Nothing Special   »   [go: up one dir, main page]

Fine Dictionary

steam

stim
WordNet
Exterior of the steam engineering department on the grounds of the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis
Exterior of the steam engineering department on the grounds of the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis
  1. (v) steam
    cook something by letting steam pass over it "just steam the vegetables"
  2. (v) steam
    clean by means of steaming "steam-clean the upholstered sofa"
  3. (v) steam
    get very angry "her indifference to his amorous advances really steamed the young man"
  4. (v) steam
    travel by means of steam power "The ship steamed off into the Pacific"
  5. (v) steam
    rise as vapor
  6. (v) steam
    emit steam "The rain forest was literally steaming"
  7. (n) steam
    water at boiling temperature diffused in the atmosphere
Illustrations
Model of a tubular or pipe boiler with an extendable chimney. On the model two doors to the smokebox in the middle and two to the ovens on the sides. The model has ninety-eight flame tubes. On top of the boiler there is a separate chimney with an extendable part, which is operated with two levers (now defective), and a separate steam hood with a manhole. The mud holes for cleaning the boilers can be seen at the bottom of the boiler model. The connections for the steam guide tube and other pipelines have been omitted from the model.
Model of a tubular or pipe boiler with an extendable chimney. On the model two doors to the smokebox in the middle and two to the ovens on the sides. The model has ninety-eight flame tubes. On top of the boiler there is a separate chimney with an extendable part, which is operated with two levers (now defective), and a separate steam hood with a manhole. The mud holes for cleaning the boilers can be seen at the bottom of the boiler model. The connections for the steam guide tube and other pipelines have been omitted from the model.
Album page with a photo of a reed leaf crusher with a directly coupled steam engine. Left and right two employees. Manufactured by Machinefabriek Braat and intended for the Brangkal Sugar Factory. Part of the photo album Machinefabriek Braat Soerabaia-Djocja-Tegal, ca. 1916-1924.
Album page with a photo of a reed leaf crusher with a directly coupled steam engine. Left and right two employees. Manufactured by Machinefabriek Braat and intended for the Brangkal Sugar Factory. Part of the photo album Machinefabriek Braat Soerabaia-Djocja-Tegal, ca. 1916-1924.
Model of a steam slipway with machine building, on the slipway a barge ship under construction. In glass case.
Model of a steam slipway with machine building and ship under construction
Model of a double-acting land-use steam engine, on a wooden base. The model has a balance and flywheel, but no condenser. The piston drives the balance, which in turn drives the air pump, the condenser cold water pump and the crankshaft. On the crankshaft is the flywheel and on the other side an eccentric with a long drive rod, which drives the steam slide on the other side of the machine. The steam slide has two inlets on the cylinder. The closure of the air pump is missing. Scale 1:20 (derived).
Model of a balance steam engine
Lime container with sloping walls and a hook at the back. The trowel has a graceful twisted handle. Used in laying the foundation stone of the large sea dock lock in Vlissingen in 1848.
Lime container with sloping walls and a hook at the back. The trowel has a graceful twisted handle. Used in laying the foundation stone of the large sea dock lock in Vlissingen in 1848.
Model of a tubular steam boiler, a variation of NG-MC-1162. Two fireboxes are separated by a space through which pipes run connecting the fireboxes. The air supply from one fire can be regulated with a valve at the front. The combustion gases flow through the pipes to the space above the other firebox, the bottom of which is closed off to ensure that the air supply only passes through the valve of the first firebox. The gases are then fed through pipes to the chimney to be connected at the front. The remaining space in the model is for the boiler water.
Model of a boiler for steam locomotives
Lime container with scalloped walls, brass on the inside and a hook at the back. The trowel has no distinctive features.
Lime container with scalloped walls, brass on the inside and a hook at the back. The trowel has no distinctive features.
Steam gunboat of the Wodan type, seen on the starboard side.
Steam gunboat Wodan
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
Interesting fact
James Ramsey invented a steam-driven motorboat in 1784. He ran it on the Potomac River in an event witnessed by George Washington.
  1. Steam
    Any exhalation. "A steam of rich, distilled perfumes."
  2. Steam
    The elastic, aëriform fluid into which water is converted when heated to the boiling point; water in the state of vapor.
  3. Steam
    The mist formed by condensed vapor; visible vapor; -- so called in popular usage.
  4. Steam
    To exhale.
  5. Steam
    To generate steam; as, the boiler steams well.
  6. Steam
    To move or travel by the agency of steam. "The vessel steamed out of port."
  7. Steam
    To rise in vapor; to issue, or pass off, as vapor. "The dissolved amber . . . steamed away into the air."
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
Interesting fact
The Charlotte Dundas, a paddle-wheel steamboat, was the world's first steam-powered vessel, not Robert Fulton's Clermont. In 1802, five years before Fulton's famous ship took sail, The Dundas was a steam-powered tugboat in Great Britain.
  1. (n) steam
    Vapor; a rising vapor; an exhalation.
  2. (n) steam
    Water in a gaseous state; the gas or vapor of water, especially at temperatures above 100° C. It has a specific gravity of 625 as compared with air under the same pressure. It liquefies at 100° C. (212° F), under a pressure of 14.7 pounds upon a square inch, or the mean pressure of the atmosphere at the sea-level. The temperature at which it liquefies diminishes with the pressure. Steam constantly rises from the surface of liquid water when not obstructed by impervious inclosures or covered by another gas already saturated with it. Its total latent heat of vaporization for 1 pound weight under a pressure of 76 centimeters of mercury (or 14.7 pounds to the square inch) is 965.7 British thermal units, or 536.5 calories for each kilogram. Its specific heat under constant pressure is 4805. (Regnault.) It is decomposed into oxygen and hvdrogen at temperatures between 1,000° and 2,000° C. (Deville.) In addition to the surface evaporation of water, the change from the liquid to the gaseous state takes place beneath the surface (the gas escaping with ebullition) whenever the temperature of the liquid is raised without a corresponding increase of pressure upon it. The temperature at which this occurs under any particular pressure is the boilingpoint for that pressure. The boiling-point of water under the atmospheric pressure at the sea-level is 100° C. or 212° F. Saturated steam has the physical properties common to all gases whose temperatures are near those of their liquefying-points, or the boiling-points of their liquids. Saturated steam when isolated, and superheated at temperatures from 100° to 110° C, and under constant pressure, expands with a given increase of temperature about five times as much as air, and at 186° C. about twice as much as air; and it must be raised to a temperature much higher than this before it will expand uniformly like air. The large quantity of latent heat in steam, its great elasticity, and the ease with which it may be condensed have rendered its use in engines more practicable than that of any other gaseous medium for the generation and application of mechanical power.
  3. (n) steam
    Water in a visible vesicular condition produced by the condensation of vapor of water in air.
  4. (n) steam
    Figuratively, force; energy.
  5. (n) steam
    A flame or blaze; a ray of light.
  6. steam
    To give out steam or vapor; exhale any kind of fume or vapor.
  7. steam
    To rise in a vaporous form; pass off in visible vapor.
  8. steam
    To move or travel by the agency of steam: as, the vessel steamed into port.
  9. steam
    To flame or blaze up.
  10. steam
    To exhale; evaporate.
  11. steam
    To treat with steam; expose to steam; apply steam to for any purpose: as, to steam cloth; to steam potatoes instead of boiling them; to steam food for cattle; steamed bread.
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
Interesting fact
The first computer, the steam-driven calculating machine, was built in 1823 by Charles Babbage. It failed to work due to poor workmanship in the intricate parts. When rebuilt by the London Museum of Science in 1991, it worked.
  1. (n) Steam
    stēm the vapour of water—when dry, invisible and transparent like air, and not to be confused with the semi-liquid cloud which comes from the chimney of a locomotive; when superheated, changing the characteristics of a vapour for those belonging to what is known as a 'perfect gas:' the mist formed by condensed vapour: any vaporous exhalation: energy, force, spirit
  2. (v.i) Steam
    to rise or pass off in steam or vapour: to move by steam
  3. (v.t) Steam
    to expose to steam
Quotations
Henry Ward Beecher
God made man to go by motives, and he will not go without them, any more than a boat without steam or a balloon without gas.
Henry Ward Beecher
Whatever touches the nerves of motive, whatever shifts man's moral position, is mightier than steam, or calorie, or lightening.
Edwin Hubbel Chapin
Charles Baudelaire
True Civilization does not lie in gas, nor in steam, nor in turn-tables. It lies in the reduction of the traces of original sin.
Charles Baudelaire
Idioms

Blow off steam - (USA) If you blow off steam, you express your anger or frustration.

Gather steam - If something gathers speed, it moves or progresses at an increasing speed.

Etymology

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary OE. stem, steem, vapor, flame, AS. steám, vapor, smoke, odor; akin to D. stoom, steam, perhaps originally, a pillar, or something rising like a pillar; cf. Gr. sty`ein to erect, sty^los a pillar, and E. stand,

Usage in the news

More than 600,000 coffeemakers are being voluntarily recalled in the United States and Canada due to an apparent brewing malfunction that can release a gusher of steaming water and grounds. kdbc.com

But like kale, spinach or chard, collards can be sauteed or steamed and stirred into any recipe that calls for greens. ohio.com

'Take This Waltz' deftly steps through marriage losing steam. post-gazette.com

Sofia Vergara is steaming things up on the April cover of Esquire, on stands March 27. usmagazine.com

Best way to prepare is w/ a little bit of olive oil, salt pepper and steamed appx. ashingtonpost.com

Dolby 's Atmos gaining steam. variety.com

Despite the name of "steamed dumplings " for this dish, all the dumplings on the menu are steamed. seattletimes.nwsource.com

We opted for the Dim Sum Basket ($14.95), a combination of the restaurant's three most popular dishes — three steamed Crystal Shrimp dumplings , three Sui Mai and three fried shrimp and chive dumplings . sun-sentinel.com

Sweeties, the steamed dumplings are to die for. browardpalmbeach.com

What's involved in changing from an electric motor to a steam turbine. chemicalprocessing.com

We are considering changing the electric motor drive on our air compressor to a steam turbine to reduce available steam letdowns. chemicalprocessing.com

We do not have any steam turbines and so do not know much about them. chemicalprocessing.com

These Hollywood hunks definitely know how to steam up the shoreline. radaronline.com

In the wake of its banquet's steaming wreckage, REBNY keeps the big announcements rolling. observer.com

The Steam Railroading Institute is best known for their all-day steam excursions. mlive.com

Usage in scientific papers

After entering the reactor, the magnetic monopoles should have interacted both with the 238U nuclei and the nuclei emitting the delayed neutrons, which resulted in the growth of reactivity and hence, rise up of the power and the steam explosion.
On the possible physical mechanism of Chernobyl catastrophe and the unsoundness of official conclusion

These are certainly not helpful to give a detailed insight into this most interesting physics: The original ob jects of Thermodynamics, steam engines, work exactly at phase-separation.
"Qualms" from Lavenda, cond-mat/0311270

The LTA could process the incoming data steam locally.
Cloud and the City: Facilitating Flexible Access Control over Data Streams

We justify this constraint by showing a example in which one can reconstruct the raw data steam by combining outputs from multiple aggregation windows of different window sizes or advance steps.
Cloud and the City: Facilitating Flexible Access Control over Data Streams

As with the steams of water, the intuition is that the RG always flows “downward.” This was proven in 2d by Zamolodchikov 1 for any unitary theory.
"Non-Perturbative Methods" in Field Theory

Usage in literature

Steam therefore was accepted at the first only as an accessory, for emergencies. "From Sail to Steam, Recollections of Naval Life" by Captain A. T. Mahan

The river flotilla comprised eleven well-armed steam gunboats. "Khartoum Campaign, 1898" by Bennet Burleigh

The use of the steam-yacht was given to him to accomplish this purpose. "Asiatic Breezes" by Oliver Optic

Transport boats are steaming to Newbern, laden with the Federal troops and provisions of the place. "Reminiscences of Two Years in the United States Navy" by John M. Batten

But just before war was declared von Spee and his squadron steamed off into the open seas. "World's War Events, Vol. I" by Various

Without so much as a toot of the whistle, his steam launch kept drawing closer and closer to Jerry's side. "The Young Oarsmen of Lakeview" by Ralph Bonehill

The heat of evaporation may be supplied either by superheated steam or by steam pipes within the kiln itself. "Seasoning of Wood" by Joseph B. Wagner

They began in May, 1914, with sharp explosions of steam and smoke from the summit crater. "The Book of the National Parks" by Robert Sterling Yard

To steam this course yourself, you must make the proper correction for your compass error. "Lectures in Navigation" by Ernest Gallaudet Draper

In the steam turbine the steam instead of being expanded against a piston is made to expand against and to get up velocity in itself. "Steam Turbines" by Hubert E. Collins

Usage in poetry
And on that morning, through the grass
And by the steaming rills
We travelled merrily, to pass
A day among the hills.
Had sat upon a mossy ledge,
O'er Baiae in the morning's beams,
Or where the sulphurous crater steams
Had hung suspended from the edge:
Look on the travellers kneeling,
In thankful gladness, here,
As the boat that brought them o'er the lake,
Goes steaming from the pier.
Along that road were toil and strife
And clang from dusky things of steam,
But still to sweeten all that life
Was something of the poet's dream.
Noo the bodies are gane, an' their dwallin's awa,
An' the place whaur they stood I scarce ken noo ava,
For there's roarin' o' steam, an' there's reengin' o' wheels,
Men workin', an' sweatin', an' swearin' like deils.
I remember my long journey, like a dull, oppressive dream,
Across the empty prairies till I caught the distant gleam
Of a city in the beauty of its broad and shining stream
On whose bosom, flocked together, float the mighty swans of
steam.