Literary notes about siphon (AI summary)
The term "siphon" shows remarkable versatility in literary contexts, serving both as a technical reference and as a vivid component of social or metaphorical scenes. In technical or scientific discussions, it appears as an apparatus designed to transfer liquids—its workings detailed with precision, such as in descriptions of mechanical fluid dynamics and atmospheric principles [1][2][3]. In contrast, its presence in narrative prose often contributes to an atmosphere of casual elegance or quirky humor, where a character might opt to “siphon” rather than be “pumped,” or where a dining table is set with a decanter, siphon, and glasses [4][5][6]. The word also extends into biological discourse, illustrating its anatomical relevance in describing structures like the squid’s siphon [7][8].
- The siphon pipe, A B C D , is in the first instance filled by suction.
— from How it Works by Archibald Williams - But siphon here is an engineering term to describe a channel that goes under an obstruction—the canal—and returns the water to its former level.
— from The Industrial Canal and Inner Harbor of New Orleans History, Description and Economic Aspects of Giant Facility Created to Encourage Industrial Expansion and Develop Commerce by Thomas Ewing Dabney - The reading of a siphon is the distance between the two surfaces of the mercury.
— from How it Works by Archibald Williams - "For," Steve reasoned, "evidently this party is a seeker after knowledge; it is better to siphon than to be pumped.
— from The Desire of the Moth; and the Come On by Eugene Manlove Rhodes - In silence he brought out whiskey, glasses, and a siphon of soda-water.
— from The Masquerader by Katherine Cecil Thurston - He turned round, the glass still in his hand and the soda from the siphon running in a fountain over the table-cloth.
— from Aladdin of London; Or, Lodestar by Max Pemberton - The stomach may be a blind sac with entrance and exit close together, or it may have the form of a tube or siphon.
— from Elementary Zoology, Second Edition by Vernon L. (Vernon Lyman) Kellogg - The squid has a siphon which terminates in a tube, opening beneath the head.
— from Half Hours with the Lower Animals Protozoans, Sponges, Corals, Shells, Insects, and Crustaceans by Charles Frederick Holder
