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81 Heald, James Nichols
SUBJECT AREA: Mechanical, pneumatic and hydraulic engineering[br]b. 21 September 1864 Barre, Massachusetts, USAd. 7 May 1931 Worcester, Massachusetts, USA[br]American mechanical engineer and machine-tool manufacturer who concentrated on grinding machines.[br]James N.Heald was the son of Leander S.Heald and was educated at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute, graduating with the degree of Bachelor of Science in 1884. He then joined the firm that had been established by his grandfather, Stephen Heald, in 1826; this was a machine shop and foundry then known as S.Heald \& Son. When his grandfather died in 1888, James Heald took over the management of the business, which then became known as L.S.Heald \& Son. He concentrated on the manufacture of grinding machines and in 1903 bought out his father's interest and organized the Heald Machine Company. James Heald then began the development of a series of grinding machines designed to meet the needs of the expanding automobile industry. Special machines were produced for grinding piston rings making use of the recently invented magnetic chuck, and for cylinder bores he introduced the planetary grinder. Heald was a member of the National Machine Tool Builders' Association and served as its Treasurer and on its Board of Directors. He was elected a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1917 and was also a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers.[br]Further ReadingRobert S.Woodbury, 1959, History of the Grinding Machine, Cambridge, Mass (describes his grinding machines).L.T.C.Rolt, 1965, Tools for the Job, London; repub. 1986 (describes his grinding machines).RTS -
82 Howden, James
SUBJECT AREA: Steam and internal combustion engines[br]b. 29 February 1832 Prestonpans, East Lothian, Scotlandd. 21 November 1913 Glasgow, Scotland[br]Scottish engineer and boilermaker, inventor of the forced-draught system for the boiler combustion chamber.[br]Howden was educated in Prestonpans. While aged only 14 or 15, he travelled across Scotland by canal to Glasgow, where he served an engineering apprenticeship with James Gray \& Co. In 1853 he completed his time and for some months served with the civil engineers Bell and Miller, and then with Robert Griffiths, a designer of screw propellers for ships. In 1854, at the age of 22, Howden set up as a consulting engineer and designer. He designed a rivet-making machine from which he realized a fair sum by the sale of patent rights, this assisting him in converting the design business into a manufacturing one. His first contract for a marine engine came in 1859 for the compound steam engine and the watertube boilers of the Anchor Liner Ailsa Craig. This ship operated at 100 psi (approximately 7 kg/cm2), well above the norm for those days. James Howden \& Co. was formed in 1862. Despite operating in the world's most competitive market, the new company remained prosperous through the flow of inventions in marine propulsion. Shipbuilding was added to the company's list of services, but such work was subcontracted. Work was obtained from all the great shipping companies building in the Glasgow region, and with such throughput Howden's could afford research and experimentation. This led to the Howden hot-air forced-draught system, whereby furnace waste gases were used to heat the air being drawn into the combustion chambers. The first installation was on the New York City, built in 1885 for West Indian service. Howden's fertile mind brought about a fully enclosed high-speed marine steam engine in the 1900s and, shortly after, the Howden-Zoelly impulse steam turbine for land operation. Until his death, Howden worked on many technical and business problems: he was involved in the St Helena Whaling Company, marble quarrying in Greece and in the design of a recoilless gun for the Admiralty.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsHowden was the last surviving member of the group who founded the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland in 1857.BibliographyHowden contributed several papers to the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland.Further ReadingC.W.Munn, 1986, "James Howden", Dictionary of Scottish Business Biography, Vol. I, Aberdeen.FMW -
83 Caird, Sir James
SUBJECT AREA: Ports and shipping[br]b. 2 January 1864 Glasgow, Scotlandd. 27 September 1954 Wimbledon, London, England[br]Scottish shipowner and shipbuilder.[br]James Caird was educated at Glasgow Academy. While the connections are difficult to unravel, it is clear he was related to the Cairds of Greenock, whose shipyard on the Clyde built countless liners for the P \& O Company, and to the Caird family who were munificent benefactors of Dundee and the Church of Scotland.In 1878 Caird joined a firm of East India Merchants in Glasgow, but later went to London. In 1890 he entered the service of Turnbull, Martin \& Co., managers of the Scottish Shire Line of Steamers; he quickly rose to become Manager, and by 1903 he was the sole partner and owner. In this role his business skill became apparent, as he pioneered (along with the Houlder and Federal Lines) refrigerated shipping connections between the United Kingdom and Australia and New Zealand. In 1917 he sold his shipping interests to Messrs Cayzer Irvine, managers of the Clan Line.During the First World War, Caird set up a new shipyard on the River Wye at Chepstow in Wales. Registered in April 1916, the Standard Shipbuilding and Engineering Company took over an existing shipbuilder in an area not threatened by enemy attacks. The purpose of the yard was rapid building of standardized merchant ships during a period when heavy losses were being sustained because of German U-boat attacks. Caird was appointed Chairman, a post he held until the yard came under full government control later in the war. The shipyard did not meet the high expectations of the time, but it did pioneer standard shipbuilding which was later successful in the USA, the UK and Japan.Caird's greatest work may have been the service he gave to the councils which helped form the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich. He used all his endeavours to ensure the successful launch of the world's greatest maritime museum; he persuaded friends to donate, the Government to transfer artefacts and records, and he gave of his wealth to purchase works of art for the nation. Prior to his death he endowed the Museum with £1.25 million, a massive sum for the 1930s, and this (the Caird Fund) is administered to this day by the Trustees of Greenwich.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsBaronet 1928 (with the title Sir James Caird of Glenfarquhar).Further ReadingFrank C.Bowen, 1950, "The Chepstow Yards and a costly venture in government shipbuilding", Shipbuilding and Shipping Record (14 December).FMW -
84 Fox, James
SUBJECT AREA: Mechanical, pneumatic and hydraulic engineering[br]b. c.1760d. 1835 Derby, England[br]English machine-tool builder.[br]Very little is known about the life of James Fox, but according to Samuel Smiles (1863) he was as a young man a butler in the service of the Reverend Thomas Gisborne of Foxhall Lodge, Staffordshire. His mechanical abilities were evident from his spare-time activities in the handling of tools and so impressed his employer that he supplied the capital to enable Fox to set up a business in Derby for the manufacture of machinery for the textile and lacemaking industries. To construct this machinery, Fox had to build his own machine tools and later, in the early nineteenth century, made them for sale, some being exported to France, Germany and Poland. He was renowned for his lathes, some of which were quite large; one built in 1830 has been preserved and is 22 ft (6.7 m) long with a swing of 27 in. (69 cm). He was responsible for many improve-ments in the design of the lathe and he also built some of the earliest planing machines (the first, it has been claimed, as early as 1814) and a gear-cutting machine, although this was apparently for cutting wooden patterns for cast gears. The business was continued by his sons Joseph and James (who died in 1859 aged 69) and into the 1860s by the sons of Joseph.[br]Further ReadingS.Smiles, 1863, Industrial Biography, London, reprinted 1967, Newton Abbot (makes brief mention of Fox).Letters relating to the invention of the planing machine can be found in Engineer 14 (1862): 189, 204, 219, 246 and 247.His lathes are described in: R.S.Woodbury, 1961, History of the Lathe to 1850, Cleveland, Ohio; L.T.C.Rolt, 1965, Tools for the Job, London; repub. 1986; W.Steeds, 1969, A History of Machine Tools 1700–1910, Oxford.RTS -
85 Guest, James John
SUBJECT AREA: Mechanical, pneumatic and hydraulic engineering[br]b. 24 July 1866 Handsworth, Birmingham, Englandd. 11 June 1956 Virginia Water, Surrey, England[br]English mechanical engineer, engineering teacher and researcher.[br]James John Guest was educated at Marlborough in 1880–4 and at Trinity College, Cambridge, graduating as fifth wrangler in 1888. He received practical training in several workshops and spent two years in postgraduate work at the Engineering Department of Cambridge University. After working as a draughtsman in the machine-tool, hydraulic and crane departments of Tangyes Ltd at Birmingham, he was appointed in 1896 Assistant Professor of Engineering at McGill University in Canada. After a short time he moved to the Polytechnic Institute at Worcester, Massachusetts, where he was for three years Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Head of the Engineering Department. In 1899 he returned to Britain and set up as a consulting engineer in Birmingham, being a partner in James J.Guest \& Co. For the next fifteen years he combined this work with research on grinding phenomena. He also developed a theory of grinding which he first published in a paper at the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1914 and elaborated in a paper to the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and in his book Grinding Machinery (1915). During the First World War, in 1916–17, he was in charge of inspection in the Staffordshire and Shropshire Area, Ministry of Munitions. In 1917 he returned to teaching as Reader in Graphics and Structural Engineering at University College London. His final appointment was about 1923 as Professor of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Artillery College, Woolwich, which later became the Military College of Science.He carried out research on the strength of materials and contributed many articles on the subject to the technical press. He originated Guest's Law for a criterion of failure of materials under combined stresses, first published in 1900. He was a Member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1900–6 and from 1919 and contributed to their proceedings in many discussions and two major papers.[br]BibliographyOf many publications by Guest, the most important are: 1900, "Ductile materials under combined stress", Proceedings of the Physical Society 17:202.1915, Grinding Machinery, London.1915, "Theory of grinding, with reference to the selection of speeds in plain and internal work", Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers 89:543.1917. "Torsional hysteresis of mild steel", Proceedings of the Royal Society A93:313.1918. with F.C.Lea, "Curved beams", Proceedings of the Royal Society A95:1. 1930, "Effects of rapidly acting stress", Proceedings of the Institution of MechanicalEngineers 119:1,273.RTS -
86 Lind, James
SUBJECT AREA: Medical technology[br]b. 1716 Edinburgh, Scotlandd. 13 July 1794 Gosport, England[br]Scottish physician and naval surgeon whose studies and investigations led to significant improvements in the living conditions on board ships; the author of the first treatise on the nature and prevention of scurvy.[br]Lind was registered in 1731 as an apprentice at the College of Surgeons in Edinburgh. By 1739 he was serving as a naval surgeon in the Mediterranean and during the ensuing decade he experienced conditions at sea off Guinea, the West Indies and in home waters. He returned to Edinburgh, taking his MD in 1748, and in 1750 was elected a Fellow of the College of Physicians of Edinburgh, becoming the Treasurer in 1757. In 1758 he was appointed Physician to the Naval Hospital at Haslar, Gosport, near Portsmouth, a post which he retained until his death.He had been particularly struck by the devastating consequences of scurvy during Anson's circumnavigation of the globe in 1740. At least 75 per cent of the crews had been affected (though it should be borne in mind that a considerable number of them were pensioners and invalids when posted aboard). Coupled with his own experiences, this led to the publication of A Treatise on the Scurvy, in 1754. Demonstrating that this condition accounted for many more deaths than from all the engagements with the French and Spanish in the current wars, he made it clear that by appropriate measures of diet and hygiene the disease could be entirely eliminated.Further editions of the treatise were published in 1757 and 1775, and the immense importance of his observations was immediately recognized. None the less, it was not until 1795 that an Admiralty order was issued on the supply of lime juice to ships. The efficacy of lime juice had been known for centuries, but it was Lind's observations that led to action, however tardy; that for economic reasons the relatively ineffective West Indian lime juice was supplied was in no way his responsibility. It is of interest that there is no evidence that Captain James Cook (1728–79) had any knowledge of Lind's work when arranging his own anti-scorbutic precautions in preparation for his historic first voyage.Lind's other work included observations on typhus, the proper ventilation of ships at sea, and the distilation of fresh from salt water.[br]Bibliography1754, A Treatise on the Scurvy, Edinburgh.1757, An Essay on the most effectual means of Preserving the Health of Seamen in the Royal Navy, Edinburgh.1767, An Essay on Diseases incidental to Europeans in Hot Climates, Edinburgh.Further ReadingL.Roddis, 1951, James Lind—Founder of Nautical Medicine. Records of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons of Edinburgh. Records of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.MG -
87 Maxwell, James Clerk
[br]b. 13 June 1831 Edinburgh, Scotlandd. 5 November 1879 Cambridge, England[br]Scottish physicist who formulated the unified theory of electromagnetism, the kinetic theory of gases and a theory of colour.[br]Maxwell attended school at the Edinburgh Academy and at the age of 16 went on to study at Edinburgh University. In 1850 he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated four years later as Second Wrangler with the award of the Smith's Prize. Two years later he was appointed Professor at Marischal College, Aberdeen, where he married the Principal's daughter. In 1860 he moved to King's College London, but on the death of his father five years later, Maxwell returned to the family home in Scotland, where he continued his researches as far as the life of a gentleman farmer allowed. This rural existence was interrupted in 1874 when he was persuaded to accept the chair of Cavendish Professor of Experimental Physics at Cambridge. Unfortunately, in 1879 he contracted the cancer that brought his brilliant career to an untimely end. While at Cambridge, Maxwell founded the Cavendish Laboratory for research in physics. A succession of distinguished physicists headed the laboratory, making it one of the world's great centres for notable discoveries in physics.During the mid-1850s, Maxwell worked towards a theory to explain electrical and magnetic phenomena in mathematical terms, culminating in 1864 with the formulation of the fundamental equations of electromagnetism (Maxwell's equations). These equations also described the propagation of light, for he had shown that light consists of transverse electromagnetic waves in a hypothetical medium, the "ether". This great synthesis of theories uniting a wide range of phenomena is worthy to set beside those of Sir Isaac Newton and Einstein. Like all such syntheses, it led on to further discoveries. Maxwell himself had suggested that light represented only a small part of the spectrum of electromagnetic waves, and in 1888 Hertz confirmed the discovery of another small part of the spectrum, radio waves, with momentous implications for the development of telecommunication technology. Maxwell contributed to the kinetic theory of gases, which by then were viewed as consisting of a mass of randomly moving molecules colliding with each other and with the walls of the containing vessel. From 1869 Maxwell applied statistical methods to describe the molecular motion in mathematical terms. This led to a greater understanding of the behaviour of gases, with important consequences for the chemical industry.Of more direct technological application was Maxwell's work on colour vision, begun in 1849, showing that all colours could be derived from the three primary colours, red, yellow and blue. This enabled him in 1861 to produce the first colour photograph, of a tartan. Maxwell's discoveries about colour vision were quickly taken up and led to the development of colour printing and photography.[br]BibliographyMost of his technical papers are reprinted in The Scientific Papers of J.Clerk Maxwell, 1890, ed. W.D.Niven, Cambridge, 2 vols; reprinted 1952, New York.Maxwell published several books, including Theory of Heat, 1870, London (1894, 11th edn, with notes by Lord Rayleigh) and Theory of Electricity and Magnetism, 1873, Oxford (1891, ed. J.J.Thomson, 3rd edn).Further ReadingL.Campbell and W.Garnett, 1882, The Life of James Clerk Maxwell, London (the standard biography).J.J.Thomson (ed.), 1931, James Clerk Maxwell 1831–1931, Cambridge. J.G.Crowther, 1932, British Scientists of the Nineteenth Century, London.LRD -
88 Pickard, James
SUBJECT AREA: Steam and internal combustion engines[br]fl. c. 1780 Birmingham, England[br]English patentee of the application of the crank to steam engines.[br]James Pickard, the Birmingham button maker, also owned a flour mill at Snow Hill, in 1780, where Matthew Wasborough installed one of his rotative engines with ratchet gear and a flywheel. In August 1780, Pickard obtained a patent (no. 1263) for an application to make a rotative engine with a crank as well as gearwheels, one of which was weighted to help return the piston in the atmospheric cylinder during the dead stroke and overcome the dead centres of the crank. Wasborough's flywheel made the counterweight unnecessary, and engines were built with this and Pickard's crank. Several Birmingham business people seem to have been involved in the patent, and William Chapman of Newcastle upon Tyne was assigned the sole rights of erecting engines on the Wasborough-Pickard system in the counties of Northumberland, Durham and York. Wasborough was building engines in the south until his death the following year. The patentees tried to bargain with Boulton \& Watt to exchange the use of the crank for that of the separate condenser, but Boulton \& Watt would not agree, probably because James Watt claimed that one of his workers had stolen the idea of the crank and divulged it to Pickard. To avoid infringing Pickard's patent, Watt patented his sun-and-planet motion for his rotative engines.[br]BibliographyAugust 1780, British patent no. 1,263 (rotative engine with crank and gearwheels).Further ReadingJ.Farey, 1827, A Treatise on the Steam Engine, Historical, Practical and Descriptive, reprinted 1971, Newton Abbot: David \& Charles (contains an account of Pickard's crank). R.L.Hills, 1989, Power from Steam. A History of the Stationary Steam Engine, Cambridge University Press (provides an account of Pickard's crank).R.A.Buchanan, 1978–9, "Steam and the engineering community in the eighteenth century", Transactions of the Newcomen Society 50 ("Thomas Newcomen. A commemorative symposium") (provides details about the development of his engine).RLH -
89 Riley, James
SUBJECT AREA: Metallurgy[br]b. 1840 Halifax, Englandd. 15 July 1910 Harrogate, England[br]English steelmaker who promoted the manufacture of low-carbon bulk steel by the open-hearth process for tin plate and shipbuilding; pioneer of nickel steels.[br]After working as a millwright in Halifax, Riley found employment at the Ormesby Ironworks in Middlesbrough until, in 1869, he became manager of the Askam Ironworks in Cumberland. Three years later, in 1872, he was appointed Blast-furnace Manager at the pioneering Siemens Steel Company's works at Landore, near Swansea in South Wales. Using Spanish ore, he produced the manganese-rich iron (spiegeleisen) required as an additive to make satisfactory steel. Riley was promoted in 1874 to be General Manager at Landore, and he worked with William Siemens to develop the use of the latter's regenerative furnace for the production of open-hearth steel. He persuaded Welsh makers of tin plate to use sheets rolled from lowcarbon (mild) steel instead of from charcoal iron and, partly by publishing some test results, he was instrumental in influencing the Admiralty to build two naval vessels of mild steel, the Mercury and the Iris.In 1878 Riley moved north on his appointment as General Manager of the Steel Company of Scotland, a firm closely associated with Charles Tennant that was formed in 1872 to make steel by the Siemens process. Already by 1878, fourteen Siemens melting furnaces had been erected, and in that year 42,000 long tons of ingots were produced at the company's Hallside (Newton) Works, situated 8 km (5 miles) south-east of Glasgow. Under Riley's leadership, steelmaking in open-hearth furnaces was initiated at a second plant situated at Blochairn. Plates and sections for all aspects of shipbuilding, including boilers, formed the main products; the company also supplied the greater part of the steel for the Forth (Railway) Bridge. Riley was associated with technical modifications which improved the performance of steelmaking furnaces using Siemens's principles. He built a gasfired cupola for melting pig-iron, and constructed the first British "universal" plate mill using three-high rolls (Lauth mill).At the request of French interests, Riley investigated the properties of steels containing various proportions of nickel; the report that he read before the Iron and Steel Institute in 1889 successfully brought to the notice of potential users the greatly enhanced strength that nickel could impart and its ability to yield alloys possessing substantially lower corrodibility.The Steel Company of Scotland paid dividends in the years to 1890, but then came a lean period. In 1895, at the age of 54, Riley moved once more to another employer, becoming General Manager of the Glasgow Iron and Steel Company, which had just laid out a new steelmaking plant at Wishaw, 25 km (15 miles) south-east of Glasgow, where it already had blast furnaces. Still the technical innovator, in 1900 Riley presented an account of his experiences in introducing molten blast-furnace metal as feed for the open-hearth steel furnaces. In the early 1890s it was largely through Riley's efforts that a West of Scotland Board of Conciliation and Arbitration for the Manufactured Steel Trade came into being; he was its first Chairman and then its President.In 1899 James Riley resigned from his Scottish employment to move back to his native Yorkshire, where he became his own master by acquiring the small Richmond Ironworks situated at Stockton-on-Tees. Although Riley's 1900 account to the Iron and Steel Institute was the last of the many of which he was author, he continued to contribute to the discussion of papers written by others.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsPresident, West of Scotland Iron and Steel Institute 1893–5. Vice-President, Iron and Steel Institute, 1893–1910. Iron and Steel Institute (London) Bessemer Gold Medal 1887.Bibliography1876, "On steel for shipbuilding as supplied to the Royal Navy", Transactions of the Institute of Naval Architects 17:135–55.1884, "On recent improvements in the method of manufacture of open-hearth steel", Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute 2:43–52 plus plates 27–31.1887, "Some investigations as to the effects of different methods of treatment of mild steel in the manufacture of plates", Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute 1:121–30 (plus sheets II and III and plates XI and XII).27 February 1888, "Improvements in basichearth steel making furnaces", British patent no. 2,896.27 February 1888, "Improvements in regenerative furnaces for steel-making and analogous operations", British patent no. 2,899.1889, "Alloys of nickel and steel", Journal of the Iron and Steel Institute 1:45–55.Further ReadingA.Slaven, 1986, "James Riley", in Dictionary of Scottish Business Biography 1860–1960, Volume 1: The Staple Industries (ed. A.Slaven and S. Checkland), Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 136–8."Men you know", The Bailie (Glasgow) 23 January 1884, series no. 588 (a brief biography, with portrait).J.C.Carr and W.Taplin, 1962, History of the British Steel Industry, Harvard University Press (contains an excellent summary of salient events).JKA -
90 Whatman, James
SUBJECT AREA: Paper and printing[br]baptized 4 October 1702 Loose, near Maidstone, Kent, Englandd. 29 June 1759 Loose, near Maidstone, Kent, England[br]English papermaker, inventor of wove paper.[br]The Whatman family had been established in Kent in the fifteenth century. At the time of his marriage in 1740, Whatman was described as a tanner. His wife was the widow of Richard Harris, papermaker, and, by the marriage settlement, he with his wife became joint tenants of Turkey Mill, near Maidstone. The mill had been used for fulling since the Middle Ages, but towards the end of the seventeenth century it had been converted to papermaking. Remarkably quickly, Whatman became one of the leading papermakers in England, doubtless helped by the shortage of imported paper that resulted from the Spanish Succession War of the 1740s. By the time of his death, his mill had the largest output in England, with a reputation for good-quality writing paper.According to his son's account much later, Whatman introduced wove paper, made in a wove wire gauze mould, in 1756. It gave a smoother paper with a more even surface, and was probably made at the suggestion of the celebrated printer and type founder John Baskerville. Whatman printed a book in 1757 on paper with an even texture but with laid lines still discernible, indicating that at first the wire gauze was placed in a conventional wire mould. In a book printed by Baskerville two years later, these lines are no longer visible, so a wire gauze mould was in use by then.After Whatman's death, Turkey Mill was managed by his widow for three years, until his son James (1741–98) was old enough to take charge. Under the management of the son, the mill maintained the scale and quality of its output, and in 1769 it was described as the largest paper mill in England where the best writing paper was made.[br]Further ReadingT.Balston, 1957, James Whatman, Father and Son, London: Methuen.LRD -
91 il a un faux air de James Dean
Dictionnaire Français-Anglais > il a un faux air de James Dean
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92 Bogardus, James
SUBJECT AREA: Architecture and building[br]b. 14 March 1800 Catskill, New York, USAd. 13 April 1874 New York, New York, USA[br]American constructor of the first buildings composed entirely of cast iron, and inventor of engraving and die-sinking machinery.[br]James Bogardus was neither architect nor engineer but he manufactured iron grinding machinery and was known especially for inventing his engraving and die-sinking machinery. He completed his first iron-fronted building in 1848, the five-storeyed chemist shop of John Milhau at 183 Broadway in New York City, but the building for which he is best known was the slightly later example (begun in 1848) that was created as a factory for his own use. This four-storeyed structure was in Center Street, New York City, and its exterior consisted entirely of cast-iron piers and lintels. He went on to build other iron structures around the middle of the century, and these early examples were both functional and attractive, with their simple classical columns and plain architraves contrasting with the heavier and richer ornamentation of such buildings in the second half of the century.[br]Further ReadingH.Russell-Hitchcock, 1958, Architecture: Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Penguin, Pelican History of Art series (section on "Building with Iron and Glass").D.Yarwood, 1985, Encyclopaedia of Architecture, Batsford (section on "Ironwork").DY -
93 Brindley, James
SUBJECT AREA: Canals[br]b. 1716 Tunstead, Derbyshire, Englandd. 27 September 1772 Turnhurst, Staffordshire, England[br]English canal engineer.[br]Born in a remote area and with no material advantages, Brindley followed casual rural labouring occupations until 1733, when he became apprenticed to Abraham Bennett of Macclesfield, a wheelwright and millwright. Though lacking basic education in reading and writing, he demonstrated his ability, partly through his photographic memory, to solve practical problems. This established his reputation, and after Bennett's death in 1742 he set up his own business at Leek as a millwright. His skill led to an invitation to solve the problem of mine drainage at Wet Earth Colliery, Clifton, near Manchester. He tunnelled 600 ft (183 m) through rock to provide a leat for driving a water-powered pump.Following work done on a pump on Earl Gower's estate at Trentham, Brindley's name was suggested as the engineer for the proposed canal for which the Duke of Bridge water (Francis Egerton) had obtained an Act in 1759. The Earl and the Duke were brothers-in-law, and the agents for the two estates were, in turn, the Gilbert brothers. The canal, later known as the Bridgewater Canal, was to be constructed to carry coal from the Duke's mines at Worsley into Manchester. Brindley advised on the details of its construction and recommended that it be carried across the river Irwell at Barton by means of an aqueduct. His proposals were accepted, and under his supervision the canal was constructed on a single level and opened in 1761. Brindley had also surveyed for Earl Gower a canal from the Potteries to Liverpool to carry pottery for export, and the signal success of the Bridgewater Canal ensured that the Trent and Mersey Canal would also be built. These undertakings were the start of Brindley's career as a canal engineer, and it was largely from his concepts that the canal system of the Midlands developed, following the natural contours rather than making cuttings and constructing large embankments. His canals are thus winding navigations unlike the later straight waterways, which were much easier to traverse. He also adopted the 7 ft (2.13 m) wide lock as a ruling dimension for all engineering features. For cheapness, he formed his canal tunnels without a towpath, which led to the notorious practice of legging the boats through the tunnels.Brindley surveyed a large number of projects and such was his reputation that virtually every proposal was submitted to him for his opinion. Included among these projects were the Staffordshire and Worcestershire, the Rochdale, the Birmingham network, the Droitwich, the Coventry and the Oxford canals. Although he was nominally in charge of each contract, much of the work was carried out by his assistants while he rushed from one undertaking to another to ensure that his orders were being carried out. He was nearly 50 when he married Anne Henshall, whose brother was also a canal engineer. His fees and salaries had made him very wealthy. He died in 1772 from a chill sustained when carrying out a survey of the Caldon Canal.[br]Further ReadingA.G.Banks and R.B.Schofield, 1968, Brindley at Wet Earth Colliery: An Engineering Study, Newton Abbot: David \& Charles.S.E.Buckley, 1948, James Brindley, London: Harrap.JHB -
94 Ewing, Sir James Alfred
SUBJECT AREA: Mechanical, pneumatic and hydraulic engineering[br]b. 27 March 1855 Dundee, Scotlandd. 1935[br]Scottish engineer and educator.[br]Sir Alfred Ewing was one of the leading engineering academics of his generation. He was the son of a minister in the Free Church of Scotland, and was educated at Dundee High School and Edinburgh University, where he studied engineering under Professor Fleeming Jenkin. On Jenkin's nomination, Ewing was recruited as Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Tokyo, where he spent five years from 1878 to 1883. While in Tokyo, he devised an instrument for measuring and recording earthquakes. Ewing returned to his home town of Dundee in 1883, as the first Professor of Engineering at the University College recently established there. After seven years building up the department in Dundee, he moved to Cambridge where he succeeded James Stuart as Professor of Mechanism and Applied Mechanics. In thirteen creative years at Cambridge, he established the Engineering Tripos (1892) and founded the first engineering laboratories at the University (1894). From 1903 to 1917 Ewing served the Admiralty as Director of Naval Education, in which role he took a leading part in the revolution in British naval traditions which equipped the Royal Navy to fight the First World War. In that war, Ewing made an important contribution to the intelligence operation of deciphering enemy wireless messages. In 1916 he returned to Edinburgh as Principal and Vice-Chancellor, and following the war he presided over a period of rapid expansion at the University. He retired in 1929.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsFRS 1887. KCB 1911. President, British Association for the Advancement of Science 1932.BibliographyHe wrote extensively on technical subjects, and his works included Thermodynamics for Engineers (1920). His many essays and papers on more general subjects are elegantly and attractively written.Further ReadingDictionary of National Biography Supplement.A.W.Ewing, 1939, Life of Sir Alfred Ewing (biography by his son).ABBiographical history of technology > Ewing, Sir James Alfred
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95 Frost, James
[br]b. late 18th century Finchley (?), London, Englandd. mid-19th century probably New York, USA[br]English contributor to investigations into the making of hydraulic cements in the early nineteenth century.[br]As early as 1807 Frost, who was originally a builder and bricklayer in Finchley in north London, was manufacturing Roman Cement, patented by James Parker in 1796, in the Harwich area and a similar cement further south, at Sheerness. In the early 1820s Frost visited Louis J.Vicat (1796–1861) in France. Vicat was a French engineer who began in 1812 a detailed investigation into the properties of various limestones found in France. He later published his conclusions, which were that the best hydraulic lime was that produced from limestone containing clay incorporating silica and alumina. He experimented with adding different clays in varying proportions to slaked lime and calcined the mixture. Benefiting from Vicat's research, Frost obtained a patent in 1822 for what he called British Cement. This patent specified an artificial cement made from limestone and silica, and he calcined chalk with the clay to produce a quick-setting product. This was made at Swanscombe near Northfleet on the south bank of the River Thames. In 1833 the Swanscombe manufactory was purchased by Francis \& White for £3,500 and Frost emigrated to America, setting up practice as a civil engineer in New York. The cement was utilized by Sir Marc Brunel in 1835 in his construction of the Thames Tunnel, and at the same time it was used in building the first all-concrete house at Swanscombe for Mr White.[br]Further ReadingA.J.Francis, 1977, The Cement Industry 1796–1914: A History, David \& Charles. C.C.Stanley, 1979, Highlights in the History of Concrete, Cement and Concrete Association.DY -
96 Harrison, James
SUBJECT AREA: Agricultural and food technology[br]b. 1816 Glasgow, Scotlandd. 3 September 1893 Geelong, Victoria, Australia[br]Scottish pioneer of the transport of frozen meat.[br]James Harrison emigrated to Australia in 1834, and in 1840 settled in Geelong as a journalist. At one time he was editor of the Melbourne Age. In 1850 he began to devote his attention to the development of an ice-making scheme, erecting the first factory at Rodey Point, Barwin, in that year. In 1851 the Brewery Glasgow \& Co. in Bendigo, Victoria, installed the first Harrison refrigerator. He took out patents for his invention in 1856 and 1857, and visited London at about the same time. On his return to Australia he began experiments into the long-term freezing of meat. In 1873 he publicly exhibited the process in Melbourne and organized a banquet for the consumption of meat which had been in store for six months. In July of the same year the SS Norfolk sailed with a cargo of 20 tons of frozen mutton and beef, but this began to rot en route to London. The refrigeration plant was later put to use in a paraffin factory in London, but the failure ruined Harrison and took all his newspaper profits.[br]Further ReadingJ.T.Critchell, 1912, A History of the Frozen Meat Trade, London (gives a brief account of Harrison's abortive but essential part in the transport of frozen meat).AP -
97 Henry, James J.
SUBJECT AREA: Ports and shipping[br]b. 22 June 1913 Ancon, Panama Canal Zoned. 1986 USA[br]American naval architect, innovator in specialist cargo-ship design.[br]After graduating in 1935 from the Webb Institute of Naval Architecture, New York, Henry served in different government agencies until 1938 when he joined the fast expanding US Maritime Commission. He assisted in the design and construction of troop-carrying vessels, Cl cargo ships, and he supervised the construction of two wartime attack transports. At the end of hostilities, he set up as a consultant naval architect and by 1951 had incorporated the business as J.J.Henry \& Company Inc. The opportunities that consultancy gave him were grasped eagerly; he became involved in the conversion of war-built tonnage to peaceful purposes (such as T2 tankers to ore carriers), the development of the new technologies of the carriage of liquefied gases at cryogenic temperatures and low pressures and, possibly the greatest step forward of all, the development of containerization. Containerization and the closely related field of barge transportation were to provide considerable business during the 1960s and the 1970s. The company designed the wonderful 33-knot container ships for Sea-Land and the auspicious Sea-bee barge carriers for the Lykes Brothers of New Orleans. James Henry's professional achievements were recognized internationally when he was elected President of the (United States) Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers in 1969. By then he had served on many boards and committees and was especially honoured to be Chairman of the Board of Trustees of his graduating college, the Webb Institute of Naval Architecture of New York.FMW -
98 Lithgow, James
SUBJECT AREA: Ports and shipping[br]b. 27 January 1883 Port Glasgow, Renfrewshire, Scotlandd. 23 February 1952 Langbank, Renfrewshire, Scotland[br]Scottish shipbuilder; creator of one of the twentieth century's leading industrial organizations.[br]Lithgow attended Glasgow Academy and then spent a year in Paris. In 1901 he commenced a shipyard apprenticeship with Russell \& Co., where his father, William Lithgow, was sole proprietor. For years Russell's had topped the Clyde tonnage output and more than once had been the world's leading yard. Along with his brother Henry, Lithgow in 1908 was appointed a director, and in a few years he was Chairman and the yard was renamed Lithgows Ltd. By the outbreak of the First World War the Lithgow brothers were recognized as good shipbuilders and astute businessmen. In 1914 he joined the Royal Artillery; he rose to the rank of major and served with distinction, but his skills in administration were recognized and he was recalled home to become Director of Merchant Shipbuilding when British shipping losses due to submarine attack became critical. This appointment set a pattern, with public duties becoming predominant and the day-to-day shipyard business being organized by his brother. During the interwar years, Lithgow served on many councils designed to generate work and expand British commercial interests. His public appointments were legion, but none was as controversial as his directorship of National Shipbuilders Security Ltd, formed to purchase and "sterilize" inefficient shipyards that were hindering recovery from the Depression. To this day opinions are divided on this issue, but it is beyond doubt that Lithgow believed in the task in hand and served unstintingly. During the Second World War he was Controller of Merchant Shipbuilding and Repairs and was one of the few civilians to be on the Board of Admiralty. On the cessation of hostilities, Lithgow devoted time to research boards and to the expansion of the Lithgow Group, which now included the massive Fairfield Shipyard as well as steel, marine engineering and other companies.Throughout his life Lithgow worked for the Territorial Army, but he was also a devoted member of the Church of Scotland. He gave practical support to the lona Community, no doubt influenced by unbounded love of the West Highlands and Islands of Scotland.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsMilitary Cross and mentioned in dispatches during the First World War. Baronet 1925. Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire 1945. Commander of the Order of the Orange-Nassau (the Netherlands). CB 1947. Served as the employers' representative on the League of Nations International Labour Conference in the 1930s. President, British Iron and Steel Cofederation 1943.Further ReadingJ.M.Reid, 1964, James Lithgow, Master of Work, London: Hutchinson.FMW -
99 Mackenzie, Sir James
SUBJECT AREA: Medical technology[br]b. 12 April 1853 Scone, Perthshire, Scotlandd. 26 January 1925 London, England[br]Scottish physician and clinical researcher, inventor of the "polygraph" for the investigation of normal and abnormal cardiac rhythms.[br]Mackenzie graduated in medicine from Edinburgh University in 1878. The next year he moved to a practice in Burnley, Lancashire, where he began the exhaustive clinical studies into irregularities of cardiac rhythm that he was to continue for the rest of his life. In 1907 he moved to London and in 1913 was appointed physician to the London Hospital.It was while engaged in the heavy industrial practice in Burnley that he developed, with the aid of a Lancashire watchmaker, the "polygraph" apparatus, which by recording vascular pulses permitted analysis of cardiac function and performance. He also investigated herpes zoster (shingles) and was a pioneer in the treatment of heart disease with digitalis. He himself suffered from angina pectoris for the last fifteen years of his life and his views on the condition were published in a book in 1923. When shown the electrocardiogram (ECG) machine of Einthoven, he expressed reservations as to its future utility.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsKnighted 1915. FRS 1915.Bibliography1902, The Study of the Pulse, Edinburgh. 1908, Diseases of the Heart, London. 1925, Heart, London.Further ReadingM.Wilson, 1926, The Beloved Physician: Sir James Mackenzie.MG -
100 McNeill, Sir James McFadyen
SUBJECT AREA: Ports and shipping[br]b. 19 August 1892 Clydebank, Scotlandd. 24 July 1964 near Glasgow, Scotland[br]Scottish naval architect, designer of the Cunard North Atlantic Liners Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth.[br]McNeill was born in Clydebank just outside Glasgow, and was to serve that town for most of his life. After education at Clydebank High School and then at Allan Glen's in Glasgow, in 1908 he entered the shipyard of John Brown \& Co. Ltd as an apprentice. He was encouraged to matriculate at the University of Glasgow, where he studied naval architecture under the (then) unique Glasgow system of "sandwich" training, alternately spending six months in the shipyard, followed by winter at the Faculty of Engineering. On graduating in 1915, he joined the Army and by 1918 had risen to the rank of Major in the Royal Field Artillery.After the First World War, McNeill returned to the shipyard and in 1928 was appointed Chief Naval Architect. In 1934 he was made a local director of the company. During the difficult period of the 1930s he was in charge of the technical work which led to the design, launching and successful completion of the great liners Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth. Some of the most remarkable ships of the mid-twentieth century were to come from this shipyard, including the last British battleship, HMS Vanguard, and the Royal Yacht Britannia, completed in 1954. From 1948 until 1959, Sir James was Managing Director of the Clydebank part of the company and was Deputy Chairman by the time he retired in 1962. His public service was remarkable and included chairmanship of the Shipbuilding Conference and of the British Ship Research Association, and membership of the Committee of Lloyd's Register of Shipping.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsKnight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order 1954. CBE 1950. FRS 1948. President, Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland 1947–9. Honorary Vice-President, Royal Institution of Naval Architects. Military Cross (First World War).Bibliography1935, "Launch of the quadruple-screw turbine steamer Queen Mary", Transactions of the Institution of Naval Architects 77:1–27 (in this classic paper McNeill displays complete mastery of a difficult subject; it is recorded that prior to launch the estimate for travel of the ship in the River Clyde was 1,194 ft (363.9 m), and the actual amount recorded was 1,196 ft (364.5m)!).FMWBiographical history of technology > McNeill, Sir James McFadyen
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James — James, Henry James, Henry James, William * * * (as used in expressions) Agee, James Anderson, (James) Maxwell Audubon, John James Baldwin, James (Arthur) Balfour (de Whittingehame), Arthur James, 1 conde Ballard, J(ames) G(raham) Barrie, Sir… … Enciclopedia Universal
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