vacuum brake

British

noun

a brake system, used on British and many overseas railways, in which the brake is held off by a vacuum on one side of the brake-operating cylinder. If the vacuum is destroyed by controlled leakage of air or a disruptive emergency, the brake is applied. It is now largely superseded by the Westinghouse brake system

"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

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.

These wheels form excellent examples, because of the excessive duty to which they are subjected by reason of the frequency of their stoppage under the pressure of the vacuum brake.

From Project Gutenberg

It seems that on the train reaching the top of the bank, there was an explosion of dynamite in front of the engine, upon which the driver applied the vacuum brake; he then tried to run back, but, after climbing the hill, he had no steam left to blow off the vacuum and so release the brakes, and then, hearing another explosion in rear, he and the fireman jumped and ran, the former going north and the latter south.

From Project Gutenberg

New York Air Brake, founded in Watertown, N. Y. about 50 years ago to turn out a vacuum brake, got involved in patent squabbles with George Westinghouse, and the upshot was an agreement whereby New York made Westinghouse brakes under license.

From Time Magazine Archive

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023