A steam engine used in mining or heavy industrial work, especially one with a distinctive bull-like appearance or sound.
Blend of 'bull' (from Old English bula) and 'engine' (from Latin ingenium, cleverness). Likely regional dialect term, particularly in mining communities, combining the animal's strength with mechanical power.
Old mining communities in Cornwall and Wales used 'bullgine' to describe those massive steam engines that sounded like angry bulls—the term shows how miners gave personality to their dangerous industrial machines!
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