Also lewiss, louis, luis. [Of obscure origin; possibly f. Lewis or Louis as a surname or Christian name. A dial. form levis (Whitby Gloss., 1876) suggests connection with F. lever to raise; but the formation and the phonology are not easily explained on this hypothesis.] An iron contrivance for raising heavy blocks of stone. Also called LEWISSON.
It consists of three pieces arranged so as to form a dovetail, the outside pieces being fixed in a dovetail mortise by the insertion of the middle piece. The three pieces are then connected together by the pin of the clevis passing through them.
1743. W. Stukeley, in Bibl. Topogr. Brit. (1790), III. 387. At each extremity a stone of Arthur’s Oon to be suspended by the lewis in the hole of them.
1793. Smeaton, Edystone L., § 39. The instrument we now call the Lewis, is of an old date.
1816. Chron., in Ann. Reg., 93/2. [They] succeeded in boring the stone securing a lewiss and making fast a purchase for heaving it up.
1851. Illustr. Catal. Gt. Exhib., 317. Speedy louis, invented to expedite the hoisting of light stones in the erection of buildings.
1883. Stonemason, Jan. A chain attached to a pair of lewises fixed in the face of the rock, and worked by a crane.
b. attrib.: lewis-bolt, ‘a wedge-shaped bolt secured in its socket by lead, and used as a lewis in lifting’ (Knight, Dict. Mech., 1875); lewis-hole, the hole into which a lewis is fitted.
1740. Pineda, Sp. Dict., Impleóla … by us call’d a Luis hole.
1742. De Foe’s Tour Gt. Brit. (ed. 3), II. 254. The Lewis-holes are still left in many of the Stones.
1893. C. C. Hodges, in Reliquary, Jan., 13. The surrounding walls are almost, if not entirely, of Roman worked stone. Cramp holes and grooves, lewis holes, and broached tooling are everywhere visible.
