in architecture, the largest piece of wood in a building, which lies across the walls, and serves to support the principal rafters of the roof, and into which the feet of these rafters are framed.

Beams of a ship are the great main cross-timbers which hold the sides of the ship from falling together, and which also support the decks and orlops: The main beam is next the main-mast, and from it they are reckoned by first, second, third beam, &c. The greatest beam of all is called the mid-ship beam. See Ship.

Beam-compass, an instrument consisting of a square wooden or brass beam, having sliding sockets, that carry steel or pencil points; they are used for describing large circles, where the common compasses are useless. Beam, in heraldry, the term used to express the main horn of a hart or buck.

Beam, among hunters, the main item of a deer's head, or that part which bears the antlers, royals, and tops.

Chamber-Beam. See Chamber-beam.

Beam is also the name of a sort of fiery meteor in the shape of a pillar; also a ray of the sun.

Beam-filling, in building, the filling up of the vacant space between the rafter and roof, with stones or bricks laid between the rafters on the rafter, and plastered on with loam, where the garrets are not pargeted, or plastered, as in country places, where they do not parget or plaster their garrets.

Beam of an anchor, the longest part of it, called also the shank.

Beam-feathers, in falconry, the longest feathers of a hawk's wing.

Beam also denotes the lath, or iron, of a pair of scales; sometimes the whole apparatus for weighing of goods is so called: Thus we say, it weighs so much at the king's beam.

Beam of a plough, that in which all the parts of the plough-tail are fixed. See Agriculture.

Beam, or Roller, among weavers, a long and thick wooden cylinder, placed length-ways on the back-part of the loom of those who work with a shuttle.

That cylinder, on which the stuff is rolled as it is weaved, is also called the beam or roller, and is placed on the fore-part of the loom.

Bean, in botany. See Vicia.

Bear, in zoology. See Ursus.

Bear, in astronomy. See Ursa.

Bear, in heraldry. He that has a coat of arms is said to bear in it the several charges or ordinaries that are in his escutcheon.

Bear, in gunnery. A piece of ordnance is said to come to bear, when it lies right with, or directly against the mark.

Bearalston, a borough of Devonshire, situated on the river Tamar, about ten miles north of Plymouth, in 4° 30' W. long. and 50° 35' N. lat. It sends two members to parliament.

Bear's-breech. See Acanthus.

Beard, the hair growing on the chin, and adjacent parts of the face, chiefly of adults and males. See Anatomy. p. 256.

Various have been the ceremonies and customs of most nations in regard of the beard. The Tartars, out of a religious principle, waged a long and bloody war with the Persians, declaring them infidels merely because they would not cut their whiskers after the rite of Tartary: And we find, that a considerable branch of the religion of the ancients consisted in the management of their beard. Ecclesiastics have sometimes been enjoined to wear, and at other times have been forbid the wearing, the beard; and the Greek and Roman churches have been a long time by the ears, about their beards. To let the beard grow, in some countries, is a token of mourning, as to shave it is the like in others.

The Greeks wore their beards till the time of Alex-

ander the Great, that prince having ordered the Macedonians to be shaved, for fear it should give a handle to their enemies. The Romans did not begin to shave till the year of Rome 454. Nor did the Russians cut their beards till within these few years, that Peter the Great, notwithstanding his injunction upon them to shave, was obliged to keep on foot a number of officers to cut off, by violence, the beards of such as would not otherwise part with them.

Beard of a comet, the rays which the comet emits towards that part of the heaven to which its proper motion seems to direct it, in which the beard of a comet is distinguished from the tail, which is understood of the rays emitted towards that part from whence its motion seems to carry it.

Beard of a horse, that part underneath the lower mandible on the outside and above the chin, which bears the curb. It is also called the chuck.

It should have but little flesh upon it, without any chops, hardnefs, or swelling, and neither too high raised nor too flat, but such as the curb may rest in its right place.

Bearded husk, among florists, is a husk, hairy on the edges.

Bearding of wool. See Wool.

Bearer, in architecture, a post, or brick-wall, trimmed up between the two ends of a piece of timber, to shorten its bearing, or to prevent its bearing with the whole weight at the ends only.

Bearer of a bill of exchange, the person in whose hands the bill is, and in favour of whom the last order was made.

When a bill is made payable to the bearer, it is understood to be payable to him in whose hands it is, after it becomes due. See Bill.

BearerS, in heraldry. See Supporters.

Cross-Bearers. See Cross.

Bearing, in navigation and geography, the situation of one place from another, with regard to the points of the compass; or the angle which a line drawn through the two places, makes with the meridians of each.

Bearing, in the sea language. When a ship sails towards the shore, before the wind, she is said bear in with the land or harbour. To let the ship sail more before the wind, is to bear up. To put her right before the wind, is to bear round. A ship that keeps off from the land, is said to bear off. When a ship that was to windward comes under another ship's stern, and so gives her the wind, she is said to bear under her lee, &c. There is another sense of this word, in reference to the burden of a ship; for they say a ship bears, when having too slender or lean a quarter, she will sink too deep into the water with an over light freight, and thereby can carry but a small quantity of goods. See Navigation.

Bearing of a piece of timber, among carpenters, the space either between the two fixed extremes thereof, when it has no other support, which they call bearing at length, or between one extreme and a post, brick-wall, &c. trimmed up between the ends to shorten its bearings. High Bearing cock, one larger than the cock he fights with.

Bearing claws, among cock-fighters, the foremost toes of a cock. If these are hurt or gravelled, he cannot fight.