recuperator

[ ri-koo-puh-rey-ter, -kyoo- ]

noun

1. a person or thing that recuperates.
2. (in a recuperative furnace) a system of thin-walled ducts through which incoming air and exhausted gases pass separately so that the air is heated by the gases.

recuperator

/ rɪˈkuːpəˌreɪtə; -ˈkjuː- /

noun

1. a person that recuperates
2. a device employing springs or pneumatic power to return a gun to the firing position after the recoil
3. chemical engineering a system of flues that transfers heat from the hot gases leaving a furnace to the incoming air

Word History and Origins

Origin of recuperator¹

1700–10; < Latin recuperātor regainer, equivalent to recuperā ( re ) to recover ( recuperate ) + -tor -tor

Example Sentences

He quotes with approval from one of his favourite obscure authors – Gray is a great recuperator of lost reputations – the cheerful unbeliever Llewelyn Powys, who confessed that when he visits "an old grey church" and kneels amid the "curious peace of the place" he feels half inclined to believe: "Why not?"

From The Guardian

By the discipline of such a system of exercise knowledge will gradually become the foundation of reason, judgment the guide of fancy, conscience the controller of the passions, the vital or gains the recuperator of the physical and mental faculties; a healthy reciprocity and modifying action will be maintained between all the powers, and that equilibrium engendered which is peace; that condensation which is energy; and that perfection which is essential to genius.

From Project Gutenberg

In both cases not merely is a saving effected of all the calories which are abstracted by the cold air from the recuperator, but as less fuel has to be burned to get a given effect, the quantity of smoke gas is reduced.

From Project Gutenberg

In some systems the gas made during the blowing-up stage is passed through chambers, loosely filled with bricks, like Siemens recuperators, where it is burned by “secondary” air: the heat thus imparted to the brickwork is utilized by passing through the recuperator, and thus superheating, the steam required for the next steaming operation.

From Project Gutenberg

First section, the gun carriage; second, the gun cradle; third, the immense recoil and recuperator gear; fourth, incidental equipment of the gun; and fifth, the gun barrel which appeared to be some 45 feet long with a calibre of ten inches.

From Time Magazine Archive