Band.
1. (Vehicle.) A circular collar, hoop, or strap, such as that on a nave; a hub-band; an axleband.
2. (Architecture.) a. A narrow, flat projecting surface. When narrow, it is a fillet; wider, it is a facia. b. The leaden came which holds the lozenge-shaped panes in the old-fashioned casement windows.
3. (Fire-arms.) One of the metallic sleeves which bind the barrel to the stock of a musket, etc.
4. (Bookbinding.) a. One of the cords at the back of a book to which the thread is attached in sewing. Though now a cord, it was formerly a flat band, and hence the name. It usually, in the better forms of binding, makes a raised projection on the back, and in large blank-books is formed by glueing strips of mill-board or leather across the back. In a fine breviary of the fourteenth century, in J. S. Grinnell's collection, it is a thick, rounded, white leather cord secured to beechwood side-boards. b. The head-band serves as a finish to the top and bottom of the sheets, and helps to keep the upper and lower parts of the back in shape when the book is closed.
5. (Husbandry.) A bundle of eight or ten stalks of wheat, or other small grain, used to bind a gavel of the grain into a sheaf. Corn-shocks are bound with stalks, or with string, linn-bark (linden or bass), or rye-straw. String or wire is the usual band on the automatic binding apparatus of reaping and binding machines, but a bunch of straw out of the sheaf is used in some machines.
6. (Machinery.) A flexible connection between pulleys, generally endless, but sometimes attached by its respective ends to reciprocating sectors, or a sector and slide. Bands may be classed as bells, cords, or chains. A belt is generally flat and thin, and requires a nearly cylindrical pulley. A cord is usually circular in section, and made of catgut, raw-hide, twisted fibers, or wire. It requires a grooved pulley. A chain consists of links or jointed bars, and requires a grooved, notched, or toothed drum. 7. A cincture, strap, or cord, with a means of fastening the ends together, and used to confine the materials of a bale, truss, or bundle. See bale-tie.
