"Swivel" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... time, Tommy's bewildered senses were restored, and he began to look about him with lively interest. His keen eyes soon detected Mr. Pelby's bright gold chain and swivel, and well knowing that it betokened a watch, he slid quickly down from his father's lap, and stood beside the knee of ...
— Home Scenes, and Home Influence - A Series of Tales and Sketches • T. S. Arthur
... chewing his mustache, "that's what I get for sticking to Rexhill." Leaning back in his swivel chair, he put his feet up on the desk and hooked his fingers in the arm-holes of his vest. "Well, I ain't ready to run yet, not ...
— Hidden Gold • Wilder Anthony
... the editor, dropping his lanky form into a chair. "Thank goodness, they haven't swivel chairs in the club. I've been whirling round in one all day—a long, tall Scotch, please—but ...
— A Splendid Hazard • Harold MacGrath
... the andirons. New rugs gave colour and life to the floor. The mantel had been swept clear of annual reports and technical books, and graced with a friendly clock and a still more friendly pair of vases filled with flowers. The monumental swivel chair had disappeared, and in its place was one of wicker, upholstered in cretonne. On the desk was another vase of flowers, a writing set of charming design and a triple photograph frame, containing pictures of Miss Cordelia, Miss Patty and ...
— Mary Minds Her Business • George Weston
... were sounding, several Indians in three canoes, were perceived making towards them; but on a swivel shot being fired over their heads, they returned to Mulgrave's Island, on the south side of the passage. On the signal being made for good anchorage further on, the Assistant led to the W. by S.; but on reaching the boats, ...
— A Voyage to Terra Australis • Matthew Flinders
... or vessel for the table, in which to put vinegar, mustard, pepper, etc. Also, a small wheel on a swivel-joint, on which furniture may be turned in ...
— The American Woman's Home • Catherine E. Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe
... some sail set and I went below to have a hot pot o' tea when the skipper suddenly sang out 'Jump up here, Dick!' an' I did jump up, double quick, to find that we was a'most runnin' slap into a dismasted craft. We shoved the tiller hard a-starboard and swung round as if we was on a swivel, goin' crash through the rackage alongside an' shavin' her by a hair. We could just see through the snow one of her hands choppin' away at the riggin', and made out that her name was the ...
— Personal Reminiscences in Book Making - and Some Short Stories • R.M. Ballantyne
... ascending the Missouri River, their means of travel were provided in three boats. The largest, a keel-boat, fifty-five feet long and drawing three feet of water, carried a big square sail and twenty-two seats for oarsmen. On board this craft was a small swivel gun. The other two boats were of that variety of open craft known as pirogue, a craft shaped like a flat-iron, square-sterned, flat-bottomed, roomy, of light draft, and usually provided with four oars and a square sail which could be used when the wind was aft, and which also ...
— First Across the Continent • Noah Brooks
... seated in the Captain's cabin. This was a good-sized room, panelled in light wood and very neatly kept. There was quite a broad table of the same wood as the walls and a swivel chair in front of it. The Captain seated himself in this chair and whirled to talk to the visitor ...
— Frontier Boys on the Coast - or in the Pirate's Power • Capt. Wyn Roosevelt
... the old Indian. "One dese-hyer little, round, brown squinch-owls, what allers quakes an' quivers in dey speech an' walk. 'I gits so dizzy—izzy—wizzy! up in de top o' de trees,' de little brown owl say, as she swivel an' shake. 'An' I wanted to git me a home down on de ground, so dat I could be sure, an' double sure, dat I wouldn't fall. But dey is dem dat says ef I was down on de ground I might fall down a hole. Dat make me want to live in yo' house. Hit's down in de ground, ...
— Boys and Girls Bookshelf (Vol 2 of 17) - Folk-Lore, Fables, And Fairy Tales • Various
... of the neck and kicked and shaken out of the room, and his collar flung after him. I heard him blubbering on the stairs as Levy locked the door and put the key in his pocket. But I did not hear Raffles slip into the swivel chair behind the desk, or know that he had done so until the usurer and ...
— Mr. Justice Raffles • E. W. Hornung
... cure?" asked Madame Bovary of one of the lads, who was amusing himself by shaking a swivel in a hole too large ...
— Madame Bovary • Gustave Flaubert
... over the side of the galley to finish this massacre—Groves leading with a shout of "No quarter," and all echoing these words with a roar of joy. But here they were met with some sort of resistance, for the Moors aboard, seeing the fate of their comrades, forewarning them of theirs, had turned their swivel gun about and now fired—the ball carrying off the head of Joe Groves, the best man of all that crew, if one were better than another. But this only served to incense the rest the more, and so they went at their cruel work again, and ceased not ...
— A Set of Rogues • Frank Barrett
... had separated from Flinders, Murray, in order to spare the Lady Nelson's sole remaining anchor, gave orders for two swivel guns crossed, to be lashed together, and when winds were light and waters smooth, he anchored with the swivels until the carpenter was able to make an ironbark anchor to take their place. In the following pages Murray relates the full story of the Lady Nelson's voyage both when she was with the Investigator ...
— The Logbooks of the Lady Nelson - With The Journal Of Her First Commander Lieutenant James Grant, R.N • Ida Lee
... acknowledgment that he has a copy of the laws, which he thoroughly understands. Particular clauses should be devoted to rapacious dealers who get collecting permits as scientific men, to poison, to shooting from power boats or with swivel guns, to that most diabolical engine of all murderers—the Maxim silencer,—to hounding and crusting, to egging and nefarious pluming, to illegal netting and cod-trapping, and last, but emphatically not least, to any and every ...
— Supplement to Animal Sanctuaries in Labrador • William Wood
... raised it and said: "Well, it might have been worse. Think of what might have happened had she called in person. She would have picked your pocket for the corporate seal, the combination of the safe, and the list of stockholders, and probably ended up by gagging you and binding you in your own swivel-chair." ...
— The Valley of the Giants • Peter B. Kyne
... yielded, and the Pirate came on Board, and not only rifling the ship, but beat and cut the men in a cruel manner. In crusing about the Bay, they took several other vessels without any resistance, particularly a Sloop of 100 Tons, which they mounted with 8 carriages and 10 swivel guns. With this fleet, Lowther in the Happy Delivery, Lowe in the Rhode Island Sloop, Harris in Hamilton's Sloop, left the Bay, and came to Port Mayo, where they made preparations to careen, carrying ashore all their sails, to lay their plunder and stores in; but when they were ...
— Pirates • Anonymous
... up, cleaned, launched, and christened the Beginning; with a spare topmast from the Duke as a mast, and an odd mizzen-topsail altered for a sail. Four swivel-guns were mounted upon her deck, and, as she pounded out of the bay, loud cheers greeted her from the decks of the Duchess, which was loafing outside, watching for a merchantman to capture ...
— Famous Privateersmen and Adventurers of the Sea • Charles H. L. Johnston
... Indians were killed in this dreadful contest. It is supposed, however, that the number must have exceeded forty; for a large canoe being under the ship's bow, with about twenty Indians in her, who were cutting a cable, a swivel and several muskets were fired into her, and but one of the Indians reached the shore ...
— Thrilling Stories Of The Ocean • Marmaduke Park
... 6 inches straight to the rear, left knee slightly bent; carry the muzzle in front of the center of the body, barrel to the left; grasp the piece with the left hand just below the stacking swivel, and with the right hand below and ...
— Manual for Noncommissioned Officers and Privates of Infantry • War Department
... her yards and sails stowed along the deck, and impelled by twenty long oars, pulled by twice that number of men, while as many more stood in the after part, and at the bows, with their matchlocks in their hands ready for use. In the bow, also, was a long brass gun on a swivel, ...
— The Pirate of the Mediterranean - A Tale of the Sea • W.H.G. Kingston
... burn it— Whether they weld you, for instance, a snaffle 365 With side-bars never a brute can baffle; Or a lock that's a puzzle of wards within wards; Or, if your colt's forefoot inclines to curve inwards, Horseshoes they hammer which turn on a swivel And won't allow the hoof to shrivel. 370 Then they cast bells like the shell of the winkle That keep a stout heart in the ram with their tinkle; But the sand—they pinch and pound it like otters; Commend me the gypsy glass-makers and potters! Glasses ...
— Selections from the Poems and Plays of Robert Browning • Robert Browning
... Sobriente's well had really concealed a rich gold ledge,—actually tunneled and galleried by him secretly in the past,—and its only other outlet was an opening in the garden hidden by a stone which turned on a swivel. Its existence had been unknown to Sobriente's successor, but was known to the Kanaka who had worked with Sobriente, who fled with his daughter after the murder, but who no doubt was afraid to return and work the mine. He had imparted the secret to Starbuck, another half-breed, ...
— Mr. Jack Hamlin's Mediation and Other Stories • Bret Harte
... he watched the man who sat across from him, tilted back in his swivel chair, he was not so sure. Here was the same tall figure, the heavy brown hair, the features and boyish smile of the photograph he had seen the night before. As Judson Clark might have looked at thirty-two ...
— The Breaking Point • Mary Roberts Rinehart
... his day was over. The Spaniard's decks were crowded with an alert, armed crew; four charming little bull-dogs showed their muzzles from port holes; while a large brass swivel, amidships, gave token of its readiness to fight or salute. For a minute or two the foiled Frenchman surveyed the scene through his glass; then, throwing it over his shoulder, ordered the mate to strike off my "darbies." As the officer obeyed, a voice was heard from the ...
— Captain Canot - or, Twenty Years of an African Slaver • Brantz Mayer
... forward; and at Wortmann's Drift the day before they had done a big thing for the army with a handful of men. They could ride like Cossacks, they could shoot like William Tell, and they had a mind to be the swivel by which the army of Queen Victoria should swing from almost perpetual disaster, in large ...
— The Judgment House • Gilbert Parker
... near Fulbert's house. He asked Fulbert to allow him to call. The good old swivel saw here a rare opportunity: his niece, whom he so much loved, would absorb knowledge from this man, and it would not cost him a cent. ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... Carson invariably wore the watch and chain, so that this small key evidently fitted something that she was careful always to keep locked up. As Hilary picked up this key the chain slid away from it, and she saw that the spring of the swivel was broken. That accounted, then, for the fact that Miss Carson was not wearing her watch, as she usually did. And when she left it on the dressing-table she had evidently forgotten that she was leaving the little key, which as a ...
— The Rebellion of Margaret • Geraldine Mockler
... opposite the settlement when the night had already closed in, and there was nothing we could do except to fire a salute from the falconet, which they answered with one from the swivel gun. ...
— Glimpses of the Past - History of the River St. John, A.D. 1604-1784 • W. O. Raymond
... doorway of an office that had been refurnished in large mahogany desk, filing case, and a stack of sectional bookcases, Robert Visigoth sat tilted on a swivel chair, his hands locked at the back of his head, gaze ...
— Star-Dust • Fannie Hurst
... passed round the room, halting, sauntering, like grim visitors in a grim gallery. At a front desk a sleek young interne, tiptilted in a swivel chair, read a pink sheet ...
— The Best Short Stories of 1915 - And the Yearbook of the American Short Story • Various
... was given to Tom Turner, who was crouching behind the swivel amidships where the effect of the centrifugal force was least felt. He understood. In a moment he had opened the breech and slipped a cartridge from the ammunition-box at hand. The gun went off, and the waterspouts collapsed, and with them vanished the ...
— Rubur the Conqueror • Jules Verne
... distance between the battery and herself, he was seen to draw his sword, which flashed like a white flame in the brilliant sunshine as he waved it above his head, and the next moment a perfect storm of bullets from falcon and falconet, patarero, saker, and swivel, came hurtling from the battery across the narrow water toward the ship. But the gallant cavalier had been just a trifle too eager to display his valour, for most of the missiles fell short, having been fired at rather too long a range, ...
— Two Gallant Sons of Devon - A Tale of the Days of Queen Bess • Harry Collingwood
... in the words that troubled Clementina: he wanted no more than he had, this cold, imperturbable devout fisherman. She did not see that it was the confidence of having all things that held his peace rooted. From the platform of the swivel they looked abroad over the sea. Far north in the east lurked a suspicion of dawn, which seemed, while they gazed upon it, to "languish into life," and the sea was a shade less dark than when they turned from it to go behind the dune. They descended ...
— Lippincott's Magazine, Vol. 20, August 1877 • Various
... Bates waited long enough, Eliza passed the door, and catching sight of him, she turned, suddenly staring as if she knew not exactly what she was doing. There were two men at the bar drinking. Hutchins, from his high swivel chair, was waiting upon them. They both looked at Eliza; and now Bates, trembling in every nerve, felt only a weak fear lest she should turn upon him in wrath for being unfaithful, and summoned all ...
— What Necessity Knows • Lily Dougall
... port of Ostend, once so celebrated for the defence of its garrison, a salute of thirteen guns was fired from the old fort, which we attempted to answer with a rusty swivel, Buck waving his hat, and singing 'Yankee Doodle' to the burghers who filed along the dilapidated dyke. As the steamer neared a landing-place, we descried the coarse figure of Corporal Noggs, surrounded by ...
— The Adventures of My Cousin Smooth • Timothy Templeton
... peculiar meat floated just beyond it in the still night air. Finn drew back a pace or two, and then, with a beautiful spring, cleared the gate easily. While giving Finn the piece of meat he had been holding, the man slipped a swivel on to the ring of the handsome green collar, and attached to the swivel there was a strong leather lead. The man moved on slowly, with another piece of meat in his hand, and Finn paced with him, willingly ...
— Finn The Wolfhound • A. J. Dawson
... come in earlier?... Stevens, make out a transfer to headquarters company and get the major to sign it when he goes through.... That's the way it always is," he cried, leaning back tragically in his swivel chair. "Everybody always puts everything off on me at ...
— Three Soldiers • John Dos Passos
... road that led to the village, talking in technical terms of how the merlin's feather must be "imped" to-morrow; and of the relative merits of the "varvels" or little silver rings at the end of the jesses through which the leash ran, and the Dutch swivel ...
— By What Authority? • Robert Hugh Benson
... were within four hundred yards of the enemy's guns, and it was hot work in them. The enemy had three tiers of guns in the round bastion, and on the top they had got a long 48-pounder, which they worked with a swivel joint, or the like, and threw a great roaring shot into any part of the ...
— White Lies • Charles Reade
... long sandhill, a sort of wide embrasure was cut in its top, in which stood an old fashioned brass swivel gun: when the lad reached the place, he sprang up the sloping side of the dune, seated himself on the gun, drew from his trowsers a large silver watch, regarded it steadily for a few minutes, replaced it, and took from his pocket a flint and steel, ...
— Malcolm • George MacDonald
... Pangeran pulled twelve paddles, mounted two brass swivels, and in all had a crew of about twenty men. The Panglima's boat likewise carried a gun, and had about ten men; while the Skimalong mounted an iron swivel, and carried six Englishmen and one of our Singapore Malays. With this equipment we might be pronounced far superior to any force of the rajah's enemies we ...
— The Expedition to Borneo of H.M.S. Dido - For the Suppression of Piracy • Henry Keppel
... opened upon the privateer from the pirate, but though they had a swivel of pretty heavy calibre, turning on its axis amidship in such a manner as to menace at will each point of the horizon, it was evident that its force was far less than the long ...
— Graham's Magazine Vol XXXIII No. 4 October 1848 • Various
... 'Of all the swivel-eyed, up-jumped, cross-grained, sons of a cock-eyed tinker,' exclaimed Bill, boiling with rage. 'If punching parrots on the beak wasn't too painful for pleasure, I'd land you a sockdolager on the muzzle that 'ud lay you out till Christmas. Come on, mates,' he added, 'it's ...
— The Magic Pudding • Norman Lindsay
... under the name of hooks and eyes), cut a little hole in the bottom of your left watch-pocket, pass the hook and tape through it, and down between the breeches and drawers, and fix the hook on the edge of your knee-band, an inch from the knee-buckle; then hook the instrument itself by its swivel-hook on the upper edge of the watch-pocket. Your tape being well adjusted in length, your double steps will be exactly counted by the instrument, the shortest hand pointing out the thousands, the flat hand the hundreds, and the long hand ...
— Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson - Volume I • Thomas Jefferson
... Smollett. "Easy with that, men—easy," he ran on, to the fellows who were shifting the powder; and then suddenly observing me examining the swivel we carried amidships, a long brass nine—"Here, you ship's boy," he cried, "out o' that! Off with you to the cook and ...
— Treasure Island • Robert Louis Stevenson
... Boulton and Watt, we infer that it was not ready for trial until 1784. The first experiment was made in Murdock's own house at Redruth, when the little engine successfully hauled a model waggon round the room,—the single wheel, placed in front of the engine and working in a swivel frame, enabling it to run ...
— Men of Invention and Industry • Samuel Smiles
... believe that some politician was after his job, and if so—Well, they'd have to snap 'em over pretty fast to catch him playing too far off his base, and he slid it back to the Bureau of Replies and so forth, who passed it on to the Bureau of Odds and Ends, where it steamed in and out among a lot of swivel-chairs, who were not to be upset easily. They put in a couple of heavy-eyed weeks on it, and rolled it back finally to the commandant for further information. Above all, before an intelligent judgment could be rendered, they especially desired ...
— Wide Courses • James Brendan Connolly
... time the other smugglers had become alarmed. The longboat gun, which worked on a slide abaft all, was cleared, and the two little cohorns, or hand-swivel guns, which pointed over the sides, were trained and loaded. A man swarmed up the mainmast to look around. "The cutter's bearing up to close," he called out. "I see ...
— Jim Davis • John Masefield
... into his office. Lenny Poe was seated behind the colonel's desk, leaning back in the swivel chair, his feet on the top of the desk. He ...
— The Foreign Hand Tie • Gordon Randall Garrett
... employed for a very singular purpose. There was, and may be now, a corps of the army which is called the camel artillery. It consisted of a number of camels, each fitted with a peculiar saddle, which not only accommodated the rider, but carried a swivel-gun of about one pound calibre. These weapons had a greater range than the ordinary Persian matchlocks, and, owing to the rapidity with which they could be transferred from spot to spot, formed a valuable branch ...
— Happy Days for Boys and Girls • Various
... to the office—it was after 5 o'clock—he found it deserted except for Brennan and P. Q. Brennan was squatted on the city editor's desk. P. Q. was leaning back in his swivel chair, his feet perched ...
— Spring Street - A Story of Los Angeles • James H. Richardson
... down. She fidgeted out to the lawn, and then back into the kitchen. She put on her high-heeled clogs, and fidgeted out into the paddock. Then she went into the small home park where the quintain was erected. The pole and cross-bar and the swivel, and the target and the bag of flour were all complete. She got up on a carpenter's bench and touched the target with her hand; it went round with beautiful ease; the swivel had been oiled to perfection. She almost wished to take old Plomacy at his word, to go on a side ...
— Barchester Towers • Anthony Trollope
... Spanish pedra, "a stone;" so named because of the use of stone for balls, before iron balls were invented; a swivel-gun. For descriptions and illustrations of various kinds of artillery, see Demmin's Arms ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898: Volume XIV., 1606-1609 • Various
... took with him his wife and his seven children; and three or four young men also went along. When they reached the Chicamauga towns the Indians swarmed out towards them in canoes. On Brown's boat was a swivel, and with this and the rifles of the men they might have made good their defence; but as soon as the Indians saw them preparing for resistance they halted and hailed the crew, shouting out that they were peaceful and that in consequence of the recent Holston treaties war had ceased between ...
— The Winning of the West, Volume Three - The Founding of the Trans-Alleghany Commonwealths, 1784-1790 • Theodore Roosevelt
... chief factors of this world war, both on sea and land. Upon the Western front alone there are thousands upon thousands of aeroplanes—monoplanes and biplanes—of hundreds of different makes and designs, of varying shapes and many sizes. I have seen giants armed with batteries of swivel guns and others mounting veritable cannon. Here are huge bomb-dropping machines with a vast wing spread; solid, steady-flying machines for photographic work, and the light, swift-climbing, double-gunned battle-planes, ...
— Great Britain at War • Jeffery Farnol
... cutting-table; the bed was unmade; and on the desk, in the center of the room, a drop-lamp with a leaking tube polluted the air. There was a formidable litter of papers on a great table, and before it stood a swivel chair where Lena Vroom had been sitting preparing ...
— The Precipice • Elia Wilkinson Peattie
... says, 'that he has the leadin' qualifications of all and comes a heap cheaper than most. He is swivel mounted; that is, the torso, so to speak, is pinioned onto the legs, so that the upper part of the body can revolve. This enables him to rotate freely without bustin' his pants, the vest bein' unconnected ...
— The Wit and Humor of America, Volume III. (of X.) • Various
... Frederick looked upon liquor in the house as an abomination. Ancient cities had been smitten by God's wrath for just such practices. Before lunch and dinner, Tom, aided and abetted by Polly, mixed an endless variety of drinks, she being particularly adept with strange swivel-stick concoctions learned at the ends of the earth. To Frederick, at such times, it seemed that his butler's pantry and dining room had been turned into bar-rooms. When he suggested this, under a facetious show, Tom proclaimed that when he made his pile ...
— The Turtles of Tasman • Jack London
... Tutt & Tutt wheeled his swivel chair to the window and crossing his congress boots upon the sill gazed contemplatively down upon ...
— By Advice of Counsel • Arthur Train
... tall and pompous, he wore a lank brown wig which looked as if it might come off at any moment, he had little keen gray eyes which twinkled, and a broad mouth which shut very closely; whether it was grim or humorous she could not quite decide. He was sitting in a swivel chair, and the table strewn with letters, and the desk with its pigeon holes crammed with papers, looked so natural and so like her father's that she began to feel a reassuring sense of fellowship with this entire stranger. The ...
— We Two • Edna Lyall
... office the next morning McNiven recommended the view to him, gave him a chair, refused a cigar, lighted his pipe instead, opened a drawer in his desk, put his feet in it, and leaned far back in his swivel chair. ...
— We Can't Have Everything • Rupert Hughes
... I've heard her tell scores of times as how she was almost dead when that little yacht came through a swaling sea, that was all heaving and roaring round the wreck, and as how the swell what owned it gave his cabin up to the womenkind, and had his swivel guns and his handsome furniture pitched overboard, that he might be able to carry more passengers, and fed 'em, and gave 'em champagne all around, and treated 'em like a prince, till he ran 'em straight into Brest Harbor. But, damn me! that ...
— Under Two Flags • Ouida [Louise de la Ramee]
... garrison hastened to the water front in anxious expectancy. Were the approaching boats indeed filled with friends come to their relief, or, as in the former case, with victorious savages and dejected captives? Not until the questioning salute of their guns was answered by the glad roar of a swivel from the foremost boat was the query answered, and the apprehensions of the war-worn garrison changed to ...
— At War with Pontiac - The Totem of the Bear • Kirk Munroe and J. Finnemore
... you, was like others of its kind such as you may find in these waters, the hull being long and cut low to the water so as to allow the oars to dip freely. The bow was sharp and projected far out ahead, mounting a swivel upon it, while at the stern a number of galleries built one above another into a castle gave shelter to several companies of musketeers as well ...
— Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates • Howard Pyle
... of Tools. Swivel Vises. Parts of Lathe. Chisels. Grinding Apparatus. Large Machines. Chucks. Bench Tools. Selecting a Lathe. Combination Square. Micrometers. Protractors. Utilizing Bevel Protractors. Truing Grindstones. Sets of Tools. The Work Bench. The ...
— Practical Mechanics for Boys • J. S. Zerbe
... holding a Jersey bull. The story was soon told. The cowman, having to go into the yard, had asked E. to hold the bull a minute. Unfortunately, the animal had only a halter on him, the cowman having omitted to bring the stick, with hook and swivel, to attach to the bull's nose-ring. No sooner was the cowman out of sight than the bull began to fret, and, turning upon E., knocked him down between a mangoldbury and the outside wall of the yard. In this position he was unable to get a direct attack upon the man, but he managed to gore ...
— Grain and Chaff from an English Manor • Arthur H. Savory
... Roger calmly. He turned to the swivel chair located between the huge communications board, the adjustable chart table and the astrogation prism. Directly in front of him was the huge radar scanner, and to one side and overhead was a tube mounted on a swivel joint that looked like a small telescope, but which was actually ...
— Stand by for Mars! • Carey Rockwell
... upon which Hiram Wade had brought suit for twenty-five thousand dollars, while Geary was pottering about his swivel office chair with an oil can trying to find out where it creaked, a brilliant idea had suddenly occurred to him, a stroke of genius, a veritable inspiration. Why could he not make the Wade suit a machine with which to force Vandover into ...
— Vandover and the Brute • Frank Norris
... while he finished the operation of shaving, and Rachael, who was busy with the defective clasp of a string of pearls, bent absorbedly over the microscopic ring and swivel. ...
— The Heart of Rachael • Kathleen Norris
... says Old Hickory. "I will even concede that you are swivel-brained and couldn't help it. But that fails to explain why you should invent for our benefit any such colossal whopper as ...
— Wilt Thou Torchy • Sewell Ford
... round within, about six feet high, for the men to stand on when to fire thro' the loopholes. We had one swivel gun, which we mounted on one of the angles, and fir'd it as soon as fix'd, to let the Indians know, if any were within hearing, that we had such pieces; and thus our fort, if such a magnificent name may be given ...
— Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin • Benjamin Franklin
... division of fifteen or sixteen proas, under the command of an inferior rajah who leads the fleet, and is always implicitly obeyed. His proa is the only vessel provided with a compass; it also has one or two swivel or small guns, and is perhaps armed with musquets. Their provisions chiefly consist of rice and cocoa-nuts, and their water—which during the westerly monsoon is easily replenished on all parts of the coast—is carried in joints of bamboo. Besides trepang, they trade in sharks' fins ...
— The History of Australian Exploration from 1788 to 1888 • Ernest Favenc
... many relics of the shipwreck: iron utensils, anchors, eyelets from pulleys, swivel guns, an eighteen-pound shell, the remains of some astronomical instruments, a piece of sternrail, and a bronze bell bearing the inscription "Made by Bazin," the foundry mark at Brest Arsenal around 1785. There could no longer ...
— 20000 Leagues Under the Seas • Jules Verne
... he estimated the size of the interior. Originally there had been only one room. This had been divided into three sections by partitions. An old, flat-topped desk sat near the front window, a swivel chair before it. Along the wall above the desk were several rows of shelving with paste-board boxes and paper piled neatly up. Calendars, posters, and other specimens of the printer's art covered the walls. In the next ...
— The Coming of the Law • Charles Alden Seltzer
... and the river, with a ravelin close to the water, which contains a few heavy pieces of artillery which command the sea and the river, and other guns on the higher part of the fort for the defense of the bar, besides other middling-sized field guns and swivel guns, with vaults for supplies and munitions, and a powder magazine, with its inner space well protected, and an abundant well of fresh water; also quarters for soldiers and artillerymen and a house for the Commandant. It is ...
— The Story of the Philippines and Our New Possessions, • Murat Halstead
... boats in the water, Mr. Shaw," Lingard was saying, with one foot on the rail, ready to leave his ship, "and mount the four-pounder swivel in the longboat's bow. Cast off the sea lashings of the guns, but don't run 'em out yet. Keep the topsails loose and the jib ready for setting, I may want the sails in a hurry. Now, Mr. Carter, ...
— The Rescue • Joseph Conrad
... regiment of four hundred men, to be commanded by Colonel Vanderdussen; a troop of rangers;[1] presents for the Indians; and supply of provisions for three months.[2] They also furnished a large schooner, with ten carriage and sixteen swivel guns, in which they put fifty men under the ...
— Biographical Memorials of James Oglethorpe • Thaddeus Mason Harris
... of all this, but spied a fellow down there, busying himself about the trenches with a javelin in his hand; he was dressed entirely in rose-colour; and so, studying the worst that I could do against him, I selected a gerfalcon which I had at hand; it is a piece of ordnance larger and longer than a swivel, and about the size of a demiculverin. This I emptied, and loaded it again with a good charge of fine powder mixed with the coarser sort; then I aimed it exactly at the man in red, elevating prodigiously, because a piece ...
— The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini • Benvenuto Cellini
... here are the keys. They slip off and on this spring swivel; the old man always wore them there. The key of that door; the key of the iron chamber; the key of the steel chest. Gentlemen, I shall remove the keys. Mr Capel, they are ...
— The Dark House - A Knot Unravelled • George Manville Fenn
... Subject to such attacks three hundred years, The donjon yields, and ruin now appears, E'en as by leprosy the wild boars die, In moat the crumbled battlements now lie; Around the snake-like bramble twists its rings; Freebooter sparrows come on daring wings To perch upon the swivel-gun, nor heed Its murmuring growl when pecking in their greed The mulberries ripe. With insolence the thorn Thrives on the desolation so forlorn. But winter brings revenges; then the Keep Wakes all vindictive from its seeming sleep, Hurls down the ...
— Poems • Victor Hugo
... much. It is true, one of the swivels was mounted on the former, and might be of service, but the natives had got to be too familiar with fire-arms to render it prudent to rely on the potency of a single swivel, in a conflict against a force so numerous, and one led by a spirit as determined as that of Waally's was known to be. All idea of righting at sea, therefore, until the schooner was launched, was out of the question, and every energy was turned to effect the latter most important ...
— The Crater • James Fenimore Cooper
... a four-pound rifled piece, which was specially made to my order by an eminent firm. It was a most beautiful little weapon, exquisitely finished; was a breech- loader, and threw a solid shot about a mile, and a shell nearly half as far again. It was mounted on a swivel or pivot, which we had the means of firmly fixing ...
— For Treasure Bound • Harry Collingwood
... backwards through one of the doorways, calling out to something that is following him. I lean over to see if he has brought his favourite dog or domestic cat, when a little infant in modernised Dutch costume comes in waddling laughingly after her parent. Another Member turns round on his swivel chair as his page-boy runs up to him, shakes him heartily by the hand, tosses him on his foot and gives him a "ride-a-cock-horse." Oh, you English sticklers for etiquette! What would you say if Mr. Labouchere came in on ...
— The Confessions of a Caricaturist, Vol 2 (of 2) • Harry Furniss
... She used to expect me to say it more often than I felt it 'So we go out!' he thought. 'No more beauty! Nothing?' Sorrowful pleasure Spirit of the future, with the charm of the unknown Surprised that he could have had so paltry an idea Swivel chairs which give one an advantage That dog was a good dog. The soundless footsteps on the grass! There was no one in any sort of authority to notice him Waves of sweetness and regret flooded his soul. Weighing ...
— Quotations from the Works of John Galsworthy • David Widger
... sail, and entered this channel, and being within the channel they anchored, and would not go farther in until they received a message from the shore, which arrived next day with two paraos: these carried certain swivel guns of metal, and a hundred men in each parao, and they brought goats and fowls and two cows, and figs and other fruit, and told them to enter farther in opposite the islands which were near there, which was the true berth; and from this position to the ...
— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 9 • Various
... to the last time the enemy cried out that he had surrendered, was exactly twenty-two minutes by the watch. She proved to be His Britannic Majesty's brig "Penguin," mounting sixteen thirty-two-pound carronades, two long twelves, a twelve-pound carronade on the top-gallant forecastle, with a swivel on the capstan ...
— The Naval History of the United States - Volume 2 (of 2) • Willis J. Abbot
... none; he put his hand in his pocket, but his knife had slipped out when he fell from the tree. He passed his hands over his waistcoat seeking for something, felt his watch—a heavy silver one—and in his fury snatched it from the swivel, and hurled it at the weasel. The watch thrown with such force missed the weasel, struck the sward, and bounded up against the oak: the glass shivered and flew sparkling a second in the sunshine; the watch glanced aside, and dropped in the grass. When he looked ...
— Wood Magic - A Fable • Richard Jefferies
... the room, not far from the open fireplace, is a long table surrounded by swivel desk-chairs. It is here that directors' meetings are sometimes held, and also where weighty matters are often discussed by Edison at conference with his closer associates. It has been the privilege of the writers to be present at some of these conferences, not only as participants, but in ...
— Edison, His Life and Inventions • Frank Lewis Dyer and Thomas Commerford Martin
... at her and went across the thick carpet to sit in his swivel chair. It was a beauty of dark green morocco that matched his Bank of England chairs and leather sofa that was against one of the walls. "What's your favorite prophecy, young ...
— The Right Time • Walter Bupp
... fort there are three swivel-guns, located in the three casemates, of about twenty quintals' weight. On the first floor over the rampart, there are seven heavy pieces, extra thick and strong at the breech. Two are of about forty quintals' weight, three varas in length and carry a ball of cast iron weighing sixteen ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, V7, 1588-1591 • Emma Helen Blair
... and though steam was put on, and every effort made to get between her and the Point, the prahu won the race, and got into shallow water where the steamer could not follow; then she opened fire on the steamer, which was returned with interest. This prahu had three long brass swivel guns, and plenty of rifles and muskets. As she was beyond the reach of the steamer, Captain Brooke turned to the second prahu, which was now fast nearing the shore. His plan was to silence the brass guns by the fire of the ...
— Sketches of Our Life at Sarawak • Harriette McDougall
... a rudder, also under control of the pilot. The pilot's feet, in a modern aeroplane, rest upon a bar working on a central swivel, and this moves the rudder. To turn to the left, the left foot is moved forward; to turn to the ...
— The Mastery of the Air • William J. Claxton
... not!" said the British Lion, yawning; "the swivel in my tail needs a few drops of oil, that ...
— Fantastic Fables • Ambrose Bierce
... of iron. The body is made of spun-yarn, or fishing-line, netted into a small mesh. Two long triangles are attached by a hinge to the two short sides of the frame, and meeting in front, at some distance from the mouth, are connected by a swivel-joint. To this the dragging rope is bent, which must be three times as long, in dredging, as the depth of the water. This is fastened to the stern of a boat under sail, and thus the bottom is raked of all ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Volume 8, No. 47, September, 1861 • Various
... of my journey to England, Captain Battleax never said a word to me about the Fixed Period. He was no doubt a gallant officer, and possessed of all necessary gifts for the management of a 250-ton steam swivel-gun; but he seemed to me to be somewhat heavy. He never even in conversation alluded to Britannula, and spoke always of the dockyard at Devonport as though I had been familiar with its every corner. He was very particular about his clothes, ...
— The Fixed Period • Anthony Trollope
... chick'n, en watermillyums, it's scuppernon's. Dey ain' nuffin dat kin stan' up side'n de scuppernon' fer sweetness; sugar ain't a suckumstance ter scuppernon'. W'en de season is nigh 'bout ober, en de grapes begin ter swivel up des a little wid de wrinkles er ole age,—w'en de skin git sof' en brown,—den de scuppernon' make you smack yo' lip en roll yo' eye en wush fer mo'; so I reckon it ain' very ...
— The Conjure Woman • Charles W. Chesnutt
... six pieces, averaging forty quintals; and two swivel-guns. We do not have them here, and it is very difficult to transport them to the wharf; so that it will be better to cast them in ...
— The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 - Volume III, 1569-1576 • E.H. Blair
... side of the plain, overlooking the river and commanding a majestic view of the Hudson and the city of Newburgh, has been likened by European travelers to a view on Lake Geneva. Here are the "swivel clevies" and 16 links of the old chain that was stretched across the river at this point. The whole chain, 1,700 feet long, weighing 186 tons, was forged at the Sterling Iron Works, transported to New Windsor and there ...
— The Hudson - Three Centuries of History, Romance and Invention • Wallace Bruce
... hid the ledge from view. After that the sun mirror was shifted until the shadow spot fell on the white patch of the station mirror. When once the station mirror was focused, it could be clamped tightly in place by screwing up the trunnion and swivel nuts. But the sun mirror had to be constantly shifted to keep the shadow on the patch. Another way of focusing the mirrors was to stand behind the instrument with the head close to the station mirror, shift the sun mirror until the entire station mirror was reflected ...
— The Scientific American Boy - The Camp at Willow Clump Island • A. Russell Bond
... "Fire a swivel with a blank charge. We'll give these weak-kneed parly-voos one more call to duty. Of course not a frog-eater of them all will come. But I said that a gun should be the signal. Possibly they didn't hear the first one, ...
— Alice of Old Vincennes • Maurice Thompson
... forward to the intercepting curtain, and drawing it aside took careful survey of the outer apartment. It was a large and handsomely furnished room, a polished mahogany writing-table littered with papers occupying a prominent position against the farther wall. A swivel chair stood beside it, and across its back hung what appeared to be a suit of clothing. I saw no other ...
— My Lady of the North • Randall Parrish
... The swivel seats, though all aslant, were practicable, and Harman was in the act of taking his place in the seat he ...
— Great Sea Stories • Various
... and the ship—not to mention the women. There's Tressady skulking below, and I have but contrived that the mutiny should come in my time rather than his and theirs. As it is, we are prepared, fifteen stout lads lie in the round-house below with musquetoon and fusee, and every gun and swivel that will bear (falconet and paterero) aimed to sweep the waist when they rush, as rush they will, Martin, when the drink hath maddened ...
— Black Bartlemy's Treasure • Jeffrey Farnol
... facts, which had so to speak to be extracted by force, varied in their details; the last, however, seemed most nearly to approach the truth. Amongst the objects picked up by the Astrolabe were an anchor weighing about 1800 pounds, a cast-iron cannon, a bronze swivel, a copper blunderbuss, some pig lead, and several other considerably damaged articles of little interest. These relics, with those collected by Dillon, are now in the Naval Museum ...
— Celebrated Travels and Travellers - Part III. The Great Explorers of the Nineteenth Century • Jules Verne
... & Tutt ran his bony fingers through the lank gray locks over his left eye and tilted ceilingward the stogy between his thin lips. Then he leaned back in his antique swivel chair, locked his hands behind his head, elevated his long legs luxuriously, and crossed his feet upon the fourth volume of the American and English Encyclopedia of Law, which lay open upon the desk at Champerty and Maintenance. ...
— Tutt and Mr. Tutt • Arthur Train
... floated over the last stockade of Spain, the furthest outpost of France, now was advancing step by step, inch by inch, up the giant flood of the Missouri, borne on the flagship of a flotilla consisting of one flatboat and two skiffs, carrying an army whose guns were one swivel ...
— The Magnificent Adventure - Being the Story of the World's Greatest Exploration and - the Romance of a Very Gallant Gentleman • Emerson Hough
... all that could be seen during such a brief stay, we said good-bye to our hospitable Manchester friends and pushed on towards our destination and in due time reached Booth Town, close to Barton moss, passing en route Old Trafford Park. Near by here we arrived at the famous swivel bridge by which the Bridgewater Canal is carried over the ...
— Through Canal-Land in a Canadian Canoe • Vincent Hughes
... him into his shiny wooden office where their damning record was kept. Dr. Quayle sat down on a swivel chair and swung round to face them. His carved smile ...
— The Ball and The Cross • G.K. Chesterton
... this day twenty years ago we overcame the hereditary enemy at Ladysmith. Our howitzers and camel swivel guns played on his lines with telling effect. Half a league onward! They charge! All is lost now! Do we yield? No! We drive them headlong! Lo! We charge! Deploying to the left our light horse swept across the heights of Plevna and, uttering their warcry Bonafide Sabaoth, sabred ...
— Ulysses • James Joyce
... strident tones of the lieutenant's modulating contralto. He had expected to see the general towering over the girl's shrinking figure, but as he entered she was bent earnestly in the middle, and the top of her torso inclined toward General Morrison, who had tilted as far back as his swivel ...
— A Fine Fix • R. C. Noll
... gave "swivel-tree" to the Princess, her side whispered, "Go easy! Do you know what it ...
— Laddie • Gene Stratton Porter
... District, appeared with all their dependants armed to oppose the people considering of their grievances; their number being so large, and the people unarmed, struck terror into most of them, and they dispersed. We are informed that Johnson-Hall is fortifying by placing a parcel of swivel-guns round the same, and that Colonel Johnson has had parts of his regiment of Militia under arms yesterday, no doubt with a design to prevent the friends of liberty from publishing their attachment to the cause to the world. Besides which we are told that about one hundred and fifty ...
— An Historical Account of the Settlements of Scotch Highlanders in America • J. P. MacLean
... fraction of a second, under levelled eyebrows, Mr. Forrester stared at young Mr. Caldwell, and then, as a sign that the interview was at an end, swung in his swivel chair and picked up his letters. Over his shoulder ...
— The White Mice • Richard Harding Davis
... appeared from the top to what would be the waist of the shape. And for the instant it took the Tiara to vanish inside, Jason saw clearly in the radiant light the profile of Lonnie's unmistakable face. Saw Lonnie's eyes swivel in the direction of the thundering echoes of their footfalls in the silence of the Fane. Saw Lonnie turn toward them, the dark line disappearing from waist to top as if ...
— Zero Data • Charles Saphro
... the state of the harbour, and recommended porting his helm, and running the Fisky ashore about opposite the brass swivel. ...
— The Marquis of Lossie • George MacDonald
... beyond the main cabin, led to the control room where three men sat in swivel chairs. The instrument board was a marvel to Dick, and he watched for several minutes. It would require months to understand even a small ...
— Wanted—7 Fearless Engineers! • Warner Van Lorne
... houses two or three small brass swivel guns may be seen in the gallery, and a small stock of powder for their service is usually kept by the chief. They are sometimes discharged to salute a distinguished visitor, and formerly played some small part in repelling ...
— The Pagan Tribes of Borneo • Charles Hose and William McDougall
... this chair were sawed off some three or four inches-thus elevating the front part of the chair and lowering the back part, giving the seat an incline toward the rear which more comfortably accommodates the body. This position approximates that of the ordinary swivel desk chair tilted back by business men when they are not leaning forward over their desks. This suggestion can be adopted very easily and cheaply in almost any home, for any ordinary chair treated in this manner will be very greatly improved, and far greater comfort will ...
— Vitality Supreme • Bernarr Macfadden
... replied the boatswain, going forwards and presently returning with a large steel hook, much about the same size as those they use in butchers' shops for hanging meat on. A piece of chain was attached to this by a swivel instead of rope or a line, which, although good enough for other fish, the saw-like teeth of the monster of the deep ...
— The White Squall - A Story of the Sargasso Sea • John Conroy Hutcheson
... of Lieutenant Cook's ship consisted of eighty-four persons besides the commander. Her victualling was for eighteen months; and there was put on board of her ten carriage and ten swivel guns, together with an ample store of ...
— Narrative of the Voyages Round The World, • A. Kippis
... barely seated himself before a new thought entered his mind. He pondered for a moment, and then swung around in the swivel-chair and faced the boy who stood waiting, ...
— The Flag • Homer Greene |
