expansion engine (ekspanshonen"jin)

A steam-engine in which the supply of steam is cut off previous to the completion of the stroke, the expansive power of the steam admitted being sufficient to complete the stroke. - Triple expansion-engine, steam-engine in which steam is ex panded in three cylinders in succe ion, the exhaust from the first driving the piston of the second, and so on. expansion-gear (eks-pan's hon-ger n. In a steam-engine, all those parts of the mechanism that control the admi ion of the live steam from the boiler to the main valve-system and thus to the cylinder. The expansion-gear is intermediate between the actual controlling system of mechanism, which makes the engine automatic, and the steam, pathetic; effusive. We English "are not an expansive people," and so we seldom use the word poor in a sentimental sense of the living, though we do so use it of the dead. N. and Q., 6th ser., X. 474. Expansive balance. See balance. expansively (eks-pan's iv-li), adv. In an expansive manner; by expansion. expansivene (eks-pansiv-nes), n. The quality of being expansive. Her talk was charming, bright, eager, full of a fine expansivene . New Princeton Rev. , II. 81.