tympan

A piece of cloth padding placed under the platen of a letterpress to distribute the pressure on the sheet being printed.

As the pressman returns the inkballs to the inkstone, the journeyman closes the frisket and tympan.

The stretched membrane of a drum.

A percussion instrument consisting of a hollow cylinder with such a membrane at each end.

A tympanum.

The tympanum of the ear.

But soon I grew used to these sounds, and then I understood as well as ever, that is to say fully one half of what won its way past my tympan.