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1 ♦ ahead
♦ ahead /əˈhɛd/A avv.1 avanti; davanti; più avanti: to go ahead, andare avanti; proseguire; to go on ahead, andare avanti (precedendo); Go straight ahead, va' sempre avanti; continua diritto; Look ahead!, guarda davanti a te!; He concentrated on the road ahead, si è concentrato sulla strada davanti a lui (o che aveva davanti); The road ahead is flooded, la strada più avanti è allagata; Ahead, we saw a hut, più avanti, vedemmo una capanna2 avanti ( nel tempo); davanti; in vista: to look ahead, guardare avanti; guardare al futuro; There are hard days ahead for us, abbiamo davanti giorni difficili; There's trouble ahead, ci sono guai in vista3 anzitempo; per tempo; in anticipo: to plan ahead, fare progetti per tempo; to book ahead, prenotare in anticipo4 avanti; in vantaggio; in testa; in prima posizione: They are far ahead in technology, sono molto avanti nella tecnologia; to be ahead in a subject, essere avanti in una materia (scolastica); to keep ahead, mantenersi in testa (o in prima posizione, in vantaggio); ahead by three points, in vantaggio di tre punti5 (nei verbi frasali) V. sotto il verboB ahead of loc. prep.1 davanti a ( nello spazio o nel tempo): There was a lorry ahead of us, c'era un camion davanti a noi; I had a busy day ahead of me, avevo davanti a me (o mi aspettava) una giornata piena2 più avanti di; avanti a; in vantaggio su: He's ahead of me in maths, è avanti a me in matematica; far ahead of the competition, in notevole vantaggio sulla concorrenza; I finished ten seconds ahead of him, ho finito con dieci secondi di vantaggio su di lui; to keep ahead of, mantenere il vantaggio su3 in anticipo su; prima di: ahead of one's (o its) time, in anticipo sui tempi; che precorre i tempi; ahead of time, in anticipo; prima; We are ahead of our production plans, siamo in anticipo sui nostri piani di produzione; ahead of elections, prima delle elezioni; ahead of schedule, prima del giorno stabilito; in anticipo sulla tabella di marcia4 (rif. a fuso orario) avanti rispetto a: London is five hours ahead of New York, Londra è cinque ore avanti rispetto a New York● (fam.) ahead of the field, in testa a tutti; il migliore □ (fam.) ahead of the game, in testa; in vantaggio; ( anche) in anticipo sui tempi □ ahead on points, in vantaggio □ (autom.) Ahead only, divieto di svolta (a destra e a sinistra) ( cartello). -
2 ahead
ahead [əˈhed]━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ adverba. (in space) stay here, I'll go on ahead restez ici, moi je vais devantb. (in classification, sport) en tête• the goal put Scotland 2-1 ahead grâce à ce but, l'Écosse menait 2 à 1* * *Note: ahead is often used after verbs in English ( go ahead, plan ahead, think ahead etc). For translations consult the appropriate verb entry (go, plan, think etc). For all other uses see the entry below[ə'hed] 1.1) ( spatially) [go on, run] en avant2) ( in time)at least a year ahead — [apply] au moins un an à l'avance
3) fig ( in leading position)to be 3% ahead — avoir une avance de 3%
4) fig ( more advanced)2.to be ahead in — [pupil, set] être plus avancé en [school subject]
ahead of prepositional phrase1) ( in front of) devant [person, vehicle]to be three metres/seconds ahead of somebody — avoir trois mètres/secondes d'avance sur quelqu'un
2) ( leading)to be ahead of somebody — (in polls, ratings) avoir un avantage sur quelqu'un
3) fig ( more advanced)to be (way) ahead of the others — [pupil] être (bien) plus avancé que les autres
to be ahead of the field — [business] devancer les autres
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3 ahead
[ə'hed]1) (spatially) [go on, run] (in) avantito send sb. on ahead — mandare avanti qcn.
a few kilometres ahead — qualche chilometro avanti, a qualche chilometro
2) (in time)in the months ahead — nei mesi futuri o a venire
3) fig. (in leading position)to be 30 points, 3% ahead — avere 30 punti di vantaggio, essere in vantaggio del 3%
4) fig. (more advanced)to be ahead in — [pupil, set] essere avanti in [ school subject]
5) ahead of (in front of) davanti a [person, vehicle]to be three metres ahead of sb. — essere avanti di tre metri rispetto a qcn.
to be three seconds ahead of sb. — avere tre secondi di vantaggio su qcn.
to arrive ahead of sb. — arrivare prima di qcn.; (leading)
to be ahead of sb. — (in polls, ratings) essere in vantaggio su o rispetto a qcn.; (more advanced)
to be (way) ahead of the others — [ pupil] essere (molto) avanti rispetto agli altri
••to be ahead of the field — [ business] essere leader del settore
Note:Ahead is often used after verbs in English ( go ahead, plan ahead, think ahead etc.): for translations consult the appropriate verb entry (go, plan, think etc.). - For other uses, see the entry below* * *[ə'hed](often with of) in front; in advance: He went on ahead of me; We are well ahead (of our rivals). davanti a, avanti* * *[ə'hed]1) (spatially) [go on, run] (in) avantito send sb. on ahead — mandare avanti qcn.
a few kilometres ahead — qualche chilometro avanti, a qualche chilometro
2) (in time)in the months ahead — nei mesi futuri o a venire
3) fig. (in leading position)to be 30 points, 3% ahead — avere 30 punti di vantaggio, essere in vantaggio del 3%
4) fig. (more advanced)to be ahead in — [pupil, set] essere avanti in [ school subject]
5) ahead of (in front of) davanti a [person, vehicle]to be three metres ahead of sb. — essere avanti di tre metri rispetto a qcn.
to be three seconds ahead of sb. — avere tre secondi di vantaggio su qcn.
to arrive ahead of sb. — arrivare prima di qcn.; (leading)
to be ahead of sb. — (in polls, ratings) essere in vantaggio su o rispetto a qcn.; (more advanced)
to be (way) ahead of the others — [ pupil] essere (molto) avanti rispetto agli altri
••to be ahead of the field — [ business] essere leader del settore
Note:Ahead is often used after verbs in English ( go ahead, plan ahead, think ahead etc.): for translations consult the appropriate verb entry (go, plan, think etc.). - For other uses, see the entry below -
4 впереди (to go ahead - идти впереди
General subject: ahead (на состязании)Универсальный русско-английский словарь > впереди (to go ahead - идти впереди
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5 упреждающий
1) General subject: pre-emptive (о нападении), predicted, pro-active2) Naval: forestaling3) Military: preemptive, preventive4) Mathematics: anticipatory, look-ahead (in computing), predicting5) Diplomatic term: pre-emptive (о нападении и т.п.)6) Advertising: proactive (о действиях)7) Network technologies: type-ahead8) Programming: lookahead9) Automation: feedforward, forward, look-ahead10) General subject: leading -
6 прогнозный
1) General subject: anticipated, prognosticative, long-range plan2) Geology: prognostic4) Finances: forward looking6) Oilfield: expected (параметр, глубина, угол отклонения, запасы нефти и пр.)7) Programming: lookahead8) Automation: forecasting, look-ahead9) General subject: predictive -
7 Engerth, Wilhelm
[br]b. 26 May 1814 Pless, Prussian Silesia (now Poland)d. 4 September 1884 Baden, Austria[br]German engineer, designer of the Engerth articulated locomotive.[br]Engerth was Chairman of the judges for the Semmering Locomotive Trials, held in 1851 to find locomotives suitable for working the sharply curved and steeply graded section of the Vienna-Trieste railway that was being built over the Semmering Pass, the first of the transalpine main lines. When none of the four locomotives entered proved suitable, Engerth designed his own. Six coupled wheels were at the fore part of the locomotive, with the connecting rods driving the rear pair: at the back of the locomotive the frames of the tender were extended forward on either side of the firebox, the front wheels of the tender were ahead of it, and the two parts were connected by a spherical pivot ahead of these. Part of the locomotive's weight was carried by the tender portion, and the two pairs of tender wheels were coupled by rods and powered by a geared drive from the axle of the rear driving-wheels. The powered drive to the tender wheels proved a failure, but the remaining characteristics of the locomotive, namely short rigid wheel-base, large firebox, flexibility and good tracking on curves (as drawbar pull was close behind the driving axle), were sufficient for the type to be a success. It was used on many railways in Europe and examples in modified form were built in Spain as recently as 1956. Engerth became General Manager of the Austro-Hungarian State Railway Company and designed successful flood-prevention works on the Danube at Vienna.[br]Principal Honours find DistinctionsKnighted as Ritter von Engerth 1861. Ennobled as Freiherr (Baron) von Engerth 1875.Further ReadingD.R.Carling, 1985, "Engerth and similar locomotives", Transactions of the Newcomen Society 57 (a good description).J.B.Snell, 1964, Early Railways, London: Weidenfeld \& Nicolson, pp. 68–73 (for Semmering Trials).PJGR -
8 Albone, Daniel
[br]b. c.1860 Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, Englandd. 1906 England[br]English engineer who developed and manufactured the first commercially successful lightweight tractor.[br]The son of a market gardener, Albone's interest lay in mechanics, and by 1880 he had established his own business as a cycle maker and repairer. His inventive mind led to a number of patents relating to bicycle design, but his commercial success was particularly assisted by his achievements in cycle racing. From this early start he diversified his business, designing and supplying, amongst other things, axle bearings for the Great Northern Railway, and also building motor cycles and several cars. It is possible that he began working on tractors as early as 1896. Certainly by 1902 he had built his first prototype, to the three-wheeled design that was to remain in later production models. Weighing only 30 cwt, yet capable of pulling two binders or a two-furrow plough, Albone's Ivel tractor was ahead of anything in its time, and its power-to-weight ratio was to be unrivalled for almost a decade. Albone's commercial success was not entirely due to the mechanical tractor's superiority, but owed a considerable amount to his ability as a showman and demonstrator. He held two working demonstrations a month in the village of Biggleswade in Bedfordshire, where the tractors were made. The tractor was named after the river Ivel, which flowed through the village. The Ivel tractor gained twenty-six gold and silver medals at agricultural shows between 1902 and 1906, and was a significant contributor to Britain's position as the world's largest exporter of tractors between 1904 and 1914. Albone tried other forms of his tractor to increase its sales. He built a fire engine, and also an armoured vehicle, but failed to impress the War Office with its potential.Albone died at the age of 46. His tractor continued in production but remained essentially unimproved, and the company finally lost its sales to other designs, particularly those of American origin.[br]Further ReadingDetailed contemporary accounts of tractor development occur in the British periodical Implement and Machinery Review. Accounts of the Ivel appear in "The Trials of Agricultural Motors", Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England (1910), pp. 179–99. A series of general histories by Michael Williams have been published by Blandfords, of which Classic Farm Tractors (1984) includes an entry on the Ivel.AP -
9 Babbage, Charles
SUBJECT AREA: Electronics and information technology[br]b. 26 December 1791 Walworth, Surrey, Englandd. 18 October 1871 London, England[br]English mathematician who invented the forerunner of the modern computer.[br]Charles Babbage was the son of a banker, Benjamin Babbage, and was a sickly child who had a rather haphazard education at private schools near Exeter and later at Enfield. Even as a child, he was inordinately fond of algebra, which he taught himself. He was conversant with several advanced mathematical texts, so by the time he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1811, he was ahead of his tutors. In his third year he moved to Peterhouse, whence he graduated in 1814, taking his MA in 1817. He first contributed to the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society in 1815, and was elected a fellow of that body in 1816. He was one of the founders of the Astronomical Society in 1820 and served in high office in it.While he was still at Cambridge, in 1812, he had the first idea of calculating numerical tables by machinery. This was his first difference engine, which worked on the principle of repeatedly adding a common difference. He built a small model of an engine working on this principle between 1820 and 1822, and in July of the latter year he read an enthusiastically received note about it to the Astronomical Society. The following year he was awarded the Society's first gold medal. He submitted details of his invention to Sir Humphry Davy, President of the Royal Society; the Society reported favourably and the Government became interested, and following a meeting with the Chancellor of the Exchequer Babbage was awarded a grant of £1,500. Work proceeded and was carried on for four years under the direction of Joseph Clement.In 1827 Babbage went abroad for a year on medical advice. There he studied foreign workshops and factories, and in 1832 he published his observations in On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures. While abroad, he received the news that he had been appointed Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University. He held the Chair until 1839, although he neither resided in College nor gave any lectures. For this he was paid between £80 and £90 a year! Differences arose between Babbage and Clement. Manufacture was moved from Clement's works in Lambeth, London, to new, fireproof buildings specially erected by the Government near Babbage's house in Dorset Square, London. Clement made a large claim for compensation and, when it was refused, withdrew his workers as well as all the special tools he had made up for the job. No work was possible for the next fifteen months, during which Babbage conceived the idea of his "analytical engine". He approached the Government with this, but it was not until eight years later, in 1842, that he received the reply that the expense was considered too great for further backing and that the Government was abandoning the project. This was in spite of the demonstration and perfectly satisfactory operation of a small section of the analytical engine at the International Exhibition of 1862. It is said that the demands made on manufacture in the production of his engines had an appreciable influence in improving the standard of machine tools, whilst similar benefits accrued from his development of a system of notation for the movements of machine elements. His opposition to street organ-grinders was a notable eccentricity; he estimated that a quarter of his mental effort was wasted by the effect of noise on his concentration.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsFRS 1816. Astronomical Society Gold Medal 1823.BibliographyBabbage wrote eighty works, including: 1864, Passages from the Life of a Philosopher.July 1822, Letter to Sir Humphry Davy, PRS, on the Application of Machinery to the purpose of calculating and printing Mathematical Tables.Further Reading1961, Charles Babbage and His Calculating Engines: Selected Writings by Charles Babbage and Others, eds Philip and Emily Morrison, New York: Dover Publications.IMcN -
10 Behrens, Peter
SUBJECT AREA: Architecture and building[br]b. 14 April 1868 Hamburg, Germanyd. 27 February 1940 Berlin, Germany[br]German pioneer of modern architecture, developer of the combined use of steel, glass and concrete in industrial work.[br]During the 1890s Behrens, as an artist, was a member of the German branch of Sezessionismus and then moved towards Jugendstil (Art Nouveau) types of design in different media. His interest in architecture was aroused during the first years of the twentieth century, and a turning-point in his career was his appointment in 1907 as Artistic Supervisor and Consultant to AEG, the great Berlin electrical firm. His Turbine Factory (1909) in the city was a breakthrough in design and is still standing: in steel and glass, with visible girder construction, this is a truly functional modern building far ahead of its time. In 1910 two more of Behrens's factories were completed in Berlin, followed in 1913 by the great AEG plant at Riga, Latvia.After the First World War Behrens was in great demand for industrial construction. He designed office schemes such as those at the Mannesmann Steel Works in Dusseldorf (1911–12; now destroyed) and, in a departure from his earlier work, was responsible for a more Expressionist form of design, mainly in brick, in his extensive complex for I.G.Farben at Höchst (1920–4).In the years before the First World War, some of those who were later amongst the most famous names in modern architecture were among his pupils: Gropius, Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier (Charles-Edouard Jeanneret).[br]Further ReadingT.Buddenseig, 1979, Industrielkultur: Peter Behrens und die AEG 1907–14, Berlin: Mann.W.Weber (ed.), 1966, Peter Behrens (1868–1940), Kaiserslautern, Germany: Pfalzgalerie.DY -
11 Boeing, William Edward
SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace[br]b. 1 October 1881 Detroit, Michigan, USAd. 28 September 1956 USA[br]American aircraft designer, creator of one of the most successful aircraft manufacturing companies in the world.[br]In 1915 William E.Boeing and his friend Commander Conrad Westervelt decided that they could improve on the aeroplanes then being produced in the United States. Boeing was a prominent Seattle businessman with interests in land and timber, while Westervelt was an officer in the US Navy. They bought a Martin Model T float-plane in order to gain some experience and then produced their own design, the B \& W, which first flew in June 1916. Westervelt was transferred to the East, leaving Boeing to continue the production of the B \& W floatplanes, for which purpose he set up the Pacific Aero Products Company. On 26 April 1917 this became the Boeing Airplane Company, which prospered following the US involvement in the First World War.In March 1919 Boeing and Edward Hubbard inaugurated the world's first international airmail service between Seattle and Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The Boeing Company then had to face the slump in aircraft manufacturing after the war: they survived, and by 1922 they had started producing a successful series of fighters while continuing to develop their flying-boat and floatplane designs. Boeing set up the Boeing Air Transport Corporation to tender for lucrative airmail contracts and then produced aircraft which could out-perform those of his rivals. The company went from strength to strength and by the end of the 1920s a huge conglomerate had been built up: the United Aircraft and Transport Corporation. They produced an advanced high-speed monoplane mailplane, the model 200 Monomail in 1930, which saw the birth of a new era of Boeing designs.The Wall Street crash of 1929 and legislation in 1934, which banned any company from both building aeroplanes and running an airline, were setbacks which the Boeing Airplane Company overcame, moving ahead to become world leaders. William E.Boeing decided that it was time he retired, but he returned to work during the Second World War.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsGuggenheim Medal 1934.Further ReadingC.Chant, 1982, Boeing: The World's Greatest Planemakers, Hadley Wood, England (describes William E.Boeing's part in the founding and building up of the Boeing Company).P.M.Bowers, 1990, Boeing Aircraft since 1916, 3rd edn, London (covers Boeing's aircraft).Boeing Company, 1977, Pedigree of Champions: Boeing since 1916, Seattle.JDS -
12 Bouch, Sir Thomas
SUBJECT AREA: Civil engineering[br]b. 22 February 1822 Thursby, Cumberland, Englandd. 1880 Moffat[br]English designer of the ill-fated Tay railway bridge.[br]The third son of a merchant sea captain, he was at first educated in the village school. At the age of 17 he was working under a Mr Larmer, a civil engineer, constructing the Lancaster and Carlisle railway. He later moved to be a resident engineer on the Stockton \& Darlington Railway, and from 1849 was Engineer and Manager of the Edinburgh \& Northern Railway. In this last position he became aware of the great inconvenience caused to traffic by the broad estuaries of the Tay and the Forth on the eastern side of Scotland. The railway later became the Edinburgh, Perth \& Dundee, and was then absorbed into the North British in 1854 when Bouch produced his first plans for a bridge across the Tay at an estimated cost of £200,000. A bill was passed for the building of the bridge in 1870. Prior to this, Bouch had built many bridges up to the Redheugh Viaduct, at Newcastle upon Tyne, which had two spans of 240 ft (73 m) and two of 260 ft (79 m). He had also set up in business on his own. He is said to have designed nearly 300 miles (480 km) of railway in the north, as well as a "floating railway" of steam ferries to carry trains across the Forth and the Tay. The Tay bridge, however, was his favourite project; he had hawked it for some twenty years before getting the go-ahead, and the foundation stone of the bridge was laid on 22 July 1871. The total length of the bridge was nearly two miles (3.2 km), while the shore-to-shore distance over the river was just over one mile (1.6 km). It consisted of eighty-five spans, thirteen of which, i.e. "the high girders", were some 245 ft (75 m) long and 100 ft (30 m) above water level to allow for shipping access to Perth, and was a structure of lattice girders on brick and masonry piers topped with ironwork. The first crossing of the bridge was made on 26 September 1877, and the official opening was on 31 May 1878. On Sunday 28 December 1879, at about 7.20 pm, in a wind of probably 90 mph (145 km/h), the thirteen "high girders" were blown into the river below, drowning the seventy-five passengers and crew aboard the 5.20 train from Burntisland. A Court of Enquiry was held and revealed design faults in that the effect of wind pressure had not been adequately taken into account, faults in manufacture in the plugging of flaws in the castings, and inadequate inspection and maintenance; all of these faults were attributed to Bouch, who had been knighted for the building of the bridge. He died at his house in Moffat four months after the enquiry.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsKnighted. Cross of St George.Further ReadingJohn Prebble, 1956, The High Girders.IMcN -
13 Brown, Andrew
SUBJECT AREA: Ports and shipping[br]b. October 1825 Glasgow, Scotlandd. 6 May 1907 Renfrew, Scotland[br]Scottish engineer and specialist shipbuilder, dredge-plant authority and supplier.[br]Brown commenced his apprenticeship on the River Clyde in the late 1830s, working for some of the most famous marine engineering companies and ultimately with the Caledonian Railway Company. In 1850 he joined the shipyard of A. \& J.Inglis Ltd of Partick as Engineering Manager; during his ten years there he pioneered the fitting of link-motion valve gear to marine engines. Other interesting engines were built, all ahead of their time, including a three-cylinder direct-acting steam engine.His real life's work commenced in 1860 when he entered into partnership with the Renfrew shipbuilder William Simons. Within one year he had designed the fast Clyde steamer Rothesay Castle, a ship less than 200 ft (61 m) long, yet which steamed at c.20 knots and subsequently became a notable American Civil War blockade runner. At this time the company also built the world's first sailing ship with wire-rope rigging. Within a few years of joining the shipyard on the Cart (a tributary of the Clyde), he had designed the first self-propelled hopper barges built in the United Kingdom. He then went on to design, patent and supervise the building of hopper dredges, bucket ladder dredges and sand dredges, which by the end of the century had capacity of 10,000 tons per hour. In 1895 they built an enclosed hopper-type ship which was the prototype of all subsequent sewage-dumping vessels. Typical of his inventions was the double-ended screw-elevating deck ferry, a ship of particular value in areas where there is high tidal range. Examples of this design are still to be found in many seaports of the world. Brown ultimately became Chairman of Simons shipyard, and in his later years took an active part in civic affairs, serving for fifteen years as Provost of Renfrew. His influence in establishing Renfrew as one of the world's centres of excellence in dredge design and building was considerable, and he was instrumental in bringing several hundred ship contracts of a specialist nature to the River Clyde.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsVice-President, Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland.BibliographyA Century of Shipbuilding 1810 to 1910, Renfrew: Wm Simons.Further ReadingF.M.Walker, 1984, Song of the Clyde. A History of Clyde Shipbuilding, Cambridge.FMW -
14 Fairlie, Robert Francis
[br]b. March 1831 Scotlandd. 31 July 1885 Clapham, London, England[br]British engineer, designer of the double-bogie locomotive, advocate of narrow-gauge railways.[br]Fairlie worked on railways in Ireland and India, and established himself as a consulting engineer in London by the early 1860s. In 1864 he patented his design of locomotive: it was to be carried on two bogies and had a double boiler, the barrels extending in each direction from a central firebox. From smokeboxes at the outer ends, return tubes led to a single central chimney. At that time in British practice, locomotives of ever-increasing size were being carried on longer and longer rigid wheelbases, but often only one or two of their three or four pairs of wheels were powered. Bogies were little used and then only for carrying-wheels rather than driving-wheels: since their pivots were given no sideplay, they were of little value. Fairlie's design offered a powerful locomotive with a wheelbase which though long would be flexible; it would ride well and have all wheels driven and available for adhesion.The first five double Fairlie locomotives were built by James Cross \& Co. of St Helens during 1865–7. None was particularly successful: the single central chimney of the original design had been replaced by two chimneys, one at each end of the locomotive, but the single central firebox was retained, so that exhaust up one chimney tended to draw cold air down the other. In 1870 the next double Fairlie, Little Wonder, was built for the Festiniog Railway, on which C.E. Spooner was pioneering steam trains of very narrow gauge. The order had gone to George England, but the locomotive was completed by his successor in business, the Fairlie Engine \& Steam Carriage Company, in which Fairlie and George England's son were the principal partners. Little Wonder was given two inner fireboxes separated by a water space and proved outstandingly successful. The spectacle of this locomotive hauling immensely long trains up grade, through the Festiniog Railway's sinuous curves, was demonstrated before engineers from many parts of the world and had lasting effect. Fairlie himself became a great protagonist of narrow-gauge railways and influenced their construction in many countries.Towards the end of the 1860s, Fairlie was designing steam carriages or, as they would now be called, railcars, but only one was built before the death of George England Jr precipitated closure of the works in 1870. Fairlie's business became a design agency and his patent locomotives were built in large numbers under licence by many noted locomotive builders, for narrow, standard and broad gauges. Few operated in Britain, but many did in other lands; they were particularly successful in Mexico and Russia.Many Fairlie locomotives were fitted with the radial valve gear invented by Egide Walschaert; Fairlie's role in the universal adoption of this valve gear was instrumental, for he introduced it to Britain in 1877 and fitted it to locomotives for New Zealand, whence it eventually spread worldwide. Earlier, in 1869, the Great Southern \& Western Railway of Ireland had built in its works the first "single Fairlie", a 0–4–4 tank engine carried on two bogies but with only one of them powered. This type, too, became popular during the last part of the nineteenth century. In the USA it was built in quantity by William Mason of Mason Machine Works, Taunton, Massachusetts, in preference to the double-ended type.Double Fairlies may still be seen in operation on the Festiniog Railway; some of Fairlie's ideas were far ahead of their time, and modern diesel and electric locomotives are of the powered-bogie, double-ended type.[br]Bibliography1864, British patent no. 1,210 (Fairlie's master patent).1864, Locomotive Engines, What They Are and What They Ought to Be, London; reprinted 1969, Portmadoc: Festiniog Railway Co. (promoting his ideas for locomotives).1865, British patent no. 3,185 (single Fairlie).1867. British patent no. 3,221 (combined locomotive/carriage).1868. "Railways and their Management", Journal of the Society of Arts: 328. 1871. "On the Gauge for Railways of the Future", abstract in Report of the FortiethMeeting of the British Association in 1870: 215. 1872. British patent no. 2,387 (taper boiler).1872, Railways or No Railways. "Narrow Gauge, Economy with Efficiency; or Broad Gauge, Costliness with Extravagance", London: Effingham Wilson; repr. 1990s Canton, Ohio: Railhead Publications (promoting the cause for narrow-gauge railways).Further ReadingFairlie and his patent locomotives are well described in: P.C.Dewhurst, 1962, "The Fairlie locomotive", Part 1, Transactions of the Newcomen Society 34; 1966, Part 2, Transactions 39.R.A.S.Abbott, 1970, The Fairlie Locomotive, Newton Abbot: David \& Charles.PJGRBiographical history of technology > Fairlie, Robert Francis
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15 Gibson, R.O.
[br]fl. 1920s–30s[br]English chemist who, with E.O.Fawcett, discovered polythene.[br]Dr Gibson's work towards the discovery of polythene had its origin in a visit in 1925 to Dr A. Michels of Amsterdam University; the latter had made major advances in techniques for studying chemical reactions at very high pressures. After working with Michels for a time, in 1926 Gibson joined Brunner Mond, one of the companies that went on to form the chemical giant Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI). The company supported research into fundamental chemical research that had no immediate commercial application, including the field being cultivated by Michels and Gibson. In 1933 Gibson was joined by another ICI chemist, E.O.Fawcett, who had worked with W.H. Carothers in the USA on polymer chemistry. They were asked to study the effects of high pressure on various reaction systems, including a mixture of benzaldehyde and ethylene. Gibson's notebook for 27 March that year records that after a loss of pressure during which the benzaldehyde was blown out of the reaction tube, a waxy solid was observed in the tube. This is generally recognized as the first recorded observation of polythene. By the following June they had shown that the white, waxy solid was a fairly high molecular weight polymer of ethylene formed at a temperature of 443°K and a pressure of 2,000 bar. However, only small amounts of the material were produced and its significance was not immediately recognized. It was not until two years later that W.P.Perrin and others, also ICI chemists, restarted work on the polymer. They showed that it could be moulded, drawn into threads and cast into tough films. It was a good electrical insulator and almost inert chemically. A British patent for producing polythene was taken out in 1936, and after further development work a production plant began operating in September 1939, just as the Second World War was breaking out. Polythene had arrived in time to make a major contribution to the war effort, for it had the insulating properties required for newly developing work on radar. When peacetime uses became possible, polythene production surged ahead and became the major industry it is today, with a myriad uses in industry and in everyday life.[br]Bibliography1964, The Discovery of Polythene, Royal Institute of Chemistry Lecture Series 1, London.LRD -
16 Mendelsohn, Erich
SUBJECT AREA: Architecture and building[br]b. 21 March 1887 Allenstein, East Prussiad. 15 September 1953 San Francisco, California, USA[br]German architect, a pioneering innovator in the modern International style of building that developed in Germany during the early 1920s.[br]In some examples of his work Mendelsohn envisaged bold, sculptural forms, dramatically expressed in light and shade, which he created with extensive use of glass, steel and concrete. Characteristic of his type of early Expressionism was his design for the Einstein Tower (1919), a physical laboratory and observatory that was purpose built for Professor Einstein's research work at Neubabelsburg near Berlin in 1921. As its shape suggests, this structure was intended to be made from poured concrete but, due to technical problems, it was erected in stucco-faced steel and brickwork. Equally dramatic and original were Mendelsohn's department stores, for example the pace-setting Schocken Stores at Stuttgart (1926) and Chemnitz (1928), the Petersdorff Store at Breslau (1927) (now Wrocaw in Poland), and a very different building, the Columbus Haus in Berlin (1929–31). One of his most original designs was also in this city, that for the complex on the great boulevard, the Kurfürstendamm, which included the Universum Cinema (1928). Mendelsohn moved to England in 1933, a refugee from Nazism, and there entered into partnership with another émigré, Serge Chermayeff from Russia. Together they were responsible for a building on the seafront at Bexhill-on-Sea, the De La Warr arts and entertainments pavilion (1935–6). This long, low, glass, steel and concrete structure was ahead of its time in England and comprised a theatre and restaurant; in the centre of the façade, facing the sea, is its chief architectural feature, a semicircular glazed staircase. Soon Mendelsohn moved on to Palestine, where he was responsible for the Government Hospital at Haifa (1937) and the Hadassah University Medical Centre in Jerusalem (1936); in both cases he skilfully adapted his mode to different climatic needs. He finally settled in the USA in 1941, where his most notable buildings are the Maimonides Hospital in San Francisco and the synagogues and Jewish community centres which he built in a number of American cities.[br]Further ReadingArnold Whittick, 1964, Erich Mendelsohn, Leonard Hill Books (the standard work).DY -
17 Morris, William Richard, Viscount Nuffield
[br]b. 10 October 1877 Worcester, Englandd. 22 August 1963 Nuffield Place, England[br]English industrialist, car manufacturer and philanthropist.[br]Morris was the son of Frederick Morris, then a draper. He was the eldest of a family of seven, all of whom, except for one sister, died in childhood. When he was 3 years old, his father moved to Cowley, near Oxford, where he attended the village school. After a short time with a local bicycle firm he set up on his own at the age of 16 with a capital of £4. He manufactured pedal cycles and by 1902 he had designed a motor cycle and was doing car-repair work. By 1912, at the Motor Show, he was able to announce his first car, the 8.9 hp, two-seater Morris Oxford with its characteristic "bull-nose". It could perform at up to 50 mph (80 km/h) and 50 mpg (5.65 1/100 km). It cost £165.Though untrained, Morris was a born engineer as well as a natural judge of character. This enabled him to build up a reliable team of assistants in his growing business, with an order for four hundred cars at the Motor Show in 1912. Much of his business was built up in the assembly of components manufactured by outside suppliers. In he moved out of his initial premises by New College in Longwall and bought land at Cowley, where he brought out his second model, the 11.9hp Morris Oxford. This was after the First World War, during which car production was reduced to allow the manufacture of tanks and munitions. He was awarded the OBE in 1917 for his war work. Morris Motors Ltd was incorporated in 1919, and within fifteen months sales of cars had reached over 3,000 a year. By 1923 he was producing 20,000 cars a year, and in 1926 50,000, equivalent to about one-third of Britain's output. With the slump, a substantial overdraft, and a large stock of unsold cars, Morris took the bold decision to cut the prices of cars in stock, which then sold out within three weeks. Other makers followed suit, but Morris was ahead of them.Morris was part-founder of the Pressed Steel Company, set up to produce car bodies at Cowley. A clever operation with the shareholding of the Morris Motors Company allowed Morris a substantial overall profit to provide expansion capital. By 1931 his "empire" comprised, in addition to Morris Motors, the MG Car Company, the Wolseley Company, the SU Carburettor Company and Morris Commercial Cars. In 1936, the value of Morris's financial interest in the business was put at some £16 million.William Morris was a frugal man and uncomplicated, having little use for all the money he made except to channel it to charitable purposes. It is said that in all he gave away some £30 million during his lifetime, much of it invested by the recipients to provide long-term benefits. He married Elizabeth Anstey in 1904 and lived for thirty years at Nuffield Place. He lived modestly, and even after retirement, when Honorary President of the British Motor Corporation, the result of a merger between Morris Motors and the Austin Motor Company, he drove himself to work in a modest 10 hp Wolseley. His generosity benefited many hospitals in London, Oxford, Birmingham and elsewhere. Oxford Colleges were another class of beneficiary from his largesse.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsViscount 1938; Baron (Lord Nuffield) 1934; Baronet 1929; OBE 1917; GBE 1941; CH 1958. FRS 1939. He was a doctor of seven universities and an honorary freeman of seven towns.Further ReadingR.Jackson, 1964, The Nuffield Story.P.W.S.Andrews and E.Brunner, The Life of Lord Nuffield.IMcNBiographical history of technology > Morris, William Richard, Viscount Nuffield
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18 Mylne, Robert
[br]b. 1733 Edinburgh, Scotland d. 1811[br]Scottish engineer, architect and bridge-builder.[br]Mylne was the eldest son of Thomas Mylne, Surveyor to the City of Edinburgh. Little is known of his early education. In 1754, at the age of 21, he left Edinburgh by sea and journeyed to Rome, where he attended the Academy of St Luke. There he received the first prize for architecture. In 1759 he left Rome to travel back to England, where he arrived in time for the competition then going ahead for the design and building of a new bridge across the Thames at Blackfriars. Against 68 other competitors, Mylne won the competition; the work took some ten years to complete.In 1760 he was appointed Engineer and Architect to the City of London, and in 1767 Joint Engineer to the New River Company together with Henry Mill, who died within a few years to leave Mylne to become Chief Engineer in 1770. Thus for the next forty years he was in charge of all the works for the New River Company between Clerkenwell and Ware, the opposite ends of London's main water supply. By 1767 he had also been appointed to a number of other important posts, which included Surveyor to Canterbury Cathedral and St Paul's Cathedral. In addition to undertaking his responsibilities for these great public buildings, he designed many private houses and villas all over the country, including several buildings for the Duke of Argyll on the Inverary Castle estate.Mylne was also responsible for the design of a great number of bridges, waterworks and other civil engineering works throughout Britain. Called in to advise on the Norwich city waterworks, he fell out with Joseph Bramah in a somewhat spectacular dispute.For much of his life Mylne lived at the Water House at the New River Head at Islington, from which he could direct much of the work on that waterway that came under his supervision. He also had residences in New Bridge Street and, as Clerk of Works, at Greenwich Hospital. Towards the end of his life he built himself a small house at Amwell, a country retreat at the outer end of the New River. He kept a diary from 1762 to 1810 which includes only brief memoranda but which shows a remarkable diligence in travelling all over the country by stagecoach and by postchaise. He was a freemason, as were many of his family; he married Mary Home on 10 September 1770, with whom he had ten children, four of whom survived into adulthood.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsFellow of the Royal Society 1767.Further ReadingDictionary of National Biography, London.A.E.Richardson, 1955, Robert Mylne, 1733–1811, Engineer and Architect, London: Batsford. -
19 Peter the Great (Pyotr Alekseyevich Romanov)
SUBJECT AREA: Ports and shipping[br]b. 10 June 1672 (30 May 1672 Old Style) Moscow, Russiad. 8 February 1725 (28 January 1725 Old Style) St Petersburg, Russia[br]Russian Tsar (1682–1725), Emperor of all the Russias (1722–5), founder of the Russian Navy, shipbuilder and scientist; as a shipbuilder he was known by the pseudonym Petr Mikhailov.[br]Peter the Great was a man with a single-minded approach to problems and with passionate and lifelong interests in matters scientific, military and above all maritime. The unusual and dominating rule of his vast lands brought about the age of Russian enlightenment, and ensured that his country became one of the most powerful states in Europe.Peter's interest in ships and shipbuilding started in his childhood; c. 1687 he had an old English-built day sailing boat repaired and launched, and on it he learned the rudiments of sailing and navigation. This craft (still preserved in St Petersburg) became known as the "Grandfather of the Russian Navy". In the years 1688 to 1693 he established a shipyard on Lake Plestsheev and then began his lifelong study of shipbuilding by visiting and giving encouragement to the industry at Archangelsk on the White Sea and Voronezh in the Sea of Azov. In October 1696, Peter took Azov from the Turks, and the Russian Fleet ever since has regarded that date as their birthday. Setting an example to the young aristocracy, Peter travelled to Western Europe to widen his experience and contacts and also to learn the trade of shipbuilding. He worked in the shipyards of Amsterdam and then at the Naval Base of Deptford on the Thames.The war with Sweden concentrated his attention on the Baltic and, to establish a base for trading and for the Navy, the City of St Petersburg was constructed on marshland. The Admiralty was built in the city and many new shipyards in the surrounding countryside, one being the Olonez yard which in 1703 built the frigate Standart, the first for the Baltic Fleet, which Peter himself commanded on its first voyage. The military defence of St Petersburg was effected by the construction of Kronstadt, seawards of the city.Throughout his life Peter was involved in ship design and it is estimated that one thousand ships were built during his reign. He introduced the building of standard ship types and also, centuries ahead of its time, the concept of prefabrication, unit assembly and the building of part hulls in different places. Officially he was the designer of the ninety-gun ship Lesnoe of 1718, and this may have influenced him in instituting Rules for Shipbuilders and for Seamen. In 1716 he commanded the joint fleets of the four naval powers: Denmark, Britain, Holland and Russia.He established the Marine Academy, organized and encouraged exploration and scientific research, and on his edict the St Petersburg Academy of Science was opened. He was not averse to the recruitment of foreigners to key posts in the nation's service. Peter the Great was a remarkable man, with the unusual quality of being a theorist and an innovator, in addition to the endowments of practicality and common sense.[br]Further ReadingRobert K.Massie, 1981, Peter the Great: His Life and Work, London: Gollancz.Henri Troyat, 1979, Pierre le Grand; pub. in English 1988 as Peter the Great, London: Hamish Hamilton (a good all-round biography).AK / FMWBiographical history of technology > Peter the Great (Pyotr Alekseyevich Romanov)
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20 Renard, Charles
SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace[br]b. 23 November 1847 Damblain, Vosges, Franced. 13 April 1905 Chalais-Meudon, France[br]French pioneer of military aeronautics who, with A.C.Krebs, built an airship powered by an electric motor.[br]Charles Renard was a French army officer with an interest in aviation. In 1873 he constructed an unusual unmanned glider with ten wings and an automatic stabilizing device to control rolling. This operated by means of a pendulum device linked to moving control surfaces. The model was launched from a tower near Arras, but unfortunately it spiralled into the ground. The control surfaces could not cope with the basic instability of the design, but as an idea for automatic flight control it was ahead of its time.Following a Commission report on the military use of balloons, carrier pigeons and an optical telegraph, an aeronautical establishment was set up in 1877 at Chalais-Meudon, near Paris, under the direction of Charles Renard, who was assisted by his brother Paul. The following year Renard and a colleague, Arthur Krebs, began to plan an airship. They received financial help from Léon Gambetta, a prominent politician who had escaped from Paris by balloon in 1870 during the siege by the Prussians. Renard and Krebs studied earlier airship designs: they used the outside shape of Paul Haenlein's gas-engined airship of 1872 and included Meusnier's internal air-filled ballonnets. The gas-engine had not been a success so they decided on an electric motor. Renard developed lightweight pile batteries while Krebs designed a motor, although this was later replaced by a more powerful Gramme motor of 6.5 kW (9 hp). La France was constructed at Chalais-Meudon and, after a two-month wait for calm conditions, the airship finally ascended on 9 August 1884. The motor was switched on and the flight began. Renard and Krebs found their airship handled well and after twenty-three minutes they landed back at their base. La, France made several successful flights, but its speed of only 24 km/h (15 mph) meant that flights could be made only in calm weather. Parts of La, France, including the electric motor, are preserved in the Musée de l'Air in Paris.Renard remained in charge of the establishment at Chalais-Meudon until his death. Among other things, he developed the "Train Renard", a train of articulated road vehicles for military and civil use, of which a number were built between 1903 and 1911. Towards the end of his life Renard became interested in helicopters, and in 1904 he built a large twin-rotor model which, however, failed to take off.[br]Bibliography1886, Le Ballon dirigeable La France, Paris (a description of the airship).Further ReadingDescriptions of Renard and Kreb's airship are given in most books on the history of lighter-than-air flight, e.g.L.T.C.Rolt, 1966, The Aeronauts, London; pub. in paperback 1985.C.Bailleux, c. 1988, Association pour l'Histoire de l'Electricité en France, (a detailed account of the conception and operations of La France).1977, Centenaire de la recherche aéronautique à Chalais-Meudon, Paris (an official memoir on the work of Chalais-Meudon with a chapter on Renard).JDS
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