Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun In metallurgy: A vertical slot cut through the dam and dam-plate of a blast-furnace.
  • noun In the puddling-furnace, a small hole through which the slag, technically termed tap-cinder, is let out, and which during the process of puddling is stopped with sand. See diagram under puddling-furnace.
  • noun In a cementation-furnace, a small hole in one end of each pot, opposite to which is a hole in the furnace-wall, used for the insertion of “trial” or “tap” bars, so placed as to be accessible for ready withdrawal and inspection during the cementation process. Also called testing-hole.
  • noun In general, any small hole in a furnace through which metal or slag, or both, are drawn at any stage in the process. Also tapping-hole.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Originally, all steelmaking furnaces had a tapping spout closed with refractory that washed out when the furnace was tilted, but often modern furnaces have an eccentric bottom tap-hole EBT to reduce inclusion of nitrogen and slag in the liquid steel.

    Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) 2008

  • Originally, all steelmaking furnaces had a tapping spout closed with refractory that washed out when the furnace was tilted, but often modern furnaces have an eccentric bottom tap-hole EBT to reduce inclusion of nitrogen and slag in the liquid steel.

    Archive 2008-03-23 2008

  • So the man said that if he would do that he would go, but he begged the Governor to be very careful to put his finger into the tap-hole the moment he took his out.

    The Red Fairy Book 2003

  • But time passed, and it grew later and later, and still the man did not come back, and at last the Governor grew so weary of keeping his finger in the tap-hole that he took it out.

    The Red Fairy Book 2003

  • 'I am not sure that I can do it, 'said the man,' for I have to go to a wedding with this cask of mead which I have been to fetch, and the tap has fallen out on the way, so now I have to keep my finger in the tap-hole as I drive. '

    Red Fairy Book 1890

  • So the man said that if he would do that he would go, but he begged the Governor to be very careful to put his finger into the tap-hole the moment he took his out.

    Red Fairy Book 1890

  • But time passed, and it grew later and later, and still the man did not come back, and at last the Governor grew so weary of keeping his finger in the tap-hole that he took it out.

    Red Fairy Book 1890

  • This is a 'old cask, and the wood's rotted away about the tap-hole.

    Under the Greenwood Tree, or, the Mellstock quire; a rural painting of the Dutch school Thomas Hardy 1884

  • Had it been allowed to continue running, until it stopped of itself -- in other words, had the surface of the water sunk to the level of the tap-hole -- then would there have been but little left, scarce enough to have lasted me for a week.

    The Boy Tar Mayne Reid 1850

  • In my search for the bung I had not forgotten the vent or tap-hole.

    The Boy Tar Mayne Reid 1850

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