Electrical Papers

SUBJECT AREA: Broadcasting, Telecommunications

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Brought up in poor, almost Dickensian, circumstances, at the age of 13 years Heaviside, a nephew by marriage of Sir Charles Wheatstone, went to Camden House Grammar School. There he won a medal for science, but he was forced to leave because his parents could not afford the fees. After a year of private study, he began his working life in Newcastle in 1870 as a telegraph operator for an Anglo-Dutch cable company, but he had to give up after only four years because of increasing deafness. He therefore proceeded to spend his time studying theoretical aspects of electrical transmission and communication, and moved to Devon with his parents in 1889. Because the operation of many electrical circuits involves transient phenomena, he found it necessary to develop what he called operational calculus (which was essentially a form of the Laplace transform calculus) in order to determine the response to sudden voltage and current changes. In 1893 he suggested that the distortion that occurred on long-distance telephone lines could be reduced by adding loading coils at regular intervals, thus creating a matched-transmission line. Between 1893 and 1912 he produced a series of writings on electromagnetic theory, in one of which, anticipating a conclusion of Einstein's special theory of relativity, he put forward the idea that the mass of an electric charge increases with its velocity. When it was found that despite the curvature of the earth it was possible to communicate over very great distances using radio signals in the so-called "short" wavebands, Heaviside suggested the presence of a conducting layer in the ionosphere that reflected the waves back to earth. Since a similar suggestion had been made almost at the same time by Arthur Kennelly of Harvard, this layer became known as the Kennelly-Heaviside layer.

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See also: Appleton, Sir Edward Victor

SUBJECT AREA: Electricity

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After graduating from Keble College, Oxford, Rawcliffe joined the Metropolitan Vickers Electrical Company in 1932 as a college apprentice, and later became a design engineer. This was followed by a period as a lecturer at Liverpool University, where he was able to extend his knowledge of the principles underlying the design and operation of electrical machines. In 1941 he became Head of the Electrical Engineering Department at the Robert Gordon Technical College, Aberdeen, and Lecturer in charge of Electrical Engineering at Aberdeen University. In 1944 Rawcliffe was appointed to the Chair of Electrical Engineering at the University of Bristol, where he remained until his retirement in 1975. The reputation of his department was enhanced by the colleagues he recruited.

After 1954 he began research into polyphase windings, the basis of alternating-current machinery, and published papers concerned with the dual problems of frequency changing and pole changing. The result of this research was the discovery in 1957 of a technique for making squirrel-cage induction motors run at more than one speed. By reversing current in one part of the winding, the pole distribution and number were changed, and with it the speed of rotation.

Rawcliffe's name became synonymous with pole amplitude modulation, or PAM, the name given to this technique. Described by Rawcliffe as a new philosophy of windings, the technique led to a series of research papers, patents and licensing agreements in addition to consultancies to advise on application problems. Commercial exploitation of the new idea throughout Western Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States followed. In total he contributed twentyfive papers to the Proceedings of the Institution of Electrical Engineers and some sixty British patent applications were filed.

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1 machine.

aparato de diálisis kidney machine

aparatos gimnásticos apparatus (en competición, escuela)

aparato de radio radio

aparato de televisión television set

aparato de vídeo video (cassette) recorder

2 plane.

3 aid (medicine) (prótesis).

4 system (anatomy).

aparato circulatorio circulatory system

aparato digestivo digestive system

aparato reproductor reproductive system

aparato respiratorio respiratory system

aparato urinario urinary tract

Aparato respiratorio Respiratory system.

5 machinery (politics).

6 pomp, ostentation.

7 appliance, gadget, mechanism, unit.

8 brace.

9 theatricality, exaggeration.

1^st person singular (yo) present indicative of spanish verb: aparatar.

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► nombre masculino

1 (mecanismo) (piece of) apparatus, set; (eléctrico) appliance

■ aparatos eléctricos equipment

2 (dispositivo) device; (instrumento) instrument

3 (teléfono) telephone

■ está al aparato he's on the phone

4 (avión) plane

5 (exageración) exaggeration

6 (ostentación) pomp, display, show

■ con mucho aparato very pompously

7 (tormenta) flashes of lightning plural

■ una tormenta con gran aparato (eléctrico) a storm with tremendous flashes of lightning

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aparato auditivo hearing aid

aparato de radio radio set

aparato de televisión television set

aparato digestivo ANATOMÍA digestive system

aparato ortopédico orthopedic aid

el aparato del estado the State apparatus

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1) machine

2) apparatus

3) appliance, set

4) system

* * *

1) (Téc) machine

2) (Elec) (=electrodoméstico) appliance; (=televisor, radio) set

3) (Telec) phone, telephone

4) (Med)

5) (Gimnasia) (=máquina) exercise machine, fitness machine; (=anillas, barras) piece of apparatus

6) (Aer) aircraft, airplane (EEUU)

7) (=formalismo, artificio)

8) (Pol) (=estructura) [de base] machine; [de control] machinery

9) (Meteo)

10) (=indicios) signs pl, symptoms pl ; (Med) symptoms pl ; (Psic) syndrome

11) (Literat)

12) ** (=pene) equipment *; (=vagina) pussy ***

* * *

1)

a) ( máquina)

b) ( de televisión) set; ( de radio) receiver

2) ( para gimnasia) piece of apparatus

3)

a) ( audífono) tb

b) (Odont) tb

4) ( teléfono) telephone

5) (frml) ( avión) aircraft

6) (estructura, sistema) machine

7) ( ceremonia) pomp

8) (fam & euf) ( pene) weenie (AmE colloq), willy (BrE colloq); ( genitales masculinos) equipment (euph)

•

- aparato circulatorio/digestivo/respiratorio

- aparato ortopédico

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= apparatus, device, machine, whatchamacallit, gadget, widget, rig, appliance, unit, contraption.

Ex. The abstracts of research papers will typically represent the methodology employed, in particular, apparatus, equipment, tools, materials.

Ex. The extent of application of the synthetic devices will vary from one library to another.

Ex. Synonyms, related terms and other variants must now be collected, either by human selection, or with the aid of the machine.

Ex. In his book's section ' Watchamacallit' he forecasts that communication between user and machine will be through voice for entering text and a pen-like device for pointing.

Ex. The article is entitled 'Exhibits in the American Pavilion at the 1958 Brussels World's Fair: women's clothing, men's gadgets, hot dogs and haute couture'.

Ex. The term widget is taken from the 1963 movie, 'The Wheeler-Dealers'.

Ex. An adjustable seating rig was used to create the three-dimensional shape of a static lounge chair.

Ex. People want information available through the appliances they use in the mainstream of their daily lives.

Ex. Data-capture units are light pens, and such units can be made available at various locations in the library for public consultation.

Ex. If you are in cahoots with the circle of power, you get your projects approved in no time, and in some cases, you can build the most hideous and unsightly contraption.

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* aparato burocrático = bureaucratic apparatus.

* aparato de aire acondicionado = air conditioner.

* aparato de grabación = recorder.

* aparato de informática del tamaño de la palma de la mano = palm computing device.

* aparato de lectura = reading machine.

* aparato del partido = party machinery.

* aparato de medición = meter.

* aparato de radio = radio set.

* aparato de televisión = television set, TV set.

* aparato de vídeo = videocassette recorder (VCR), home video recorder, video recorder.

* aparato digestivo = gastrointestinal tract, digestive tract.

* aparato eléctrico = electrical apparatus, power appliance.

* aparato electrónico = electronic device.

* aparato motorizado = motorised device.

* aparato óptico = optical device.

* aparato para el uso de la información = information appliance.

* aparato para usar Internet = Internet appliance.

* aparato político = machine politics.

* aparato propagandista = propaganda machine.

* aparatos = gadgetry, mechanical equipment.

* aparatos de vídeo = video equipment.

* aparatos eléctricos = electrical equipment, electrical appliances, appliances, household appliances.

* aparatos eléctricos del hogar = home appliances, domestic appliances, home appliances.

* aparatos electrónicos = electronic(s) appliances.

* aparato urinario = urinary tract.

* zona con aparatos electrónicos = equipment area.

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1)

a) ( máquina)

b) ( de televisión) set; ( de radio) receiver

2) ( para gimnasia) piece of apparatus

3)

a) ( audífono) tb

b) (Odont) tb

4) ( teléfono) telephone

5) (frml) ( avión) aircraft

6) (estructura, sistema) machine

7) ( ceremonia) pomp

8) (fam & euf) ( pene) weenie (AmE colloq), willy (BrE colloq); ( genitales masculinos) equipment (euph)

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- aparato circulatorio/digestivo/respiratorio

- aparato ortopédico

* * *

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(máquina): tiene la cocina llena de aparatos eléctricos the kitchen is full of electrical appliances

ese tipo de análisis requiere aparatos especiales that type of test requires special equipment

uno de esos aparatos para hacer zumo one of those juicer machines

el aparato para tomarte la tensión the apparatus for taking your blood pressure

2 (de televisión) set, receiver; (de radio) receiver

B (para gimnasia) piece of apparatus

los aparatos the apparatus, the equipment

rowing machine

1 (audífono) tb

aparato auditivo hearing aid

2 ( Odont) tb

aparatos braces (pl), brace ( BrE)

D (teléfono) telephone

ponerse al aparato to come to the phone

¡al aparato! speaking!

E ( frml) (avión) aircraft

F (estructura, sistema) machine

el aparato del partido the party machine

el aparato represivo montado por la dictadura the machinery of repression set up under the dictatorship

1 (ceremonia) pomp

fue recibido con mucho aparato he was received with great pomp (and ceremony)

todo el aparato que acompañó a la boda del príncipe all the pageantry which accompanied the prince's wedding

2 ( fam) (jaleo, escándalo) fuss ( colloq), to-do ( colloq)

H ( fam euf) (pene) thing ( colloq), weenie ( AmE colloq), willy ( BrE colloq); (genitales masculinos) equipment ( euph)

circulatory system

critical apparatus

digestive system

thunder and lightning

una fuerte tormenta acompañada de gran aparato eléctrico a heavy thunderstorm

surgical appliance

respiratory system

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a) ( máquina):

◊ uno de esos aparatos para hacer pasta one of those pasta machines;

b) ( de televisión) set;

c) ( dispositivo) device;

◊ aparato ortopédico surgical appliance;

d) (Odont) tb

◊ aparatos braces (pl)

e) ( teléfono) telephone;

◊ ponerse al aparato to come to the phone

◊ los aparatos the apparatus, the equipment

◊ el aparato del partido the party machine;

* * *

aparato nm

1. [máquina] machine;

compró un aparato para medir el viento she bought a device to measure the wind speed

aparatos eléctricos electrical appliances;

aparatos electrónicos electronic devices;

aparatos de laboratorio laboratory apparatus;

aparato de radio radio;

aparato de televisión television set;

aparato de vídeo video recorder

2. [teléfono]

¡al aparato! speaking!

3. [avión] plane

4. [prótesis] aid;

5. [en gimnasia] [en competición, escuela] piece of apparatus;

aparato de remo rowing machine

6. Anat aparato circulatorio circulatory system;

aparato digestivo digestive system;

aparato excretor excretory system;

aparato genital genitalia, genitals;

aparato locomotor locomotor system;

aparato olfativo olfactory system;

aparato reproductor reproductive system;

aparato respiratorio respiratory system;

aparato urinario urinary tract;

aparato visual visual system

7. Pol

el aparato del partido [altos mandos] the party leadership;

el aparato represivo the machinery of repression

8. [ostentación] pomp, ostentation;

una boda con gran aparato a wedding with a lot of pomp and ceremony

9. Meteo aparato eléctrico thunder and lightning;

una tormenta con impresionante aparato eléctrico a storm with an impressive display of thunder and lightning

10. Fam [genitales de hombre] equipment, Br tackle

* * *

1 piece of equipment; doméstico appliance;

al aparato TELEC speaking

2 BIO, ANAT system

3 de partido político machine

* * *

aparato nm

1) : machine, appliance, apparatus

aparato auditivo: hearing aid

aparato de televisión: television set

2) : system

aparato digestivo: digestive system

3) : display, ostentation

sin aparato: without ceremony

4) aparatos nmpl

: braces (for the teeth)

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aparato n

1. (mecanismo) device / thing

2. (doméstico) appliance

3. (televisión, radio) set

4. (conjunto de órganos) system

5. (de gimnasio) a piece of apparatus

6. (para los dientes) brace

SUBJECT AREA: Electricity, Telecommunications

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After education at Glasgow University and Peterhouse, Cambridge, a period of study in France gave Thomson an interest in experimental work and instrumentation. He became Professor of Natural Philosophy at Glasgow in 1846 and retained the position for the rest of his career, establishing the first teaching laboratory in Britain.

Among his many contributions to science and engineering was his concept, introduced in 1848, of an "absolute" zero of temperature. Following on from the work of Joule, his investigations into the nature of heat led to the first successful liquefaction of gases such as hydrogen and helium, and later to the science of low-temperature physics.

Cable telegraphy gave an impetus to the scientific measurement of electrical quantities, and for many years Thomson was a member of the British Association Committee formed in 1861 to consider electrical standards and to develop units; these are still in use. Thomson first became Scientific Adviser to the Atlantic Telegraph Company in 1857, sailing on the Agamemnon and Great Eastern during the cable-laying expeditions. He invented a mirror galvanometer and more importantly the siphon recorder, which, used as a very sensitive telegraph receiver, provided a permanent record of signals. He also laid down the design parameters of long submarine cables and discovered that the conductivity of copper was greatly affected by its purity. A major part of the success of the Atlantic cable in 1866 was due to Thomson, who received a knighthood for his contribution.

Other instruments he designed included a quadrant electrostatic voltmeter to measure high voltages, and his "multi-cellular" instrument for low voltages. They could be used on alternating or direct current and were free from temperature errors. His balances for precision current measurement were widely used in standardizing laboratories.

Thomson was a prolific writer of scientific papers on subjects across the whole spectrum of physics; between 1855 and 1866 he published some 110 papers, with a total during his life of over 600. In 1892 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Kelvin of Largs. By the time of his death he was looked upon as the "father" of British physics, but despite his outstanding achievements his later years were spent resisting change and progress.

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SUBJECT AREA: Electricity

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Thomson accompanied his parents to Philadelphia in 1858; he received his education at the Central High School there, and afterwards remained as a teacher of chemistry. At this time he constructed several dynamos after studying their design, and was invited by the Franklin Institute to give lectures on the subject. After observing an arc-lighting system operating commercially in Paris in 1878, he collaborated with Edwin J. Houston, a senior colleague at the Central High School, in working out the details of such a system. An automatic regulating device was designed which, by altering the position of the brushes on the dynamo commutator, maintained a constant current irrespective of the number of lamps in use. To overcome the problem of commutation at the high voltages necessary to operate up to forty arc lamps in a series circuit, Thomson contrived a centrifugal blower which suppressed sparking. The resulting system was efficient and reliable with low operating costs. Thomson's invention of the motor meter in 1882 was the first of many such instruments for the measurement of electrical energy. In 1886 he invented electric resistance welding using low-voltage alternating current derived from a transformer of his own design. Thomson's work is recorded in his technical papers and in the 700plus patents granted for his inventions.

The American Electric Company, founded to exploit the Thomson patents, later became the Thomson-Houston Company, which was destined to be a leader in the electrical manufacturing industry. They entered the field of electric power in 1887, supplying railway equipment and becoming a major innovator of electric railways. Thomson-Houston and Edison General Electric were consolidated to form General Electric in 1892. Thomson remained associated with this company throughout his career.

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SUBJECT AREA: Horology, Telecommunications

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Alexander Bain was born into a crofting family in a remote part of Scotland. He was apprenticed to a watchmaker in Wick and during that time he was strongly influenced by a lecture on "Heat, sound and electricity" that he heard in nearby Thurso. This lecture induced him to take up a position in Clerkenwell in London, working as a journeyman clockmaker, where he was able to further his knowledge of electricity by attending lectures at the Adelaide Gallery and the Polytechnic Institution. His thoughts naturally turned to the application of electricity to clockmaking, and despite a bitter dispute with Charles Wheatstone over priority he was granted the first British patent for an electric clock. This patent, taken out on 11 January 1841, described a mechanism for an electric clock, in which an oscillating component of the clock operated a mechanical switch that initiated an electromagnetic pulse to maintain the regular, periodic motion. This principle was used in his master clock, produced in 1845. On 12 December of the same year, he patented a means of using electricity to control the operation of steam railway engines via a steam-valve. His earliest patent was particularly far-sighted and anticipated most of the developments in electrical horology that occurred during the nineteenth century. He proposed the use of electricity not only to drive clocks but also to distribute time over a distance by correcting the hands of mechanical clocks, synchronizing pendulums and using slave dials (here he was anticipated by Steinheil). However, he was less successful in putting these ideas into practice, and his electric clocks proved to be unreliable. Early electric clocks had two weaknesses: the battery; and the switching mechanism that fed the current to the electromagnets. Bain's earth battery, patented in 1843, overcame the first defect by providing a reasonably constant current to drive his clocks, but unlike Hipp he failed to produce a reliable switch.

The application of Bain's numerous patents for electric telegraphy was more successful, and he derived most of his income from these. They included a patent of 12 December 1843 for a form of fax machine, a chemical telegraph that could be used for the transmission of text and of images (facsimile). At the receiver, signals were passed through a moving band of paper impregnated with a solution of ammonium nitrate and potassium ferrocyanide. For text, Morse code signals were used, and because the system could respond to signals faster than those generated by hand, perforated paper tape was used to transmit the messages; in a trial between Paris and Lille, 282 words were transmitted in less than one minute. In 1865 the Abbé Caselli, a French engineer, introduced a commercial fax service between Paris and Lyons, based on Bain's device. Bain also used the idea of perforated tape to operate musical wind instruments automatically. Bain squandered a great deal of money on litigation, initially with Wheatstone and then with Morse in the USA. Although his inventions were acknowledged, Bain appears to have received no honours, but when towards the end of his life he fell upon hard times, influential persons in 1873 secured for him a Civil List Pension of £80 per annum and the Royal Society gave him £150.

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See also: Bakewell, Frederick C.

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electric contact, connection.

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(n.) = electric contact, electrical contact

Ex. Electric contacts have ceased to stick when thoroughly understood.

Ex. For fifty years impregnated papers have been used which turn dark at every point where an electrical contact touches them by reason of the chemical change thus produced in a iodine compound included in the paper.

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SUBJECT AREA: Electronics and information technology, Public utilities, Telecommunications

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After education at King's College, London, in 1852 Preece entered the office of Edwin Clark with the intention of becoming a civil engineer, but graduate studies at the Royal Institution under Faraday fired his enthusiasm for things electrical. His earliest work, as connected with telegraphy and in particular its application for securing the safe working of railways; in 1853 he obtained an appointment with the Electric and National Telegraph Company. In 1856 he became Superintendent of that company's southern district, but four years later he moved to telegraph work with the London and South West Railway. From 1858 to 1862 he was also Engineer to the Channel Islands Telegraph Company. When the various telegraph companies in Britain were transferred to the State in 1870, Preece became a Divisional Engineer in the General Post Office (GPO). Promotion followed in 1877, when he was appointed Chief Electrician to the Post Office. One of the first specimens of Bell's telephone was brought to England by Preece and exhibited at the British Association meeting in 1877. From 1892 to 1899 he served as Engineer-in-Chief to the Post Office. During this time he made a number of important contributions to telegraphy, including the use of water as part of telegraph circuits across the Solent (1882) and the Bristol Channel (1888). He also discovered the existence of inductive effects between parallel wires, and with Fleming showed that a current (thermionic) flowed between the hot filament and a cold conductor in an incandescent lamp.

Preece was distinguished by his administrative ability, some scientific insight, considerable engineering intuition and immense energy. He held erroneous views about telephone transmission and, not accepting the work of Oliver Heaviside, made many errors when planning trunk circuits. Prior to the successful use of Hertzian waves for wireless communication Preece carried out experiments, often on a large scale, in attempts at wireless communication by inductive methods. These became of historic interest only when the work of Maxwell and Hertz was developed by Guglielmo Marconi. It is to Preece that credit should be given for encouraging Marconi in 1896 and collaborating with him in his early experimental work on radio telegraphy.

While still employed by the Post Office, Preece contributed to the development of numerous early public electricity schemes, acting as Consultant and often supervising their construction. At Worcester he was responsible for Britain's largest nineteenth-century public hydro-electric station. He received a knighthood on his retirement in 1899, after which he continued his consulting practice in association with his two sons and Major Philip Cardew. Preece contributed some 136 papers and printed lectures to scientific journals, ninety-nine during the period 1877 to 1894.

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SUBJECT AREA: Electricity

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With an early bias towards science, Daniell's interest in chemistry was formed when he joined a relative's sugar-refining business. He formed a lifelong friendship with W.T.Brande, Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Institution, and together they revived the journal of the Royal Institution, to which Daniell submitted many of his early papers on chemical subjects. He made many contributions to the science of meteorology and in 1820 invented a hydrometer, which became widely used and gave precision to the measurement of atmospheric moisture. As one of the originators of the Society for Promoting Useful Knowledge, Daniell edited several of its early publications. His work on crystallization established his reputation as a chemist and in 1831 he was appointed the first Professor of Chemistry at King's College, London, where he was largely responsible for establishing its department of applied science. He was also involved in the Chemical Society of London and served as its Vice-President. At King's College he began the research into current electricity with which his name is particularly associated. His investigations into the zinc-copper cell revealed that the rapid decline in power was due to hydrogen gas being liberated at the positive electrode. Daniell's cell, invented in 1836, employed a zinc electrode in dilute sulphuric acid and a copper electrode in a solution of copper sulphate, the electrodes being separated by a porous membrane, typically an unglazed earthenware pot. He was awarded the Copley Medal of the Royal Society for his invention which avoided the "polarization" of the simple cell and provided a further source of current for electrical research and for commercial applications such as electroplating. Although the high internal resistance of the Daniell cell limited the current and the potential was only 1.1 volts, the voltage was so unchanging that it was used as a reference standard until the 1870s, when J. Lattimer Clark devised an even more stable cell.

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SUBJECT AREA: Electricity, Electronics and information technology, Public utilities

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After attending Owens College, Manchester, Hopkinson was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1867 to read for the Mathematical Tripos. An appointment in 1872 with the lighthouse department of the Chance Optical Works in Birmingham directed his attention to electrical engineering. His most noteworthy contribution to lighthouse engineering was an optical system to produce flashing lights that distinguished between individual beacons. His extensive researches on the dielectric properties of glass were recognized when he was elected to a Fellowship of the Royal Society at the age of 29. Moving to London in 1877 he became established as a consulting engineer at a time when electricity supply was about to begin on a commercial scale. During the remainder of his life, Hopkinson's researches resulted in fundamental contributions to electrical engineering practice, dynamo design and alternating current machine theory. In making a critical study of the Edison dynamo he developed the principle of the magnetic circuit, a concept also arrived at by Gisbert Kapp around the same time. Hopkinson's improvement of the Edison dynamo by reducing the length of the field magnets almost doubled its output. In 1890, in addition to-his consulting practice, Hopkinson accepted a post as the first Professor of Electrical Engineering and Head of the Siemens laboratory recently established at King's College, London. Although he was not involved in lecturing, the position gave him the necessary facilities and staff and student assistance to continue his researches. Hopkinson was consulted on many proposals for electric traction and electricity supply, including schemes in London, Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds. He also advised Mather and Platt when they were acting as contractors for the locomotives and generating plant for the City and South London tube railway. As early as 1882 he considered that an ideal method of charging for the supply of electricity should be based on a two-part tariff, with a charge related to maximum demand together with a charge for energy supplied. Hopkinson was one the foremost expert witnesses of his day in patent actions and was himself the patentee of over forty inventions, of which the three-wire system of distribution and the series-parallel connection of traction motors were his most successful. Jointly with his brother Edward, John Hopkinson communicated the outcome of his investigations to the Royal Society in a paper entitled "Dynamo Electric Machinery" in 1886. In this he also described the later widely used "back to back" test for determining the characteristics of two identical machines. His interest in electrical machines led him to more fundamental research on magnetic materials, including the phenomenon of recalescence and the disappearance of magnetism at a well-defined temperature. For his work on the magnetic properties of iron, in 1890 he was awarded the Royal Society Royal Medal. He was a member of the Alpine Club and a pioneer of rock climbing in Britain; he died, together with three of his children, in a climbing accident.

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SUBJECT AREA: Electricity

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Kapp entered the Polytechnic School in Zurich in 1869 and gained a mechanical engineering diploma. He became a member of the engineering staff at the Vienna International Exhibition of 1873, and then spent some time in the Austrian navy before entering the service of Gwynne \& Co. of London, where he designed centrifugal pumps and gas exhausters. Kapp resolved to become an electrical engineer after a visit to the Paris Electrical Exhibition of 1881 and in the following year was appointed Manager of the Crompton Co. works at Chelmsford. There he developed and patented the dynamo with compound field winding. Also at that time, with Crompton, he patented electrical measuring instruments with over-saturated electromagnets. He became a naturalized British subject in 1881.

In 1886 Kapp's most influential paper was published. This described his concept of the magnetic circuit, providing for the first time a sound theoretical basis for dynamo design. The theory was also developed independently by J. Hopkinson. After commencing practice as a consulting engineer in 1884 he carried out design work on dynamos and also electricity-supply and -traction schemes in Germany, Italy, Norway, Russia and Switzerland. From 1891 to 1894 much of his time was spent designing a new generating station in Bristol, officially as Assistant to W.H. Preece. There followed an appointment in Germany as General Secretary of the Verband Deutscher Electrotechniker. For some years he edited the Electrotechnische Zeitschrift and was also a part-time lecturer at the Charlottenberg Technical High School in Berlin. In 1904 Kapp was invited to accept the new Chair of Electrical Engineering at the University of Birmingham, which he occupied until 1919. He was the author of several books on electrical machine and transformer design.

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SUBJECT AREA: Electronics and information technology

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Following education at Stockport Grammar School, Williams entered Manchester University in 1929, gaining his BSc in 1932 and MSc in 1933. After a short time as a college apprentice with Metropolitan Vickers, he went to Magdalen College, Oxford, to study for a DPhil, which he was awarded in 1936. He returned to Manchester University that year as an assistant lecturer, gaining his DSc in 1939. Following the outbreak of the Second World War he worked for the Scientific Civil Service, initially at the Bawdsey Research Station and then at the Telecommunications Research Establishment at Malvern, Worcestershire. There he was involved in research on non-incandescent amplifiers and diode rectifiers and the development of the first practical radar system capable of identifying friendly aircraft. Later in the war, he devised an automatic radar system suitable for use by fighter aircraft.

After the war he resumed his academic career at Manchester, becoming Professor of Electrical Engineering and Director of the University Electrotechnical Laboratory in 1946. In the same year he succeeded in developing a data-memory device based on the cathode ray tube, in which the information was stored and read by electron-beam scanning of a charge-retaining target. The Williams storage tube, as it became known, not only found obvious later use as a means of storing single-frame, still television images but proved to be a vital component of the pioneering Manchester University MkI digital computer. Because it enabled both data and program instructions to be stored in the computer, it was soon used worldwide in the development of the early stored-program computers.

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SUBJECT AREA: Electricity, Telecommunications

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After graduating from University College, London, Ayrton became for a short time a pupil of Sir William Thomson in Glasgow. For five years he was employed in the Indian Telegraph Service, eventually as Superintendent, where he assisted in revolutionizing the system, devising methods of fault detection and elimination. In 1873 he was invited by the Japanese Government to assist as Professor of Physics and Telegraphy in founding the Imperial College of Engineering in Tokyo. There he created a teaching laboratory that served as a model for those he was later to organize in England and which were copied elsewhere. It was in Tokyo that his joint researches with Professor John Perry began, an association that continued after their return to England. In 1879 he became Professor of Technical Physics at the City and Guilds Institute in Finsbury, London, and later was appointed Professor of Physics at the Central Institution in South Kensington.

The inventions of Avrton and Perrv included an electric tricycle in 1882, the first practicable portable ammeter and other electrical measuring instruments. By 1890, when the research partnership ended, they had published nearly seventy papers in their joint names, the emphasis being on a mathematical treatment of subjects including electric motor design, construction of electrical measuring instruments, thermodynamics and the economical use of electric conductors. Ayrton was then employed as a consulting engineer by government departments and acted as an expert witness in many important patent cases.

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due to, as a matter of, for, because of.

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due to, owing to, because of

■ las carreteras están cortadas debido al mal tiempo the roads have been closed due to bad weather

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= be reason of, because of, by reason of, by virtue of, due to, for reasons of, in connection with, in light of, in the face of, in the interest(s) of, in the light of, on account of, on grounds, on the grounds that/of, owing to, thanks to, out of, because

Ex. For fifty years impregnated papers have been used which turn dark at every point where an electrical contact touches them by reason of the chemical change thus produced in a iodine compound included in the paper.

Ex. This makes him feel somehow defficient and all because of his difficulty in making sense out of words in print with which his troubles began.

Ex. In order that the picture may not be too commonplace, by reason of sticking to present-day patterns, it may be well to mention one such possibility.

Ex. For example, the set of documents about 'programmed instruction' forms a class by virtue of sharing the common characteristic of subject content.

Ex. This is in part due to the different stages of development reached by different libraries.

Ex. It is important to recognise, then, that a variety of different indexing approaches are inevitable, not only for reasons of history and indexer preference, but because different situations demand different approaches.

Ex. There is an index to the schedules, but this has been criticised in connection with the size of the entry vocabulary.

Ex. This is essentially the traditional enterprise of cataloguing theory, but it is explored in light of current standards and developments.

Ex. In the face of present priorities and staff commitments, the Library feels that it cannot undertake a comprehensive study of the subject heading system that would pave the way for a major restructuring of the system.

Ex. In the interest of clarity an integrated account of the appropriate added entry headings is to be found in 21.29 and 21.30.

Ex. In the light of the information explosion, no researcher can now realistically expect to keep pace with developments in his own field, let alone those in allied fields = En vista del crecimiento vertiginoso de la información, siendo realista ahora el investigador no puede mantenerse al día en los avances de su propio campo y mucho menos de los de campos afines.

Ex. Partly on account of the variety of bases for coverage there is significant overlap between the assortment of abstracting and indexing services.

Ex. Apart from differing needs of users, indexing approaches may differ on policy grounds.

Ex. AACR2 has been criticised on the grounds that it does not identify the cataloguing unit to which the rules refer.

Ex. The simplest KWIC indexes are unattractive and tedious to scan owing to their physical format and typeface.

Ex. It is a matter of some small pride that my account of the eighteenth edition of Dewey appeared at about the same time as the official publication of the scheme itself, thanks to the cooperation of the editor, Mr Ben Custer.

Ex. But these and other interested people collected this type of books out of a mixture of curiosity and sentiment.

Ex. In practice, many cataloguers favour the direct catalogue partly because it is simpler for the cataloguer to compile.

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► verbo pronominal

1 (día, tiempo) to get cloudy

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(v.) = turn + dark

Ex. For fifty years impregnated papers have been used which turn dark at every point where an electrical contact touches them by reason of the chemical change thus produced in a iodine compound included in the paper.

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VPR to grow dark, get dark

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(v.) = turn + dark

Ex. For fifty years impregnated papers have been used which turn dark at every point where an electrical contact touches them by reason of the chemical change thus produced in a iodine compound included in the paper.

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v/r darken

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vr

: to darken, to dim

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oscurecerse vb to get dark

(v.) = turn + dark

Ex. For fifty years impregnated papers have been used which turn dark at every point where an electrical contact touches them by reason of the chemical change thus produced in a iodine compound included in the paper.

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(v.) = turn + dark

Ex. For fifty years impregnated papers have been used which turn dark at every point where an electrical contact touches them by reason of the chemical change thus produced in a iodine compound included in the paper.

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iodine.

1^st person singular (yo) present indicative of spanish verb: yodar.

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► nombre masculino

1 iodine

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SM iodine

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masculino iodine

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= iodine.

Ex. For fifty years impregnated papers have been used which turn dark at every point where an electrical contact touches them by reason of the chemical change thus produced in a iodine compound included in the paper.

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masculino iodine

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iodine

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yodo nm

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m iodine

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yodo nm

: iodine

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yodo n iodine

SUBJECT AREA: Electronics and information technology, Telecommunications

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As a child, Shannon tinkered with radio kits and enjoyed solving puzzles, particularly crypto-graphic ones. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1936 with a Bachelor of Science in mathematics and electrical engineering, and earned his Master's degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1937. His thesis on applying Boolean algebra to switching circuits has since been acclaimed as possibly the most significant this century. Shannon earned his PhD in mathematics from MIT in 1940 with a dissertation on the mathematics of genetic transmission.

Shannon spent a year at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, then in 1941 joined Bell Telephone Laboratories, where he began studying the relative efficiency of alternative transmission systems. Work on digital encryption systems during the Second World War led him to think that just as ciphers hide information from the enemy, "encoding" information could also protect it from noise. About 1948, he decided that the amount of information was best expressed quantitatively in a two-value number system, using only the digits 0 and 1. John Tukey, a Princeton colleague, named these units "binary digits" (or, for short, "bits"). Almost all digital computers and communications systems use such on-off, or two-state logic as their basis of operation.

Also in the 1940s, building on the work of H. Nyquist and R.V.L. Hartley, Shannon proved that there was an upper limit to the amount of information that could be transmitted through a communications channel in a unit of time, which could be approached but never reached because real transmissions are subject to interference (noise). This was the beginning of information theory, which has been used by others in attempts to quantify many sciences and technologies, as well as subjects in the humanities, but with mixed results. Before 1970, when integrated circuits were developed, Shannon's theory was not the preferred circuit-and-transmission design tool it has since become.

Shannon was also a pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence, claiming that computing machines could be used to manipulate symbols as well as do calculations. His 1953 paper on computers and automata proposed that digital computers were capable of tasks then thought exclusively the province of living organisms. In 1956 he left Bell Laboratories to join the MIT faculty as Professor of Communications Science.

On the lighter side, Shannon has built many devices that play games, and in particular has made a scientific study of juggling.

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