construction+manager

road [rəʊd]

1 noun

(a) (gen) route f; (small) chemin m;

∎ minor road route f secondaire;

∎ by road par la route;

∎ the Liverpool road la route de Liverpool;

∎ is this the (right) road for or to Liverpool? est-ce la (bonne) route pour Liverpool?;

∎ are we on the right road? sommes-nous sur la bonne route?;

∎ on the road to Liverpool, the car broke down en allant à Liverpool, la voiture est tombée en panne;

∎ we took the road from Manchester to Liverpool on a pris la route qui va de Manchester à Liverpool ou qui relie Manchester à Liverpool;

∎ to take to the road (driver) prendre la route ou le volant; (tramp) partir sur les routes;

∎ to be on the road (travelling) être en route ou chemin ou voyage; (salesman) être sur la route; (pop star, troupe) être en tournée;

∎ we've been on the road since six o'clock this morning nous roulons depuis six heures ce matin;

∎ his car shouldn't be on the road sa voiture devrait être retirée de la circulation;

∎ someone of his age shouldn't be on the road une personne de son âge ne devrait pas prendre le volant;

∎ British the price on the road excludes number plates and delivery le prix clés en mains ne comprend pas les frais de livraison et d'immatriculation;

∎ my car is off the road at the moment ma voiture est en panne ou chez le garagiste

(b) (street) rue f;

∎ a road of shops/of houses une rue de magasins/de maisons, une artère commerçante/résidentielle;

∎ he lives just down the road il habite un peu plus loin dans la même rue;

∎ Mr James from across the road M. James qui habite en face;

∎ he lives across the road from us il habite en face de chez nous

(c) (roadway) route f, chaussée f;

∎ to stand in the middle of the road se tenir au milieu de la route ou de la chaussée;

∎ figurative let's get this show on the road! bon, on y va!;

∎ familiar one for the road un petit coup avant de partir;

∎ proverb the road to hell is paved with good intentions l'enfer est pavé de bonnes intentions

(d) figurative (path) chemin m, voie f;

∎ if we go down that road si nous nous engageons sur cette voie;

∎ we don't want to go down the road of military intervention nous ne voulons pas nous engager dans la voie d'une intervention armée;

∎ to be on the right road être sur la bonne voie;

∎ to be on the road to success/recovery être sur le chemin de la réussite/en voie de guérison;

∎ he is on the road to an early death il est (bien) parti pour mourir jeune;

∎ down the road (in the future) à l'avenir;

∎ no one can see what is down the road personne ne peut savoir ce que l'avenir réserve;

∎ a few years down the road dans quelques années;

∎ yes, when I'm seventy, but that's a long way down the road (yet) oui, quand j'aurai soixante-dix ans, mais ce n'est pas pour tout de suite;

∎ British familiar you're in my road! (I can't pass) vous me bouchez le passage!^□ ; (I can't see) vous me bouchez la vue!^□ ;

∎ British familiar get out (of) my road! poussez-vous!^□, dégagez!;

∎ familiar it was getting in the road of solving the problem cela empêchait de résoudre le problème^□ ;

∎ proverb all roads lead to Rome tous les chemins mènent à Rome

(e) American (railway) chemin m de fer, voie f ferrée

(f) (usu pl) Nautical rade f

(g) (in mine) galerie f

(h) North of England familiar (idiom)

∎ any road (up) de toute façon^□ ;

∎ it's too late, any road de toute façon, c'est trop tard

2 compound-forming noun

(traffic, bridge) routier; (accident) de la route; (conditions, construction, repairs) des routes

►► American familiar road apple (dung) crottin^□ m;

road atlas atlas m routier;

road book guide m routier;

American Theatre road company troupe f itinérante;

road haulage camionnage m, transports mpl routiers;

road haulage company entreprise f de transports routiers;

road haulage forwarding agent groupeur m routier;

road haulier transporteur m routier, affréteur m routier;

familiar road kill = animaux écrasés par des voitures;

road maintenance voirie f;

road manager responsable mf de tournée (d'un chanteur ou d'un groupe pop);

road map carte f routière;

road metal (for road) empierrement m; Railways terre-plein m, ballast m;

road movie road-movie m;

road pricing = instauration d'un système de routes à péage;

road race (in cycling) course f cycliste sur route;

road racer (bicycle) bicyclette f de compétition; (cyclist) routier(ère) m,f;

road racing (cycling) cyclisme m sur route; (motor racing) compétition f automobile (sur route);

road rage = accès de colère provoqué par la conduite des autres automobilistes;

road roller rouleau m compresseur;

road safety sécurité f routière;

road sense (for driver) sens m de la conduite;

∎ children have to be taught road sense on doit apprendre aux enfants à faire attention à la circulation;

road sign panneau m de signalisation;

British road tax taxe f sur les automobiles;

∎ have you paid your road tax? ≃ est-ce que tu as acheté ta vignette?;

road tax disc ≃ vignette f (automobile);

road test essai m sur route;

road train train m ou convoi m routier;

road transport transports mpl routiers;

road transport company entreprise f de transport routier;

American familiar road warrior = homme d'affaires constamment en déplacement;

road works travaux mpl (d'entretien des routes)

✾ Book 'On the Road' Kerouac 'Sur la route'

work [wɜ:k]

travail ⇒ 1 (a)-(e), 1 (g) œuvre ⇒ 1 (a), 1 (f) besogne ⇒ 1 (b) emploi ⇒ 1 (c) ouvrage ⇒ 1 (f) recherches ⇒ 1 (g) travailler ⇒ 2A (a)-(e), 3A (b), 3A (c), 3A (e), 3C (a) fonctionner ⇒ 2B (a) marcher ⇒ 2B (a), 2B (b) réussir ⇒ 2B (b) agir ⇒ 2B (c), 2B (d) faire travailler ⇒ 3A (a) faire marcher ⇒ 3B (a) façonner ⇒ 3C (a) mécanisme ⇒ 4 1 (a) travaux ⇒ 4 1 (b) usine ⇒ 4 2 (a)

1 noun

(a) (effort, activity) travail m, œuvre f;

∎ computers take some of the work out of filing les ordinateurs facilitent le classement;

∎ this report needs more work il y a encore du travail à faire sur ce rapport, ce rapport demande plus de travail;

∎ she's done a lot of work for charity elle a beaucoup travaillé pour des associations caritatives;

∎ it will take a lot of work to make a team out of them ça va être un drôle de travail de faire d'eux une équipe;

∎ keep up the good work! continuez comme ça!;

∎ nice or good work! c'est du bon travail!, bravo!;

∎ that's fine work or a fine piece of work c'est du beau travail;

∎ your work has been useful vous avez fait du travail utile;

∎ work on the tunnel is to start in March (existing tunnel) les travaux sur le tunnel doivent commencer en mars; (new tunnel) la construction du tunnel doit commencer en mars;

∎ work in progress Administration travail en cours; Accountancy travaux mpl en cours, inventaire m de production; (sign) travaux en cours;

∎ she put a lot of work into that book elle a beaucoup travaillé sur ce livre;

∎ to make work for sb compliquer la vie à qn;

∎ to start work, to set to work se mettre au travail;

∎ she set or she went to work on the contract elle a commencé à travailler sur le contrat;

∎ he set to work undermining their confidence il a entrepris de saper leur confiance;

∎ I set him to work (on) painting the kitchen je lui ai donné la cuisine à peindre;

∎ they put him to work in the kitchen ils l'ont mis au travail dans la cuisine;

∎ let's get (down) to work! (mettons-nous) au travail!;

∎ proverb all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy beaucoup de travail et peu de loisirs ne réussissent à personne

(b) (duty, task) travail m, besogne f;

∎ I've got loads of work to do j'ai énormément de travail à faire;

∎ she gave us too much work elle nous a donné trop de travail;

∎ he's trying to get some work done il essaie de travailler un peu;

∎ they do their work well ils travaillent bien, ils font du bon travail;

∎ it's hard work c'est du travail, ce n'est pas facile;

∎ it's thirsty work ça donne soif;

∎ to make short or light work of sth expédier qch;

∎ figurative to make short work of sb ne faire qu'une bouchée de qn;

∎ familiar it's nice work if you can get it! c'est une bonne planque, encore faut-il la trouver!

(c) (paid employment) travail m, emploi m;

∎ what (kind of) work do you do? qu'est-ce que vous faites dans la vie?, quel travail faites-vous?;

∎ I do translation work je suis traducteur, je fais des traductions;

∎ to find work trouver du travail;

∎ to look for work chercher du travail ou un emploi;

∎ to be in work travailler, avoir un emploi;

∎ to be out of work être au chômage ou sans travail ou sans emploi;

∎ he had a week off work (holiday) il a pris une semaine de vacances; (illness) il n'est pas allé au travail pendant une semaine;

∎ to take time off work prendre des congés;

∎ she's off work today elle ne travaille pas aujourd'hui;

∎ to do a full day's work faire une journée entière de travail;

∎ people out of work (gen) les chômeurs mpl; Administration & Economics les inactifs mpl

(d) (place of employment) travail m; Administration lieu m de travail;

∎ I go to work by bus je vais au travail en bus;

∎ I'm late for work je suis en retard pour le travail;

∎ he's a friend from work c'est un collègue;

∎ where is your (place of) work? où travaillez-vous?, quel est votre lieu de travail?;

∎ on her way home from work en rentrant du travail

(e) (papers, material etc being worked on) travail m;

∎ to take work home prendre du travail à la maison;

∎ her work was all over the table son travail était étalé sur la table

(f) (creation, artefact etc) œuvre f; (on smaller scale) ouvrage m; Sewing ouvrage m;

∎ it's all my own work j'ai tout fait moi-même;

∎ it's an interesting piece of work (gen) c'est un travail intéressant; Art, Literature & Music c'est une œuvre intéressante;

∎ very detailed/delicate work (embroidery, carving etc) ouvrage très détaillé/délicat;

∎ these formations are the work of the wind ces formations sont l'œuvre du vent;

∎ the silversmith sells much of his work to hotels l'orfèvre vend une grande partie de ce qu'il fait ou de son travail à des hôtels;

∎ the complete works of Shakespeare les œuvres complètes ou l'œuvre de Shakespeare;

∎ a new work on Portugal un nouvel ouvrage sur le Portugal;

∎ a work of art une œuvre d'art;

∎ works of fiction des ouvrages de fiction

(g) (research) travail m, recherches fpl;

∎ there hasn't been a lot of work done on the subject peu de travail a été fait ou peu de recherches ont été faites sur le sujet

(h) (deed) œuvre f, acte m;

∎ good works bonnes œuvres fpl;

∎ each man will be judged by his works chaque homme sera jugé selon ses œuvres;

∎ charitable works actes mpl de charité, actes mpl charitables;

∎ the murder is the work of a madman le meurtre est l'œuvre d'un fou

(i) (effect) effet m;

∎ wait until the medicine has done its work attendez que le médicament ait agi ou ait produit son effet

(j) Physics travail m

2 intransitive verb

A.

(a) (exert effort on a specific task, activity etc) travailler;

∎ we worked for hours cleaning the house nous avons passé des heures à faire le ménage;

∎ they worked in the garden ils ont fait du jardinage;

∎ we work hard nous travaillons dur;

∎ she's working on a novel just now elle travaille à un roman en ce moment;

∎ a detective is working on this case un détective est sur cette affaire;

∎ he works at or on keeping himself fit il fait de l'exercice pour garder la forme;

∎ we have to work to a deadline nous devons respecter des délais dans notre travail;

∎ we have to work to a budget nous devons travailler avec un certain budget;

∎ I've worked with the handicapped before j'ai déjà travaillé avec les handicapés;

∎ I work with the Spanish on that project je travaille (en collaboration) avec les Espagnols sur ce projet

(b) (be employed) travailler;

∎ he works as a teacher il a un poste d'enseignant;

∎ I work in advertising je travaille dans la publicité;

∎ who do you work for? chez qui est-ce que vous travaillez?;

∎ she works in or for a bank elle travaille dans ou pour une banque;

∎ I work a forty-hour week je travaille quarante heures par semaine, je fais une semaine de quarante heures;

∎ to work for a living travailler pour gagner sa vie;

∎ Industry to work to rule faire la grève du zèle

(c) (strive for a specific goal or aim)

∎ to work for a good cause travailler pour une bonne cause;

∎ they're working for better international relations ils s'efforcent d'améliorer les relations internationales

(d) (study) travailler, étudier;

∎ you're going to have to work if you want to pass the exam il va falloir que tu travailles ou que tu étudies si tu veux avoir ton examen

(e) (use a specified substance) travailler;

∎ this sculptor works in or with copper ce sculpteur travaille avec le cuivre;

∎ she has always worked in or with watercolours elle a toujours travaillé avec de la peinture à l'eau

B.

(a) (function, operate → machine, brain, system) fonctionner, marcher;

∎ the lift doesn't work at night l'ascenseur ne marche pas la nuit;

∎ the lift never works l'ascenseur est toujours en panne;

∎ the radio works off batteries la radio fonctionne avec des piles;

∎ a pump worked by hand une pompe actionnée à la main ou manuellement;

∎ they soon got or had it working ils sont vite parvenus à le faire fonctionner;

∎ she sat still, her brain or her mind working furiously elle était assise immobile, le cerveau en ébullition;

∎ figurative everything worked smoothly tout s'est déroulé comme prévu;

∎ your idea just won't work ton idée ne peut pas marcher;

∎ this relationship isn't working cette relation ne marche pas;

∎ that argument works both ways ce raisonnement est à double tranchant;

∎ how does the law work exactly? comment la loi fonctionne-t-elle exactement?

(b) (produce results, succeed) marcher, réussir;

∎ it worked brilliantly ça a très bien marché;

∎ their scheme didn't work leur complot a échoué;

∎ that/flattery won't work with me ça/la flatterie ne prend pas avec moi

(c) (drug, medicine) agir, produire ou faire son effet

(d) (act) agir;

∎ the acid works as a catalyst l'acide agit comme ou sert de catalyseur;

∎ events have worked against us/in our favour les événements ont agi contre nous/en notre faveur;

∎ I'm working on the assumption that they'll sign the contract je pars du principe qu'ils signeront le contrat

C.

(a) (reach a condition or state gradually)

∎ to work loose se desserrer;

∎ to work free se libérer;

∎ the nail worked through the sole of my shoe le clou est passé à travers la semelle de ma chaussure

(b) (face, mouth) se contracter, se crisper

(c) (ferment) fermenter

3 transitive verb

A.

(a) (worker, employee, horse) faire travailler;

∎ the boss works his staff hard le patron exige beaucoup de travail de ses employés;

∎ you work yourself too hard tu te surmènes;

∎ to work oneself to death se tuer à la tâche;

∎ to work one's fingers to the bone s'user au travail

(b) (pay for with labour or service)

∎ they worked their passage to India ils ont payé leur passage en Inde en travaillant;

∎ I worked my way through college j'ai travaillé pour payer mes études à l'université

(c) (carry on activity in)

∎ he works the southern sales area il travaille pour le service commercial de la région sud;

∎ the pollster worked both sides of the street le sondeur a enquêté des deux côtés de la rue;

∎ figurative the candidate worked the crowd le candidat s'efforçait de soulever l'enthousiasme de la foule;

∎ a real-estate agent who works the phones un agent immobilier qui fait de la prospection par téléphone;

∎ she works the bars (prostitute) elle travaille dans les bars

(d) (achieve, accomplish)

∎ the new policy will work major changes la nouvelle politique opérera ou entraînera des changements importants;

∎ the story worked its magic or its charm on the public l'histoire a enchanté le public;

∎ to work a spell on sb jeter un sort à qn;

∎ to work miracles faire ou accomplir des miracles;

∎ to work wonders faire merveille;

∎ she has worked wonders with the children elle a fait des merveilles avec les enfants

(e) (make use of, exploit → land) travailler, cultiver; (→ mine, quarry) exploiter, faire valoir

B.

(a) (operate) faire marcher, faire fonctionner;

∎ this switch works the furnace ce bouton actionne ou commande la chaudière;

∎ he knows how to work the drill il sait se servir de la perceuse

(b) (manoeuvre)

∎ I worked the handle up and down j'ai remué la poignée de haut en bas;

∎ to work one's hands free parvenir à dégager ses mains;

∎ she worked the ropes loose elle a réussi à desserrer les cordes petit à petit

(c) (by slow progression)

∎ I worked my way along the ledge j'ai longé la saillie avec précaution;

∎ he worked his way down/up the cliff il a descendu/monté la falaise lentement;

∎ the beggar worked his way towards us le mendiant s'est approché de nous;

∎ they worked their way through the list ils ont traité chaque élément de la liste tour à tour;

∎ he's worked his way through the whole grant il a épuisé toute la subvention;

∎ a band of rain working its way across the country un front de pluie qui traverse le pays;

∎ they have worked themselves into a corner ils se sont mis dans une impasse

(d) familiar (contrive) s'arranger;

∎ she managed to work a few days off elle s'est arrangée ou s'est débrouillée pour avoir quelques jours de congé;

∎ I worked it or worked things so that she's never alone j'ai fait en sorte qu'elle ou je me suis arrangé pour qu'elle ne soit jamais seule

C.

(a) (shape → leather, metal, stone) travailler, façonner; (→ clay, dough) travailler, pétrir; (→ object, sculpture) façonner; Sewing (design, initials) broder;

∎ she worked the silver into earrings elle a travaillé l'argent pour en faire des boucles d'oreilles;

∎ she worked a figure out of the wood elle a sculpté une silhouette dans le bois;

∎ the flowers are worked in silk les fleurs sont brodées en soie;

∎ work the putty into the right consistency travaillez le mastic pour lui donner la consistance voulue

(b) (rub)

∎ gently work the cream into your hands massez-vous les mains pour faire pénétrer la crème;

∎ work the dye into the surface of the leather faites pénétrer la teinture dans le cuir

(c) (excite, provoke)

∎ the orator worked the audience into a frenzy l'orateur a enflammé ou a galvanisé le public;

∎ she worked herself into a rage elle s'est mise dans une colère noire

4 works

1 plural noun

(a) (mechanism) mécanisme m, rouages mpl; (of clock) mouvement m;

∎ familiar to foul up or to gum up the works tout foutre en l'air

(b) Building industry travaux mpl; (installation) installations fpl;

∎ road works travaux mpl; (sign) travaux;

∎ Minister/Ministry of Works ministre m/ministère m des Travaux publics

2 noun

(a) Industry (factory) usine f;

∎ a printing works une imprimerie;

∎ a gas works une usine à gaz;

∎ price ex works prix m sortie usine

(b) familiar (everything)

∎ the (whole) works tout le bataclan ou le tralala;

∎ they had eggs, bacon, toast, the works ils mangeaient des œufs, du bacon, du pain grillé, tout, quoi!;

∎ American to shoot the works jouer le grand jeu;

∎ American we shot the works on the project nous avons mis le paquet sur le projet;

∎ to give sb the works (special treatment) dérouler le tapis rouge pour qn; (beating) passer qn à tabac

5 at work

1 adjective

(a) (person)

∎ to be at work on sth/(on) doing sth travailler (à) qch/à faire qch;

∎ he's at work on a new book il travaille à un nouveau livre;

∎ they're hard at work painting the house ils sont en plein travail, ils repeignent la maison

(b) (having an effect)

∎ there are several factors at work here il y a plusieurs facteurs qui entrent en jeu ou qui jouent ici;

∎ there are evil forces at work des forces mauvaises sont en action

2 adverb

(at place of work)

∎ she's at work (gen) elle est au travail; (office) elle est au bureau; (factory) elle est à l'usine;

∎ I'll phone you at work je t'appellerai au travail;

∎ we met at work on s'est connus au travail

►► work area (in school, home) coin m de travail; Computing zone f de travail;

works band fanfare m (d'une entreprise);

work camp (prison) camp m de travail; (voluntary) chantier m de travail;

American work coat blouse f;

works committee, works council comité m d'entreprise;

work ethic = exaltation des valeurs liées au travail;

work experience stage m (en entreprise);

∎ the course includes two months' work experience le programme comprend un stage en entreprise de deux mois;

American work farm = camp de travail forcé où les détenus travaillent la terre;

Computing work file fichier m de travail;

work flow déroulement m des opérations;

work group groupe m de travail;

works manager directeur(trice) m,f d'usine;

work party (of soldiers) escouade f; (of prisoners) groupe m de travail;

work permit permis m de travail;

Computing work sheet feuille f de travail;

work space (at home) coin-travail m; (in office) & Computing espace m de travail;

∎ I need more work space j'ai besoin de plus d'espace pour travailler;

work surface surface f de travail;

American work week semaine f de travail

➲ work away intransitive verb

travailler;

∎ while he worked away at fixing the furnace tandis qu'il travaillait à réparer la chaudière;

∎ we worked away all evening nous avons passé la soirée à travailler

➲ work down intransitive verb

glisser;

∎ her socks had worked down around her ankles ses chaussettes étaient tombées sur ses chevilles

➲ work in separable transitive verb

(a) (incorporate) incorporer;

∎ work the ointment in thoroughly faites bien pénétrer la pommade;

∎ Cookery work the butter into the flour incorporez le beurre à la farine

(b) (insert) faire entrer ou introduire petit à petit;

∎ he worked in a few sly remarks about the boss il a réussi à glisser quelques réflexions sournoises sur le patron;

∎ I'll try and work the translation in some time this week (into schedule) j'essayerai de (trouver le temps de) faire la traduction dans le courant de la semaine

➲ work off separable transitive verb

(a) (dispose of → fat, weight) se débarrasser de, éliminer; (→ anxiety, frustration) passer, assouvir;

∎ I worked off my excess energy chopping wood j'ai dépensé mon trop-plein d'énergie en cassant du bois;

∎ he worked off his tensions by running il s'est défoulé en faisant du jogging;

∎ to work off one's anger on sb passer sa colère sur qn

(b) (debt, obligation)

∎ it took him three months to work off his debt il a dû travailler trois mois pour rembourser son emprunt

➲ work on

1 inseparable transitive verb

(a) (person) essayer de convaincre;

∎ we've been working on him but he still won't go nous avons essayé de le persuader mais il ne veut toujours pas y aller;

∎ I'll work on her je vais m'occuper d'elle

(b) (task, problem)

∎ the police are working on who stole the jewels la police s'efforce de retrouver celui qui a volé les bijoux;

∎ he's been working on his breaststroke/emotional problems il a travaillé sa brasse/essayé de résoudre ses problèmes sentimentaux;

∎ have you got any ideas? - I'm working on it as-tu des idées? - je cherche

(c) (use as basis)

∎ have you any data to work on? avez-vous des données sur lesquelles vous fonder?

2 intransitive verb

(continue to work) continuer à travailler

➲ work out

1 separable transitive verb

(a) (discharge fully) acquitter en travaillant;

∎ to work out one's notice faire son préavis

(b) (calculate → cost, distance, sum) calculer; (→ answer, total) trouver;

∎ I work it out at £22 d'après mes calculs, ça fait 22 livres

(c) (solve → calculation, problem) résoudre; (→ puzzle) faire, résoudre; (→ code) déchiffrer;

∎ have they worked out their differences? est-ce qu'ils ont réglé ou résolu leurs différends?;

∎ I'm sure we can work this thing out (your problem) je suis sûr que nous pouvons arranger ça; (our argument) je suis sûr que nous finirons par nous mettre d'accord;

∎ things will work themselves out les choses s'arrangeront toutes seules ou d'elles-mêmes

(d) (formulate → idea, plan) élaborer, combiner; (→ agreement, details) mettre au point;

∎ to work out a solution trouver une solution;

∎ have you worked out yet when it's due to start? est-ce que tu sais quand ça doit commencer?;

∎ she had it all worked out elle avait tout planifié;

∎ we worked out an easier route nous avons trouvé un itinéraire plus facile

(e) (figure out) arriver à comprendre;

∎ I finally worked out why he was acting so strangely j'ai enfin découvert ou compris pourquoi il se comportait si bizarrement;

∎ the dog had worked out how to open the door le chien avait compris comment ouvrir la porte;

∎ I can't work her out je n'arrive pas à la comprendre;

∎ I can't work their relationship out leurs rapports me dépassent

(f) (mine, well) épuiser

2 intransitive verb

(a) (happen) se passer;

∎ it depends on how things work out ça dépend de la façon dont les choses se passent;

∎ the trip worked out as planned le voyage s'est déroulé comme prévu;

∎ I wonder how it will all work out je me demande comment tout cela va s'arranger;

∎ it all worked out for the best tout a fini par s'arranger pour le mieux;

∎ but it didn't work out that way mais il en a été tout autrement;

∎ it worked out badly for them les choses ont mal tourné pour eux

(b) (have a good result → job, plan) réussir; (→ problem, puzzle) se résoudre;

∎ she worked out fine as personnel director elle s'est bien débrouillée comme directeur du personnel;

∎ are things working out for you OK? est-ce que ça se passe bien pour toi?;

∎ did the new job work out? ça a marché pour le nouveau boulot?;

∎ it didn't work out between them les choses ont plutôt mal tourné entre eux;

∎ their project didn't work out leur projet est tombé à l'eau

(c) (amount to)

∎ how much does it all work out at? ça fait combien en tout?;

∎ the average price for an apartment works out to or at $5,000 per square metre le prix moyen d'un appartement s'élève ou revient à 5000 dollars le mètre carré;

∎ that works out at three hours a week ça fait trois heures par semaine;

∎ electric heating works out expensive le chauffage électrique revient cher

(d) (exercise) faire de l'exercice; (professional athlete) s'entraîner

➲ work over separable transitive verb

(a) American (revise) revoir, réviser

(b) familiar (beat up) tabasser, passer à tabac

➲ work round

1 intransitive verb

(a) (turn) tourner;

∎ the wind worked round to the north le vent a tourné au nord petit à petit

(b) figurative (in conversation)

∎ he finally worked round to the subject of housing il a fini par aborder le sujet du logement;

∎ what's she working round to? où veut-elle en venir?

2 separable transitive verb

∎ (bring round) I worked the conversation round to my salary j'ai amené la conversation sur la question de mon salaire

➲ work through

1 separable transitive verb

(a) (insert) faire passer à travers

(b) (progress through)

∎ we worked our way through the crowd nous nous sommes frayé un chemin à travers la foule;

∎ he worked his way through the book il a lu le livre du début à la fin;

∎ figurative I worked the problem through j'ai étudié le problème sous tous ses aspects

2 inseparable transitive verb

(a) (continue to work)

∎ she worked through lunch elle a travaillé pendant l'heure du déjeuner

(b) (resolve)

∎ he worked through his emotional problems il a réussi à assumer ses problèmes affectifs

➲ work up

1 separable transitive verb

(a) (stir up, rouse) exciter, provoquer;

∎ he worked up the crowd il a excité la foule;

∎ he worked the crowd up into a frenzy il a rendu la foule frénétique;

∎ he works himself up or he gets himself worked up over nothing il s'énerve pour rien;

∎ she had worked herself up into a dreadful rage elle s'était mise dans une rage terrible

(b) (develop) développer;

∎ I want to work these ideas up into an article je veux développer ces idées pour en faire un article;

∎ to work up an appetite se mettre en appétit;

∎ we worked up a sweat/a thirst playing tennis jouer au tennis nous a donné chaud/soif;

∎ I can't work up any enthusiasm for this work je n'arrive pas à avoir le moindre enthousiasme pour ce travail;

∎ he tried to work up an interest in the cause il a essayé de s'intéresser à la cause

(c) (idiom)

∎ to work one's way up faire son chemin;

∎ she worked her way up from secretary to managing director elle a commencé comme secrétaire et elle a fait son chemin jusqu'au poste de P-DG;

∎ I worked my way up from nothing je suis parti de rien

2 intransitive verb

(a) (clothing) remonter

(b) (build up)

∎ the film was working up to a climax le film approchait de son point culminant;

∎ things were working up to a crisis une crise se préparait, on était au bord d'une crise;

∎ she's working up to what she wanted to ask elle en vient à ce qu'elle voulait demander;

∎ what are you working up to? où veux-tu en venir?

SUBJECT AREA: Ports and shipping

[br]

[br]

[br]

Amos Ayre grew up on the Tyne with the stimulus of shipbuilding and seafaring around him. After an apprenticeship as a ship draughtsman and distinction in his studies, he held responsible posts in the shipyards of Belfast and later Dublin. His first dramatic move came in 1909 when he accepted the post of Manager of the new Employment Exchange at Govan, then just outside Glasgow. During the First World War he was in charge of fleet coaling operations on the River Forth, and later was promoted Admiralty District Director for shipyard labour in Scotland.

Before the conclusion of hostilities, with his brother Wilfrid (later Sir Wilfrid Ayre) he founded the Burntisland Shipbuilding Company in Fife. Setting up on a green field site allowed the brothers to show innovation in design, production and marketing. Such was their success that the new yard was busy throughout the Depression, building standard ships which incorporated low operating costs with simplicity of construction.

Through public service culminating in the 1929 Safety of Life at Sea Conference, Amos Ayre became recognized not only as an eminent naval architect, but also as a skilled negotiator. In 1936 he was invited to become Chairman of the Shipbuilding Conference and thereby virtual leader of the industry. As war approached he planned with meticulous care the rearrangement of national shipbuilding capacity, enabling Britain to produce standard hulls ranging from the legendary TID tugs to the standard freighters built in Sunderland or Port Glasgow. In 1939 he became Director of Merchant Shipbuilding, a position he held until 1944, when with typical foresight he asked to be released to plan for shipbuilding's return to normality.

[br]

SUBJECT AREA: Ports and shipping

[br]

[br]

[br]

Kenneth Barnaby was an eminent naval architect, as were his father and grandfather before him: his grandfather was Sir Nathaniel Barnaby KGB, Director of Naval Construction, and his father was Sydney W.Barnaby, naval architect of John I. Thornycroft \& Co., Shipbuilders, Southampton. At one time all three were members of the Institution of Naval Architects, the first time that this had ever occurred with three members from one family.

Kenneth Barnaby served his apprenticeship at the Thornycroft shipyard in Southampton and later graduated in engineering from the Central Technical College, South Kensington, London. He worked for some years at Le Havre and at John Brown's shipyard at Clydebank before rejoining his old firm in 1916 as Assistant to the Shipyard Manager. In 1919 he went to Rio de Janeiro as a chief ship draughtsman, and finally he returned to Thornycroft, in 1924 he succeeded his father as Naval Architect, and remained in that post until his retirement in 1955, having been appointed a director in 1950.

Barnaby had a wide knowledge and understanding of ships and ship design and during the Second World War he was responsible for much of the development work for landing craft, as well as for many other specialist ships built at the Southampton yard. His experience as a deep-sea yachtsman assisted him. He wrote several important books; however, none can compare with the Centenary Volume of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects. In this work, which is used and read widely to this day by naval architects worldwide, he reviewed every paper presented and almost every verbal contribution made to the Transactions during its one hundred years.

[br]

SUBJECT AREA: Land transport, Mining and extraction technology, Railways and locomotives

[br]

[br]

[br]

The son of a "coal viewer", Curr was brought up in the West Durham colliery district. In 1777 he went to the Duke of Norfolk's collieries at Sheffield, where in 1880 he was appointed Superintendent. There coal was conveyed underground in baskets on sledges: Curr replaced the wicker sledges with wheeled corves, i.e. small four-wheeled wooden wagons, running on "rail-roads" with cast-iron rails and hauled from the coal-face to the shaft bottom by horses. The rails employed hitherto had usually consisted of plates of iron, the flange being on the wheels of the wagon. Curr's new design involved flanges on the rails which guided the vehicles, the wheels of which were unflanged and could run on any hard surface. He appears to have left no precise record of the date that he did this, and surviving records have been interpreted as implying various dates between 1776 and 1787. In 1787 John Buddle paid tribute to the efficiency of the rails of Curr's type, which were first used for surface transport by Joseph Butler in 1788 at his iron furnace at Wingerworth near Chesterfield: their use was then promoted widely by Benjamin Outram, and they were adopted in many other English mines. They proved serviceable until the advent of locomotives demanded different rails.

In 1788 Curr also developed a system for drawing a full corve up a mine shaft while lowering an empty one, with guides to separate them. At the surface the corves were automatically emptied by tipplers. Four years later he was awarded a patent for using double ropes for lifting heavier loads. As the weight of the rope itself became a considerable problem with the increasing depth of the shafts, Curr invented the flat hemp rope, patented in 1798, which consisted of several small round ropes stitched together and lapped upon itself in winding. It acted as a counterbalance and led to a reduction in the time and cost of hoisting: at the beginning of a run the loaded rope began to coil upon a small diameter, gradually increasing, while the unloaded rope began to coil off a large diameter, gradually decreasing.

Curr's book The Coal Viewer (1797) is the earliest-known engineering work on railway track and it also contains the most elaborate description of a Newcomen pumping engine, at the highest state of its development. He became an acknowledged expert on construction of Newcomen-type atmospheric engines, and in 1792 he established a foundry to make parts for railways and engines.

Because of the poor financial results of the Duke of Norfolk's collieries at the end of the century, Curr was dismissed in 1801 despite numerous inventions and improvements which he had introduced. After his dismissal, six more of his patents were concerned with rope-making: the one he gained in 1813 referred to the application of flat ropes to horse-gins and perpendicular drum-shafts of steam engines. Curr also introduced the use of inclined planes, where a descending train of full corves pulled up an empty one, and he was one of the pioneers employing fixed steam engines for hauling. He may have resided in France for some time before his death.

[br]

WK / PJGR

SUBJECT AREA: Ports and shipping

[br]

[br]

[br]

From 1844 until 1962, the Clyde shipyard of William Denny and Brothers, Dumbarton, produced over 1,500 ships, trained innumerable students of all nationalities in shipbuilding and marine engineering, and for the seventy-plus years of their existence were accepted worldwide as the leaders in the application of science to ship design and construction. Until the closure of the yard members of the Denny family were among the partners and later directors of the firm: they included men as distinguished as Dr Peter Denny (1821(?)–95), Sir Archibald Denny (1860–1936) and Sir Maurice Denny (1886– 1955), the main collaborator in the design of the Denny-Brown ship stabilizer.

One of the most influential of this shipbuilding family was William Denny, now referred to as William 3! His early education was at Dumbarton, then on Jersey and finally at the Royal High School, Edinburgh, before he commenced an apprenticeship at his father's shipyard. From the outset he not only showed great aptitude for learning and hard work but also displayed an ability to create good relationships with all he came into contact with. At the early age of 21 he was admitted a partner of the shipbuilding business of William Denny and Brothers, and some years later also of the associated engineering firm of Denny \& Co. His deep-felt interest in what is now known as industrial relations led him in 1871 to set up a piecework system of payment in the shipyard. In this he was helped by the Yard Manager, Richard Ramage, who later was to found the Leith shipyard, which produced the world's most elegant steam yachts. This research was published later as a pamphlet called The Worth of Wages, an unusual and forward-looking action for the 1860s, when Denny maintained that an absentee employer should earn as much contempt and disapproval as an absentee landlord! In 1880 he initiated an awards scheme for all company employees, with grants and awards for inventions and production improvements. William Denny was not slow to impose new methods and to research naval architecture, a special interest being progressive ship trials with a view to predicting effective horsepower. In time this led to his proposal to the partners to build a ship model testing tank beside the Dumbarton shipyard; this scheme was completed in 1883 and was to the third in the world (after the Admiralty tank at Torquay, managed by William Froude and the Royal Netherlands Navy facility at Amsterdam, under B.J. Tideman. In 1876 the Denny Shipyard started work with mild-quality shipbuilding steel on hulls for the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company, and in 1879 the world's first two ships of any size using this weight-saving material were produced: they were the Rotomahana for the Union Steamship Company of New Zealand and the Buenos Ayrean for the Allan Line of Glasgow. On the naval-architecture side he was involved in Denny's proposals for standard cross curves of stability for all ships, which had far-reaching effects and are now accepted worldwide. He served on the committee working on improvements to the Load Line regulations and many other similar public bodies. After a severe bout of typhoid and an almost unacceptable burden of work, he left the United Kingdom for South America in June 1886 to attend to business with La Platense Flotilla Company, an associate company of William Denny and Brothers. In March the following year, while in Buenos Aires, he died by his own hand, a death that caused great and genuine sadness in the West of Scotland and elsewhere.

[br]

SUBJECT AREA: Steam and internal combustion engines

[br]

[br]

[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]

SUBJECT AREA: Ports and shipping

[br]

[br]

[br]

Ferguson was educated at the High School of Glasgow before going on to serve his apprenticeship in the engineering department of Thomas Wingate's shipyard. This yard, situated at Whiteinch, then just outside the Glasgow boundary, built interesting and innovative craft and had a tradition of supplying marine engines that were at the leading edge of technology. On his appointment as Manager, Ferguson designed several new types of engines, and in 1872 he was responsible for the construction of what is claimed to be the world's first triple-expansion engine, predating the machinery on SS Propontis by two years and Napier's masterpiece, the SS Aberdeen, by nine years. In 1885, along with others, he founded the shipyard of Fleming and Ferguson, of Paisley, which in the subsequent eighty-five years was to build nearly seven hundred ships. From the outset they built advanced steam reciprocating machinery as well as dredging and other types of plant. The new shipyard was to benefit from Ferguson's experience and from the inspiration he had gained in Wingate's, where experimentation was the norm.

[br]

SUBJECT AREA: Ports and shipping

[br]

[br]

[br]

Following his education at Brisbane Academy in Largs, William Fife (the third generation of the name) became apprenticed at the age of 14 to the already famous yacht-building yard owned by his family at Fairlie in Ayrshire. On completion of his apprenticeship, he joined the Paisley shipbuilders John Fullerton \& Co. to gain experience in iron shipbuilding before going on as Manager to the Marquis of Ailsa's Culzean Steam Launch and Yacht Works. Initially the works was sited below the famous castle at Culzean, but some years later it moved a few miles along the Ayrshire Coast to Maidens. The Culzean Company was wound up in 1887 and Fife then returned to the family yard, where he remained for the rest of his working life. Many outstanding yachts were the product of his hours on the drawing board, including auxiliary sailing cruisers, motor yachts and well-known racing craft. The most outstanding designs were for two of Sir Thomas Lipton's challengers for the America's Cup: Shamrock I and Shamrock III. The latter yacht was tested at the Ship Model Experiment Tank owned by Denny of Dumbarton before being built at their Leven Shipyard in 1903. Shamrock III may have been one of the earliest America's Cup yachts to have been designed with a high level of scientific input. The hull construction was unusual for the early years of the twentieth century, being of alloy steel with decks of aluminium.

William Fife was decorated for his service to shipbuilding during the First World War. With the onset of the Great Depression the shipyard's output slowed, and in the 1930s it was sold to other interests; this was the end of the 120-year Fife dynasty.

[br]

SUBJECT AREA: Electricity, Public utilities

[br]

[br]

[br]

Merz was educated at Bootham School in York and Armstrong College in Newcastle. He served an apprenticeship with the Newcastle Electric Supply Company at their first power station, Pandon Dene, and part of his training was at Robey and Company of Lincoln, steam engine builders, and the British Thomson-Houston Company, electrical equipment manufacturers. After working at Bankside in London and at Croydon, he became Manager of the Croydon supply undertaking. In 1898 he went to Cork on behalf of BTH to build and manage a tramway and electricity company. It was there that he met William McLellan, who later joined him in establishing a firm of consulting engineers. Merz, with his vision of large-scale electricity supply, pioneered an integrated traction and electricity scheme in north-eastern England. He was involved in the reorganization of electricity schemes in many countries and established a reputation as a leading parliamentary witness. Merz was appointed Director of Experiments and Research at the Admiralty, where his main contribution was the creation of an organization of outstanding engineers and scientists during the First World War. In 1925 he was largely responsible for a report of the Weir Committee which led to the Electricity (Supply) Act of 1926, the formation of the Central Electricity Board and the construction of the National Grid. The choice of 132 kV as the original grid voltage was that of Merz and his associates, as was the origin of the term "grid". Merz and his firm produced many technical innovations, including the first power-system control room and Merz-Price and Merz-Hunter forms of cable and transformer protection.

[br]

SUBJECT AREA: Automotive engineering, Land transport

[br]

[br]

[br]

At the age of fifteen, Porsche built a complete electrical installation for his home. In 1894 he went to technical school in Vienna. Four years later he became Manager of the test department of the Bela Egger concern, which later became part of the Brown Boveri organization where he became the first Assistant in the calculating section. In 1899 he joined the long-established coachbuilders Jacob Lohner, and in 1902 a car of his design with mixed drive won the 1,000 kg (2,200 lb) class in the Exelberg races. In 1905 he joined the Austro-Daimler Company as Technical Director; his subsequent designs included an 85 hp mixed-drive racing car in 1907 and in 1912 an air-cooled aircraft engine which came to be known in later years as the "great-grandfather" of the Volkswagen engine. In 1916, he became Managing Director of Austro-Daimler.

In 1921 he designed his first small car, which, appearing under the name of Sasch, won its class in the 1922 Targa Florio, a gruelling road-race in Italy. In 1923 Porsche left Austro-Daimler and joined the Daimler Company in Untertürk-heim, near Stuttgart, Germany. In 1929 he joined the firm of Steyr in Austria as a director and chief engineer, and in 1930 he set up his own independent design office in Stuttgart. In 1932 he visited Russia, and in the same year completed the design calculations for the Auto-Union racing car.

In 1934, with his son Ferry (b. 1909), he prepared a plan for the construction of the German "people's car", a project initiated by Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime; in June of that year he signed a contract for the design work on the Volkswagen. Racing cars of his design were also successful in 1934: the rear-engined Auto-Union won the German Grand Prix, and another Au to-Union car took the Flying Kilometre speed record at 327 km/h (203.2 mph). In 1935 Daimler-Benz started preproduction on the Volkswagen. The first trials of the cars took place in the autumn of 1936, and the following year thirty experimental cars were built by Daimler-Benz. In that year, Porsche visited the United States, where he met Henry Ford; in October an Auto-Union took the Flying Five Kilometre record at 404.3 km/h (251.2 mph). On 26 May 1938, the foundation stone of the Volkswagen factory was laid in Wolfsburg, near Braunschweig, Germany.

In October 1945 Ferdinand Porsche was arrested by a unit of the United States Army and taken to Hessen; the French army removed him to Baden-Baden, then to Paris and later to Dijon. During this time he was consulted by Renault engineers regarding the design of their 4CV and designed a diesel-engined tractor. He was finally released on 5 August 1947. His last major work before his death was the approval of the design for the Cisitalia Grand Prix car.

[br]

SUBJECT AREA: Land transport, Railways and locomotives

[br]

[br]

[br]

Ramsbottom's initial experience was gained at the locomotive manufacturers Sharp, Roberts \& Co. At the age of 28 he was Manager of the Longsight works of the Manchester \& Birmingham Railway, which, with other lines, became part of the London \& North Western Railway (L \& NWR) in 1846. Ramsbottom was appointed Locomotive Superintendent of its north-eastern division. Soon after 1850 came his first major invention, that of the split-ring piston, consisting of castiron rings fitted round the piston to ensure a steam-tight fit in the cylinder. This proved to be successful, with a worldwide application. In 1856 he introduced sight-feed lubrication and the form of safety valve that bears his name. In 1857 he became Locomotive Superintendent of the L \& NWR at Crewe, producing two notable classes of locomotives: 2–4–0s for passenger traffic; and 0–6–0s for goods. They were of straightforward design and robust construction, and ran successfully for many years. His most spectacular railway invention was the water trough between the rails which enabled locomotives to replenish their water tanks without stopping.

As part of his policy of making Crewe works as independent as possible, Ramsbottom made several metallurgical innovations. He installed one of the earliest Bessemer converters for steelmaking. More important, in 1866 he coupled the engine part of a railway engine to a two-high rolling mill so that the rolls could be run in either direction, and quickly change direction, by means of the standard railway link reversing gear. This greatly speeded up the rolling of iron or steel into the required sections. He eventually retired in 1871.

[br]

SUBJECT AREA: Land transport, Railways and locomotives, Steam and internal combustion engines

[br]

[br]

[br]

Trevithick's father was a tin-mine manager, and Trevithick himself, after limited formal education, developed his immense engineering talent among local mining machinery and steam-engines and found employment as a mining engineer. Tall, strong and high-spirited, he was the eternal optimist.

About 1797 it occurred to him that the separate condenser patent of James Watt could be avoided by employing "strong steam", that is steam at pressures substantially greater than atmospheric, to drive steam-engines: after use, steam could be exhausted to the atmosphere and the condenser eliminated. His first winding engine on this principle came into use in 1799, and subsequently such engines were widely used. To produce high-pressure steam, a stronger boiler was needed than the boilers then in use, in which the pressure vessel was mounted upon masonry above the fire: Trevithick designed the cylindrical boiler, with furnace tube within, from which the Cornish and later the Lancashire boilers evolved.

Simultaneously he realized that high-pressure steam enabled a compact steam-engine/boiler unit to be built: typically, the Trevithick engine comprised a cylindrical boiler with return firetube, and a cylinder recessed into the boiler. No beam intervened between connecting rod and crank. A master patent was taken out.

Such an engine was well suited to driving vehicles. Trevithick built his first steam-carriage in 1801, but after a few days' use it overturned on a rough Cornish road and was damaged beyond repair by fire. Nevertheless, it had been the first self-propelled vehicle successfully to carry passengers. His second steam-carriage was driven about the streets of London in 1803, even more successfully; however, it aroused no commercial interest. Meanwhile the Coalbrookdale Company had started to build a locomotive incorporating a Trevithick engine for its tramroads, though little is known of the outcome; however, Samuel Homfray's ironworks at Penydarren, South Wales, was already building engines to Trevithick's design, and in 1804 Trevithick built one there as a locomotive for the Penydarren Tramroad. In this, and in the London steam-carriage, exhaust steam was turned up the chimney to draw the fire. On 21 February the locomotive hauled five wagons with 10 tons of iron and seventy men for 9 miles (14 km): it was the first successful railway locomotive.

Again, there was no commercial interest, although Trevithick now had nearly fifty stationary engines completed or being built to his design under licence. He experimented with one to power a barge on the Severn and used one to power a dredger on the Thames. He became Engineer to a project to drive a tunnel beneath the Thames at Rotherhithe and was only narrowly defeated, by quicksands. Trevithick then set up, in 1808, a circular tramroad track in London and upon it demonstrated to the admission-fee-paying public the locomotive Catch me who can, built to his design by John Hazledine and J.U. Rastrick.

In 1809, by which date Trevithick had sold all his interest in the steam-engine patent, he and Robert Dickinson, in partnership, obtained a patent for iron tanks to hold liquid cargo in ships, replacing the wooden casks then used, and started to manufacture them. In 1810, however, he was taken seriously ill with typhus for six months and had to return to Cornwall, and early in 1811 the partners were bankrupt; Trevithick was discharged from bankruptcy only in 1814.

In the meantime he continued as a steam engineer and produced a single-acting steam engine in which the cut-off could be varied to work the engine expansively by way of a three-way cock actuated by a cam. Then, in 1813, Trevithick was approached by a representative of a company set up to drain the rich but flooded silver-mines at Cerro de Pasco, Peru, at an altitude of 14,000 ft (4,300 m). Low-pressure steam engines, dependent largely upon atmospheric pressure, would not work at such an altitude, but Trevithick's high-pressure engines would. Nine engines and much other mining plant were built by Hazledine and Rastrick and despatched to Peru in 1814, and Trevithick himself followed two years later. However, the war of independence was taking place in Peru, then a Spanish colony, and no sooner had Trevithick, after immense difficulties, put everything in order at the mines then rebels arrived and broke up the machinery, for they saw the mines as a source of supply for the Spanish forces. It was only after innumerable further adventures, during which he encountered and was assisted financially by Robert Stephenson, that Trevithick eventually arrived home in Cornwall in 1827, penniless.

He petitioned Parliament for a grant in recognition of his improvements to steam-engines and boilers, without success. He was as inventive as ever though: he proposed a hydraulic power transmission system; he was consulted over steam engines for land drainage in Holland; and he suggested a 1,000 ft (305 m) high tower of gilded cast iron to commemorate the Reform Act of 1832. While working on steam propulsion of ships in 1833, he caught pneumonia, from which he died.

[br]

See also: Blenkinsop, John

SUBJECT AREA: Weapons and armour

[br]

[br]

[br]

At the age of 14 Whitehead was apprenticed by his father, who ran a cotton-bleaching business, to an engineering firm in Manchester. He moved in 1847 to join his uncle, who was the Manager of another engineering firm, and three years later Whitehead set up on his own in Milan, where he made mechanical improvements to the silk-weaving industry and designed drainage machines for the Lombardy marshes.

In 1848 he was forced to move from Italy because of the revolution and settled in Fiume, which was then part of Austria. There he concen-. trated on designing and building engines for warships, and in 1864 the Austrians invited him to participate in a project to develop a "floating torpedo". In those days the torpedo was synonymous with the underwater mine, and Whitehead believed that he could do better than this proposal and produce an explosive weapon that could propel itself through the water. He set to work with his son John and a mechanic, producing the first version of his torpedo in 1866. It had a range of only 700 yd (640 m) and a speed of just 7 knots (13 km/h), as well as depth-keeping problems, but even so, especially after he had reduced the last problem by the use of a "balance chamber", the Austrian authorities were sufficiently impressed to buy construction rights and to decorate him. Other navies quickly followed suit and within twenty years almost every navy in the world was equipped with the Whitehead torpedo, its main attraction being that no warship, however large, was safe from it. During this time Whitehead continued to improve on his design, introducing a servo-motor and gyroscope, thereby radically improving range, speed and accuracy.

[br]