atmospheric engine

American  

noun

1. an early form of single-acting engine in which the power stroke is provided by atmospheric pressure acting upon a piston in an exhausted cylinder.

---

Etymology

Origin of atmospheric engine

First recorded in 1815–25

Example Sentences

Heat like that does not dissipate right away, but hangs around, keeping the atmospheric engine primed when hurricane season begins.

From Time

Atmospher′ically.—Atmospheric engine, a variety of steam-engine in which the steam is admitted only to the under side of the piston; Atmospheric hammer, a hammer driven by means of compressed air; Atmospheric railway, a railway where the motive-power is derived from the pressure of the atmosphere acting on a piston working in an iron tube of uniform bore.

From Project Gutenberg

In tracing this lineage of inventive genius, we next come to Thomas Newcomen, a blacksmith, who carried out the principle of the piston in his Atmospheric Engine, for which he took out a patent in 1705.

From Project Gutenberg

Properly speaking, Newcomen's engine was not a steam, but an atmospheric engine; for though steam was employed, it formed no essential feature of the contrivance, and might have been replaced by an air-pump.

From Project Gutenberg

Some crude engines were made in Watt's time, the best being that of Thomas Newcomen, called an atmospheric engine, and used in raising water from coal-mines.

From Project Gutenberg