(for PhD)

1) Компьютерная техника: Professional Hardware Diagnostics

2) Медицина: ПГД (программный гемодиализ) (program hemodialysis)

3) Американизм: Patent Application Information Retrieval

4) Спорт: Particularly Hard Dancing

5) Военный термин: Phase History Data

6) Техника: Propane Dehydrogenation

7) Шутливое выражение: Partial Head Damage, Perky Happy Disciple, Permanent Head Damage, Piled High And Deep, Playa Hata's Degree, Please Hire Desperate, Poor Hungry And Determined, Post Hole Digger, Power Hungry Dog, Pretty Handsome Domestic, Pretty High Dude, Push Here, Dummy

8) Железнодорожный термин: Port Huron and Detroit Railroad Company

9) Экономика: Прогресс, Гармония и Развитие (PHD Chamber of Industry ad Commerce; PHD - Progress, Harmony and Development (www. google. com))

10) Автомобильный термин: Инерция движения головы при столкновении (Post-Impact Head Deceleration), Post-Impact Head Deceleration

11) Грубое выражение: Persistently And Habitually Dumb, Pimp Coalition of Doom, Piss Heads Dilemma, Pompous Head Dick, Pot Hole Dodger, Pretty Horny Dog, Pretty Huge Dick, Pursuing Hot Damsels

12) Оптика: pulse height distribution

13) Физиология: Personal Health Diary, Physical Health Defined

14) Электроника: Press Here, Dummy

15) Пищевая промышленность: Premium Hot Dog

16) Фирменный знак: Pizza Hut Delivery

17) Деловая лексика: Pizza Home Delivery

18) Образование: Pretty Hard To Do, Programs For Human Development, Progress Harmony And Development

19) Сахалин Ю: process handling data

20) Химическое оружие: public highway distance

21) Расширение файла: PolyHedra Database

22) Нефть и газ: process history database

23) Должность: Philosophiae Doctor, Professional Hair Dresser

24) Чат: Permanently Head Damaged, Pretty Handsome Darling, Pretty Hokey Dialogue, Purveyor Of Hyped Drivel

1) Компьютерная техника: Professional Hardware Diagnostics

2) Медицина: ПГД (программный гемодиализ) (program hemodialysis)

3) Американизм: Patent Application Information Retrieval

4) Спорт: Particularly Hard Dancing

5) Военный термин: Phase History Data

6) Техника: Propane Dehydrogenation

7) Шутливое выражение: Partial Head Damage, Perky Happy Disciple, Permanent Head Damage, Piled High And Deep, Playa Hata's Degree, Please Hire Desperate, Poor Hungry And Determined, Post Hole Digger, Power Hungry Dog, Pretty Handsome Domestic, Pretty High Dude, Push Here, Dummy

8) Железнодорожный термин: Port Huron and Detroit Railroad Company

9) Экономика: Прогресс, Гармония и Развитие (PHD Chamber of Industry ad Commerce; PHD - Progress, Harmony and Development (www. google. com))

10) Автомобильный термин: Инерция движения головы при столкновении (Post-Impact Head Deceleration), Post-Impact Head Deceleration

11) Грубое выражение: Persistently And Habitually Dumb, Pimp Coalition of Doom, Piss Heads Dilemma, Pompous Head Dick, Pot Hole Dodger, Pretty Horny Dog, Pretty Huge Dick, Pursuing Hot Damsels

12) Оптика: pulse height distribution

13) Физиология: Personal Health Diary, Physical Health Defined

14) Электроника: Press Here, Dummy

15) Пищевая промышленность: Premium Hot Dog

16) Фирменный знак: Pizza Hut Delivery

17) Деловая лексика: Pizza Home Delivery

18) Образование: Pretty Hard To Do, Programs For Human Development, Progress Harmony And Development

19) Сахалин Ю: process handling data

20) Химическое оружие: public highway distance

21) Расширение файла: PolyHedra Database

22) Нефть и газ: process history database

23) Должность: Philosophiae Doctor, Professional Hair Dresser

24) Чат: Permanently Head Damaged, Pretty Handsome Darling, Pretty Hokey Dialogue, Purveyor Of Hyped Drivel

1) Компьютерная техника: Professional Hardware Diagnostics

2) Медицина: ПГД (программный гемодиализ) (program hemodialysis)

3) Американизм: Patent Application Information Retrieval

4) Спорт: Particularly Hard Dancing

5) Военный термин: Phase History Data

6) Техника: Propane Dehydrogenation

7) Шутливое выражение: Partial Head Damage, Perky Happy Disciple, Permanent Head Damage, Piled High And Deep, Playa Hata's Degree, Please Hire Desperate, Poor Hungry And Determined, Post Hole Digger, Power Hungry Dog, Pretty Handsome Domestic, Pretty High Dude, Push Here, Dummy

8) Железнодорожный термин: Port Huron and Detroit Railroad Company

9) Экономика: Прогресс, Гармония и Развитие (PHD Chamber of Industry ad Commerce; PHD - Progress, Harmony and Development (www. google. com))

10) Автомобильный термин: Инерция движения головы при столкновении (Post-Impact Head Deceleration), Post-Impact Head Deceleration

11) Грубое выражение: Persistently And Habitually Dumb, Pimp Coalition of Doom, Piss Heads Dilemma, Pompous Head Dick, Pot Hole Dodger, Pretty Horny Dog, Pretty Huge Dick, Pursuing Hot Damsels

12) Оптика: pulse height distribution

13) Физиология: Personal Health Diary, Physical Health Defined

14) Электроника: Press Here, Dummy

15) Пищевая промышленность: Premium Hot Dog

16) Фирменный знак: Pizza Hut Delivery

17) Деловая лексика: Pizza Home Delivery

18) Образование: Pretty Hard To Do, Programs For Human Development, Progress Harmony And Development

19) Сахалин Ю: process handling data

20) Химическое оружие: public highway distance

21) Расширение файла: PolyHedra Database

22) Нефть и газ: process history database

23) Должность: Philosophiae Doctor, Professional Hair Dresser

24) Чат: Permanently Head Damaged, Pretty Handsome Darling, Pretty Hokey Dialogue, Purveyor Of Hyped Drivel

tr[dɪsə'teɪʃən]

noun

1 (formal discourse) disertación nombre femenino

2 SMALLEDUCATION/SMALL (for lower degree, master's) tesina; (for PhD) tesis nombre femenino (doctoral)

dissertation [.dɪsər'teɪʃən] n

1) discourse: disertación f, discurso m

2) thesis: tesis f

• disertación s.f.

noun (in US: for PhD) tesis f (doctoral); (in UK: for lower degree) tesis f, tesina f

[ˌdɪsǝ'teɪʃǝn]

* * *

noun (in US: for PhD) tesis f (doctoral); (in UK: for lower degree) tesis f, tesina f

1) (proposition) These, die

2) (dissertation) Dissertation, die, Doktorarbeit, die (on über + Akk.)

* * *

* * *

<pl -ses>

[ˈθi:səs, pl -si:z]

1. (written study) wissenschaftliche Arbeit; (for diploma) Diplomarbeit f; (for PhD) Doktorarbeit f, Dissertation f

doctoral \thesis Doktorarbeit f, Dissertation f

2. (proposition) These f, Behauptung f

* * *

n pl theses

1) (= argument) These f

2) (UNIV for PhD) Dissertation f, Doktorarbeit f (inf); (for diploma) Diplomarbeit f

* * *

thesis [ˈθiːsıs] pl -ses [-siːz] s

1. These f:

a) Behauptung f

b) (Streit)Satz m, Postulat n

2. Thema n (eines Aufsatzes etc)

3. UNIV (on über akk)

a) auch doctoral thesis Dissertation f, Doktorarbeit f

b) allg wissenschaftliche Arbeit

4. [a. ˈθesıs] LIT

a) Antike: Thesis f (betonter Teil eines Versfußes)

b) Senkung f, unbetonte Silbe

* * *

1) (proposition) These, die

2) (dissertation) Dissertation, die, Doktorarbeit, die (on über + Akk.)

* * *

= Abhandlung f.

Dissertation f.

Doktorarbeit f.

These -n f.

(spoken) Vortrag, der; (written) Abhandlung, die; (for Ph.D.) Dissertation, die

* * *

* * *

[ˌdɪsəˈteɪʃ^ən, AM -sɚ-]

n Dissertation f, Doktorarbeit f (on über + akk)

master's \dissertation BRIT ≈ Magisterarbeit f, ≈ Diplomarbeit f ÖSTERR, SCHWEIZ

to write a \dissertation eine Dissertation schreiben, promovieren

* * *

* * *

dissertation s

1. (wissenschaftliche) Abhandlung

2. Diplomarbeit f

3. (wissenschaftlicher) Vortrag

* * *

(spoken) Vortrag, der; (written) Abhandlung, die; (for Ph.D.) Dissertation, die

* * *

Dissertation f.

Doktorarbeit f.

* * *

noun (a person who supervises.) der/die Aufseher(in)

* * *

[ˈsu:pəvaɪzəʳ, AM -ɚvaɪzɚ]

1. (person in charge) Aufsichtsbeamte(r), -beamtin m, f; (in shop) Abteilungsleiter(in) m(f); (in factory) Vorarbeiter(in) m(f); SCH Betreuungslehrer(in) m(f); UNIV Betreuer(in) m(f); (for doctoral candidates) Doktorvater m; BRIT Tutor(in) m(f)

2. AM POL leitender Verwaltungsbeamter/leitende Verwaltungsbeamtin

3. COMPUT (part of computer) Supervisor m

* * *

* * *

supervisor [-vaızə(r)] s

1. a) Aufseher(in), Kontrolleur(in), Aufsichtsbeamte(r) m, -beamtin f, Aufsichtführende(r) m/f(m)

b) besonders Tennis: Supervisor m, Oberschiedsrichter(in)

2. US (leitende[r]) Beamter (Beamtin) eines Stadt- oder Kreisverwaltungsvorstandes

3. SCHULE Fachbeauftragte(r) m/f(m) einer Schulbehörde

4. UNIV Doktorvater m

* * *

* * *

Aufpasser m.

Aufseher - m.

Aufsicht -en f.

Dienstvorgesetzte m.,f.

Doktorvater m.

Kontrolleur m.

Überwacher m.

( working for MA etc) ≈ magistrant(ka) m(f); ( working for PhD etc) ≈ doktorant(ka) m(f)

the·sis <pl - ses> [ʼɵi:səs, pl -si:z] n

1) ( written study) wissenschaftliche Arbeit;

( for diploma) Diplomarbeit f; ( for PhD) Doktorarbeit f, Dissertation f;

doctoral \thesis Doktorarbeit f, Dissertation f

2) ( proposition) These f, Behauptung f

(for PhD) Doktorarbeit f

(for PhD) Doktorarbeit f

1ª persona singular (yo) presente subjuntivo

3ª persona singular (él/ella/usted) presente subjuntivo

3ª persona singular (él/ella/usted) imperativo

◊ dar vivas to cheer;

◊ vive solo he lives alone o on his own;

◊ renta

◊ ¡viva el Rey! long live the King!;

a) ( pasar por):

◊ viva momentos difíciles to live in difficult times;

b) ‹personaje/música› to live

c) ‹ vida› to live

tr['vaɪvə]

noun

1 SMALLBRITISH ENGLISH/SMALL familiar (abbr of viva voce) examen nombre masculino oral

• viva interj.

noun (BrE Educ) (for MA, PhD) defensa f de la tesis; ( for BA) examen oral que decide la nota global de la licenciatura

['vaɪvǝ]

['viːvǝ]

* * *

noun (BrE Educ) (for MA, PhD) defensa f de la tesis; ( for BA) examen oral que decide la nota global de la licenciatura

SUBJECT AREA: Automotive engineering, Land transport

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At the age of fifteen, Porsche built a complete electrical installation for his home. In 1894 he went to technical school in Vienna. Four years later he became Manager of the test department of the Bela Egger concern, which later became part of the Brown Boveri organization where he became the first Assistant in the calculating section. In 1899 he joined the long-established coachbuilders Jacob Lohner, and in 1902 a car of his design with mixed drive won the 1,000 kg (2,200 lb) class in the Exelberg races. In 1905 he joined the Austro-Daimler Company as Technical Director; his subsequent designs included an 85 hp mixed-drive racing car in 1907 and in 1912 an air-cooled aircraft engine which came to be known in later years as the "great-grandfather" of the Volkswagen engine. In 1916, he became Managing Director of Austro-Daimler.

In 1921 he designed his first small car, which, appearing under the name of Sasch, won its class in the 1922 Targa Florio, a gruelling road-race in Italy. In 1923 Porsche left Austro-Daimler and joined the Daimler Company in Untertürk-heim, near Stuttgart, Germany. In 1929 he joined the firm of Steyr in Austria as a director and chief engineer, and in 1930 he set up his own independent design office in Stuttgart. In 1932 he visited Russia, and in the same year completed the design calculations for the Auto-Union racing car.

In 1934, with his son Ferry (b. 1909), he prepared a plan for the construction of the German "people's car", a project initiated by Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime; in June of that year he signed a contract for the design work on the Volkswagen. Racing cars of his design were also successful in 1934: the rear-engined Auto-Union won the German Grand Prix, and another Au to-Union car took the Flying Kilometre speed record at 327 km/h (203.2 mph). In 1935 Daimler-Benz started preproduction on the Volkswagen. The first trials of the cars took place in the autumn of 1936, and the following year thirty experimental cars were built by Daimler-Benz. In that year, Porsche visited the United States, where he met Henry Ford; in October an Auto-Union took the Flying Five Kilometre record at 404.3 km/h (251.2 mph). On 26 May 1938, the foundation stone of the Volkswagen factory was laid in Wolfsburg, near Braunschweig, Germany.

In October 1945 Ferdinand Porsche was arrested by a unit of the United States Army and taken to Hessen; the French army removed him to Baden-Baden, then to Paris and later to Dijon. During this time he was consulted by Renault engineers regarding the design of their 4CV and designed a diesel-engined tractor. He was finally released on 5 August 1947. His last major work before his death was the approval of the design for the Cisitalia Grand Prix car.

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1) weitergehen/-fahren; (by vehicle) die Reise/Fahrt usw. fortsetzen; (go ahead) vorausgehen/-fahren

2) (continue) weitergehen; [Kämpfe:] anhalten; [Verhandlungen, Arbeiten:] [an]dauern; (continue to act) weitermachen; (continue to live) weiterleben

3) (elapse) [Zeit:] vergehen

4) (happen) passieren; vor sich gehen

5)

6) (behave) sich benehmen; sich aufführen

7) [Kleidung:] passen

8) (Theatre) auftreten

9) [Licht:] angehen; [Strom, Wasser:] kommen

10)

1) (ride on) fahren mit

2) (continue)

3) (coll.): (be guided by) sich stützen auf (+ Akk.)

4) (begin to receive) bekommen, erhalten [Arbeitslosengeld, Sozialfürsorge]; see also academic.ru/21703/dole">dole 1.

5) (start to take) nehmen [Medikament, Drogen]

6) (coll.): (like) see much 3. 4). See also go 1. 1), 2), 22)

* * *

1) (to continue: Go on reading - I won't disturb you.) fortfahren

2) (to talk a great deal, usually too much: She goes on and on about her health.) weiter fortfahren

3) (to happen: What is going on here?) vor sich gehen

4) (to base one's investigations etc on: The police had very few clues to go on in their search for the murderer.) fortfahren

* * *

◆ go on

1. (go further) weitergehen; vehicle weiterfahren

to \go on on ahead vorausgehen; vehicle vorausfahren

2. (extend) sich akk erstrecken; time voranschreiten

the forests seemed to \go on on for ever die Wälder schienen sich bis in die Unendlichkeit zu erstrecken

it'll get warmer as the day \go ones on im Laufe des Tages wird es wärmer

as time went on, their friendship blossomed im Laufe der Zeit wurde ihre Freundschaft immer tiefer

3. (continue) weitermachen; fights anhalten; negotiations andauern fam

I can't \go on on ich kann nicht mehr

you can't \go on on like that indefinitely du kannst nicht ewig so weitermachen

we can't \go on on arguing like this wir können nicht immerzu so weiter streiten

how can you \go on on as if nothing has happened? wie kannst du nur einfach so weitermachen, als sei nichts passiert?

to \go on on trying es weiter versuchen

to \go on on working weiterarbeiten

to \go on on and on kein Ende nehmen [wollen]

4. (continue speaking) weiterreden; (speak incessantly) unaufhörlich reden

sorry, please \go on on Entschuldigung, bitte fahren Sie fort

he just \go ones on and on er redet echt wie ein Wasserfall fam

she went on to talk about her time in Africa sie erzählte weiter von ihrer Zeit in Afrika

he went on to say that... dann sagte er, dass...

“... and then,” he went on... „... und dann“, fuhr er fort...

▪ to \go on on about sb/sth stundenlang über jdn/etw reden

to always \go on on [about sth] andauernd [über etw akk] reden

5. (criticize)

▪ to \go on on about sb/sth dauernd über jdn/etw klagen

▪ to \go on on at sb an jdm herumnörgeln [o herummäkeln] fam

6. (happen) passieren

this has been \go oning on for months now das geht jetzt schon Monate so!

what on earth's been \go oning on here? was um alles in der Welt ist denn hier passiert?

what's \go oning on here? was geht denn hier vor?

7. (move on, proceed)

I always knew that he would \go on on to a successful career ich wusste schon immer, dass er es mal zu etwas bringen würde

she went on to do a PhD sie strebte einen Doktortitel an

he went on to become a teacher später wurde er Lehrer

what proportion of people who are HIV-positive \go on on to develop AIDS? bei wie viel Prozent der HIV-Infizierten bricht tatsächlich AIDS aus?

8. (start, embark on) anfangen

this is the second fishing trip he's gone on this summer das ist dieses Jahr schon sein zweiter Angelurlaub

to \go on on [or onto] the attack den Angriff starten

to \go on on a diet auf Diät gehen

to \go on on the dole stempeln gehen fam

to \go on on an expedition auf eine Expedition gehen

to \go on on a half-day week halbtags arbeiten

to \go on on [a] holiday in Urlaub gehen, auf Urlaub fahren ÖSTERR, in die Ferien fahren SCHWEIZ

to \go on on honeymoon auf Hochzeitsreise gehen, eine Hochzeitsreise machen ÖSTERR

to \go on on a journey eine Reise machen

to \go on on the pill MED die Pille nehmen

to \go on on strike in den Streik treten

to \go on on tour auf Tournee gehen

9. TECH lights angehen

10. THEAT auftreten

I don't \go on on until the second act ich komme erst im zweiten Akt dran

11. SPORT an der Reihe sein

12. (base conclusions on)

▪ to \go on on sth evidence sich akk auf etw akk stützen

we haven't got any anything to \go on on yet wir haben noch keine Anhaltspunkte

13. (fit)

▪ to \go on on [sth]:

these boots won't \go on on over my thick socks diese Stiefel passen nicht über meine dicken Socken

this shoe just won't \go on on ich kriege diesen Schuh einfach nicht an fam

14. (belong on)

▪ to \go on on sth auf etw akk gehören

that vice \go ones on the workbench diese Schraubzwinge gehört auf die Werkbank

15. FIN (be allocated to)

▪ to \go on on sth expenses auf etw akk gehen

all travel expenses \go on on the company account die Firma übernimmt alle Reisekosten

16. (as encouragement)

\go on on, have another drink na komm, trink noch einen

\go on on and ask directions komm, frag nach dem Weg

\go on on! los, mach schon!

\go on on, tell me! jetzt sag schon! fam

17. (expressing disbelief)

what, they eloped? \go on on, you must be kidding! was, sie sind abgehauen? das ist nicht dein Ernst! fam

18. (ride on)

▪ to \go on on the swings auf die Schaukel gehen

19. (approach)

my granny is \go oning on [for] ninety meine Oma geht auf die neunzig zu

it's \go oning on [for] nine o'clock es geht auf neun zu

I'm \go oning on [for] ten! ich bin [schon] fast zehn!

* * *

go on v/i

1. weitergehen, -fahren

2. weitermachen ( with mit), fortfahren ( doing zu tun; with mit):

a) (mach) weiter!,

b) iron hör auf!, ach komm!;

go on reading lies weiter!

3. daraufhin anfangen ( to do zu tun):

he went on to say darauf sagte er;

go on to sth zu einer Sache übergehen

4. fortdauern, weitergehen:

his speech went on for more than two hours seine Rede dauerte länger als zwei Stunden;

life goes on das Leben geht weiter

5. vor sich gehen, vorgehen, passieren: I don’t know what’s going on in his head was in seinem Kopf vorgeht;

what’s going on here? was ist hier los?

6. sich benehmen oder aufführen:

don’t go on like that! hör auf damit!

7. umg

a) unaufhörlich reden oder schwatzen ( about über akk, von)

b) ständig herumnörgeln (at an dat)

8. angehen (Licht etc)

9. THEAT auftreten

10. go on for gehen auf (akk), bald sein:

it’s going on for 5 o’clock;

he is going on for 60 er geht auf die Sechzig zu

11. fahren mit: → ghost train

12. ein Medikament nehmen: → pill A 4

13. → go¹ C 17

* * *

1) weitergehen/-fahren; (by vehicle) die Reise/Fahrt usw. fortsetzen; (go ahead) vorausgehen/-fahren

2) (continue) weitergehen; [Kämpfe:] anhalten; [Verhandlungen, Arbeiten:] [an]dauern; (continue to act) weitermachen; (continue to live) weiterleben

3) (elapse) [Zeit:] vergehen

4) (happen) passieren; vor sich gehen

5)

6) (behave) sich benehmen; sich aufführen

7) [Kleidung:] passen

8) (Theatre) auftreten

9) [Licht:] angehen; [Strom, Wasser:] kommen

10)

1) (ride on) fahren mit

2) (continue)

3) (coll.): (be guided by) sich stützen auf (+ Akk.)

4) (begin to receive) bekommen, erhalten [Arbeitslosengeld, Sozialfürsorge]; see also dole 1.

5) (start to take) nehmen [Medikament, Drogen]

6) (coll.): (like) see much 3. 4). See also go 1. 1), 2), 22)

* * *

angehen v.

weiterfahren v.

weitergehen v.

SUBJECT AREA: Electricity, Metallurgy

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Coolidge obtained his BS from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1896, and his PhD (physics) from the University of Leipzig in 1899. He was appointed Assistant Professor of Physics at MIT in 1904, and in 1905 he joined the staff of the General Electric Company's research laboratory at Schenectady. In 1905 Schenectady was trying to make tungsten-filament lamps to counter the competition of the tantalum-filament lamps then being produced by their German rival Siemens. The first tungsten lamps made by Just and Hanaman in Vienna in 1904 had been too fragile for general use. Coolidge and his life-long collaborator, Colin G. Fink, succeeded in 1910 by hot-working directly dense sintered tungsten compacts into wire. This success was the result of a flash of insight by Coolidge, who first perceived that fully recrystallized tungsten wire was always brittle and that only partially work-hardened wire retained a measure of ductility. This grasped, a process was developed which induced ductility into the wire by hot-working at temperatures below those required for full recrystallization, so that an elongated fibrous grain structure was progressively developed. Sintered tungsten ingots were swaged to bar at temperatures around 1,500°C and at the end of the process ductile tungsten filament wire was drawn through diamond dies around 550°C. This process allowed General Electric to dominate the world lamp market. Tungsten lamps consumed only one-third the energy of carbon lamps, and for the first time the cost of electric lighting was reduced to that of gas. Between 1911 and 1914, manufacturing licences for the General Electric patents had been granted for most of the developed work. The validity of the General Electric monopoly was bitterly contested, though in all the litigation that followed, Coolidge's fibering principle was upheld. Commercial arrangements between General Electric and European producers such as Siemens led to the name "Osram" being commonly applied to any lamp with a drawn tungsten filament. In 1910 Coolidge patented the use of thoria as a particular additive that greatly improved the high-temperature strength of tungsten filaments. From this development sprang the technique of "dispersion strengthening", still being widely used in the development of high-temperature alloys in the 1990s. In 1913 Coolidge introduced the first controllable hot-cathode X-ray tube, which had a tungsten target and operated in vacuo rather than in a gaseous atmosphere. With this equipment, medical radiography could for the first time be safely practised on a routine basis. During the First World War, Coolidge developed portable X-ray units for use in field hospitals, and between the First and Second World Wars he introduced between 1 and 2 million X-ray machines for cancer treatment and for industrial radiography. He became Director of the Schenectady laboratory in 1932, and from 1940 until 1944 he was Vice-President and Director of Research. After retirement he was retained as an X-ray consultant, and in this capacity he attended the Bikini atom bomb trials in 1946. Throughout the Second World War he was a member of the National Defence Research Committee.

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SUBJECT AREA: Broadcasting, Electronics and information technology

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Zworykin studied engineering at the Institute of Technology in St Petersburg under Boris Rosing, assisting the latter with his early experiments with television. After graduating in 1912, he spent a time doing X-ray research at the Collège de France in Paris before returning to join the Russian Marconi Company, initially in St Petersburg and then in Moscow. On the outbreak of war in 1917, he joined the Russian Army Signal Corps, but when the war ended in the chaos of the Revolution he set off on his travels, ending up in the USA, where he joined the Westinghouse Corporation. There, in 1923, he filed the first of many patents for a complete system of electronic television, including one for an all-electronic scanning pick-up tube that he called the iconoscope. In 1924 he became a US citizen and invented the kinescope, a hard-vacuum cathode ray tube (CRT) for the display of television pictures, and the following year he patented a camera tube with a mosaic of photoelectric elements and gave a demonstration of still-picture TV. In 1926 he was awarded a PhD by the University of Pittsburgh and in 1928 he was granted a patent for a colour TV system.

In 1929 he embarked on a tour of Europe to study TV developments; on his return he joined the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) as Director of the Electronics Research Group, first at Camden and then Princeton, New Jersey. Securing a budget to develop an improved CRT picture tube, he soon produced a kinescope with a hard vacuum, an indirectly heated cathode, a signal-modulation grid and electrostatic focusing. In 1933 an improved iconoscope camera tube was produced, and under his direction RCA went on to produce other improved types of camera tube, including the image iconoscope, the orthicon and image orthicon and the vidicon. The secondary-emission effect used in many of these tubes was also used in a scintillation radiation counter. In 1941 he was responsible for the development of the first industrial electron microscope, but for most of the Second World War he directed work concerned with radar, aircraft fire-control and TV-guided missiles.

After the war he worked for a time on high-speed memories and medical electronics, becoming Vice-President and Technical Consultant in 1947. He "retired" from RCA and was made an honorary vice-president in 1954, but he retained an office and continued to work there almost up until his death; he also served as Director of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research from 1954 until 1962.

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See also: Baird, John Logie; Farnsworth, Philo Taylor; Jenkins, Charles Francis

SUBJECT AREA: Electricity, Electronics and information technology

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Born the son of a professor of anatomy, he studied electrical engineering at the University of Wisconsin. He then worked for three years as a geophysicist at the Gulf Research Laboratories before taking a PhD in mathematical physics at Princeton, where he was a graduate student. For some time he held appointments at the University of Minnesota and at Harvard, and during the Second World War he joined the US Naval Ordnance Laboratory. In 1945 he joined the Bell Telephone Laboratories to head a new department to work on solid-state devices. While there, he and W.H. Brattain in 1948 published a paper that introduced the transistor. For this he, Brattain and Shockley won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1956. In 1951 he moved to the University of Illinois as Professor of Physics and Electrical Engineering. There he worked on superconductivity, a phenomenon described in 1911 by Kamerling-Onnes. Bardeen worked with L.N. Cooper and J.A.Schrieffer, and in 1972 they were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for the "BCS Theory", which suggested that, under certain circumstances at very low temperatures, electrons can form bound pairs.

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SUBJECT AREA: Electricity, Electronics and information technology, Telecommunications

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After obtaining degrees from the universities of Marburg and Berlin (PhD) and spending a short time as Headmaster of the Thomas School in Berlin, Braun successively held professorships in theoretical physics at the universities of Marburg (1876), Strasbourg (1880) and Karlsruhe (1883) before becoming Professor of Experimental Physics at Tübingen in 1885 and Director and Professor of Physics at Strasbourg in 1895.

During this time he devised experimental apparatus to determine the dielectric constant of rock salt and developed the Braun high-tension electrometer. He also discovered that certain mineral sulphide crystals would only conduct electricity in one direction, a rectification effect that made it possible to detect and demodulate radio signals in a more reliable manner than was possible with the coherer. Primarily, however, he was concerned with improving Marconi's radio transmitter to increase its broadcasting range. By using a transmitter circuit comprising a capacitor and a spark-gap, coupled to an aerial without a spark-gap, he was able to obtain much greater oscillatory currents in the latter, and by tuning the transmitter so that the oscillations occupied only a narrow frequency band he reduced the interference with other transmitters. Other achievements include the development of a directional aerial and the first practical wavemeter, and the measurement in Strasbourg of the strength of radio waves received from the Eiffel Tower transmitter in Paris. For all this work he subsequently shared with Marconi the 1909 Nobel Prize for Physics.

Around 1895 he carried out experiments using a torsion balance in order to measure the universal gravitational constant, g, but the work for which he is probably best known is the addition of deflecting plates and a fluorescent screen to the Crooke's tube in 1897 in order to study the characteristics of high-frequency currents. The oscilloscope, as it was called, was not only the basis of a now widely used and highly versatile test instrument but was the forerunner of the cathode ray tube, or CRT, used for the display of radar and television images.

At the beginning of the First World War, while in New York to testify in a patent suit, he was trapped by the entry of the USA into the war and remained in Brooklyn with his son until his death.

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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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SUBJECT AREA: Chemical technology

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Orphaned at an early age, Leblanc was sent by his guardian, a doctor, to study medicine at the Ecole de Chirurgie in Paris. Around 1780 he entered the service of the Duke of Orléans as Surgeon. There he was able to pursue his interest in chemistry by carrying out research, particularly into crystallization; this bore fruit in a paper to the Royal Academy of Sciences in 1786, published in 1812 as a separate work entitled Crystallotechnie. At that time there was much concern that supplies of natural soda were becoming insufficient to meet the increasing demands of various industries, textile above all. In 1775 the Academy offered a prize of 2,400 livres for a means of manufacturing soda from sea salt. Several chemists studied the problem, but the prize was never awarded. However, in 1789 Leblanc reported in the Journal de physique for 1789 that he had devised a process, and he applied to his patron for support. The Duke had the process subjected to tests, and when these proved favourable he, with Leblanc and the referee, formed a company in February 1790 to exploit it. A patent was granted in 1791 and, with the manufacture of a vital substance at low cost based on a raw material, salt in unlimited supply, a bright prospect seemed to open out for Leblanc. The salt was treated with sulphuric acid to form salt-cake (sodium sulphate), which was then rotated with coal and limestone to form a substance from which the soda was extracted with water followed by evaporation. Hydrochloric acid was a valuable by-product, from which could be made calcium chloride, widely used in the textile and paper industries. The factory worked until 1793, but did not achieve regular production, and then disaster struck: Leblanc's principal patron, the Duke of Orléans, perished under the guillotine in the reign of terror; the factory was sequestered by the Revolutionary government and the agreement was revoked. Leblanc laboured in vain to secure adequate compensation. Eventually a grant was made towards the cost of restoring the factory, but it was quite inadequate, and in despair, Leblanc shot himself. However, his process proved to be one of the greatest inventions in the chemical industry, and was taken up in other countries and remained the leading process for the production of soda for a century. In 1855 his family tried again to vindicate his name and achieve compensation, this time with success.

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