air engine
Britishnoun
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an engine that uses the expansion of heated air to drive a piston
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a small engine that uses compressed air to drive a piston
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The essentials of the air engine are extremely simple: a "hot space" heated by an external firebox, a "cold space" cooled by water or air, and two pistons.
From Time Magazine Archive
The hot air engine, although theoretically recognized for some time past as the most economical means of converting heat into motive power, has up to the present met with little success.
From Scientific American Supplement, No. 623, December 10, 1887 by Various
Herring made for this a compressed air engine and claimed that with this he accomplished a flight of seventy-three feet.
From Story of the Aeroplane by Galbreath, C. B. (Charles Burleigh)
Rowan 0.75 Compressed air 1.06 Wilkinson 5.89 Krauss 6.52 Thus, owing to the large proportion of water returned from the condenser to the tanks, the Rowan actually used less water than the compressed air engine.
From Scientific American Supplement, No. 530, February 27, 1886 by Various
A. For small powers the hot air engine is most economical, but we do not think it adapted to your purpose.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
