pneumatic, a. (n.)
(njuːˈmætɪk)
[ad. L. pneumaticus of or belonging to air or wind (Vitr., Plin.), a. Gr. πνευµατικός of, caused by, or of the nature of wind, breath, or spirit. So F. pneumatique (1520 in Hatz.-Darm.).]
A. adj.
1. Pertaining to, or acting by means of, wind or air. a. Chiefly applied to various mechanical contrivances which operate by pressure or exhaustion of air.
pneumatic cabinet, pneumatic differentiation (Med.): see quot. 1895. pneumatic caisson: see quot. 1875. pneumatic dispatch, a system by which parcels, etc. are conveyed along tubes by compression or exhaustion of air. pneumatic drill, a heavy drill for breaking stone by the rapidly repeated blows of a bit driven by compressed air. pneumatic engine: formerly applied spec. to the air-pump. pneumatic paradox, pneumatic railway, pneumatic telegraph: see quot. 1875.
| 1659 J. Leak Waterwks. Pref. 1 Pneumatike Inventions; viz. Engins moving by the force of Air. 1667 Beale in Phil. Trans. II. 425 The Pneumatick (or Rarifying) Engine of Mr. Boyle. 1713 Derham Phys.-Theol. i. 9 In a glass-receiver of the Pneumatick Engine. 1825 J. Nicholson Operat. Mechanic 375 This part of the process I call the pneumatic pressure. 1856 S. C. Brees Gloss. Terms, Piles (pneumatic), hollow iron piles, driven into the ground..by withdrawing, internally, the sand or other matters filling the space in which they stand by suction. 1858 Lardner Handbk. Nat. Phil., Hydrost. etc. 214 The pneumatic screw.—The screw of Archimedes..is also used for the ventilation of mines. 1863 Illustr. London News 28 Feb. 217/3 (heading) Opening of the pneumatic despatch mail service. Ibid., A company was registered in 1859 for the establishment in the metropolis of lines of pneumatic tube for the more speedy and convenient circulation of despatches and parcels. 1866 Bessemer in Joynson Metals (1868) 88 The metal which had been previously rendered malleable by the pneumatic process becomes less red-short. 1867 Brande & Cox Dict. Sc., etc. s.v. Railroad, Carried out in London by the Pneumatic Despatch Company with success. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech., Pneumatic Caisson, one which is closed at top and sunk by the exhaustion of the air within or by the weight of the masonry built thereupon as the work progresses. Ibid., Pneumatic Paradox, that peculiar exhibition of atmospheric pressure which retains a valve on its seat under a pressure of gas, only allowing a film of gas to escape. Ibid., Pneumatic Railway, a railroad whose rolling stock is driven by the compression or exhaustion of air in a tube laid parallel to the track. Ibid., Pneumatic Telegraph, a telegraph used before the times of Morse and Wheatstone for communicating information by the impulse given to a column of water by pneumatic pressure. Ibid. 1756/2 The pneumatic dispatch-tube was started by a company in London in 1859, for conveying parcels and light goods between the Euston Square Station and the Post-Office in Evershott Street, London. a 1877 Knight Dict. Mech. II. 1753/1 By the pneumatic drill, the Mt. Cenis Tunnel, seven miles in length, was bored through the Alps. Ibid., Pneumatic hammer, a hammer in which compressed air is the agent for lifting the helve or the head. 1881 C. A. Edwards Organs 65 The pneumatic action is an ingenious arrangement by which the bulk of the pressure is taken from the key, by means of small power-bellows. 1894 W. Le Queux Gt. War in Eng. in 1897 xxxi. 253 Small dynamite shells from Mackenzie's pneumatic gun had struck the car of the balloon. 1895 Syd. Soc. Lex., P[neumatic] cabinet, name for the air-tight compartment in which a patient is placed for treatment by the inhalation of compressed air...P. differentiation, term for the treatment of certain lung diseases by inhalation of air either denser or less dense than that of the surrounding atmosphere. 1898 F. W. Rogers in Westm. Gaz. 13 July 3/2 The pneumatic brake will do very well for Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire. 1898 E. Howard To-morrow 48 Subways for sewerage and surface drainage,..pneumatic tubes for postal purposes, have come to be regarded as economic if not essential. 1902 Encycl. Brit. XXXI. 802/1 Sometimes, when only a small amount of work is to be done, pneumatic tools are brought to heavy pieces of material. Ibid. 803/1 The pneumatic jack..is placed below the piece to be lifted, and operates directly. 1911 Ibid. XXVII. 40/2 Pneumatic drills are usually worked by little motors having oscillating cylinders, by which the air and exhaust ports are covered and uncovered. 1927 Jrnl. Amer. Med. Assoc. 1 Oct. 1151/1 (heading) A pneumatic hammer for bone surgery. Ibid., A light, compact, pneumatic hammer whose speed is controlled by a throttle..on the pistol-grip handle. 1930 Daily Express 9 Sept. 8/7 The noise of pneumatic drills has..been found to annoy the patients in a London Hospital. 1947 J. C. Rich Materials & Methods of Sculpture ix. 257 The vibration of a pneumatic tool, particularly after prolonged use, apparently affects the blood vessels of the hand and arm, frequently impairing the circulation and resulting in ‘white fingers’ or ‘pneumatic hammer disease’. 1962 L. Zelikov tr. G. Kamenshchikov's Forging Practice viii. 192 Pneumatic hammers are mainly employed for hammer forging miscellaneous work and for forging in bolster dies. 1973 ‘H. Carmichael’ Candles for Dead xi. 134 Don't be quite so boisterous. Your voice has the effect of a pneumatic drill. 1978 R. Jansson News Caper viii. 76 His hands were shaking as if attached to a pneumatic drill. |
b. Applied to things which are inflated, or filled with compressed air, for some purpose;
esp. to the tyres of the wheels of bicycles, and the like.
| 1862 Catal. Internat. Exhib. II. xii. 22 Self-righting, indestructible pneumatic life-boat. 1890 Patent Specif. No. 4206 Large rubber tyres..known commercially as (1) Pneumatic tyres, (2) Cushion tyres. 1891 Bicycling News 21 Feb., Tacagni's method of holding a Pneumatic tyre between two rims is worth more attention than it at first sight deserves. 1896 G. J. Jacobs Addr. Inst. Brit. Carriage Manuf., Only six months later, June 10, 1846, he [William Thomson, C.E., of Adelphi Street, Strand] patented the india-rubber pneumatic tyre on the principle of those so much in favour to-day. 1898 Cycling (Ward, Lock & Co.) iv. 23 Cyclists owe much to the inventor of the pneumatic tyre. |
† c. Of a musical instrument: Played by the breath or by compressed air; ‘wind-’.
Obs.| 1695 J. Edwards Perfect. Script. 176 All other musical instruments..whether pulsative or pneumatick. |
d. Belonging to or transmitted by pneumatic dispatch: see a. above.
| 1903 Westm. Gaz. 4 Mar. 2/1 Any resident within Paris may either buy at any bureau a blue pneumatic letter-card stamped with a threepenny stamp, and generally known as a petit-bleu, or may write an ordinary letter, weighing not more than seven grammes,..writing across the top of the envelope the word ‘Pneumatic’. |
e. humorous (
transf. use of b). Of a woman: having a well-rounded figure,
esp. a large bosom; of or pertaining to a woman having such attributes.
| 1919 T. S. Eliot Whispers of Immortality in Poems, Grishkin is nice... Uncorseted, her friendly bust Gives promise of pneumatic bliss. 1926 F. M. Ford A Man could stand Up i. i. 17 She didn't obviously offer—what was it the fellow called it?—promise of pneumatic bliss to the gentlemen. 1932 A. Huxley Brave New World vi. 108 ‘Every one says I'm awfully pneumatic,’ said Lenina reflectively, patting her own legs... ‘You don't think I'm too plump, do you?’ 1951 J. C. Fennessy Sonnet in Bottle i. v. 25 A pneumatic pink and yellow bathing belle. 1961 A. Wilson Old Men at Zoo ii. 91 He looked at her..as though searching beneath her pneumatic form for the disguised contours of some familiar, leaner enemy. 1961 P. Ustinov Loser ii. 46 He became aware of the pneumatic warmth of that thigh. 1974 Publishers Weekly 21 Jan. 88/3 Sexologist Dr. Rhona Mitchell, she of the spectacularly pneumatic proportions. 1976 Times Lit. Suppl. 31 Dec. 1643/2 The pneumatic barmaid at their favourite wine-bar. |
2. Of, or relating or belonging to, gases. Now
rare,
exc. in
pneumatic trough, a trough by means of which gases may be collected in jars over a surface of water or mercury. (See
hydro-pneumatic.)
| 1793 Beddoes Let. to Darwin 59 We owe to Pneumatic Chemistry the command of the elements which compose animal substances;..it is the business of Pneumatic Medicine to apply them with caution and intelligence. 1800 tr. Lagrange's Chem. 54 Fill a bottle with hydrogen gas, and having taken it from the pneumatic tub, immediately apply to its mouth a lighted taper. 1822–34 Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) I. 489 When pneumatic medicine was at the height of its popularity, much benefit was supposed to be derived from the use of oxygen and hydrogen and dilute chlorine gases [in asthma]. 1826 Henry Elem. Chem. I. 21 Place the jar, filled with water and inverted, over one of the funnels of the shelf of the pneumatic trough. 1836–41 Brande Chem. (ed. 5) 63 Priestley's entire force was directed upon Pneumatic Chemistry. 1881 R. Routledge Science xiv. 342 The ‘pneumatic trough’ used at the present day differs from Hales' apparatus only in having a more convenient arrangement of its parts. |
3. Zool.,
Anat., and
Phys. a. Pertaining to breath or breathing; respiratory.
rare.
| 1681 tr. Willis's Rem. Med. Wks. Vocab., Pneumatic, windy, or belonging to wind or breath. 1826 Kirby & Sp. Entomol. IV. xxxviii. 37 The external respiratory organs of insects... Spiracles; Respiratory plates; and branchiform and other pneumatic appendages. 1903 Contemp. Rev. Jan. 43 Heart weakness, pneumatic troubles and rheumatism. |
b. Containing or connected with air-cavities, as those in the bones of birds, or the swimming-bladder of some fishes.
pneumatic duct, ‘a short tube by which the air-bladder communicates with the œsophagus in physostomous fishes’ (
Syd. Soc. Lex. s.v. Ductus).
| 1831 Brewster Nat. Magic x. (1833) 259 Those beautiful pneumatic contrivances by which insects, fishes, and even some lizards are enabled to support the weight of their bodies against the force of gravity. 1854 Owen Skel. & Teeth 7 A large aperture, called the ‘pneumatic foramen’, near one end of the bone, communicates with its interior. 1855 Holden Hum. Osteol. (1878) 7 In the ostrich the bones are more pneumatic than in the gulls and in the smaller song-birds. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VII. 604 The mastoid in children may be as pneumatic or diploetic as in adults. |
c. Hist. Applied to a school of ancient Greek physicians (
Gr. οἱ πνευµατικοί, L.
Pneumatici) who held the theory of an invisible fluid or spirit (πνεῦµα) permeating all the body, and forming the vital principle on which health and strength depended. (
Syd. Soc. Lex. 1895,
s.v. Pneumatici.)
| 1842 Dunglison Med. Lex., Pneumatic Physicians, name given to a sect of physicians, at the head of whom was Athenæus, who made health and disease to consist in the different proportions of an element—which they called Pneuma, πνεῦµα—to those of the other elementary principles. |
4. a. Belonging or relating to spirit or spiritual existence; spiritual. (Usually with direct reference to
Gr. πνευµατικός, esp, in
N.T. and Christian use.)
| 1797 Monthly Mag. III. 525/1 This animal spirit, which blessed men have called the pneumatic soul. 1811 Jebb Corr. (1834) II. 50 My bodily health has..improved; my mental and pneumatic part has been..dubious. 1890 J. F. Smith tr. Pfleiderer's Developm. Theol. ii. iv. 162 The God⁓man as the absolute pneumatic personality of universal spiritual power is not merely the head of men but also of angels. 1894 H. B. Swete Apost. Creed ii. 28 Primitive Christianity, as he [Harnack] conceives it, had two Christologies, the one pneumatic, the other adoptionist. The former regarded the Christ as a preexistent Spirit who was made Man. 1899 Stalker Christology Jesus i. 30 The Gospel of St. John—the pneumatic gospel, as it was called, or gospel of religious genius. |
† b. pneumatic philosophy:
= pneumatology 1. So
pneumatic philosopher.
Obs.| a 1744 Bolingbroke Ess. ii. viii. Philos. Wks. 1754 II. 79 Those..may be called..by the title..of pneumatic philosophers, since their object is spirit and spiritual substances; how ridiculous soever it be to imagine spirit less an object of natural philosophy, than body. 1745 Sir J. Pringle Let. 19 Mar. in Bower Hist. Univ. Edinb. II. 294, I do hereby resign my office of Professor of ethic and pneumatic philosophy in the University of Edinburgh. 1768–74 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) I. 329 Bolingbroke..deriding the doctrine of spiritual substance under the name of pneumatic philosophy. |
5. Comb., as
pneumatic-drilled a. (
nonce-wd.), resembling a pneumatic drill or its action;
† pneumatic-shod a., fitted with pneumatic tyres;
pneumatic-tyred, (
-tired)
a. fitted with pneumatic tyres, as a bicycle, etc.
| 1947 Dylan Thomas Let. 14 July (1966) 316 The pick⁓axed and *pneumatic-drilled mosquitoes in the guest's bedroom. |
| 1909 Westm. Gaz. 3 June 4/2 Although they [sc. motor-cars] are *pneumatic-shod, the tyres do not come into contact with the track. Ibid. 18 Nov. 4/2 The driving-wheels of this vehicle are fitted with Vilo wheels, in place of ordinary pneumatic-shod artillery wheels. |
| 1895 Daily News 17 Dec. 6/7 The *pneumatic-tire folk are apt to despise the poor cyclist on his wretched ‘old crock’ and to regard him as a nuisance. |
| 1894 L. Robinson Wild Traits iii. (1897) 79 A *pneumatic-tired sulky is worth several seconds in the mile to an American trotter. 1896 Daily Tel. 10 Feb. 5/4 A smart pneumatic-tyred roadster. 1956 Nature 4 Feb. 218/2 His research has covered..the dynamic instability of systems incorporating pneumatic-tyred wheels. 1967 Gloss. Highway Engin. Terms (B.S.I.) 34 Pneumatic-tyred roller, a roller in which the compacting weight is supported on wheels fitted with pneumatic tyres. The roller may be self-propelled or towed. 1979 Guardian 8 Nov. 22/2 A shunting locomotive with pneumatic-tyred wheels. |
B. n. 1. = pneumatology 1 a.
rare—1.
| 1836–7 Sir W. Hamilton Metaph. (1859) I. viii. 134 note, The terms Psychology and Pneumatology, or Pneumatic, are not equivalents. |
2. Name in Gnostic theology for a spiritual being of a high order.
| 1876 tr. Hergenröther's Cath. Ch. & Chr. State II. 293 The Church had long rejected the Gnostic distinction between pneumatics and sarcics. 1882–3 Schaff's Encycl. Relig. Knowl. II. 927 The Gnostics taught a transplantation of the highest order (the pneumatics) into the world of the pleroma. |
3. a. A pneumatic tyre, or a cycle having such tyres.
| 1890 Willoughby & Lynde Specif. Patent, The advantages of the pneumatic are as follows. 1891 Bicycling News 21 Feb., Riders of solid-tyred machines, when changing to Pneumatics. 1901 Westm. Gaz. 24 June 10/2 Breakdowns [of motor-cars] are reported in scores; punctured pneumatics and broken wheels without number. |
b. A pneumatic bellows, tube, or other part of the pneumatic action in an organ.