a. [f. SPARK sb.1 + -LESS.] Free from or devoid of sparks; emitting no sparks.
1821. Shelley, Adonais, xl. Nor, when the spirit’s self has ceased to burn, With sparkless ashes load an unlamented urn.
1851. Mrs. Browning, Casa Guidi Wind., II. 290. Like an anvil black And sparkless.
1881. Standard, 14 Sept., 3/1. The engine should be … smokeless, as noiseless as possible, but sparkless is imperative.
b. spec. in Electr.
c. 1865. Wylde’s Circ. Sciences, I. 272/1. The relays are ‘sparkless.’
1890. Telegr. Jrnl., 21 Feb., 203/2. The impossibility of making a sparkless commutator.
Hence Sparklessly adv.
1891. in Cent. Dict.
