Also 6–7 cylindre, 7 cilinder, sillinder. [ad. L. cylindrus cylinder, roller, a. Gr. κύλινδρος roller, deriv. of κυλίνδ-ειν to roll. Cf. 16th c. F. cilindre, cylindre. There was an earlier form CHILINDRE (in sense 3) in ME. and OF.]
I. 1. Geom. A solid figure of which the two ends are equal and parallel circles, and the intervening curved surface is such as would be traced out by a straight line moving parallel to itself with its ends in the circumferences of these circles.
If the direction of this straight line be perpendicular to the planes of the circles, the figure is a right cylinder; if not, an oblique cylinder.
1570. Billingsley, Euclid, XI. Def. xviii. 318. A cylinder is a solide or bodely figure which is made, when one of the sides of a rectangle parallelogramme, abiding fixed, the parallelogramme is moued about.
1579–80. North, Plutarch (1676), 263. The proportion between the Cylinder … and the sphere or globe contained in the same.
1647. H. More, Insomn. Philos., ix. A duskish Cylindre through infinite space It did project.
1727. Swift, Gulliver, III. ii. 186. Cut our bread into cones, cylinders.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., II. 100. A cylinder is a solid body of the character of a prism, but its ends are circles.
b. In mod. Geom., the solid generated by a straight line moving always parallel to itself and describing any fixed curve (not necessarily a circle).
1877. B. Williamson, Int. Calc. (ed. 2), ix. § 168. When the base … is a closed curve of any form … the surface generated is called a cylinder. Ibid., ix. Ex. 12. The axis of a right circular cylinder.
2. Any body or object of cylindrical form (either solid or hollow); in quot. 1661 applied to a cylindrical jewel worn in the ear. Axial cylinder = axis-cylinder: see AXIS; renal or urinary cylinder = renal or urinary cast: see CAST 30 c.
1641. Hobbes, Lett., Wks. 1845, VII. 457. Such matter as the cylinder is made of.
a. 1661. Holyday, Juvenal, 21. VVed and be Mute. Thy Silence and his Fear With rich Cylinders then shall grace thine ear.
1791. Hamilton, Berthollet’s Dyeing, II. II. III. iii. 177. I poured the decoctions into glass cylinders.
1807. J. E. Smith, Phys. Bot., 35. The cylinder of bark was found lined with layers of new wood.
1879. Calderwood, Mind & Br., 44. The axial cylinder of each nerve being surrounded by medullary matter.
† 3. A kind of portable sun-dial; = CHILINDRE.
1593. T. Fale, Dialling, A iij b. The making of the Horologicall Cylindre.
4. a. A cylindrical or somewhat barrel-shaped stone, pierced longitudinally for suspension from the wrist, used as a seal by the Babylonians and Assyrians, and incised with figures, symbols, and cuneiform (or occasionally Aramaic) characters. b. A barrel-shaped, hollow object of baked clay, usually of considerable size, covered with cuneiform writing and buried under the foundations of Babylonian and Assyrian temples.
1851. Layard, Pop. Acc. Discov. Nineveh, Introd. A few cylinders and gems … from Assyria and Babylonia.
1857. Loftus, Chaldæa & Susiana, 130. This discovery at Múgeyer convinced him that the commemorative cylinders of the founders were always deposited at the corners of Babylonian edifices.
II. In Mechanics.
5. Applied more or less specifically to many cylindrical parts of machines, etc. (with reference either to the internal chamber or external surface).
e.g., The bore of a gun barrel, the part of a revolver that contains the chambers for the cartridges; the barrel of a pump, in which the piston works; the glass barrel of an electrical machine; a cylindrical revolving part in a loom, or a carding machine, etc.
1571. Digges, Pantom., I. xxx. K, Hauing respecte to the length of the peece, waighte of the Bullet … proportion of the concaue Cylinders.
1660. Boyle, New Exp. Phys.-Mech., Proem 13. The Pump consists of four parts, a hollow Cylindre, a Sucker, a handle … and a Valve.
1669. Sturmy, Mariner’s Mag., V. xii. 58. If the mouth of the Piece be grown wider then the rest of the Cylinder within by often shooting.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), Charged Cylinder … that part which receives the Charge of Powder and Shot … Vacant Cylinder, that part of the Hollow which remains empty, when the Gun is Charg’d.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, II. 392. Colt’s revolvers … If the hammer be lowered in the pin, the cylinder is prevented from revolving.
6. The cylindrical chamber in which the steam (or other fluid) acts upon the piston. By extension, applied to the corresponding chamber of rotary engines which is sometimes of an annular form.
1697. Papin, in Phil. Trans., XIX. 483. He proposes the … turning a small Surface of Water into Vapour, by Fire applied to the bottom of the Cylinder that contains it, which Vapour forces up the Plug in the Cylinder.
1751. Blake, in Phil. Trans., XLVII. 200. The best Proportions for Steam engine Cylinders.
1782. Specif. Watt’s Patent No. 1321. 3. The said piston is suspended by a rod … capable of sliding through a hole in the cover of the cylinder.
1830. J. Millington, Mech. Philos., 417. Newcomen’s engine was the first in which a truly bored cylinder with a well-fitting piston was employed.
1893. Engineer, LXXV. 574. That will depend on the total amount of work done in the cylinder by expansion.
7. a. Printing. The engraved hollow metal roller used in printing calico, etc. b. A similar roller used in letter-press printing for inking the type (now inking-roller), pressing the paper against the type, or carrying the type or printing surface.
1764. Specif. Fryer’s Patent No. 810. (Calico Printing) The invention is performed by means of engraved copper cylinders.
1790. Specif. Nicholson’s Patent No. 1748. 8. A is the printing cylinder covered with woollen cloth, and B is the inking cylinder with its distributing rollers.
1818. Specif. Cowper’s Patent No. 4194. 2. Conveying the … paper from one printing cylinder to another.
1858. Specif. Applegath’s Patent No. 372. Comparatively few printing rollers can be arranged round the cylinder carrying the type.
8. Watchmaking. The cylindrical recess on the verge of the balance in a horizontal escapement.
1765. Mudge, Thoughts on Improv. Watches (1772), 23. Making the cylinder of harder materials … would be an advantage.
1773. Hatton, Clock & Watch Work, 197. The tooth [of the balance wheel] ought to act at right angles to a line which would touch the cylinder.
1883. Sir E. Beckett, Clocks, etc. 320. In the best watches the cylinder is made of a ruby.
9. attrib. and Comb. † a. simple attrib. or as adj. Cylindrical. Obs.
1621–51. Burton, Anat. Mel., I. iii. III. 211. Concave and Cylinder glasses [= mirrors].
1669. Sturmy, Mariner’s Mag., I. B iv. How to measure a Cylinder Vessel.
b. Comb., as cylinder-plug, etc., cylinder-like adj.; cylinder-axis = axis-cylinder (see AXIS1); cylinder-bore, (a) sb. a gun of which the bore is cylindrical or of uniform diameter; so cylinder-bored; (b) vb. to make with a cylindrical bore; cylinder-cock, a cock at the end of the cylinder in a steam-engine to allow water of condensation to escape; cylinder-cover, the steam-tight lid at the end of a steam-cylinder; cylinder-desk, a writing-desk having a curved revolving top which can be pushed back or drawn forward and locked; cylinder-engine (see quot.); cylinder-epithelium, epithelium consisting of cylindrical cells; cylinder-escapement, a form of watch escapement (also called horizontal escapement), invented by Tompion in 1695, or later by Graham; cylinder-gauge, (a) a tool for giving the size of the opening in the cylinder of an escapement; (b) a gauge for testing the diameter of projectiles for rifled ordnance; also a carefully turned iron cylinder used to gauge the accuracy of the finished bore of a gun (Farrow, Mil. Dict., New York 1885); (c) a steam-gauge attached to the cylinder of an engine; cylinder-glass, sheet glass, made by blowing glass into the form of a cylinder which is then cut open and flattened; cylinder-paper-machine, a paper-making machine in which the pulp is taken up by a wirecloth-covered cylinder, instead of the flat wire-cloth used in the Fourdrinier machine; cylinder-press (U.S.), -printing-machine, a machine in which a cylinder is used either for carrying the type or giving the impression; cylinder-watch, a watch with a cylinder or horizontal escapement.
1882. Syd. Soc. Lex., *Cylinder-axis, Purkinje’s term for the central or axial part of a nerve tubule.
1881. Greener, Gun, 189. *Cylinder-bored guns.
1827. Farey, Steam Eng., 372. The *cylinder-cover must be lifted up whenever the piston is packed.
1859. Rankine, Steam Engine, 481. The cylinder cover has in it a stuffing-box for the passage of the piston rod.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Cylinder-engine, a paper-machine in which the pulp is taken up on a cylinder and delivered in a continuous sheet to the dryers.
1886. H. Spencer, in 19th Cent., May, 763. A mucous membrane of the kind covered by *cylinder-epithelium.
1807. T. Young, Nat. Philos., II. 695. *Cylinder ’scapement.
1893. Horological Jrnl., July, 165. Tompion undoubtedly patented the cylinder escapement in 1695.
1884. F. J. Britten, Watch & Clockm., 76. [A] *Cylinder Gauge … [is] a steel plate having two tapered slits.
1892. Treat. Ammunition (War Depmt.), 314, note. The cylinder gauge has the advantage of detecting an excentric stud, which could not be found by ring gauges.
1851. Rep. Juries of Exhibition, 526. It was not until the year 1832 that the manufacture of *cylinder or sheet glass was introduced into this country.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, III. 319/1. Provided it be of length *Cilender like.
1867. Printers’ Register, June, 138. Davis and Primrose, Manufacturers of … Single *Cylinder Machines.
1886. F. Britten, Watch & Clockm., 90. *Cylinder-plugs, plugs fitting into the top and bottom of the cylinder … at the extremities of which the pivots are formed.
1859. Printer (N. Y.), II. 30. Messrs. Hoe have long been pre-eminent in the manufacture of *cylinder presses.
1851. Rep. Juries of Exhibition, 198. *Cylinder printing machines are exhibited by Messrs. Napier.
1765. Mudge, Thoughts on Improv. Watches (1772), 22. The *cylinder watch … is a fine invention.
1885. D. Glasgow, Watch & Clock Making, 133. In the best Geneva-made cylinder watches the escape wheel is made small.
