semi-diesel

semi-diesel is defined in Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1913) with 1 sense. The full text of each entry is reproduced verbatim below.

Definitions

  1. 1.Designating an internal-combustion engine of a type resembling the Diesel engine in using as fuel heavy oil which is injected in a spray just before the end of the compression stroke and is fired without electrical ignition. The fuel is sprayed into an iron box (called a hot bulb or hot pot) opening into the combustion chamber, and heated for ignition by a blast-lamp until the engine is running, when it is, ordinarily, kept red hot by the heat of combustion.

Source: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).

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