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Fire Escape Partners
3465 25th Street, Suite 17
San Francisco, CA 94110 | (adjective)
[noo-MAT-ik, nyoo-MAT-ik] 
1. of, relating to, or involving air, gases, or wind: "Judith kept her windows sealed and the air conditioner and air purifier humming to fully regulate the pneumatic environment of her apartment."
2. of or relating to pneumatics (the branch of physics dealing with the mechanical properties of air and other gases)
3. moved or operated by compressed air (usually a tool or machine); 'a pneumatic drill'
4. filled with air, especially compressed air; 'a pneumatic tire'
5. (as in zoology) having cavities filled with air, as the bones of many birds; 'pneumatic bones,' 'pneumatic cells'
6. of or relating to the pneuma (in Stoicism, the soul or spirit); spiritual
adverb form: pneumatically
noun form: pneumaticity
Origin:
Approximately 1659; shortened form of earlier English 'pneumatical'; possibly influenced by Middle French, 'pneumatique,' and borrowed directly from Latin, 'pneumaticus': of the wind; from Greek, 'pneumatikos,' from 'pneuma': wind, breath, from 'pnein': to blow, to breathe. In action:
"The spine-chilling roar of jet skis, the click-clack of car alarm activators, the sound of the beep before you leave your message and the bum-aching prankster tunes of mobile phones - all now familiar and acceptable intrusions on our aural highway.
I have become noise-phobic; just the thought of cars tooting their horns will have me barking. I wake up at 3am, my heart pounding too loudly and my jarmies tangled.
My bed has become a hostile, alien territory squirming with scary monsters in overalls and pneumatic drills. My thoughts drift to Iraq, Afghanistan and Gaza, where mothers hold sobbing children close to their breasts to muffle the sound of gunshots. Sad, frustrated and now dangerously angry, I seek the usual remedy - cleaning and sorting. I re-arrange every container. My books, the vegetables in my crisper, the spice-rack are now all in alphabetical order. My toilet rolls are stacked in a perfect Yoga posture worthy of a Madonna tune."
Rachel Berger. "A phobia that tangles the jarmies and nerves," [The ever-widening cacophony of everyday noises is driving one back into the cave, with a pithy refrain to be left alone.] The Age (August 29, 2003).
"Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie is currently in movie theaters all over the country as Lara Croft, the pneumatic computer-action figure whose missions require impossible feats and mind-boggling stunts.
On Sunday evening, the 'Tomb Raider' left Russia after a four-day mission that required feats and stunts of a completely different kind.
Jolie came for a whirlwind tour of refugee camps in Ingushetia and North Ossetia to raise awareness of the plight of Chechen refugees in her role as UNHCR goodwill ambassador.
She called on the government not to force the refugees at the Bella camp in Ingushetia to return to Chechnya against their will."
Kevin O'Flynn. "'Lara Croft' Star Visits Camps in Chechnya," St. Petersburg Times.
"Twenty years on, he's got several -- not a surprise in this group. But the reproducing piano is another step up from the basic player piano, such as Bello and Dyer were playing in the meeting room at the DoubleTree Hotel in downtown Portland. The reproducing piano was made to replicate actual performances with tempo and emphasis signals punched into the piano roll.
There were several systems such as Duo-Art -- which were often installed in Steinway pianos -- Ampico and Welte-Mignon, which was favored by Rattle, who'd just bought a vintage roll of 'Land of Sky-Blue Waters' at the swap meet in the next room. He'd also bought the 'drawer' or works of a Model B Ampico -- a bewildering maze of rubber tubing, levers and pneumatic bellows that must've weighed a hundred pounds or more.
Still, it wasn't as bad as that time in Boston in 1991, when he found an entire reproducing grand piano, bought it and then inquired as to shipping it home to Australia. No worries, as it turned out. Couldn't have been easier, he said, so much so that Rattle's since imported a couple more pianos to bring his total herd to six."
"Entertainment News: Automatically yours," The Oregonian (August 29, 2003).
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