This is an online resource containing the names of types, or ‘classes’, of object. These generic names are routinely used by museums when cataloguing their collections as values for the ‘Object name’, or just ‘Simple name’, field. They usefully group together sets of similar objects.
The main problem with these ‘simple names’ is that they lack definitions. This means that everyone using these terms makes their own judgement as to what types of object each term covers. If it’s a specialist term, many people will have no idea what it means. This resource includes some definitions which we have gleaned from Wikipedia (actually from DBpedia, its Linked Data cousin), where our term matches a DBpedia heading exactly. Some of these will be ‘false friends’: “agitator” is a good example.
Here is your challenge: we want the Modes community to provide definitions for the terms which lack them, and to augment the Wikipedia definitions with more museum-oriented ones where necessary. You will need to ‘log in’ to WordPress before you can add your definitions.
Use the search box below to find terms.
abacus
- Definition:
- The abacus (plural abaci or abacuses), also called a counting frame, is a calculating tool that was in use centuries before the adoption of the written modern numeral system and is still widely used by merchants, traders and clerks in Asia, Africa, and elsewhere. Today, abaci are often constructed as a bamboo frame with beads sliding on wires, but originally they were beans or stones moved in grooves in sand or on tablets of wood, stone, or metal. The user of an abacus is called an abacist.
- See also:
- http://dbpedia.org/resource/Abacus
accordion
- Definition:
- Accordions (from 19th century German Akkordion, from Akkord - "musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type, colloquially referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist. The concertina and bandoneón are related; the harmonium and American reed organ are in the same family.The instrument is played by compressing or expanding the bellows while pressing buttons or keys, causing valves, called pallets, to open, which allow air to flow across strips of brass or steel, called reeds, that vibrate to produce sound inside the body. The performer normally plays the melody on buttons or keys on the right-hand manual, and the accompaniment, consisting of bass and pre-set chord buttons, on the left-hand manual.The accordion is widely spread across the world. In some countries (for example Brazil, Colombia and Mexico) it is used in pop music (for example Sertanejo and B-Pop in Brazil), whereas in other regions (such as Europe, North America other countries in South America) it tends to be more restricted to folk music and as well as in regional and is often used in folk music in Europe, North America and South America. Nevertheless, in Europe and North America, some popular music acts also make use of the instrument. Additionally, the accordion is also used in jazz music and in both solo and orchestra performances of classical music.The oldest name for this group of instruments is harmonika, from the Greek harmonikos, meaning harmonic, musical. Today, native versions of the name accordion are more common. These names refer to the type of accordion patented by Cyrill Demian, which concerned "automatically coupled chords on the bass side".
- See also:
- http://dbpedia.org/resource/Accordion
actuator
- Definition:
- An actuator is a type of motor that is responsible for moving or controlling a mechanism or system.It is operated by a source of energy, typically electric current, hydraulic fluid pressure, or pneumatic pressure, and converts that energy into motion. An actuator is the mechanism by which a control system acts upon an environment. The control system can be simple (a fixed mechanical or electronic system), software-based (e.g. a printer driver, robot control system), a human, or any other input.
- See also:
- http://dbpedia.org/resource/Actuator
adapter
- Definition:
- An adapter or adaptor is a device that converts attributes of one device or system to those of an otherwise incompatible device or system. The term is often used to refer to AC adapters.Some adapters may only affect physical attributes: An electrical adapter may enable connection of a socket used in one region to a plug used in another by offering connections for the disparate contact arrangements, while not changing the voltage. For more, see: AC power plugs and sockets. A garden hose adapter can convert between threads and quick-release, "snap"-type connections. One kind of serial port adapter enables connections between 25-contact and nine-contact connectors, but does not affect electrical power- and signalling-related attributes.Other adapters may affect electrical attributes: An AC adapter, also called a recharger (a kind of transformer) adapts household electric current from high voltage (100 to 240 volts AC) to low voltage suitable for consumer electronics. These adapters will warm through converting alternating current to direct current, but are safe to the environment and can withstand months of continuous prolonged activity.↑
- See also:
- http://dbpedia.org/resource/Adapter