Note: The term machine is most commonly applied to such
pieces of mechanism as are used in the industrial arts,
for mechanically shaping, dressing, and combining
materials for various purposes, as in the manufacture
of cloth, etc. Where the effect is chemical, or other
than mechanical, the contrivance is usually denominated
an apparatus, not a machine; as, a bleaching apparatus.
Many large, powerful, or specially important pieces of
mechanism are called engines; as, a steam engine, fire
engine, graduating engine, etc. Although there is no
well-settled distinction between the terms engine and
machine among practical men, there is a tendency to
restrict the application of the former to contrivances
in which the operating part is not distinct from the
motor.
2. Any mechanical contrivance, as the wooden horse with which
the Greeks entered Troy; a coach; a bicycle. --Dryden.
--Southey. --Thackeray.
3. A person who acts mechanically or at will of another.
4. A combination of persons acting together for a common
purpose, with the agencies which they use; as, the social
machine.
The whole machine of government ought not to bear
upon the people with a weight so heavy and
oppressive. --Landor.
5. A political organization arranged and controlled by one or
more leaders for selfish, private or partisan ends.
[Political Cant]
6. Supernatural agency in a poem, or a superhuman being
introduced to perform some exploit. --Addison.
{Elementary machine}, a name sometimes given to one of the
simple mechanical powers. See under {Mechanical}.
{Infernal machine}. See under {Infernal}.
{Machine gun}.See under {Gun.}
{Machine screw}, a screw or bolt adapted for screwing into
metal, in distinction from one which is designed
especially to be screwed into wood.
{Machine shop}, a workshop where machines are made, or where
metal is shaped by cutting, filing, turning, etc.
{Machine tool}, a machine for cutting or shaping wood, metal,
etc., by means of a tool; especially, a machine, as a
lathe, planer, drilling machine, etc., designed for a more
or less general use in a machine shop, in distinction from
a machine for producing a special article as in
manufacturing.
{Machine twist}, silken thread especially adapted for use in
a sewing machine.
{Machine work}, work done by a machine, in contradistinction
to that done by hand labor.
{Molding, or Moulding}, {board}.
(a) See {Follow board}, under {Follow}, v. t.
(b) A board on which bread or pastry is kneaded and shaped.
{Molding, or Moulding}, {machine}.
(a) (Woodworking) A planing machine for making moldings. (
b ) (Founding) A machine to assist in making molds for
castings.
{Molding, or Moulding}, {mill}, a mill for shaping timber.
{Molding, or Moulding}, {sand} (Founding), a kind of sand
containing clay, used in making molds.
2. Capable of occasioning the phenomena of electricity; as,
an electric or electrical machine or substance.
3. Electrifying; thrilling; magnetic. ``Electric Pindar.''
--Mrs. Browning.
{Electric atmosphere}, or {Electric aura}. See under {Aura}.
{Electrical battery}. See {Battery}.
{Electrical brush}. See under {Brush}.
{Electric cable}. See {Telegraph cable}, under {Telegraph}.
{Electric candle}. See under {Candle}.
{Electric cat} (Zo["o]l.), one of three or more large species
of African catfish of the genus {Malapterurus} (esp. {M.
electricus} of the Nile). They have a large electrical
organ and are able to give powerful shocks; -- called also
{sheathfish}.
{Electric clock}. See under {Clock}, and see
{Electro-chronograph}.
{Electric current}, a current or stream of electricity
traversing a closed circuit formed of conducting
substances, or passing by means of conductors from one
body to another which is in a different electrical state.
{Electric, or Electrical}, {eel} (Zo["o]l.), a South American
eel-like fresh-water fish of the genus {Gymnotus} ({G.
electricus}), from two to five feet in length, capable of
giving a violent electric shock. See {Gymnotus}.
{Electrical fish} (Zo["o]l.), any fish which has an
electrical organ by means of which it can give an
electrical shock. The best known kinds are the torpedo,
the gymnotus, or electrical eel, and the electric cat. See
{Torpedo}, and {Gymnotus}.
{Electric fluid}, the supposed matter of electricity;
lightning.
{Electrical image} (Elec.), a collection of electrical points
regarded as forming, by an analogy with optical phenomena,
an image of certain other electrical points, and used in
the solution of electrical problems. --Sir W. Thomson.
{Electrical light}, the light produced by a current of
electricity which in passing through a resisting medium
heats it to incandescence or burns it. See under {Carbon}.
{Electric, or Electrical}, {machine}, an apparatus for
generating, collecting, or exciting, electricity, as by
friction.
{Electric motor}. See {Electro-motor}, 2.
{Electric osmose}. (Physics) See under {Osmose}.
{Electric pen}, a hand pen for making perforated stencils for
multiplying writings. It has a puncturing needle driven at
great speed by a very small magneto-electric engine on the
penhandle.
{Electric railway}, a railway in which the machinery for
moving the cars is driven by an electric current.
{Electric ray} (Zo["o]l.), the torpedo.
{Electric telegraph}. See {Telegraph}.