atmospheric engine

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.

Word History and Origins

Origin of atmospheric engine¹

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an atmospheric engine; for though steam was employed, it formed no essential feature of the contrivance, and might have been replaced by an air-pump.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

He invented the atmospheric engine in 1690.

From Project Gutenberg