Beam \Beam\ (b[=e]m), n. [AS. be['a]m beam, post, tree, ray of light; akin to OFries. b[=a]m tree, OS. b[=o]m, D. boom, OHG. boum, poum, G. baum, Icel. ba[eth]mr, Goth. bagms and Gr. fy^ma a growth, fy^nai to become, to be. Cf. L. radius staff, rod, spoke of a wheel, beam or ray, and G. strahl arrow, spoke of a wheel, ray or beam, flash of lightning. [root]97. See {Be}; cf. {Boom} a spar.] 1. Any large piece of timber or iron long in proportion to its thickness, and prepared for use.
2. One of the principal horizontal timbers of a building or ship.
The beams of a vessel are strong pieces of timber stretching across from side to side to support the decks. --Totten.
3. The width of a vessel; as, one vessel is said to have more beam than another.
4. The bar of a balance, from the ends of which the scales are suspended.
The doubtful beam long nods from side to side. --Pope.
5. The principal stem or horn of a stag or other deer, which bears the antlers, or branches.
6. The pole of a carriage. [Poetic] --Dryden.
7. A cylinder of wood, making part of a loom, on which weavers wind the warp before weaving; also, the cylinder on which the cloth is rolled, as it is woven; one being called the fore beam, the other the back beam.
8. The straight part or shank of an anchor.
9. The main part of a plow, to which the handles and colter are secured, and to the end of which are attached the oxen or horses that draw it.
10. (Steam Engine) A heavy iron lever having an oscillating motion on a central axis, one end of which is connected with the piston rod from which it receives motion, and the other with the crank of the wheel shaft; -- called also {working beam} or {walking beam}.
11. A ray or collection of parallel rays emitted from the sun or other luminous body; as, a beam of light, or of heat.
How far that little candle throws his beams! --Shak.
12. (Fig.): A ray; a gleam; as, a beam of comfort.
Mercy with her genial beam. --Keble.
13. One of the long feathers in the wing of a hawk; -- called also {beam feather}.
{Abaft the beam} (Naut.), in an arc of the horizon between a line that crosses the ship at right angles, or in the direction of her beams, and that point of the compass toward which her stern is directed.
{Beam center} (Mach.), the fulcrum or pin on which the working beam of an engine vibrates.
{Beam compass}, an instrument consisting of a rod or beam, having sliding sockets that carry steel or pencil points; -- used for drawing or describing large circles.
{Beam engine}, a steam engine having a working beam to transmit power, in distinction from one which has its piston rod attached directly to the crank of the wheel shaft.
{Before the beam} (Naut.), in an arc of the horizon included between a line that crosses the ship at right angles and that point of the compass toward which the ship steers.
{On the beam}, in a line with the beams, or at right angles with the keel.
{On the weather beam}, on the side of a ship which faces the wind.
{To be on her beam ends}, to incline, as a vessel, so much on one side that her beams approach a vertical position.
Beam \Beam\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Beamed} (b[=e]md); p. pr. & vb. n. {Beaming}.] To send forth; to emit; -- followed ordinarily by forth; as, to beam forth light.
Beam \Beam\, v. i. To emit beams of light.
He beamed, the daystar of the rising age. --Trumbull.
He then walked along a beam on the roof to the front of the building and jumped.
NASA suffered another setback Thursday when a toppled beam was found inside the space shuttle Atlantis, but the countdown continued for the scheduled weekend launch of Discovery.
It will beam live reports to 150 plants and offices around the country.
I like it all quite well." The tidal wave of democracy sweeping Eastern Europe is creating static for the U.S. government's two major radio stations, whose mission is to beam the virtues of freedom into lands that have none.
The beam is refracted by varying amounts of blood glucose and returns through the wand to the sensor's circuitry.
The issue Tuesday involved a contract Bakker signed with HBO in 1985 to sublease satellite time that allowed PTL to beam its gospel to cable TV systems serving millions of people.
Castro said it would be wrong to assume that Cuba will allow the United States to beam radio waves at the island indefinitely.
A team of American scientists, who had set up a small laser in the hearing room, demonstrated how the scattered light produced by the laser beam could be detected by a monitoring device and fed into a computer to measure its intensity.
Organizers of the Goddess of Democracy radio ship said today they have canceled plans to beam pro-democracy messages to China because of setbacks in obtaining crucial broadcasting equipment.
Such competing technologies as electron beams require that a beam be moved across the wafer repeatedly, etching devices line by tiny line.
As evidence that this "strikes at Murdoch with the precision of a laser beam," the court simply quoted the words of the Senate's vigilantes back at them.
It focuses the beam further.
To eliminate these unwanted particles completely from the beam, a 13.5-meter-thick wall of steel was needed.
Other reports in the briefing paper: _ Sandia National Laboratories management and the DOE's Albuquerque, N.M., office agreed to suspend operation Friday of a particle beam fusion accelerator after "numerous safety concerns" were identified.
Taiyo put a chemical layer just above the layer of metal coating in the CD on which the laser beam would make its marks and off which it would read them.
The ATF's San Francisco lab uses an $80,000 laser device whose beam, when viewed through an amber filter, causes latent fingerprints to fluoresce a bright orange.
Among those rejected, according to a supplement to the study prepared by the Senate Special Committee on Aging, was a man disabled when a steel beam fell on him during a welding accident in 1979.
Deadly complications of stroke-prevention surgery could be reduced by a new method using a laser beam to clear blocked neck arteries, says a doctor who reported performing the procedure for the first time.
The Mount Haleakala laser to be used on the 3,175-pound payload has a special flexible mirror for distorting the laser beam on Earth to compensate for atmospheric disturbances.
Mr. Simonsson makes lasers, and these days demand is about as hot as the light beam itself.
A reluctant defense witness, electronics technician Antonio Corio, told how he was sent to the governor's offices in November to check the security system and do a "sweep" to detect electronic bugs and laser beam listening devices.
A laser printer uses a concentrated beam of light to convert electronic data into a printed document.
Different from traditional laser beams, a neutral particle beam has one big advantage for SDI use, scientists say: It can penetrate objects and discriminate between real missiles and decoys.
When neophyte actresses Sarah and Rebecca Perch, one-year-old twins, appear on television soap operas or in print advertisements, their parents beam with pride.
From what I hear, we may get more rain today, so that could be good." But the crews' search was hampered Sunday by a steel beam which was hanging loosely 150 feet over a control room area where rescuers believe they will find the missing bodies.
They are constantly trying to load more information on the laser beam by increasing the blink or "bit" rate.
The Soviet navy also expects to begin playing more of a role in strategic air defense by deploying futuristic weapons such as lasers and particle beam guns aboard its ships, the book says.
The beam, part of a work platform, banged around inside the compartment and caused about 25 dents and dings.
When an Air Force station atop Mount Haleakala aims another beam at the satellite, the beam should reflect off the mirror and strike a sensor target at the base of the mountain 12 miles away.
When an Air Force station atop Mount Haleakala aims another beam at the satellite, the beam should reflect off the mirror and strike a sensor target at the base of the mountain 12 miles away.