[f. SPRING sb.1 or v.1] The distinctive name of certain strong timbers forming part of the fittings of an engine or paddle-box.
Other senses are recorded by Knight, Dict. Mech.
a. 1797. J. Curr, Coal Viewer, 61. Allow proper height for the inside spring beams … and about 6 inches for the springs.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 180. In engines used for this purpose there are two pieces of wood, called spring-beams, placed across each end of the beam.
1883. Gresley, Gloss. Coal-mining, 232. Spring beams, two stout parallel timber beams built into a Cornish pumping-engine-house, nearly on a level with the engine beam.
b. 1843. Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl., VI. 70/1. They have no connexion with the spring-beam or frame of the paddle-boxes.
1846. A. Young, Naut. Dict., 310. The projecting ends of the paddle-beams with a fore and aft beam of wood fitted between them, called a spring beam.
