Forms: 1 stéam, stém, stíem, 4 stem, 4–5 steme, 5–7 steeme, 5–8 steem, 6–7 steame, 7– steam. [OE. stéam = WFris. steam, Du. stoom:—OTeut. type *staumo-z, of obscure origin.]
I. 1. A vapor or fume given out by a substance when heated or burned.
In this and following senses the word was freq. used in the pl. down to c. 1800.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 284. Man pintreow bærne to gledum … and onfo ðam steme.
1660. Boyle, New Exp. Phys. Mech., xi. 80. The stifling steams of the Coals.
1668. Culpepper & Cole, Barthol. Anat., II. ix. 119. The steam of newly whited Walls.
1669. Beale, in Phil. Trans., IV. 1113. The steams of the Mercury in some hot Summer.
1704. F. Fuller, Med. Gymn. (1705), 165. The Steam of their inflammable Parts is of Use.
1794. M‘Phail, Treat. Cucumber, 92. The heat of the cucumber bed began to rise; a little air was given to it to let the steam pass off.
1845. G. Mills, Treat. Cucumber (ed. 2), 29. The plants were assisted in growth and luxuriance by the steam which arose from the well-prepared manure of the bed.
1859. Tennyson, Enid, 1451. And all the hall was dim with steam of flesh.
b. spec. An odorous exhalation or fume.
a. 1000. Panther, 45 (Gr.). Æfter þære stefne stenc ut cymeð of þam wongstede, wynsumra steam swettra & swiþra swæcca ʓehwylcum.
1589. Greene, Menaphon (Arb.), 87. Thy breath is like the steeme of apple pies.
1608. Middleton, Five Gallants, IV. viii. A fellow of several scents and steams.
1616. B. Jonson, Devil an Ass, V. vii. Fough! what a steeme of brimstone Is here?
1644. C. Jessop, Angel of Ephesus, 27. I will not cause the Reader to stop his nose at those putrid steemes which would arise if that puddle were stirred.
1667. Milton, P. L., XI. 442. His Offring soon propitious Fire from Heav’n Consum’d with nimble glance, and grateful steame.
1781. Cowper, Conversat., 262. [Tobacco] Thy thirst-creating steams.
1827. T. Hamilton, Cyril Thornton (1845), 75. The savoury steams of roast and stew,… pervaded the mansion.
1835. Willis, Pencillings, I. 61. The steams of sulphur, as we approached the summit, were all but intolerable.
fig. 1599. B. Jonson, Cynthia’s Rev., I. iii. I do neither see, nor feele, nor taste, nor savour the least steame, or fume of a reason, that should invite this foolish fastidious Nymph, so peevishly to abandon me.
† 2. A vapor or exhalation produced as an ‘excrement’ of the body, e.g., hot breath, perspiration, the infectious effluvium of a disease. Obs.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom., I. 86. Him stod stincende steam of ðam muðe.
1303. R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 2526. Þe steme stode oute of hys mouþ brennand. Ibid. (c. 1330), Chron. Wace (Rolls), 1818. Oft aboute ilk oþer þrew, þe stem stod vp, so þey blew.
c. 1400. Song Roland, 836. Kene knyghtis cry and crossen helmes,… out flow the stemes.
1592. Shaks., Ven. & Ad., 63. Panting he lies, and breatheth in her face. She feedeth on the steame, as on a pray.
1670. Covel, in Early Voy. Levant (Hakl. Soc.), 116. These [insects] never stir out of their holes and lurking-places till the steam and perspiration of your bodyes invite them.
1722. De Foe, Plague (1884), 160. The Effluvia or Infectious Steams of Bodies infected.
1731. Swift, Strephon & Chloe, 11. No humours gross, or frowzy steams,… Could from her taintless body flow.
† b. A noxious vapor generated in the digestive system; the ‘fume’ supposed to ascend to the brain as a result of drinking alcoholic liquor, Obs.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 226. Fleo þa mettas þa þe him dylsta & forbærnunga & stiem on Innan wyrcen.
1602. Marston, Antonio’s Rev., V. iii. Pieros lips reake steame of wine.
1605. Trag. End Sir J. Fites (1860), 12. She avoyded further perrill of death, which hee in his steame of wine, had bin likely to have offered unto her.
c. Close and hot air arising from persons crowded together. arch.
1609. Holland, Amm. Marcell., XXIX. ii. 352. When as neither the common goales … nor privat mens houses could now hold the number of them that were committed to ward, as being thronged and thrust close together with a hot steame among them.
1625. Bacon, Ess., Masques. Some Sweet Odours, suddenly comming forth, without any drops falling, are, in such a Company, as there is Steame and Heate, Things of great Pleasure and Refreshment.
1793. T. Beddoes, Observ. Calculus, etc. 141. The steams abounding in [a crowded] room … may be injurious to consumptive persons.
1850. Tennyson, In Mem., lxxxix. 8. The dust and din and steam of town.
† d. fig. Obs.
1602. Marston, Antonio’s Rev., III. v. Looke how I smoake in blood, reeking the steame Of foming vengeance.
1672. Owen, Disc. Evang. Love, i. 19. For the most part they [the outcries on account of schism] are nothing but the steam of Interest and Party.
1677. Gilpin, Dæmonol. (1867), 46. Sometimes he reaps a large harvest where he had sown little, and from one temptation not only wounds the soul of him that committed it, but endeavours to diffuse the venom and poisonous steam of it to the infection of others.
† 3. A ray or beam of light; a flame. Obs.
c. 1300. Havelok, 591. Or hise mouth it stod a stem, Als it were a sunnebem.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 473/2. Steem, or lowe of fyre, flamma.
4. An exhalation or watery vapor rising from the earth or sea.
1612. Drayton, Poly-olb., vii. 104. It is your foggie steame The powerfull Sunne exhales.
1695. Woodward, Nat. Hist. Earth (1702), 209. The Steams and Damps of Mines are detrimental to Health.
1748. Anson’s Voy., II. v. 183. The equability and duration of the tropical beat contribute to impregnate the air with a multitude of steams and vapours from the soil and water.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), I. 371. The assemblage of the rays darting upon the water … will cause it to rise in a light thin steam above the surface.
1859. Tennyson, Guinevere, 593. She saw, Wet with the mists and smitten by the lights, The Dragon of the great Pendragonship Blaze, making all the night a steam of fire.
1906. ‘Baroness Orczy,’ Son of People, xvi. 175. Its [the sun’s] noonday rays drew a warm steam from the wet earth.
† 5. Used as a scientific term for: Matter in the state of gas or vapor; any impalpable emanation or effluvium. Obs.
1662. Boyle, Def. Doctr. Spring of Air, III. xviii. 81. Glass … is impervious to the subtilest steams that are.
1670. Beale, in Phil. Trans., V. 1154. The changes of Heat and Cold, with other unknown Steames.
1684. R. Waller, Nat. Exper., 18. The Liquor … will fall down … like Dew separated from that fine steame of Air contained in the froth.
a. 1704. Locke, Elem. Nat. Phil., vi. (1754), 21. Besides the springy particles of pure air, the atmosphere is made up of several steams or minute particles of several sorts, rising from the earth and the waters, and floating in the air.
6. The vapor into which water is converted when heated. In popular language, applied to the visible vapor that floats in the air in the form of a white cloud or mist, and that consists of minute globules or vesicles of liquid water suspended in a mixture of gaseous water and air. (Also sometimes applied to the vapor arising from other liquids when heated.) In modern scientific and technical language, applied only to water in the form of an invisible gas.
The invisible ‘steam,’ in the modern scientific sense, is, when its temperature is lowered, converted into the white vapor called ‘steam’ in popular language, and this under continued cooling, becomes ‘water’ in the liquid form.
Dry steam, in Steam-engine working, steam containing no suspended vesicles of water: opposed to wet steam.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 473/2. Steem [Winch. MS. Steme] of hothe lycure, vapor.
1631. B. Jonson, New Inn, II. vi. We shall … send you downe to the dresser, and the dishes…. Pru. Commit you to the steem! Lad. [Lady F.] Or els condemn you to the bottles.
a. 1682. Sir T. Browne, Tracts (1683), 113. The steam or vapour of artificial and natural baths.
1697. Dampier, Voy., I. 480. They cover the mouth of the Pot with leaves, to keep in the steam, while it boils.
1712. Addison, Spect., No. 403, ¶ 3. A Knot of Theorists, who sat in the inner Room, within the Steams of the Coffee-Pot.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., xviii. II. 85. The adulteress was suffocated by the steam of a bath, which, for that purpose, had been heated to an extraordinary degree.
1785. Priestley, in Phil. Trans., LXXV. 305. Having transmitted steam, or the vapour of water, through a copper tube.
1815. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 505. The steam of alcohol at 174° is equal to that of water at 212°.
1839. Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl., II. 287. 7 lbs. of coal are required to convert 1 cubic foot of water at 40° into atmospheric steam.
1847. Tennyson, Princess, Prol. 73. A dozen angry models jetted steam.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 39. The steam, or watery vapour, when pure and uncondensed, is … transparent.
1884. Dutton, in 4th Ann. Rep. U.S. Geol. Surv., 110. Condensed steam floating away in the form of white vapor.
1894. Times, 15 Aug., 12/2. A boiler which supplies wet steam is a bad boiler, because wet steam is prejudicial to the efficiency of the engine.
1895. Model Steam Eng., 51. The purpose of the steam-dome is to collect the steam in as dry a condition as possible.
b. The visible vesicles produced by the condensation of watery vapor, as drops forming on a surface, e.g., a mirror or window-pane.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 88. When a Vessell of boyling water is couered, though the couer be hot, yet the vapour of the water turneth into a steame vppon it, and will stand in drops.
1699. trans. H. de Blancourt’s Art of Glass, 350. You must keep these [steel] Mirrours from the Moistness of the Air, and Steams.
7. The vapor of boiling water used, by confinement in specially contrived engines, for the generation of mechanical power. Hence, the mechanical power thus generated.
1699. Phil. Trans., XXI. 228. [Savery’s ‘fire engine.’] Two Cocks which convey the Steam by turns, to the Vessels D.
1765. Watt, in Muirhead, Invent. Watt (1854), I. 3. Mine ought to raise water to 44 feet with the same quantity of steam that theirs does to 32.
1788. J. Rumsey (title), A short Treatise on Steam, whereby is clearly shewn … that steam may be applied to propel Boats or Vessels of any burthen.
1825. Hone, Every-day Bk., I. 1535. The Times … of Tuesday, November the 29th, 1814, was the first newspaper printed by steam.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, xxxv. Do steam, tide, wind, and horses, all abate their speed?
1872. Buckle, Misc. Wks., I. 250. By the application of steam, we have diminished space.
b. fig. Energy, ‘go,’ driving power, and the like.
1826. Disraeli, Viv. Grey, II. ii. Has not your Lordship treasure? There is your moral steam which can work the world.
1875. Blake-Humfrey, Eton Boating Bk., 60. The Etonians had not steam enough. At Hammersmith, Westminster was two lengths ahead.
1898. Daily News, 24 Nov., 7/3. Corbett now appeared a trifle weary … and was lacking in steam.
1900. Westm. Gaz., 23 Oct., 9/2. All the steam has gone out of American Railroad shares.
c. Phr. By steam, (to travel) by steamer. Under steam, worked by steam (as opposed to under sail).
1829. Scott, Jrnl. (1890), II. 305. To-morrow I expect Sophia and her family by steam.
1839. Card. Wiseman, in W. Ward, Life (1897), I. ix. 313. I shall travel … by the mail direct to Marseilles,… and so by steam to Cività Vecchia.
1875. Bedford, Sailor’s Pocket Bk., iii. (ed. 2), 61. In the following Rules every steam ship which is under sail and not under steam, is to be considered a sailing ship.
d. In phrases descriptive of the working of a steam-engine, esp. of a locomotive; often used fig.; e.g., (at) full (half, etc.) steam; with full or all one’s steam on; to have (all, much, etc.) steam on; to get up, put on steam; to blow off, shut off, turn off steam; under steam, with steam up, in steam, with the engine working or ready to start working.
1768. Watt, in Muirhead, Invent. Watt (1854), I. 18. I am now getting an apparatus ready for setting it [the engine] wholly in steam as before.
1824. [see SHUT v. 16 a].
1831. Rep. Sel. Comm. Steam Carriages, 20. Are you frequently obliged to let off steam?
1832–83. [see GET v. 72 q].
1837. [see BLOW v.1 10].
1837. Dickens, Pickw., xlviii. Get on a little faster; put a little more steam on, ma’am, pray.
1857. Hughes, Tom Brown, II. ii. Now jumping the old iron-bound tables,… then joining in some chorus of merry voices; in fact, blowing off his steam, as we should now call it.
1860. Merc. Marine Mag., VII. 216. Orders were given … to let the ship go under easy steam.
1870. [W. A. Harris], Remin. Amer., 203. To this rendezvous all the firemen of the district hasten with their steam fire-engines, which are always kept in readiness with steam up and the horses harnessed.
1873. Routledge’s Young Gentlem. Mag., June, 392/2. The Forward was under steam, ready to seize the first opening to make her exit.
1878. Kingston, Three Admirals, xviii. 416. Full steam was put on. Ibid., 417. The engineer having thoughtfully turned off the steam to prevent the boilers from exploding.
1881. M. Reynolds, Engine-driving Life, 112. Of course his engine is in steam. All is done for him.
1887. F. Francis, Jr. Saddle & Mocassin, 107. ‘And he [the bull] came for you?’ ‘When he’d got up steam he did.’
1894. Astley, 50 Years Life, I. 82. I naturally went to grass through having too much steam on to be able to pull up in time.
1896. Kipling, Seven Seas, Three Sealers, ad fin., Half-steam ahead by guess and lead, for the sun is mostly veiled.
1899. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VIII. 147. A result of some previous shutting off of nervous steam.
8. Short for steam-coal (see 17).
1897. Daily News, 25 Jan., 9/3. Best qualities steam are now up to 11s 3d per ton.
1903. Times, 1 Dec., 3/5. Steams remain dull and generally slow of sale, owing to the poor trade prevailing among steam users generally.
9. [f. STEAM v.] A trip by steamer. colloq.
1854. Kingsley, in Life (1877), I. 419. Had a charming steam across the Firth of Forth.
1905. Daily Chron., 16 Sept., 4/4. He saw before him a few hours’ steam to Caen.
10. [f. STEAM v.] A dish cooked by steaming. colloq.
1899. [W. E. Cairnes], Soc. Life Brit. Army, 72. Apart from soup, the cooking arrangements will only allow of Tommy being given his choice between a bake and a steam. A steam resembles what we have been taught to call Irish stew.
II. attrib. and Comb.
11. simple attrib. = of or pertaining to steam; consisting of steam.
1831. Rep. Sel. Comm. Steam Carriages, 25. The comparative expense between Horse and Steam Power for drawing Carriages on common roads.
1838. Tredgold, Steam Eng., 416. The force of the draught produced by the steam-blast is so great that cinders are drawn through the tubes.
1869. E. A. Parkes, Pract. Hygiene (ed. 3), 145. The moving agent here is the force of the steam-jet.
1879. Geo. Eliot, Theo. Such, II. 49. The white steam-pennon flies along it.
1881. Judd, Volcanoes, 23. The roaring of the steam-jets may be heard for many miles around.
1897. Geikie, Anc. Volcanoes Gt. Brit., I. 16. The steam-cavities of lavas.
12. With reference to heating, cooking or washing by steam, and in the names of implements and apparatus used in these processes, as steam-bath, -box, -chamber, -chest, -coil, -heat, -heating, -kiln, -kitchen, -laundry, -oven, -pan, -pipe, † -pot, -table, -tank, -tube, etc.
1725. Bradley’s Family Dict., s.v. Gooseberry-wine, When it is thoroughly cold it is put into a Steam-Pot.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), XVII. 772/2. Steam-Kitchen.
1822–7. Good, Study Med. (1829), II. 594. The extract of hemlock or of hyoscyamus, prepared in a steam-heat.
1827. Faraday, Chem. Manip., iv. (1842), 134. The figure represents an arrangement in which a saucepan is converted into a temporary steam chamber.
1828. Duppa, Trav. Italy, etc. 142. The steam-baths of Dædalus … consist of several sudorific grottos.
1832. Boston (Lincs.) Herald, 20 Nov., 4/3. A new patent steam-oven for baking bread.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xxxi. 421. We have passed wooden steam-tubes through the deck-house to carry off the vapors of our cooking-stove.
1857. Miller, Elem. Chem., Org., 672. Heat, furnished by steam-pipes.
1862. Catal. Internat. Exhib., II. XXXI. 7. Steam Table for dishing up. Ibid., 8. Steam Kettles of copper or block tin, for boiling meat, vegetables, puddings, &c.
1868. Rep. U. S. Commissioner Agric. (1869), 427. The food is cooked in a large steam-box.
1897. Howells, Landlord at Lion’s Head, 142. The reeking steam-table, with its great tanks of soup and vegetables.
13. In the names of the various contrivances for containing, conveying or regulating the steam in a steam-engine, as steam-box, -case, -chamber, -chest, -cock, † -course, -cylinder, -dome, -gauge, -pipe, -port, -valve, -way, etc.
1765. Watt, in Muirhead, Invent. Watt (1854), I. 4. The moment the steam-cock was opened, the piston descended with rapidity. Ibid. (1769), 53. To-day I stopped the neck of the steam-pipe where it enters the cylinder. Ibid., 73. The size of the steam-valve is six square inches.
1797. J. Curr, Coal Viewer, 41. A steam chest [in a fire-engine] upon a good construction, (a) being the steam valve.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 181. C, the steam-gauge. Ibid., 207. Fans … opening and closing the steam-course.
1838. Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl., I. 139/2. The jacket of an 80-inch steam cylinder.
1839. R. S. Robinson, Naut. Steam Eng., 51. Sliding the valve up or down will permit this steam to enter the cylinder, either by the upper or lower steam port.
1873. G. E. Webster, Steam Eng. & Steam, I. 61. The Steam Dome serves the purpose of drying the steam.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., Steam-way, a passage leading from the steam-port of a valve to the cylinder.
14. In the names of implements, machines, processes, etc., operated by steam or by a steam-engine, as steam-crane, † -gun, -hammer, -mill, -milling, -plough, -ploughing, -pump, -thresher, -threshing, -whim, -winch, etc.
1801. Phil. Trans., XCI. 160. It … has now four fire-engines and two steam-whims on it.
1804. Nicholson’s Jrnl., VII. 161. Description of a new Steam Digester for Philosophic Researches.
1812. Ann. Reg., Chron., 79. They entered into a solemn obligation to destroy steam-looms, [etc.].
1824. Reg. Arts & Sci., II. 105. Perkins’s ‘Steam Gun.’
1843. Nasmyth, in Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl., VI. 41/2. With a view to relieve all these defects, I have contrived my direct action steam hammer.
1844. Dickens, Mart. Chuz., xi. A greater number … than the steam-gun can discharge balls in a minute.
1847. Mech. Mag., 30 Jan., 98. Mr. Osborn’s patent system of steam ploughing.
1865. Ruskin, Sesame, i. 35. The Word of God … cannot be … sown on any wayside by help either of steam plough or steam press.
1884. Leisure Hour, Sept., 533/2. With one blow from a steam-riveter … they are securely fixed.
1889. ‘F. Anstey,’ Pariah, III. VI. i. 109. They’re putting up swings and a steam-circus and tents.
1891. T. Hardy, Tess, xlviii. I have told the farmer that he has no right to employ women at steam-threshing.
1891. Argus (Melbourne), 7 Nov., 13/4. Occasionally … a British India liner rouses the echoes with the hoarse call of its steam siren.
1898. ‘H. S. Merriman,’ Roden’s Corner, v. 45. Presently the jerk and clink of the steam-winch told that the anchor was being got home.
1907. J. H. Patterson, Man-Eaters of Tsavo, xvii. 187. My heart was thumping like a steam hammer.
15. With reference to locomotion by steam-power, and in names of vehicles and vessels propelled by steam, as steam-ferry, -flat, -frigate, -launch, -navigation, -navy, -omnibus, -packet, -ram, -train, -tram, -trawler, -trawling, -whaler, -yacht, etc. See also steam-car, -carriage, -tug, etc., in 17, and the main-words STEAM-BOAT, etc.
1812. in Mech. Mag. (1847), XLVI. 21/1. Steam passage boat, The Comet, Between Glasgow, Greenock, and Helensburgh.
1814. Niles’ Wkly. Reg., 128/2. The steam frigate Fulton the First was launched at New York October 31.
1819. (title) The Thanet Itinerary, or Steam-Yacht Companion.
1821. Croker, Diary, 29 Aug. Sailed in the steam-packet, the wind quite against us.
1831. Jrnls. Ho. Comm., LXXXVI. 827/2. The frequent calamities by Steam Navigation.
1849. [Emily C. Agnew], Rome & the Abbey, v. 47. They entered the steam-train for Bruges.
1849. Jrnls. Ho. Comm., CIV. 87/2. The practicability of providing, by means of the Commercial Steam Marine of the Country, a reserve Steam Navy, available for the National Defence when required.
1860. Ann. Reg., 202. Our government were urged to adopt the scheme of steam-rams.
1879. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 9), IX. 250/2. Steam trawling.
1884. J. Hatton, in Harper’s Mag., Feb., 344/2. The steam-launch is the snob of the Thames.
1892. Katharine Tynan, in Speaker, 3 Sept., 289/2. The high road, with its shrieking steam-tram, runs at right-angles to it.
16. Instrumental, with ppl. adjs., as steam-driven, -going, -ridden (fig.), -wrought. Also steam-like adj.
1835. Ure, Philos. Manuf., 381. Attendants on steam-going looms.
1845. S. Judd, Margaret, I. xvii. A steam-like vapour arose from the frozen river.
1852. C. W. Hoskyns, Talpa, 183. A steam-driven cultivator can be brought to bear.
1868. Joynson, Metals, 54. A steam-wrought hammer.
1885. G. Allen, Babylon, xiii. This steam-ridden nineteenth century.
1901. Scotsman, 4 Sept., 7/8. Instead of a steam-driven train every two hours they might have an electrically-driven train every half-hour.
17. Special comb.: steam-boiler, a vessel in which water is heated to generate steam, esp. for working a steam-engine (BOILER 2 b); steam-bomb = candle-bomb (CANDLE sb. 7); steam-car, a car driven or drawn by steam, e.g., a motor-car worked by steam instead of petrol; U.S. a railway-carriage; † steam-carriage, a carriage driven or drawn by steam (a) on a railroad or tramway, (b) on common roads; † steam-chaise, a chaise driven by steam; † steam-coach = steam-carriage; steam-coal, coal suitable for heating water in steam-boilers; steam-colo(u)r Calico-printing, a color developed and fixed in the cloth by steaming: † steam-doctor, one who treats diseases by vapor-baths; † steam-horse, a kind of traction-engine; steam-jacket, a jacket or casing filled with steam in order to preserve the heat of the vessel round which it is placed; hence steam-jacketed pa. pple. and adj., steam-jacketing vbl. sb.; steam-navvy, a machine for digging or excavating by steam; steam nigger U.S. the long cylinder with piston and rod by which the log is forced up to the saw in a sawing mill; steam-organ = CALLIOPE; steam-road, a road prepared for steam-traction; U.S. a railroad; steam-room, -space, the space above the water-level in a steam-boiler; steam-tight a., tight enough to resist the ingress or egress of steam; also quasi-adv.; steam-tug, a steam-boat specially constructed for towing vessels; † applied jocularly to a railway-engine; † steam-wagon, a wagon drawn by steam on a railway or on a common road; † steam-wheel, the rotary steam-engine; also fig.
1805. R. W. Dickson, Pract. Agric., I. 66. *Steam-Boilers [for boiling meat].
1815. Ann. Reg., Chron., 91. A new steam boiler, worked by what is called a pressure engine.
1847. Mech. Mag., 2 Jan., 23/2. Dr. Ritterbrandt’s Process for Preventing the Incrustation of Steam-boilers.
1895. Model Steam Eng., 14. Candle or *Steam Bombs.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Steam-car, a car drawn by steam-power.
1877. Rep. Sel. Comm. Tramways, 105. Steam cars might be very safely used, perhaps in Whitechapel.
1886. Winchell, Geol. Talks, 11. There, in the distance, flies the train of steam-cars.
1888. Bryce, Amer. Commw., IV. lxxxi. III. 69. When you meet them in the steam cars (i.e. on a railway journey).
1900. [see PETROL 3].
1824. T. G. Cumming (title), Illustrations of the origin and progress of Rail and Tram Roads, and Steam Carriages, or locomotive Engines.
1831. Rep. Sel. Comm. Steam Carriages, 17. Are you [Mr. G. Gurney] the proprietor of a Steam Carriage used on public roads?
1844. Queen’s Regul. Army, 211. Officers thus circumstanced are likewise to proceed by Steam-Carriages upon Railroads.
1769. Dr. Small, in Muirhead, Invent. Watt (1854), I. 52. A linen-draper at London, one Moore, has taken out a patent for moving wheel-carriages by steam…. However, if you will come hither soon, I will be very civil, and buy a *steam-chaise of you and not of Moore.
1825. J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 661. A *steam-coach for the conveyance of passengers [on a railroad].
1828. Sporting Mag., XXI. 267. I hear it is intended in good earnest to start a steam-coach from London to Southampton.
1834. L. Ritchie, Wand. by Seine, 177. We saw a steam-coach which had stopped at the door of the public house.
1850. Ansted, Elem. Geol., Min., etc. 414. There is a third … condition of coal now known as *‘steam-coal,’ and admirably adapted for the use of the steam-navy.
1883. Gresley, Gloss. Coal-mining, 238. The finest steam coals of South Wales are moderately hard and almost smokeless.
1844. E. A. Parnell’s Appl. Chem., I. 368. *Steam colours.
1855. Dunglison, Med. Lex., *Steam-doctor, a term applied to one who treats all or most diseases by steam.
1860. [see THOMSONIAN 1].
1815. Specif. De Baader’s Patent, No. 3959. 7. Those complicated … machines called locomotive engines or *steam horses.
1855. Pract. Mechanics’ Jrnl., Sept., 139. Mr. Boydell’s ‘steam horse,’ or ‘traction engine,’ was put upon the brake in order to test its power.
1838. Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl., I. 139/2. The best engines in Cornwall have the *steam jackets supplied from a pipe communicating directly with the boiler.
1883. R. Haldane, Workshop Rec., Ser. II. 35/1. Wrought-iron cylinders … provided with a steam-jacket to control their temperatures.
1876. S. Kens. Mus. Catalog., No. 2152. The cylinders of the engines are *steam jacketed.
1904. Windsor Mag., Jan., 275/1. Six steam-jacketed boilers.
1870. Jrnl. Franklin Inst., LXXXIX. 21. in a paper upon *steam jacketting.
1881. Spon’s Dict. Engin., Suppl. III. 1107. A *steam navvy … consisting of a rectangular truck, supported on four wheels, carrying the engine and boiler.
1795. Mason, Ch. Mus., i. 36. And who knows but a certain noble Mechanic … may place a *Steam Organ upon the Poop and play ça ira upon it.
1841. Civil Engin. & Arch. Jrnl., IV. 247. M. Lax, jun., has just invented a steam organ, which can be heard through the extent of a whole province.
1837. W. B. Adams, Carriages, 291. To make a *steam-road is more costly than an animal road, because it imperatively requires a more exact level.
1911. H. S. Harrison, Queed, xv. 174. The cars are steam-road size.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., *Steam-room, the capacity for steam over the surface of the water in the boiler.
1867–72. Burgh, Mod. Marine Engin., 371/2. Lowness of the *steam space above the water line in the boiler.
1765. Watt, in Muirhead, Invent. Watt (1854), I. 8. I … have not got the piston *steam-tight yet.
1856. Dempsey, Locomotive Eng., 40. The passage is closed completely steam-tight.
1892. Low, Machine Draw., 118. A steam-tight joint.
1835. Marryat, Olla Podr., vi. Three *steam tugs, whose names are the Stephenson, the Arrow, and the Elephant, are to drag to Malines … all his majesty’s ministers.
1891. Kipling, Light that Failed, viii. (1900), 134. A steam-tug on the river hooted as she towed her barges to wharf.
1821. T. Gray, Observ. Iron Railway (ed. 2), 5. Conveyance of all merchandise as well as persons, by *steam waggons and coaches.
a. 1876. M. Collins, Pen Sk. (1879), I. 245. This perturbed period of the steam-wagon and the lightning-wire.
1797. Encycl. Brit. (ed. 3), XVII. 744/1. A project of a *steam-wheel, where the impulsive force of the vapour was employed.
1820. Shelley, Lett. Maria Gisborne, 108. The self-impelling steam-wheels of the mind.
1847. Brees, Gloss. Civil Engin., 218. Rotary, Rotatory, or Concentric Engine (sometimes called a steam-wheel).
