forebeam

English

Etymology

fore- +‎ beam

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -iːm

Noun

forebeam (plural forebeams)

1. The breast beam of a loom.
   • 1861, William B. Dana, The Merchants' Magazine and Commercial Review, page 377:

     They are sustained at bottom with other strong pieces of wood in the manner of trestles; and, to keep them the firmer, they are likewise fastened to the floor with a kind of buttresses, which prevent any shaking, though there are sometimes four or five workmen leaning on the forebeam at once.

   • 2007, Markham (Mark) Geller, Mineke Schipper, Imagining Creation, page 253:

     {Just like the cloth that goes} from this side {of the loom, from the yarn-beam}, to that side over there {to the forebeam}, winding on there, and winding off here.

   • 2004, Nikolaĭ Nikov, Holidays of the Bulgarians in Myths and Legends, page 58:

     On the tenth year Frya's sister took the forebeam from the loom, put the rolling-pin crosswise and wrapped it with a baby bundle.

2. (nautical) A horizontal spar across the bow of some sailing vessels, used to stabilize the hulls of a catamaran, to secure a bowsprit, or to tie down the tack when there is no bowsprit.
   • 1634 July 13, Thomas Young, Letter of Captain Thomas Young to Sir Toby Matthew:

     And herein also her forebeam to which her bowsprit was fastened, cracked clean insunder; and some of her timbers likeways in the hold we found defective.

   • 1880, Annual Report of the Chief Signal Officer of the Army to the Secretary of War for the year 1879, page 753:

     Schooner Ketcham returned to Chicago with foretopmast gone and forebeam sprung.

   • 1975, Bob Ross, Introduction to Yacht Racing, page 111:

     Turns of shock cord, securing tack to centre of forebeam, stretch as the wind increases. This allows the jib to move up, frees the halyard slightly so the tack and peak move away from forestay.

   • 1977 February, Ben Kocivar, “How to get started in hot-rod sailing”, in Popular Science, volume 210, number 2, page 111:

     The advanced design of new cats makes pitchpoling less likely. The treacherous forebeam is gone, and the new hulls have been engineered stronger to resist twisting under stress.

   • 2018, Gavin Le Sueur, Multihull Seamanship:

     If using an all-chain system, then also utilise rope with the stretch in the bridle arms and have a 'lazy loop' of chain to act as a catenary between the bridle attachment and the forebeam. The minimum length of anchor line should be five times the height from the forebeam to the bottom at high tide.

3. (robotics) The support section of a robot arm that goes from the main body of the robot to the gripper.
   • 2010, Reza N. Jazar, Theory of Applied Robotics: Kinematics, Dynamics, and Control, page 5:

     The joints in the kinematic chain of a robot between the forebeam and end-effector are referred to as the wrist.

4. The leading portion of a remote signal from a moving source.
   • 1972, Sea Surface Topography from Space: Proceedings, pages 14-8:

     The upwind forebeam data, for F9L1R19 (flight 9, line 1 and run 19), F2L1R1 and F3L1R1, the corresponding surface wind velocities are 6 knots, 22.5 knots, and 33 knots respectively, were processed.

   • 1994, IGARSS '94: International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, page 2480:

     The signal is delivered and analysed by three sideways looking antennae; one pointing normal to the satellite flight path (midbeam antenna) and the two others pointing 45° forward (forebeam antenna) and 45° backward (aftbeam antenna) respectively (Francis et al, 1991).

   • 2002, Rajendra Kumar Gupta, Ramesh P. Singh, Yves Ménard, Land Surface Characterization and Remote Sensing of Ocean Processes, page 52:

     The monthly averaged backscattering coefficient for forebeam over Indian sub-continent for the year 1998 have been carried out.