ppl. a. [f. SUPER- 9 b + HEATED ppl. a.]
1. of steam or vapor: Heated above its temperature of saturation.
1857. Miller, Elem. Chem., Org., vi. § 2. 375. Injecting superheated steam at a temperature of between 500° and 600° into heated fat.
1873. E. Spon, Workshop Rec., Ser. I. 377/1. By applying superheated steam both time and fuel are saved.
1915. Nature, 11 Feb., 662/1. The iodine which is transpired as superheated vapour is condensed there.
b. transf. Operated by superheated steam.
1883. E. P. Ramsay, Food Fishes N. S. Wales, 24. The offal of fish was disintegrated and dried by superheated system.
1911. Daily News, 25 Jan., 2. The North-Western Company are now constructing twenty superheated engines.
2. gen. Heated above the ordinary temperature or degree; excessively heated or hot; also fig.
1866. Spectator, 10 March, 267/2. This sort of superheated intellectual strain . The peculiar superheated grandeur and magnificence attached by Americans to the idea of the Union.
1880. A. R. Wallace, Isl. Life, I. ix. 188. An additional reservoir of super-heated water.
1888. Fenn, Off to Wilds, xxii. 157. They were up in one of the superheated rifts among the rocks, with the sun pouring down.
1912. F. I. Paradise, in Hibbert Jrnl., Oct., 30. We must look a moment at this gathering of superheated men, for it shows us in action the two generally antagonistic movements in American life.
So Superheater, an apparatus for superheating steam; Superheating vbl. sb. (a) the process of heating steam or vapor above its temperature of saturation; also attrib.; (b) excessive heating, overheating.
1861. Leeds Mercury, 2 Nov. The temperature, immediately on leaving the *superheater, was as high as 600 degrees.
1886. Encycl. Brit., XXI. 824/1. Engines of large cylinder capacity to admit of great expansion, with surface-condensers and superheaters to the boilers.
1861. Leeds Mercury, 2 Nov. Some parties entertain the idea that *superheating may be advantageously applied where steam is used for heating purposes.
1897. Daily News, 16 Sept., 2/2. Other cold water is conveyed into a spiral coil and superheating chamber above the light.
1898. P. Manson, Trop. Diseases, xii. 207. Super-heating of the blood.