FORM, in carpentry, is used to denote the long seats or benches in the choirs of churches or in schools, for the priests, prebends, religious, or scholars, to sit on. Du Cange takes the name to be derived from hence, that the backs of the seats were anciently enriched with figures of painting and sculpture, called in Latin formæ et typi. In the life of St William of Roschin, we meet with forma as signifying a seat for an ecclesiastic, or religious, in a choir; and in that of St Lupicin, we have formula in the same sense. In the rule of the monastery of St Cæsarea, the man who presides over the choir is called primiceria, vel formari.
At schools, the word form is frequently applied to what is otherwise termed a class. See CLASS.
FORM also denotes the external appearance or surface of a body, or the disposition of its parts as to the length, breadth and thickness.
FORM is also used among mechanics, for a sort of mould wherein any thing is fashioned or wrought.
Printer's Form, an assemblage of letters, words, and lines, ranged in order, and so disposed into pages by the compositor; from which, by means of ink and a press, the printed sheets are drawn.
Every form is enclosed in an iron chess, wherein it is firmly locked by a number of pieces of wood; some long and narrow, and others of the form of wedges. There are two forms required for every sheet, one for
each side; and each form consists of more or fewer pages according to the size of the book.
Hatter's Form, is a large block or piece of wood, of a cylindrical figure; the top thereof rounded, and the bottom quite flat. Its use is, to mould or fashion the crown of the hat, after the matter thereof has been beaten and filled.
Papermaker's Form, is the frame or mould wherein the sheets are fashioned. See PAPER.