ˈtrip-ˌhammer
[f. trip n.1 or v. + hammer.]
A massive machine-hammer operated by a tripping device, as a wheel with projecting teeth, a cam, or the like, by which it is raised and then allowed to drop; a tilt-hammer. Also fig.
| 1781 S. Peters Gen. Hist. Connecticut 265 Anchor-making is done by water and tri-hammers. [1809 (Oct. 14), A trip hammer was patented by the United States to John Smith, Otsego County, New York.] a 1817 T. Dwight Trav. New-Eng. (1821) II. 15 Here he built a shop; and set up the first trip-hammer in this part of the country. 1824 Debates in Congress 18 Feb. (1856) 1572 Our committee on manufactures, while it keeps in motion its wheels and triphammers, has kindly condescended to superintend our ploughs and sheep-folds. 1831 J. Holland Manuf. Metal I. 128 A blast furnace, forge, trip-hammer, shop, and mills. 1848 Lowell Fable for Critics 893 When the heart in his breast like a trip-hammer beats. 1854 Emerson Lett. & Soc. Aims, Eloquence Wks. (Bohn) III. 190 What character, what infinite variety, belong to the voice! sometimes it is a flute, sometimes a trip-hammer. |
| attrib. a 1864 Gesner Coal, Petrol. etc. (1865) 321 To bore the well with an auger, instead of a trip-hammer motion. 1883 H. Tuttle in Harper's Mag. Nov. 825/2 Chisels acting on the trip-hammer principle. 1896 Kipling Seven Seas, M'Andrew's Hymn 45 Oh for a man to weld it then, in one trip-hammer strain. |