electricaladj.n.

1644 K. Digby Two Treat. i. xix. 174 This Electricall vertue..consisteth in a certaine degree of rarity or density of the bodies vnctuous emanations.

1661 R. Hooke Attempt Explic. Phænomena 50 I cannot here stay to explain the Reasons of magnetical and electrical attraction.

1665 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 1 49 The Electrical faculty of Amber.

1747 B. Franklin Let. 25 May in Papers (1961) III. 127 You may draw off the Electrical Fire, and destroy the Repellency.

1775 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 65 i. 102 An Account of the Gymnotus Electricus, or Electrical Eel.

1812 H. Davy Elements Chem. Philos. 104 Wires for passing the electrical spark.

1832 W. Macgillivray Trav. & Researches A. von Humboldt xv. 196 Electrical eels..abound in the..confluents of the Orinoco.

1839 C. Darwin in R. Fitzroy & C. Darwin Narr. Surv. Voy. H.M.S. Adventure & Beagle III. iii. 72 The mixture of large bodies of fresh water with the salt may disturb the electrical equilibrium.

1851 W. B. Carpenter Man. Physiol. 462 In..Electrical fishes, the electric organs are supplied with nerves of very great size.

1924 A. J. Allmand & H. J. T. Ellingham Princ. Appl. Electrochem. (ed. 2) i. 3 The reaction being electrochemical, the liberated energy appears as electrical energy.

1939 Fortune Oct. 86/3 Lightning and other natural electrical disturbances.

1958 Observer 9 Nov. 17/5 With the electrocardiograph one records the electrical activity of the hearts of both child and mother.

2005 A. Smith Accidental 51 Billions of electrical impulses, billions of messages sent in miraculous nanoseconds at the flick of a button.

1746 W. Watson Sequel to Experiments in Electr. 32 If the electrical machine is placed upon originally-electrics, the man..gives no sign of being electrified.

1749 B. Franklin Let. 29 Apr. in Papers (1961) III. 357 We made what we call'd an Electrical Battery, consisting of eleven Panes of large Sash Glass, arm'd with thin leaden plates.

1818 M. W. Shelley Frankenstein I. i. 57 He constructed a small electrical machine.

1842 Brit. Pat. 9465 40 For connecting any number of distant clocks together in the manner of what are called electrical clocks, so that they will all move with an exact uniformity.

1891 Daily Independent (Monroe, Wisconsin) 1 June 2/5 What is claimed to be the largest electrical generator in this country is now nearing completion at the Thompson-Houston factory in Lynn.

1921 Amer. Legion Weekly 26 Aug. 18/1 (advt.) Students construct dynamos, install wiring and test electrical machinery.

1987 M. Ondaatje In Skin of Lion (1988) 220 An explosion would cause floods and permanently rust all engines and electrical equipment.

2006 Daily Tel. 11 Dec. 22/5 The local authority demanded new gas fittings, new electrical wiring, [etc.].

1758 E. Darwin in Philos. Trans. 1757 (Royal Soc.) 50 240 The author, having no electrical friend whose sagacity he could confide in.

1781 H. L. Piozzi Diary 17 Dec. in K. C. Balderston Thraliana (1942) I. 521 Franklyn—the American—the Electrical Franklyn was in company with a very fine Woman.

1851 Sci. Amer. 21 Sept. 20/1 We request particular attention to the articles on the Voltaic Battery; they are furnished by the best practical electrical engineer in the country.

1893 Manufacturer & Builder June 140/1 That Mr. Turner's system of rodding buildings has the approval of electrical experts.

1922 H. N. Casson Hist. Telephone (ed. 10) iii. 80 The Western Union relied more upon its strength than upon the merits of its case. Its chief electrical expert, Frank L. Pope, had made a six months' examination of the Bell patents.

1958 P. Berton Klondike Fever iii. 129 A noted electrical expert of the times, Nikalo Tesla, a one time associate of Thomas Edison, attempted to market an X-ray machine.

1998 Sci., Technol., & Human Values 23 144 When you're doing the mechanical design work..you've gotta leave room for the electrical people to put their stuff.

1760 L. Sterne Life Tristram Shandy II. 19 By the same process and electrical assimilation..thro' which I ween the souls of connoisseurs themselves, by long friction and incumbition.

1775 R. B. Sheridan Rivals ii. i. 26 The atmosphere becomes electrical to love, and each amorous spark darts thro' every link of the chain!

1850 Fort Wayne (Indiana) Times 22 Aug. 2/3 It is quite electrical to put your hand and eye upon a number of the first paper printed in the United States.

1861 G. W. Curtis Trumps xlviii. 286 The whole company were disturbed. They seemed to be in an electrical condition of apprehension.

1942 F. L. Kerran Let. 14 Dec. in O. Pearson Albania in Occup. & War (2005) iii. 221 Such an announcement from Washington and London would be electrical in its effect on the Albanian people.

1982 Times 14 Jan. 18/2 The atmosphere was electrical..when Willis bowled to Gavaskar.

2002 J. E. Roeckelein Psychol. Humor i. 27 The electrical effect of wit or humor is so closely connected with the time, place, and circumstances of its utterance that separated from them it loses much of its significance and force.

1742 Philos. Trans. 1739–40 (Royal Soc.) 41 203 A Non-electrical is such a body as cannot be made electrical by any Action upon the Body itself immediately; though it is capable of receiving that Virtue from an Electrical per se.

1853 S. Neill Art Reasoning iii. 25 The mind being fixed upon the one distinguishing quality overlooks all differences, and designates..this class of objects by one general cognomen, Electricals.

1884 Kansas City (Missouri) Rev. Sci. & Industry 8 418 What can nerves be but electricals—not only conductors, but like glass, exciters of electricity.

1857 Inauguration of Washington Univ. 86 I hold in my hand a portion of the identical electrical cable, given me by my friend, Mr. Peabody, which is now in progress of manufacture, to connect America with Europe.

1922 Gas Manuf., Distribution & Use (Brit. Commerc. Gas Assoc.) i. 28/2 Pitch.—Used for making briquettes for fuel, and asphalt; also for coating electrical cables.

2006 Miami Herald (Nexis) 22 Sept. 3 An underground electrical cable caught fire Thursday, sending smoke billowing into the streets.

1756 R. Lovett Subtil Medium Prov'd iii. 82 The Shouts were always first performed before she sat in the electrical Chair.

1883 Boston Daily Globe 27 May 4/6 A New York man, Sheridan by name, has invented an electrical chair for executing criminals.

1938 New Castle (Pa.) News 21 Jan. 15/2 It is planned to move the state's electrical chair, where murderers are put to death, to the new prison.

1992 Houston Chron. (Nexis) 20 Oct. a 11 Engineers were ‘meticulous in making sure you didn't need an electrical chair to get up the ramps leading to seating platforms’.

2005 Newsday (N.Y.) (Nexis) 14 Mar. a7 Becker died in the electrical chair in 1915.

1747 F. Watkins Particular Acct. Electr. Exper. 35 Nor will it [sc. a phial] receive the least part of the electrical charge, unless the operator, or some one near him, touches or approaches the body of the phial.

1856 Proc. Royal Soc. 8 167 By the term electrical charge of a given conducting substance, the author understands the quantity of electricity which the body can sustain under a given degree of the electrometer.

1932 Discovery Mar. 69/2 At the centre of every atom there is a minute nucleus whose electrical charge fixes the elementary nature of the atom.

2003 Washington Post 28 Aug. (Home ed.) a27/1 In response to his refusal to cooperate, the guards activated a stun belt that sent a powerful electrical charge through his body.

1857 W. Thomson in Proc. Royal Soc. 8 546 I have ascertained that the electric conductivity of nickel is similarly influenced by magnetism, but to a greater degree [than iron].]

1858 J. Timbs Year-bk. of Facts 155 By experiments recently made, he [sc. Thomson] has ascertained that the electrical conductivity of nickel is similarly influenced by magnetism.

1922 T. M. Lowry Inorg. Chem. iii. 43 In the special case of water, the best test of purity is to measure its electrical conductivity. This diminishes as the water is purified.

1989 A. C. Davies Sci. & Pract. Welding (ed. 9) I. i. 19 The thermal conductivity is closely allied to the electrical conductivity, that is, the ease with which an electric current is carried by a metal.

1851 Sci. Amer. 21 Sept. 20/1 We request particular attention to the articles on the Voltaic Battery; they are furnished by the best practical electrical engineer in the country.

1883 Electr. Engineer May 3/1 In view of the larger extension of electrical interests..we have deemed it advisable to alter the title [sc. ‘Electric Light’] to ‘The Electrical Engineer’.

1935 Discovery Apr. 111/2 This new and valuable testing instrument..put into its hands by the electrical engineer.

1995 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 6 May d2/3 The first generation of computers dates from the introduction in 1946 of the ENIAC, developed by John Eckert and John Mauchly, electrical engineers at the University of Pennsylvania.

1875 B. H. Becker Sci. London ix. 246 Less rigid conditions are exacted in the case of Associates, who need only to be persons..whose pursuits constitute branches of electrical engineering.

1883 Pop. Sci. Monthly Dec. 255 Electrical engineering..embraces a knowledge of cables, telegraphy, electric lighting, electrical measurement.

1965 M. Morse Unattached i. 18 A large electrical-engineering firm.

2000 Sci. Amer. (U.K. ed.) Dec. 24/1 Conway hoped to quickly parlay a master's degree in electrical engineering into a high-paying job.

1750 B. Franklin Let. 29 July in Papers (1961) IV. 11 The beneficial Uses of this Electrical Fluid we are not yet well acquainted with; tho' doubtless such there are and great ones; but we may see some pernicious Consequences.

1865 B. Silliman Princ. Physics (ed. 2) iii. iii. 535 Philosophers generally agree in attributing the phenomena of electricity to the existence of an assumed electrical fluid.

1909 Science 12 Feb. 257/1 The negative ions, or, as Franklin would have stated it, the electrical fluid, flows through what we now call the positive ions.

2004 S. Wills & S. Wills Meteorology ii. 37 Most scientists believed there were two kinds of electrical fluid, existing in equal amounts in all objects; when an object became electrified, some of one kind of fluid was destroyed, leaving an excess of the other.

1753 Philos. Trans. 1751–2 (Royal Soc.) 47 565 (title) A letter of Benjamin Franklin, Esq; to Mr. Peter Collinson, F.R.S. concerning an electrical Kite.

1814 G. J. Singer Elements Electr. & Electro-chem. iii. iii. 266 An electrical kite should be constructed in the most simple manner, for it is an apparatus very liable to be injured or lost.

1906 Science 21 Sept. 374/2 Franklin's classic experiment with the electrical kite, by which he demonstrated the identity of lightning and artificial electricity, was performed..during the summer of 1752.

1964 Geogr. Jrnl. 130 350 He [sc. John Barrow]..made an ‘electrical kite’..which he flew with success until he yielded to temptation and gave an electric shock to an inquisitive old woman... This pastime was then forbidden by his parents.

1675 Philos. Trans. 1674 (Royal Soc.) 9 224 Of the Electrical power of Stones in relation to a Vegetable Rosin.

1747 Philos. Trans. 1746 (Royal Soc.) 44 706 After the Globes had been a few times used, I found myself Master of a much greater Quantity of Electrical Power.

1863 Times 12 Aug. 8/5 The large induction coils first used in signalling between England and America were probably equal in electrical power to 2,000 battery cells.

1905 A. H. Bate Princ. Electr. Power iii. 34 Electrical power can thus be expressed in either of three units, namely:—The watt... The kilowatt... And the electrical horse-power.

2001 Nat. New Eng. Fall 38 (caption) It was worth paying a little extra..for green-source electrical power.

1851 W. S. Harris Rudimentary Electr. (ed. 2) viii. 186 In applying lightning conductors, therefore,..our object should be to..bring the given building or ship as nearly as possible into that state of passive electrical resistance it would have supposing the whole mass were metallic throughout.

1936 Discovery Apr. 105/2 When mercury was cooled to about 4.2° above the absolute zero, known as its transition temperature, its electrical resistance was reduced to zero.

2001 Outdoor Photographer Aug. 42/3 The GSR response, which measures the electrical resistance of the skin and related sweat gland activity, indicates emotional arousal that could be negative as well as positive.

1923 O. Mitchell Talking Machine Industry ii. 15 Mr. Fenby,..in 1863, took out a patent for the electrical recording and reproducing of sound.

1925 ‘His Master's Voice’ Album Ser. No. 3 The Rose Cavalier... Electrical Recording.

1940 D. Hall Rec. Bk. ii. 8 The surprisingly good quality of some of the early electrical recordings can be graphically illustrated by playing on a good modern phonograph the Coates, London Symphony Orchestra version of the Fire Music from Die Walküre.

1992 Cambr. Encycl. Human Evol. (1994) ii. viii. 77/1 To understand the function of a particular muscle we must rely on electrical recordings or electromyography.

1998 Strad July 744/2 Manuel Quiroga made enough records for his stature to be assessed, and although they were all of short genre pieces he did at least make electrical recordings, so that we have a good idea of his tone.

1747 J. Neale Direct. for Gentleman who have Electr. Machines 54 The electrical shock may be communicated to animals divers ways.

1807 T. Young Course Lect. Nat. Philos. II. 542/1 The rapid transmission of the electrical shock shows that the electric medium is possessed of an elasticity.

1887 Science 18 Feb. 160/1 I seized hold of the iron frame of the bed to steady myself: the act was followed by an electrical shock that nearly threw me to the floor.

1924 Times 6 Sept. 8/1 The fish is able to give a severe electrical shock of from 400 volts upwards.

2002 ‘J. Churchill’ House of Seven Mabels (2003) xvi. 121 Big blond hair that looked as if she'd suffered a real electrical shock, though the hair was probably just overbleached and overpermed.

1918 Times 23 May 10/7 Electrodes were essential to the production of electrical steel, which was destined to take an important place among our industries.

1985 Physics in Technol. 16 208/2 A good compromise is electrical steel which has favourable magnetic properties combined with relatively easy manufacturing qualities.

2002 M. M. Schwartz Encycl. Materials, Parts, & Finishes (ed. 2) 333/2 There are two types of iron–silicon alloys that are commercially important: the magnetically soft materials designated silicon or electrical steel, and the corrosion-resistant, high-silicon cast irons.

1843 W. S. Harris On Nature of Thunderstorms i. 64 He was watching the progress of an electrical storm a great way off, and..was observing by a stop-watch, the time which elapsed before the sound of the thunder reached him.

1948 J. R. Ellingston Protecting Our Children viii. 97 The climax came when a bad electrical storm put the camp's lighting system out of commission.

1993 Harper's Mag. Jan. 70/1 Though the radio may crackle or the lights flicker and dim during an electrical storm, they normally recover without so much as blowing a fuse.

1981 Low-waste & Non-waste Technol. in Iron & Steel Industry (Econ. Comm. for Europe, United Nations) v. 150 Metallic waste: re-sold in its entirety to enterprises specializing in recovery or directly to foundries: manufacturing scrap.., ferrous slag, non-ferrous slag chips, electrical waste, cables.

2012 Bath Chron. (Nexis) 25 Oct. 28 A specialist firm..is offering its services to collect and receive all forms of electrical waste including fridges, washing machines, ovens, and IT equipment.