single-acting

[sing-guhl-ak-ting]

adjective

1. (of a reciprocating engine, pump, etc.) having pistons accomplishing work only in one direction.

single-acting

adjective

1. (of a reciprocating engine or pump) having a piston or pistons that are pressurized on one side only Compare double-acting

Word History and Origins

Origin of single-acting¹

First recorded in 1815–25

Example Sentences

The conclusion: With technology accelerating at a pace faster than that of birth years, we cannot simply package vast age groups and label them as single-acting cohorts.

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In large, single-acting gas-engines, a considerable displacement of air is thus produced.

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This is particularly true of the single-acting engines so widely used for horse-powers less than 100 to 150.

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The English Westinghouse Co. have also designed large gas engines, and they exhibited a very interesting vertical multiple cylinder gas engine having four cranks and eight single-acting cylinders, four pairs, in tandem, at the Franco-British Exhibition of 1908; it gave 750 h.p., and the pistons were not watered.

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The important epochs in the invention of pumps, ending with the 18th century, were thus the single-acting pump of Ctesibius, 225 B. C., the double-acting of La Hire in 1718, the hydraulic ram of Whitehurst, 1772, and the hydraulic press of Bramah of 1795-1802.

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