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Glossary

Steam engines
Types include: Atmospheric: worked by the vacuum created when low-pressure steam is condensed in the cylinder, as developed by Thomas Newcomen (1663-1729). Beam engine: with a large pivoted beam moving in an oscillating fashion by the flywheel. It may drive a flywheel or be non-rotative. Watt and Cornish: single-cylinder; compound: two cylinders; triple expansion: three cylinders.
Steeple
Tower together with a spire, lantern, or belfry.
Stellar vault
With liernes (short decorative ribs not linked to any springing point) in star formation. Also called a star-vault.
Stiff-leaf
English type of late 12th- and early 13th-century decoration in the form of thick uncurling foliage.
Stilted arch
With a vertical section above the impost, i.e. the horizontal moulding at the springing.
Stock bricks
The better kind of bricks, used for outward facing; compare place bricks. Also the yellowish kind of bricks much used in and around London.
Stop
Plain or decorated terminal to mouldings or chamfers at the end of hoodmoulds and labels (label stop), or stringcourses. A headstop is carved with a head.
Stoup
Vessel for holy water, usually near a door.
Strainer arch
An arch inserted in an opening to resist inward pressure.
Strapwork
Late 16th and early 17th-century decoration, like interlaced leather straps.