in building, a part of a lodging, or of an apartment, ordinarily intended for sleeping in, and called by the Latins cubiculum. The word comes from the Latin camera; and that, according to Nicod, from the Greek xouge, vault or curve; the term chamber being originally confined to places arched over. A complete apartment consists of a hall, antichamber, chamber, and cabinet.

Privy Chamber. Gentlemen of the privy chamber are servants of the king, who are to wait and attend on him and the queen at court, in their diversions, &c.

In the absence of the lord chamberlain, or vice chamberlain, they execute the king's orders; at coronations two of them personate the Dukes of Aquitain and Normandy, and six of them, appointed by the lord chamberlain, attend ambassadors from crowned heads to their audiences, and in public entries. The gentlemen of the privy chamber were instituted by Henry VII.

policy, the place where certain assemblies are held; also the assemblies themselves. Of these, some have been established for the administration of justice, others for commercial affairs.

military affairs. 1. Powder chamber, or bomb chamber, a place sunk under ground for containing the powder or bombs, where they may be out of danger, and secured from the rain. 2. Chamber of a mine, the place, most commonly of a cubical form, where the powder is confined. 3. Chamber of a mortar, that part of the chase, much narrower than the rest of the cylinder, where the powder lies. It is of different forms, sometimes like a reversed cone, sometimes globular, with a neck for its communication with the cylinder, whence it is called a bottled chamber; but most commonly cylindrical, that being the form which is found by experience to carry the shell to the greatest distance.