a. Also 6 -all. [formed as prec. + -AL.]
† 1. Pertaining to the action or process of weighing: = STATIC a. 1. Obs.
Statical baroscope: a baroscope in which the varying weight of the air was rendered observable by the movements of a balance; so statical hygroscope. Statical chair = static chair: see STATIC a. 1.
1570. Dee, Math. Pref., c j b, marg. The practise Staticall, to know the proportion, betwene the Cube, and the Sphære.
1578. W. Bourne, Treas. Trav., IV. 6. I wyll shewe vnto you a more pleasaunter … waye (by the Arte Staticall) … for to know the true wayghte of any Shyp.
1666. Boyle, in Phil. Trans., I. 233. So that I had oftentimes the satisfaction by looking first upon the Statical Baroscope (as for distinctions sake it may be call’d) to foretell, whether in the Mercurial Baroscope the Liquor were high or low.
1669. Phil. Trans., IV. 897. The Ingenious Sanctorius hath not exhausted all the results of Statical Indications.
1673. Boyle (title), A Statical Hygroscope Proposed to be further tryed.
1732. Arbuthnot, Rules of Diet, in Aliments, etc. I. 401. If such a one by a statical Engine could regulate his insensible Perspiration … he might often … shorten his fit.
1753. Chambers’ Cycl., Suppl., Statical is sometimes applied in a peculiar sense to the experiments made as to the quantity of perspiration and other excretions of the human body.
1779. J. Adams, Wks. (1854), IX. 508. Suppose you should make a statical chair, and try whether perspiration is most copious in a warm bed, or stark naked in the open air.
1780. Mirror, No. 79. To devise … some … statical balance which should shew the difference of weight and solidity of such objects as have a similar appearance.
2. Of or pertaining to STATICS.
1660. Boyle, New Exp. Phys. Mech., xxxvi. 299. The Atmosphere may … for ought can be determin’d by our Statical and Mechanical Experiments, rise to the height of Five and twenty German Leagues. Ibid. (1685), Free Enq., 253. This Ascension is made … by the Pressure of the Atmosphere, acting upon the Water, according to Statical Rules.
1820. Shelley, Let. Maria Gisborne, 83. Then comes a range of mathematical Instruments, for plans nautical and statical.
a. 1878. Sir G. Scott, Lect. Archit. (1879), I. 61. A careful study of the monuments in which it [the pointed arch] is first systematically used clearly shows that its introduction was from statical, and neither geometrical nor merely æsthetical motives.
1880. Nature, XXI. 369. Any true theory of the constitution of the ether would be something totally different from statical theories of this kind.
† b. ? transf. (Sense obscure.) Obs. rare.
a. 1656. Hales, Gold. Rem. (1673), 271. There are in Story two things especially considerable. First, the Order of the Story it self: and secondly, Moral, or Statical observations, for common life and practise.
† 3. Pertaining to weight or the equilibrium of weight. Obs.
1714. Parkyns, Inn-Play (ed. 2), 23. For all other Statical Motions of humane Bodies, such as are curious may find them abridg’d, from Alphonsus Borellus [Quotation follows].
† b. Of analysis, etc.: Gravimetrical. Obs.
1727. S. Hales, Statical Ess., Introd. (1731), 2. The most considerable and rational accounts of it [the animal œconomy] have been chiefly owing to the statical examination of its fluids.
1784. J. Richardson (title), Statical Estimates of the materials of Brewing.
1813. Sir H. Davy, Agric. Chem., i. (1814), 14. The true statical analysis of the atmosphere is comparatively a recent labour.
c. Pertaining to the metrology of weight. Cf. STATIC sb. 2.
1846. Grote, Greece, II. iv. II. 425. The … information contained in M. Boeckh’s recent publication on Metrology has thrown new light upon these monetary and statical scales.
4. Of or pertaining to forces in equilibrium or the condition of rest in bodies. Of forces: Operating to produce or maintain equilibrium.
1802. Playfair, Illustr. Huttonian Theory, 43. Whenever, therefore, we meet with rocks, disposed in layers quite parallel to one another, we may rest assured, that … no cause has interrupted the statical tendency above explained.
1830. Lyell, Princ. Geol., II. xviii. (1835), II. 352. Let us, however, concede that the statical figure [of the earth] may be a modification of some other pre-existing form.
1837. Whewell, Hist. Induct. Sci. (1857), II. 13. This includes the principle of the Composition of Statical Forces.
1839. G. Roberts, Dict. Geol., Statical Figure..., the figure which results from the equilibrium of forces.
1867. Thomson & Tait, Treat. Nat. Philos., I. § 451. 340. This, which is called Statical Friction, is thus capable of opposing a tangential resistance to motion which may be of any requisite amount up to μR.
1868. H. Spencer, Princ. Psychol. (1872), II. VI. xi. 141. The statical attributes shape, size and position.
1869. J. Martineau, Ess., II. 167. All forces … are dynamical … till … they become statical.
1871. B. Stewart, Heat, § 195. The equilibrium suggested by Prevost is not therefore a statical or tensional equilibrium … but it is essentially an equilibrium of action.
1889. Welch, Text Bk. Naval Archit., ii. 22. This effort of the ship to right herself when inclined at any angle, is called her statical stability at that angle.
b. Applied to frictional electricity: = STATIC a. 3 b.
1837. Faraday, in Phil. Trans., CXXVIII. 20. Inductive effects produced by electricity, not in currents, but in its statical state.
1845. Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc., IV. 208. Statical induction takes place at great distances.
1849. Noad, Electricity (ed. 3), 187. The intensity of voltaic Electricity, as compared with statical, is exceedingly low.
1870. R. M. Ferguson, Electricity, 107. Galvanic electricity … can be made to manifest the attractions and repulsions of statical electricity.
c. Statical chemistry: see quot.
1866. Odling, Anim. Chem., i. 1 (heading), Statical chemistry concerned only with the composition of parts…. Dynamical chemistry concerned with the changes of composition undergone by various parts from time to time.
5. transf. and fig. Of or pertaining to a fixed or stable condition, as distinguished from a state of progress or change.
1855. G. Brimley, Ess. (1858), 196. Of all science viewed in its statical aspect, apart from the experience of change and the idea of cause, this classification, naming, and definition are the ultimate processes.
1874. Fiske, Cosmic Philos., II. 371. The crude philosophies current … take what we may call a statical view of things. Hence they suppose that God created the world a few thousand years ago in nearly the same condition in which we now behold it.
1885. Maine, Pop. Govt., 47. The fund by which the life of the human race and each particular society is sustained, is never in a statical condition.
6. Math. Concerned with magnitude alone, without regard to direction. rare.
1859. A. J. Ellis, in Proc. R. Soc., X. 87. The object of the statical algebra of fractions is to reduce all combinations of numerical fractions to numerical fractions…. This algebra applied to geometry allows of the investigation of all statical relations.
7. Med. Structural, organic.
1896. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., I. 236. In most cases, however, our power to remove a cause by drugs ceases as soon as it consists of definite statical tissue change. Ibid. (1898), V. 481. We have in this chapter to deal with anæmia in its dynamical rather than in its statical aspects.
