Engineering Dictionary

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An alphabetical listing of General terms and items.

K   Dico Tools
When referring to memory capacity, two to the tenth power (1024 in decimal notation).


Kaiserburg   Dico Tools
The German imperial castle of the 12th and 13th centuries. (G. kaiser, emperor; burg, castle).


Kastron   Dico Tools
A late Byzantine fortified town.


Keel   Dico Tools
The pointed base of a fortifications walls. See battered base, plinth, spur, talus.


Keep   Dico Tools
The English term for a donjon; the inner tower of a castle, usually the strongest, used by the besieged as the last refuge tower. By the 12th century it was used as more of a residence for the lord or castellan. See hall keep, shell keep, keep house, tower keep.


Keep & Bailey Castle   Dico Tools
The castle which was developed from the motte & bailey castle of the Normans, dating from the late 12th and early 13th centuries. Consisting of a stone keep surrounded by a walled enclosure, the keep either incorporated or replaced the motte. Two types of keeps were used and they were; the shell keep and the square keep. This kind of castle however did not present a co-ordinated defensive system and thus had a noticeable military weakness. Once the bailey was taken by an enemy, the next part of the operation was to take the keep. The operation was made easier by the fact that the two components did not support each other; once the bailey fell to the enemy, all the enemy's forces could then be concentrated on the keep. See bailey, keep, motte, shell keep, square keep.


Keep Gatehouse   Dico Tools
A forework designed to act as the defensive kernel of a concentric fortress, as opposed to a keep. It was strong enough to hold out independently when all else had fallen. Typical of the Edwardian concentric castles. See great gatehouse.


Keep House   Dico Tools
A keep containing all the living quarters as well as being a serviceable defensive fortification. See keep.


Keepless Castle   Dico Tools
A castle introduced by the Crusaders, which consisted of a strong curtain wall provided with powerful flanking towers, a well defended entrance, and no actual keep. See quadrangular keep.


Kelvin   Dico Tools
Symbol K. The unit of absolute or thermodynamic temperature scale based upon the Celsius scale with 100 units between the ice point and boiling point of water. 0 C = 273.15K


Kernmotte   Dico Tools
A transitional motte, where a motte was added to a already existing ringwork, the ringwork became the bailey. See motte.


Keyhole Gun Port   Dico Tools
A gun port shaped like an inverted keyhole, with a round hole for the gun at its base, and above it was a slit used for sighting and as a vent for the gases produced from the firing the cannon. See gun loop, gun port, loop, port.


Ki   Dico Tools
An early form of Japanese fortification.


Killing Ground   Dico Tools
An area surrounding or part of a fortification, which was deliberately kept clear to deprive an enemy of any cover, thus exposing the enemy to a greater amount of fire. See glacis, independent curtain walls.


Kilowatt (kw)   Dico Tools
Equivalent to 1000 watts.


Kilowatt Hour (kwh)   Dico Tools
1000 watthours. Kilovolt amperes (kva)


Kinetic Energy   Dico Tools
Energy associated with mass in motion, i.e., 1/2 rV2 where r is the density of the moving mass and V is its velocity.


Klinkett   Dico Tools
A small gate in the palisade enclosing a fortification.


Kôgo-ishi   Dico Tools
An early Japanese fortification, dating from the 4th to the 6th century, consisting of rows of stones encircling a hilltop periodically interspersed with gateways and sluices, these defences reinforced the natural defences of the site.


Korai Mon   Dico Tools
The smaller initial gate of a masugata mon or barbican gatehouse complex of a Japanese castle, consisting of a three roofed structure (a central roof was flanked by another two roofs). This gate restricted access to the courtyard beyond, and if the enemy did gain entry to the courtyard they would be confined within that space and would be exposed to the fire of the defenders.


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Kremlin   Dico Tools
The citadel of a Russian town made of earth and timber, such as Novgorod or Moscow.


Kurawa   Dico Tools
A general term meaning a Japanese castles compound or enclosure. See honmaru, ninomaru, sannomaru.


Kushk   Dico Tools
A fortified rural villa of the Sugd.


KVA   Dico Tools
Kilovolt amperes (1000-volt amps).



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