GLOSSAEY.

1345
Proxaos. See Cell.
Prop. A support, or that on -which anything rests. See Rance and Shork.
Proportion. The just magnitude of each part, and of each part to another, so as to ba
suitable to the end in view. See IIarmonic, and Geometric, Proportion.
Proportional Compasses. See Compasses.
PR0PYL.EXJM. (Gr. npo, before, and nvXn], a portal.) Any court or Tcstibule before a
building, or before its principal part ; but more particularly the entrance to such court
or vestibule.
Proscenium. (Gr.) That part in the ancient theatre whereon the actors performed in
front of the scene, being what we call the stage. The Romans called this part the
pulpitiDn.
Prostyle. (Gr. IT/jo, and 2tu\o9, a column.) A portico in which the columns stand in
advance of the building to which they belong.
Prothesis, Table of. See Credence.
Prothyris. (Gr.) A word used in ancient architecture to signify a cross beam or ovar-
thwart rafter, as likewise a quoin or course of a wall. See Console.
Prothyrtim. (Gr.) A porch at the outer door cf a house
;
a portal.
Protractor. (Lat. Protractus.) An instrument for laying down an angle in drawing or
plotting.
PSEUDISODOMUM. See ISODOMUM.
PsEUDODiPTERAL or False Dipteral. A disposition in the temples of antiquity wherein
there were eight columns in front and only one range round the cell. It is called false
or imperfect, because the cell only occupying the width of four columns, the sides from
the columns to the walls of the cell hare no columns therein, though the front and rear
present a column in the middle of the void. See Temple.
Pseudoperipteral or Imperfect Peripteral. A disposition in the ancient temples, in
which the columns on the sides were engaged in the wall, and wherein there was no
portico except to the facade in front ; such are the Maison Carree at Nismes, and the
temple of Fortuna Virilis at Rome.
Pteea. In Grecian architecture, is the colonnade which surrounded the cell of the temple,
the monopteros temple being the only species which had columns without a wall behind
them. The peripteral had one tier of columns round the cell, the dipteral two, and the
pseudo or false dipteral, invented by Hermogenes, was that in which the ptera was
single, but occupied the same space on the sides of the cell as the dipteral, though one
of the tiers of columns was left out. Thus, by metaphor, the columns were called the
wings of the temple. See Temple.
Ptisroma. (Gr. Urepov, a wing.) The space between the wall of the cell of a temple and
the columns of the peristyle, called also amhulatio.
Public Building. Every iauilding used as a church, chapel, or other place of public
worship ; also every building used for purposes of public instruction
;
also as a
college, public hall, hospital, theatre, public concert room, public ball room, public
lecture room, public exhibition room, or any other public purposes. Metropolitan
Building Act, 1885.
Puddling. The filling behind a wall, filling up a avity, or banking up with clay
tempered with water, and carefully rammed down with the repeated strokes of beaters
or beetles, in order to make it solid. See Claying.
Pugging. A coarse kind of mortar laid upon rough boarding placed between joists, to
prevent the transmission of sound from the apartment above to that below.
Pug-mill. A stone, or a pair of large circular stones, in a vertical position, worked by
machinery to roll round as a wheel and also in and round an iron pan, for the purpose
of grinding up clay for brickmaking, and also the lime and bricks in making mortar.
Pug-piling. The same as dovetailed piling, or pile planking.
Pulley. (Fr.) One of the five mechanical powers, consisting of a wheel or rundle,
having a channel around it and turning on an axis, serving, by means of a rope which
moves in its channel, for the raising of weights.
Pulley
Mortise. The same as Chase Mortise.
Pulpit.
(Ital. Pulpito.) An elevated place, an enclosed stage or platform for a preacher
in a church. The ancient ambo served the same purpose.
PuLPnuM.
(Lat.) See Proscenium.
Pulvinaria.
(Lat.) Cushions in the ancient temples whereon the statues of the gods
were sometimes laid.
PuLviNATA.
(Lat.) A pillow ; as applied to the volute of the Ionic order.
PuLviNATED.
See Frieze.
_ _
Pump. A machine for raising water ; there are many varieties of them.
Puncheon.
(Fr. Poin9on.) A name common to iron instruments used in different trades
for cutting, inciding, or piercing a body. In carpentry, it is a piece of timber placed
4 R