tympan

American  

[tim-puhn] / ˈtɪm pən /

noun

1. Printing. a padlike device interposed between the platen or its equivalent and the sheet to be printed, in order to soften and equalize the pressure.

2. tympanum.

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tympan British  

/ ˈtɪmpən /

noun

1. a membrane stretched over a frame or resonating cylinder, bowl, etc

2. printing packing interposed on a hand-operated text between the platen and the paper to be printed in order to provide an even impression

3. architect another name for tympanum

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Etymology

Origin of tympan

before 900; Middle English: drum, Old English < Latin tympanum tympanum

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

tympan

An eighteenth-century doorway had been added to it, and the tympan of the pediment was quite filled up with hanging plants.

From Wanderings by southern waters, eastern Aquitaine by Edward Harrison Barker

Mechanisms are employed to move the "tympan sheet" or outside covering of the second cylinder along at fixed intervals, but they are complicated and troublesome.

From The Building of a Book A Series of Practical Articles Written by Experts in the Various Departments of Book Making and Distributing by Frederick H. Hitchcock

This façade is of the fifteenth century and on the tympan of the dormer windows one may still see the monogram of its builder, Cottereau.

From Royal Palaces and Parks of France by Blanche McManus

It consisted of a table, along which the forme of type, furnished with a tympan and frisket, was pushed by hand.

From Men of Invention and Industry by Samuel Smiles

Over the cylinder is supported a diaphragm or tympan T, provided with a conical mouthpiece M for speaking into.

From The Story of Electricity by John Munro

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