Water is a conductant.

As she drew nigh, all eyes were fixed upon her broad beams, called shears, which, in some whaling-ships, cross the quarter-deck at the height of eight or nine feet; serving to carry the spare, unrigged, or disabled boats.

The megger, as the director is known to the motion picture industry's trade journals, has to be a sort of reservoir of knowledge, know-how, residual bits of information on all subjects and techniques.

Without some power of persuading or confuting, of defending himself against accusations, […] no man could possibly hold an ascendent position.