Floor
in building, the surface on which a person walks in a room or house.
It may be of masonry, brick, tiles, concrete, earth, boards. The term usually refers to boards laid close together, and nailed to timbers which are termed joists.
A single floor is one in which the joists pass from side to side of the house, resting upon wall-plates and sustaining the floor above, and the ceiling of the room below. A double floor is one in which the primary timbers are binders which rest upon the wall-plates, and support the floor or bridging joists and the ceiling joists. A framed floor has an additional member, which assumes the primary position. The girder rests on the wallplates and supports the binding joists, whose ends rest thereupon. The binding joists support the bridging or floor joists and the ceiling joists, as before described.
In geology and archæology, the part of a cavern corresponding in situation to the floor of a house. As a nautical term the bottom part of the hold on each side of the keelson; the flat portion of a vessel's hold. In hydraulic engineering, the inner piece of the two which together form the bucket of an overshot water wheel. In mining, the bottom of a coal seam; the underlay on which the coal, lead, or iron ore rests. To take the floor:
To rise to address a public meeting; also to stand up to dance (Irish).
FLOQUET FLORENCE