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air engine

British  

noun

  1. an engine that uses the expansion of heated air to drive a piston

  2. a small engine that uses compressed air to drive a piston

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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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 only real practical advance made in this matter is M. Mékarski's compressed air engine for tramways.

From Scientific American Supplement, No. 275, April 9, 1881 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)

We passed through the engine room where mechanics were at work on the damaged liquid air engine.

From City of Endless Night by Hastings, Milo M. (Milo Milton)

It is recorded that Amontons of France, in 1699, had an atmospheric fire wheel or air engine in which a heated column of air was made to drive a wheel.

From Inventions in the Century by Doolittle, William Henry

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