The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Bar

BAR. In heraldry, one of the charges known as ordinaries. It is formed by two horizontal lines passing over the shield and occupying one-fifth of the surface.

In hydrography, a barrier of sand in the channel of a river or along the seacoast. Rivers are constantly engaged in the transportation of sediment seaward, and whenever the current is checked the suspended material sinks and accumulates along the bottom. Bars thus formed may disappear during periods of floods when the water gains increased velocity, and they frequently change their position with slight alterations in the course of the current. Sand-bars are also common at the mouths of rivers where the flow of the water, and therefore its transporting power, is lessened before entering the sea. The precipitation of the sediment is assisted in this case by the mingling of the fresh and saline water. The formation of such bars does not differ from that of a delta. The transporting action of currents and waves sometimes builds up a long line of bars or reefs along the seacoast, as is seen on the Atlantic and Gulf shores of the United States. See Reef.

In law, a word having several meanings; thus, it is the term used to signify an enclosure or fixed place in a court of justice where lawyers may plead. In Enghsh superior courts King's counsel are admitted within the bar; other members of the bar sit or stand outside. A railed-off space within the Houses of Lords and Commons is similarly called the bar. The dock, or enclosed space, where accused persons stand or sit during their trial is also called the bar; hence the expression “prisoner at the bar.” It has also a general meaning in legal procedure, signifying something by way of stoppage or prevention. There is also a trial at bar — that is, a trial before the judges of a particular court, who sit together for that purpose in hanc. The term is used both in England and the United States as a synonym for the legal profession.

In music, a line drawn vertically across the staff, for the purpose of dividing the music into equal measures of time. The term is very often improperly applied to measures themselves. The quantity of time included between two bars varies as the time is triple or common, the farmer being equivalent to three crotchets and the latter to four. The thick bar at the end of a piece of music is called the double bar. Bars were first used about the middle of the 15th century. See Measure.