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1 year ***** n
[jɪə(r)]1) (gen) annoevery year — tutti gli anni, ogni anno
year in, year out — anno dopo anno
year by year; from year to year — col passar degli anni
in the year 1869 — nell'anno 1869, nel 1869
next year — (looking to future) l'anno prossimo or venturo
the next year — (in past time) l'anno seguente or successivo
he got 10 years — (in prison) si è beccato 10 anni
I haven't seen her for years — non la vedo da anni, sono anni che non la vedo
a or per year — all'anno
2) Scol Univ anno3) (of wine) annata4)old/young for one's years — vecchio/giovane per i suoi anni or per la sua etàfrom her earliest years — fin dall'infanzia, fin dalla più tenera età
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2 year
jiə
1. noun1) (the period of time the earth takes to go once round the sun, about 365 days: We lived here for five years, from November 1968 to November 1973; a two-year delay.) año2) (the period from January 1 to December 31, being 365 days, except in a leap year, when it is 366 days: in the year 1945.) año•- yearly
2. adverb(every year: The festival is held yearly.) anualmente- all the year round
- all year round
- long
year n1. año2. cursotr[jɪəːSMALLr/SMALL]1 añoshe earns 14,000 pounds a year gana 14.000 libras al año2 SMALLEDUCATION/SMALL curso\SMALLIDIOMATIC EXPRESSION/SMALLall the year round durante todo el añosince the year dot desde el año de la nanato put years on somebody envejecerto take years off somebody rejuvenecer a alguienyear in, year out año tras añoyear ['jɪr] n1) : año mlast year: el año pasadohe's ten years old: tiene diez años2) : curso m, año m (escolar)3) years nplages: siglos mpl, años mplI haven't seen them in years: hace siglos que no los veon.• añada s.f.• año s.m.jɪr, jɪə(r)1) ( period of time) año mnext year — el año que viene, el próximo año
this time last year... — el año pasado por estas fechas...
every year — todos los años, cada año
every other o every second year — cada dos años, un año sí y otro no
once or twice a year — una o dos veces al or por año
it costs $500 a year — cuesta 500 dólares al año
it'll be a year next Monday/August — el lunes que viene/en agosto hará un año
in all my years as a teacher... — en todos mis años que ha trabajado de profesor,...
I'll return in a year o in a year's time — volveré dentro de un año
over the years I've grown accustomed to it — con el tiempo or con los años me he ido acostumbrando
year after year/year in, year out — año tras año
she got five years — (colloq) le cayeron cinco años (fam)
the year one o (BrE) the year dot — (colloq) el año de Maricastaña or de la pera (fam)
2) years pla) ( a long time)it's years since I saw him, I haven't seen him for years — hace años que no lo veo
that was years ago — de eso hace mucho tiempo or muchos años
years ago, there was a church here — años atrás, aquí había una iglesia
it put years on me — me avejentó or me envejeció, me echó años encima
b) ( age)3)a) ( Educ) curso m, año mI'm still in (the) first year — todavía estoy en primer año or en primero
b) ( of wine) cosecha f['jɪǝ(r)]N1) (=twelve months) año mit takes years — es cosa de años, se tarda años
•
three times a year — tres veces al año•
in after years — liter en los años siguientes, años después•
to reckon sth by the year — calcular algo por años•
year in, year out — año tras año, todos los años sin falta•
last year — el año pasadothe next year — (in past time) el año siguiente
•
the work has put years on him — el trabajo lo ha envejecidosince the year dot — desde el año de la nana *, desde siempre
2) (=age)•
in my early years — en mi infancia, en mi juventud•
he looks old/young for his years — aparenta más/menos años de los que tiene•
he's getting on in years — va para viejo•
in his later years — en sus últimos años3) (Brit) (Scol, Univ) curso m, año m4) [of wine] cosecha f, vendimia f1982 was a good/bad year — 1982 fue una buena/mala cosecha or vendimia, 1982 fue un buen/mal año
* * *[jɪr, jɪə(r)]1) ( period of time) año mnext year — el año que viene, el próximo año
this time last year... — el año pasado por estas fechas...
every year — todos los años, cada año
every other o every second year — cada dos años, un año sí y otro no
once or twice a year — una o dos veces al or por año
it costs $500 a year — cuesta 500 dólares al año
it'll be a year next Monday/August — el lunes que viene/en agosto hará un año
in all my years as a teacher... — en todos mis años que ha trabajado de profesor,...
I'll return in a year o in a year's time — volveré dentro de un año
over the years I've grown accustomed to it — con el tiempo or con los años me he ido acostumbrando
year after year/year in, year out — año tras año
she got five years — (colloq) le cayeron cinco años (fam)
the year one o (BrE) the year dot — (colloq) el año de Maricastaña or de la pera (fam)
2) years pla) ( a long time)it's years since I saw him, I haven't seen him for years — hace años que no lo veo
that was years ago — de eso hace mucho tiempo or muchos años
years ago, there was a church here — años atrás, aquí había una iglesia
it put years on me — me avejentó or me envejeció, me echó años encima
b) ( age)3)a) ( Educ) curso m, año mI'm still in (the) first year — todavía estoy en primer año or en primero
b) ( of wine) cosecha f -
3 Paul, Robert William
[br]b. 3 October 1869 Highbury, London, Englandd. 28 March 1943 London, England[br]English scientific instrument maker, inventor of the Unipivot electrical measuring instrument, and pioneer of cinematography.[br]Paul was educated at the City of London School and Finsbury Technical College. He worked first for a short time in the Bell Telephone Works in Antwerp, Belgium, and then in the electrical instrument shop of Elliott Brothers in the Strand until 1891, when he opened an instrument-making business at 44 Hatton Garden, London. He specialized in the design and manufacture of electrical instruments, including the Ayrton Mather galvanometer. In 1902, with a purpose-built factory, he began large batch production of his instruments. He also opened a factory in New York, where uncalibrated instruments from England were calibrated for American customers. In 1903 Paul introduced the Unipivot galvanometer, in which the coil was supported at the centre of gravity of the moving system on a single pivot. The pivotal friction was less than in a conventional instrument and could be used without accurate levelling, the sensitivity being far beyond that of any pivoted galvanometer then in existence.In 1894 Paul was asked by two entrepreneurs to make copies of Edison's kinetoscope, the pioneering peep-show moving-picture viewer, which had just arrived in London. Discovering that Edison had omitted to patent the machine in England, and observing that there was considerable demand for the machine from show-people, he began production, making six before the end of the year. Altogether, he made about sixty-six units, some of which were exported. Although Edison's machine was not patented, his films were certainly copyrighted, so Paul now needed a cinematographic camera to make new subjects for his customers. Early in 1895 he came into contact with Birt Acres, who was also working on the design of a movie camera. Acres's design was somewhat impractical, but Paul constructed a working model with which Acres filmed the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race on 30 March, and the Derby at Epsom on 29 May. Paul was unhappy with the inefficient design, and developed a new intermittent mechanism based on the principle of the Maltese cross. Despite having signed a ten-year agreement with Paul, Acres split with him on 12 July 1895, after having unilaterally patented their original camera design on 27 May. By the early weeks of 1896, Paul had developed a projector mechanism that also used the Maltese cross and which he demonstrated at the Finsbury Technical College on 20 February 1896. His Theatrograph was intended for sale, and was shown in a number of venues in London during March, notably at the Alhambra Theatre in Leicester Square. There the renamed Animatographe was used to show, among other subjects, the Derby of 1896, which was won by the Prince of Wales's horse "Persimmon" and the film of which was shown the next day to enthusiastic crowds. The production of films turned out to be quite profitable: in the first year of the business, from March 1896, Paul made a net profit of £12,838 on a capital outlay of about £1,000. By the end of the year there were at least five shows running in London that were using Paul's projectors and screening films made by him or his staff.Paul played a major part in establishing the film business in England through his readiness to sell apparatus at a time when most of his rivals reserved their equipment for sole exploitation. He went on to become a leading producer of films, specializing in trick effects, many of which he pioneered. He was affectionately known in the trade as "Daddy Paul", truly considered to be the "father" of the British film industry. He continued to appreciate fully the possibilities of cinematography for scientific work, and in collaboration with Professor Silvanus P.Thompson films were made to illustrate various phenomena to students.Paul ended his involvement with film making in 1910 to concentrate on his instrument business; on his retirement in 1920, this was amalgamated with the Cambridge Instrument Company. In his will he left shares valued at over £100,000 to form the R.W.Paul Instrument Fund, to be administered by the Institution of Electrical Engineers, of which he had been a member since 1887. The fund was to provide instruments of an unusual nature to assist physical research.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsFellow of the Physical Society 1920. Institution of Electrical Engineers Duddell Medal 1938.Bibliography17 March 1903, British patent no. 6,113 (the Unipivot instrument).1931, "Some electrical instruments at the Faraday Centenary Exhibition 1931", Journal of Scientific Instruments 8:337–48.Further ReadingObituary, 1943, Journal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers 90(1):540–1. P.Dunsheath, 1962, A History of Electrical Engineering, London: Faber \& Faber, pp.308–9 (for a brief account of the Unipivot instrument).John Barnes, 1976, The Beginnings of Cinema in Britain, London. Brian Coe, 1981, The History of Movie Photography, London.BC / GW -
4 Rankine, William John Macquorn
SUBJECT AREA: Mechanical, pneumatic and hydraulic engineering[br]b. 5 July 1820 Edinburgh, Scotlandd. 1872[br][br]Rankine was educated at Ayr Academy and Glasgow High School, although he appears to have learned much of his basic mathematics and physics through private study. He attended Edinburgh University and then assisted his father, who was acting as Superintendent of the Edinburgh and Dalkeith Railway. This introduction to engineering practice was followed in 1838 by his appointment as a pupil to Sir John MacNeill, and for the next four years he served under MacNeill on his Irish railway projects. While still in his early twenties, Rankine presented pioneering papers on metal fatigue and other subjects to the Institution of Civil Engineers, for which he won a prize, but he appears to have resigned from the Civils in 1857 after an argument because the Institution would not transfer his Associate Membership into full Membership. From 1844 to 1848 Rankine worked on various projects for the Caledonian Railway Company, but his interests were becoming increasingly theoretical and a series of distinguished papers for learned societies established his reputation as a leading scholar in the new science of thermodynamics. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1853. At the same time, he remained intimately involved with practical questions of applied science, in shipbuilding, marine engineering and electric telegraphy, becoming associated with the influential coterie of fellow Scots such as the Thomson brothers, Napier, Elder, and Lewis Gordon. Gordon was then the head of a large and successful engineering practice, but he was also Regius Professor of Engineering at the University of Glasgow, and when he retired from the Chair to pursue his business interests, Rankine, who had become his Assistant, was appointed in his place.From 1855 until his premature death in 1872, Rankine built up an impressive engineering department, providing a firm theoretical basis with a series of text books that he wrote himself and most of which remained in print for many decades. Despite his quarrel with the Institution of Civil Engineers, Rankine took a keen interest in the institutional development of the engineering profession, becoming the first President of the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland, which he helped to establish in 1857. Rankine campaigned vigorously for the recognition of engineering studies as a full university degree at Glasgow, and he achieved this in 1872, the year of his death. Rankine was one of the handful of mid-nineteenth century engineers who virtually created engineering as an academic discipline.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsFRS 1853. First President, Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland, 1857.Bibliography1858, Manual of Applied Mechanics.1859, Manual of the Steam Engine and Other Prime Movers.1862, Manual of Civil Engineering.1869, Manual of Machinery and Millwork.Further ReadingJ.Small, 1957, "The institution's first president", Proceedings of the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland: 687–97.H.B.Sutherland, 1972, Rankine. His Life and Times.ABBiographical history of technology > Rankine, William John Macquorn
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5 Séguin, Louis
[br]b. 1869d. 1918[br]French co-designer, with his brother Laurent Séguin (b. 1883 Rhône, France; d. 1944), of the extremely successful Gnome rotary engines.[br]Most early aero-engines were adaptations of automobile engines, but Louis Séguin and his brother Laurent set out to produce a genuine aero-engine. They decided to build a "rotary" engine in which the crankshaft remained stationary and the cylinders rotated: the propeller was attached to the cylinders. The idea was not new, for rotary engines had been proposed by engineers from James Watt to Samuel P. Langley, rival of the Wright brothers. (An engine with stationary cylinders and a rotating crankshaftplus-propeller is classed as a "radial".) Louis Séguin formed the Société des Moteurs Gnome in 1906 to build stationary industrial engines. Laurent joined him to develop a lightweight engine specifically for aeronautical use. They built a fivecylinder air-cooled radial engine in 1908 and then a prototype seven-cylinder rotary engine. Later in the year the Gnome Oméga rotary, developing 50 hp (37 kW), was produced. This was test-flown in a Voisin biplane during June 1909. The Gnome was much lighter than its conventional rivals and surprisingly reliable in view of the technical problems of supplying rotating cylinders with the petrol-air mixture and a spark to ignite it. It was an instant success.Gnomes were mass-produced for use during the First World War. Both sides built and flew rotary engines, which were improved over the years until, by 1917, their size had grown to such an extent that a further increase was not practicable. The gyroscopic effects of a large rotating engine became a serious handicap to manoeuvrability, and the technical problems inherent in a rotary engine were accentuated.[br]Bibliography1912, L'Aérophile 20(4) (Louis Séguin's description of the Gnome).Further ReadingC.F.Taylor, 1971, "Aircraft Propulsion", Smithsonian Annals of Flight 1(4) (an account of the evolution of aircraft piston engines).A.Nahum, 1987, the Rotary Aero-Engine, London.JDS -
6 Whitworth, Sir Joseph
[br]b. 21 December 1803 Stockport, Cheshire, Englandd. 22 January 1887 Monte Carlo, Monaco[br]English mechanical engineer and pioneer of precision measurement.[br]Joseph Whitworth received his early education in a school kept by his father, but from the age of 12 he attended a school near Leeds. At 14 he joined his uncle's mill near Ambergate, Derbyshire, to learn the business of cotton spinning. In the four years he spent there he realized that he was more interested in the machinery than in managing a cotton mill. In 1821 he obtained employment as a mechanic with Crighton \& Co., Manchester. In 1825 he moved to London and worked for Henry Maudslay and later for the Holtzapffels and Joseph Clement. After these years spent gaining experience, he returned to Manchester in 1833 and set up in a small workshop under a sign "Joseph Whitworth, Tool Maker, from London".The business expanded steadily and the firm made machine tools of all types and other engineering products including steam engines. From 1834 Whitworth obtained many patents in the fields of machine tools, textile and knitting machinery and road-sweeping machines. By 1851 the company was generally regarded as the leading manufacturer of machine tools in the country. Whitworth was a pioneer of precise measurement and demonstrated the fundamental mode of producing a true plane by making surface plates in sets of three. He advocated the use of the decimal system and made use of limit gauges, and he established a standard screw thread which was adopted as the national standard. In 1853 Whitworth visited America as a member of a Royal Commission and reported on American industry. At the time of the Crimean War in 1854 he was asked to provide machinery for manufacturing rifles and this led him to design an improved rifle of his own. Although tests in 1857 showed this to be much superior to all others, it was not adopted by the War Office. Whitworth's experiments with small arms led on to the construction of big guns and projectiles. To improve the quality of the steel used for these guns, he subjected the molten metal to pressure during its solidification, this fluid-compressed steel being then known as "Whitworth steel".In 1868 Whitworth established thirty annual scholarships for engineering students. After his death his executors permanently endowed the Whitworth Scholarships and distributed his estate of nearly half a million pounds to various educational and charitable institutions. Whitworth was elected an Associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1841 and a Member in 1848 and served on its Council for many years. He was elected a Member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1847, the year of its foundation.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsBaronet 1869. FRS 1857. President, Institution of Mechanical Engineers 1856, 1857 and 1866. Hon. LLD Trinity College, Dublin, 1863. Hon. DCL Oxford University 1868. Member of the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers 1864. Légion d'honneur 1868. Society of Arts Albert Medal 1868.Bibliography1858, Miscellaneous Papers on Mechanical Subjects, London; 1873, Miscellaneous Papers on Practical Subjects: Guns and Steel, London (both are collections of his papers to technical societies).1854, with G.Wallis, The Industry of the United States in Machinery, Manufactures, andUseful and Ornamental Arts, London.Further ReadingF.C.Lea, 1946, A Pioneer of Mechanical Engineering: Sir Joseph Whitworth, London (a short biographical account).A.E.Musson, 1963, "Joseph Whitworth: toolmaker and manufacturer", Engineering Heritage, Vol. 1, London, 124–9 (a short biography).D.J.Jeremy (ed.), 1984–6, Dictionary of Business Biography, Vol. 5, London, 797–802 (a short biography).W.Steeds, 1969, A History of Machine Tools 1700–1910, Oxford (describes Whitworth's machine tools).RTS -
7 Caro, Heinrich
[br]b. 13 February 1834 Poznan, Polandd. 11 October 1911 Dresden, Germany[br]German dyestuffi chemist.[br]Caro received vocational training as a dyer at the Gewerbeinstitut in Berlin from 1852, at the same time attending chemistry lectures at the university there. In 1855 he was hired as a colourist by a firm of calico printers in Mulheim an der Ruhr, where he was able to demonstrate the value of scientific training in solving practical problems. Two years later, the year after Perkin's discovery of aniline dyes, he was sent to England in order to learn the latest dyeing techniques. He took up a post an analytical chemist with the chemical firm Roberts, Dale \& Co. in Manchester; after finding a better way of synthesizing Perkin's mauve, he became a partner in the business. Caro was able to enlarge both his engineering experience and his chemical knowledge there, particularly by studying Hofmann's researches on the aniline dyes. He made several discoveries, including induline, Bismark brown and Martius yellow.Like other German chemists, however, he found greater opportunities opening up in Germany, and in 1866 he returned to take up a post in Bunsen's laboratory in Heidelberg. In 1868 Caro obtained the important directorship of Badische Anilin-Soda- Fabrik (BASF), the first true industrial research organization and leading centre of dyestuffs research. A steady stream of commercial successes followed. In 1869, after Graebe and Liebermann had showed him their laboratory synthesis of the red dye alizarin, Caro went on to develop a cheaper and commercially viable method. During the 1870s he collaborated with Adolf von Baeyer to make methylene blue and related dyes, and then went on to the azo dyes. His work on indigo was important, but was not crowned with commercial success; that came in 1897 when his successor at BASF discovered a suitable process for producing indigo on a commercial scale. Caro had resigned his post in 1889, by which time he had made notable contributions to German supremacy in the fast-developing dyestuffs industry.[br]Further ReadingA.Bernthsen, 1912, obituary, Berichte derDeutschen Chemischen Gesellschaft, 45; 1,987–2,042 (a substantial obituary).LRD -
8 Lesseps, Ferdinand de
SUBJECT AREA: Canals[br]b. 19 November 1805 Versailles, Franced. 7 December 1894 La Chesnaye, near Paris, France[br]French diplomat and canal entrepreneur.[br]Ferdinand de Lesseps was born into a family in the diplomatic service and it was intended that his should be his career also. He was educated at the Lycée Napoléon in Paris. In 1825, aged 20, he was appointed an attaché to the French consulate in Lisbon. In 1828 he went to the Consulate-General in Tunis and in 1831 was posted from there to Egypt, becoming French Consul in Cairo two years later. For his work there during the plague in 1836 he was awarded the Croix de Chevalier in the Légion d'honneur. During this time he became very friendly with Said Mohammed and the friendship was maintained over the years, although there were no expectations then that Said would occupy any great position of authority.De Lesseps then served in other countries. In 1841 he had thought about a canal from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, and he brooded over the idea until 1854. In October of that year, having retired from the diplomatic service, he returned to Egypt privately. His friend Said became Viceroy and he readily agreed to the proposal to cut the canal. At first there was great international opposition to the idea, and in 1855 de Lesseps travelled to England to try to raise capital. Work finally started in 1859, but there were further delays following the death of Said Pasha in 1863. The work was completed in 1869 and the canal was formally opened by the Empress Eugenic on 20 November 1869. De Lesseps was fêted in France and awarded the Grand Croix de la Légion d'honneur.He subsequently promoted the project of the Corinth Canal, but his great ambition in his later years was to construct a canal across the Isthmus of Panama. This idea had been conceived by Spanish adventurers in 1514, but everyone felt the problems and cost would be too great. De Lesseps, riding high in popularity and with his charismatic character, convinced the public of the scheme's feasibility and was able to raise vast sums for the enterprise. He proposed a sea-level canal, which required the excavation of a 350 ft (107 m) cut through terrain; this eventually proved impossible, but work nevertheless started in 1881.In 1882 de Lesseps became first President d'-Honneur of the Syndicat des Entrepreneurs de Travaux Publics de France and was elected to the Chair of the French Academy in 1884. By 1891 the Panama Canal was in a disastrous financial crisis: a new company was formed, and because of the vast sums expended a financial investigation was made. The report led to de Lesseps, his son and several high-ranking government ministers and officials being charged with bribery and corruption, but de Lesseps was a very sick man and never appeared at the trial. He was never convicted, although others were, and he died soon after, at the age of 89, at his home.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsCroix de Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur 1836; Grand Croix 1869.Further ReadingJohn S.Pudney, 1968, Suez. De Lesseps' Canal, London: Dent.John Marlowe, 1964, The Making of the Suez Canal, London: Cresset.JHB -
9 Morse, Samuel Finley Breeze
SUBJECT AREA: Telecommunications[br]b. 27 April 1791 Charlestown, Massachusetts, USAd. 2 April 1872 New York City, New York, USA[br]American portrait painter and inventor, b est known for his invention of the telegraph and so-called Morse code.[br]Following early education at Phillips Academy, Andover, at the age of 14 years Morse went to Yale College, where he developed interests in painting and electricity. Upon graduating in 1810 he became a clerk to a Washington publisher and a pupil of Washington Allston, a well-known American painter. The following year he travelled to Europe and entered the London studio of another American artist, Benjamin West, successfully exhibiting at the Royal Academy as well as winning a prize and medal for his sculpture. Returning to Boston and finding little success as a "historical-style" painter, he built up a thriving portrait business, moving in 1818 to Charleston, South Carolina, where three years later he established the (now defunct) South Carolina Academy of Fine Arts. In 1825 he was back in New York, but following the death of his wife and both of his parents that year, he embarked on an extended tour of European art galleries. In 1832, on the boat back to America, he met Charles T.Jackson, who told him of the discovery of the electromagnet and fired his interest in telegraphy to the extent that Morse immediately began to make suggestions for electrical communications and, apparently, devised a form of printing telegraph. Although he returned to his painting and in 1835 was appointed the first Professor of the Literature of Art and Design at the University of New York City, he began to spend more and more time experimenting in telegraphy. In 1836 he invented a relay as a means of extending the cable distance over which telegraph signals could be sent. At this time he became acquainted with Alfred Vail, and the following year, when the US government published the requirements for a national telegraph service, they set out to produce a workable system, with finance provided by Vail's father (who, usefully, owned an ironworks). A patent was filed on 6 October 1837 and a successful demonstration using the so-called Morse code was given on 6 January 1838; the work was, in fact, almost certainly largely that of Vail. As a result of the demonstration a Bill was put forward to Congress for $30,000 for an experimental line between Washington and Baltimore. This was eventually passed and the line was completed, and on 24 May 1844 the first message, "What hath God wrought", was sent between the two cities. In the meantime Morse also worked on the insulation of submarine cables by means of pitch tar and indiarubber.With success achieved, Morse offered his invention to the Government for $100,000, but this was declined, so the invention remained in private hands. To exploit it, Morse founded the Magnetic Telephone Company in 1845, amalgamating the following year with the telegraph company of a Henry O'Reilly to form Western Union. Having failed to obtain patents in Europe, he now found himself in litigation with others in the USA, but eventually, in 1854, the US Supreme Court decided in his favour and he soon became very wealthy. In 1857 a proposal was made for a telegraph service across the whole of the USA; this was completed in just over four months in 1861. Four years later work began on a link to Europe via Canada, Alaska, the Aleutian Islands and Russia, but it was abandoned with the completion of the transatlantic cable, a venture in which he also had some involvement. Showered with honours, Morse became a generous philanthropist in his later years. By 1883 the company he had created was worth $80 million and had a virtual monopoly in the USA.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsLLD, Yale 1846. Fellow of the Academy of Arts and Sciences 1849. Celebratory Banquet, New York, 1869. Statue in New York Central Park 1871. Austrian Gold Medal of Scientific Merit. Danish Knight of the Danneborg. French Légion d'honneur. Italian Knight of St Lazaro and Mauritio. Portuguese Knight of the Tower and Sword. Turkish Order of Glory.BibliographyE.L.Morse (ed.), 1975, Letters and Journals, New York: Da Capo Press (facsimile of a 1914 edition).Further ReadingJ.Munro, 1891, Heroes of the Telegraph (discusses his telegraphic work and its context).C.Mabee, 1943, The American Leonardo: A Life of Samuel Morse; reprinted 1969 (a detailed biography).KFBiographical history of technology > Morse, Samuel Finley Breeze
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10 Priestman, William Dent
SUBJECT AREA: Steam and internal combustion engines[br]b. 23 August 1847 Sutton, Hull, Englandd. 7 September 1936 Hull, England[br]English oil engine pioneer.[br]William was the second son and one of eleven children of Samuel Priestman, who had moved to Hull after retiring as a corn miller in Kirkstall, Leeds, and who in retirement had become a director of the North Eastern Railway Company. The family were strict Quakers, so William was sent to the Quaker School in Bootham, York. He left school at the age of 17 to start an engineering apprenticeship at the Humber Iron Works, but this company failed so the apprenticeship was continued with the North Eastern Railway, Gateshead. In 1869 he joined the hydraulics department of Sir William Armstrong \& Company, Newcastle upon Tyne, but after a year there his father financed him in business at a small, run down works, the Holderness Foundry, Hull. He was soon joined by his brother, Samuel, their main business being the manufacture of dredging equipment (grabs), cranes and winches. In the late 1870s William became interested in internal combustion engines. He took a sublicence to manufacture petrol engines to the patents of Eugène Etève of Paris from the British licensees, Moll and Dando. These engines operated in a similar manner to the non-compression gas engines of Lenoir. Failure to make the two-stroke version of this engine work satisfactorily forced him to pay royalties to Crossley Bros, the British licensees of the Otto four-stroke patents.Fear of the dangers of petrol as a fuel, reflected by the associated very high insurance premiums, led William to experiment with the use of lamp oil as an engine fuel. His first of many patents was for a vaporizer. This was in 1885, well before Ackroyd Stuart. What distinguished the Priestman engine was the provision of an air pump which pressurized the fuel tank, outlets at the top and bottom of which led to a fuel atomizer injecting continuously into a vaporizing chamber heated by the exhaust gases. A spring-loaded inlet valve connected the chamber to the atmosphere, with the inlet valve proper between the chamber and the working cylinder being camoperated. A plug valve in the fuel line and a butterfly valve at the inlet to the chamber were operated, via a linkage, by the speed governor; this is believed to be the first use of this method of control. It was found that vaporization was only partly achieved, the higher fractions of the fuel condensing on the cylinder walls. A virtue was made of this as it provided vital lubrication. A starting system had to be provided, this comprising a lamp for preheating the vaporizing chamber and a hand pump for pressurizing the fuel tank.Engines of 2–10 hp (1.5–7.5 kW) were exhibited to the press in 1886; of these, a vertical engine was installed in a tram car and one of the horizontals in a motor dray. In 1888, engines were shown publicly at the Royal Agricultural Show, while in 1890 two-cylinder vertical marine engines were introduced in sizes from 2 to 10 hp (1.5–7.5 kW), and later double-acting ones up to some 60 hp (45 kW). First, clutch and gearbox reversing was used, but reversing propellers were fitted later (Priestman patent of 1892). In the same year a factory was established in Philadelphia, USA, where engines in the range 5–20 hp (3.7–15 kW) were made. Construction was radically different from that of the previous ones, the bosses of the twin flywheels acting as crank discs with the main bearings on the outside.On independent test in 1892, a Priestman engine achieved a full-load brake thermal efficiency of some 14 per cent, a very creditable figure for a compression ratio limited to under 3:1 by detonation problems. However, efficiency at low loads fell off seriously owing to the throttle governing, and the engines were heavy, complex and expensive compared with the competition.Decline in sales of dredging equipment and bad debts forced the firm into insolvency in 1895 and receivers took over. A new company was formed, the brothers being excluded. However, they were able to attend board meetings, but to exert no influence. Engine activities ceased in about 1904 after over 1,000 engines had been made. It is probable that the Quaker ethics of the brothers were out of place in a business that was becoming increasingly cut-throat. William spent the rest of his long life serving others.[br]Further ReadingC.Lyle Cummins, 1976, Internal Fire, Carnot Press.C.Lyle Cummins and J.D.Priestman, 1985, "William Dent Priestman, oil engine pioneer and inventor: his engine patents 1885–1901", Proceedings of the Institution ofMechanical Engineers 199:133.Anthony Harcombe, 1977, "Priestman's oil engine", Stationary Engine Magazine 42 (August).JBBiographical history of technology > Priestman, William Dent
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11 Crossley, Sir Francis
SUBJECT AREA: Textiles[br]b. 26 October 1817 Halifax, Englandd. 5 January 1872 Belle Vue, Halifax, England[br]English developer of a power loom for weaving carpets.[br]Francis Crossley was the youngest of three brothers employed in their father's carpet-weaving business in Halifax and who took over the running of the company on their father's death in 1837. Francis seems to have been the one with technical ability, for it was he who saw the possibilities of weaving by power. Growth of the company was rapid through his policy of acquiring patents and then improving them, and it was soon at the forefront of the carpet-manufacturing trade. He had taken out rights on the patents of John Hill of Manchester, but his experiments with Hill's looms for weaving carpets were not successful.In the spring of 1850 Francis asked a textile inventor, George Collier of Barnsley, to develop a power loom for carpet manufacture. Collier produced a model that was a distinct advance on earlier looms, and Francis engaged him to perfect a power loom for weaving tapestry and Brussels carpets. After a great deal of money had been expended, a patent was taken out in 1850 in the name of his brother, Joseph Crossley, for a loom that could weave velvet as well as carpets and included some of the ideas of the American E.B. Bigelow. This new loom proved to be a great advance on all the earlier ones, and thus brought the Crossleys a great fortune from both sales of patent rights and the production of carpets from their mills, which were soon enlarged.According to the Dictionary of National Biography, Francis Crossley was Mayor of Halifax in 1849 and 1850, but Hogg gives this position to his elder brother John. In 1852 Francis was returned to Parliament as the Liberal member for Halifax, and in 1859 he became the member for the West Riding. Among his benefactions, in 1855 he gave to the town of Halifax a twelve-acre park that cost £41,300; a statue of him was erected there. In the same year he endowed twenty-one almshouses. In 1863 a baronetcy was conferred upon him in recognition of his commercial and public services, which he continued to perform until his death. In 1870 he gave the London Missionary Society £20,000, their largest single donation up to that time, and another £10,000 to the Congregational Pastor's Retiring Fund. He became ill when on a journey to the Holy Land in 1869, but although he made a partial recovery he grew worse again towards the end of 1871 and died early in the following year. He left £800,000 in his will.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsBaronet 1863.Further ReadingObituary, 1872, The Times 6 January.Dictionary of National Biography.J.Hogg (ed.), n.d., Fortunes Made in Business, London (provides an account of Crossley's career).RLH -
12 Greathead, James Henry
[br]b. 6 August 1844 Grahamstown, Cape Colony (now South Africa)d. 21 October 1896 Streatham, London, England[br]British civil engineer, inventor of the Greathead tunnelling shield.[br]Greathead came to England in 1859 to complete his education. In 1864 he began a three-year pupillage with the civil engineer Peter W. Barlow, after which he was engaged as an assistant engineer on the extension of the Midland Railway from Bedford to London. In 1869 he was entrusted with the construction of the Tower Subway under the River Thames; this was carried out using a cylindrical wrought-iron shield which was forced forward by six large screws as material was excavated in front of it. This work was completed the same year. In 1870 he set himself up as a consulting engineer, and from 1873 he was Resident Engineer on the Hammersmith and Richmond extensions of the Metropolitan District Railway. He assisted in the preparation of several other railway projects including the Regent's Canal Railway in 1880, the Dagenham Dock and the Metropolitan Outer Circle Railways in 1881, a new line from London to Eastbourne and a number of Irish light railways. He worked on a bill for the City and South London Railway, which was built between 1886 and 1890; here compressed air was used to prevent the inrush of water, a method for tunnelling which was generally adopted from then on. He invented apparatus for the application of water to excavate in front of the shield as well as for injecting cement-grout behind the lining of the tunnel.He was joint engineer with Sir Douglas Fox for the construction of the Liverpool Overhead Railway, and held the same post with W.R.Galbraith on the Waterloo and City Railway; he was also associated with Sir John Fowler and Sir Benjamin Baker in the construction of the Central London Railway. He died, aged 52, before the completion of some of these projects.[br]Further ReadingObituary, 1896, Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.O.Green, 1987, The London Underground: An Illustrated History', London: Ian Allan (in association with the London Transport Museum).P.P.Holman, 1990, The Amazing Electric Tube: A History of the City and South LondonRailway, London: London Transport Museum.IMcN -
13 Lister, Samuel Cunliffe, 1st Baron Masham
SUBJECT AREA: Textiles[br]b. 1 January 1815 Calverly Hall, Bradford, Englandd. 2 February 1906 Swinton Park, near Bradford, England[br]English inventor of successful wool-combing and waste-silk spinning machines.[br]Lister was descended from one of the old Yorkshire families, the Cunliffe Listers of Manningham, and was the fourth son of his father Ellis. After attending a school on Clapham Common, Lister would not go to university; his family hoped he would enter the Church, but instead he started work with the Liverpool merchants Sands, Turner \& Co., who frequently sent him to America. In 1837 his father built for him and his brother a worsted mill at Manningham, where Samuel invented a swivel shuttle and a machine for making fringes on shawls. It was here that he first became aware of the unhealthy occupation of combing wool by hand. Four years later, after seeing the machine that G.E. Donisthorpe was trying to work out, he turned his attention to mechanizing wool-combing. Lister took Donisthorpe into partnership after paying him £12,000 for his patent, and developed the Lister-Cartwright "square nip" comber. Until this time, combing machines were little different from Cartwright's original, but Lister was able to improve on this with continuous operation and by 1843 was combing the first fine botany wool that had ever been combed by machinery. In the following year he received an order for fifty machines to comb all qualities of wool. Further combing patents were taken out with Donisthorpe in 1849, 1850, 1851 and 1852, the last two being in Lister's name only. One of the important features of these patents was the provision of a gripping device or "nip" which held the wool fibres at one end while the rest of the tuft was being combed. Lister was soon running nine combing mills. In the 1850s Lister had become involved in disputes with others who held combing patents, such as his associate Isaac Holden and the Frenchman Josué Heilmann. Lister bought up the Heilmann machine patents and afterwards other types until he obtained a complete monopoly of combing machines before the patents expired. His invention stimulated demand for wool by cheapening the product and gave a vital boost to the Australian wool trade. By 1856 he was at the head of a wool-combing business such as had never been seen before, with mills at Manningham, Bradford, Halifax, Keighley and other places in the West Riding, as well as abroad.His inventive genius also extended to other fields. In 1848 he patented automatic compressed air brakes for railways, and in 1853 alone he took out twelve patents for various textile machines. He then tried to spin waste silk and made a second commercial career, turning what was called "chassum" and hitherto regarded as refuse into beautiful velvets, silks, plush and other fine materials. Waste silk consisted of cocoon remnants from the reeling process, damaged cocoons and fibres rejected from other processes. There was also wild silk obtained from uncultivated worms. This is what Lister saw in a London warehouse as a mass of knotty, dirty, impure stuff, full of bits of stick and dead mulberry leaves, which he bought for a halfpenny a pound. He spent ten years trying to solve the problems, but after a loss of £250,000 and desertion by his partner his machine caught on in 1865 and brought Lister another fortune. Having failed to comb this waste silk, Lister turned his attention to the idea of "dressing" it and separating the qualities automatically. He patented a machine in 1877 that gave a graduated combing. To weave his new silk, he imported from Spain to Bradford, together with its inventor Jose Reixach, a velvet loom that was still giving trouble. It wove two fabrics face to face, but the problem lay in separating the layers so that the pile remained regular in length. Eventually Lister was inspired by watching a scissors grinder in the street to use small emery wheels to sharpen the cutters that divided the layers of fabric. Lister took out several patents for this loom in his own name in 1868 and 1869, while in 1871 he took out one jointly with Reixach. It is said that he spent £29,000 over an eleven-year period on this loom, but this was more than recouped from the sale of reasonably priced high-quality velvets and plushes once success was achieved. Manningham mills were greatly enlarged to accommodate this new manufacture.In later years Lister had an annual profit from his mills of £250,000, much of which was presented to Bradford city in gifts such as Lister Park, the original home of the Listers. He was connected with the Bradford Chamber of Commerce for many years and held the position of President of the Fair Trade League for some time. In 1887 he became High Sheriff of Yorkshire, and in 1891 he was made 1st Baron Masham. He was also Deputy Lieutenant in North and West Riding.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsCreated 1st Baron Masham 1891.Bibliography1849, with G.E.Donisthorpe, British patent no. 12,712. 1850, with G.E. Donisthorpe, British patent no. 13,009. 1851, British patent no. 13,532.1852, British patent no. 14,135.1877, British patent no. 3,600 (combing machine). 1868, British patent no. 470.1868, British patent no. 2,386.1868, British patent no. 2,429.1868, British patent no. 3,669.1868, British patent no. 1,549.1871, with J.Reixach, British patent no. 1,117. 1905, Lord Masham's Inventions (autobiography).Further ReadingJ.Hogg (ed.), c. 1888, Fortunes Made in Business, London (biography).W.English, 1969, The Textile Industry, London; and C.Singer (ed.), 1958, A History of Technology, Vol. IV, Oxford: Clarendon Press (both cover the technical details of Lister's invention).RLHBiographical history of technology > Lister, Samuel Cunliffe, 1st Baron Masham
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14 Perkin, Sir William Henry
[br]b. 12 March 1838 London, Englandd. 14 July 1907 Sudbury, England[br]English chemist, discoverer of aniline dyes, the first synthetic dyestuffs.[br]He early showed an aptitude for chemistry and in 1853 entered the Royal College of Chemistry as a student under A.W.von Hofmann, the first Professor at the College. By the end of his first year, he had carried out his first piece of chemical research, on the action of cyanogen chloride on phenylamine, which he published in the Journal of the Chemical Society (1857). He became honorary assistant to von Hofmann in 1857; three years previously he had set up his own chemical laboratory at home, where he had discovered the first of the azo dyes, aminoazonapththalene. In 1856 Perkin began work on the synthesis of quinine by oxidizing a salt of allyl toluidine with potassium dichromate. Substituting aniline, he obtained a dark-coloured precipitate which proved to possess dyeing properties: Perkin had discovered the first aniline dye. Upon receiving favourable reports on the new material from manufacturers of dyestuffs, especially Pullars of Perth, Perkin resigned from the College and turned to the commercial exploitation of his discovery. This proved highly successful. From 1858, the dye was manufactured at his Greenford Green works as "Aniline Purple" or "Tyrian Purple". It was later to be referred to by the French as mauve. Perkin's discovery led to the development of the modern dyestuffs industry, supplanting dyes from the traditional vegetable sources. In 1869, he introduced two new methods for making the red dye alizarin, in place of the process that involved the use of the madder plant (Rubia tinctorum). In spite of German competition, he dominated the British market until the end of 1873. After eighteen years in chemical industry, Perkin retired and devoted himself entirely to the pure chemical research which he had been pursuing since the 1850s. He eventually contributed ninety papers to the Chemical Society and further papers to other bodies, including the Royal Society. For example, in 1867 he published his synthesis of unsaturated organic acids, known as "Perkin's synthesis". Other papers followed, on the structure of "Aniline Purple". In 1881 Perkin drew attention to the magnetic-rotatory power of some of the substances he had been dealing with. From then on, he devoted particular attention to the application of this phenomenon to the determination of chemical structure.Perkin won wide recognition for his discoveries and other contributions to chemistry.The half-centenary of his great discovery was celebrated in July 1906 and later that year he received a knighthood.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsKnighted 1906. FRS 1866. President, Chemical Society 1883–5. President, Society of Chemical Industry 1884–5. Royal Society Royal Medal 1879; Davy Medal 1889.Bibliography26 August 1856, British patent no. 1984 (Aniline Purple).1867, "The action of acetic anhydride upon the hydrides of salicyl, etc.", Journal of the Chemical Society 20:586 (the first description of Perkin's synthesis).Further ReadingS.M.Edelstein, 1961, biography in Great Chemists, ed. E.Farber, New York: Interscience, pp. 757–72 (a reliable, short account).R.Meldola, 1908, Journal of the Chemical Society 93:2,214–57 (the most detailed account).LRDBiographical history of technology > Perkin, Sir William Henry
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15 Bell, Revd Patrick
SUBJECT AREA: Agricultural and food technology[br]b. 1799 Auchterhouse, Scotlandd. 22 April 1869 Carmyllie, Scotland[br]Scottish inventor of the first successful reaping machine.[br]The son of a Forfarshire tenant farmer, Patrick Bell obtained an MA from the University of St Andrews. His early association with farming kindled an interest in engineering and mechanics and he was to maintain a workshop not only on his father's farm, but also, in later life, at the parsonage at Carmyllie.He was still studying divinity when he invented his reaping machine. Using garden shears as the basis of his design, he built a model in 1827 and a full-scale prototype the following year. Not wishing the machine to be seen during his early experiments, he and his brother planted a sheaf of oats in soil laid out in a shed, and first tried the machine on this. It cut well enough but left the straw in a mess behind it. A canvas belt system was devised and another secret trial in the barn was followed by a night excursion into a field, where corn was successfully harvested.Two machines were at work during 1828, apparently achieving a harvest rate of one acre per hour. In 1832 there were ten machines at work, and at least another four had been sent to the United States by this time. Despite their success Bell did not patent his design, feeling that the idea should be given free to the world. In later years he was to regret the decision, feeling that the many badly-made imitations resulted in its poor reputation and prevented its adoption.Bell's calling took precedence over his inventive interests and after qualifying he went to Canada in 1833, spending four years in Fergus, Ontario. He later returned to Scotland and be-came the minister at Carmyllie, with a living of £150 per annum.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsLate in the day he was honoured for his part in the development of the reaping machine. He received an honorary degree from the University of St Andrews and in 1868 a testimonial and £1,000 raised by public subscription by the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland.Bibliography1854, Journal of Agriculture (perhaps stung by other claims, Bell wrote his own account).Further ReadingG.Quick and W.Buchele, 1978, The Grain Harvesters, American Society of Agricultural Engineers (gives an account of the development of harvesting machinery).L.J.Jones, 1979, History of Technology, pp. 101–48 (gives a critical assessment of the various claims regarding the originality of the invention).J.Hendrick, 1928, Transactions of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, pp.51–69 (provides a celebration of Bell's achievement on its centenary).AP -
16 Booth, Henry
[br]b. 4 April 1789 Liverpool, Englandd. 28 March 1869 Liverpool, England[br]English railway administrator and inventor.[br]Booth followed his father as a Liverpool corn merchant but had great mechanical aptitude. In 1824 he joined the committee for the proposed Liverpool \& Manchester Railway (L \& MR) and after the company obtained its Act of Parliament in 1826 he was appointed Treasurer.In 1829 the L \& MR announced a prize competition, the Rainhill Trials, for an improved steam locomotive: Booth, realizing that the power of a locomotive depended largely upon its capacity to raise steam, had the idea that this could be maximized by passing burning gases from the fire through the boiler in many small tubes to increase the heating surface, rather than in one large one, as was then the practice. He was apparently unaware of work on this type of boiler even then being done by Marc Seguin, and the 1791 American patent by John Stevens. Booth discussed his idea with George Stephenson, and a boiler of this type was incorporated into the locomotive Rocket, which was built by Robert Stephenson and entered in the Trials by Booth and the two Stephensons in partnership. The boiler enabled Rocket to do all that was required in the trials, and far more: it became the prototype for all subsequent conventional locomotive boilers.After the L \& MR opened in 1830, Booth as Treasurer became in effect the general superintendent and was later General Manager. He invented screw couplings for use with sprung buffers. When the L \& MR was absorbed by the Grand Junction Railway in 1845 he became Secretary of the latter, and when, later the same year, that in turn amalgamated with the London \& Birmingham Railway (L \& BR) to form the London \& North Western Railway (L \& NWR), he became joint Secretary with Richard Creed from the L \& BR.Earlier, completion in 1838 of the railway from London to Liverpool had brought problems with regard to local times. Towns then kept their own time according to their longitude: Birmingham time, for instance, was 7¼ minutes later than London time. This caused difficulties in railway operation, so Booth prepared a petition to Parliament on behalf of the L \& MR that London time should be used throughout the country, and in 1847 the L \& NWR, with other principal railways and the Post Office, adopted Greenwich time. It was only in 1880, however, that the arrangement was made law by Act of Parliament.[br]Bibliography1835. British patent no. 6,814 (grease lubricants for axleboxes). 1836. British patent no. 6,989 (screw couplings).Booth also wrote several pamphlets on railways, uniformity of time, and political matters.Further ReadingH.Booth, 1980, Henry Booth, Ilfracombe: Arthur H.Stockwell (a good full-length biography, the author being the great-great-nephew of his subject; with bibliography).R.E.Carlson, 1969, The Liverpool \& Manchester Railway Project 1821–1831, Newton Abbot: David \& Charles.PJGR -
17 Doane, Thomas
SUBJECT AREA: Civil engineering, Mechanical, pneumatic and hydraulic engineering, Railways and locomotives[br]b. 20 September 1821 Orleans, Massachusetts, USAd. 22 October 1897 West Townsend, Massachusetts, USA[br]American mechanical engineer.[br]The son of a lawyer, he entered an academy in Cape Cod and, at the age of 19, the English Academy at Andover, Massachusetts, for five terms. He was then in the employ of Samuel L. Fenton of Charlestown, Massachusetts. He served a three-year apprenticeship, then went to the Windsor White River Division of the Vermont Central Railroad. He was Resident Engineer of the Cheshire Railroad at Walpote, New Hampshire, from 1847 to 1849, and then worked in independent practice as a civil engineer and surveyor until his death. He was involved with nearly all the railroads running out of Boston, especially the Boston \& Maine. In April 1863 he was appointed Chief Engineer of the Hoosac Tunnel, which was already being built. He introduced new engineering methods, relocated the line of the tunnel and achieved great accuracy in the meeting of the borings. He was largely responsible for the development in the USA of the advanced system of tunnelling with machinery and explosives, and pioneered the use of compressed air in the USA. In 1869 he was Chief Engineer of the Burlington \& Missouri River Railroad in Nebraska, laying down some 240 miles (386 km) of track in four years. During this period he became interested in the building of a Congregational College at Crete, Nebraska, for which he gave the land and which was named after him. In 1873 he returned to Charlestown and was again appointed Chief Engineer of the Hoosac Tunnel. At the final opening of the tunnel on 9 February 1875 he drove the first engine through. He remained in charge of construction for a further two years.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsPresident, School of Civil Engineers.Further ReadingDuncan Malone (ed.), 1932–3, Dictionary of American Biography, New York: Charles Scribner.IMcN -
18 Fairbairn, William
SUBJECT AREA: Ports and shipping[br]b. 19 February 1789 Kelso, Roxburghshire, Scotlandd. 18 August 1874 Farnham, Surrey, England[br]Scottish engineer and shipbuilder, pioneer in the use of iron in structures.[br]Born in modest circumstances, Fairbairn nevertheless enjoyed a broad and liberal education until around the age of 14. Thereafter he served an apprenticeship as a millwright in a Northumberland colliery. This seven-year period marked him out as a man of determination and intellectual ability; he planned his life around the practical work of pit-machinery maintenance and devoted his limited free time to the study of mathematics, science and history as well as "Church, Milton and Recreation". Like many before and countless thousands after, he worked in London for some difficult and profitless years, and then moved to Manchester, the city he was to regard as home for the rest of his life. In 1816 he was married. Along with a workmate, James Lillie, he set up a general engineering business, which steadily enlarged and ultimately involved both shipbuilding and boiler-making. The partnership was dissolved in 1832 and Fairbairn continued on his own. Consultancy work commissioned by the Forth and Clyde Canal led to the construction of iron steamships by Fairbairn for the canal; one of these, the PS Manchester was lost in the Irish Sea (through the little-understood phenomenon of compass deviation) on her delivery voyage from Manchester to the Clyde. This brought Fairbairn to the forefront of research in this field and confirmed him as a shipbuilder in the novel construction of iron vessels. In 1835 he operated the Millwall Shipyard on the Isle of Dogs on the Thames; this is regarded as one of the first two shipyards dedicated to iron production from the outset (the other being Tod and MacGregor of Glasgow). Losses at the London yard forced Fairbairn to sell off, and the yard passed into the hands of John Scott Russell, who built the I.K. Brunel -designed Great Eastern on the site. However, his business in Manchester went from strength to strength: he produced an improved Cornish boiler with two firetubes, known as the Lancashire boiler; he invented a riveting machine; and designed the beautiful swan-necked box-structured crane that is known as the Fairbairn crane to this day.Throughout his life he advocated the widest use of iron; he served on the Admiralty Committee of 1861 investigating the use of this material in the Royal Navy. In his later years he travelled widely in Europe as an engineering consultant and published many papers on engineering. His contribution to worldwide engineering was recognized during his lifetime by the conferment of a baronetcy by Queen Victoria.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsCreated Baronet 1869. FRS 1850. Elected to the Academy of Science of France 1852. President, Institution of Mechnical Engineers 1854. Royal Society Gold Medal 1860. President, British Association 1861.BibliographyFairbairn wrote many papers on a wide range of engineering subjects from water-wheels to iron metallurgy and from railway brakes to the strength of iron ships. In 1856 he contributed the article on iron to the 8th edition of Encyclopaedia Britannica.Further ReadingW.Pole (ed.), 1877, The Life of Sir William Fairbairn Bart, London: Longmans Green; reprinted 1970, David and Charles Reprints (written in part by Fairbairn, but completed and edited by Pole).FMW -
19 Herbert, Edward Geisler
[br]b. 23 March 1869 Dedham, near Colchester, Essex, Englandd. 9 February 1938 West Didsbury, Manchester, England[br]English engineer, inventor of the Rapidor saw and the Pendulum Hardness Tester, and pioneer of cutting tool research.[br]Edward Geisler Herbert was educated at Nottingham High School in 1876–87, and at University College, London, in 1887–90, graduating with a BSc in Physics in 1889 and remaining for a further year to take an engineering course. He began his career as a premium apprentice at the Nottingham works of Messrs James Hill \& Co, manufacturers of lace machinery. In 1892 he became a partner with Charles Richardson in the firm of Richardson \& Herbert, electrical engineers in Manchester, and when this partnership was dissolved in 1895 he carried on the business in his own name and began to produce machine tools. He remained as Managing Director of this firm, reconstituted in 1902 as a limited liability company styled Edward G.Herbert Ltd, until his retirement in 1928. He was joined by Charles Fletcher (1868–1930), who as joint Managing Director contributed greatly to the commercial success of the firm, which specialized in the manufacture of small machine tools and testing machinery.Around 1900 Herbert had discovered that hacksaw machines cut very much quicker when only a few teeth are in operation, and in 1902 he patented a machine which utilized this concept by automatically changing the angle of incidence of the blade as cutting proceeded. These saws were commercially successful, but by 1912, when his original patents were approaching expiry, Herbert and Fletcher began to develop improved methods of applying the rapid-saw concept. From this work the well-known Rapidor and Manchester saws emerged soon after the First World War. A file-testing machine invented by Herbert before the war made an autographic record of the life and performance of the file and brought him into close contact with the file and tool steel manufacturers of Sheffield. A tool-steel testing machine, working like a lathe, was introduced when high-speed steel had just come into general use, and Herbert became a prominent member of the Cutting Tools Research Committee of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1919, carrying out many investigations for that body and compiling four of its Reports published between 1927 and 1933. He was the first to conceive the idea of the "tool-work" thermocouple which allowed cutting tool temperatures to be accurately measured. For this advance he was awarded the Thomas Hawksley Gold Medal of the Institution in 1926.His best-known invention was the Pendulum Hardness Tester, introduced in 1923. This used a spherical indentor, which was rolled over, rather than being pushed into, the surface being examined, by a small, heavy, inverted pendulum. The period of oscillation of this pendulum provided a sensitive measurement of the specimen's hardness. Following this work Herbert introduced his "Cloudburst" surface hardening process, in which hardened steel engineering components were bombarded by steel balls moving at random in all directions at very high velocities like gaseous molecules. This treatment superhardened the surface of the components, improved their resistance to abrasion, and revealed any surface defects. After bombardment the hardness of the superficially hardened layers increased slowly and spontaneously by a room-temperature ageing process. After his retirement in 1928 Herbert devoted himself to a detailed study of the influence of intense magnetic fields on the hardening of steels.Herbert was a member of several learned societies, including the Manchester Association of Engineers, the Institute of Metals, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. He retained a seat on the Board of his company from his retirement until the end of his life.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsManchester Association of Engineers Butterworth Gold Medal 1923. Institution of Mechanical Engineers Thomas Hawksley Gold Medal 1926.BibliographyE.G.Herbert obtained several British and American patents and was the author of many papers, which are listed in T.M.Herbert (ed.), 1939, "The inventions of Edward Geisler Herbert: an autobiographical note", Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers 141: 59–67.ASD / RTSBiographical history of technology > Herbert, Edward Geisler
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20 Holmes, Frederic Hale
[br]fl. 1850s–60s[br]British engineer who pioneered the electrical illumination of lighthouses in Great Britain.[br]An important application of the magneto generator was demonstrated by Holmes in 1853 when he showed that it might be used to supply an arc lamp. This had many implications for the future because it presented the possibility of making electric lighting economically successful. In 1856 he patented a machine with six disc armatures on a common axis rotating between seven banks of permanent magnets. The following year Holmes suggested the possible application of his invention to lighthouse illumination and a trial was arranged and observed by Faraday, who was at that time scientific adviser to Trinity House, the corporation entrusted with the care of light-houses in England and Wales. Although the trial was successful and gained the approval of Faraday, the Elder Brethren of Trinity House imposed strict conditions on Holmes's design for machines to be used for a more extensive trial. These included connecting the machine directly to a slow-speed steam engine, but this resulted in a reduced performance. The experiments of Holmes and Faraday were brought to the attention of the French lighthouse authorities and magneto generators manufactured by Société Alliance began to be installed in some lighthouses along the coast of France. After noticing the French commutatorless machines, Holmes produced an alternator of similar type in 1867. Two of these were constructed for a new lighthouse at Souter Point near Newcastle and two were installed in each of the two lighthouses at South Foreland. One of the machines from South Foreland that was in service from 1872 to 1922 is preserved in the Royal Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh. A Holmes generator is also preserved in the Science Museum, London. Holmes obtained a series of patents for generators between 1856 and 1869, with all but the last being of the magneto-electric type.[br]Bibliography7 March 1856, British patent no. 573 (the original patent for Holmes's invention).1863, "On magneto electricity and its application to lighthouse purposes", Journal of the Society of Arts 12:39–43.Further ReadingW.J.King, 1962, in The Development of Electrical Technology in the 19th Century; Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, Paper 30, pp. 351–63 (provides a detailed account of Holmes's generators).J.N.Douglas, 1879, "The electric light applied to lighthouse illumination", Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers 57(3):77–110 (describes trials of Holmes's machines).GW
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