air engine

British  

noun

1. an engine that uses the expansion of heated air to drive a piston

2. a small engine that uses compressed air to drive a piston

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Example Sentences

The essentials of the air engine are extremely simple: a "hot space" heated by an external firebox, a "cold space" cooled by water or air, and two pistons.

From Time Magazine Archive

We passed through the engine room where mechanics were at work on the damaged liquid air engine.

From City of Endless Night by Hastings, Milo M. (Milo Milton)

It is recorded that Amontons of France, in 1699, had an atmospheric fire wheel or air engine in which a heated column of air was made to drive a wheel.

From Inventions in the Century by Doolittle, William Henry

The hot air engine, although theoretically recognized for some time past as the most economical means of converting heat into motive power, has up to the present met with little success.

From Scientific American Supplement, No. 623, December 10, 1887 by Various

With the exception of the English lime, all grout was mixed 1 to 1 with sand in a Cockburn continuous-stirring machine operated by a 3-cylinder air engine.

From Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers, vol. LXVIII, Sept. 1910 The New York Tunnel Extension of the Pennsylvania Railroad. The East River Tunnels. Paper No. 1159 by Brace, James H.