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steam engine

noun

  1. an engine worked by steam, typically one in which a sliding piston in a cylinder is moved by the expansive action of the steam generated in a boiler.


steam-engine

noun

  1. an engine that uses the thermal energy of steam to produce mechanical work, esp one in which steam from a boiler is expanded in a cylinder to drive a reciprocating 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


steam engine

  1. An engine in which the energy of hot steam is converted into mechanical power, especially an engine in which the force of expanding steam is used to drive one or more pistons. The source of the steam is typically external to the part of the machine that converts the steam energy into mechanical energy.


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Other Words From

  • steam-engine adjective
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Word History and Origins

Origin of steam engine1

First recorded in 1745–55
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Example Sentences

Instead, technology investments must be combined with even larger investments in new business processes, skills, and other types of intangible capital before breakthroughs as diverse as the steam engine or computers ultimately boost productivity.

The engineers of the 18th and 19th centuries did not wait until physicists had sorted out the laws of thermodynamics before they built steam engines.

Another significant counterfactual property of physical systems, central to thermodynamics, is that a steam engine is possible.

The possibility of building a steam engine, which existed long before the first one was actually built, is a counterfactual.

For example, the whole field of thermodynamics, and the idea of entropy, arose in part from trying to build better steam engines.

And the steam engine that powered the reciprocating motion of the sphere was located in a separate room from the patient.

My guess is that the death of Paterno will pump that steam engine even more.

His letter of a few months before reveals the facility with which he moulded the steam-engine to his requirements.

I am very glad you have succeeded with your portable steam-engine, and am persuaded they will be more and more adopted.

The economy of heat in smelting furnaces and in the arated steam-engine were bold means to large results.

The drawing shows the simplicity of parts of this highly expansive steam-engine, beginning the up-stroke with steam of 100 lbs.

This most simple steam-engine combined in the greatest degree the two elements of expansion and momentum.

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