings, the second is the one most often seen in vinium al untechnical writing, but in specifications and the like the word is more commonly limited to the meaning A, and the word Span is used for the distance between the two points.

Beauvais

A French city that is popular for its tapestries, manufactured there since 1644. The tapastry was first sponsored by Louis XIV.

Bedding in putty

Glazing whereby a thin layer of putty or bedding compound is placed in the glass rabbet, the glass inserted and pressed onto the bed.

Bed molding

Molding that occurs between the corona and the frieze of an entablature.

Bedroom, master

The largest bedroom in a house or apartment.

Bed-sitting room

A combination bedroom and sitting room. It is a bedroom with a small living room area.

Bedspread

A decorative covering for a bed.

Beech

A hard wood, whitish to red-brown in color, which has a fine grain and is extemely dense.

mainly used for flooring.

Belleek

A lustrous porcelain named after the Irish city where it is made.

Bench mark

A fixed reference mark from which heights and levels are reconned in surveying or in laying out grounds and buildings. It is usually indicated by a notch or mark on a stone or stake firmly set at a given point of the plan. Bennington

Bent needles

(A) Needles in the tufting machine permanently pushed out of place causing a streak or grinning, running lengthwise because of off-standard tuft spacing across the width. (B) A needle in the Jacquard that is out of alignment with punched holes in pattern cards.

Bentwood furniture

A process of bending wet wood discovered by Michael Thonet. Elm is often used because of its malleablity.

Bergere

An armchair made in the Louis XV style with upholstered b sides, rounded back and a carved frame. This style is from the eighteenth century and is still popular.

Betty lamp

An eighteenth century oil lamp which can either hang from the ceiling or stand on the floor.

Bevel

(A) The inclination of one face to another, the divergence of one part or face from the plane of another, or from a perpendicular to that plane. Thus, if a strut is to be inclined to the plate on which it is to stand, its lower end must be bevelled in order to have an even, uniform bearing; door saddles usually have their edges bevelled; parts of masonry may be bevelled so as to form a splay about a window opening. (B) A face making a bevel in sense A. (C) An instrument consisting of two flat straight-edged legs (one or both being usually slotted) and a clamping screw by which they are set at a any desired angle. Used chiefly to lay off or measure a bevel, as defined above.

Bias

A cut on fabric across the warp edge to the selvage in a 45° degree angle.

Bibelot

(French) A small art object for decoration or personal use. According to comedian George Carlin this would fall under the general catagory, "stuff."

Bibliotheque

A bookcase cabinet with doors. French for library.

Bidet

A fixture in the bathroom that provides quick bathing of perineal areas after using the toilet.

Billet

Molding made up of several bands of raised cylinders or square pieces at regular intervals. Common in Romanesque architecture.

Bill of lading

A receipt for shipped goods to a certain destination.

Bill of materials

A list of parts represented in a drawing. In CAD this ability is usually automated.

Binder

Material, or a member, used to bind; specifically

Binder bar

A commercially available strip of metal or vinyl installed over a carpet edge for protection against unraveling and wear.

Binding

A commercially available cloth tape that is sewn over a carpet edge as a protection against unraveling and wear.

Birch

A hard wood used largely for expensive furniture. Although it doesn't have much color it has an extremely nice finish and can imitate walnut or mahogany.

Birdcage

A term used to describe the formation of either wooden or metal posts set into a tread in a spiral configuration as a newel post supporting a stair hand rail.

Birdcage support

A cage-like device that connects the top of a table to the base. The top then can be slanted when it is not in use.

Birdseye

A small central spot with wood fibers arranged around it so as to give the appearance of an eye.

Bird's-eye maple

A maple wood light brownish-yellow in color. It is decorated with dark brown circles.

Bisque

Fired but unglazed ceramics. It is also known as biscuit.

Blackamoor

A table base made from a candlestand or a figure of a dark-skinned person.

Blanc de Chine

Ming Dynasty porcelain made from white or translucent ivory.

Bleeding

Removal of color from carpet or other fabrics by a liquid, usually water, and subsequent stain- ing of areas adjacent to the wet area, or of other materials in contact with the wet area.

Blind

Having no windows; said of a building or part of a building which usually has them. Thus, a blind clerestory or a blind nave is one where the aisles rise so high on either side as to prevent the opening of windows above the aisle roofs.

Blind, rolling

(A) Any blind of partially flexible structure, as of small strips of bamboo or the like, arranged to roll up, usually at the top of a window. (B) Sometimes, by extension from rolling slat or slats, one in which the slats are not fixed but free to rotate each on its own axis, the whole set being held together by a strip secured to each by a loop of wire.

Blind stitching

Invisible stiching sewn onto fabric.

Blind, venetian

A blind of which the slats are made to open and close; especially, a hanging blind, of which the slats are held together by strips of webbing and controlled by cords so that they may be opened or closed at will, and so that they may be drawn together and packed closely above the window.

Blind window

A nonfunctional window applied to a wall for decorative purpose or fenestration.

Blister

A defect in the form of a slight projection of a surface detached from the body of the material, caused in manufacturing or by weather or other agencies, as the protuberance sometimes formed on the face of a casting, due to the presence of an air bubble just below the surface; or the loose, slightly raised portions of a coat of paint which have become detached from the material to which the paint has been applied, due to defective workmanship or other causes.

Block, concrete

Concrete blocks used in the construction of buildings that are hollow or solid.

Blockfront

A chest of Chippendale style furniture made from mahogany. The front had three vertical panels with the sides convex and the middle concave.

Block printing

A block of wood with engraving of picture of patterns. Also can be done with fabrics or wallpaper.