Platonov question for someone with some knowledge of technical and engineering matters!

[Robert Chandler]

Dear all,

What does the verb ‘sifonit’’ mean?  I had imagined that it can have the
meaning of ‘let off steam’.

In Platonov’s HAPPY MOSCOW we translated Лишь вдалеке ... слышалось, как
сифонили трубы МОГЭСа (slyshalos’, kak sifonili tryby MOGESa) as ‘there was
only ... The sound of steam being let off from the Central Power Station.’

In the story ‘Fro’, however, I have come across the following: некоторые
машины мощно сифонили, подымая пар для поездки, другие спускали пар,
остужаясь под промывку (nekotorye mashini moshchno sifonili, podymaya par
dlya poezdki, drugie spuskali par, ostuzhayas pod promyvku).

It seems from the above that ‘sifonili’ and ‘spuskali par’ are opposites, at
least more or less.  I am now in a fog of confusion.

Can anyone help, or direct me to someone who might be able to help?  (I once
had a contact at a railway museum in Petersburg, but that was nearly 10
years ago!)

Best Wishes,

Robert


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