PERCUSSION • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Percussion

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/pərkˈəʃən/ Listen

noun

Percussion n.

1.

The act of percussing, or striking one body against another; forcible collision, esp. such as gives a sound or report.

2.

Hence: The effect of violent collision; vibratory shock; impression of sound on the ear. "The thunderlike percussion of thy sounds."

3.

(Med.) The act of tapping or striking the surface of the body in order to learn the condition of the parts beneath by the sound emitted or the sensation imparted to the fingers. Percussion is said to be immediate if the blow is directly upon the body; if some intervening substance, as a pleximeter, is, used, it is called mediate.

Center of percussion. See under Center.

Percussion bullet, a bullet containing a substance which is exploded by percussion; an explosive bullet.

Percussion cap, a small copper cap or cup, containing fulminating powder, and used with a percussion lock to explode gunpowder.

Percussion fuze. See under Fuze.

Percussion lock, the lock of a gun that is fired by percussion upon fulminating powder.

Percussion match, a match which ignites by percussion.

Percussion powder, powder so composed as to ignite by slight percussion; fulminating powder.

Percussion sieve, Percussion table, a machine for sorting ores by agitation in running water.

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Etymology of 'Percussion'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Percussion" Quotes from Famous Books

... loops, threw the piece muzzle forward, opened the pan to see that it was full of powder, shut it down again, and made a careful examination of the flint. For these were the days long prior to the birth of the copper percussion-cap, and plenty of preliminaries had to be gone through before the musket could ...

— !Tention - A Story of Boy-Life during the Peninsular War • George Manville Fenn

... oftentimes employed an instrumental palette distinctly his own. He utilized instead of the violin the trumpet as premier instrument of the band; achieved all manner of brilliant effects with it. He increased the variety and usefulness of the instruments of percussion, forming out of them a new family of instruments to balance the families of the strings, brass, and wood-wind. In the score of the Second Symphony he calls for six timpani, bass and snare-drums, a high and a low tam-tam, cymbals, ...

— Musical Portraits - Interpretations of Twenty Modern Composers • Paul Rosenfeld

... accustomed as we are to think of the drum as a purely rhythmical instrument. The sounds given out by it seem at best vague in tone and more or less uniform in quality. We forget that all instruments of percussion, as they are called, are direct descendants of the drum. The bells that hang in our church towers are but modifications of the drum; for what is a bell but a metal drum with one end left open and ...

— Critical & Historical Essays - Lectures delivered at Columbia University • Edward MacDowell

... second, He discourses of some points of the Mechanicks; and relates among other things, that the Arrows and battering Rams (Aries) of the Antients did as much execution, as our Muskets and Canons; and then, that the Vehemence of the percussion depends as much upon the Length of the percutient Body, as upon the velocity of the Motion. He adds, that the Length of a Canon ought not to exceed 13 foot, and that a greater length is not onely useless, but ...

— Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society - Vol 1 - 1666 • Various

... which followed this there was a great ringing of bells in Casterbridge, and the combined brass, wood, catgut, and leather bands played round the town with more prodigality of percussion-notes than ever. Farfrae was Mayor—the two-hundredth odd of a series forming an elective dynasty dating back to the days of Charles I—and the fair Lucetta was the courted of the town....But, Ah! the worm i' the bud—Henchard; what he ...

— The Mayor of Casterbridge • Thomas Hardy

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