John Weeks Moore, Complete Encyclopaedia of Music… (1880)
“ Bar, or BARS. A bar is a line drawn through the staff at right angles to the staff it-self, for the purpose of dividing the notes into equal measures of time. By the aid of the bar, an orchestra or band, however numerous, is regulated and held together. It is by the aid of the bar, also, that the composer figures to us the correspondence of the parts of his score. ”
