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Six Great Engineers

  • 1 Diesel, Rudolph Christian Karl

    [br]
    b. 1858 Paris, France
    d. 1913 at sea, in the English Channel
    [br]
    German inventor of the Diesel or Compression Ignition engine.
    [br]
    A German born in Paris, he was educated in Augsburg and later in Munich, where he graduated first in his class. There he took some courses under Professor Karl von Linde, pioneer of mechanical refrigeration and an authority on thermodynamics, who pointed out the low efficiency of the steam engine. He went to work for the Linde Ice Machine Company as an engineer and later as Manager; there he conceived a new basic cycle and worked out its thermodynamics, which he published in 1893 as "The theory and construction of a rational heat motor". Compressing air adiabatically to one-sixteenth of its volume caused the temperature to rise to 1,000°F (540°C). Injected fuel would then ignite automatically without any electrical system. He obtained permission to use the laboratories of the Augsburg-Nuremburg Engine Works to build a single-cylinder prototype. On test it blew up, nearly killing Diesel. He proved his principle, however, and obtained financial support from the firm of Alfred Krupp. The design was refined until successful and in 1898 an engine was put on display in Munich with the result that many business people invested in Diesel and his engine and its worldwide production. Diesel made over a million dollars out of the invention. The heart of the engine is the fuel-injection pump, which operates at a pressure of c.500 psi (35 kg/cm). The first English patent for the engine was in 1892. The firms in Augsburg sent him abroad to sell his engine; he persuaded the French to adopt it for submarines, Germany having refused this. Diesel died in 1913 in mysterious circumstances, vanishing from the Harwich-Antwerp ferry.
    [br]
    Further Reading
    E.Diesel, 1937, Diesel, derMensch, das Werk, das Schicksal, Hamburg. J.S.Crowther, 1959, Six Great Engineers, London.
    John F.Sandfort, 1964, Heat Engines.
    IMcN

    Biographical history of technology > Diesel, Rudolph Christian Karl

  • 2 Murray, Matthew

    [br]
    b. 1765 near Newcastle upon Tyne, England
    d. 20 February 1826 Holbeck, Leeds, England
    [br]
    English mechanical engineer and steam engine, locomotive and machine-tool pioneer.
    [br]
    Matthew Murray was apprenticed at the age of 14 to a blacksmith who probably also did millwrighting work. He then worked as a journeyman mechanic at Stockton-on-Tees, where he had experience with machinery for a flax mill at Darlington. Trade in the Stockton area became slack in 1788 and Murray sought work in Leeds, where he was employed by John Marshall, who owned a flax mill at Adel, located about 5 miles (8 km) from Leeds. He soon became Marshall's chief mechanic, and when in 1790 a new mill was built in the Holbeck district of Leeds by Marshall and his partner Benyon, Murray was responsible for the installation of the machinery. At about this time he took out two patents relating to improvements in textile machinery.
    In 1795 he left Marshall's employment and, in partnership with David Wood (1761– 1820), established a general engineering and millwrighting business at Mill Green, Holbeck. In the following year the firm moved to a larger site at Water Lane, Holbeck, and additional capital was provided by two new partners, James Fenton (1754–1834) and William Lister (1796–1811). Lister was a sleeping partner and the firm was known as Fenton, Murray \& Wood and was organized so that Fenton kept the accounts, Wood was the administrator and took charge of the workshops, while Murray provided the technical expertise. The factory was extended in 1802 by the construction of a fitting shop of circular form, after which the establishment became known as the "Round Foundry".
    In addition to textile machinery, the firm soon began the manufacture of machine tools and steam-engines. In this field it became a serious rival to Boulton \& Watt, who privately acknowledged Murray's superior craftsmanship, particularly in foundry work, and resorted to some industrial espionage to discover details of his techniques. Murray obtained patents for improvements in steam engines in 1799, 1801 and 1802. These included automatic regulation of draught, a mechanical stoker and his short-D slide valve. The patent of 1801 was successfully opposed by Boulton \& Watt. An important contribution of Murray to the development of the steam engine was the use of a bedplate so that the engine became a compact, self-contained unit instead of separate components built into an en-gine-house.
    Murray was one of the first, if not the very first, to build machine tools for sale. However, this was not the case with the planing machine, which he is said to have invented to produce flat surfaces for his slide valves. Rather than being patented, this machine was kept secret, although it was apparently in use before 1814.
    In 1812 Murray was engaged by John Blenkinsop (1783–1831) to build locomotives for his rack railway from Middleton Colliery to Leeds (about 3 1/2 miles or 5.6 km). Murray was responsible for their design and they were fitted with two double-acting cylinders and cranks at right angles, an important step in the development of the steam locomotive. About six of these locomotives were built for the Middleton and other colliery railways and some were in use for over twenty years. Murray also supplied engines for many early steamboats. In addition, he built some hydraulic machinery and in 1814 patented a hydraulic press for baling cloth.
    Murray's son-in-law, Richard Jackson, later became a partner in the firm, which was then styled Fenton, Murray \& Jackson. The firm went out of business in 1843.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    Society of Arts Gold Medal 1809 (for machine for hackling flax).
    Further Reading
    L.T.C.Rolt, 1962, Great Engineers, London (contains a good short biography).
    E.Kilburn Scott (ed.), 1928, Matthew Murray, Pioneer Engineer, Leeds (a collection of essays and source material).
    Year 1831, London.
    L.T.C.Rolt, 1965, Tools for the Job, London; repub. 1986 (provides information on Murray's machine-tool work).
    Some of Murray's correspondence with Simon Goodrich of the Admiralty has been published in Transactions of the Newcomen Society 3 (1922–3); 6(1925–6); 18(1937– 8); and 32 (1959–60).
    RTS

    Biographical history of technology > Murray, Matthew

  • 3 Paxton, Sir Joseph

    [br]
    b. 3 August 1801 Milton Bryant, Bedfordshire, England
    d. 8 June 1865 Sydenham, London, England
    [br]
    English designer of the Crystal Palace, the first large-scale prefabricated ferrovitreous structure.
    [br]
    The son of a farmer, he had worked in gardens since boyhood and at the age of 21 was employed as Undergardener at the Horticultural Society Gardens in Chiswick, from where he went on to become Head Gardener for the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth. It was there that he developed his methods of glasshouse construction, culminating in the Great Conservatory of 1836–40, an immense structure some 277 ft (84.4 m) long, 123 ft (37.5 m) wide and 67 ft (20.4 m) high. Its framework was of iron and its roof of glass, with wood to contain the glass panels; it is now demolished. Paxton went on to landscape garden design, fountain and waterway engineering, the laying out of the model village of Edensor, and to play a part in railway and country house projects.
    The structure that made Paxton a household name was erected in Hyde Park, London, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851 and was aptly dubbed, by Punch, the Crystal Palace. The idea of holding an international exhibition for industry had been mooted in 1849 and was backed by Prince Albert and Henry Cole. The money for this was to be raised by public subscription and 245 designs were entered into a competition held in 1850; however, most of the concepts, received from many notable architects and engineers, were very costly and unsuitable, and none were accepted. That same year, Paxton published his scheme in the Illustrated London News and it was approved after it received over-whelming public support.
    Paxton's Crystal Palace, designed and erected in association with the engineers Fox and Henderson, was a prefabricated glasshouse of vast dimensions: it was 1,848 ft (563.3 m) long, 408 ft (124.4 m) wide and over 100 ft (30.5 m) high. It contained 3,300 iron columns, 2,150 girders. 24 miles (39 km) of guttering, 600,000 ft3 (17,000 m3) of timber and 900,000 ft2 (84,000 m) of sheet glass made by Chance Bros, of Birmingham. One of the chief reasons why it was accepted by the Royal Commission Committee was that it fulfilled the competition proviso that it should be capable of being erected quickly and subsequently dismantled and re-erected elsewhere. The Crystal Palace was to be erected at a cost of £79,800, much less than the other designs. Building began on 30 July 1850, with a labour force of some 2,000, and was completed on 31 March 1851. It was a landmark in construction at the time, for its size, speed of construction and its non-eclectic design, and, most of all, as the first great prefabricated building: parts were standardized and made in quantity, and were assembled on site. The exhibition was opened by Queen Victoria on 1 May 1851 and had received six million visitors when it closed on 11 October. The building was dismantled in 1852 and reassembled, with variations in design, at Sydenham in south London, where it remained until its spectacular conflagration in 1936.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    Knighted 1851. MP for Coventry 1854–65. Fellow Linnaean Society 1853; Horticultural Society 1826. Order of St Vladimir, Russia, 1844.
    Further Reading
    P.Beaver, 1986, The Crystal Palace: A Portrait of Victorian Enterprise, Phillimore. George F.Chadwick, 1961, Works of Sir Joseph Paxton 1803–1865, Architectural Press.
    DY

    Biographical history of technology > Paxton, Sir Joseph

  • 4 Stephenson, Robert

    [br]
    b. 16 October 1803 Willington Quay, Northumberland, England
    d. 12 October 1859 London, England
    [br]
    English engineer who built the locomotive Rocket and constructed many important early trunk railways.
    [br]
    Robert Stephenson's father was George Stephenson, who ensured that his son was educated to obtain the theoretical knowledge he lacked himself. In 1821 Robert Stephenson assisted his father in his survey of the Stockton \& Darlington Railway and in 1822 he assisted William James in the first survey of the Liverpool \& Manchester Railway. He then went to Edinburgh University for six months, and the following year Robert Stephenson \& Co. was named after him as Managing Partner when it was formed by himself, his father and others. The firm was to build stationary engines, locomotives and railway rolling stock; in its early years it also built paper-making machinery and did general engineering.
    In 1824, however, Robert Stephenson accepted, perhaps in reaction to an excess of parental control, an invitation by a group of London speculators called the Colombian Mining Association to lead an expedition to South America to use steam power to reopen gold and silver mines. He subsequently visited North America before returning to England in 1827 to rejoin his father as an equal and again take charge of Robert Stephenson \& Co. There he set about altering the design of steam locomotives to improve both their riding and their steam-generating capacity. Lancashire Witch, completed in July 1828, was the first locomotive mounted on steel springs and had twin furnace tubes through the boiler to produce a large heating surface. Later that year Robert Stephenson \& Co. supplied the Stockton \& Darlington Railway with a wagon, mounted for the first time on springs and with outside bearings. It was to be the prototype of the standard British railway wagon. Between April and September 1829 Robert Stephenson built, not without difficulty, a multi-tubular boiler, as suggested by Henry Booth to George Stephenson, and incorporated it into the locomotive Rocket which the three men entered in the Liverpool \& Manchester Railway's Rainhill Trials in October. Rocket, was outstandingly successful and demonstrated that the long-distance steam railway was practicable.
    Robert Stephenson continued to develop the locomotive. Northumbrian, built in 1830, had for the first time, a smokebox at the front of the boiler and also the firebox built integrally with the rear of the boiler. Then in Planet, built later the same year, he adopted a layout for the working parts used earlier by steam road-coach pioneer Goldsworthy Gurney, placing the cylinders, for the first time, in a nearly horizontal position beneath the smokebox, with the connecting rods driving a cranked axle. He had evolved the definitive form for the steam locomotive.
    Also in 1830, Robert Stephenson surveyed the London \& Birmingham Railway, which was authorized by Act of Parliament in 1833. Stephenson became Engineer for construction of the 112-mile (180 km) railway, probably at that date the greatest task ever undertaken in of civil engineering. In this he was greatly assisted by G.P.Bidder, who as a child prodigy had been known as "The Calculating Boy", and the two men were to be associated in many subsequent projects. On the London \& Birmingham Railway there were long and deep cuttings to be excavated and difficult tunnels to be bored, notoriously at Kilsby. The line was opened in 1838.
    In 1837 Stephenson provided facilities for W.F. Cooke to make an experimental electrictelegraph installation at London Euston. The directors of the London \& Birmingham Railway company, however, did not accept his recommendation that they should adopt the electric telegraph and it was left to I.K. Brunel to instigate the first permanent installation, alongside the Great Western Railway. After Cooke formed the Electric Telegraph Company, Stephenson became a shareholder and was Chairman during 1857–8.
    Earlier, in the 1830s, Robert Stephenson assisted his father in advising on railways in Belgium and came to be increasingly in demand as a consultant. In 1840, however, he was almost ruined financially as a result of the collapse of the Stanhope \& Tyne Rail Road; in return for acting as Engineer-in-Chief he had unwisely accepted shares, with unlimited liability, instead of a fee.
    During the late 1840s Stephenson's greatest achievements were the design and construction of four great bridges, as part of railways for which he was responsible. The High Level Bridge over the Tyne at Newcastle and the Royal Border Bridge over the Tweed at Berwick were the links needed to complete the East Coast Route from London to Scotland. For the Chester \& Holyhead Railway to cross the Menai Strait, a bridge with spans as long-as 460 ft (140 m) was needed: Stephenson designed them as wrought-iron tubes of rectangular cross-section, through which the trains would pass, and eventually joined the spans together into a tube 1,511 ft (460 m) long from shore to shore. Extensive testing was done beforehand by shipbuilder William Fairbairn to prove the method, and as a preliminary it was first used for a 400 ft (122 m) span bridge at Conway.
    In 1847 Robert Stephenson was elected MP for Whitby, a position he held until his death, and he was one of the exhibition commissioners for the Great Exhibition of 1851. In the early 1850s he was Engineer-in-Chief for the Norwegian Trunk Railway, the first railway in Norway, and he also built the Alexandria \& Cairo Railway, the first railway in Africa. This included two tubular bridges with the railway running on top of the tubes. The railway was extended to Suez in 1858 and for several years provided a link in the route from Britain to India, until superseded by the Suez Canal, which Stephenson had opposed in Parliament. The greatest of all his tubular bridges was the Victoria Bridge across the River St Lawrence at Montreal: after inspecting the site in 1852 he was appointed Engineer-in-Chief for the bridge, which was 1 1/2 miles (2 km) long and was designed in his London offices. Sadly he, like Brunel, died young from self-imposed overwork, before the bridge was completed in 1859.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    FRS 1849. President, Institution of Mechanical Engineers 1849. President, Institution of Civil Engineers 1856. Order of St Olaf (Norway). Order of Leopold (Belgium). Like his father, Robert Stephenson refused a knighthood.
    Further Reading
    L.T.C.Rolt, 1960, George and Robert Stephenson, London: Longman (a good modern biography).
    J.C.Jeaffreson, 1864, The Life of Robert Stephenson, London: Longman (the standard nine-teenth-century biography).
    M.R.Bailey, 1979, "Robert Stephenson \& Co. 1823–1829", Transactions of the Newcomen Society 50 (provides details of the early products of that company).
    J.Kieve, 1973, The Electric Telegraph, Newton Abbot: David \& Charles.
    PJGR

    Biographical history of technology > Stephenson, Robert

  • 5 cuerpo

    m.
    1 body.
    a cuerpo without a coat on
    de cuerpo entero full-length (retrato, espejo)
    en cuerpo y alma body and soul
    luchar cuerpo a cuerpo to fight hand-to-hand
    de cuerpo presente (lying) in state
    tomar cuerpo to take shape
    vivir a cuerpo de rey to live like a king
    ¡cuerpo a tierra! hit the ground!, get down!
    cuerpo celeste heavenly body
    cuerpo extraño foreign body
    el cuerpo humano the human body
    2 main body (parte principal).
    3 thickness (consistencia).
    mover hasta que la mezcla tome cuerpo stir until the mixture thickens
    el proyecto de nuevo aeropuerto va tomando cuerpo the new airport project is taking shape
    4 corps.
    cuerpo diplomático diplomatic corps
    cuerpo de policía police force
    5 section (parte de armario, edificio).
    7 corpus, body, main section of a bodily part, main section of an organism.
    8 mass of tissue, corpus.
    * * *
    1 ANATOMÍA body
    3 (figura) figure; (tronco) trunk
    4 (tronco) trunk
    5 (grupo) body, force, corps
    6 (cadáver) corpse, body
    7 (parte) section, part; (parte principal) main part, main body
    8 QUÍMICA substance
    9 FÍSICA body
    10 (vino, tela, etc) body
    11 DEPORTE length
    \
    a cuerpo descubierto defenceless (US defenseless)
    cuerpo a cuerpo hand-to-hand
    de cuerpo entero full-length
    en cuerpo y alma figurado heart and soul, body and soul
    estar de cuerpo presente to lie in state
    hacer de cuerpo eufemístico to relieve oneself
    no tener nada en el cuerpo to have an empty stomach
    tener buen cuerpo to have a good figure
    tomar cuerpo figurado to take shape
    cuerpo de baile corps de ballet
    cuerpo del delito DERECHO evidence, corpus delicti
    cuerpo diplomático diplomatic corps
    cuerpo legislativo legislative body
    cuerpo geométrico regular solid
    cuerpos celestes heavenly bodies
    * * *
    noun m.
    1) body
    * * *
    SM
    1) (Anat) body

    me dolía todo el cuerpo — my body was aching all over, I was aching all over

    cuerpo a cuerpo —

    un cuerpo a cuerpo entre los dos políticos — a head-on o head-to-head confrontation between the two politicians

    • de cuerpo entero — [retrato, espejo] full-length

    • de medio cuerpo — [retrato, espejo] half-length

    • cuerpo serrano — hum body to die for

    • ¡cuerpo a tierra! — hit the ground!

    dar con el cuerpo en tierra — to fall down, fall to the ground

    a cuerpo gentil —

    a cuerpo de rey —

    hurtó el cuerpo y eludió a sus vecinos — he sneaked off o away and avoided his neighbours

    pedirle a algn algo el cuerpo —

    2) (=cadáver) body, corpse

    de cuerpo presente: su marido aún estaba de cuerpo presente — her husband had not yet been buried

    funeral de cuerpo presente — funeral service, funeral

    3) (=grupo)

    cuerpo de bomberos — fire brigade, fire department (EEUU)

    4) (=parte) [de mueble] section, part; [de un vestido] bodice; (=parte principal) main body
    5) (=objeto) body, object
    6) (=consistencia) [de vino] body

    • dar cuerpo a algo, el suavizante que da cuerpo a su cabello — the conditioner that gives your hair body

    • tomar cuerpo — [plan, proyecto, personaje, historia] to take shape

    7) (Tip) [de letra] point, point size
    * * *
    1)
    a) (Anat) body

    tenía el miedo metido en el cuerpo — (fam) he was scared stiff (colloq)

    a cuerpo de rey — (fam)

    a cuerpo gentil — (fam) without a coat (o sweater etc)

    echarse algo al cuerpo — (fam) < comida> to have something to eat; < bebida> to have something to drink

    sacar(le) el cuerpo a alguien — (AmL fam) to steer clear of somebody

    sacar(le) el cuerpo a algo — (AmL fam) ( a trabajo) to get out of something; ( a responsabilidad) to evade o shirk something

    b) ( cadáver) body, corpse

    encontraron su cuerpo sin vida junto al río — (period) his lifeless body was found by the river (frml)

    c) ( tronco) body
    2) (Equ) length
    3)
    a) ( parte principal) main body
    b) ( de mueble) part; ( de edificio) section
    4) (conjunto de personas, de ideas, normas) body
    5) (Fís) ( objeto) body, object; ( sustancia) substance
    6) (consistencia, densidad) body

    dar/tomar cuerpo — idea/escultura to take shape

    * * *
    = body, body, type size, body-size, corps, shank, cadaver, soma.
    Ex. But when he speaks to me he always scans my body and stares at my breasts.
    Ex. Cartographic materials are, according to AACR2, all the materials that represent, in whole or in part, the earth or any celestial body.
    Ex. Using golf-ball or daisy-wheel typewriters a good range of typefaces can be used on the same page; different type sizes can also be used.
    Ex. A fount of type was a set of letters and other symbols in which each was supplied in approximate proportion to its frequency of use, all being of one body-size and design.
    Ex. Quality abstracting services take pride in their corps of abstractors.
    Ex. Another device was to make matrices for accented sorts with the punches already used for unaccented sorts: the letter punch was stepped on its shank so that one of several accent punches could be bound on to the step to make a combined punch.
    Ex. Rather than bringing in butchers to do the handiwork of his dissections, Vesalius himself worked on the human cadavers and said that students of medicine should do the same.
    Ex. Pyramidal neurons, also known as pyramidal cells, are neurons with a pyramidal-shaped cell body ( soma) and two distinct dendritic trees.
    ----
    * a cuerpo de rey = the lap of luxury.
    * crema para el cuerlpo = body lotion.
    * cuerpo calloso = corpus callosum.
    * cuerpo celeste = celestial body, heavenly body.
    * cuerpo Danone = body beautiful.
    * cuerpo de animal muerto = carcass.
    * cuerpo de bomberos = fire department.
    * cuerpo de estanterías = bay of shelves, range of shelving, range, bay of shelving.
    * cuerpo de estanterías por materia = subject bay.
    * cuerpo de inspectores = inspectorate.
    * cuerpo de la ficha = body of the card.
    * Cuerpo de Marina = Navy Corps.
    * Cuerpo de Paz, el = Peace Corps.
    * Cuerpo de Zapadores = Army Corps Engineers.
    * cuerpo expedicionario = expeditionary force.
    * cuerpo extraño = foreign body.
    * cuerpo humano, el = human body, the.
    * cuerpo político, el = body politic, the.
    * cuerpo sin vida = dead body.
    * culto al cuerpo = cult of the body, body beautiful.
    * dar cuerpo = give + substance.
    * dar cuerpo a = flesh out.
    * dar cuerpo y forma a = lend + substance and form to.
    * de cuerpo largo = long-bodied.
    * del cuerpo = body.
    * foto de medio cuerpo = mugshot [mug shot].
    * ingeniero del cuerpo de zapadores = Army Corps engineer.
    * luchar cuerpo a cuerpo = clinch.
    * miembro del cuerpo = limb.
    * órgano del cuerpo = limb, body part.
    * pegado al cuerpo = slinky [slinkier -comp., slinkiest -sup.].
    * ponerse en forma para la lucir el cuerpo en la playa = get + beach-fit.
    * que cubre todo el cuerpo = head to toe.
    * seguro por pérdida de un miembro del cuerpo = dismemberment insurance.
    * temperatura del cuerpo = body temperature.
    * vivir a cuerpo de rey = live like + a king, live in + the lap of luxury.
    * * *
    1)
    a) (Anat) body

    tenía el miedo metido en el cuerpo — (fam) he was scared stiff (colloq)

    a cuerpo de rey — (fam)

    a cuerpo gentil — (fam) without a coat (o sweater etc)

    echarse algo al cuerpo — (fam) < comida> to have something to eat; < bebida> to have something to drink

    sacar(le) el cuerpo a alguien — (AmL fam) to steer clear of somebody

    sacar(le) el cuerpo a algo — (AmL fam) ( a trabajo) to get out of something; ( a responsabilidad) to evade o shirk something

    b) ( cadáver) body, corpse

    encontraron su cuerpo sin vida junto al río — (period) his lifeless body was found by the river (frml)

    c) ( tronco) body
    2) (Equ) length
    3)
    a) ( parte principal) main body
    b) ( de mueble) part; ( de edificio) section
    4) (conjunto de personas, de ideas, normas) body
    5) (Fís) ( objeto) body, object; ( sustancia) substance
    6) (consistencia, densidad) body

    dar/tomar cuerpo — idea/escultura to take shape

    * * *
    = body, body, type size, body-size, corps, shank, cadaver, soma.

    Ex: But when he speaks to me he always scans my body and stares at my breasts.

    Ex: Cartographic materials are, according to AACR2, all the materials that represent, in whole or in part, the earth or any celestial body.
    Ex: Using golf-ball or daisy-wheel typewriters a good range of typefaces can be used on the same page; different type sizes can also be used.
    Ex: A fount of type was a set of letters and other symbols in which each was supplied in approximate proportion to its frequency of use, all being of one body-size and design.
    Ex: Quality abstracting services take pride in their corps of abstractors.
    Ex: Another device was to make matrices for accented sorts with the punches already used for unaccented sorts: the letter punch was stepped on its shank so that one of several accent punches could be bound on to the step to make a combined punch.
    Ex: Rather than bringing in butchers to do the handiwork of his dissections, Vesalius himself worked on the human cadavers and said that students of medicine should do the same.
    Ex: Pyramidal neurons, also known as pyramidal cells, are neurons with a pyramidal-shaped cell body ( soma) and two distinct dendritic trees.
    * a cuerpo de rey = the lap of luxury.
    * crema para el cuerlpo = body lotion.
    * cuerpo calloso = corpus callosum.
    * cuerpo celeste = celestial body, heavenly body.
    * cuerpo Danone = body beautiful.
    * cuerpo de animal muerto = carcass.
    * cuerpo de bomberos = fire department.
    * cuerpo de estanterías = bay of shelves, range of shelving, range, bay of shelving.
    * cuerpo de estanterías por materia = subject bay.
    * cuerpo de inspectores = inspectorate.
    * cuerpo de la ficha = body of the card.
    * Cuerpo de Marina = Navy Corps.
    * Cuerpo de Paz, el = Peace Corps.
    * Cuerpo de Zapadores = Army Corps Engineers.
    * cuerpo expedicionario = expeditionary force.
    * cuerpo extraño = foreign body.
    * cuerpo humano, el = human body, the.
    * cuerpo político, el = body politic, the.
    * cuerpo sin vida = dead body.
    * culto al cuerpo = cult of the body, body beautiful.
    * dar cuerpo = give + substance.
    * dar cuerpo a = flesh out.
    * dar cuerpo y forma a = lend + substance and form to.
    * de cuerpo largo = long-bodied.
    * del cuerpo = body.
    * foto de medio cuerpo = mugshot [mug shot].
    * ingeniero del cuerpo de zapadores = Army Corps engineer.
    * luchar cuerpo a cuerpo = clinch.
    * miembro del cuerpo = limb.
    * órgano del cuerpo = limb, body part.
    * pegado al cuerpo = slinky [slinkier -comp., slinkiest -sup.].
    * ponerse en forma para la lucir el cuerpo en la playa = get + beach-fit.
    * que cubre todo el cuerpo = head to toe.
    * seguro por pérdida de un miembro del cuerpo = dismemberment insurance.
    * temperatura del cuerpo = body temperature.
    * vivir a cuerpo de rey = live like + a king, live in + the lap of luxury.

    * * *
    A
    le dolía todo el cuerpo his whole body ached
    es de cuerpo muy menudo she's very slightly built o she has a very slight build
    tenía el miedo metido en el cuerpo ( fam); he was scared stiff ( colloq)
    un retrato/espejo de cuerpo entero a full-length portrait/mirror
    a cuerpo de rey ( fam): vive a cuerpo de rey he lives like a king
    nos atendieron a cuerpo de rey they treated us like royalty, they gave us real V.I.P. treatment ( colloq)
    a cuerpo or en or de cuerpo gentil ( fam); without a coat ( o sweater etc)
    cuerpo a cuerpo hand-to-hand
    en un combate cuerpo a cuerpo in hand-to-hand combat
    dárselo a algn el cuerpo ( fam): me lo daba el cuerpo que algo había ocurrido I had a feeling that something had happened
    echarse algo al cuerpo ( fam); ‹comida› to have sth to eat;
    ‹bebida› to have sth to drink, knock sth back ( colloq)
    en cuerpo y alma ( fam); wholeheartedly
    hacer or ir del cuerpo ( euf); to do one's business ( euph)
    logró hurtarle el cuerpo al golpe she managed to dodge the blow
    el cuerpo le pedía un descanso he felt he had to have a rest, his body was crying out for a rest
    pintar or retratar a algn de cuerpo entero: en pocas líneas pinta al personaje de cuerpo entero in a few lines she gives you a complete picture of what the character is like
    eso lo pinta de cuerpo entero that shows him in his true colors, that shows him for what he is
    sacar(le) el cuerpo a algn ( AmL fam); to steer clear of sb
    sacar(le) el cuerpo a algo ( AmL fam) (a un trabajo) to get out of sth; (a una responsabilidad) to evade o shirk sth
    suelto de cuerpo (CS fam); cool as anything ( colloq), cool as you like ( colloq)
    2 (cadáver) body, corpse
    allí encontraron su cuerpo sin vida ( frml); his lifeless body was found there
    3 (tronco) body
    Compuesto:
    corpus delicti
    B ( Dep, Equ) length
    ganó por tres cuerpos de ventaja she won by three lengths
    C
    1 (parte principal) main body
    un armario de dos cuerpos a double wardrobe
    se negaron a hacer declaraciones como cuerpo they refused to make any statement as a body o group
    su separación del cuerpo his dismissal from the force ( o service etc)
    2 (de ideas, normas) body
    Compuestos:
    corps de ballet
    fire department ( AmE), fire brigade ( BrE)
    body of teaching
    body of laws
    peace corps
    police force
    security corps
    diplomatic corps
    electorate
    legislative body
    medical corps
    E ( Fís)
    1 (objeto) body, object
    2 (sustancia) substance
    Compuestos:
    heavenly body
    compound
    foreign body
    geometric shape o figure
    element
    F (consistencia, densidad) body
    un vino de mucho cuerpo a full-bodied wine
    le da cuerpo al pelo it gives the hair body
    dar/tomar cuerpo: la escultura iba tomando cuerpo the sculpture was taking shape
    hay que dar cuerpo legal a estas asociaciones we have to give legal status to these organizations
    G ( Impr) point size
    * * *

     

    cuerpo sustantivo masculino
    1
    a) (Anat) body;


    retrato/espejo de cuerpo entero full-length portrait/mirror;
    cuerpo a cuerpo hand-to-hand

    c) (Fís) ( objeto) body, object

    2 (conjunto de personas, de ideas, normas) body;

    cuerpo de policía police force;
    cuerpo diplomático diplomatic corps
    3 (consistencia, densidad) body;


    ‹ vino› full-bodied
    cuerpo sustantivo masculino
    1 body
    2 (humano) body, (tronco humano) trunk
    3 (cadáver) corpse
    4 (de un edificio o mueble) section, part
    un armario de tres cuerpos, a wardrobe with three sections
    (de un libro, una doctrina) body
    5 (grupo) corps, force
    cuerpo de bomberos, fire brigade
    cuerpo diplomático, diplomatic corps
    ♦ Locuciones: figurado tomar cuerpo, to take shape
    a cuerpo de rey, like a king
    cuerpo a cuerpo, hand-to-hand
    de cuerpo entero, full-length
    de cuerpo presente, lying in state
    un retrato de medio cuerpo, a half portrait
    ' cuerpo' also found in these entries:
    Spanish:
    abotargarse
    - adormecerse
    - apéndice
    - caída
    - caído
    - cd
    - deformar
    - deformarse
    - delito
    - derecha
    - derecho
    - desnuda
    - desnudo
    - dilatar
    - dilatarse
    - diplomática
    - diplomático
    - el
    - encima
    - encoger
    - extraña
    - extraño
    - grasa
    - guardia
    - holgada
    - holgado
    - inclinación
    - interfecta
    - interfecto
    - línea
    - llaga
    - lugar
    - perecedera
    - perecedero
    - proporcionada
    - proporcionado
    - quiebro
    - rebanar
    - reclinar
    - silueta
    - titilar
    - vaivén
    - volverse
    - abotagado
    - asamblea
    - bola
    - bombero
    - bulto
    - cana
    - carga
    English:
    attitude
    - bar
    - beauty spot
    - bodice
    - body
    - bow
    - bruise
    - corps
    - decay
    - diplomatic corps
    - figure
    - fire brigade
    - fire department
    - force
    - full-length
    - hair
    - legislative
    - over
    - police force
    - position
    - proportionate
    - their
    - tingly
    - carcass
    - department
    - faculty
    - fellow
    - fire
    - foreign
    - full
    - length
    - profession
    - riddle
    - rigor mortis
    - wash
    * * *
    cuerpo nm
    1. [objeto material] body
    Astron cuerpo celeste heavenly body; Quím cuerpo compuesto compound;
    cuerpo extraño foreign body;
    Náut cuerpo muerto mooring buoy; Fís cuerpo negro black body; Quím cuerpo simple element
    2. [de persona, animal] body;
    el cuerpo humano the human body;
    tiene un cuerpo estupendo he's got a great body;
    ¡cuerpo a tierra! hit the ground!, get down!;
    luchar cuerpo a cuerpo to fight hand-to-hand;
    de medio cuerpo [retrato, espejo] half-length;
    de cuerpo entero [retrato, espejo] full-length;
    Fam
    a cuerpo (gentil) without a coat on;
    a cuerpo descubierto o [m5]limpio: se enfrentaron a cuerpo descubierto o [m5] limpio they fought each other hand-to-hand;
    Fam
    dejar mal cuerpo: la comida le dejó muy mal cuerpo the meal disagreed with him;
    la discusión con mi padre me dejó muy mal cuerpo the argument with my father left a bad taste in my mouth;
    en cuerpo y alma: se dedicó en cuerpo y alma a ayudar a los necesitados he devoted himself body and soul to helping the poor;
    se entrega en cuerpo y alma a la empresa she gives her all for the company;
    Fam
    demasiado para el cuerpo: ¡esta película es demasiado para el cuerpo! this movie o Br film is just great!, Br this film is the business!;
    echarse algo al cuerpo: se echó al cuerpo dos botellas de vino he downed two bottles of wine;
    Fam Euf
    hacer de cuerpo to relieve oneself;
    le metieron el miedo en el cuerpo they filled her with fear, they scared her stiff;
    Fam
    pedir algo el cuerpo: esta noche el cuerpo me pide bailar I'm in the mood for dancing tonight;
    no bebas más si no te lo pide el cuerpo don't have any more to drink if you don't feel like it;
    Am Fam
    sacarle el cuerpo a algo to get out of (doing) sth;
    RP Fam
    suelto de cuerpo as cool o nice as you like o please;
    a pesar de todo lo que le dije, después se me acercó muy suelto de cuerpo despite everything I said to him, he came up to me later as cool o nice as you like;
    Fam
    tratar a alguien a cuerpo de rey to treat sb like royalty o like a king;
    Fam
    vivir a cuerpo de rey to live like a king
    3. [tronco] trunk
    4. [parte principal] main body;
    el cuerpo del libro the main part o body of the book
    5. [densidad, consistencia] thickness;
    la tela de este vestido tiene mucho cuerpo this dress is made from a very heavy cloth;
    un vino con mucho cuerpo a full-bodied wine;
    dar cuerpo a [salsa] to thicken;
    tomar cuerpo: mover hasta que la mezcla tome cuerpo stir until the mixture thickens;
    están tomando cuerpo los rumores de remodelación del gobierno the rumoured cabinet reshuffle is beginning to look like a distinct possibility;
    el proyecto de nuevo aeropuerto va tomando cuerpo the new airport project is taking shape
    6. [cadáver] body, corpse;
    de cuerpo presente (lying) in state
    7. [corporación consular, militar] corps;
    el agente fue expulsado del cuerpo por indisciplina the policeman was thrown out of the force for indiscipline
    cuerpo de baile dance company;
    cuerpo de bomberos Br fire brigade, US fire department;
    cuerpo diplomático diplomatic corps;
    cuerpo expedicionario expeditionary force;
    cuerpo médico medical corps;
    cuerpo de policía police force
    8. [conjunto de informaciones] body;
    cuerpo de doctrina body of ideas, doctrine;
    cuerpo legal body of legislation
    9. [parte de armario, edificio] section
    10. [parte de vestido] body, bodice
    11. [en carreras] length;
    el caballo ganó por cuatro cuerpos the horse won by four lengths
    12. Der cuerpo del delito corpus delicti, = evidence of a crime or means of perpetrating it
    13. Imprenta point;
    letra de cuerpo diez ten point font
    * * *
    m
    1 body;
    cuerpo a cuerpo hand-to-hand;
    retrato de cuerpo entero/de medio cuerpo full-length/half-length portrait;
    a cuerpo de rey like a king;
    en cuerpo y alma body and soul;
    aún estaba de cuerpo presente he had not yet been buried;
    me lo pide el cuerpo I feel like it;
    hacer del cuerpo euph do one’s business
    2 de policía force;
    3
    :
    tomar cuerpo take shape
    * * *
    cuerpo nm
    1) : body
    2) : corps
    * * *
    1. (en general) body [pl. bodies]
    2. (tronco) trunk
    tomar cuerpo to take shape [pt. took; pp. taken]

    Spanish-English dictionary > cuerpo

  • 6 Pasley, General Sir Charles William

    SUBJECT AREA: Civil engineering
    [br]
    b. 8 September 1780 Eskdalemuir, Dumfriesshire, Scotland
    d. 19 April 1861 London, England
    [br]
    Scottish Colonel-Commandant, Royal Engineers.
    [br]
    At first he was educated by Andrew Little of Lan-gholm. At the age of 14 he was sent to school at Selkirk, where he stayed for two years until joining the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich in August 1796. He was commissioned as Second Lieutenant in the Royal Artillery and transferred to the Royal Engineers on 1 April 1798. He served at Minorca, Malta, Naples, Sicily, Calabria and in the siege of Copenhagen and in other campaigns. He was promoted First Captain in 1807, and was on the staff of Sir John Moore at the battle of Coruna. He was wounded at the siege of Flushing in 1809 and was invalided for a year, employing his time in learning German.
    In November 1810 he published his Essay on Military Policy and Institutions of the British Empire, which ran through four editions. In 1811 he was in command of a company of Royal Military Artificers at Plymouth and there he devised a method of education by which the NCOs and troops could teach themselves without "mathematical masters". His system was a great success and was adopted at Chatham and throughout the corps. In 1812 he was appointed Director of the School of Military Engineering at Chatham. He remained at Chatham until 1841, when he was appointed Inspector-General of Railways. During this period he organized improved systems of sapping, mining, telegraphing, pontooning and exploding gunpowder on land or under water, and prepared pamphlets and courses of instruction in these and other subjects. In May 1836 he started what is probably the most important work for which he is remembered. This, was a book on Limes, Calcareous Cements, Mortar, Stuccos and Concretes. The general adoption of Joseph Aspdin's Portland Cement was largely due to Pasley's recommendation of the material.
    He was married twice: first in 1814 at Chatham to Harriet Cooper; and then on 30 March 1819 at Rochester to Martha Matilda Roberts, with whom he had six children— she died in 1881.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    KGB 1846. FRS 1816. Honorary DCL, Oxford University 1844.
    Bibliography
    1810, Essay on Military Policy and Institutions of the British Empire. Limes, Calcareous Cements, Mortar, Stuccos and Concretes.
    Further Reading
    Porter, History of the Corps of Royal Engineers. DNB. Proceedings of the Royal Society.
    IMcN

    Biographical history of technology > Pasley, General Sir Charles William

  • 7 Armstrong, Sir William George, Baron Armstrong of Cragside

    [br]
    b. 26 November 1810 Shieldfield, Newcastle upon Tyne, England
    d. 27 December 1900 Cragside, Northumbria, England
    [br]
    English inventor, engineer and entrepreneur in hydraulic engineering, shipbuilding and the production of artillery.
    [br]
    The only son of a corn merchant, Alderman William Armstrong, he was educated at private schools in Newcastle and at Bishop Auckland Grammar School. He then became an articled clerk in the office of Armorer Donkin, a solicitor and a friend of his father. During a fishing trip he saw a water-wheel driven by an open stream to work a marble-cutting machine. He felt that its efficiency would be improved by introducing the water to the wheel in a pipe. He developed an interest in hydraulics and in electricity, and became a popular lecturer on these subjects. From 1838 he became friendly with Henry Watson of the High Bridge Works, Newcastle, and for six years he visited the Works almost daily, studying turret clocks, telescopes, papermaking machinery, surveying instruments and other equipment being produced. There he had built his first hydraulic machine, which generated 5 hp when run off the Newcastle town water-mains. He then designed and made a working model of a hydraulic crane, but it created little interest. In 1845, after he had served this rather unconventional apprenticeship at High Bridge Works, he was appointed Secretary of the newly formed Whittle Dene Water Company. The same year he proposed to the town council of Newcastle the conversion of one of the quayside cranes to his hydraulic operation which, if successful, should also be applied to a further four cranes. This was done by the Newcastle Cranage Company at High Bridge Works. In 1847 he gave up law and formed W.G.Armstrong \& Co. to manufacture hydraulic machinery in a works at Elswick. Orders for cranes, hoists, dock gates and bridges were obtained from mines; docks and railways.
    Early in the Crimean War, the War Office asked him to design and make submarine mines to blow up ships that were sunk by the Russians to block the entrance to Sevastopol harbour. The mines were never used, but this set him thinking about military affairs and brought him many useful contacts at the War Office. Learning that two eighteen-pounder British guns had silenced a whole Russian battery but were too heavy to move over rough ground, he carried out a thorough investigation and proposed light field guns with rifled barrels to fire elongated lead projectiles rather than cast-iron balls. He delivered his first gun in 1855; it was built of a steel core and wound-iron wire jacket. The barrel was multi-grooved and the gun weighed a quarter of a ton and could fire a 3 lb (1.4 kg) projectile. This was considered too light and was sent back to the factory to be rebored to take a 5 lb (2.3 kg) shot. The gun was a complete success and Armstrong was then asked to design and produce an equally successful eighteen-pounder. In 1859 he was appointed Engineer of Rifled Ordnance and was knighted. However, there was considerable opposition from the notably conservative officers of the Army who resented the intrusion of this civilian engineer in their affairs. In 1862, contracts with the Elswick Ordnance Company were terminated, and the Government rejected breech-loading and went back to muzzle-loading. Armstrong resigned and concentrated on foreign sales, which were successful worldwide.
    The search for a suitable proving ground for a 12-ton gun led to an interest in shipbuilding at Elswick from 1868. This necessitated the replacement of an earlier stone bridge with the hydraulically operated Tyne Swing Bridge, which weighed some 1450 tons and allowed a clear passage for shipping. Hydraulic equipment on warships became more complex and increasing quantities of it were made at the Elswick works, which also flourished with the reintroduction of the breech-loader in 1878. In 1884 an open-hearth acid steelworks was added to the Elswick facilities. In 1897 the firm merged with Sir Joseph Whitworth \& Co. to become Sir W.G.Armstrong Whitworth \& Co. After Armstrong's death a further merger with Vickers Ltd formed Vickers Armstrong Ltd.
    In 1879 Armstrong took a great interest in Joseph Swan's invention of the incandescent electric light-bulb. He was one of those who formed the Swan Electric Light Company, opening a factory at South Benwell to make the bulbs. At Cragside, his mansion at Roth bury, he installed a water turbine and generator, making it one of the first houses in England to be lit by electricity.
    Armstrong was a noted philanthropist, building houses for his workforce, and endowing schools, hospitals and parks. His last act of charity was to purchase Bamburgh Castle, Northumbria, in 1894, intending to turn it into a hospital or a convalescent home, but he did not live long enough to complete the work.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    Knighted 1859. FRS 1846. President, Institution of Mechanical Engineers; Institution of Civil Engineers; British Association for the Advancement of Science 1863. Baron Armstrong of Cragside 1887.
    Further Reading
    E.R.Jones, 1886, Heroes of Industry', London: Low.
    D.J.Scott, 1962, A History of Vickers, London: Weidenfeld \& Nicolson.
    IMcN

    Biographical history of technology > Armstrong, Sir William George, Baron Armstrong of Cragside

  • 8 Elgar, Francis

    SUBJECT AREA: Ports and shipping
    [br]
    b. April 1845 Portsmouth, England
    d. 16 January 1909 Monte Carlo, Monaco
    [br]
    English naval architect and shipbuilder.
    [br]
    Elgar enjoyed a fascinating professional life, during which he achieved distinction in the military, merchant, academic and political aspects of his profession. At the age of 14 he was apprenticed as a shipwright to the Royal Dockyard at Portsmouth but when he was in his late teens he was selected as one of the Admiralty students to further his education at the Royal School of Naval Architecture at South Kensington, London. On completion of the course he was appointed to Birkenhead, where the ill-fated HMS Captain was being built, and then to Portsmouth Dockyard. In 1870 the Captain was lost at sea and Francis Elgar was called on to prepare much of the evidence for the Court Martial. This began his life-long interest in ship stability and in ways of presenting this information in an easily understood form to ship operators.
    In 1883 he accepted the John Elder Chair of Naval Architecture at Glasgow University, an appointment which formalized the already well-established teaching of this branch of engineering at Glasgow. However, after only three years he returned to public service in the newly created post of Director of Royal Dockyards, a post that he held for a mere six years but which brought about great advances in the speed of warship construction, with associated reductions in cost. In 1892 he was made Naval Architect and Director of the Fairfield Shipbuilding Company in Glasgow, remaining there until he retired in 1907. The following year he accepted the post of Chairman of the Birkenhead shipyard of Cammell Laird \& Co.; this was a recent amalgamation of two companies, and he retained this position until his death. Throughout his life, Elgar acted on many consultative bodies and committees, including the 1884 Ship Load Line Enquiry. His work enabled him to keep abreast of all current thinking in ship design and construction.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    FRS. FRSE. Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur.
    Bibliography
    Elgar produced some remarkable papers, which were published by the Institutions of Naval Architects, Civil Engineers and Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland as well as by the Royal Society. He published several books on shipbuilding.
    FMW

    Biographical history of technology > Elgar, Francis

  • 9 Roebling, Washington Augustus

    SUBJECT AREA: Civil engineering
    [br]
    b. 26 May 1837 Saxonburg, Pennsylvania, USA
    d. 21 July 1926 Trenton, New Jersey, USA.
    [br]
    American civil engineer.
    [br]
    The son of John Augustus Roebling, he graduated in 1857 from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute as a civil engineer, and joined his father in his suspension bridge construction work. He served in the Civil War as a colonel of engineers in the Union Army, and in 1867, two years after the end of the war, he went to Europe to study new methods of sinking underwater foundations by means of compressed air. These new methods were employed in the construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, of which he took charge on his father's death in 1869. Timber pneumatic caissons were used, with a maximum pressure of 34 psi (2.4 kg/cm2) above atmospheric pressure. Two years after work on the piers had started in the caissons, Roebling, who had been working constantly with the men on the foundations of the piers, was carried unconscious out of the caisson, a victim of decompression sickness, then known as “caisson disease”. He was paralysed and lost the use of his voice. From then on he directed the rest of the work from the sickroom of his nearby house, his wife, Emily Warren Roebling, helping with his instructions and notes and carrying them out to the workforce; she even read a statement from him to the American Society of Civil Engineers. The erection of the cables, which were of steel, began in August 1876 and took twenty-six months to complete. In 1881 eleven trustees and Emily Warren Roebling walked across temporary planking, but the decking of the total span was not completed until 1885, fourteen years after construction of the bridge had started. The Brooklyn Bridge was Roebling's last major work, although following the death of his nephew in 1921 he was forced to head again the management of Roebling \& Company, though aged 84 and an invalid.
    [br]
    Further Reading
    D.B.Steinman and S.R.Watson, 1941, Bridges and their Builders, New York: Dover Books.
    D.McCullough, 1982, The Great Bridge: The Epic Story of the Building of the Brooklyn
    Bridge, New York: Simon \& Schuster.
    IMcN

    Biographical history of technology > Roebling, Washington Augustus

  • 10 Parsons, Sir Charles Algernon

    [br]
    b. 13 June 1854 London, England
    d. 11 February 1931 on board Duchess of Richmond, Kingston, Jamaica
    [br]
    English eingineer, inventor of the steam turbine and developer of the high-speed electric generator.
    [br]
    The youngest son of the Earl of Rosse, he came from a family well known in scientific circles, the six boys growing up in an intellectual atmosphere at Birr Castle, the ancestral home in Ireland, where a forge and large workshop were available to them. Charles, like his brothers, did not go to school but was educated by private tutors of the character of Sir Robert Ball, this type of education being interspersed with overseas holiday trips to France, Holland, Belgium and Spain in the family yacht. In 1871, at the age of 17, he went to Trinity College, Dublin, and after two years he went on to St John's College, Cambridge. This was before the Engineering School had opened, and Parsons studied mechanics and mathematics.
    In 1877 he was apprenticed to W.G.Armstrong \& Co. of Elswick, where he stayed for four years, developing an epicycloidal engine that he had designed while at Cambridge. He then moved to Kitson \& Co. of Leeds, where he went half shares in a small experimental shop working on rocket propulsion for torpedoes.
    In 1887 he married Katherine Bethell, who contracted rheumatic fever from early-morning outdoor vigils with her husband to watch his torpedo experiments while on their honeymoon! He then moved to a partnership in Clarke, Chapman \& Co. at Gateshead. There he joined the electrical department, initially working on the development of a small, steam-driven marine lighting set. This involved the development of either a low-speed dynamo, for direct coupling to a reciprocating engine, or a high-speed engine, and it was this requirement that started Parsons on the track of the steam turbine. This entailed many problems such as the running of shafts at speeds of up to 40,000 rpm and the design of a DC generator for 18,000 rpm. He took out patents for both the turbine and the generator on 23 April 1884. In 1888 he dissolved his partnership with Clarke, Chapman \& Co. to set up his own firm in Newcastle, leaving his patents with the company's owners. This denied him the use of the axial-flow turbine, so Parsons then designed a radial-flow layout; he later bought back his patents from Clarke, Chapman \& Co. His original patent had included the use of the steam turbine as a means of marine propulsion, and Parsons now set about realizing this possibility. He experimented with 2 ft (61 cm) and 6 ft (183 cm) long models, towed with a fishing line or, later, driven by a twisted rubber cord, through a single-reduction set of spiral gearing.
    The first trials of the Turbinia took place in 1894 but were disappointing due to cavitation, a little-understood phenomenon at the time. He used an axial-flow turbine of 2,000 shp running at 2,000 rpm. His work resulted in a far greater understanding of the phenomenon of cavitation than had hitherto existed. Land turbines of up to 350 kW (470 hp) had meanwhile been built. Experiments with the Turbinia culminated in a demonstration which took place at the great Naval Review of 1897 at Spithead, held to celebrate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee. Here, the little Turbinia darted in and out of the lines of heavy warships and destroyers, attaining the unheard of speed of 34.5 knots. The following year the Admiralty placed their first order for a turbine-driven ship, and passenger vessels started operation soon after, the first in 1901. By 1906 the Admiralty had moved over to use turbines exclusively. These early turbines had almost all been direct-coupled to the ship's propeller shaft. For optimum performance of both turbine and propeller, Parsons realized that some form of reduction gearing was necessary, which would have to be extremely accurate because of the speeds involved. Parsons's Creep Mechanism of 1912 ensured that any errors in the master wheel would be distributed evenly around the wheel being cut.
    Parsons was also involved in optical work and had a controlling interest in the firm of Ross Ltd of London and, later, in Sir Howard Grubb \& Sons. He he was an enlightened employer, originating share schemes and other benefits for his employees.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    Knighted. Order of Merit 1927.
    Further Reading
    A.T.Bowden, 1966, "Charles Parsons: Purveyor of power", in E.G.Semler (ed.), The Great Masters. Engineering Heritage, Vol. II, London: Institution of Mechanical Engineers/Heinemann.
    IMcN

    Biographical history of technology > Parsons, Sir Charles Algernon

  • 11 Barnett, James Rennie

    SUBJECT AREA: Ports and shipping
    [br]
    b. 6 September 1864 Johnstone, Renfrewshire, Scotland
    d. 13 January 1965 Glasgow, Scotland
    [br]
    Scottish naval architect described as one of the "Fathers of the Modern Lifeboat Fleet".
    [br]
    Barnett studied naval architecture at the University of Glasgow and served an apprenticeship under the yacht designer George L. Watson. This was unusual as most undergraduates tended, then as now, to spend their initial years in the various departments of a shipyard, with concentration on the work of the drawing office. In 1904 Barnett succeeded Watson as Principal of the firm, and was simultaneously appointed Consulting Naval Architect to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), a post he held until his retirement in 1947. During this period many changes in lifeboat design brought increasing efficiency, better ranges of stability and improvements in operational safety. The RNLI recognized the great service of Barnett and his predecessor by naming two lifeboat types after them: the Watson and the Barnett.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    OBE 1918. Royal National Lifeboat Institution Gold Medal.
    Bibliography
    Barnett was a member of both the Institution of Naval Architects and the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland. Between 1900 and 1931 he presented a total of six papers to these institutions, on steam yachts, sailing yachts, motor yachts and on lifeboat design.
    FMW

    Biographical history of technology > Barnett, James Rennie

  • 12 Bulleid, Oliver Vaughan Snell

    [br]
    b. 19 September 1882 Invercargill, New Zealand
    d. 25 April 1970 Malta
    [br]
    New Zealand (naturalized British) locomotive engineer noted for original experimental work in the 1940s and 1950s.
    [br]
    Bulleid's father died in 1889 and mother and son returned to the UK from New Zealand; Bulleid himself became a premium apprentice under H.A. Ivatt at Doncaster Works, Great Northern Railway (GNR). After working in France and for the Board of Trade, Bulleid returned to the GNR in 1912 as Personal Assistant to Chief Mechanical Engineer H.N. Gresley. After a break for war service, he returned as Assistant to Gresley on the latter's appointment as Chief Mechanical Engineer of the London \& North Eastern Railway in 1923. He was closely associated with Gresley during the late 1920s and early 1930s.
    In 1937 Bulleid was appointed Chief Mechanical Engineer of the Southern Railway (SR). Concentration of resources on electrification had left the Southern short of up-to-date steam locomotives, which Bulleid proceeded to provide. His first design, the "Merchant Navy" class 4–6– 2, appeared in 1941 with chain-driven valve gear enclosed in an oil-bath, and other novel features. A powerful "austerity" 0−6−0 appeared in 1942, shorn of all inessentials to meet wartime conditions, and a mixed-traffic 4−6−2 in 1945. All were largely successful.
    Under Bulleid's supervision, three large, mixed-traffic, electric locomotives were built for the Southern's 660 volt DC system and incorporated flywheel-driven generators to overcome the problem of interruptions in the live rail. Three main-line diesel-electric locomotives were completed after nationalization of the SR in 1948. All were carried on bogies, as was Bulleid's last steam locomotive design for the SR, the "Leader" class 0−6−6−0 originally intended to meet a requirement for a large, passenger tank locomotive. The first was completed after nationalization of the SR, but the project never went beyond trials. Marginally more successful was a double-deck, electric, suburban, multiple-unit train completed in 1949, with alternate high and low compartments to increase train capacity but not length. The main disadvantage was the slow entry and exit by passengers, and the type was not perpetuated, although the prototype train ran in service until 1971.
    In 1951 Bulleid moved to Coras Iompair Éireann, the Irish national transport undertaking, as Chief Mechanical Engineer. There he initiated a large-scale plan for dieselization of the railway system in 1953, the first such plan in the British Isles. Simultaneously he developed, with limited success, a steam locomotive intended to burn peat briquettes: to burn peat, the only native fuel, had been a long-unfulfilled ambition of railway engineers in Ireland. Bulleid retired in 1958.
    [br]
    Bibliography
    Bulleid took out six patents between 1941 and 1956, covering inter alia valve gear, boilers, brake apparatus and wagon underframes.
    Further Reading
    H.A.V.Bulleid, 1977, Bulleid of the Southern, Shepperton: Ian Allan (a good biography written by the subject's son).
    C.Fryer, 1990, Experiments with Steam, Wellingborough: Patrick Stephens (provides details of the austerity 0–6–0, the "Leader" locomotive and the peat-burning locomotive: see Chs 19, 20 and 21 respectively).
    PJGR

    Biographical history of technology > Bulleid, Oliver Vaughan Snell

  • 13 Holmes, Frederic Hale

    [br]
    fl. 1850s–60s
    [br]
    British engineer who pioneered the electrical illumination of lighthouses in Great Britain.
    [br]
    An important application of the magneto generator was demonstrated by Holmes in 1853 when he showed that it might be used to supply an arc lamp. This had many implications for the future because it presented the possibility of making electric lighting economically successful. In 1856 he patented a machine with six disc armatures on a common axis rotating between seven banks of permanent magnets. The following year Holmes suggested the possible application of his invention to lighthouse illumination and a trial was arranged and observed by Faraday, who was at that time scientific adviser to Trinity House, the corporation entrusted with the care of light-houses in England and Wales. Although the trial was successful and gained the approval of Faraday, the Elder Brethren of Trinity House imposed strict conditions on Holmes's design for machines to be used for a more extensive trial. These included connecting the machine directly to a slow-speed steam engine, but this resulted in a reduced performance. The experiments of Holmes and Faraday were brought to the attention of the French lighthouse authorities and magneto generators manufactured by Société Alliance began to be installed in some lighthouses along the coast of France. After noticing the French commutatorless machines, Holmes produced an alternator of similar type in 1867. Two of these were constructed for a new lighthouse at Souter Point near Newcastle and two were installed in each of the two lighthouses at South Foreland. One of the machines from South Foreland that was in service from 1872 to 1922 is preserved in the Royal Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh. A Holmes generator is also preserved in the Science Museum, London. Holmes obtained a series of patents for generators between 1856 and 1869, with all but the last being of the magneto-electric type.
    [br]
    Bibliography
    7 March 1856, British patent no. 573 (the original patent for Holmes's invention).
    1863, "On magneto electricity and its application to lighthouse purposes", Journal of the Society of Arts 12:39–43.
    Further Reading
    W.J.King, 1962, in The Development of Electrical Technology in the 19th Century; Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, Paper 30, pp. 351–63 (provides a detailed account of Holmes's generators).
    J.N.Douglas, 1879, "The electric light applied to lighthouse illumination", Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers 57(3):77–110 (describes trials of Holmes's machines).
    GW

    Biographical history of technology > Holmes, Frederic Hale

  • 14 McCormick, Cyrus

    [br]
    b. 1809 Walnut Grove, Virginia, USA
    d. 1884 USA
    [br]
    American inventor of the first functionally and commercially successful reaping machine; founder of the McCormick Company, which was to become one of the founding companies of International Harvester.
    [br]
    Cyrus McCormick's father, a farmer, began to experiment unsuccessfully with a harvesting machine between 1809 and 1816. His son took up the challenge and gave his first public demonstration of his machine in 1831. It cut a 4 ft swathe, but, wanting to perfect the machine, he waited until 1834 before patenting it, by which time he felt that his invention was threatened by others of similar design. In the same year he entered an article in the Mechanics Magazine, warning competitors off his design. His main rival was Obed Hussey who contested McCormick's claim to the originality of the idea, having patented his own machine six months before McCormick.
    A competition between the two machines was held in 1843, the judges favouring McCormick's, even after additional trials were conducted after objections of unfairness from Hussey. The rivalry continued over a number of years, being avidly reported in the agricultural press. The publicity did no harm to reaper sales, and McCormick sold twenty-nine machines in 1843 and fifty the following year.
    As the westward settlement movement progressed, so the demand for McCormick's machine grew. In order to be more central to his markets, McCormick established himself in Chicago. In partnership with C.M.Gray he established a factory to produce 500 harvesters for the 1848 season. By means of advertising and offers of credit terms, as well as production-line assembly, McCormick was able to establish himself as sole owner and also control all production, under the one roof. By the end of the decade he dominated reaper production but other developments were to threaten this position; however, foreign markets were appearing at the same time, not least the opportunities of European sales stimulated by the Great Exhibition in 1851. In the trials arranged by the Royal Agricultural Society of England the McCormick machine significantly outperformed that of Hussey's, and as a result McCormick arranged for 500 to be made under licence in England.
    In 1874 McCormick bought a half interest in the patent for a wire binder from Charles Withington, a watchmaker from Janesville, Wisconsin, and by 1885 a total of 50,000 wire binders had been built in Chicago. By 1881 McCormick was producing twine binders using Appleby's twine knotter under a licence agreement, and by 1885 the company was producing only twine binders. The McCormick Company was one of the co-founders of the International Harvester Company in 1901.
    [br]
    Bibliography
    1972, The Century of the Reaper, Johnson Reprint (the original is in the New York State Library).
    Further Reading
    Graeme Quick and Wesley Buchele, 1978, The Grain Harvesters, American Society of Agricultural Engineers (deals in detail with McCormick's developments).
    G.H.Wendell, 1981, 150 Years of International Harvester, Crestlink (though more concerned with the machinery produced by International Harvester, it gives an account of its originating companies).
    T.W.Hutchinson, 1930, Cyrus Hall McCormick, Seedtime 1809–1856; ——1935, Cyrus Hall McCormick, Harvest 1856–1884 (both attempt to unravel the many claims surrounding the reaper story).
    Herbert N.Casson, 1908, The Romance of the Reaper, Doubleday Page (deals with McCormick, Deering and the formation of International Harvester).
    AP

    Biographical history of technology > McCormick, Cyrus

  • 15 McNeill, Sir James McFadyen

    SUBJECT AREA: Ports and shipping
    [br]
    b. 19 August 1892 Clydebank, Scotland
    d. 24 July 1964 near Glasgow, Scotland
    [br]
    Scottish naval architect, designer of the Cunard North Atlantic Liners Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth.
    [br]
    McNeill was born in Clydebank just outside Glasgow, and was to serve that town for most of his life. After education at Clydebank High School and then at Allan Glen's in Glasgow, in 1908 he entered the shipyard of John Brown \& Co. Ltd as an apprentice. He was encouraged to matriculate at the University of Glasgow, where he studied naval architecture under the (then) unique Glasgow system of "sandwich" training, alternately spending six months in the shipyard, followed by winter at the Faculty of Engineering. On graduating in 1915, he joined the Army and by 1918 had risen to the rank of Major in the Royal Field Artillery.
    After the First World War, McNeill returned to the shipyard and in 1928 was appointed Chief Naval Architect. In 1934 he was made a local director of the company. During the difficult period of the 1930s he was in charge of the technical work which led to the design, launching and successful completion of the great liners Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth. Some of the most remarkable ships of the mid-twentieth century were to come from this shipyard, including the last British battleship, HMS Vanguard, and the Royal Yacht Britannia, completed in 1954. From 1948 until 1959, Sir James was Managing Director of the Clydebank part of the company and was Deputy Chairman by the time he retired in 1962. His public service was remarkable and included chairmanship of the Shipbuilding Conference and of the British Ship Research Association, and membership of the Committee of Lloyd's Register of Shipping.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order 1954. CBE 1950. FRS 1948. President, Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland 1947–9. Honorary Vice-President, Royal Institution of Naval Architects. Military Cross (First World War).
    Bibliography
    1935, "Launch of the quadruple-screw turbine steamer Queen Mary", Transactions of the Institution of Naval Architects 77:1–27 (in this classic paper McNeill displays complete mastery of a difficult subject; it is recorded that prior to launch the estimate for travel of the ship in the River Clyde was 1,194 ft (363.9 m), and the actual amount recorded was 1,196 ft (364.5m)!).
    FMW

    Biographical history of technology > McNeill, Sir James McFadyen

  • 16 Wood, Henry Alexander Wise

    SUBJECT AREA: Paper and printing
    [br]
    b. 1 March 1866 New York, USA
    d. 9 April 1939 USA
    [br]
    American manufacturer and inventor of printing machinery, including a stereotype casting machine.
    [br]
    The son of a Congressman and mayor of New York, Wood was educated at Media Academy in Pennsylvania, specializing in scientific subjects. The death of his father in 1881 prevented his going on to college and he went to work at the Campbell Printing and Manufacturing Company, of which he became President in 1896. In the meantime, he had married the daughter of J.L.Brower, the previous head of the company. Later business consolidations brought into being the Wood Newspaper Machine Corporation.
    Wood was responsible for a series of inventions that brought great benefit to the newspaperprinting processes. Most notable was the Autoplate, patented first in 1900 and finally in 1903. This enabled a whole page of newspaper type to be cast in metal at once, saving much time and effort in the forming of stereotypes; this invention earned him the Elliott Cresson gold medal of the Franklin Institute in 1909. Other inventions were the Autoreel, a high-speed press-feeder device, and the Autopaster, which automatically replaced a spent paper roll with a new one in a newspaper press, without the need to stop the press. Wood's improved presses and inventions increased the speed of newspaper production from 24,000 to 60,000 copies per hour, printed and folded.
    He was also much interested in aviation and was an early member of the Aero Club of America, becoming its Vice-President for six years. He helped to found the magazine Flying and was its Editor from 1911 to 1919. He had predicted the part played by aircraft and submarines during the Second World War and was invited to join a panel of consulting inventors and engineers to assist the development of the US Navy. He was soon at odds with the authorities, however, and he resigned in 1915. After the war, he spent time in vigorous campaigning against immigration, America's entry into the League of Nations and on many other issues, in all of which he was highly controversial. Nevertheless, he retained his interest in the newspaper-machinery business, remaining President of his company until 1935 and Chairman of the Board thereafter. In 1934 he became Chairman of the NRA Code Authority of the newspaper-machine industry.
    [br]
    Further Reading
    Obituary, 1939, New York Times (10 April). Obituary, 1939, New York Herald Tribune (10 April).
    LRD

    Biographical history of technology > Wood, Henry Alexander Wise

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