inventor's name

1) имя

2) фамилия

3) наименование, название; обозначение

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- actual name

name [neɪm]

1. noun

   a. nom m

• what's your name? comment vous appelez-vous ?

• my name is Robert je m'appelle Robert

• what name shall I say? (on telephone) c'est de la part de qui ?

• please fill in your name and address prière d'inscrire vos nom, prénom et adresse

• to take sb's name and address noter les coordonnées de qn

• to put one's name down for a class s'inscrire à un cours

• he writes under the name of John Smith il écrit sous le pseudonyme de John Smith

• she's the boss in all but name elle est le patron sans en avoir le titre

• to refer to sb by name désigner qn par son nom

• without mentioning any names sans citer personne

• that's the name of the game ( = that's what matters) c'est ce qui compte ; ( = that's how it is) c'est comme ça

• all the big names were there toutes les célébrités étaient là

   b. ( = reputation) réputation f

• he has a name for honesty il a la réputation d'être honnête

• to have a bad name avoir mauvaise réputation

• to get a bad name se faire une mauvaise réputation

• to make one's name se faire un nom

• this book made his name ce livre l'a rendu célèbre

   c. ( = insult) to call sb names traiter qn de tous les noms

2. transitive verb

   a. ( = give a name to) nommer ; [+ comet, star, mountain] donner un nom à

• a person named Smith un (e) dénommé(e) Smith

• to name a child after sb donner à un enfant le nom de qn

   b. ( = give name of) nommer ; ( = list) citer

• he refused to name his accomplices il a refusé de révéler les noms de ses complices

• name the chief works of Shakespeare citez les principaux ouvrages de Shakespeare

• they have been named as witnesses ils ont été cités comme témoins

• he has been named as the leader of the expedition on l'a désigné pour diriger l'expédition

   c. ( = fix) [+ date, price] fixer

• name your price fixez votre prix

3. compounds

► name day noun fête f

► name-drop intransitive verb émailler sa conversation de noms de gens en vue

► name tape noun marque f

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1) ( title) gen nom m; (of book, film) titre m

2) ( reputation) réputation f

3) ( insult)

transitive verb

1) ( call) appeler [person, area]; baptiser [boat, planet]

2) ( cite) citer

3) ( reveal identity of) citer [names]; révéler [sources]; révéler l'identité de [suspect]

4) ( appoint) nommer [captain]; donner la composition de [team]; désigner [heir]; nommer [successor]

5) ( state) indiquer [place, time]; fixer [price, terms]

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name

A n

1 ( title) (of person, place, object) nom m ; (of book, film) titre m ; first name prénom m ; my name is Louis je m'appelle Louis ; what is your name? comment vous appelez-vous? ; what name shall I say? ( on phone) c'est de la part de qui? ; ( in person) qui dois-je annoncer? ; a woman by the name of Catherine une femme répondant au nom de Catherine ; he goes by the name of Max il s'appelle Max ; I know it by another name je le connais sous un autre nom ; I know my regulars by name je connais mes habitués par leurs noms ; I only know the company by name je ne connais la société que de nom ; to refer to sb/sth by name désigner qn/qch par son nom ; the common/Latin name for this plant le nom vulgaire/latin de cette plante ; in the name of God! au nom de Dieu! ; in the name of freedom au nom de la liberté ; in my name en mon nom ; a passport in the name of Nell Drury un passeport au nom de Nell Drury ; she writes under the name Eve Quest elle écrit sous le nom d'Eve Quest ; he's president in name only il n'a de président que le nom ; they are married in name only ils ne sont mariés que sur le papier ; to be party leader in all ou everything but name être chef du parti sinon en titre, du moins en pratique ; to give/lend one's name to sth donner/prêter son nom à qch ; to put one's name to apposer son nom à [petition] ; to take ou get one's name from porter le nom de [relative, flower] ; to put one's name down for s'inscrire à [course, school] ; she put her name down to act in the play elle s'est proposée pour jouer dans la pièce ; the big names in showbusiness les grands noms du monde du spectacle ;

2 ( reputation) réputation f ; a good/bad name une bonne/mauvaise réputation ; they have a name for efficiency ils ont la réputation d'être efficaces ; that was the film that made her name c'est ce film qui a fait sa réputation or qui l'a rendue célèbre ; to make one's name as a writer se faire un nom comme écrivain ; to make a name for oneself as a singer/photographer se faire un nom dans la chanson/la photo ; to make a name for oneself as a coward/liar péj se faire une réputation de lâche/menteur ;

3 ( insult) to call sb names injurier qn ; he called me all sorts of names il m'a traité de tous les noms.

B vtr

1 ( call) appeler [person, area] ; baptiser [boat, planet] ; they named the baby Nadine ils ont appelé le bébé Nadine ; they named her after GB ou for US her mother ils l'ont appelée comme sa mère ; we'll name him Martin after Martin Luther King on l'appellera Martin en souvenir de Martin Luther King ; a boy named Joe un garçon nommé Joe ; the product is named after its inventor le produit porte le nom de son inventeur ;

2 ( cite) citer [country, name, planet] ; name three American States citez trois États américains ; name me all the members of the EEC citez-moi tous les pays membres de la CEE ; France, Spain, Italy, to name but a few la France, l'Espagne, l'Italie, pour n'en citer que quelques-uns ; illnesses? you name it, I've had it! des maladies? je les ai toutes eues! ; hammers, drills, nails, you name it, we've got it! marteaux, perceuses, clous, nous avons tout ce que vous voulez ;

3 ( reveal identity of) citer [names] ; révéler [sources] ; révéler l'identité de [suspect] ; to name names donner des noms ; naming no names sans vouloir dénoncer personne ; to be named as a suspect être désigné comme suspect ;

4 ( appoint) nommer [captain] ; donner la composition de [team] ; désigner [heir] ; nommer [successor] ; he's been named actor of the year il a été nommé acteur de l'année ; to name sb for nommer qn à [post, award] ;

5 ( state) indiquer [place, time] ; fixer [price, terms] ; name your price fixez votre prix ; to name the day fixer la date du mariage.

that's the name of the game c'est la règle du jeu ; competitiveness/perfection is the name of the game c'est la compétitivité/la perfection qui prime ; to see one's name in lights devenir célèbre.

1) (of person, place, object) nome m.; (of book, film) titolo m.

2) (reputation) nome m., reputazione f.

3) (insult)

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1) (call) chiamare, dare il nome a [person, area, boat, planet]

2) (cite) citare, dire il nome di

3) (reveal identity of) fare, dire [ names]; rivelare [ sources]; rivelare l'identità di [ suspect]

4) (appoint) nominare [ captain]; dare la formazione di [ team]; designare [ heir]; eleggere [ successor]

5) (state) indicare [place, time]; fissare [price, terms]

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1) (a word by which a person, place or thing is called: My name is Rachel; She knows all the flowers by name.) nome

2) (reputation; fame: He has a name for honesty.) fama, reputazione

1) (to give a name to: They named the child Thomas.) chiamare

2) (to speak of or list by name: He could name all the kings of England.) nominare, menzionare

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- nameless

* * *

1) (of person, place, object) nome m.; (of book, film) titolo m.

2) (reputation) nome m., reputazione f.

3) (insult)

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1) (call) chiamare, dare il nome a [person, area, boat, planet]

2) (cite) citare, dire il nome di

3) (reveal identity of) fare, dire [ names]; rivelare [ sources]; rivelare l'identità di [ suspect]

4) (appoint) nominare [ captain]; dare la formazione di [ team]; designare [ heir]; eleggere [ successor]

5) (state) indicare [place, time]; fissare [price, terms]

SUBJECT AREA: Broadcasting, Electronics and information technology, Photography, film and optics, Recording, Telecommunications

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De Forest was born into the family of a Congregational minister that moved to Alabama in 1879 when the father became President of a college for African-Americans; this was a position that led to the family's social ostracism by the white community. By the time he was 13 years old, De Forest was already a keen mechanical inventor, and in 1893, rejecting his father's plan for him to become a clergyman, he entered the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University. Following his first degree, he went on to study the propagation of electromagnetic waves, gaining a PhD in physics in 1899 for his thesis on the "Reflection of Hertzian Waves from the Ends of Parallel Wires", probably the first US thesis in the field of radio.

He then joined the Western Electric Company in Chicago where he helped develop the infant technology of wireless, working his way up from a modest post in the production area to a position in the experimental laboratory. There, working alone after normal working hours, he developed a detector of electromagnetic waves based on an electrolytic device similar to that already invented by Fleming in England. Recognizing his talents, a number of financial backers enabled him to set up his own business in 1902 under the name of De Forest Wireless Telegraphy Company; he was soon demonstrating wireless telegraphy to interested parties and entering into competition with the American Marconi Company.

Despite the failure of this company because of fraud by his partners, he continued his experiments; in 1907, by adding a third electrode, a wire mesh, between the anode and cathode of the thermionic diode invented by Fleming in 1904, he was able to produce the amplifying device now known as the triode valve and achieve a sensitivity of radio-signal reception much greater than possible with the passive carborundum and electrolytic detectors hitherto available. Patented under the name Audion, this new vacuum device was soon successfully used for experimental broadcasts of music and speech in New York and Paris. The invention of the Audion has been described as the beginning of the electronic era. Although much development work was required before its full potential was realized, the Audion opened the way to progress in all areas of sound transmission, recording and reproduction. The patent was challenged by Fleming and it was not until 1943 that De Forest's claim was finally recognized.

Overcoming the near failure of his new company, the De Forest Radio Telephone Company, as well as unsuccessful charges of fraudulent promotion of the Audion, he continued to exploit the potential of his invention. By 1912 he had used transformer-coupling of several Audion stages to achieve high gain at radio frequencies, making long-distance communication a practical proposition, and had applied positive feedback from the Audion output anode to its input grid to realize a stable transmitter oscillator and modulator. These successes led to prolonged patent litigation with Edwin Armstrong and others, and he eventually sold the manufacturing rights, in retrospect often for a pittance.

During the early 1920s De Forest began a fruitful association with T.W.Case, who for around ten years had been working to perfect a moving-picture sound system. De Forest claimed to have had an interest in sound films as early as 1900, and Case now began to supply him with photoelectric cells and primitive sound cameras. He eventually devised a variable-density sound-on-film system utilizing a glow-discharge modulator, the Photion. By 1926 De Forest's Phonofilm had been successfully demonstrated in over fifty theatres and this system became the basis of Movietone. Though his ideas were on the right lines, the technology was insufficiently developed and it was left to others to produce a system acceptable to the film industry. However, De Forest had played a key role in transforming the nature of the film industry; within a space of five years the production of silent films had all but ceased.

In the following decade De Forest applied the Audion to the development of medical diathermy. Finally, after spending most of his working life as an independent inventor and entrepreneur, he worked for a time during the Second World War at the Bell Telephone Laboratories on military applications of electronics.

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1) право; правопритязание

2) правомерный; справедливый; правильный; надлежащий

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- all rights reserved

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William G. Morgan (1870-1942), who was born in the State of New York, has gone down in history as the inventor of the game of volleyball, to which he originally gave the name "Mintonette".

The young Morgan carried out his undergraduate studies at the Springfield College of the YMCA (Young Men's Christian Association) where he met James Naismith who, in 1891, had invented basketball. After graduating, Morgan spent his first year at the Auburn (Maine) YMCA after which, during the summer of 1896, he moved to the YMCA at Holyoke (Massachusetts) where he became Director of Physical Education. In this role he had the opportunity to establish, develop, and direct a vast programme of exercises and sports classes for male adults.

His leadership was enthusiastically accepted, and his classes grew in numbers. He came to realise that he needed a certain type of competitive recreational game in order to vary his programme. Basketball, which sport was beginning to develop, seemed to suit young people, but it was necessary to find a less violent and less intense alternative for the older members.

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The sport originated in the United States, and is now just achieving the type of popularity in the U.S. that it has received on a global basis, where it ranks behind only soccer among participation sports.

Today there are more than 46 million Americans who play volleyball. There are 800 million players worldwide who play Volleyball at least once a week.

In 1895, William G. Morgan, an instructor at the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) in Holyoke, Mass., decided to blend elements of basketball, baseball, tennis, and handball to create a game for his classes of businessmen which would demand less physical contact than basketball. He created the game of Volleyball (at that time called mintonette). Morgan borrowed the net from tennis, and raised it 6 feet 6 inches above the floor, just above the average man's head.

During a demonstration game, someone remarked to Morgan that the players seemed to be volleying the ball back and forth over the net, and perhaps "volleyball" would be a more descriptive name for the sport.

On July 7, 1896 at Springfield College the first game of "volleyball" was played.

In 1900, a special ball was designed for the sport.

1900 - YMCA spread volleyball to Canada, the Orient, and the Southern Hemisphere.

1905 - YMCA spread volleyball to Cuba

1907 Volleyball was presented at the Playground of America convention as one of the most popular sports

1909 - YMCA spread volleyball to Puerto Rico

1912 - YMCA spread volleyball to Uruguay

1913 - Volleyball competition held in Far Eastern Games

1917 - YMCA spread volleyball to Brazil

In 1916, in the Philippines, an offensive style of passing the ball in a high trajectory to be struck by another player (the set and spike) were introduced. The Filipinos developed the "bomba" or kill, and called the hitter a "bomberino".

1916 - The NCAA was invited by the YMCA to aid in editing the rules and in promoting the sport. Volleyball was added to school and college physical education and intramural programs.

In 1917, the game was changed from 21 to 15 points.

1919 American Expeditionary Forces distributed 16,000 volleyballs to it's troops and allies. This provided a stimulus for the growth of volleyball in foreign lands.

In 1920, three hits per side and back row attack rules were instituted.

In 1922, the first YMCA national championships were held in Brooklyn, NY. 27 teams from 11 states were represented.

In 1928, it became clear that tournaments and rules were needed, the United States Volleyball Association (USVBA, now USA Volleyball) was formed. The first U.S. Open was staged, as the field was open to non-YMCA squads.

1930's Recreational sports programs became an important part of American life

In 1930, the first two-man beach game was played.

In 1934, the approval and recognition of national volleyball referees.

In 1937, at the AAU convention in Boston, action was taken to recognize the U.S. Volleyball Association as the official national governing body in the U.S.

Late 1940s Forearm pass introduced to the game (as a desperation play) Most balls played with overhand pass

1946 A study of recreation in the United States showed that volleyball ranked fifth among team sports being promoted and organized

In 1947, the Federation Internationale De Volley-Ball (FIVB) was founded in Paris.

In 1948, the first two-man beach tournament was held.

In 1949, the first World Championships were held in Prague, Czechoslovakia.

1949 USVBA added a collegiate division, for competitive college teams. For the first ten years collegiate competition was sparse. Teams formed only through the efforts of interested students and instructors. Many teams dissolved when the interested individuals left the college. Competitive teams were scattered, with no collegiate governing bodies providing leadership in the sport.

1951 - Volleyball was played by over 50 million people each year in over 60 countries

1955 - Pan American Games included volleyball

1957 - The International Olympic Committee (IOC) designated volleyball as an Olympic team sport, to be included in the 1964 Olympic Games.

1959 - International University Sports Federation (FISU) held the first University Games in Turin, Italy. Volleyball was one of the eight competitions held.

1960 Seven midwestern institutions formed the Midwest Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA)

1964Southern California Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (SCVIA) was formed in California

1960's new techniques added to the game included - the soft spike (dink), forearm pass (bump), blocking across the net, and defensive diving and rolling.

In 1964, Volleyball was introduced to the Olympic Games in Tokyo.

The Japanese volleyball used in the 1964 Olympics, consisted of a rubber carcass with leather panelling. A similarly constructed ball is used in most modern competition.

In 1965, the California Beach Volleyball Association (CBVA) was formed.

1968 National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) made volleyball their fifteenth competitive sport.

1969 The Executive Committee of the NCAA proposed addition of volleyball to its program.

In 1974, the World Championships in Mexico were telecast in Japan.

In 1975, the US National Women's team began a year-round training regime in Pasadena, Texas (moved to Colorado Springs in 1979, Coto de Caza and Fountain Valley, CA in 1980, and San Diego, CA in 1985).

In 1977, the US National Men's team began a year-round training regime in Dayton, Ohio (moved to San Diego, CA in 1981).

In 1983, the Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP) was formed.

In 1984, the US won their first medals at the Olympics in Los Angeles. The Men won the Gold, and the Women the Silver.

In 1986, the Women's Professional Volleyball Association (WPVA) was formed.

In 1987, the FIVB added a Beach Volleyball World Championship Series.

In 1988, the US Men repeated the Gold in the Olympics in Korea.

In 1989, the FIVB Sports Aid Program was created.

In 1990, the World League was created.

In 1992, the Four Person Pro Beach League was started in the United States.

In 1994, Volleyball World Wide, created.

In 1995, the sport of Volleyball was 100 years old!

In 1996, 2-person beach volleyball was added to the Olympics

There is a good book, "Volleyball Centennial: The First 100 Years", available on the history of the sport.

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SUBJECT AREA: Textiles

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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.

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SUBJECT AREA: Automotive engineering, Steam and internal combustion engines

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Orphaned at the age of 10, Maybach was destined to become one of the world's most renowned engine designers. From 1868 he was apprenticed as a draughtsman at the Briiderhaus Engineering Works in Reurlingen, where his talents were recognized by Gottlieb Daimler, who was Manager and Technical Director. Nikolaus Otto had by then developed his atmospheric engine and reorganized his company, Otto \& Langen, into Gasmotorenfabrik Deutz, of which he appointed Daimler Manager. After employment at a machine builders in Karlsruhe, in 1872 Maybach followed Daimler to Deutz where he worked as a partner on the design of high-speed engines: his engines ran at up to 900 rpm, some three times as fast as conventional engines of the time. Maybach made improvements to the timing, carburation and other features. In 1881 Daimler left the Deutz Company and set up on his own as a freelance inventor, moving with his family to Bad Cannstatt; in April 1882 Maybach joined him as Engineer and Designer to set up a partnership to develop lightweight high-speed engines suitable for vehicles. A motor cycle appeared in 1885 and a modified horse-drawn carriage was fitted with a Maybach engine in 1886. Other applications to small boats, fire-engine pumps and small locomotives quickly followed, and the Vee engine of 1890 that was fitted into the French Peugeot automobiles had a profound effect upon the new sport of motor racing. In 1895 Daimler won the first international motor race and the same year Maybach became Technical Director of the Daimler firm. In 1899 Emil Jellinek, Daimler agent in France and also Austro-Hungarian consul, required a car to compete with Panhard and Levassor, who had been victorious in the Paris-Bordeaux race; he wanted more power and a lower centre of gravity, and turned to Maybach with his requirements, the 35 hp Daimler- Simplex of 1901 being the outcome. Its performance and road holding superseded those of all others at the time; it was so successful that Jellinek immediately placed an order for thirty-six cars. His daughter's name was Mercedes, after whom, when the merger of Daimler and Benz came about, the name Mercedes-Benz was adopted.

In his later years, Maybach designed the engine for the Zeppelin airships. He retired from the Daimler Company in 1907.

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SUBJECT AREA: Ports and shipping

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Holland was educated first in his native town and later in Limerick, a seaport bustling with coastal trade ships. His first job was that of schoolteacher, and as such he worked in various parts of Ireland until he was about 32 years old. A combination of his burning patriotic zeal for Ireland and his interest in undersea technology (then in its infancy) made him consider designs for underwater warships for use against the British Royal Navy in the fight for Irish independence. He studied all known works on the subject and commenced drawing plans, but he was unable to make real headway owing to a lack of finance.

In 1873 he travelled to the United States, ultimately settling in New Jersey and continuing in the profession of teaching. His work on submarine design continued, but in 1875 he suffered a grave setback when the United States Navy turned down his designs. Help came from an unexpected source, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, or Fenian Society, which had been founded in Dublin and New York in 1858. Financial help enabled Holland to build a 4 m (13 ft) one-person craft, which was tested in 1878, and then a larger boat of 19 tonnes' displacement that was tested with a crew of three to depths of 20 m (65 ft) in New York's harbour in 1883. Known as the Fenian Ram, it embodied most of the principles of modern submarines, including weight compensation. The Fenians commandeered this boat, but they were unable to operate it satisfactorily and it was relegated to history.

Holland continued work, at times independently and sometimes with others, and continuously advocated submarines to the United States Navy. In 1895 he was successful in winning a contract for US$150,000 to build the US Submarine Plunger at Baltimore. With too much outside interference, this proved an unsatisfactory venture. However, with only US$5,000 of his capital left, Holland started again and in 1898 he launched the Holland at Elizabeth, New Jersey. This 16 m (52 ft) vessel was successful, and in 1900 it was purchased by the United States Government.

Six more boats were ordered by the Americans, and then some by the Russians and the Japanese. The British Royal Navy ordered five, which were built by Vickers Son and Maxim (now VSEL) at Barrow-in-Furness in the years up to 1903, commencing their long run of submarine building. They were licensed by another well-known name, the Electric Boat Company, which had formerly been the J.P.Holland Torpedo Boat Company.

Holland now had some wealth and was well known. He continued to work, trying his hand at aeronautical research, and in 1904 he invented a respirator for use in submarine rescue work. It is pleasing to record that one of his ships can be seen to this day at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum, Gosport: HM Submarine Holland No. 1, which was lost under tow in 1913 but salvaged and restored in the 1980s.

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SUBJECT AREA: Weapons and armour

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Hunt displayed talent as an inventor at an early age. While in his late teens he designed a machine for spinning flax, and after taking out a patent on it in 1826 he went to New York in order to set up a company to manufacture it. The company failed, however, and he was forced to go into business as an estate agent in order to make a living. Nevertheless, he remained undeterred and continued to invent a wide range of objects, including an iron fire alarm for fire stations and engines (1827) and the safety pin (1849). However, either many of his ideas were before their time or he failed to market them properly: for example, in 1834 he invented a sewing machine with lockstitch, but failed to patent it and it was left to others, such as Merritt Singer, to reap the rewards. He also conceived the name "fountain pen", but again more commercially minded people, Swan, Parker and Waterman, enjoyed the benefits. His paper collar, invented in 1854, only became popular after his death. Hunt is probably best remembered in the field of firearms. In 1849 he produced the first repeating rifle, which had a tubular magazine fixed under the barrel and fired special self-propelled or "rocket" balls, for which Hunt had taken out a patent the previous year. Although this weapon never entered general manufacture, the design principles incorporated in it were later reflected in the Springfield, Winchester, Henry and Volcanic rifles, which began to appear towards the end of the following decade.

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SUBJECT AREA: Photography, film and optics, Recording

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Lauste was a prolific inventor who as a 22-year-old had more than fifty patents to his name. He joined Edison's West Orange Laboratory as Assistant to W.K.L. Dickson in 1887; he was soon involved in the development of early motion pictures, beginning an association with the cinema that was to dominate the rest of his working life. He left Edison in 1892 to pursue an interest in petrol engines, but within two years he returned to cinematography, where, in association with Major Woodville Latham, he introduced small but significant improvements to film-projection systems. In 1900 an interest in sound recording, dating back to his early days with Edison, led Lauste to begin exploring the possibility of recording sound photographically on film alongside the picture. In 1904 he moved to England, where he continued his experiments, and by 1907 he had succeeded in photographing a sound trace and picture simultaneously, each image occupying half the width of the film.

Despite successful demonstrations of Lauste's system on both sides of the Atlantic, he enjoyed no commercial success. Handicapped by lack of capital, his efforts were finally brought to an end by the First World War. In 1906 Lauste had filed a patent for his sound-on-film system, which has been described by some authorities as the master patent for talking pictures. Although this claim is questionable, he was the first to produce a practicable scund-on-film system and establish the basic principles that were universally followed until the introduction of magnetic sound.

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SUBJECT AREA: Mechanical, pneumatic and hydraulic engineering

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James Nasmyth was the youngest son of Alexander Nasmyth (1758–1840), the portrait and landscape painter. According to his autobiography he was named James Hall after his father's friend, the geologist Sir James Hall (1761–1832), but he seems never to have used his second name in official documents. He received an elementary education at Edinburgh High School, but left at the age of 12. He attended evening classes at the Edinburgh School of Arts for the instruction of Mechanics between 1821 and 1825, and gained experience as a mechanic at an early age in his father's workshop. He shared these early experiences with his brother George, who was only a year or so older, and in the 1820s the brothers built several model steam engines and a steam-carriage capable of carrying eight passengers on the public roads. In 1829 Nasmyth obtained a position in London as personal assistant to Henry Maudslay, and after Maudslay's death in February 1831 he remained with Maudslay's partner, Joshua Field, for a short time. He then returned to Edinburgh, where he and his brother George started in a small way as general engineers. In 1834 they moved to a small workshop in Manchester, and in 1836, with the aid of financial backing from some Manchester businessmen, they established on a site at Patricroft, a few miles from the city, the works which became known as the Bridgewater Foundry. They were soon joined by a third partner, Holbrook Gaskell (1813–1909), who looked after the administration of the business, the firm then being known as Nasmyths Gaskell \& Co. They specialized in making machine tools, and Nasmyth invented many improvements so that they soon became one of the leading manufacturers in this field. They also made steam locomotives for the rapidly developing railways. James Nasmyth's best-known invention was the steam-hammer, which dates from 1839 but was not patented until 1842. The self-acting control gear was probably the work of Robert Wilson and ensured the commercial success of the invention. George Nasmyth resigned from the partnership in 1843 and in 1850 Gaskell also resigned, after which the firm continued as James Nasmyth \& Co. James Nasmyth himself retired at the end of 1856 and went to live at Penshurst, Kent, in a house which he named "Hammerfield" where he devoted his time mainly to his hobby of astronomy. Robert Wilson returned to become Managing Partner of the firm, which later became Nasmyth, Wilson \& Co. and retained that style until its closure in 1940. Nasmyth's claim to be the sole inventor of the steam-hammer has been disputed, but his patent of 1842 was not challenged and the fourteen-year monopoly ensured the prosperity of the business so that he was able to retire at the age of 48. At his death in 1890 he left an estate valued at £243,805.

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SUBJECT AREA: Chemical technology, Mining and extraction technology, Weapons and armour

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The son of a barber-surgeon who deserted his family to serve in the Swedish army, Nobel showed little interest in academic pursuits as a child and was sent to sea at the age of 16, but jumped ship in Egypt and was eventually employed as an architect by the pasha. Returning to Sweden, he won a scholarship to the Stockholm School of Architecture, where he studied from 1821 to 1825 and was awarded a number of prizes. His interest then leaned towards mechanical matters and he transferred to the Stockholm School of Engineering. Designs for linen-finishing machines won him a prize there, and he also patented a means of transforming rotary into reciprocating movement. He then entered the real-estate business and was successful until a fire in 1833 destroyed his house and everything he owned. By this time he had married and had two sons, with a third, Alfred (of Nobel Prize fame; see Alfred Nobel), on the way. Moving to more modest quarters on the outskirts of Stockholm, Immanuel resumed his inventions, concentrating largely on India rubber, which he applied to surgical instruments and military equipment, including a rubber knapsack.

It was talk of plans to construct a canal at Suez that first excited his interest in explosives. He saw them as a means of making mining more efficient and began to experiment in his backyard. However, this made him unpopular with his neighbours, and the city authorities ordered him to cease his investigations. By this time he was deeply in debt and in 1837 moved to Finland, leaving his family in Stockholm. He hoped to interest the Russians in land and sea mines and, after some four years, succeeded in obtaining financial backing from the Ministry of War, enabling him to set up a foundry and arms factory in St Petersburg and to bring his family over. By 1850 he was clear of debt in Sweden and had begun to acquire a high reputation as an inventor and industrialist. His invention of the horned contact mine was to be the basic pattern of the sea mine for almost the next 100 years, but he also created and manufactured a central-heating system based on hot-water pipes. His three sons, Ludwig, Robert and Alfred, had now joined him in his business, but even so the outbreak of war with Britain and France in the Crimea placed severe pressures on him. The Russians looked to him to convert their navy from sail to steam, even though he had no experience in naval propulsion, but the aftermath of the Crimean War brought financial ruin once more to Immanuel. Amongst the reforms brought in by Tsar Alexander II was a reliance on imports to equip the armed forces, so all domestic arms contracts were abruptly cancelled, including those being undertaken by Nobel. Unable to raise money from the banks, Immanuel was forced to declare himself bankrupt and leave Russia for his native Sweden. Nobel then reverted to his study of explosives, particularly of how to adapt the then highly unstable nitroglycerine, which had first been developed by Ascanio Sobrero in 1847, for blasting and mining. Nobel believed that this could be done by mixing it with gunpowder, but could not establish the right proportions. His son Alfred pursued the matter semi-independently and eventually evolved the principle of the primary charge (and through it created the blasting cap), having taken out a patent for a nitroglycerine product in his own name; the eventual result of this was called dynamite. Father and son eventually fell out over Alfred's independent line, but worse was to follow. In September 1864 Immanuel's youngest son, Oscar, then studying chemistry at Uppsala University, was killed in an explosion in Alfred's laboratory: Immanuel suffered a stroke, but this only temporarily incapacitated him, and he continued to put forward new ideas. These included making timber a more flexible material through gluing crossed veneers under pressure and bending waste timber under steam, a concept which eventually came to fruition in the form of plywood.

In 1868 Immanuel and Alfred were jointly awarded the prestigious Letterstedt Prize for their work on explosives, but Alfred never for-gave his father for retaining the medal without offering it to him.

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