rheotome

English

Differential rheotome

Etymology

From rheo- (“flow, current”) +‎ -tome (“cutter”), literally “flow cutter”.

Noun

rheotome (plural rheotomes)

1. Any instrument that interrupts an electric current.
   • 1884, George Calvin Pitzer, Electricity in medicine and surgery, p. 30.

     By means of the rheotome, the primary current is broken and closed rapidly, so that the induced current seems almost like a continuous one.