Crossword clues for voussoir
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Voussoir \Vous`soir"\, n. [F., akin to vo[^u]te an arch, a vault.] (Arch.) One of the wedgelike stones of which an arch is composed.
Wiktionary
n. (context architecture English) One of a series of wedge-shaped bricks forming an arch or vault.
WordNet
n. wedge-shaped stone building block used in constructing an arch or vault
Wikipedia
A voussoir is a wedge-shaped element, typically a stone, used in building an arch or vault.
Although each unit in an arch or vault is a voussoir, two units are of distinct functional importance: the keystone and the springer. The keystone is the center stone or masonry unit at the apex of an arch. The springer is the lowest voussoir on each side, located where the curve of the arch springs from the vertical support or abutment of the wall or pier.
The keystone is often decorated or enlarged. An enlarged and sometimes slightly dropped keystone is often found in Mannerist arches of the 16th century, beginning with the works of Giulio Romano, who also began the fashion for using voussoirs above rectangular openings, rather than a lintel ( Palazzo Stati Maccarani, Rome, c. 1522).
The word is a mason's term borrowed in Middle English from French verbs connoting a "turn" ( OED). Each wedge-shaped voussoir turns aside the thrust of the mass above, transferring it from stone to stone to the springer's bottom face ('impost'), which is horizontal and passes the thrust on to the supports. Voussoir arches distribute weight efficiently and take maximum advantage of the compressive strength of stone, as in an arch bridge.
In Visigothic and Islamic architecture, the voussoirs are often in alternating colors, usually red and white. This is sometimes found in Romanesque architecture also.
During the 18th and 19th centuries, British bricklayers became aware that, by thickening the vertical mortar joint between regularly shaped bricks from bottom to top, they could construct an elliptical arch of useful strength over either a standard 'former' or over specially constructed timber falsework (temporary structure to be removed once the construction is complete). The bricks used in such an arch are often referred to as 'voussoirs'.
Usage examples of "voussoir".
High on the battlements spread a wide courtyard onto which opened several archways leading from the interior, each voussoir chiseled with the raven emblem of the Crown Prince.
To give stability the sides of the voussoirs are gauged out hollow and grouted in Portland cement, thus connecting each brick with the next by a joggle joint.
The difficulty of casting heavy arch ribs led to the construction of cast iron arches of cast voussoirs, somewhat like the voussoirs of masonry bridges.
Her gaze sought answers in the heavenward-curving voussoirs of the serried vaults, but then slid down the polished marble columns to the life-size sculptures of saints that formed the dados of the pedestals.
And abandoned to weather and moss in the corner by the turret lay the obvious fragments of the old stone voussoirs from the former archway, a few pitted and crumbling strips of moulding, a couple of decorative bosses worn to the fragility of shells.
At the last second before it closed over our heads I glanced upwards to the wedge-shaped voussoirs and, above them, the keystone: LITTERA SCRIPTA MANET.
He found the scaffolding which surrounded the top of the newest-built pillar on the north side was burning briskly, and Master William was up on it, hacking at the smouldering wood to get it down before the centering of the half-built arch and the putlogs supporting the scaffold could burn through and bring down the voussoirs already in place.
The raising, lowering and tapping into place of the key-stone occupied his full attention for some time, for it was vital that the stone should exert exactly the right amount of pressure on the other voussoirs to hold the arch together, If it was too loose, the arch would collapse under the weight to be placed above it.
And abandoned to weather and moss in the corner by the turret lay the obvious fragments of the old stone voussoirs from the former archway, a few pitted and crumbling strips of moulding, a couple of decorative bosses worn to the fragility of shells.
A panoply of curved mahogany frames and panels, looking like the ends of elaborately cut voussoirs, overspread the arched barrel ceiling.