slidometer

Noun

slidometer (plural slidometers)

1. An instrument for indicating and recording shocks to railway cars caused by sudden stopping.
   • The average shocks for the four stops were, by one slidometer, four-tenths of an inch and, by the other slidometer, five-tenths of an inch.1893 July, “Westing house Co. on the Karner Brake Trials”, in Locomotive Engineering, page 301
   • The ordinary slidometer results are misleading for the reason that the sliding mass in the testing instrument is not restricted to the path of the car .1910 May, Colonel B. W. Durd, “Stresses Developed by collisions of Freight Cars”, in The Official Railway Equipment Register, volume 25, number 6, page 48
2. A device for measuring the movement of a glacier.
   • A. Slidometer used to measure basal sliding rate.2002, C. Simon L. Ommanney, History of Glacier Investigations in Canada, page J-55