rheostaticadj.
/ˌriːə(ʊ)ˈstatɪk/, U.S. /ˌriəˈstædɪk/ 1. Of, relating to, or involving a rheostat, esp. as employed in a form of braking used in vehicles with electric traction motors, in which the motors are made to act as generators, the resulting power being dissipated in the starting rheostats; esp. in rheostatic brake, rheostatic braking. Cf. regenerative adj. 5.
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society > travel > means of travel > a conveyance > vehicle > vehicles according to means of motion > vehicle moving on wheels > [noun] > parts of vehicle moving on wheels > devices to retard or stop motion > brake or braking apparatus > types of
handbrake1841
rubber1850
air brake1857
disc brake1865
power brake1865
hydraulic brake1874
vacuum-brake1875
rim brake1876
drum brake1882
sand brakea1884
calliper brake1904
rheostatic brake1920
callipers1972
1860 A. V. Newton Brit. Patent 1765 (1861) 2 Instead of employing the process of weaving in the manufacture of the improved rheostat... A kind of rheostatic cloth is obtained.
1920 Whittaker's Electr. Engineer's Pocket-bk. (ed. 4) 563 Electric rheostatic brakes, in which the car motors are converted into generators and are loaded on rheostats, the brake being applied and regulated from the controller.
1931 R. A. Bishop Electr. Trolley Bus v. 118 The rheostatic brake so adjusted as not to overstress the transmission.
1954 A. T. Dover Electr. Traction (ed. 3) viii. 130 For rheostatic braking either of the schemes..are employed.
1993 Mod. Railways July 417/2 When the rheostatic brake is applied, you can hear the fans which cool the braking resistors cutting in.
2. Designating a machine for producing a very high voltage from a lower voltage battery, by means of a number of capacitors charged in parallel and discharged in series. Now rare.
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1877 Telegr. Jrnl. 5 309 By a simple effect of static induction incessantly repeated..transformation into dynamic electricity; so that the apparatus..may fairly be called rheostatic.
1901 U.S. Patent 674,427 2/2 The plates of the rheostatic machine are reconnected to potential.
1914 Jrnl. Electr. Workers & Operators Oct. 526/1 Plante has recently observed similar but smaller globular discharges from his ‘rheostatic machine’ charged by powerful secondary batteries.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2010; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1860