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1 Williams, Sir Frederic Calland
SUBJECT AREA: Electronics and information technology[br]b. 26 June 1911 Stockport, Cheshire, Englandd. 11 August 1977 Prestbury, Cheshire, England[br]English electrical engineer who invented the Williams storage cathode ray tube, which was extensively used worldwide as a data memory in the first digital computers.[br]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.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsKnighted 1976. OBE 1945. CBE 1961. FRS 1950. Hon. DSc Durham 1964, Sussex 1971, Wales 1971. First Royal Society of Arts Benjamin Franklin Medal 1957. City of Philadelphia John Scott Award 1960. Royal Society Hughes Medal 1963. Institution of Electrical Engineers Faraday Medal 1972. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Pioneer Award 1973.BibliographyWilliams contributed papers to many scientific journals, including Proceedings of the Royal Society, Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, Journal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Wireless Engineer, Post Office Electrical Engineers' Journal. Note especially: 1948, with J.Kilburn, "Electronic digital computers", Nature 162:487; 1949, with J.Kilburn, "A storage system for use with binary digital computing machines", Proceedings of the Institution of Electrical Engineers 96:81; 1975, "Early computers at Manchester University", Radio \& Electronic Engineer 45:327. Williams also collaborated in the writing of vols 19 and 20 of the MIT RadiationLaboratory Series.Further ReadingB.Randell, 1973, The Origins of Digital Computers, Berlin: Springer-Verlag. M.R.Williams, 1985, A History of Computing Technology, London: Prentice-Hall. See also: Stibitz, George R.; Strachey, Christopher.KFBiographical history of technology > Williams, Sir Frederic Calland
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2 Paul, Robert William
[br]b. 3 October 1869 Highbury, London, Englandd. 28 March 1943 London, England[br]English scientific instrument maker, inventor of the Unipivot electrical measuring instrument, and pioneer of cinematography.[br]Paul was educated at the City of London School and Finsbury Technical College. He worked first for a short time in the Bell Telephone Works in Antwerp, Belgium, and then in the electrical instrument shop of Elliott Brothers in the Strand until 1891, when he opened an instrument-making business at 44 Hatton Garden, London. He specialized in the design and manufacture of electrical instruments, including the Ayrton Mather galvanometer. In 1902, with a purpose-built factory, he began large batch production of his instruments. He also opened a factory in New York, where uncalibrated instruments from England were calibrated for American customers. In 1903 Paul introduced the Unipivot galvanometer, in which the coil was supported at the centre of gravity of the moving system on a single pivot. The pivotal friction was less than in a conventional instrument and could be used without accurate levelling, the sensitivity being far beyond that of any pivoted galvanometer then in existence.In 1894 Paul was asked by two entrepreneurs to make copies of Edison's kinetoscope, the pioneering peep-show moving-picture viewer, which had just arrived in London. Discovering that Edison had omitted to patent the machine in England, and observing that there was considerable demand for the machine from show-people, he began production, making six before the end of the year. Altogether, he made about sixty-six units, some of which were exported. Although Edison's machine was not patented, his films were certainly copyrighted, so Paul now needed a cinematographic camera to make new subjects for his customers. Early in 1895 he came into contact with Birt Acres, who was also working on the design of a movie camera. Acres's design was somewhat impractical, but Paul constructed a working model with which Acres filmed the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race on 30 March, and the Derby at Epsom on 29 May. Paul was unhappy with the inefficient design, and developed a new intermittent mechanism based on the principle of the Maltese cross. Despite having signed a ten-year agreement with Paul, Acres split with him on 12 July 1895, after having unilaterally patented their original camera design on 27 May. By the early weeks of 1896, Paul had developed a projector mechanism that also used the Maltese cross and which he demonstrated at the Finsbury Technical College on 20 February 1896. His Theatrograph was intended for sale, and was shown in a number of venues in London during March, notably at the Alhambra Theatre in Leicester Square. There the renamed Animatographe was used to show, among other subjects, the Derby of 1896, which was won by the Prince of Wales's horse "Persimmon" and the film of which was shown the next day to enthusiastic crowds. The production of films turned out to be quite profitable: in the first year of the business, from March 1896, Paul made a net profit of £12,838 on a capital outlay of about £1,000. By the end of the year there were at least five shows running in London that were using Paul's projectors and screening films made by him or his staff.Paul played a major part in establishing the film business in England through his readiness to sell apparatus at a time when most of his rivals reserved their equipment for sole exploitation. He went on to become a leading producer of films, specializing in trick effects, many of which he pioneered. He was affectionately known in the trade as "Daddy Paul", truly considered to be the "father" of the British film industry. He continued to appreciate fully the possibilities of cinematography for scientific work, and in collaboration with Professor Silvanus P.Thompson films were made to illustrate various phenomena to students.Paul ended his involvement with film making in 1910 to concentrate on his instrument business; on his retirement in 1920, this was amalgamated with the Cambridge Instrument Company. In his will he left shares valued at over £100,000 to form the R.W.Paul Instrument Fund, to be administered by the Institution of Electrical Engineers, of which he had been a member since 1887. The fund was to provide instruments of an unusual nature to assist physical research.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsFellow of the Physical Society 1920. Institution of Electrical Engineers Duddell Medal 1938.Bibliography17 March 1903, British patent no. 6,113 (the Unipivot instrument).1931, "Some electrical instruments at the Faraday Centenary Exhibition 1931", Journal of Scientific Instruments 8:337–48.Further ReadingObituary, 1943, Journal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers 90(1):540–1. P.Dunsheath, 1962, A History of Electrical Engineering, London: Faber \& Faber, pp.308–9 (for a brief account of the Unipivot instrument).John Barnes, 1976, The Beginnings of Cinema in Britain, London. Brian Coe, 1981, The History of Movie Photography, London.BC / GW -
3 Appleton, Sir Edward Victor
[br]b. 6 September 1892 Bradford, Englandd. 21 April 1965 Edinburgh, Scotland[br]English physicist awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for his discovery of the ionospheric layer, named after him, which is an efficient reflector of short radio waves, thereby making possible long-distance radio communication.[br]After early ambitions to become a professional cricketer, Appleton went to St John's College, Cambridge, where he studied under J.J.Thompson and Ernest Rutherford. His academic career interrupted by the First World War, he served as a captain in the Royal Engineers, carrying out investigations into the propagation and fading of radio signals. After the war he joined the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, as a demonstrator in 1920, and in 1924 he moved to King's College, London, as Wheatstone Professor of Physics.In the following decade he contributed to developments in valve oscillators (in particular, the "squegging" oscillator, which formed the basis of the first hard-valve time-base) and gained international recognition for research into electromagnetic-wave propagation. His most important contribution was to confirm the existence of a conducting ionospheric layer in the upper atmosphere capable of reflecting radio waves, which had been predicted almost simultaneously by Heaviside and Kennelly in 1902. This he did by persuading the BBC in 1924 to vary the frequency of their Bournemouth transmitter, and he then measured the signal received at Cambridge. By comparing the direct and reflected rays and the daily variation he was able to deduce that the Kennelly- Heaviside (the so-called E-layer) was at a height of about 60 miles (97 km) above the earth and that there was a further layer (the Appleton or F-layer) at about 150 miles (240 km), the latter being an efficient reflector of the shorter radio waves that penetrated the lower layers. During the period 1927–32 and aided by Hartree, he established a magneto-ionic theory to explain the existence of the ionosphere. He was instrumental in obtaining agreement for international co-operation for ionospheric and other measurements in the form of the Second Polar Year (1932–3) and, much later, the International Geophysical Year (1957–8). For all this work, which made it possible to forecast the optimum frequencies for long-distance short-wave communication as a function of the location of transmitter and receiver and of the time of day and year, in 1947 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics.He returned to Cambridge as Jacksonian Professor of Natural Philosophy in 1939, and with M.F. Barnett he investigated the possible use of radio waves for radio-location of aircraft. In 1939 he became Secretary of the Government Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, a post he held for ten years. During the Second World War he contributed to the development of both radar and the atomic bomb, and subsequently served on government committees concerned with the use of atomic energy (which led to the establishment of Harwell) and with scientific staff.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsKnighted (KCB 1941, GBE 1946). Nobel Prize for Physics 1947. FRS 1927. Vice- President, American Institute of Electrical Engineers 1932. Royal Society Hughes Medal 1933. Institute of Electrical Engineers Faraday Medal 1946. Vice-Chancellor, Edinburgh University 1947. Institution of Civil Engineers Ewing Medal 1949. Royal Medallist 1950. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Medal of Honour 1962. President, British Association 1953. President, Radio Industry Council 1955–7. Légion d'honneur. LLD University of St Andrews 1947.Bibliography1925, joint paper with Barnett, Nature 115:333 (reports Appleton's studies of the ionosphere).1928, "Some notes of wireless methods of investigating the electrical structure of the upper atmosphere", Proceedings of the Physical Society 41(Part III):43. 1932, Thermionic Vacuum Tubes and Their Applications (his work on valves).1947, "The investigation and forecasting of ionospheric conditions", Journal of theInstitution of Electrical Engineers 94, Part IIIA: 186 (a review of British work on the exploration of the ionosphere).with J.F.Herd \& R.A.Watson-Watt, British patent no. 235,254 (squegging oscillator).Further ReadingWho Was Who, 1961–70 1972, VI, London: A. \& C.Black (for fuller details of honours). R.Clark, 1971, Sir Edward Appleton, Pergamon (biography).J.Jewkes, D.Sawers \& R.Stillerman, 1958, The Sources of Invention.KFBiographical history of technology > Appleton, Sir Edward Victor
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4 Ayrton, William Edward
[br]b. 14 September 1847 London, Englandd. 8 November 1908 London, England[br]English physicist, inventor and pioneer in technical education.[br]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.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsFRS 1881. President, Physical Society 1890–2. President, Institution of Electrical Engineers 1892. Royal Society Royal Medal 1901.Bibliography28 April 1883, British patent no. 2,156 (Ayrton and Perry's ammeter and voltmeter). 1887, Practical Electricity, London (based on his early laboratory courses; 7 edns followed during his lifetime).1892, "Electrotechnics", Journal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers 21, 5–36 (for a survey of technical education).Further ReadingD.W.Jordan, 1985, "The cry for useless knowledge: education for a new Victorian technology", Proceedings of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, 132 (Part A): 587– 601.G.Gooday, 1991, History of Technology, 13: 73–111 (for an account of Ayrton and the teaching laboratory).GW -
5 Ferranti, Sebastian Ziani de
[br]b. 9 April 1864 Liverpool, Englandd. 13 January 1930 Zurich, Switzerland[br]English manufacturing engineer and inventor, a pioneer and early advocate of high-voltage alternating-current electric-power systems.[br]Ferranti, who had taken an interest in electrical and mechanical devices from an early age, was educated at St Augustine's College in Ramsgate and for a short time attended evening classes at University College, London. Rather than pursue an academic career, Ferranti, who had intense practical interests, found employment in 1881 with the Siemens Company (see Werner von Siemens) in their experimental department. There he had the opportunity to superintend the installation of electric-lighting plants in various parts of the country. Becoming acquainted with Alfred Thomson, an engineer, Ferranti entered into a short-lived partnership with him to manufacture the Ferranti alternator. This generator, with a unique zig-zag armature, had an efficiency exceeding that of all its rivals. Finding that Sir William Thomson had invented a similar machine, Ferranti formed a company with him to combine the inventions and produce the Ferranti- Thomson machine. For this the Hammond Electric Light and Power Company obtained the sole selling rights.In 1885 the Grosvenor Gallery Electricity Supply Corporation was having serious problems with its Gaulard and Gibbs series distribution system. Ferranti, when consulted, reviewed the design and recommended transformers connected across constant-potential mains. In the following year, at the age of 22, he was appointed Engineer to the company and introduced the pattern of electricity supply that was eventually adopted universally. Ambitious plans by Ferranti for London envisaged the location of a generating station of unprecedented size at Deptford, about eight miles (13 km) from the city, a departure from the previous practice of placing stations within the area to be supplied. For this venture the London Electricity Supply Corporation was formed. Ferranti's bold decision to bring the supply from Deptford at the hitherto unheard-of pressure of 10,000 volts required him to design suitable cables, transformers and generators. Ferranti planned generators with 10,000 hp (7,460 kW)engines, but these were abandoned at an advanced stage of construction. Financial difficulties were caused in part when a Board of Trade enquiry in 1889 reduced the area that the company was able to supply. In spite of this adverse situation the enterprise continued on a reduced scale. Leaving the London Electricity Supply Corporation in 1892, Ferranti again started his own business, manufacturing electrical plant. He conceived the use of wax-impregnated paper-insulated cables for high voltages, which formed a landmark in the history of cable development. This method of flexible-cable manufacture was used almost exclusively until synthetic materials became available. In 1892 Ferranti obtained a patent which set out the advantages to be gained by adopting sector-shaped conductors in multi-core cables. This was to be fundamental to the future design and development of such cables.A total of 176 patents were taken out by S.Z. de Ferranti. His varied and numerous inventions included a successful mercury-motor energy meter and improvements to textile-yarn produc-tion. A transmission-line phenomenon where the open-circuit voltage at the receiving end of a long line is greater than the sending voltage was named the Ferranti Effect after him.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsFRS 1927. President, Institution of Electrical Engineers 1910 and 1911. Institution of Electrical Engineers Faraday Medal 1924.Bibliography18 July 1882, British patent no. 3,419 (Ferranti's first alternator).13 December 1892, British patent no. 22,923 (shaped conductors of multi-core cables). 1929, "Electricity in the service of man", Journal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers 67: 125–30.Further ReadingG.Z.de Ferranti and R. Ince, 1934, The Life and Letters of Sebastian Ziani de Ferranti, London.A.Ridding, 1964, S.Z.de Ferranti. Pioneer of Electric Power, London: Science Museum and HMSO (a concise biography).R.H.Parsons, 1939, Early Days of the Power Station Industry, Cambridge, pp. 21–41.GWBiographical history of technology > Ferranti, Sebastian Ziani de
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6 Shoenberg, Isaac
[br]b. 1 March 1880 Kiev, Ukrained. 25 January 1963 Willesden, London, England[br]Russian engineer and friend of Vladimir Zworykin; Director of Research at EMI, responsible for creating the team that successfully developed the world's first all-electronic television system.[br]After his initial engineering education at Kiev Polytechnic, Shoenberg went to London to undertake further studies at the Royal College of Science. In 1905 he returned to Russia and rose to become Chief Engineer of the Russian Wireless Telegraphy Company. He then returned to England, where he was a consultant in charge of the Patent Department and then joint General Manager of the Marconi Wireless Telegraphy Company (see Marconi). In 1929 he joined the Columbia Graphophone Company, but two years later this amalgamated with the Gramophone Company, by then known as His Master's voice (HMV), to form EMI (Electric and Musical Industries), a company in which the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) had a significant shareholding. Appointed Director of the new company's Research Laboratories in 1931, Shoenberg gathered together a team of highly skilled engineers, including Blumlein, Browne, Willans, McGee, Lubszynski, Broadway and White, with the objective of producing an all-electronic television system suitable for public broadcasting. A 150-line system had already been demonstrated using film as the source material; a photoemissive camera tube similar to Zworykin's iconoscope soon followed. With alternate demonstrations of the EMI system and the mechanical system of Baird arranged with the object of selecting a broadcast system for the UK, Shoenberg took the bold decision to aim for a 405-line "high-definition" standard, using interlaced scanning based on an RCA patent and further developed by Blumlein. This was so successful that it was formally adopted as the British standard in 1935 and regular broadcasts, the first in the world, began in 1937. It is a tribute to Shoenberg's vision and the skills of his team that this standard was to remain in use, apart from the war years, until finally superseded in 1985.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsKnighted 1954. Institution of Electrical Engineers Faraday Medal 1954.Further ReadingA.D.Blumlein et al., 1938, "The Marconi-EMI television system", Journal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers 83:729 (provides a description of the development of the 405-line system).For more background information, see Proceedings of the International Conference on the History of Television. From Early Days to the Present, November 1986, Institution of Electrical Engineers Publication No. 271.KF -
7 Swan, Sir Joseph Wilson
[br]b. 31 October 1828 Sunderland, Englandd. 27 May 1914 Warlingham, Surrey, England[br]English chemist, inventor in Britain of the incandescent electric lamp and of photographic processes.[br]At the age of 14 Swan was apprenticed to a Sunderland firm of druggists, later joining John Mawson who had opened a pharmacy in Newcastle. While in Sunderland Swan attended lectures at the Athenaeum, at one of which W.E. Staite exhibited electric-arc and incandescent lighting. The impression made on Swan prompted him to conduct experiments that led to his demonstration of a practical working lamp in 1879. As early as 1848 he was experimenting with carbon as a lamp filament, and by 1869 he had mounted a strip of carbon in a vessel exhausted of air as completely as was then possible; however, because of residual air, the filament quickly failed.Discouraged by the cost of current from primary batteries and the difficulty of achieving a good vacuum, Swan began to devote much of his attention to photography. With Mawson's support the pharmacy was expanded to include a photographic business. Swan's interest in making permanent photographic records led him to patent the carbon process in 1864 and he discovered how to make a sensitive dry plate in place of the inconvenient wet collodian process hitherto in use. He followed this success with the invention of bromide paper, the subject of a British patent in 1879.Swan resumed his interest in electric lighting. Sprengel's invention of the mercury pump in 1865 provided Swan with the means of obtaining the high vacuum he needed to produce a satisfactory lamp. Swan adopted a technique which was to become an essential feature in vacuum physics: continuing to heat the filament during the exhaustion process allowed the removal of absorbed gases. The inventions of Gramme, Siemens and Brush provided the source of electrical power at reasonable cost needed to make the incandescent lamp of practical service. Swan exhibited his lamp at a meeting in December 1878 of the Newcastle Chemical Society and again the following year before an audience of 700 at the Newcastle Literary and Philosophical Society. Swan's failure to patent his invention immediately was a tactical error as in November 1879 Edison was granted a British patent for his original lamp, which, however, did not go into production. Parchmentized thread was used in Swan's first commercial lamps, a material soon superseded by the regenerated cellulose filament that he developed. The cellulose filament was made by extruding a solution of nitro-cellulose in acetic acid through a die under pressure into a coagulating fluid, and was used until the ultimate obsolescence of the carbon-filament lamp. Regenerated cellulose became the first synthetic fibre, the further development and exploitation of which he left to others, the patent rights for the process being sold to Courtaulds.Swan also devised a modification of Planté's secondary battery in which the active material was compressed into a cellular lead plate. This has remained the central principle of all improvements in secondary cells, greatly increasing the storage capacity for a given weight.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsKnighted 1904. FRS 1894. President, Institution of Electrical Engineers 1898. First President, Faraday Society 1904. Royal Society Hughes Medal 1904. Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur 1881.Bibliography2 January 1880, British patent no. 18 (incandescent electric lamp).24 May 1881, British patent no. 2,272 (improved plates for the Planté cell).1898, "The rise and progress of the electrochemical industries", Journal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers 27:8–33 (Swan's Presidential Address to the Institution of Electrical Engineers).Further ReadingM.E.Swan and K.R.Swan, 1968, Sir Joseph Wilson Swan F.R.S., Newcastle upon Tyne (a detailed account).R.C.Chirnside, 1979, "Sir Joseph Swan and the invention of the electric lamp", IEEElectronics and Power 25:96–100 (a short, authoritative biography).GWBiographical history of technology > Swan, Sir Joseph Wilson
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8 Merz, Charles Hesterman
[br]b. 5 October 1874 Gateshead, Englandd. 14 October 1940 London, England[br]English engineer who pioneered large-scale integration of electricity-supply networks, which led to the inauguration of the British grid system.[br]Merz was educated at Bootham School in York and Armstrong College in Newcastle. He served an apprenticeship with the Newcastle Electric Supply Company at their first power station, Pandon Dene, and part of his training was at Robey and Company of Lincoln, steam engine builders, and the British Thomson-Houston Company, electrical equipment manufacturers. After working at Bankside in London and at Croydon, he became Manager of the Croydon supply undertaking. In 1898 he went to Cork on behalf of BTH to build and manage a tramway and electricity company. It was there that he met William McLellan, who later joined him in establishing a firm of consulting engineers. Merz, with his vision of large-scale electricity supply, pioneered an integrated traction and electricity scheme in north-eastern England. He was involved in the reorganization of electricity schemes in many countries and established a reputation as a leading parliamentary witness. Merz was appointed Director of Experiments and Research at the Admiralty, where his main contribution was the creation of an organization of outstanding engineers and scientists during the First World War. In 1925 he was largely responsible for a report of the Weir Committee which led to the Electricity (Supply) Act of 1926, the formation of the Central Electricity Board and the construction of the National Grid. The choice of 132 kV as the original grid voltage was that of Merz and his associates, as was the origin of the term "grid". Merz and his firm produced many technical innovations, including the first power-system control room and Merz-Price and Merz-Hunter forms of cable and transformer protection.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsInstitution of Electrical Engineers Faraday Medal 1931.Bibliography1903–4, with W.McLennan, "Power station design", Journal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers 33:696–742 (a classic on its subject).1929, "The national scheme of electricity supply in Great Britain", Proceedings of the British Association, Johannesburg.Further ReadingJ.Rowland, 1960, Progress in Power. The Contribution of Charles Merz and His Associates to Sixty Years of Electrical Development 1899–1959, London (the most detailed account).L.Hannah, 1979, Electricity Before Nationalisation, London.——, 1985, Dictionary of Business Biography, ed. J.Jeremy, London, pp. 221–7 (a short account).GWBiographical history of technology > Merz, Charles Hesterman
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9 Perry, John
SUBJECT AREA: Mechanical, pneumatic and hydraulic engineering[br]b. 14 February 1850 Garvagh, Co. Londonderry, Ireland (now Northern Ireland)d. 4 August 1920 London, England[br]Irish engineer, mathematician and technical-education pioneer.[br]Educated at Queens College, Belfast, Perry became Physics Master at Clifton College in 1870 until 1874. This was followed by a brief period of study under Sir William Thomson in Glasgow. He was then appointed Professor of Engineering at the Imperial College of Japan in Tokyo, where he formed a remarkable research partnership with W.E. Ayrton. On his return to England he became Professor of Engineering and Mathematics at City and Guilds College, Finsbury. Perry was the co-inventor with Ayrton of many electrical measuring instruments between 1880 and 1890, including an energy meter incorporating pendulum clocks and the first practicable portable ammeter and voltmeter, the latter being extensively used until superseded by instruments of greater accuracy. An optical indicator for high-speed steam engines was among Perry's many patents. Having made a notable contribution to education, particularly in the teaching of mathematics, he turned his attention in the latter period of his life to the improvement of the gyrostatic compass.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsFRS 1885. President, Institution of Electrical Engineers 1900. Whitworth Scholar 1870.Bibliography28 April 1883, jointly with Ayrton, British patent no. 2,156 (portable ammeter and voltmeter).1900, England's Neglect of Science, London (for Perry's collected papers on technical education).Further ReadingObituary, 1920, Journal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers 58:901–2.D.W.Jordan, 1985, "The cry for useless knowledge: education for a new Victorian technology", Proceedings of the Institution of Electrical Engineers 132 (Part A): 587– 601.GW -
10 Bright, Sir Charles Tilston
SUBJECT AREA: Telecommunications[br]b. 8 June 1832 Wanstead, Essex, Englandd. 3 May 1888 Abbey Wood, London, England[br]English telegraph engineer responsible for laying the first transatlantic cable.[br]At the age of 15 years Bright left the London Merchant Taylors' School to join the two-year-old Electric Telegraph Company. By 1851 he was in charge of the Birmingham telegraph station. After a short time as Assistant Engineer with the newly formed British Telegraph Company, he joined his brother (who was Manager) as Engineer-in-Chief of the English and Irish Magnetic Telegraph Company in Liverpool, for which he laid thousands of miles of underground cable and developed a number of innovations in telegraphy including a resistance box for locating cable faults and a two-tone bell system for signalling. In 1853 he was responsible for the first successful underwater cable between Scotland and Ireland. Three years later, with the American financier Cyrus Field and John Brett, he founded and was Engineer-in-chief of the Atlantic Telegraph Company, which aimed at laying a cable between Ireland and Newfoundland. After several unsuccessful attempts this was finally completed on 5 August 1858, Bright was knighted a month later, but the cable then failed! In 1860 Bright resigned from the Magnetic Telegraph Company to set up an independent consultancy with another engineer, Joseph Latimer Clark, with whom he invented an improved bituminous cable insulation. Two years later he supervised construction of a telegraph cable to India, and in 1865 a further attempt to lay an Atlantic cable using Brunel's new ship, the Great Eastern. This cable broke during laying, but in 1866 a new cable was at last successfully laid and the 1865 cable recovered and repaired. The year 1878 saw extension of the Atlantic cable system to the West Indies and the invention with his brother of a system of neighbourhood fire alarms and even an automatic fire alarm.In 1861 Bright presented a paper to the British Association for the Advancement of Science on the need for electrical standards, leading to the creation of an organization that still exists in the 1990s. From 1865 until 1868 he was Liberal MP for Greenwich, and he later assisted with preparations for the 1881 Paris Exhibition.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsKnighted 1858. Légion d'honneur. First President, Société Internationale des Electriciens. President, Society of Telegraph Engineers \& Electricians (later the Institution of Electrical Engineers) 1887.Bibliography1852, British patent (resistance box).1855, British patent no. 2,103 (two-tone bell system). 1878, British patent no. 3,801 (area fire alarms).1878, British patent no. 596 (automatic fire alarm)."The physical \& electrical effects of pressure \& temperature on submarine cable cores", Journal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers XVII (describes some of his investigations of cable characteristics).Further ReadingC.Bright, 1898, Submarine Cables, Their History, Construction \& Working.—1910, The Life Story of Sir Charles Tilston Bright, London: Constable \& Co.KFBiographical history of technology > Bright, Sir Charles Tilston
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11 Wright, Arthur
[br]b. 1858 London, Englandd. 26 July 1931 Paignton, Devon, England[br]English engineer and electricity supply industry pioneer.[br]Arthur Wright, educated at Maryborough College, attended a course of training at the School of Submarine Telegraphy, Telephony and Electric Light in London. In 1882 he joined the Hammond Company in Brighton, the first company to afford a regular electricity supply in Britain on a commercial basis for street and private lighting. He invented a recording ammeter and also a thermal-demand indicator used in conjunction with a tariff based on maximum demand in addition to energy consumption. This indicator was to remain in use for almost half a century.Resigning his position in Brighton in 1889, he joined the staff of S.Z.de Ferranti and served with him during developments at the Grosvenor Gallery and Deptford stations in London. In 1891 he returned to Brighton as its first Borough Electrical Engineer. From 1900 onwards he had an extensive consulting practice designing early power stations, and was approached by many municipalities and companies in Britain, the United States, South America and Australia, primarily on finance and tariffs. Associated with the founding of the Municipal Electrical Association in 1905, the following year he became its first President.[br]Bibliography1901, British patent no. 23,153 (thermal maximum demand indicator).1922, "Early days of the Brighton electricity supply", Journal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers 60:497–9.Further ReadingObituary, 1931, Journal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers 69:1,327–8.R.H.Parsons, 1939, Early Days of the Power Station Industry, Cambridge, pp. 13–17 (describes Wright's pioneering inventions).GW -
12 Cardew, Philip
[br]b. 24 September 1851 Leatherhead, Surrey, Englandd. 17 May 1910 Godalming, Surrey, England[br]English electrical engineer and inventory adviser to the Board of Trade.[br]After education at the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich, Cardew was placed in charge of Bermudan military telegraphs in 1876. In 1889 he was appointed the first Electrical Adviser to the Board of Trade, where he formulated valuable regulations for the safety and control of public electricity supplies. In 1883 Cardew invented the thermogalvanometer, a hot-wire measuring instrument, that became widely used as a voltmeter but was obsolete by 1907. The device depended for its action on the heating and subsequent elongation of a platinum wire and could be used on alternating currents of high frequency. Retiring from the Board of Trade in 1899, Cardew joined a partnership of consulting engineers with Sir William Preece and his son. Taking a particular interest in railway electrification, he became a director of the London Brighton \& South Coast Railway.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsInventions Exhibition Gold Medal 1885.Bibliography1881, Journal of the Society of Telegraph Engineers 10:111–14 (describes the application of electricity to railways).5 February 1883, British patent no. 623 (Cardew's hot-wire instrument).1898, Journal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers 19:425–47 (his account of Board of Trade legislation).Further ReadingJ.T.Stock and D.Vaughan, 1983, The Development of Instruments to Measure Electric Current, London: Science Museum (for instrument origins).Dictionary of National Biographyr, 1912, Vol. I, Suppl. 2, pp. 313–14.GW -
13 Duddell, William du Bois
SUBJECT AREA: Electricity[br]b. 1872 Kensington, London, Englandd. 4 November 1917 London, England[br]English engineer, inventor of the first practical oscillograph.[br]After an education at the College of Stanislas, Cannes, Duddell served an apprenticeship with Davy Paxman of Colchester. Studying under Ayrton and Mather at the Central Technical College in South Kensington, he found the facilities for experimental work of exceptional value to him and remained there for some years. In 1897 Duddell produced a galvanometer which was sufficiently responsive to display an alternating-current wave-form. This instrument, with a coil carrying a mirror in the air gap of a powerful electromagnet, had a small periodic time. An oscillating mirror driven by a synchronous motor spread out the deflection on a time-scale. This development became the first commercial oscillograph and brought Duddell into prominence as a first-rate designer of special instruments. The Duddell oscillograph remained in use until after the Second World War, examples being used for recording short-circuit tests on high-power switchgear and other rapidly varying or transient phenomena. His next important work was to collaborate with Professor Marchant at Liverpool University to investigate the characteristics of the electric arc. This led to the suggestion that, coupled to a resonant circuit, the electric arc could form a generator of high-frequency currents. This arrangement was later developed by Poulson for wireless telegraphy. Duddell spent the last years of his life on government research as a member of the Admiralty Board of Inventions and Research and also of the Inventions Board of the Ministry of Munitions.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsCBE 1916. FRS 1907. Royal Society Hughes Medal 1912. President, Institution of Electrical Engineers 1912 and 1913.Bibliography1897, Electrician, 39:636–8 (describes his oscillograph). 5 March 1898, British patent no. 5,449 (the oscillograph).1899, with E.W.Marchant, "Experiments on alternate current arcs by aid of oscillograph", Journal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers 28: 1–107.Further ReadingV.J.Phillips, 1987, Waveforms, Bristol (a comprehensive account).1945, "50 years of scientific instrument manufacture", Engineering, 159:461.GWBiographical history of technology > Duddell, William du Bois
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14 Wilde, Henry
SUBJECT AREA: Electricity[br]b. 1833 Manchester, Englandd. 28 March 1919 Alderley Edge, Cheshire, England[br]English inventor and pioneer manufacturer of electrical generators.[br]After completing a mechanical engineering apprenticeship Wilde commenced in business as a telegraph and lightning conductor specialist in Lancashire. Several years spent on the design of an alphabetic telegraph resulted in a number of patents. In 1864 he secured a patent for an electromagnetic generator which gave alternating current from a shuttle-wound armature, the field being excited by a small direct-current magneto. Wilde's invention was described to the Royal Society by Faraday in March 1866. When demonstrated at the Paris Exhibition of 1867, Wilde's machine produced sufficient power to maintain an arc light. The small size of the generator provided a contrast to the large and heavy magnetoelectric machines also exhibited. He discovered, by experiment, that alternators in synchronism could be connected in parallel. At about the same time John Hopkinson arrived at the same conclusions on theoretical grounds.Between 1866 and 1877 he sold ninety-four machines with commutators for electroplating purposes, a number being purchased by Elkingtons of Birmingham. He also supplied generators for the first use of electric searchlights on battleships. In his early experiments Wilde was extremely close to the discovery of true self-excitation from remnant magnetism, a principle which he was to discover in 1867 on machines intended for electroplating. His patents proved to be financially successful and he retired from business in 1884. During the remaining thirty-five years of his life he published many scientific papers, turning from experimental work to philosophical and, finally, theological matters. His record as an inventor established him as a pioneer of electrical engineering, but his lack of scientific training was to restrict his later contributions.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsFRS 1886.Bibliography1 December 1863, British patent no. 3,006 (alternator with a magneto-exciter).1866, Proceedings of the Royal Society 14:107–11 (first report on Wilde's experiments). 1900, autobiographical note, Journal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers 29:3–17.Further ReadingW.W.Haldane Gee. 1920, biography, Memoirs, Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society 63:1–16 (a comprehensive account).P.Dunsheath, 1962, A History of Electrical Engineering, London: Faber \& Faber, pp. 110–12 (a short account).GW -
15 Watson-Watt, Sir Robert Alexander
[br]b. 13 April 1892 Brechin, Angus, Scotlandd. 6 December 1973 Inverness, Scotland[br]Scottish engineer and scientific adviser known for his work on radar.[br]Following education at Brechin High School, Watson-Watt entered University College, Dundee (then a part of the University of St Andrews), obtaining a BSc in engineering in 1912. From 1912 until 1921 he was Assistant to the Professor of Natural Philosophy at St Andrews, but during the First World War he also held various posts in the Meteorological Office. During. this time, in 1916 he proposed the use of cathode ray oscillographs for radio-direction-finding displays. He joined the newly formed Radio Research Station at Slough when it was opened in 1924, and 3 years later, when it amalgamated with the Radio Section of the National Physical Laboratory, he became Superintendent at Slough. At this time he proposed the name "ionosphere" for the ionized layer in the upper atmosphere. With E.V. Appleton and J.F.Herd he developed the "squegger" hard-valve transformer-coupled timebase and with the latter devised a direction-finding radio-goniometer.In 1933 he was asked to investigate possible aircraft counter-measures. He soon showed that it was impossible to make the wished-for radio "death-ray", but had the idea of using the detection of reflected radio-waves as a means of monitoring the approach of enemy aircraft. With six assistants he developed this idea and constructed an experimental system of radar (RAdio Detection And Ranging) in which arrays of aerials were used to detect the reflected signals and deduce the bearing and height. To realize a practical system, in September 1936 he was appointed Director of the Bawdsey Research Station near Felixstowe and carried out operational studies of radar. The result was that within two years the East Coast of the British Isles was equipped with a network of radar transmitters and receivers working in the 7–14 metre band—the so-called "chain-home" system—which did so much to assist the efficient deployment of RAF Fighter Command against German bombing raids on Britain in the early years of the Second World War.In 1938 he moved to the Air Ministry as Director of Communications Development, becoming Scientific Adviser to the Air Ministry and Ministry of Aircraft Production in 1940, then Deputy Chairman of the War Cabinet Radio Board in 1943. After the war he set up Sir Robert Watson-Watt \& Partners, an industrial consultant firm. He then spent some years in relative retirement in Canada, but returned to Scotland before his death.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsKnighted 1942. CBE 1941. FRS 1941. US Medal of Merit 1946. Royal Society Hughes Medal 1948. Franklin Institute Elliot Cresson Medal 1957. LLD St Andrews 1943. At various times: President, Royal Meteorological Society, Institute of Navigation and Institute of Professional Civil Servants; Vice-President, American Institute of Radio Engineers.Bibliography1923, with E.V.Appleton \& J.F.Herd, British patent no. 235,254 (for the "squegger"). 1926, with J.F.Herd, "An instantaneous direction reading radio goniometer", Journal ofthe Institution of Electrical Engineers 64:611.1933, The Cathode Ray Oscillograph in Radio Research.1935, Through the Weather Hours (autobiography).1936, "Polarisation errors in direction finders", Wireless Engineer 13:3. 1958, Three Steps to Victory.1959, The Pulse of Radar.1961, Man's Means to his End.Further ReadingS.S.Swords, 1986, Technical History of the Beginnings of Radar, Stevenage: Peter Peregrinus.KFBiographical history of technology > Watson-Watt, Sir Robert Alexander
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16 Preece, Sir William Henry
[br]b. 15 February 1834 Bryn Helen, Gwynedd, Walesd. 6 November 1913 Penrhos, Gwynedd, Wales[br]Welsh electrical engineer who greatly furthered the development and use of wireless telegraphy and the telephone in Britain, dominating British Post Office engineering during the last two decades of the nineteenth century.[br]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.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsCB 1894. Knighted (KCB) 1899. FRS 1881. President, Society of Telegraph Engineers, 1880. President, Institution of Electrical Engineers 1880, 1893. President, Institution of Civil Engineers 1898–9. Chairman, Royal Society of Arts 1901–2.BibliographyPreece produced numerous papers on telegraphy and telephony that were presented as Royal Institution Lectures (see Royal Institution Library of Science, 1974) or as British Association reports.1862–3, "Railway telegraphs and the application of electricity to the signaling and working of trains", Proceedings of the ICE 22:167–93.Eleven editions of Telegraphy (with J.Sivewright), London, 1870, were published by 1895.1883, "Molecular radiation in incandescent lamps", Proceedings of the Physical Society 5: 283.1885. "Molecular shadows in incandescent lamps". Proceedings of the Physical Society 7: 178.1886. "Electric induction between wires and wires", British Association Report. 1889, with J.Maier, The Telephone.1894, "Electric signalling without wires", RSA Journal.1898, "Aetheric telegraphy", Proceedings of the Institution of Electrical Engineers.Further ReadingJ.J.Fahie, 1899, History of Wireless Telegraphy 1838–1899, Edinburgh: Blackwood. E.Hawkes, 1927, Pioneers of Wireless, London: Methuen.E.C.Baker, 1976, Sir William Preece, F.R.S. Victorian Engineer Extraordinary, London (a detailed biography with an appended list of his patents, principal lectures and publications).D.G.Tucker, 1981–2, "Sir William Preece (1834–1913)", Transactions of the Newcomen Society 53:119–36 (a critical review with a summary of his consultancies).GW / KFBiographical history of technology > Preece, Sir William Henry
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17 Farnsworth, Philo Taylor
[br]b. 19 August 1906 Beaver, Utah, USAd. 11 March 1971 Salt Lake City, Utah, USA[br]American engineer and independent inventor who was a pioneer in the development of television.[br]Whilst still in high school, Farnsworth became interested in the possibility of television and conceived many of the basic features of a practicable system of TV broadcast and reception. Following two years of study at the Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, in 1926 he cofounded the Crocker Research Laboratories in San Francisco, subsequently Farnsworth Television Inc. (1929) and Farnsworth Radio \& Television Corporation, Fort Wayne, Indiana (1938). There he began a lifetime of research, primarily in the field of television. In 1927, with the backing of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) and the collaboration of Vladimir Zworykin, he demonstrated the first all-electronic television system, based on his early ideas for an image dissector tube, the first electronic equivalent of the Nipkow disc. With this rudimentary sixty-line system he was able to transmit a recognizable dollar sign and file the first of many TV patents. From then on he contributed to a variety of developments in the fields of vacuum tubes, radar and atomic-power generation, with patents on cathode ray tubes, amplifying and pick-up tubes, electron multipliers and photoelectric materials.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsInstitute of Radio Engineers Morris Leibmann Memorial Prize 1941.Bibliography1930, British patent nos. 368,309 and 368,721 (for his image dissector).1934, "Television by electron image scanning", Journal of the Franklin Institute 218:411 (describes the complete image-dissector system).Further ReadingJ.H.Udelson, 1982, The Great Television Race: A History of the American Television Industry 1925–1941, University of Alabama Press.O.E.Dunlop Jr, 1944, Radio's 100 Men of Science.G.R.M.Garratt \& A.H.Mumford, 1952, "The history of television", Proceedings of the Institution of Electrical Engineers III A Television 99.KFBiographical history of technology > Farnsworth, Philo Taylor
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18 Clarke, Arthur Charles
[br]b. 16 December 1917 Minehead, Somerset, England[br]English writer of science fiction who correctly predicted the use of geo-stationary earth satellites for worldwide communications.[br]Whilst still at Huish's Grammar School, Taunton, Clarke became interested in both space science and science fiction. Unable to afford a scientific education at the time (he later obtained a BSc at King's College, London), he pursued both interests in his spare time while working in the Government Exchequer and Audit Department between 1936 and 1941. He was a founder member of the British Interplanetary Society, subsequently serving as its Chairman in 1946–7 and 1950–3. From 1941 to 1945 he served in the Royal Air Force, becoming a technical officer in the first GCA (Ground Controlled Approach) radar unit. There he began to produce the first of many science-fiction stories. In 1949–50 he was an assistant editor of Science Abstracts at the Institution of Electrical Engineers.As a result of his two interests, he realized during the Second World War that an artificial earth satellite in an equatorial orbital with a radius of 35,000 km (22,000 miles) would appear to be stationary, and that three such geo-stationary, or synchronous, satellites could be used for worldwide broadcast or communications. He described these ideas in a paper published in Wireless World in 1945. Initially there was little response, but within a few years the idea was taken up by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration and in 1965 the first synchronous satellite, Early Bird, was launched into orbit.In the 1950s he moved to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) to pursue an interest in underwater exploration, but he continued to write science fiction, being known in particular for his contribution to the making of the classic Stanley Kubrick science-fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey, based on his book of the same title.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsClarke received many honours for both his scientific and science-fiction writings. For his satellite communication ideas his awards include the Franklin Institute Gold Medal 1963 and Honorary Fellowship of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics 1976. For his science-fiction writing he received the UNESCO Kalinga Prize (1961) and many others. In 1979 he became Chancellor of Moratuwa University in Sri Lanka and in 1980 Vikran Scrabhai Professor at the Physical Research Laboratory of the University of Ahmedabad.Bibliography1945. "Extra-terrestrial relays: can rocket stations give world wide coverage?", Wireless World L1: 305 (puts forward his ideas for geo-stationary communication satellites).1946. "Astronomical radar: some future possibilities", Wireless World 52:321.1948, "Electronics and space flight", Journal of the British Interplanetary Society 7:49. Other publications, mainly science-fiction novels, include: 1955, Earthlight, 1956, TheCoast of Coral; 1958, Voice Across the Sea; 1961, Fall of Moondust; 1965, Voicesfrom the Sky, 1977, The View from Serendip; 1979, Fountain of Paradise; 1984, Ascent to Orbit: A Scientific Autobiography, and 1984, 2010: Odyssey Two (a sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey that was also made into a film).Further Reading1986, Encyclopaedia Britannica.1991, Who's Who, London: A. \& C.Black.See also: Pierce, John RobinsonKF -
19 Campbell-Swinton, Alan Archibald
[br]b. 18 October 1863 Kimmerghame, Berwickshire, Scotlandd. 19 February 1930 London, England[br]Scottish electrical engineer who correctly predicted the development of electronic television.[br]After a time at Cargilfield Trinity School, Campbell-Swinton went to Fettes College in Edinburgh from 1878 to 1881 and then spent a year abroad in France. From 1882 until 1887 he was employed at Sir W.G.Armstrong's works in Elswick, Newcastle, following which he set up his own electrical contracting business in London. This he gave up in 1904 to become a consultant. Subsequently he was an engineer with many industrial companies, including the W.T.Henley Telegraph Works Company, Parson Marine Steam Turbine Company and Crompton Parkinson Ltd, of which he became a director. During this time he was involved in electrical and scientific research, being particularly associated with the development of the Parson turbine.In 1903 he tried to realize distant electric vision by using a Braun oscilloscope tube for the. image display, a second tube being modified to form a synchronously scanned camera, by replacing the fluorescent display screen with a photoconductive target. Although this first attempt at what was, in fact, a vidicon camera proved unsuccessful, he was clearly on the right lines and in 1908 he wrote a letter to Nature with a fairly accurate description of the principles of an all-electronic television system using magnetically deflected cathode ray tubes at the camera and receiver, with the camera target consisting of a mosaic of photoconductive elements that were scanned and discharged line by line by an electron beam. He expanded on his ideas in a lecture to the Roentgen Society, London, in 1911, but it was over twenty years before the required technology had advanced sufficiently for Shoenberg's team at EMI to produce a working system.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsFRS (Member of Council 1927 and 1929). Freeman of the City of London. Liveryman of Goldsmiths' Company. First President, Wireless Society 1920–1. Vice-President, Royal Society of Arts, and Chairman of Council 1917–19,1920–2. Chairman, British Scientific Research Association. Vice-President, British Photographic Research Association. Member of the Broadcasting Board 1924. Vice-President, Roentgen Society 1911–12. Vice-President, Institution of Electrical Engineers 1921–5. President, Radio Society of Great Britain 1913–21. Manager, Royal Institution 1912–15.Bibliography1908, Nature 78:151; 1912, Journal of the Roentgen Society 8:1 (both describe his original ideas for electronic television).1924, "The possibilities of television", Wireless World 14:51 (gives a detailed description of his proposals, including the use of a threestage valve video amplifier).1926, Nature 118:590 (describes his early experiments of 1903).Further ReadingThe Proceedings of the International Conference on the History of Television. From Early Days to the Present, November 1986, Institution of Electrical Engineers Publication No. 271 (a report of some of the early developments in television). A.A.Campbell-Swinton FRS 1863–1930, Royal Television Society Monograph, 1982, London (a biography).KFSee also: Baird, John LogieBiographical history of technology > Campbell-Swinton, Alan Archibald
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20 Popov, Aleksandr Stepanovich
[br]b. 16 March 1859 Bogoslavsky, Zamod, Ural District, Russiad. 13 January 1906 St Petersburg, Russia[br]Russian physicist and electrical engineer acclaimed by the former Soviet Union as the inventor of radio.[br]Popov, the son of a village priest, received his early education in a seminary, but in 1877 he entered the University of St Petersburg to study mathematics. He graduated with distinction in 1883 and joined the faculty to teach mathematics and physics. Then, increasingly interested in electrical engineering, he became an instructor at the Russian Navy Torpedo School at Krondstadt, near St Petersburg, where he later became a professor. On 7 May 1895 he is said to have transmitted and received Morse code radio signals over a distance of 40 m (130 ft) in a demonstration given at St Petersburg University to the Russian Chemical Society, but in a paper published in January 1896 in the Journal of the Russian Physical and Chemical Society, he in fact described the use of a coherer for recording atmospheric disturbances such as lightning, together with the design of a modified coherer intended for reception at a distance of 5 km (3 miles). Subsequently, on 26 November 1897, after Marconi's own radio-transmission experiments had been publicized, he wrote a letter claiming priority for his discovery to the English-language journal Electrician, in the form of a translated précis of his original paper, but neither the original Russian paper nor the English précis made specific claims of either a receiver or a transmitter as such. However, by 1898 he had certainly developed some form of ship-to-shore radio for the Russian Navy. In 1945, long after the Russian revolution, the communist regime supported his claim to be the inventor of radio, but this is a matter for much debate and the priority of Marconi's claim is generally acknowledged outside the USSR.[br]Bibliography1896, Journal of the Russian Physical and Chemical Society (his original paper in Russian).1897, Electrician 40:235 (the English précis).Further ReadingC.Susskind, 1962, "Popov and the beginnings of radio telegraphy", Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers 50:2,036.——1964, Marconi, Popov and the dawn of radiocommunication', Electronics and Power, London: Institution of Electrical Engineers, 10:76.KFBiographical history of technology > Popov, Aleksandr Stepanovich
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