we began married life in Scotland

begin

A to begin with adv phr

1 ( at first) au début, au départ ; I didn't understand to begin with au début je n'ai pas compris ;

2 ( firstly) d'abord, premièrement ;

3 ( at all) I wish I hadn't told her to begin with pour commencer, je n'aurais jamais dû lui en parler.

B vtr ( p prés - nn- ; prét began ; pp begun)

1 ( start) commencer [journey, list, meeting, job, game, meal] (with par, avec) ; se lancer dans [adventure] ; aller à [school] ; to begin to do commencer à faire ; it's beginning to rain il commence à pleuvoir ; to begin doing commencer à faire ; I began the letter (with) ‘Dear Sir’ j'ai commencé la lettre par ‘Monsieur’ ; ‘well …,’ she began ‘eh bien…,’ commença-t-elle ; I begin work next week je commence à travailler la semaine prochaine ; the builders begin work on Tuesday les ouvriers commencent les travaux mardi ; they began laughing ou to laugh again ils ont recommencé à rire ;

2 ( start to use) entamer, ouvrir [bottle, packet, jar] ; entamer [loaf] ; commencer [notebook, page] ;

3 ( start out) débuter [career] (as comme) ; I began life as a farmer's son je suis fils de fermier ; we began married life in Scotland quand nous étions jeunes mariés nous habitions en Écosse ; this novel began life as a short story ce roman a d'abord vu le jour sous la forme d'une nouvelle ;

4 ( have slightest success) I can't begin to describe it il m'est impossible de le décrire ; I don't begin to understand vraiment, je ne comprends pas ; I couldn't begin to imagine how he felt je ne pouvais vraiment pas imaginer ce qu'il éprouvait ;

5 ( initiate) provoquer [debate, dispute] ; lancer [campaign, trend] ; commencer [tradition] ; déclencher [war] ; fonder [dynasty] ; to begin a conversation with engager la conversation avec ;

6 ( come first in) marquer le commencement de [series, collection, festival] ; A begins the alphabet l'alphabet commence par A.

C vi ( p prés - nn- ; prét began ; pp begun)

1 ( commence) [custom, meeting, play, problem, storm, term] commencer ; let's begin commençons ; to begin with commencer par ; to begin by doing commencer par faire ; a name beginning with C un nom qui commence par C ; the week beginning the 25th la semaine qui commence le 25 ; to begin in 1995/in May commencer en 1995/en mai ; your problems have only just begun! tes problèmes ne font que commencer! ; to begin well/badly bien/mal commencer ; to begin again recommencer ; after the war began après le début de la guerre ; before the lecture begins avant le début de la conférence ;

2 ( have its starting point) [river] prendre sa source ; the road begins in York la route part de York ; where does the national park begin? où commence le parc national?

■ begin on:

▶ begin on [sth] attaquer [cake, garden].

SUBJECT AREA: Textiles

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David Dale, the son of a grocer, began his working life by herding cattle. His connection with the textile industry started when he was apprenticed to a Paisley weaver. After this he travelled the country buying home-spun linen yarns, which he sold in Glasgow. At about the age of 24 he settled in Glasgow as Clerk to a silk merchant. He then started a business importing fine yarns from France and Holland for weaving good-quality cloths such as cambrics. Dale was to become one of the pre-eminent yarn dealers in Scotland. In 1778 he acquired the first cotton-spinning mill built in Scotland by an English company at Rothesay on the Isle of Bute. In 1784 he met Richard Arkwright, who was touring Scotland, and together they visited the Falls of the Clyde near the town of Lanark. Arkwright immediately recognized the potential of the site for driving water-powered mills. Dale acquired part of the area from Lord Braxfield and in 1785 began to build his first mill there in partnership with Arkwright. The association with Arkwright soon ceased, however, and by c.1795 Dale had erected four mills. Because the location of the mills was remote, he built houses for the workers and then employed pauper children brought from the slums of Edinburgh and Glasgow; at one time there were over 400 of them. Dale's attitude to his workers was benevolent and humane. He tried to provide reasonable working conditions and the mills were well designed with a large workshop in which machinery was constructed. Dale was also a partner in mills at Catrine, Newton Stewart, Spinningdale in Sutherlandshire and some others. In 1785 he established the first Turkey red dye works in Scotland and was in partnership with George Macintosh, the father of Charles Macintosh. Dale manufactured cloth in Glasgow and from 1783 was Agent for the Royal Bank of Scotland, a lucrative position. In 1799 he was persuaded by Robert Owen to sell the New Lanark mills for £60,000 to a Manchester partnership which made Owen the Manager. Owen had married Dale's daughter, Anne Caroline, in 1799. Possibly due in part to poor health, Dale retired in 1800 to Rosebank near Glasgow, having made a large fortune. In 1770 he had withdrawn from the established Church of Scotland and founded a new one called the "Old Independents". He visited the various branches of this Church, as well as convicts in Bridewell prison, to preach. He was also a great benefactor to the poor in Glasgow. He had a taste for music and sang old Scottish songs with great gusto.

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SUBJECT AREA: Textiles

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Born of Scottish parents, Fairbairn was apprenticed at the age of 14 to John Casson, a mill-wright and engineer at the Percy Main Colliery, Newcastle upon Tyne, and remained there until 1821 when he went to work for his brother William in Manchester. After going to various other places, including Messrs Rennie in London and on the European continent, he eventually moved in 1829 to Leeds where Marshall helped him set up the Wellington Foundry and so laid the foundations for the colossal establishment which was to employ over one thousand workers. To begin with he devoted his attention to improving wool-weaving machinery, substituting iron for wood in the construction of the textile machines. He also worked on machinery for flax, incorporating many of Philippe de Girard's ideas. He assisted Henry Houldsworth in the application of the differential to roving frames, and it was to these machines that he added his own inventions. The longer fibres of wool and flax need to have some form of support and control between the rollers when they are being drawn out, and inserting a little twist helps. However, if the roving is too tightly twisted before passing through the first pair of rollers, it cannot be drawn out, while if there is insufficient twist, the fibres do not receive enough support in the drafting zone. One solution is to twist the fibres together while they are actually in the drafting zone between the rollers. In 1834, Fairbairn patented an arrangement consisting of a revolving tube placed between the drawing rollers. The tube inserted a "middle" or "false" twist in the material. As stated in the specification, it was "a well-known contrivance… for twisting and untwisting any roving passing through it". It had been used earlier in 1822 by J. Goulding of the USA and a similar idea had been developed by C.Danforth in America and patented in Britain in 1825 by J.C. Dyer. Fairbairn's machine, however, was said to make a very superior article. He was also involved with waste-silk spinning and rope-yarn machinery.

Fairbairn later began constructing machine tools, and at the beginning of the Crimean War was asked by the Government to make special tools for the manufacture of armaments. He supplied some of these, such as cannon rifling machines, to the arsenals at Woolwich and Enfield. He then made a considerable number of tools for the manufacture of the Armstrong gun. He was involved in the life of his adopted city and was elected to Leeds town council in 1832 for ten years. He was elected an alderman in 1854 and was Mayor of Leeds from 1857 to 1859, when he was knighted by Queen Victoria at the opening of the new town hall. He was twice married, first to Margaret Kennedy and then to Rachel Anne Brindling.

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