Перевод: с английского на все языки

со всех языков на английский

Subject Not Available

  • 1 SNA

    1) Американизм: System For Nuclear Auxiliary
    2) Военный термин: Survivable Network Analysis, student naval aviator
    3) Техника: steerable null antenna
    4) Экономика: СНС
    5) Сокращение: Shona, Sous-Marins d'Attaque (Nuclear attack submarines (France)), Soviet Naval Aviation, Surface Navy Association (USA), Systeme de Navigation et d'Attaque, system of national accounts
    6) Университет: Student Nurses Association
    7) Вычислительная техника: Systems Network Architecture (IBM)
    8) Транспорт: John Wayne Airport - Orange County
    9) Экология: Significant Natural Area
    12) Интернет: Systems Network Architecture
    13) Высокочастотная электроника: scalar network analyzer
    14) NYSE. Snap On Tools Corp

    Универсальный англо-русский словарь > SNA

  • 2 sna

    1) Американизм: System For Nuclear Auxiliary
    2) Военный термин: Survivable Network Analysis, student naval aviator
    3) Техника: steerable null antenna
    4) Экономика: СНС
    5) Сокращение: Shona, Sous-Marins d'Attaque (Nuclear attack submarines (France)), Soviet Naval Aviation, Surface Navy Association (USA), Systeme de Navigation et d'Attaque, system of national accounts
    6) Университет: Student Nurses Association
    7) Вычислительная техника: Systems Network Architecture (IBM)
    8) Транспорт: John Wayne Airport - Orange County
    9) Экология: Significant Natural Area
    12) Интернет: Systems Network Architecture
    13) Высокочастотная электроника: scalar network analyzer
    14) NYSE. Snap On Tools Corp

    Универсальный англо-русский словарь > sna

  • 3 Warren, Henry Ellis

    SUBJECT AREA: Horology
    [br]
    b. 21 May 1872 Boston, Massachusetts, USA
    d. 21 September 1957 Ashland, Massachusetts, USA
    [br]
    American electrical engineer who invented the mains electric synchronous clock.
    [br]
    Warren studied electrical engineering at the Boston Institute of Technology (later to become the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and graduated in 1894. In 1912 he formed the Warren Electric Clock Company to make a battery-powered clock that he had patented a few years earlier. The name was changed to the Warren Telechron (time at a distance) Company after he had started to produce synchronous clocks.
    In 1840 Charles Wheatstone had produced an electric master clock that produced an alternating current with a frequency of one cycle per second and which was used to drive slave dials. This system was not successful, but when Ferranti introduced the first alternating current power generator at Deptford in 1895 Hope-Jones saw in it a means of distributing time. This did not materialize immediately because the power generators did not control the frequency of the current with sufficient accuracy, and a reliable motor whose speed was related to this frequency was not available. In 1916 Warren solved both problems: he produced a reliable self-starting synchronous electric motor and he also made a master clock which could be used at the power station to control accurately the frequency of the supply. Initially the power-generating companies were reluctant to support the synchronous clock because it imposed a liability to control the frequency of the supply and the gain was likely to be small because it was very frugal in its use of power. However, with the advent of the grid system, when several generators were connected together, it became imperative to control the frequency; it was realized that although the power consumption of individual clocks was small, collectively it could be significant as they ran continuously. By the end of the 1930s more than half the clocks sold in the USA were of the synchronous type. The Warren synchronous clock was introduced into Great Britain in 1927, following the setting up of a grid system by the Electricity Commission.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    Franklin Institute John Price Wetherill Medal. American Institute of Electrical Engineers Lamme Medal.
    Bibliography
    The patents for the synchronous motor are US patent nos. 1,283,432, 1,283,433 and 1,283,435, and those for the master clock are 1,283,431, 1,409,502 and 1,502,493 of 29 October 1918 onwards.
    1919, "Utilising the time characteristics of alternating current", Transactions of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers 38:767–81 (Warren's first description of his system).
    Further Reading
    J.M.Anderson, 1991, "Henry Ellis Warren and his master clocks", National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors Bulletin 33:375–95 (provides biographical and technical details).
    DV

    Biographical history of technology > Warren, Henry Ellis

  • 4 off

    1. adverb

    the lake is not far offder See ist nicht weit [weg od. entfernt]

    Christmas is not far offes ist nicht mehr lang bis Weihnachten

    some way offin einiger Entfernung

    I must be offich muss fort od. weg od. los

    off we go!(we are starting) los od. ab geht's!; (let us start) gehen/fahren wir!

    get the lid offden Deckel abbekommen

    2) (not in good condition) mitgenommen

    the meat etc. is off — das Fleisch usw. ist schlecht [geworden]

    be a bit off(Brit. fig.) ein starkes Stück sein (ugs.)

    3)

    be off(switched or turned off) [Wasser, Gas, Strom:] abgestellt sein

    the light/radio etc. is off — das Licht/Radio usw. ist aus

    4)

    be off(cancelled) abgesagt sein; [Verlobung:] [auf]gelöst sein

    off and onimmer mal wieder (ugs.)

    5) (not at work) frei

    on my day offan meinem freien Tag

    take/get/have a week etc. off — eine Woche usw. Urlaub nehmen/bekommen/haben

    6) (no longer available)

    soup etc. is off — es gibt keine Suppe usw. mehr

    7) (situated as regards money etc.)

    he is badly etc. off — er ist schlecht usw. gestellt

    be badly off for somethingmit etwas knapp sein

    2. preposition
    1) (from) von
    2)

    be off school/work — in der Schule/am Arbeitsplatz fehlen

    get off the subject — [vom Thema] abschweifen

    4) (designed not to cover)
    5) (having lost interest in)

    be off somethingetwas leid sein od. haben (ugs.)

    6) (leading from, not far from)

    a street off the main road — eine Straße, die von der Hauptstraße abgeht

    7) (to seaward of) vor (+ Dat.)
    3. adjective

    the off side(Brit.) (when travelling on the left/right) die rechte/linke Seite

    * * *
    (to register or record time of arriving at or leaving work.) ein-, ausstempeln
    * * *
    [ɒf, AM ɑ:f]
    I. prep
    1. (indicating removal) von + dat
    he wiped all the dust \off the tables er wischte den ganzen Staub von den Tischen
    please take your foot \off mine nimm bitte deinen Fuß von meinem [herunter]
    keep your dog \off my property! halten Sie Ihren Hund von meinem Grundstück fern!
    has anyone taken a book \off my desk? hat jemand ein Buch von meinem Tisch genommen?
    I can't get this paint \off my hands ich bekomme die Farbe nicht von meinen Händen ab
    that cherry stain won't come \off the shirt dieser Kirschfleck geht nicht aus dem Hemd heraus
    he cut a piece \off the cheese er schnitt ein Stück Käse ab
    to be \off the air RADIO, TV nicht mehr senden
    the TV station goes \off the air at 11:30 pm die Fernsehstation beendet ihr Programm um 23.30 Uhr
    2. after vb (moving down) hinunter [von] + dat; (towards sb) herunter [von] + dat
    they jumped \off the cliff sie sprangen von der Klippe
    the boy fell \off his bike several times der Junge fiel ein paar Mal von seinem Fahrrad [herunter]
    he rolled \off the bed er rollte aus dem Bett
    the coat slipped \off his arms der Mantel rutschte von seinen Armen
    3. after vb (moving away) [weg] von + dat
    let's get \off the bus at the next stop lass uns bei der nächsten Bushaltestelle aussteigen
    to get \off sb/sth ( fam) jdn/etw in Ruhe lassen
    4. (away from) weg von + dat
    single wires are leading \off the main lines einzelne Drähte führen von der Hauptleitung weg
    he managed to stay \off alcohol er schaffte es, keinen Alkohol mehr anzurühren
    \off the point nicht relevant
    somehow we keep getting \off the point irgendwie kommen wir immer vom Thema ab
    \off the record inoffiziell, nicht für die Öffentlichkeit bestimmt
    \off the subject nicht zum Thema gehörend
    I wish we could talk about something \off the subjects of sports and cars ich würde gerne mal über ein anderes Thema als Sport oder Autos reden
    to get \off the subject vom Thema abschweifen
    a long way \off doing sth weit davon entfernt, etw zu tun
    we're still a long way \off finishing es dauert noch lange, bis wir fertig sind
    far \off weit entfernt
    we're not far \off London now wir haben [es] nicht mehr weit bis London fam
    how far \off finishing the project are we? wie lange werden wir noch brauchen, um das Projekt abzuschließen?
    just \off sth in der Nähe einer S. gen
    they live just \off the main street sie wohnen gleich an der Hauptstraße
    5. (at sea) vor + dat
    to anchor \off Blue Bay vor Blue Bay ankern
    six miles \off Dunkirk sechs Meilen vor Dünkirchen
    6. (absent from)
    to be \off work am Arbeitsplatz fehlen
    he's been \off work for over six months er war seit sechs Monaten nicht mehr bei der Arbeit
    to be \off sb/sth von jdm/etw genug haben
    to be \off one's food keinen Appetit haben
    to go \off sb/sth jdn/etw nicht mehr mögen
    I used to love wine but I've gone \off it recently ich habe immer gerne Wein getrunken, aber seit Kurzem mag ich keinen mehr
    8. (not taking)
    to be \off sth etw nicht mehr einnehmen müssen
    she's well enough to be \off the medicine es geht ihr gut genug, dass sie die Medizin absetzen kann
    to be \off the tablets ohne die Tabletten auskommen
    to come \off the pill die Pille nicht mehr nehmen
    they live \off a small inheritance sie leben von einer kleinen Erbschaft
    the car runs \off solar energy der Wagen läuft mit Solarenergie
    10. (from source)
    I don't like taking money \off you ich möchte kein Geld von dir nehmen
    the girl bought the boy's old bike \off him das Mädchen kaufte dem Jungen sein altes Rad ab
    to get sth \off sb ( fam) etw von jdm bekommen
    11. after n (minus) weniger
    I take $10 \off the price of the jeans for you ich lasse Ihnen 10 Dollar vom Preis für die Jeans nach
    there was $40 or $50 \off most jackets in the shop die meisten Jacken in dem Laden waren um 40 oder 50 Dollar billiger
    12.
    \off beam BRIT ( fam) daneben fam
    to be \off beam daneben liegen fam
    \off the cuff aus dem Stegreif
    to have sb \off his/her feet jdn umwerfen fam
    \off one's head nicht ganz bei Trost
    he's \off his head er ist nicht mehr ganz bei Trost
    she went completely \off her head sie hat komplett den Verstand verloren
    \off the top of one's head aus dem Stegreif
    \off the wall ausgeflippt fam
    to go \off the wall ausflippen fam
    II. adv inv
    1. (not on) aus
    to switch [or turn] sth \off etw ausschalten
    2. (away) weg-
    someone's run \off with my pen jemand hat mir meinen Stift geklaut fam
    let's try to \off early tomorrow lass uns versuchen, morgen frühzeitig loszukommen
    I didn't get \off to a very good start this morning der Tag hat für mich nicht gut angefangen
    I'm \off nowsee you tomorrow ich gehe jetzt — wir sehen uns morgen
    she's \off to Canada next week sie fährt nächste Woche nach Kanada
    to drive \off wegfahren
    to go \off weggehen
    I'm just going \off to the shops ich gehe nur schnell mal einkaufen
    to see sb \off jdn verabschieden
    3. (removed) ab-
    I'll take my jacket \off ich ziehe meine Jacke aus
    he helped her \off with her jacket er half ihr aus der Jacke
    one of my buttons has come \off einer von meinen Knöpfen ist abgegangen
    \off with his head! Kopf ab!
    \off with your jacket! zieh die Jacke aus!
    between us we managed to finish \off eight bottles of wine ( fam) zusammen schafften wir es, acht Flaschen Wein zu leeren
    to burn \off ⇆ sth etw verbrennen
    to kill \off ⇆ sth etw vernichten [o ausrotten]
    to kill \off germs Keime abtöten
    to pay \off ⇆ sth etw abbezahlen
    5. (in bad shape) schlecht
    to go \off sich akk verschlechtern; food schlecht werden
    6. (distant in time) entfernt
    your birthday is only one week \off dein Geburtstag ist schon in einer Woche
    to be far \off weit weg sein
    the exams are so far \off es ist noch so lange hin bis zu den Prüfungen
    7. (stopped) abgesagt
    the wedding's \off die Hochzeit ist abgeblasen fam
    his hockey match was rained \off sein Hockeyspiel fand wegen Regen nicht statt
    it's all \off between Philippa and Mike ( fam) zwischen Philippa und Mike ist es aus
    to call sth \off etw absagen
    8. (discounted) reduziert
    there's 40% \off this week on all winter coats diese Woche gibt es einen Preisnachlass von 40 % auf alle Wintermäntel
    to get money \off Rabatt bekommen
    to shut \off streets Straßen sperren
    to fence sth \off etw abzäunen
    10. (expressing riddance)
    we went out to walk \off some of our dinner wir ging raus, um einen Verdauungsspaziergang zu machen
    he's gone to sleep \off a headache after rather too much alcohol er ist dabei, seinen Kater auszuschlafen
    to laugh sth \off etw mit einem Lachen abtun
    III. adj inv
    1. (not working) außer Betrieb; (switched off) aus[geschaltet]; tap zugedreht; heating abgestellt
    I can't find the \off switch ich kann den Schalter nicht finden
    2. pred FOOD (bad) verdorben; milk sauer
    the cream is \off die Sahne hat einen Stich BRD
    3. (not at work)
    to be \off freihaben
    to have/take some time \off einige Zeit freibekommen/freinehmen
    4. pred ( fam: in bad shape) schlecht
    I'm having an \off day today ich habe heute einen schlechten Tag
    5. (provided for)
    sb is badly/well \off jdm geht es [finanziell] schlecht/gut, jd ist schlecht/gut dran fam
    I'm quite well \off for sweaters was Pullover angeht, bin ich gut ausgestattet
    how are you \off for money? BRIT, AUS wie sieht es bei dir mit dem Geld aus?
    6. pred FOOD (run out) aus[gegangen]
    7. pred esp BRIT ( fam: rude) behaviour daneben fam
    that's a bit \off das ist ein dicker Hund [o nicht die feine Art] fam
    IV. n no pl
    to be ready for the \off bereit zum Gehen sein
    V. vt AM (sl)
    to \off sb jdn um die Ecke bringen fam, jdn abmurksen sl [o fam umlegen]
    * * *
    [ɒf]
    1. adv
    1)

    (distance) the house is 5 km off — das Haus ist 5 km entfernt

    some way off (from here) — in einiger Entfernung (von hier)

    it's a long way off — das ist weit weg; (time) das liegt in weiter Ferne

    August isn't/the exams aren't very far off —

    noises off (Theat)Geräusche pl hinter den Kulissen

    2)

    (departure) to be/go off — gehen

    (be) off with you!fort mit dir!, mach, dass du wegkommst!

    it's time I was off — es wird or ist (höchste) Zeit, dass ich gehe

    where are you off to? — wohin gehen Sie denn?, wohin gehts denn? (inf)

    off we go! — los!, auf los gehts los!, na denn man los! (inf)

    3)

    (removal) he had his coat off — er hatte den Mantel aus

    he helped me off with my coater half mir aus dem Mantel

    there are two buttons off — es fehlen zwei Knöpfe, da sind zwei Knöpfe ab

    off with his head! — herunter mit seinem Kopf!, Kopf ab!

    4)

    (= discount) 3% off (Comm) — 3% Nachlass or Abzug

    3% off for cash (Comm) — 3% Skonto, bei Barzahlung 3%

    to give sb £5/something off — jdm £ 5 Ermäßigung/eine Ermäßigung geben

    he let me have £5 off — er gab es mir (um) £ 5 billiger

    5)

    (= not at work) to have time off to do sth — (Zeit) freibekommen haben, um etw zu tun

    6)

    (in phrases) off and on, on and off — ab und zu, ab und an

    2. adj
    1) attr (= substandard) year, day etc schlecht
    2) pred (Brit: not fresh) verdorben, schlecht; milk schlecht, sauer; butter ranzig
    3) pred (= cancelled) match, party, talks abgesagt; (= not available in restaurant) chops, fish aus

    the bet/agreement is off — die Wette/Abmachung gilt nicht (mehr)

    4) TV, light, machine aus(geschaltet); tap zu(gedreht)

    the gas/electricity was off — das Gas/der Strom war abgeschaltet

    5)

    they are badly/well or comfortably off — sie sind nicht gut/(ganz) gut gestellt, sie stehen sich schlecht/(ganz) gut

    I am badly off for money/time —

    how are we off for time? — wie sieht es mit der Zeit aus?, wie viel Zeit haben wir noch?

    he is better/worse off staying in England — er steht sich in England besser/schlechter

    6) pred

    (= wide of the truth etc) you're off there — da irrst du gewaltig, da vertust du dich

    7) pred (inf)

    it's a bit off not letting me know — das ist ja nicht die feine Art, mir nicht Bescheid zu sagen

    3. prep

    he got £2 off the shirt — er bekam das Hemd £ 2 billiger

    2) (= distant from) ab(gelegen) von (+dat); (= in a side street from) in einer Nebenstraße von (+dat); (NAUT) vor (+dat)

    the house was just off the main roaddas Haus lag in unmittelbarer Nähe der Hauptstraße

    just off Piccadilly — in der Nähe von Piccadilly, gleich bei Piccadilly

    3)
    See:
    * * *
    off [ɒf]
    A adv
    a) weg oder fort sein,
    b) (weg)gehen,
    c) SPORT starten;
    be off!, off you go!, off with you! fort mit dir!, weg!;
    off to bed with you! ins Bett mit euch!;
    where are you off to? wo gehst du hin?;
    he’s off sick today er hat sich für heute krankgemeldet
    2. ab…, aus…, los…:
    the apple is off der Apfel ist ab;
    have one’s shoes off seine oder die Schuhe ausgezogen haben; academic.ru/33817/hat">hat Bes Redew
    3. weg, entfernt:
    4. Zeitpunkt: von jetzt an, hin:
    Christmas is a week off bis Weihnachten ist es eine Woche;
    a) ab und zu, hin und wieder,
    b) ab und an, mit (kurzen) Unterbrechungen
    5. 5% off WIRTSCH 5% Nachlass
    6. TECH aus (geschaltet), abgeschaltet, abgestellt (Maschine, Radio etc), (ab)gesperrt (Gas etc), zu (Hahn etc):
    “off” „aus“
    7. be off ausfallen, nicht stattfinden:
    the bet is off die Wette gilt nicht mehr;
    their engagement is off sie haben ihre Verlobung gelöst;
    the whole thing is off die ganze Sache ist abgeblasen oder ins Wasser gefallen (beide umg)
    8. aus(gegangen), (aus)verkauft, nicht mehr vorrätig, alle:
    9. frei (von Arbeit):
    take a day off sich einen Tag freinehmen;
    have one day a week off einen Tag in der Woche freihaben;
    give sb the afternoon off jemandem den Nachmittag freigeben;
    she’s off today sie hat heute ihren freien Tag
    10. ganz, zu Ende: die Verbindungen mit den verschiedenen Verben
    11. WIRTSCH flau:
    12. nicht mehr frisch, (leicht) verdorben (Nahrungsmittel):
    the milk is off die Milch hat einen Stich umg
    13. SPORT nicht in Form
    14. besonders US im Irrtum:
    you are off on that point da bist du auf dem Holzweg umg
    15. be a little off umg einen (leichten) Stich haben
    16. SCHIFF vom Lande etc ab
    17. well (badly) off gut (schlecht) d(a)ran oder gestellt oder situiert;
    how are you off for …? wie sieht es bei dir mit … aus?, wie steht es bei dir mit …?
    B präp
    1. weg von, fort von, von (… weg oder ab oder herunter):
    climb off the horse vom Pferd (herunter)steigen;
    take sth off the table etwas vom Tisch (weg)nehmen;
    he drove them off the seas er vertrieb sie von den Weltmeeren;
    eat off a plate von einem Teller essen;
    cut a slice off the loaf eine Scheibe vom Laib abschneiden;
    take 5 percent (Br per cent) off the price 5 Prozent vom Preis abziehen
    2. weg von, entfernt von, abseits von (oder gen), von … ab:
    a street off Piccadilly eine Seitenstraße von Piccadilly;
    off the ball SPORT ohne Ball;
    sing off the note falsch singen;
    be off size vom Maß abweichen
    3. frei von: duty A 2
    a) etwas nicht mehr mögen,
    b) kuriert von etwas sein umg:
    be off smoking nicht mehr rauchen; drug A 2
    5. SCHIFF auf der Höhe von Trafalgar etc, vor der Küste etc:
    6. von: dine A
    C adj
    1. (weiter) entfernt
    2. Seiten…, Neben…:
    3. fig Neben…, sekundär, nebensächlich
    4. recht(er, e, es) (von Tieren, Fuhrwerken etc):
    the off hind leg das rechte Hinterbein;
    the off horse das rechte Pferd, das Handpferd
    5. SCHIFF weiter von der Küste entfernt, seewärts gelegen
    6. ab(-), los(gegangen), weg:
    the button is off der Knopf ist ab
    7. (arbeits-, dienst)frei:
    an off day ein freier Tag ( C 8)
    8. schlecht:
    an off day ein schlechter Tag (an dem alles misslingt) ( C 7);
    I’m having one of my off days heute geht mir alles schief, das ist heute nicht mein Tag;
    he must have written this on an off day er muss einen schlechten Tag gehabt haben, als er das geschrieben hat;
    an off year for fruit ein schlechtes Obstjahr; off year
    9. besonders WIRTSCH flau, still, tot:
    off season auch Nebensaison f
    10. besonders WIRTSCH minderwertig, von schlechter Qualität:
    off shade Fehlfarbe f
    11. I am feeling rather off today ich bin heute nicht ganz auf der Höhe umg
    12. fig schwach, entfernt: chance A 3
    D v/t US sl jemanden umlegen
    E v/i meist imp verschwinden
    F int fort!, weg!, raus!:
    hands off! Hände weg!
    * * *
    1. adverb
    1) (away, at or to a distance)

    the lake is not far off — der See ist nicht weit [weg od. entfernt]

    I must be offich muss fort od. weg od. los

    off we go! (we are starting) los od. ab geht's!; (let us start) gehen/fahren wir!

    the meat etc. is off — das Fleisch usw. ist schlecht [geworden]

    be a bit off(Brit. fig.) ein starkes Stück sein (ugs.)

    3)

    be off (switched or turned off) [Wasser, Gas, Strom:] abgestellt sein

    the light/radio etc. is off — das Licht/Radio usw. ist aus

    4)

    be off (cancelled) abgesagt sein; [Verlobung:] [auf]gelöst sein

    take/get/have a week etc. off — eine Woche usw. Urlaub nehmen/bekommen/haben

    soup etc. is off — es gibt keine Suppe usw. mehr

    7) (situated as regards money etc.)

    he is badly etc. off — er ist schlecht usw. gestellt

    2. preposition
    1) (from) von
    2)

    be off school/work — in der Schule/am Arbeitsplatz fehlen

    get off the subject — [vom Thema] abschweifen

    be off somethingetwas leid sein od. haben (ugs.)

    6) (leading from, not far from)

    a street off the main road — eine Straße, die von der Hauptstraße abgeht

    7) (to seaward of) vor (+ Dat.)
    3. adjective

    the off side(Brit.) (when travelling on the left/right) die rechte/linke Seite

    * * *
    adj.
    ausgeschaltet adj.
    entfernt adj.
    fort adj.
    von adj. prep.
    aus präp.

    English-german dictionary > off

  • 5 Huntsman, Benjamin

    SUBJECT AREA: Metallurgy
    [br]
    b. 1704 Barton-on-Humber, Lincolnshire, England
    d. 21 June 1776 Sheffield, England
    [br]
    English inventor of crucible steelmaking.
    [br]
    Of Dutch descent, Hunstman was apprenticed to a clockmaker at Epworth, Lincolnshire. In 1725 he set up in Doncaster as a maker of clocks, locks and roasting jacks. He made improvements in his tools but found himself hampered by the poor quality of the steel available, then made by the cementation process, which yielded a steel with a non-uniform carbon content. Around 1740, Huntsman moved to Handsworth, now part of Sheffield, and began experimenting by heating varying compositions of fuel and flux with crude steel in a crucible, to obtain a steel of uniform composition. During the years 1745 to 1750 he attained his object, but not without many unsuccessful "heats", as excavations of the site of his works now reveal. Although his steel was far better than that previously available, however, the conservative cutlers of Sheffield rejected it, claiming it was too hard to work; therefore Huntsman exported his product to France, where the cutlers promptly worked it into high-quality knives and razors that were exported to England. The Sheffield cutlers' attempts to prevent Huntsman from exporting his steel proved unsuccessful. Huntsman did not patent his process, preferring to retain his advantage by shrouding his work in secrecy, carrying out his melting at night to escape observation, but a rival cutler, Samuel Walker, gained admittance to Huntsman's works disguised as a tramp seeking food. As a result, Walker was able to make crucible steel at a handsome profit. Huntsman fought back and earned success through the sheer quality of his steel, and had to move to.a larger site at Attercliffe in 1770. Crucible steelmaking remained important through the nineteenth century although, as it was a small-scale process, its application was restricted to engineers' cutting tools and the cutting edges of certain tools.
    [br]
    Further Reading
    E.W.Hulme, 1945, "The pedigree and career of Benjamin Huntsman, inventor in Europe of crucible steel", Transactions of the Newcomen Society 24:37–48.
    W.K.V.Gale, 1969, Iron and Steel, London: Longman.
    LRD

    Biographical history of technology > Huntsman, Benjamin

  • 6 Sauerbrun, Charles de, Baron von Drais

    SUBJECT AREA: Land transport
    [br]
    b. 1785
    d. 1851
    [br]
    German popularizer of the first form of manumotive vehicle, the hobby-horse.
    [br]
    An engineer and agriculturalist who had to travel long distances over rough country, he evolved an improved design of velocipede. The original device appears to have been first shown in the gardens of the Palais Royal by the comte de Sivrac in 1791, a small wooden "horse" fitted with two wheels and propelled by the rider's legs thrusting alternately against the ground. It was not possible to turn the front wheel to steer the machine, a small variation from the straight being obtained by the rider leaning sideways. It is not known if de Sivrac was the inventor of the machine: it is likely that it had been in existence, probably as a child's toy, for a number of years. Its original name was the celerifière, but it was renamed the velocifère in 1793. The Baron's Draisienne was an improvement on this primitive machine; it had a triangulated wooden frame, an upholstered seat, a rear luggage seat and an armrest which took the thrust of the rider as he or she pushed against the ground. Furthermore, it was steerable. In some models there was a cordoperated brake and a prop stand, and the seat height could be adjusted. At least one machine was fitted with a milometer. Drais began limited manufacture and launched a long marketing and patenting campaign, part of which involved sending advertising letters to leading figures, including a number of kings.
    The Draisienne was first shown in public in April 1817: a ladies' version became available in 1819. Von Drais took out a patent in Baden on 12 January 1818 and followed with a French patent on 17 February. Three-and four-wheeled versions became available so the two men could take the ladies for a jaunt.
    Drais left his agricultural and forestry work and devoted his full time to the "Running Machine" business. Soon copies were being made and sold in Italy, Germany and Austria. In London, a Denis Johnson took out a patent in December 1818 for a "pedestrian curricle" which was soon nicknamed the dandy horse.
    [br]
    Further Reading
    C.A.Caunter, 1955, Cycles: History and Development, London: Science Museum and HMSO.
    IMcN

    Biographical history of technology > Sauerbrun, Charles de, Baron von Drais

  • 7 Perkins, Jacob

    [br]
    b. 9 July 1766 Newburyport, Massachusetts, USA
    d. 30 July 1849 London, England
    [br]
    American inventor of a nail-making machine and a method of printing banknotes, investigator of the use of steam at very high pressures.
    [br]
    Perkins's occupation was that of a gold-and silversmith; while he does not seem to have followed this after 1800, however, it gave him the skills in working metals which he would continue to employ in his inventions. He had been working in America for four years before he patented his nail-making machine in 1796. At the time there was a great shortage of nails because only hand-forged ones were available. By 1800, other people had followed his example and produced automatic nail-making machines, but in 1811 Perkins' improved machines were introduced to England by J.C. Dyer. Eventually Perkins had twenty-one American patents for a range of inventions in his name.
    In 1799 Perkins invented a system of engraving steel plates for printing banknotes, which became the foundation of modern siderographic work. It discouraged forging and was adopted by many banking houses, including the Federal Government when the Second United States Bank was inaugurated in 1816. This led Perkins to move to Philadelphia. In the intervening years, Perkins had improved his nail-making machine, invented a machine for graining morocco leather in 1809, a fire-engine in 1812, a letter-lock for bank vaults and improved methods of rolling out spoons in 1813, and improved armament and equipment for naval ships from 1812 to 1815.
    It was in Philadelphia that Perkins became interested in the steam engine, when he met Oliver Evans, who had pioneered the use of high-pressure steam. He became a member of the American Philosophical Society and conducted experiments on the compressibility of water before a committee of that society. Perkins claimed to have liquified air during his experiments in 1822 and, if so, was the real discoverer of the liquification of gases. In 1819 he came to England to demonstrate his forgery-proof system of printing banknotes, but the Bank of England was the only one which did not adopt his system.
    While in London, Perkins began to experiment with the highest steam pressures used up to that time and in 1822 took out his first of nineteen British patents. This was followed by another in 1823 for a 10 hp (7.5 kW) engine with only 2 in. (51 mm) bore, 12 in. (305 mm) stroke but a pressure of 500 psi (35 kg/cm2), for which he claimed exceptional economy. After 1826, Perkins abandoned his drum boiler for iron tubes and steam pressures of 1,500 psi (105 kg/cm2), but the materials would not withstand such pressures or temperatures for long. It was in that same year that he patented a form of uniflow cylinder that was later taken up by L.J. Todd. One of his engines ran for five days, continuously pumping water at St Katherine's docks, but Perkins could not raise more finance to continue his experiments.
    In 1823 one his high-pressure hot-water systems was installed to heat the Duke of Wellington's house at Stratfield Saye and it acquired a considerable vogue, being used by Sir John Soane, among others. In 1834 Perkins patented a compression ice-making apparatus, but it did not succeed commercially because ice was imported more cheaply from Norway as ballast for sailing ships. Perkins was often dubbed "the American inventor" because his inquisitive personality allied to his inventive ingenuity enabled him to solve so many mechanical challenges.
    [br]
    Further Reading
    Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1943, biography which appeared previously as a shortened version in the Transactions of the Newcomen Society 24.
    D.Bathe and G.Bathe, 1943–5, "The contribution of Jacob Perkins to science and engineering", Transactions of the Newcomen Society 24.
    D.S.L.Cardwell, 1971, From Watt to Clausius. The Rise of Thermodynamics in the Early Industrial Age, London: Heinemann (includes comments on the importance of Perkins's steam engine).
    A.F.Dufton, 1940–1, "Early application of engineering to warming of buildings", Transactions of the Newcomen Society 21 (includes a note on Perkins's application of a high-pressure hot-water heating system).
    RLH

    Biographical history of technology > Perkins, Jacob

  • 8 Lever, William Hesketh

    [br]
    b. 19 September 1851 Bolton, Lancashire, England
    d. 7 May 1925 Hampstead, London, England
    [br]
    English manufacturer of soap.
    [br]
    William Hesketh Lever was the son of the retail grocer James Lever, who built up the large wholesale firm of Lever \& Co. in the north-west of England. William entered the firm at the age of 19 as a commercial traveller, and in the course of his work studied the techniques of manufacture and the quality of commercial soaps available at the time. He decided that he would concentrate on the production of a soap that was not evil-smelling, would lather easily and be attractively packaged. In 1884 he produced Sunlight Soap, which became the trade mark for Lever \& Co. He had each tablet wrapped, partly to protect the soap from oxygenization and thus prevent it from becoming rancid, and partly to display his brand name as a form of advertising. In 1885 he raised a large capital sum, purchased the Soap Factory in Warrington of Winser \& Co., and began manufacture. His product contained oils from copra, palm and cotton blended with tallow and resin, and its quality was carefully monitored during production. In a short time it was in great demand and began to replace the previously available alternatives of home-made soap and poor-quality, unpleasant-smelling bars.
    It soon became necessary to expand the firm's premises, and in 1887 Lever purchased fifty-six acres of land upon which he set up a new centre of manufacture. This was in the Wirral in Cheshire, near the banks of the River Mersey. Production at the new factory, which was called Port Sunlight, began in January 1889. Lever introduced a number of technical improvements in the production process, including the heating systems and the recovery of glycerine (which could later be sold) from the boiling process.
    Like Sir Titus Salt of Saltaire before him, Lever believed it to be in the interest of the firm to house his workers in a high standard of building and comfort close to the factory.
    By the early twentieth century he had created Port Sunlight Village, one of the earliest and certainly the most impressive housing estates, for his employees. Architecturally the estate is highly successful, being built from a variety of natural materials and vernacular styles by a number of distinguished architects, so preventing an overall architectural monotony. The comprehensive estate comprises, in addition to the factory and houses, a church, an art gallery, schools, a cottage hospital, library, bank, fire station, post office and shops, as well as an inn and working men's institute, both of which were later additions. In 1894 Lever \& Co. went public and soon was amalgamated with other soap firms. It was at its most successful high point by 1910.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    First Viscount Leverhulme of the Western Isles.
    Further Reading
    1985, Dictionary of Business Biography. Butterworth.
    Ian Campbell Bradley, 1987, Enlightened Entrepreneurs, London: Weidenfeld \& Nicolson.
    DY

    Biographical history of technology > Lever, William Hesketh

  • 9 Chain, Ernst Boris

    SUBJECT AREA: Medical technology
    [br]
    b. 19 June 1906 Berlin, Germany
    d. 12 August 1979 Ireland
    [br]
    Anglo-German biochemist and physiologist, co-worker with Florey in the isolation of sufficient supplies of the antibiotic penicillin for clinical use during wartime.
    [br]
    Chain graduated in Berlin at the Charite Hospital in 1930. A refugee from political persecution, in 1933 he went to the School of Biochemistry in Cambridge, and in 1935 moved to the School of Pathology at Oxford. He became a British subject in 1939. His interests had involved the study of enzymes and the isolation of physiologically active substances from natural sources. In 1938 he drew Florey's attention to Fleming's note of 1929 reporting the bacterial growth inhibiting qualities of Penicillium mould. Using makeshift equipment and with little initial support, they isolated small quantities of penicillin, which they were then able to use clinically with dramatic effect.
    Chain had always hoped for adequate resources to develop penicillin and other antibiotics in Britain. This was not forthcoming, however, and in 1948 a research chair and institute was created for him in Rome, at the International Research Centre for Chemical Microbiology. In 1961 he returned to London to the Chair of Biochemistry at Imperial College. There, with the help of a large donation from the Wolfson Foundation, an appropriate building with facilities for the large-scale development and production of biochemical substances was finally made available. His co-equal part in the development of penicillin was recognized by the sharing of the Nobel Prize for Medicine between Florey, Fleming and himself, and he received numerous honours and honorary degrees from a large number of governments and international institutions.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    Knighted 1944. Nobel Prize for Medicine (jointly with H.W.Florey and A.Fleming) 1945. Fellow of the Royal Society 1949. Ehrlich Prize 1954.
    Bibliography
    1941, "Penicillin as a chemotherapeutic agent", Lancet (with Florey). 1941, "Further observations on penicillin", Lancet.
    1949, Antibiotics, Oxford, (with Florey et al.) MG

    Biographical history of technology > Chain, Ernst Boris

  • 10 Shannon, Claude Elwood

    [br]
    b. 30 April 1916 Gaylord, Michigan, USA
    [br]
    American mathematician, creator of information theory.
    [br]
    As a child, Shannon tinkered with radio kits and enjoyed solving puzzles, particularly crypto-graphic ones. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1936 with a Bachelor of Science in mathematics and electrical engineering, and earned his Master's degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1937. His thesis on applying Boolean algebra to switching circuits has since been acclaimed as possibly the most significant this century. Shannon earned his PhD in mathematics from MIT in 1940 with a dissertation on the mathematics of genetic transmission.
    Shannon spent a year at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, then in 1941 joined Bell Telephone Laboratories, where he began studying the relative efficiency of alternative transmission systems. Work on digital encryption systems during the Second World War led him to think that just as ciphers hide information from the enemy, "encoding" information could also protect it from noise. About 1948, he decided that the amount of information was best expressed quantitatively in a two-value number system, using only the digits 0 and 1. John Tukey, a Princeton colleague, named these units "binary digits" (or, for short, "bits"). Almost all digital computers and communications systems use such on-off, or two-state logic as their basis of operation.
    Also in the 1940s, building on the work of H. Nyquist and R.V.L. Hartley, Shannon proved that there was an upper limit to the amount of information that could be transmitted through a communications channel in a unit of time, which could be approached but never reached because real transmissions are subject to interference (noise). This was the beginning of information theory, which has been used by others in attempts to quantify many sciences and technologies, as well as subjects in the humanities, but with mixed results. Before 1970, when integrated circuits were developed, Shannon's theory was not the preferred circuit-and-transmission design tool it has since become.
    Shannon was also a pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence, claiming that computing machines could be used to manipulate symbols as well as do calculations. His 1953 paper on computers and automata proposed that digital computers were capable of tasks then thought exclusively the province of living organisms. In 1956 he left Bell Laboratories to join the MIT faculty as Professor of Communications Science.
    On the lighter side, Shannon has built many devices that play games, and in particular has made a scientific study of juggling.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    National Medal of Science. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Medal of Honor, Kyoto Prize.
    Bibliography
    His seminal paper (on what has subsequently become known as information theory) was entitled "The mathematical theory of communications", first published in Bell System Technical Journal in 1948; it is also available in a monograph (written with Warren Weaver) published by the University of Illinois Press in 1949, and in Key Papers in the Development of Information Theory, ed. David Slepian, IEEE Press, 1974, 1988. For readers who want all of Shannon's works, see N.J.A.Sloane and A.D.Wyner, 1992, The
    Collected Papers of Claude E.Shannon.
    HO

    Biographical history of technology > Shannon, Claude Elwood

  • 11 Taylor, John

    SUBJECT AREA: Medical technology
    [br]
    b. 16 August 1703 Norwich, England
    d. 17 September 1772 Prague, Bohemia
    [br]
    English oculist and exponent of surgical treatment of squint and cataract.
    [br]
    In 1722, employed as an apothecary's assistant, he studied surgery and especially diseases of the eye under Cheselden at St Thomas's Hospital, London. He returned to Norwich to practise, but in 1727 he assumed the role of itinerant surgeon oculist, with a particular reputation for putting eyes straight; at first he covered the major part of the British Isles and then he extended his activities to Europe.
    He obtained MDs from Basle in 1733, and from Liège and Cologne in 1734. In 1736 he was appointed Oculist to George II. It is likely that he was responsible for Johann Sebastian Bach's blindness, and Gibbon was one of his patients. The subject of considerable obloquy on account of his self-advertisement in the crudest and most bombastic terms, it is none the less certain that he had developed a technique, probably related to couching, which was considerably in advance of that of other practitioners and at least offered a prospect of assistance where none had been available.
    Dr Johnson declared him "an instance of how far impudence will carry ignorance". Without justification, he styled himself "Chevalier". He is said, not improbably having regard to his age, to have become blind himself later in life. His son carried on his practice.
    [br]
    Bibliography
    Further Reading
    1761, The History of the Travels and Adventures of the Chevalier John Taylor, Ophthalmiater, London.
    MG

    Biographical history of technology > Taylor, John

  • 12 Blumlein, Alan Dower

    [br]
    b. 29 June 1903 Hampstead, London, England
    d. 7 June 1942
    [br]
    English electronics engineer, developer of telephone equipment, highly linear electromechanical recording and reproduction equipment, stereo techniques, video and radar technology.
    [br]
    He was a very bright scholar and received a BSc in electrical technology from City and Guilds College in 1923. He joined International Western Electric (later to become Standard Telephone and Cables) in 1924 after a period as an instructor/demonstrator at City and Guilds. He was instrumental in the design of telephone measuring equipment and in international committee work for standards for long-distance telephony.
    From 1929 Blumlein was employed by the Columbia Graphophone Company to develop an electric recording cutterhead that would be independent of Western Electric's patents for the system developed by Maxfield and Harrison. He attacked the problems in a most systematic fashion, and within a year he had developed a moving-coil cutterhead that was much more linear than the iron-cored systems known at the time. Eventually Blumlein designed a complete line of recording equipment, from microphone and through-power amplifiers. The design was used by Columbia; after the merger with the Gramophone Company in 1931 to form Electrical and Musical Industries Ltd (later known as EMI) it became the company standard, certainly for coarse-groove records, until c.1950.
    Blumlein became interested in stereophony (binaural sound), and developed and demonstrated a complete line of equipment, from correctly placed microphones via two-channel records and stereo pick-ups to correctly placed loudspeakers. The advent of silent surfaces of vinyl records made this approach commercial from the late 1950s. His approach was independent and quite different from that of A.C. Keller.
    His extreme facility for creating innovative solutions to electronic problems was used in EMI's development from 1934 to 1938 of the electronic television system, which became the BBC standard of 405 lines after the Second World War, when television broadcasting again became possible. Independent of official requirements, EMI developed a 60 MHz radar system and Blumlein was involved in the development of a centimetric radar and display system. It was during testing of this aircraft mounted equipment that he was killed in a crash.
    [br]
    Bibliography
    Blumlein was inventor or co-inventor of well over 120 patents, a complete list of which is to be found in Burns (1992; see below). The major sound-recording achievements are documented by British patent nos. 350,954, 350,998, 363,627 (highly linear cutterhead, 1930) and 394,325 (reads like a textbook on stereo technology, 1931).
    Further Reading
    The definitive biography of Blumlein has not yet been written; the material seems to have been collected, but is not yet available. However, R.W.Burns, 1992, "A.D.Blumlein, engineer extraordinary", Engineering Science and Education Journal (February): 19– 33 is a thorough account. Also B.J.Benzimra, 1967, "A.D. Blumlein: an electronics genius", Electronics \& Power (June): 218–24 provides an interesting summary.
    GB-N

    Biographical history of technology > Blumlein, Alan Dower

  • 13 Boole, George

    [br]
    b. 2 November 1815 Lincoln, England
    d. 8 December 1864 Ballintemple, Coounty Cork, Ireland
    [br]
    English mathematician whose development of symbolic logic laid the foundations for the operating principles of modern computers.
    [br]
    Boole was the son of a tradesman, from whom he learned the principles of mathematics and optical-component manufacturing. From the early age of 16 he taught in a number of schools in West Yorkshire, and when only 20 he opened his own school in Lincoln. There, at the Mechanical Institute, he avidly read mathematical journals and the works of great mathematicians such as Lagrange, Laplace and Newton and began to tackle a variety of algebraic problems. This led to the publication of a constant stream of original papers in the newly launched Cambridge Mathematical Journal on topics in the fields of algebra and calculus, for which in 1844 he received the Royal Society Medal.
    In 1847 he wrote The Mathematical Analysis of Logic, which applied algebraic symbolism to logical forms, whereby the presence or absence of properties could be represented by binary states and combined, just like normal algebraic equations, to derive logical statements about a series of operations. This laid the foundations for the binary logic used in modern computers, which, being based on binary on-off devices, greatly depend on the use of such operations as "and", "nand" ("not and"), "or" and "nor" ("not or"), etc. Although he lacked any formal degree, this revolutionary work led to his appointment in 1849 to the Chair of Mathematics at Queen's College, Cork, where he continued his work on logic and also produce treatises on differential equations and the calculus of finite differences.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    Royal Society Medal 1844. FRS 1857.
    Bibliography
    Boole's major contributions to logic available in republished form include George Boole: Investigation of the Laws of Thought, Dover Publications; George Boole: Laws of Thought, Open Court, and George Boole: Studies in Logic \& Probability, Open Court.
    1872, A Treatise on Differential Equations.
    Further Reading
    W.Kneale, 1948, "Boole and the revival of logic", Mind 57:149.
    G.C.Smith (ed.), 1982, George Boole \& Augustus de Morgan. Correspondence 1842– 1864, Oxford University Press.
    —, 1985, George Boole: His Life and Work, McHale.
    E.T.Bell, 1937, Men of Mathematics, London: Victor Gollancz.
    KF

    Biographical history of technology > Boole, George

  • 14 Korolov (Korolyev), Sergei Pavlovich

    SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace
    [br]
    b. 12 January 1907 (30 December 1906 Old Style) Zhitomir, Ukraine
    d. 14 January 1966 Moscow, Russia
    [br]
    Russian engineer and designer of air-and spacecraft.
    [br]
    His early life was spent in the Ukraine and he then studied at Tupolev's aeroplane institute in Moscow. In the mid-1930s, just before his thirtieth birthday, he joined the GIRD (Group Studying Rocket Propulsion) under Frederick Zander, a Latvian engineer, while earning a living designing aircraft in Tupolev's bureau. In 1934 he visited Konstantin Tsiolovsky. Soon after this, under the Soviet Armaments Minister, Mikhail N.Tukhachevsky, who was in favour of rocket weapons, financial support was available for the GIRD and Korolov was appointed General-Engineer (1-star) in the Soviet Army. In June 1937 the Armaments Minister and his whole staff were arrested under Stalin, but Korolov was saved by Tupolev and sent to a sharaska, or prison, near Moscow where he worked for four years on rocket-and jet-propelled aircraft, among other things. In 1946 he went with his superior, Valentin Glushko, to Germany where he watched the British test-firing of possibly three V-2s at Altenwaide, near Cuxhaven, in "Operation Backfire". They were not allowed within the wire enclosure. He remained in Germany to supervise the shipment of V-2 equipment and staff to Russia (it is possible that he underwent a second term of imprisonment from 1948), the Germans having been arrested in October 1946. He kept working in Russia until 1950 or the following year. He supervised the first Russian ballistic missile, R-1, in late 1947. Stalin died in 1953 and Korolov was rehabilitated, but freedom under Nikita Kruschev was almost as restrictive as imprisonment under Stalin. Kruschev would only refer to him as "the Chief Designer", never naming him, and would not let him go abroad or correspond with other rocket experts in the USA or Germany. Anything he published could only be under the name "Sergeyev". He continued to work on his R-7 without the approval that he sought for a satellite project. This was known as semyorka, or "old number seven". In January 1959 he added a booster stage to semyorka. He may have suffered confinement in the infamous Kolyma Gulag around this time. He designed all the Sputnik, Vostok and some of the Voshkod units and worked on the Proton space booster. In 1966 he underwent surgery performed by Dr Boris Petrovsky, then Soviet Minister of Health, for the removal, it is said, of tumours of the colon. In spite of the assistance of Dr Aleksandr Vishaevsky he bled to death on the operating table. The first moon landing (by robot) took place three weeks after his death and the first flight of the new Soyuz spacecraft a little later.
    [br]
    Further Reading
    Y.Golanov, 1975, Sergey Korolev. The Appren-ticeship of a Space Pioneer, Moscow: Mir.
    A.Romanov, 1976, Spacecraft Designers, Moscow: Novosti Press Agency. J.E.Oberg, 1981, Red Star in Orbit, New York: Random House.
    IMcN

    Biographical history of technology > Korolov (Korolyev), Sergei Pavlovich

  • 15 Poulsen, Valdemar

    [br]
    b. 23 November 1869 Copenhagen, Denmark
    d. 23 July 1942 Gentofte, Denmark
    [br]
    Danish engineer who developed practical magnetic recording and the arc generator for continuous radio waves.
    [br]
    From an early age he was absorbed by phenomena of physics to the exclusion of all other subjects, including mathematics. When choosing his subjects for the final three years in Borgedydskolen in Christianshavn (Copenhagen) before university, he opted for languages and history. At the University of Copenhagen he embarked on the study of medicine in 1889, but broke it off and was apprenticed to the machine firm of A/S Frichs Eftf. in Aarhus. He was employed between 1893 and 1899 as a mechanic and assistant in the laboratory of the Copenhagen Telephone Company KTAS. Eventually he advanced to be Head of the line fault department. This suited his desire for experiment and measurement perfectly. After the invention of the telegraphone in 1898, he left the laboratory and with responsible business people he created Aktieselskabet Telegrafonen, Patent Poulsen in order to develop it further, together with Peder Oluf Pedersen (1874– 1941). Pedersen brought with him the mathematical background which eventually led to his professorship in electronic engineering in 1922.
    The telegraphone was the basis for multinational industrial endeavours after it was demonstrated at the 1900 World's Exhibition in Paris. It must be said that its strength was also its weakness, because the telegraphone was unique in bringing sound recording and reproduction to the telephone field, but the lack of electronic amplifiers delayed its use outside this and the dictation fields (where headphones could be used) until the 1920s. However, commercial interest was great enough to provoke a number of court cases concerning patent infringement, in which Poulsen frequently figured as a witness.
    In 1903–4 Poulsen and Pedersen developed the arc generator for continuous radio waves which was used worldwide for radio transmitters in competition with Marconi's spark-generating system. The inspiration for this work came from the research by William Duddell on the musical arc. Whereas Duddell had proposed the use of the oscillations generated in his electric arc for telegraphy in his 1901 UK patent, Poulsen contributed a chamber of hydrogen and a transverse magnetic field which increased the efficiency remarkably. He filed patent applications on these constructions from 1902 and the first publication in a scientific forum took place at the International Electrical Congress in St Louis, Missouri, in 1904.
    In order to use continuous waves efficiently (the high frequency constituted a carrier), Poulsen developed both a modulator for telegraphy and a detector for the carrier wave. The modulator was such that even the more primitive spark-communication receivers could be used. Later Poulsen and Pedersen developed frequency-shift keying.
    The Amalgamated Radio-Telegraph Company Ltd was launched in London in 1906, combining the developments of Poulsen and those of De Forest Wireless Telegraph Syndicate. Poulsen contributed his English and American patents. When this company was liquidated in 1908, its assets were taken over by Det Kontinentale Syndikat for Poulsen Radio Telegrafi, A/S in Copenhagen (liquidated 1930–1). Some of the patents had been sold to C.Lorenz AG in Berlin, which was very active.
    The arc transmitting system was in use worldwide from about 1910 to 1925, and the power increased from 12 kW to 1,000 kW. In 1921 an exceptional transmitter rated at 1,800 kW was erected on Java for communications with the Netherlands. More than one thousand installations had been in use worldwide. The competing systems were initially spark transmitters (Marconi) and later rotary converters ( Westinghouse). Similar power was available from valve transmitters only much later.
    From c. 1912 Poulsen did not contribute actively to further development. He led a life as a well-respected engineer and scientist and served on several committees. He had his private laboratory and made experiments in the composition of matter and certain resonance phenomena; however, nothing was published. It has recently been suggested that Poulsen could not have been unaware of Oberlin Smith's work and publication in 1888, but his extreme honesty in technical matters indicates that his development was indeed independent. In the case of the arc generator, Poulsen was always extremely frank about the inspiration he gained from earlier developers' work.
    [br]
    Bibliography
    1899, British patent no. 8,961 (the first British telegraphone patent). 1903, British patent no. 15,599 (the first British arc-genera tor patent).
    His scientific publications are few, but fundamental accounts of his contribution are: 1900, "Das Telegraphon", Ann. d. Physik 3:754–60; 1904, "System for producing continuous oscillations", Trans. Int. El. Congr. St. Louis, Vol. II, pp. 963–71.
    Further Reading
    A.Larsen, 1950, Telegrafonen og den Traadløse, Ingeniørvidenskabelige Skrifter no. 2, Copenhagen (provides a very complete, although somewhat confusing, account of Poulsen's contributions; a list of his patents is given on pp. 285–93).
    F.K.Engel, 1990, Documents on the Invention of Magnetic Re cor ding in 1878, New York: Audio Engineering Society, reprint no. 2,914 (G2) (it is here that doubt is expressed about whether Poulsen's ideas were developed independently).
    GB-N

    Biographical history of technology > Poulsen, Valdemar

  • 16 Austin, Herbert, Baron Austin

    [br]
    b. 8 November 1866 Little Missenden, Buckinghamshire, England
    d. 23 May 1941 Lickey Grange, near Bromsgrove, Herefordshire, England
    [br]
    English manufacturer of cars.
    [br]
    The son of Stephen (or Steven) Austin, a farmer of Wentworth, Yorkshire, he was educated at Rotherham Grammar School and then went to Australia with an uncle in 1884. There he became apprenticed as an engineer at the Langlands Foundry in Melbourne. He moved to the Wolseley Sheep Shearing Company, and soon after became its Manager; in 1893 he returned to England, where he became Production Manager to the English branch of the same company in Birmingham. The difficulties of travel in Australia gave him an idea of the advantages of motor-driven vehicles, and in 1895 he produced the first Wolseley car. In 1901 he was appointed to the Wolseley board, and from 1911 he was Chairman.
    His first car was a three-wheeler. An improved model was soon available, and in 1901 the Wolseley company took over the machine tool and motor side of Vickers Sons and Maxim and traded under the name of the Wolseley Tool and Motor Car Company. Herbert Austin was the General Manager. In 1905 he decided to start his own company and formed the Austin Motor Company Ltd, with works at Longbridge, near Birmingham. With a workforce of 270, the firm produced 120 cars in 1906; by 1914 a staff of 2,000 were producing 1,000 cars a year. The First World War saw production facilities turned over to the production of aeroplanes, guns and ammunition.
    Peacetime brought a return to car manufacture, and 1922 saw the introduction of the 7 hp "Baby Austin", a car for the masses. Many other models followed. By 1937 the original Longbridge factory had grown to 220 acres, and the staff had increased to over 16,000, while the number of cars produced had grown to 78,000 per year.
    Herbert Austin was a philanthropist who endowed many hospitals and not a few universities; he was created a Baron in 1936.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    Baron 1936.
    Further Reading
    1941, Austin Magazine (June).
    IMcN

    Biographical history of technology > Austin, Herbert, Baron Austin

  • 17 Bakewell, Frederick C.

    SUBJECT AREA: Telecommunications
    [br]
    fl. 1850s
    [br]
    British inventor of the "copying telegraph", the basis of facsimile transmission.
    [br]
    Although little appears to be known about his life, Bakewell deserves a place in this dictionary for a single invention that was to have a significant impact upon communication. The invention of photography early in the nineteenth century soon led to a desire to transmit images over a distance. Although telegraphy was still very much in its infancy, Bakewell realized that the key to a viable system of facsimile, as it came to be known, was to dissect the image to be transmitted sequentially by scanning it in a series of parallel lines with some sort of sensor and to synchronously reconstruct it at the receiving end—a process that anticipated the way in which modern television works. To this end the line image was drawn with varnish on a sheet of tin foil, which was then wrapped around a cylinder. As the cylinder was rotated, presumably by some kind of regulated clockwork mechanism similar to that used later in the early phonographs of Edison, an electrical contact driven by a screw thread caused the image to be scanned along a spiral path, giving a series of on-off signals. At the receiving end, instead of the tin foil, a sheet of paper wetted with a suitable chemical was darkened by the current pulses as they arrived.
    A practicable system did not become possible until a dry form of receiving-paper that was insensitive to light became available in the 1930s; once established, however, the technique remained the basis of commercial machines into the 1980s.
    [br]
    Bibliography
    1853, Electric Science.
    1857, A Manual of Electricity.
    Further Reading
    J.Malster \& M.J.Bowden, 1976, "Facsimile. A Review", Radio \& Electronic Engineer 46:55.
    See also: Bain, Alexander
    KF

    Biographical history of technology > Bakewell, Frederick C.

  • 18 Cayley, Sir George

    SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace
    [br]
    b. 27 December 1773 Scarborough, England
    d. 15 December 1857 Brompton Hall, Yorkshire, England
    [br]
    English pioneer who laid down the basic principles of the aeroplane in 1799 and built a manned glider in 1853.
    [br]
    Cayley was born into a well-to-do Yorkshire family living at Brompton Hall. He was encouraged to study mathematics, navigation and mechanics, particularly by his mother. In 1792 he succeeded to the baronetcy and took over the daunting task of revitalizing the run-down family estate.
    The first aeronautical device made by Cayley was a copy of the toy helicopter invented by the Frenchmen Launoy and Bienvenu in 1784. Cayley's version, made in 1796, convinced him that a machine could "rise in the air by mechanical means", as he later wrote. He studied the aerodynamics of flight and broke away from the unsuccessful ornithopters of his predecessors. In 1799 he scratched two sketches on a silver disc: one side of the disc showed the aerodynamic force on a wing resolved into lift and drag, and on the other side he illustrated his idea for a fixed-wing aeroplane; this disc is preserved in the Science Museum in London. In 1804 he tested a small wing on the end of a whirling arm to measure its lifting power. This led to the world's first model glider, which consisted of a simple kite (the wing) mounted on a pole with an adjustable cruciform tail. A full-size glider followed in 1809 and this flew successfully unmanned. By 1809 Cayley had also investigated the lifting properties of cambered wings and produced a low-drag aerofoil section. His aim was to produce a powered aeroplane, but no suitable engines were available. Steam-engines were too heavy, but he experimented with a gunpowder motor and invented the hot-air engine in 1807. He published details of some of his aeronautical researches in 1809–10 and in 1816 he wrote a paper on airships. Then for a period of some twenty-five years he was so busy with other activities that he largely neglected his aeronautical researches. It was not until 1843, at the age of 70, that he really had time to pursue his quest for flight. The Mechanics' Magazine of 8 April 1843 published drawings of "Sir George Cayley's Aerial Carriage", which consisted of a helicopter design with four circular lifting rotors—which could be adjusted to become wings—and two pusher propellers. In 1849 he built a full-size triplane glider which lifted a boy off the ground for a brief hop. Then in 1852 he proposed a monoplane glider which could be launched from a balloon. Late in 1853 Cayley built his "new flyer", another monoplane glider, which carried his coachman as a reluctant passenger across a dale at Brompton, Cayley became involved in public affairs and was MP for Scarborough in 1832. He also took a leading part in local scientific activities and was co-founder of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1831 and of the Regent Street Polytechnic Institution in 1838.
    [br]
    Bibliography
    Cayley wrote a number of articles and papers, the most significant being "On aerial navigation", Nicholson's Journal of Natural Philosophy (November 1809—March 1810) (published in three numbers); and two further papers with the same title in Philosophical Magazine (1816 and 1817) (both describe semi-rigid airships).
    Further Reading
    L.Pritchard, 1961, Sir George Cayley, London (the standard work on the life of Cayley).
    C.H.Gibbs-Smith, 1962, Sir George Cayley's Aeronautics 1796–1855, London (covers his aeronautical achievements in more detail).
    —1974, "Sir George Cayley, father of aerial navigation (1773–1857)", Aeronautical Journal (Royal Aeronautical Society) (April) (an updating paper).
    JDS

    Biographical history of technology > Cayley, Sir George

  • 19 De Forest, Lee

    [br]
    b. 26 August 1873 Council Bluffs, Iowa, USA
    d. 30 June 1961 Hollywood, California, USA
    [br]
    American electrical engineer and inventor principally known for his invention of the Audion, or triode, vacuum tube; also a pioneer of sound in the cinema.
    [br]
    De Forest was born into the family of a Congregational minister that moved to Alabama in 1879 when the father became President of a college for African-Americans; this was a position that led to the family's social ostracism by the white community. By the time he was 13 years old, De Forest was already a keen mechanical inventor, and in 1893, rejecting his father's plan for him to become a clergyman, he entered the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University. Following his first degree, he went on to study the propagation of electromagnetic waves, gaining a PhD in physics in 1899 for his thesis on the "Reflection of Hertzian Waves from the Ends of Parallel Wires", probably the first US thesis in the field of radio.
    He then joined the Western Electric Company in Chicago where he helped develop the infant technology of wireless, working his way up from a modest post in the production area to a position in the experimental laboratory. There, working alone after normal working hours, he developed a detector of electromagnetic waves based on an electrolytic device similar to that already invented by Fleming in England. Recognizing his talents, a number of financial backers enabled him to set up his own business in 1902 under the name of De Forest Wireless Telegraphy Company; he was soon demonstrating wireless telegraphy to interested parties and entering into competition with the American Marconi Company.
    Despite the failure of this company because of fraud by his partners, he continued his experiments; in 1907, by adding a third electrode, a wire mesh, between the anode and cathode of the thermionic diode invented by Fleming in 1904, he was able to produce the amplifying device now known as the triode valve and achieve a sensitivity of radio-signal reception much greater than possible with the passive carborundum and electrolytic detectors hitherto available. Patented under the name Audion, this new vacuum device was soon successfully used for experimental broadcasts of music and speech in New York and Paris. The invention of the Audion has been described as the beginning of the electronic era. Although much development work was required before its full potential was realized, the Audion opened the way to progress in all areas of sound transmission, recording and reproduction. The patent was challenged by Fleming and it was not until 1943 that De Forest's claim was finally recognized.
    Overcoming the near failure of his new company, the De Forest Radio Telephone Company, as well as unsuccessful charges of fraudulent promotion of the Audion, he continued to exploit the potential of his invention. By 1912 he had used transformer-coupling of several Audion stages to achieve high gain at radio frequencies, making long-distance communication a practical proposition, and had applied positive feedback from the Audion output anode to its input grid to realize a stable transmitter oscillator and modulator. These successes led to prolonged patent litigation with Edwin Armstrong and others, and he eventually sold the manufacturing rights, in retrospect often for a pittance.
    During the early 1920s De Forest began a fruitful association with T.W.Case, who for around ten years had been working to perfect a moving-picture sound system. De Forest claimed to have had an interest in sound films as early as 1900, and Case now began to supply him with photoelectric cells and primitive sound cameras. He eventually devised a variable-density sound-on-film system utilizing a glow-discharge modulator, the Photion. By 1926 De Forest's Phonofilm had been successfully demonstrated in over fifty theatres and this system became the basis of Movietone. Though his ideas were on the right lines, the technology was insufficiently developed and it was left to others to produce a system acceptable to the film industry. However, De Forest had played a key role in transforming the nature of the film industry; within a space of five years the production of silent films had all but ceased.
    In the following decade De Forest applied the Audion to the development of medical diathermy. Finally, after spending most of his working life as an independent inventor and entrepreneur, he worked for a time during the Second World War at the Bell Telephone Laboratories on military applications of electronics.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    Institute of Electronic and Radio Engineers Medal of Honour 1922. President, Institute of Electronic and Radio Engineers 1930. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Edison Medal 1946.
    Bibliography
    1904, "Electrolytic detectors", Electrician 54:94 (describes the electrolytic detector). 1907, US patent no. 841,387 (the Audion).
    1950, Father of Radio, Chicago: WIlcox \& Follett (autobiography).
    De Forest gave his own account of the development of his sound-on-film system in a series of articles: 1923. "The Phonofilm", Transactions of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers 16 (May): 61–75; 1924. "Phonofilm progress", Transactions of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers 20:17–19; 1927, "Recent developments in the Phonofilm", Transactions of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers 27:64–76; 1941, "Pioneering in talking pictures", Journal of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers 36 (January): 41–9.
    Further Reading
    G.Carneal, 1930, A Conqueror of Space (biography).
    I.Levine, 1964, Electronics Pioneer, Lee De Forest (biography).
    E.I.Sponable, 1947, "Historical development of sound films", Journal of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers 48 (April): 275–303 (an authoritative account of De Forest's sound-film work, by Case's assistant).
    W.R.McLaurin, 1949, Invention and Innovation in the Radio Industry.
    C.F.Booth, 1955, "Fleming and De Forest. An appreciation", in Thermionic Valves 1904– 1954, IEE.
    V.J.Phillips, 1980, Early Radio Detectors, London: Peter Peregrinus.
    KF / JW

    Biographical history of technology > De Forest, Lee

  • 20 Ducos du Hauron, Arthur-Louis

    [br]
    b. 1837 Langon, Bordeaux, France
    d. 19 August 1920 Agen, France
    [br]
    French scientist and pioneer of colour photography.
    [br]
    The son of a tax collector, Ducos du Hauron began researches into colour photography soon after the publication of Clerk Maxwell's experiment in 1861. In a communication sent in 1862 for presentation at the Académie des Sciences, but which was never read, he outlined a number of methods for photography of colours. Subsequently, in his book Les Couleurs en photographie, published in 1869, he outlined most of the principles of additive and subtractive colour photography that were later actually used. He covered additive processes, developed from Clerk Maxwell's demonstrations, and subtractive processes which could yield prints. At the time, the photographic materials available prevented the processes from being employed effectively. The design of his Chromoscope, in which transparent reflectors could be used to superimpose three additive images, was sound, however, and formed the basis of a number of later devices. He also proposed an additive system based on the use of a screen of fine red, yellow and blue lines, through which the photograph was taken and viewed. The lines blended additively when seen from a certain distance. Many years later, in 1907, Ducos du Hauron was to use this principle in an early commercial screen-plate process, Omnicolore. With his brother Alcide, he published a further work in 1878, Photographie des Couleurs, which described some more-practical subtractive processes. A few prints made at this time still survive and they are remarkably good for the period. In a French patent of 1895 he described yet another method for colour photography. His "polyfolium chromodialytique" involved a multiple-layer package of separate red-, green-and blue-sensitive materials and filters, which with a single exposure would analyse the scene in terms of the three primary colours. The individual layers would be separated for subsequent processing and printing. In a refined form, this is the principle behind modern colour films. In 1891 he patented and demonstrated the anaglyph method of stereoscopy, using superimposed red and green left and right eye images viewed through green and red filters. Ducos du Hauron's remarkable achievement was to propose theories of virtually all the basic methods of colour photography at a time when photographic materials were not adequate for the purpose of proving them correct. For his work on colour photography he was awarded the Progress Medal of the Royal Photographic Society in 1900, but despite his major contributions to colour photography he remained in poverty for much of his later life.
    [br]
    Further Reading
    B.Coe, 1978, Colour Photography: The First Hundred Years, London. J.S.Friedman, 1944, History of Colour Photography, Boston. E.J.Wall, 1925, The History of Three-Colour Photography, Boston. See also Cros, Charles.
    BC

    Biographical history of technology > Ducos du Hauron, Arthur-Louis

См. также в других словарях:

  • available — a|vail|a|ble W1S1 [əˈveıləbəl] adj 1.) something that is available is able to be used or can easily be bought or found ▪ Tickets are available from the box office. available to ▪ Not enough data is available to scientists. available to do sth ▪… …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation! — Promotional poster Directed by Mark Hartley Produced by …   Wikipedia

  • Subject indexing — is the act of describing a document by index terms to indicate what the document is about or to summarize its content. Indices are constructed, separately, on three distinct levels: terms in a document such as a book; objects in a collection such …   Wikipedia

  • Not Quite C — (NQC) is a programming language, application programming interface (API), and native bytecode compiler toolkit for the Lego Mindstorms, Cybermaster and LEGO Spybotics systems. It is based primarily on the C language but has specific limitations,… …   Wikipedia

  • Subject-oriented programming — Programming paradigms Agent oriented Automata based Component based Flow based Pipelined Concatenative Concurrent computing …   Wikipedia

  • Not Quite Hollywood — Infobox Film name = Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation! caption = Promotional poster director = Mark Hartley producer = Craig Griffin Michael Lynch writer = Mark Hartley starring = See below music = Stephen Cummings… …   Wikipedia

  • Medical Subject Headings — MeSH redirects here. For the organic chemical, see Methanethiol. Medical subject headings. Content Description Medical subject headings. Data types captured con …   Wikipedia

  • This Morning with Richard Not Judy — Genre Comedy Starring Stewart Lee Richard Herring Country …   Wikipedia

  • SAT Subject Tests — The SAT Subject Tests is the collective name for 20 multiple choice standardized tests given on individual subjects. A student typically chooses which tests to take depending upon college entrance requirements for the schools in which he or she… …   Wikipedia

  • List of British words not widely used in the United States — Differences between American and British English American English …   Wikipedia

  • Commentary on Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid — Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid   Cover showing the author, lef …   Wikipedia

Поделиться ссылкой на выделенное

Прямая ссылка:
Нажмите правой клавишей мыши и выберите «Копировать ссылку»