a. [f. ATMOSPHERE sb. + -IC; cf. Gr. σφαιρικός.]
1. Of the nature of, or forming, the atmosphere.
1783. T. Henry (title), Effects produced by various Processes on Atmospheric Air.
1860. Maury, Phys. Geog. Sea, vi. § 346. The earth itself, or the atmospheric envelope by which it is surrounded.
2. Existing, taking place, or acting in the air.
1835. Penny Cycl., III. 36/2. The action of the sun and moon must produce certain small atmospheric tides.
1872. Black, Adv. Phaeton, xxi. 301. The wildest atmospheric effects became visible.
1876. Page, Advd. Text-bk. Geol., ii. 43. There would have been … greater atmospheric moisture.
3. Caused, produced or worked by the action of the atmosphere.
Atmospheric engine, a steam-engine in which the piston was forced down by the pressure of the atmosphere, after the condensation of the steam that caused it to rise. Atmospheric line, the equilibrium line on the indicator-card of a steam-engine. Atmospheric pressure, that exerted by the atmosphere on the earth’s surface, 14.7 (roughly 15) lbs. to the square inch. Atmospheric railway, one worked by the propulsive force of compressed air or by the formation of a vacuum; a pneumatic railway.
1822. Burrowes, Cycl., X. 229/2. The atmospheric engine of Newcomen.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., viii. (1856), 61. The Polar glacier must be regarded as strictly atmospheric in its increments.
