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1 Best mode for carrying out the Invention
Универсальный англо-русский словарь > Best mode for carrying out the Invention
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2 best mode (for carrying out an invention)
Патенты: лучший вариант (осуществления изобретения)Универсальный англо-русский словарь > best mode (for carrying out an invention)
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3 best mode for carrying out an invention
Patent terms dictionary > best mode for carrying out an invention
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4 best mode
Патенты: (for carrying out an invention) лучший вариант (осуществления изобретения) -
5 best mode
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7 Computers
The brain has been compared to a digital computer because the neuron, like a switch or valve, either does or does not complete a circuit. But at that point the similarity ends. The switch in the digital computer is constant in its effect, and its effect is large in proportion to the total output of the machine. The effect produced by the neuron varies with its recovery from [the] refractory phase and with its metabolic state. The number of neurons involved in any action runs into millions so that the influence of any one is negligible.... Any cell in the system can be dispensed with.... The brain is an analogical machine, not digital. Analysis of the integrative activities will probably have to be in statistical terms. (Lashley, quoted in Beach, Hebb, Morgan & Nissen, 1960, p. 539)It is essential to realize that a computer is not a mere "number cruncher," or supercalculating arithmetic machine, although this is how computers are commonly regarded by people having no familiarity with artificial intelligence. Computers do not crunch numbers; they manipulate symbols.... Digital computers originally developed with mathematical problems in mind, are in fact general purpose symbol manipulating machines....The terms "computer" and "computation" are themselves unfortunate, in view of their misleading arithmetical connotations. The definition of artificial intelligence previously cited-"the study of intelligence as computation"-does not imply that intelligence is really counting. Intelligence may be defined as the ability creatively to manipulate symbols, or process information, given the requirements of the task in hand. (Boden, 1981, pp. 15, 16-17)The task is to get computers to explain things to themselves, to ask questions about their experiences so as to cause those explanations to be forthcoming, and to be creative in coming up with explanations that have not been previously available. (Schank, 1986, p. 19)In What Computers Can't Do, written in 1969 (2nd edition, 1972), the main objection to AI was the impossibility of using rules to select only those facts about the real world that were relevant in a given situation. The "Introduction" to the paperback edition of the book, published by Harper & Row in 1979, pointed out further that no one had the slightest idea how to represent the common sense understanding possessed even by a four-year-old. (Dreyfus & Dreyfus, 1986, p. 102)A popular myth says that the invention of the computer diminishes our sense of ourselves, because it shows that rational thought is not special to human beings, but can be carried on by a mere machine. It is a short stop from there to the conclusion that intelligence is mechanical, which many people find to be an affront to all that is most precious and singular about their humanness.In fact, the computer, early in its career, was not an instrument of the philistines, but a humanizing influence. It helped to revive an idea that had fallen into disrepute: the idea that the mind is real, that it has an inner structure and a complex organization, and can be understood in scientific terms. For some three decades, until the 1940s, American psychology had lain in the grip of the ice age of behaviorism, which was antimental through and through. During these years, extreme behaviorists banished the study of thought from their agenda. Mind and consciousness, thinking, imagining, planning, solving problems, were dismissed as worthless for anything except speculation. Only the external aspects of behavior, the surface manifestations, were grist for the scientist's mill, because only they could be observed and measured....It is one of the surprising gifts of the computer in the history of ideas that it played a part in giving back to psychology what it had lost, which was nothing less than the mind itself. In particular, there was a revival of interest in how the mind represents the world internally to itself, by means of knowledge structures such as ideas, symbols, images, and inner narratives, all of which had been consigned to the realm of mysticism. (Campbell, 1989, p. 10)[Our artifacts] only have meaning because we give it to them; their intentionality, like that of smoke signals and writing, is essentially borrowed, hence derivative. To put it bluntly: computers themselves don't mean anything by their tokens (any more than books do)-they only mean what we say they do. Genuine understanding, on the other hand, is intentional "in its own right" and not derivatively from something else. (Haugeland, 1981a, pp. 32-33)he debate over the possibility of computer thought will never be won or lost; it will simply cease to be of interest, like the previous debate over man as a clockwork mechanism. (Bolter, 1984, p. 190)t takes us a long time to emotionally digest a new idea. The computer is too big a step, and too recently made, for us to quickly recover our balance and gauge its potential. It's an enormous accelerator, perhaps the greatest one since the plow, twelve thousand years ago. As an intelligence amplifier, it speeds up everything-including itself-and it continually improves because its heart is information or, more plainly, ideas. We can no more calculate its consequences than Babbage could have foreseen antibiotics, the Pill, or space stations.Further, the effects of those ideas are rapidly compounding, because a computer design is itself just a set of ideas. As we get better at manipulating ideas by building ever better computers, we get better at building even better computers-it's an ever-escalating upward spiral. The early nineteenth century, when the computer's story began, is already so far back that it may as well be the Stone Age. (Rawlins, 1997, p. 19)According to weak AI, the principle value of the computer in the study of the mind is that it gives us a very powerful tool. For example, it enables us to formulate and test hypotheses in a more rigorous and precise fashion than before. But according to strong AI the computer is not merely a tool in the study of the mind; rather the appropriately programmed computer really is a mind in the sense that computers given the right programs can be literally said to understand and have other cognitive states. And according to strong AI, because the programmed computer has cognitive states, the programs are not mere tools that enable us to test psychological explanations; rather, the programs are themselves the explanations. (Searle, 1981b, p. 353)What makes people smarter than machines? They certainly are not quicker or more precise. Yet people are far better at perceiving objects in natural scenes and noting their relations, at understanding language and retrieving contextually appropriate information from memory, at making plans and carrying out contextually appropriate actions, and at a wide range of other natural cognitive tasks. People are also far better at learning to do these things more accurately and fluently through processing experience.What is the basis for these differences? One answer, perhaps the classic one we might expect from artificial intelligence, is "software." If we only had the right computer program, the argument goes, we might be able to capture the fluidity and adaptability of human information processing. Certainly this answer is partially correct. There have been great breakthroughs in our understanding of cognition as a result of the development of expressive high-level computer languages and powerful algorithms. However, we do not think that software is the whole story.In our view, people are smarter than today's computers because the brain employs a basic computational architecture that is more suited to deal with a central aspect of the natural information processing tasks that people are so good at.... hese tasks generally require the simultaneous consideration of many pieces of information or constraints. Each constraint may be imperfectly specified and ambiguous, yet each can play a potentially decisive role in determining the outcome of processing. (McClelland, Rumelhart & Hinton, 1986, pp. 3-4)Historical dictionary of quotations in cognitive science > Computers
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8 Appleton, Sir Edward Victor
[br]b. 6 September 1892 Bradford, Englandd. 21 April 1965 Edinburgh, Scotland[br]English physicist awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for his discovery of the ionospheric layer, named after him, which is an efficient reflector of short radio waves, thereby making possible long-distance radio communication.[br]After early ambitions to become a professional cricketer, Appleton went to St John's College, Cambridge, where he studied under J.J.Thompson and Ernest Rutherford. His academic career interrupted by the First World War, he served as a captain in the Royal Engineers, carrying out investigations into the propagation and fading of radio signals. After the war he joined the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, as a demonstrator in 1920, and in 1924 he moved to King's College, London, as Wheatstone Professor of Physics.In the following decade he contributed to developments in valve oscillators (in particular, the "squegging" oscillator, which formed the basis of the first hard-valve time-base) and gained international recognition for research into electromagnetic-wave propagation. His most important contribution was to confirm the existence of a conducting ionospheric layer in the upper atmosphere capable of reflecting radio waves, which had been predicted almost simultaneously by Heaviside and Kennelly in 1902. This he did by persuading the BBC in 1924 to vary the frequency of their Bournemouth transmitter, and he then measured the signal received at Cambridge. By comparing the direct and reflected rays and the daily variation he was able to deduce that the Kennelly- Heaviside (the so-called E-layer) was at a height of about 60 miles (97 km) above the earth and that there was a further layer (the Appleton or F-layer) at about 150 miles (240 km), the latter being an efficient reflector of the shorter radio waves that penetrated the lower layers. During the period 1927–32 and aided by Hartree, he established a magneto-ionic theory to explain the existence of the ionosphere. He was instrumental in obtaining agreement for international co-operation for ionospheric and other measurements in the form of the Second Polar Year (1932–3) and, much later, the International Geophysical Year (1957–8). For all this work, which made it possible to forecast the optimum frequencies for long-distance short-wave communication as a function of the location of transmitter and receiver and of the time of day and year, in 1947 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics.He returned to Cambridge as Jacksonian Professor of Natural Philosophy in 1939, and with M.F. Barnett he investigated the possible use of radio waves for radio-location of aircraft. In 1939 he became Secretary of the Government Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, a post he held for ten years. During the Second World War he contributed to the development of both radar and the atomic bomb, and subsequently served on government committees concerned with the use of atomic energy (which led to the establishment of Harwell) and with scientific staff.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsKnighted (KCB 1941, GBE 1946). Nobel Prize for Physics 1947. FRS 1927. Vice- President, American Institute of Electrical Engineers 1932. Royal Society Hughes Medal 1933. Institute of Electrical Engineers Faraday Medal 1946. Vice-Chancellor, Edinburgh University 1947. Institution of Civil Engineers Ewing Medal 1949. Royal Medallist 1950. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Medal of Honour 1962. President, British Association 1953. President, Radio Industry Council 1955–7. Légion d'honneur. LLD University of St Andrews 1947.Bibliography1925, joint paper with Barnett, Nature 115:333 (reports Appleton's studies of the ionosphere).1928, "Some notes of wireless methods of investigating the electrical structure of the upper atmosphere", Proceedings of the Physical Society 41(Part III):43. 1932, Thermionic Vacuum Tubes and Their Applications (his work on valves).1947, "The investigation and forecasting of ionospheric conditions", Journal of theInstitution of Electrical Engineers 94, Part IIIA: 186 (a review of British work on the exploration of the ionosphere).with J.F.Herd \& R.A.Watson-Watt, British patent no. 235,254 (squegging oscillator).Further ReadingWho Was Who, 1961–70 1972, VI, London: A. \& C.Black (for fuller details of honours). R.Clark, 1971, Sir Edward Appleton, Pergamon (biography).J.Jewkes, D.Sawers \& R.Stillerman, 1958, The Sources of Invention.KFBiographical history of technology > Appleton, Sir Edward Victor
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9 Herbert, Edward Geisler
[br]b. 23 March 1869 Dedham, near Colchester, Essex, Englandd. 9 February 1938 West Didsbury, Manchester, England[br]English engineer, inventor of the Rapidor saw and the Pendulum Hardness Tester, and pioneer of cutting tool research.[br]Edward Geisler Herbert was educated at Nottingham High School in 1876–87, and at University College, London, in 1887–90, graduating with a BSc in Physics in 1889 and remaining for a further year to take an engineering course. He began his career as a premium apprentice at the Nottingham works of Messrs James Hill \& Co, manufacturers of lace machinery. In 1892 he became a partner with Charles Richardson in the firm of Richardson \& Herbert, electrical engineers in Manchester, and when this partnership was dissolved in 1895 he carried on the business in his own name and began to produce machine tools. He remained as Managing Director of this firm, reconstituted in 1902 as a limited liability company styled Edward G.Herbert Ltd, until his retirement in 1928. He was joined by Charles Fletcher (1868–1930), who as joint Managing Director contributed greatly to the commercial success of the firm, which specialized in the manufacture of small machine tools and testing machinery.Around 1900 Herbert had discovered that hacksaw machines cut very much quicker when only a few teeth are in operation, and in 1902 he patented a machine which utilized this concept by automatically changing the angle of incidence of the blade as cutting proceeded. These saws were commercially successful, but by 1912, when his original patents were approaching expiry, Herbert and Fletcher began to develop improved methods of applying the rapid-saw concept. From this work the well-known Rapidor and Manchester saws emerged soon after the First World War. A file-testing machine invented by Herbert before the war made an autographic record of the life and performance of the file and brought him into close contact with the file and tool steel manufacturers of Sheffield. A tool-steel testing machine, working like a lathe, was introduced when high-speed steel had just come into general use, and Herbert became a prominent member of the Cutting Tools Research Committee of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1919, carrying out many investigations for that body and compiling four of its Reports published between 1927 and 1933. He was the first to conceive the idea of the "tool-work" thermocouple which allowed cutting tool temperatures to be accurately measured. For this advance he was awarded the Thomas Hawksley Gold Medal of the Institution in 1926.His best-known invention was the Pendulum Hardness Tester, introduced in 1923. This used a spherical indentor, which was rolled over, rather than being pushed into, the surface being examined, by a small, heavy, inverted pendulum. The period of oscillation of this pendulum provided a sensitive measurement of the specimen's hardness. Following this work Herbert introduced his "Cloudburst" surface hardening process, in which hardened steel engineering components were bombarded by steel balls moving at random in all directions at very high velocities like gaseous molecules. This treatment superhardened the surface of the components, improved their resistance to abrasion, and revealed any surface defects. After bombardment the hardness of the superficially hardened layers increased slowly and spontaneously by a room-temperature ageing process. After his retirement in 1928 Herbert devoted himself to a detailed study of the influence of intense magnetic fields on the hardening of steels.Herbert was a member of several learned societies, including the Manchester Association of Engineers, the Institute of Metals, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. He retained a seat on the Board of his company from his retirement until the end of his life.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsManchester Association of Engineers Butterworth Gold Medal 1923. Institution of Mechanical Engineers Thomas Hawksley Gold Medal 1926.BibliographyE.G.Herbert obtained several British and American patents and was the author of many papers, which are listed in T.M.Herbert (ed.), 1939, "The inventions of Edward Geisler Herbert: an autobiographical note", Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers 141: 59–67.ASD / RTSBiographical history of technology > Herbert, Edward Geisler
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10 Thomas, Sidney Gilchrist
SUBJECT AREA: Metallurgy[br]b. 16 April 1850 London, Englandd. 1 February 1885 Paris, France[br]English inventor of basic steelmaking.[br]Thomas was educated at Dulwich College and from the age of 17, for the next twelve years, he made his living as a police-court clerk, although he studied chemistry in his spare time as an evening student at Birkbeck College, London. While there, he heard of the difficulties encountered by the Bessemer steelmaking process, which at that time was limited to using phosphorus-free iron. Any of this element present in the iron was oxidized to phosphoric acid, which would not react with the acidic lining in the converter, with the result that it would remain in the iron and render it too brittle to use. Unfortunately, phosphoric iron ores are more common than those free of this harmful element. Thomas was attracted by the view that a fortune awaited anyone who could solve this problem, and was not discouraged by the failure of several august figures in the industry, including Siemens and Lowthian Bell.Thomas's knowledge of chemistry taught him that whereas an acidic lining allowed the phosphorus to remain in the iron, a basic lining would react with it to form part of the slag, which could then be tapped off. His experiments to find a suitable material were conducted in difficult conditions, in his spare time with meagre apparatus. Finally he found that a converter lined with dolomite, a form of limestone, would succeed, and he appealed to his cousin Percy Carlyle Gilchrist, Chemist at the Blaenavon Ironworks in Monmouthshire, for help in carrying out pilot-scale trials. In 1879 he gave up his police-court job to devote himself to the work, and in the same year they patented the Thomas- Gilchrist process. The first licence to use it was granted to Bolckow, Vaughan \& Co. of Middlesborough, and there the first steel was made in a basic Bessemer converter on 4 April 1879. The process was rapidly taken up and spread widely in Europe and beyond and was applied to other furnaces. Thomas made a fortune, but his health did not long allow him to enjoy it, for he died at the early age of 34.[br]BibliographyL.G.Thompson, 1940, Sidney Gilchrist Thomas, an Invention and Its Consequences, London: Faber.T.G.Davies, 1978, Blaenavon and Sidney Gilchrist Thomas, Sheffield: Historical Metallurgy Society.LRDBiographical history of technology > Thomas, Sidney Gilchrist
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11 Branly, Edouard Eugène
[br]b. 23 October 1844 Amiens, Franced. 24 March 1940 Paris, France[br]French electrical engineer, who c.1890 invented the coherer for detecting radio waves.[br]Branly received his education at the Lycée de Saint Quentin in the Département de l'Aisne and at the Henri IV College of Paris University, where he became a Fellow of the University, graduating as a Doctor of Physics in 1873. That year he was appointed a professor at the College of Bourges and Director of Physics Instruction at the Sorbonne. Three years later he moved to the Free School in Paris as Professor of Advanced Studies. In addition to these responsibilities, he qualified as an MD in 1882 and practised medicine from 1896 to 1916. Whilst carrying out experiments with Hertzian (radio) waves in 1890, Branly discovered that a tube of iron filings connected to a source of direct voltage only became conductive when the radio waves were present. This early form of rectifier, which he called a coherer and which needed regular tapping to maintain its response, was used to operate a relay when the waves were turned on and off by Morse signals, thus providing the first practical radio communication.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsPapal Order of Commander of St George 1899. Légion d'honneur, Chevalier 1900, Commandeur 1925. Osiris Prize (jointly with Marie Curie) 1903. Argenteuil Prize and Associate of the Royal Belgian Academy 1910. Member of the Academy of Science 1911. State Funeral at Notre Dame Cathedral.BibliographyAmongst his publications in Comptes rendus were "Conductivity of mediocre conductors", "Conductivity of gases", "Telegraphic conduction without wires" and "Conductivity of imperfect conductors realised at a distance by wireless by spark discharge of a capacitor".Further ReadingE.Hawkes, 1927, Pioneers of Wireless, London: Methuen. E.Larien, 1971, A History of Invention, London: Victor Gollancz.V.J.Phillips: 1980, Early Radio Wave Detectors, London: Peter Peregrinus.KF -
12 Menzies, Michael
[br]b. end of the seventeenth century Lanarkshire, Scotland (?)d. 13 December 1766 Edinburgh, Scotland[br]Scottish inventor and lawyer.[br]Menzies was admitted as a member of the Faculty of Advocates on 31 January 1719. It is evident from his applications for patents that he was more concerned with inventions than the law, however. He took out his first patent in 1734 for a threshing machine in which a number of flails were attached to a horizontal axis, which was moved rapidly forwards and backwards through half a revolution, essentially imitating the action of an ordinary flail. The grain to be threshed was placed on either side.Though not a practical success, Menzies's invention seems to have been the first for the mechanical threshing of grain. His idea of imitating non-mechanized action also influenced his invention of a coal cutter, for which he took out a patent in 1761 and which copied miners' tools for obtaining coal. He proposed to carry heavy chains down the pit so that they could be used to give motion to iron picks, saws or other chains with cutting implements. The chains could be set into motion by a steam-engine, by water-or windmills, or by horses gins. Although it is quite obvious that this apparatus could not work, Menzies was the first to have thought of mechanizing coal production in the style that was in use in the late twentieth century. Subsequent to Menzies's proposal, many inventors at varying intervals followed this direction until the problem was finally solved one century later by, among others, W.E. Garforth.Menzies had successfully used the power of a steam-engine on the Wear eight years beforehand, when he obtained a patent for raising coal. According to his device a descending bucket filled with water raised a basket of coals, while a steam-engine pumped the water back to the surface; the balance-tub system, in various forms, quickly spread to other coalfields. Menzies's patent from 1750 for improved methods of carrying the coals from the coalface to the pit-shaft had also been of considerable influence: this device employed self-acting inclined planes, whereon the descending loaded wagons hauled up the empty ones.[br]Further ReadingThe article entitled "Michael Menzies" in the Dictionary of National Biography neglects Menzies's inventions for mining. A comprehensive evaluation of his influence on coal cutting is given in the introductory chapter of S.F.Walker, 1902, Coal-Cutting byMachinery, London.WK -
13 Cockerell, Christopher Sydney
[br]b. 4 June 1910 Cambridge, England[br]British designer and engineer who invented the hovercraft.[br]He was educated at Gresham's School in Holt and at Peterhouse College, Cambridge, where he graduated in engineering in 1931; he was made an Honorary Fellow in 1974. Cockerell entered the engineering firm of W.H.Allen \& Sons of Bedford as a pupil in 1931, and two years later he returned to Cambridge to engage in radio research for a further two years. In 1935 he joined Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company, working on very high frequency (VHF) transmitters and direction finders. During the Second World War he worked on airborne navigation and communication equipment, and later he worked on radar. During this period he filed thirty six patents in the fields of radio and navigational systems.In 1950 Cockerell left Marconi to set up his own boat-hire business on the Norfolk Broads. He began to consider how to increase the speed of boats by means of air lubrication. Since the 1870s engineers had at times sought to reduce the drag on a boat by means of a thin layer of air between hull and water. After his first experiments, Cockerell concluded that a significant reduction in drag could only be achieved with a thick cushion of air. After experimenting with several ways of applying the air-cushion principle, the first true hovercraft "took off" in 1955. It was a model in balsa wood, 2 ft 6 in. (762 mm) long and weighing 4½ oz. (27.6 g); it was powered by a model-aircraft petrol engine and could travel over land or water at 13 mph (20.8 km/h). Cockerell filed his first hovercraft patent on 12 December 1955. The following year he founded Hovercraft Ltd and began the search for a manufacturer. The government was impressed with the invention's military possibilities and placed it on the secret list. The secret leaked out, however, and the project was declassified. In 1958 the National Research and Development Corporation decided to give its backing, and the following year Saunders Roe Ltd with experience of making flying boats, produced the epoch-making SR N1, a hovercraft with an air cushion produced by air jets directed downwards and inwards arranged round the periphery of the craft. It made a successful crossing of the English Channel, with the inventor on board.Meanwhile Cockerell had modified the hovercraft so that the air cushion was enclosed within flexible skirts. In this form it was taken up by manufacturers throughout the world and found wide application as a passenger-carrying vehicle, for military transport and in scientific exploration and survey work. The hover principle found other uses, such as for air-beds to relieve severely burned patients and for hover mowers.The development of the hovercraft has occupied Cockerell since then and he has been actively involved in the several companies set up to exploit the invention, including Hovercraft Development Ltd and British Hovercraft Corporation. In the 1970s and 1980s he took up the idea of the generation of electricity by wavepower; he was Founder of Wavepower Ltd, of which he was Chairman from 1974 to 1982.[br]Principal Honours find DistinctionsKnighted 1969. CBE 1955. FRS 1967.LRDBiographical history of technology > Cockerell, Christopher Sydney
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14 Maxim, Sir Hiram Stevens
[br]b. 5 February 1840 Brockway's Mills, Maine, USAd. 24 November 1916 Streatham, London, England[br]American (naturalized British) inventor; designer of the first fully automatic machine gun and of an experimental steam-powered aircraft.[br]Maxim was born the son of a pioneer farmer who later became a wood turner. Young Maxim was first apprenticed to a carriage maker and then embarked on a succession of jobs before joining his uncle in his engineering firm in Massachusetts in 1864. As a young man he gained a reputation as a boxer, but it was his uncle who first identified and encouraged Hiram's latent talent for invention.It was not, however, until 1878, when Maxim joined the first electric-light company to be established in the USA, as its Chief Engineer, that he began to make a name for himself. He developed an improved light filament and his electric pressure regulator not only won a prize at the first International Electrical Exhibition, held in Paris in 1881, but also resulted in his being made a Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur. While in Europe he was advised that weapons development was a more lucrative field than electricity; consequently, he moved to England and established a small laboratory at Hatton Garden, London. He began by investigating improvements to the Gatling gun in order to produce a weapon with a faster rate of fire and which was more accurate. In 1883, by adapting a Winchester carbine, he successfully produced a semi-automatic weapon, which used the recoil to cock the gun automatically after firing. The following year he took this concept a stage further and produced a fully automatic belt-fed weapon. The recoil drove barrel and breechblock to the vent. The barrel then halted, while the breechblock, now unlocked from the former, continued rearwards, extracting the spent case and recocking the firing mechanism. The return spring, which it had been compressing, then drove the breechblock forward again, chambering the next round, which had been fed from the belt, as it did so. Keeping the trigger pressed enabled the gun to continue firing until the belt was expended. The Maxim gun, as it became known, was adopted by almost every army within the decade, and was to remain in service for nearly fifty years. Maxim himself joined forces with the large British armaments firm of Vickers, and the Vickers machine gun, which served the British Army during two world wars, was merely a refined version of the Maxim gun.Maxim's interests continued to occupy several fields of technology, including flight. In 1891 he took out a patent for a steam-powered aeroplane fitted with a pendulous gyroscopic stabilizer which would maintain the pitch of the aeroplane at any desired inclination (basically, a simple autopilot). Maxim decided to test the relationship between power, thrust and lift before moving on to stability and control. He designed a lightweight steam-engine which developed 180 hp (135 kW) and drove a propeller measuring 17 ft 10 in. (5.44 m) in diameter. He fitted two of these engines into his huge flying machine testrig, which needed a wing span of 104 ft (31.7 m) to generate enough lift to overcome a total weight of 4 tons. The machine was not designed for free flight, but ran on one set of rails with a second set to prevent it rising more than about 2 ft (61 cm). At Baldwyn's Park in Kent on 31 July 1894 the huge machine, carrying Maxim and his crew, reached a speed of 42 mph (67.6 km/h) and lifted off its rails. Unfortunately, one of the restraining axles broke and the machine was extensively damaged. Although it was subsequently repaired and further trials carried out, these experiments were very expensive. Maxim eventually abandoned the flying machine and did not develop his idea for a stabilizer, turning instead to other projects. At the age of almost 70 he returned to the problems of flight and designed a biplane with a petrol engine: it was built in 1910 but never left the ground.In all, Maxim registered 122 US and 149 British patents on objects ranging from mousetraps to automatic spindles. Included among them was a 1901 patent for a foot-operated suction cleaner. In 1900 he became a British subject and he was knighted the following year. He remained a larger-than-life figure, both physically and in character, until the end of his life.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsChevalier de la Légion d'Honneur 1881. Knighted 1901.Bibliography1908, Natural and Artificial Flight, London. 1915, My Life, London: Methuen (autobiography).Further ReadingObituary, 1916, Engineer (1 December).Obituary, 1916, Engineering (1 December).P.F.Mottelay, 1920, The Life and Work of Sir Hiram Maxim, London and New York: John Lane.Dictionary of National Biography, 1912–1921, 1927, Oxford: Oxford University Press.See also: Pilcher, Percy SinclairCM / JDSBiographical history of technology > Maxim, Sir Hiram Stevens
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15 patent
ˈpeɪtənt
1. прил.
1) открытый;
доступный, беспрепятственный, свободный a patent entrance ≈ открытый вход, свободный вход Syn: unobstructed
2) очевидный, явный Syn: overt, evident, obvious
3) а) патентованный;
составляющий чью-л. собственность Syn: proprietary б) разг. собственного изобретения;
оригинальный, остроумный
2. сущ.
1) а) патент (тж. амер. patient right) ;
диплом б) ист. жалованная грамота;
индульгенция patent office ≈ бюро патентов
2) право( на что-л.), получаемое благодаря патенту;
исключительное право
3) знак, признак, печать( благородства, ума, гениальности и т.д.) His hand was in itself a patent of gentility. ≈ Его рука сама по себе была признаком знатного происхождения.
4) амер. пожалование земли правительством
3. also гл.
1) а) патентовать;
брать патент( на что-л.) He patented many different modes of carrying his invention into effect. ≈ Он запатентовал множество различных способов практического воплощения своего изобретения. б) перен. быть родоначальником (чего-л.), давать начало( чему-л.)
2) выдать патент( на что-л.)
3) метал. подвергнуть процедуре закалки (в свинцовой ванне) патент, диплом - consular * консульский патент - to drant a * предоставлять патент - to receive a * получать патент - the * runs out срок патента истекает (историческое) жалованная грамота;
привилегия знак, печать право, получаемое благодаря патенту;
исключительное право - a * for an invention право на изобретение запатентованный предмет, изобретение (американизм) пожалование земли правительством (американизм) документ о пожаловании земли правительством оригинальное решение;
метод явный, очевидный - * fact очевидный факт - * crime явное преступление - to have a * way of doing smth. иметь свою манеру - the advantages of the plan are * у этого плана явные преимущества патентованный - * food патентованные продукты - letters * жалованная грамота, патент запатентованный - a * lock запатентованный замок оригинальный, остроумный, новый;
собственного изобретения - * device оригинальное изобретение открытый - a verandah * to the sun открытая для солнца веранда - one extremity of the tube is sealed, the other is * один конец трубки запечатан, другой открыт (редкое) доступный, возможный (ботаника) раскрытый общеизвестный - it is * that cats dislike dogs не секрет, что кошки не любят собак общедоступный;
общественный высшего сорта (о муке) патентовать (что-либо) ;
брать патент (на что-либо) - he *ed many inventions он запатентовал много изобретений быть оригинальным, отличаться( чем-либо) - a style *ed by Conrad стиль, характеризующий Конрада (американизм) получать право на правительственную землю( редкое) жаловать additional ~ двойной патент Community ~ патент Европейского экономического сообщества file an application for a ~ подавать заявку на патент grant a ~ выдавать патент independent ~ независимый патент issue a ~ выдавать патент letters ~ патентная грамота letters ~ публично-правовой акт пожалования прав, жалованная грамота maintain a ~ сохранять патент в силе patent брать патент ~ жалованная грамота, публично-правовой акт пожалования прав ~ запатентованный ~ знак, печать (ума, гениальности) ~ общедоступный ~ общеизвестный ~ общественный ~ оригинальный ~ открытый, явный, очевидный ~ открытый;
доступный ~ очевидный ~ патент;
диплом;
ист. жалованная грамота ~ патент ~ патентный ~ патентованный ~ патентовать;
брать патент (на что-л.) ~ патентовать ~ амер. пожалование земли правительством ~ получать право на правительственную землю ~ право (на что-л.), получаемое благодаря патенту;
исключительное право ~ привилегированный ~ привилегия ~ публичный, публично-правовой ~ собственного изобретения ~ разг. собственного изобретения;
остроумный, оригинальный ~ явный, очевидный ~ явный ~ of addition дополнительный патент ~ office бюро патентов;
patent right амер. патент right: patent ~ патентное право process ~ патент на способ product ~ патент на изделие provisional ~ временный патент refuse a ~ отказывать в выдаче патента registered ~ (reg. pat.) зарегистрированный патент revoke a ~ аннулировать патент seal a ~ регистрировать патент seal a ~ скреплять патент печатью work a ~ использовать патент -
16 Harrison, John
[br]b. 24 March 1693 Foulby, Yorkshire, Englandd. 24 March 1776 London, England[br]English horologist who constructed the first timekeeper of sufficient accuracy to determine longitude at sea and invented the gridiron pendulum for temperature compensation.[br]John Harrison was the son of a carpenter and was brought up to that trade. He was largely self-taught and learned mechanics from a copy of Nicholas Saunderson's lectures that had been lent to him. With the assistance of his younger brother, James, he built a series of unconventional clocks, mainly of wood. He was always concerned to reduce friction, without using oil, and this influenced the design of his "grasshopper" escapement. He also invented the "gridiron" compensation pendulum, which depended on the differential expansion of brass and steel. The excellent performance of his regulator clocks, which incorporated these devices, convinced him that they could also be used in a sea dock to compete for the longitude prize. In 1714 the Government had offered a prize of £20,000 for a method of determining longitude at sea to within half a degree after a voyage to the West Indies. In theory the longitude could be found by carrying an accurate timepiece that would indicate the time at a known longitude, but the requirements of the Act were very exacting. The timepiece would have to have a cumulative error of no more than two minutes after a voyage lasting six weeks.In 1730 Harrison went to London with his proposal for a sea clock, supported by examples of his grasshopper escapement and his gridiron pendulum. His proposal received sufficient encouragement and financial support, from George Graham and others, to enable him to return to Barrow and construct his first sea clock, which he completed five years later. This was a large and complicated machine that was made out of brass but retained the wooden wheelwork and the grasshopper escapement of the regulator clocks. The two balances were interlinked to counteract the rolling of the vessel and were controlled by helical springs operating in tension. It was the first timepiece with a balance to have temperature compensation. The effect of temperature change on the timekeeping of a balance is more pronounced than it is for a pendulum, as two effects are involved: the change in the size of the balance; and the change in the elasticity of the balance spring. Harrison compensated for both effects by using a gridiron arrangement to alter the tension in the springs. This timekeeper performed creditably when it was tested on a voyage to Lisbon, and the Board of Longitude agreed to finance improved models. Harrison's second timekeeper dispensed with the use of wood and had the added refinement of a remontoire, but even before it was tested he had embarked on a third machine. The balance of this machine was controlled by a spiral spring whose effective length was altered by a bimetallic strip to compensate for changes in temperature. In 1753 Harrison commissioned a London watchmaker, John Jefferys, to make a watch for his own personal use, with a similar form of temperature compensation and a modified verge escapement that was intended to compensate for the lack of isochronism of the balance spring. The time-keeping of this watch was surprisingly good and Harrison proceeded to build a larger and more sophisticated version, with a remontoire. This timekeeper was completed in 1759 and its performance was so remarkable that Harrison decided to enter it for the longitude prize in place of his third machine. It was tested on two voyages to the West Indies and on both occasions it met the requirements of the Act, but the Board of Longitude withheld half the prize money until they had proof that the timekeeper could be duplicated. Copies were made by Harrison and by Larcum Kendall, but the Board still continued to prevaricate and Harrison received the full amount of the prize in 1773 only after George III had intervened on his behalf.Although Harrison had shown that it was possible to construct a timepiece of sufficient accuracy to determine longitude at sea, his solution was too complex and costly to be produced in quantity. It had, for example, taken Larcum Kendall two years to produce his copy of Harrison's fourth timekeeper, but Harrison had overcome the psychological barrier and opened the door for others to produce chronometers in quantity at an affordable price. This was achieved before the end of the century by Arnold and Earnshaw, but they used an entirely different design that owed more to Le Roy than it did to Harrison and which only retained Harrison's maintaining power.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsRoyal Society Copley Medal 1749.Bibliography1767, The Principles of Mr Harrison's Time-keeper, with Plates of the Same, London. 1767, Remarks on a Pamphlet Lately Published by the Rev. Mr Maskelyne Under theAuthority of the Board of Longitude, London.1775, A Description Concerning Such Mechanisms as Will Afford a Nice or True Mensuration of Time, London.Further ReadingR.T.Gould, 1923, The Marine Chronometer: Its History and Development, London; reprinted 1960, Holland Press.—1978, John Harrison and His Timekeepers, 4th edn, London: National Maritime Museum.H.Quill, 1966, John Harrison, the Man who Found Longitude, London. A.G.Randall, 1989, "The technology of John Harrison's portable timekeepers", Antiquarian Horology 18:145–60, 261–77.J.Betts, 1993, John Harrison London (a good short account of Harrison's work). S.Smiles, 1905, Men of Invention and Industry; London: John Murray, Chapter III. Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. IX, pp. 35–6.DV -
17 Adams, William Bridges
[br]b. 1797 Madeley, Staffordshire, Englandd. 23 July 1872 Broadstairs, Kent, England[br]English inventory particularly of road and rail vehicles and their equipment.[br]Ill health forced Adams to live abroad when he was a young man and when he returned to England in the early 1830s he became a partner in his father's firm of coachbuilders. Coaches during that period were steered by a centrally pivoted front axle, which meant that the front wheels had to swing beneath the body and were therefore made smaller than the rear wheels. Adams considered this design defective and invented equirotal coaches, built by his firm, in which the front and rear wheels were of equal diameter and the coach body was articulated midway along its length so that the front part pivoted. He also applied himself to improving vehicles for railways, which were developing rapidly then.In 1843 he opened his own engineering works, Fairfield Works in north London (he was not related to his contemporary William Adams, who was appointed Locomotive Superintendent to the North London Railway in 1854). In 1847 he and James Samuel, Engineer to the Eastern Counties Railway, built for that line a small steam inspection car, the Express, which was light enough to be lifted off the track. The following year Adams built a broad-gauge steam railcar, the Fairfield, for the Bristol \& Exeter Railway at the insistance of the line's Engineer, C.H.Gregory: self-propelled and passenger-carrying, this was the first railcar. Adams developed the concept further into a light locomotive that could haul two or three separate carriages, and light locomotives built both by his own firm and by other noted builders came into vogue for a decade or more.In 1847 Adams also built eight-wheeled coaches for the Eastern Counties Railway that were larger and more spacious than most others of the day: each in effect comprised two four-wheeled coaches articulated together, with wheels that were allowed limited side-play. He also realized the necessity for improvements to railway track, the weakest point of which was the joints between the rails, whose adjoining ends were normally held in common chairs. Adams invented the fishplated joint, first used by the Eastern Counties Railway in 1849 and subsequently used almost universally.Adams was a prolific inventor. Most important of his later inventions was the radial axle, which was first applied to the leading and trailing wheels of a 2–4–2 tank engine, the White Raven, built in 1863; Adams's radial axle was the forerunner of all later radial axles. However, the sprung tyres with which White Raven was also fitted (an elastic steel hoop was interposed between wheel centre and tyre) were not perpetuated. His inventiveness was not restricted to engineering: in matters of dress, his adoption, perhaps invention, of the turn-down collar at a time when men conventionally wore standup collars had lasting effect.[br]BibliographyAdams took out some thirty five British patents, including one for the fishplate in 1847. He wrote copiously, as journalist and author: his most important book was English Pleasure Carriages (1837), a detailed description of coachbuilding, together with ideas for railway vehicles and track. The 1971 reprint (Bath: Adams \& Dart) has a biographical introduction by Jack Simmons.Further ReadingC.Hamilton Ellis, 1958, Twenty Locomotive Men, Shepperton: Ian Allan, Ch. 1. See also England, George.PJGR -
18 Applegath, Augustus
SUBJECT AREA: Paper and printing[br]fl. 1816–58 London, England[br]English printer and manufacturer of printing machinery.[br]After Koenig and Bauer had introduced the machine printing-press and returned to Germany, it fell to Applegath and his mechanic brother-in-law Edward Cooper to effect improvements. In particular, Applegath succeeded Koenig and Bauer as machine specialist to The Times newspaper, then in the vanguard of printing technology.Applegath and Cooper first came into prominence when the Bank of England began to seek ways of reducing the number of forged banknotes. In 1816 Cooper patented a device for printing banknotes from curved stereotypes fixed to a cylinder. These were inked and printed by the rotary method. Although Applegath and Cooper were granted money to develop their invention, the Bank did not pursue it. The idea of rotary printing was interesting, but it was not followed up, possibly due to lack of demand.Applegath and Cooper were then engaged by John Walter of The Times to remedy defects in Koenig and Bauer's presses; in 1818 Cooper patented an improved method of inking the forme and Applegath also took out patents for improvements. In 1821 Applegath had enough experience of these presses to set up as a manufacturer of printing machinery in premises in Duke Street, Blackfriars, in London. Increases in the size and circulation of The Times led Walter to ask Applegath to build a faster press. In 1827 he produced a machine with the capacity of four presses, his steam-driven four-feeder press.Its flat form carrying the type passed under four impression cylinders in a row. It could make 4,200 impressions an hour and sufficed to print The Times for twenty years, until it was superseded by the rotary press devised by Hoe. By 1826, however, Applegath was in financial difficulties; he sold his Duke Street workshop to William Clowes, a book printer. In the following year he gave up being a full-time manufacturer of printing machinery and turned to silk printing. In 1830 he patented a machine for printing rolls of calico and silk from bent intaglio plates.In 1848 Applegath was persuaded by The Times to return to newspaper printing. He tackled rotary printing without the benefit of curved printing plates and roll paper feed, and he devised a large "type revolving" machine which set the pattern for newspaper printing-presses for some twenty years.[br]Further ReadingJ.Moran, 1973, Printing Presses, London: Faber \& Faber.LRD -
19 Napier, David
SUBJECT AREA: Paper and printing[br]b. 1785 Scotlandd. 1873[br]Scottish engineer who devised printing machinery incorporating important improvements.[br]Born in Scotland, Napier moved to London to set up an engineering workshop in St Giles. In 1824 he was commissioned by Thomas Curson Hansard (1776–1833), who from 1803 began printing the debates in the Houses of Parliament, to make a perfecting press, i.e. one that printed on both sides of the paper. Known as the NayPeer, it was the first to incorporate grippers in order to improve register (the correct positioning of the paper on the inked type); the grippers took hold of a sheet of paper as it was fed on to the impression cylinder. Napier made several machines for Hansard, hand-powered at first but steam-powered from 1832. Napier did not patent the Nay-Peer, but in 1828 he took out a patent for a four-feeder press with a single impression cylinder, which had the then-usual "stop and start" action while the bed carrying the inked type passed to and fro beneath it. To speed output, two years later Napier patented a press with two cylinders revolving in the same direction in place of the single-stop cylinder. Also in 1830, the firm of Napier and Son introduced an improved form of bed and platen press, which became the most popular of its kind; one remained in use at Oxford University Press into the twentieth century. Another invention of Napier's, in 1825, was an automatic inking device, with which turning the rounce or mechanism for moving the type bed under the platen activated inking rollers working on the type. Napier is credited with being the first to introduce the printing machine to Ireland, for the Dublin Evening Post. His cylinder machine was the first of its kind in North America, where it was seen by Hoe and others.[br]Further ReadingJ.Moran, 1973, PrintingPresses, London: Faber \& Faber (contains details of Napier's printing machines).LRD -
20 Breguet, Louis
SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace[br]b. 2 January 1880 Paris, Franced. 4 May 1955 Paris, France[br]French aviation pioneer who built a helicopter in 1907 and designed many successful aircraft.[br]The Breguet family had been manufacturing fine clocks since before the French Revolution, but Louis Breguet and his brother Jacques used their mechanical skills to produce a helicopter, or "gyroplane" as they named it. It was a complex machine with four biplane rotors (i.e. thirty-two lifting surfaces). Louis Breguet had carried out many tests to determine the most suitable rotor design. The Breguet brothers were assisted by Professor Charles Richet and the Breguet-Richet No. 1 was tested in September 1907 when it succeeded in lifting itself, and its pilot, to a height of 1.5 metres. Unfortunately, the gyroplane was rather unstable and four helpers had to steady it; consequently, the flight did not qualify as a "free" flight. This was achieved two months later, also in France, by Paul Cornu who made a 20-second free flight.Louis Breguet turned his attention to aeroplane design and produced a tractor biplane when most other biplanes followed the Wright brothers' layout with a forward elevator and pusher propeller. The Breguet I made quite an impression at the 1909 Reims meeting, but the Breguet IV created a world record the following year by carrying six people. During the First World War the Breguet Type 14 bomber was widely used by French and American squadrons. Between the First and Second World Wars a wide variety of designs were produced, including flying boats and another helicopter, the Breguet- Dorand Gyroplane which flew for over one hour in 1936. The Breguet company survived World War II and in the late 1940s developed a successful four-engined airliner/transport, the Deux-Ponts, which had a bulbous double-deck fuselage.Breguet was an innovative designer, although his designs were functional rather than elegant. He was an early advocate of metal construction and developed an oleo- (oil-spring) undercarriage leg.[br]Bibliography1925, Le Vol à voile dynamique des oiseaux. Analyse des effets des pulsations du vent sur la résultante aérodynamique moyenne d'un planeur, Paris.Further ReadingP.Faure, 1938, Louis Breguet, Paris (biography).C.H.Gibbs-Smith, 1965, The Invention of the Aeroplane 1799–1909, London (provides a careful analysis of Breguet's early aircraft).JDS
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