katatherˈmometer
(ˌkætə-)
Also kata thermometer, kata-thermometer.
[f. kata- + thermometer.]
An alcohol-in-glass thermometer with an enlarged bulb and restricted scale, used for determining the cooling power of ambient air by measuring the time taken for its temperature to fall from one fixed value to another. Also shortened to ˈkata.
| 1914 Rep. Brit. Assoc. Adv. Sci. 1913 673 (heading) The katathermometer. By Professor Leonard Hill. 1915 L. Hill et al. in Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B. CCVII. 185 The kata⁓thermometer..is an instrument designed primarily for the measurement of its own rate of cooling when its temperature approximates to that of the human body. 1915 Ibid. 191 The heat lost from the kata at body temperature. 1930 W. G. Kendrew Climate xxx. 189 The conditions of a perspiring body may be imitated by surrounding the bulb of the kata-thermometer with wet muslin. 1936 Discovery Sept. 280/1 When the air conditions of the bakery were tested, the ‘Katathermometer’ revealed most unsuitable conditions. 1938 Jrnl. Amer. Med. Assoc. 18 Nov. 1649/2 The time required for the alcohol meniscus to fall from the 100 to the 95 degree mark is then observed, and the ‘kata factor’ marked on the stem..is divided by this time in seconds, giving the ‘cooling power’ of the air. 1948 W. N. Witheridge in F. A. Patty Industr. Hygiene & Toxicol. I. x. 346 The kata thermometer has been calibrated as an air-velocity instrument. 1963 Hertig & Belding in C. M. Herzfeld Temperature III. iii. xxxii. 348 The thermoanemometer..and the katathermometer are representative of instruments whose readings are proportional to the rate of heat loss. |
Hence ˌkatathermoˈmetric a.
| 1923 Med. Res. Council Special Rep. Ser. No. 73. 90 (heading) A kata-thermometric comparison of methods of heating and ventilation. |