-
1 Menzies, Michael
[br]b. end of the seventeenth century Lanarkshire, Scotland (?)d. 13 December 1766 Edinburgh, Scotland[br]Scottish inventor and lawyer.[br]Menzies was admitted as a member of the Faculty of Advocates on 31 January 1719. It is evident from his applications for patents that he was more concerned with inventions than the law, however. He took out his first patent in 1734 for a threshing machine in which a number of flails were attached to a horizontal axis, which was moved rapidly forwards and backwards through half a revolution, essentially imitating the action of an ordinary flail. The grain to be threshed was placed on either side.Though not a practical success, Menzies's invention seems to have been the first for the mechanical threshing of grain. His idea of imitating non-mechanized action also influenced his invention of a coal cutter, for which he took out a patent in 1761 and which copied miners' tools for obtaining coal. He proposed to carry heavy chains down the pit so that they could be used to give motion to iron picks, saws or other chains with cutting implements. The chains could be set into motion by a steam-engine, by water-or windmills, or by horses gins. Although it is quite obvious that this apparatus could not work, Menzies was the first to have thought of mechanizing coal production in the style that was in use in the late twentieth century. Subsequent to Menzies's proposal, many inventors at varying intervals followed this direction until the problem was finally solved one century later by, among others, W.E. Garforth.Menzies had successfully used the power of a steam-engine on the Wear eight years beforehand, when he obtained a patent for raising coal. According to his device a descending bucket filled with water raised a basket of coals, while a steam-engine pumped the water back to the surface; the balance-tub system, in various forms, quickly spread to other coalfields. Menzies's patent from 1750 for improved methods of carrying the coals from the coalface to the pit-shaft had also been of considerable influence: this device employed self-acting inclined planes, whereon the descending loaded wagons hauled up the empty ones.[br]Further ReadingThe article entitled "Michael Menzies" in the Dictionary of National Biography neglects Menzies's inventions for mining. A comprehensive evaluation of his influence on coal cutting is given in the introductory chapter of S.F.Walker, 1902, Coal-Cutting byMachinery, London.WK -
2 Pilkington, Sir Lionel Alexander Bethune (Alastair)
SUBJECT AREA: Chemical technology[br]b. 7 January 1920 Calcutta, India[br]English inventor of the float-glass process.[br]Pilkington was educated at Sherborne School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated in mechanical science. He spent one year at Cambridge followed by war service, which lasted until 1945. He returned to complete his degree and then joined Pilkington, the well-known glass manufacturer at St Helens' Lancashire, in 1947. Sir Alastair is not, however, related to the Pilkington family of glassmakers.The forming of perfectly flat glass that retained its fire finish had eluded glassmakers for centuries. Until the 1950s the only way of making really flat glass was to form plate glass by continuous casting between steel rollers. This destroyed the fire finish, which had to be restored by expensive grinding and polishing. The process entailed the loss of 20 per cent of good glass. The idea of floating glass on molten metal occurred to Sir Alastair in October 1952, and thereafter he remained in charge of development until commercial success had been achieved. The idea of floating molten glass on molten tin had been patented in the United States as early as 1902, but had never been pursued. The Pilkington process in essence was to float a ribbon of molten glass on a bath of molten tin in an inert atmosphere of nitrogen, to prevent oxidation of the tin. It was patented in Britain in 1957 and in the USA two years later. The first production glass issued from the plant in May 1957, although the first good glass did not appear until July 1958. The process was publicly announced the following year and was quickly taken up by the industry. It is now the universal method for manufacturing high quality flat glass.Having seen through the greatest single advance in glassmaking and one of the most important technological developments this century, Sir Alastair became Chairman of Pilkingtons until 1980 and President thereafter.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsKnighted 1970. FRS 1969. Honorary Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, 1991.Bibliography1969, "Float glass process—the review lecture", Royal Society (13 February). 1975, "Floating windows", Proceedings of the Royal Institution, Vol. 48.1976, "Float glass—evolution and revolution over 60 years", Glass Technology, Vol. 17, no. 5.1963, "The development of float glass", Glass Industry, (February).Further ReadingJ.Jewkes et al., 1969, The Sources of Invention, 2nd ed., London: Macmillan.LRDBiographical history of technology > Pilkington, Sir Lionel Alexander Bethune (Alastair)
-
3 Schanck, John
SUBJECT AREA: Ports and shipping[br]b. 1740 Fife, Scotland d. 1823[br]Scottish admiral, builder of small ships with revolutionary form, pioneer of sliding keels.[br]Schanck first went to sea in the merchant service, but in 1758 he was transferred to the Royal Navy. After four years as an able seaman, he was made a midshipman (a rare occurrence in those days), and by perseverance was commissioned Lieutenant in 1776 and appointed to command a small vessel operating in the St Lawrence. Being known as an inventive and practical officer, he was soon placed in charge of shipbuilding operations for the British on the Great Lakes and quickly constructed a small fleet that operated on Lake Champlain and elsewhere. He was promoted Captain in 1783. In earlier years Schanck had built a small sliding-keel yacht and sailed it in Boston Harbor. The Admiralty accepted the idea and tested two similar small craft, one with and the other without sliding keels. The success of the keels encouraged the authorities to build further craft of increasing size, culminating in the Lady Nelson, which carried out many surveys in Australian waters at the end of the eighteenth century. Service with the Army and the transport board followed, when his special knowledge and skill were used to the full in the waterways of the Netherlands. Schanck rose to the rank of full Admiral, and advised not only the British Government on coastal defence but other groups on many aspects of hull design.[br]Further ReadingJohn Charnock, 1800, A History of Marine Architecture, etc., London.FMW -
4 Swan, Sir Joseph Wilson
[br]b. 31 October 1828 Sunderland, Englandd. 27 May 1914 Warlingham, Surrey, England[br]English chemist, inventor in Britain of the incandescent electric lamp and of photographic processes.[br]At the age of 14 Swan was apprenticed to a Sunderland firm of druggists, later joining John Mawson who had opened a pharmacy in Newcastle. While in Sunderland Swan attended lectures at the Athenaeum, at one of which W.E. Staite exhibited electric-arc and incandescent lighting. The impression made on Swan prompted him to conduct experiments that led to his demonstration of a practical working lamp in 1879. As early as 1848 he was experimenting with carbon as a lamp filament, and by 1869 he had mounted a strip of carbon in a vessel exhausted of air as completely as was then possible; however, because of residual air, the filament quickly failed.Discouraged by the cost of current from primary batteries and the difficulty of achieving a good vacuum, Swan began to devote much of his attention to photography. With Mawson's support the pharmacy was expanded to include a photographic business. Swan's interest in making permanent photographic records led him to patent the carbon process in 1864 and he discovered how to make a sensitive dry plate in place of the inconvenient wet collodian process hitherto in use. He followed this success with the invention of bromide paper, the subject of a British patent in 1879.Swan resumed his interest in electric lighting. Sprengel's invention of the mercury pump in 1865 provided Swan with the means of obtaining the high vacuum he needed to produce a satisfactory lamp. Swan adopted a technique which was to become an essential feature in vacuum physics: continuing to heat the filament during the exhaustion process allowed the removal of absorbed gases. The inventions of Gramme, Siemens and Brush provided the source of electrical power at reasonable cost needed to make the incandescent lamp of practical service. Swan exhibited his lamp at a meeting in December 1878 of the Newcastle Chemical Society and again the following year before an audience of 700 at the Newcastle Literary and Philosophical Society. Swan's failure to patent his invention immediately was a tactical error as in November 1879 Edison was granted a British patent for his original lamp, which, however, did not go into production. Parchmentized thread was used in Swan's first commercial lamps, a material soon superseded by the regenerated cellulose filament that he developed. The cellulose filament was made by extruding a solution of nitro-cellulose in acetic acid through a die under pressure into a coagulating fluid, and was used until the ultimate obsolescence of the carbon-filament lamp. Regenerated cellulose became the first synthetic fibre, the further development and exploitation of which he left to others, the patent rights for the process being sold to Courtaulds.Swan also devised a modification of Planté's secondary battery in which the active material was compressed into a cellular lead plate. This has remained the central principle of all improvements in secondary cells, greatly increasing the storage capacity for a given weight.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsKnighted 1904. FRS 1894. President, Institution of Electrical Engineers 1898. First President, Faraday Society 1904. Royal Society Hughes Medal 1904. Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur 1881.Bibliography2 January 1880, British patent no. 18 (incandescent electric lamp).24 May 1881, British patent no. 2,272 (improved plates for the Planté cell).1898, "The rise and progress of the electrochemical industries", Journal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers 27:8–33 (Swan's Presidential Address to the Institution of Electrical Engineers).Further ReadingM.E.Swan and K.R.Swan, 1968, Sir Joseph Wilson Swan F.R.S., Newcastle upon Tyne (a detailed account).R.C.Chirnside, 1979, "Sir Joseph Swan and the invention of the electric lamp", IEEElectronics and Power 25:96–100 (a short, authoritative biography).GWBiographical history of technology > Swan, Sir Joseph Wilson
См. также в других словарях:
Ray Harryhausen — at Forbidden Planet, London. Born Raymond Frederick Harryhausen June 29, 1920 (1920 06 29) (age 91) Los Angeles, California, U.S … Wikipedia
Donal Óg Cusack — Personal information Irish name Dónall Óg Ó Cíosóg Sport Hurling … Wikipedia
Joe Deane — Infobox GAA player code= Hurling sport = Hurling name = Joe Deane irish = Seosamh Ó Déin fullname = Joseph Deane placeofbirth = Killeagh countryofbirth = County Cork bday=15 bmonth=11 byear= 1977 dyear= dday= dmonth= feet = 5 inches = 7 nickname … Wikipedia
Rocky Sharpe — is the pseudonym of an English rock/pop singer who, with Rocky Sharpe and the Replays, first found fame in the late 1970s. The usual line up of the group was Rocky (real name Robert Podsiadly), Helen Highwater (real name Helen Blizard), Johnny… … Wikipedia
What Fun! — is a pop/reggae group based in Haarlem, Netherlands founded in 1981. Within two years, the group grew rapidly in size to a total of ten members and success quickly followed in 1983 with the release of the single The Right Side Won , which reached … Wikipedia
Paul Wellens — Infobox rugby league biography playername = Paul Wellens fullname = Paul Wellens nickname = Wello, The Slug image size= 200px caption = country = position = Full back currentclub = leagueicon|St Helens|size=16 St Helens clubnumber = 1 dateofbirth … Wikipedia
Gerry Collins (football) — Gerry Collins is a Scottish football coach who is best known for his role as assistant to John Lambie. Collins and Lambie first teamed up in 1985 when the former was a player with Hamilton and the pair have been together ever since. Success… … Wikipedia
John Lambie (footballer born 1940) — Football manager infobox playername = John Lambie fullname = John Lambie height = nickname = dateofbirth = 1940 cityofbirth = Whitburn countryofbirth = Scotland currentclub = position = Full Back / Manager youthyears = youthclubs = Whitburn years … Wikipedia
Rangers F.C. season 1998-99 — Infobox Football club season club = Rangers logo = season = 1998 99 manager = Dick Advocaat chairman = David Murray league = Scottish Premier League league result = 1st P36 W23 D8 L5 F78 A31 cup1 = Scottish Cup| cup1 result = Winners cup2 =… … Wikipedia
Mark Stoddart — is an internationally acclaimed sculptor and furniture designer. Originally from Troon in Scotland, he attended various schools until, at the age of twelve, teachers discovered he was dyslexic. He was then sent to school in England for… … Wikipedia
Germany — /jerr meuh nee/, n. a republic in central Europe: after World War II divided into four zones, British, French, U.S., and Soviet, and in 1949 into East Germany and West Germany; East and West Germany were reunited in 1990. 84,068,216; 137,852 sq.… … Universalium
