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I'm not interested in the subject

  • 1 interested

    interested [ˈɪntrɪstɪd]
       b. ( = involved) intéressé
    * * *
    ['ɪntrəstɪd]
    adjective [expression, onlooker] intéressé

    to be interested in — s'intéresser à [subject, activity]

    English-French dictionary > interested

  • 2 interested

    interested adj [expression, onlooker, listener] intéressé ; to be interested in s'intéresser à [subject, activity] ; I am interested in doing ça m'intéresse de faire ; we're just not interested ça ne nous intéresse pas ; to get sb interested in intéresser qn à [activity, subject] ; to become interested in commencer à s'intéresser à ; the interested parties les intéressés.

    Big English-French dictionary > interested

  • 3 interested

    ['ɪntrəstɪd] 1. 2.
    aggettivo [expression, onlooker] interessato

    to be interested in — interessarsi di [subject, activity]

    to get sb. interested in — suscitare l'interesse di qcn. per [ subject]

    the interested parties — le parti interessate, gli interessati

    * * *
    1) ((often with in) showing attention or having curiosity: He's not interested in politics; Don't tell me any more - I'm not interested; I'll be interested to see what happens next week.) interessato
    2) ((often with in) willing, or wanting, to do, buy etc: Are you interested in (buying) a second-hand car?) interessato
    3) (personally involved in a particular business, project etc and therefore likely to be anxious about decisions made regarding it: You must consult the other interested parties (= the other people involved).) interessato
    * * *
    ['ɪntrəstɪd] 1. 2.
    aggettivo [expression, onlooker] interessato

    to be interested in — interessarsi di [subject, activity]

    to get sb. interested in — suscitare l'interesse di qcn. per [ subject]

    the interested parties — le parti interessate, gli interessati

    English-Italian dictionary > interested

  • 4 subject

    ['sʌbdʒɪkt]
    n
    1) тема, предмет разговора, вопрос, сюжет

    The subject is not very well dealt with in his last book. — В его последней книге этот вопрос плохо освещен.

    He is off the subject. — Он говорит не на тему.

    The subject drifted away into another channel. — Тема разговора незаметно перешла в другую область.

    - ridiculos subject
    - interesting subject
    - dellicate subject
    - stock subjects
    - examination subjects
    - thesis subject
    - key subject
    - off-the-record subject
    - suggestive subject
    - subject picture
    - subject of common interest
    - hackneyed subjects of polities
    - subject for congratulation
    - subject of praise
    - safe subject for conversation
    - subject of the lecture
    - subject of a book
    - subjects of rural life
    - subject of graduate study
    - pictures of sacred subjects
    - all conceivable subjects of interest to students
    - no restriction as to subject
    - approach the subject from a practical point of view
    - avoid the subject
    - bar the subject
    - bring up the subject in the course of conversation
    - broach the subject in the course of conversation
    - change the subject
    - choose a subject for discussion
    - classify books by subjects
    - classify the subjects you are interested in
    - close the subject
    - consider the next subjects
    - cover the whole subject
    - dismiss the subject summarily
    - divert the subject into another channel
    - express one's opinion on the subject
    - find information on the subject
    - get to the main subject
    - handle the subject in a masterly way
    - have strong views on the subject
    - introduce a sore subject
    - keep to the subject
    - lead smb on to the subject
    - open the subject
    - pursue the subject further
    - return to our subject
    - speak on the subject
    - study the subject thoroughly
    - take smb too far from the subject
    - treat the subject at great length
    - touch upon the subject
    - turn the subject over in one's mind
    - view the subject from different angles
    - wander from the subject
    - work on this subject
    - every time the subject comes up
    2) проблема, вопрос

    We have different opinions (strong views) on the subject. — У нас разные мнения (твердые взгляды) по этому вопросу.

    He has a different approach to the subject. — У него иной подход к данной проблеме.

    - serious subject
    - fundamental subject
    - tender
    - domestic subjects
    - interesting subjects
    - academic subjects
    - controversial subjects
    - subject under consideration
    - smb's approach to the subject
    - break up the subject into sections
    - bring the conversation round to the subject
    - deal with new subjects
    - discuss the subject in all its aspects
    - go deep into the subject
    - handle the subject delicately
    - illustrate the subject with appropriate quotations
    - investigate the subject
    - keep off the subject
    - know one's subject
    - narrow down one's subject to two problems
    - start the subject
    - state the subject
    - submit up the subject to the judgement of scholars
    - survey the subject
    - treat the subject technically
    - view the subject from a practical point of view
    - weigh the subject dispassionately
    3) предмет, учебная дисциплина

    I'll have to read on the subject. — Мне надо готовиться к экзамену по этому предмету.

    - difficult subjects
    - school subjects
    - liberal arts subjects
    - secondary subjects
    - smb's favourite subject at school
    - subject of serious study
    - subject of interest for students
    - be taught as a separate subject
    - fail in a subject
    - learn the subject with ease
    - master a subject
    - pass a subject
    - read on the subject
    - take the subject seriously
    - teach a subject
    4) подданный (государства, короля)
    - British subject
    - subject of the crown
    - subject to the king
    5) грам. подлежащее
    - Complex Subject
    - impersonal subject
    - subject of the sentence
    - subject precedes the predicate in a regular sentence

    English-Russian combinatory dictionary > subject

  • 5 tema

    m.
    1 subject (asunto).
    cambiar de tema to change the subject
    temas de actualidad current affairs
    tema de conversación talking point, topic of conversation
    3 theme (Music).
    4 obsession, mania.
    5 musical track, track.
    pres.subj.
    1st person singular (yo) Present Subjunctive of Spanish verb: temer.
    * * *
    1 (de discurso, escrito, etc) topic, subject, theme
    2 (de examen) subject
    3 MÚSICA theme
    4 GRAMÁTICA root, stem, theme
    \
    atenerse al tema to keep/stick to the point
    cada loco con su tema familiar everyone has his hobbyhorse
    salir(se) del tema to go off at a tangent, get sidetracked
    tema de actualidad current news item, current topic of interest
    * * *
    noun m.
    theme, topic
    * * *
    SM
    1) (=asunto) subject

    el tema de su discurso — the subject o theme of his speech

    • pasar del tema *, -¿qué piensas de las elecciones? -paso del tema — "what do you think about the elections?" - "I couldn't care less about them" *

    2) (Ling) [de palabra] stem; [de oración] theme
    3) (Mús) theme
    * * *
    1)
    a) (asunto, cuestión) matter; (de conferencia, composición) topic; ( de examen) subject; (Art, Cin, Lit) subject
    b) (Mús) ( motivo) theme
    2) (Ling) stem
    * * *
    = subject, theme, topic, locus [loci, -pl.], rubric, item of business, thread, question, topic area, issue.
    Ex. What is a subject?.
    Ex. Informative abstracts are appropriate for texts describing experimental work, and document with a central theme.
    Ex. A book index is an alphabetically arranged list of words or terms leading the reader to the numbers of pages on which specific topics are considered, or on which specific names appear.
    Ex. The locus of government policy making has been shifted to the Ministry of Research and Technology.
    Ex. And, as another instance, it's not fair to employ rubrics for ethnic groups that are not their own, preferred names.
    Ex. The Midwinter Meeting of the American Library Association included various items of business such as: the ALA stand on UNESCO; a new dues schedule; grants; role of school librarians in ALA; new cataloguing tools; and standards.
    Ex. The thread linking these giants is the acknowledgement that libraries exist to serve their users.
    Ex. The question is not how much time we have, but what we do with it and how we utilize it.
    Ex. This is the second revision of the topic areas in as many years.
    Ex. These issues are reviewed more thoroughly in chapter 10.
    ----
    * analizar un tema = explore + theme.
    * biblioteca especializada en temas polares = polar library.
    * biblioteconomía relacionada con los temas de las bibliotecas escolare = school librarianship.
    * cambiando de tema = on another topic, on another matter, on another note, on other matters.
    * centrado en un tema específico = topic-centred.
    * clasificado por temas = classified.
    * de acuerdo con el tema = thematically.
    * debate por tema de interés = breakout discussion.
    * desviarse del tema = go off on + a tangent, go off at + a tangent, wander off + track, wander off + topic, go off + the track, get off + the track.
    * desviarse del tema en cuestión = go off on + another track.
    * desviarse del tema principal = sidetrack.
    * desviarse de un tema temporalmente = go off on + side excursions.
    * divagar sobre varios temas = roam over + topics.
    * editor de temas educativos = educational publisher.
    * el tema de la discusión = the focus of the discussion.
    * el tema del debate = the focus of the discussion.
    * entendido en el tema = knowledgeable.
    * establecer el tema = set + the theme.
    * estar con el tema = be on the topic.
    * estar hablando del tema = be on the topic.
    * estudiar un tema = pursue + subject.
    * evitar temas delicados = eschew + issues.
    * evitar un tema = skirt + issue, tiptoe around + issue.
    * examinar un tema = explore + theme.
    * frase que recoge el tema principal del artículo = topic sentence.
    * grado de coincidencia entre el tema de un documento y el tema de búsqu = topicality.
    * grupo de trabajo por tema de interés = breakout group.
    * interesarse por el tema = enter + the field.
    * mencionar un tema = broach + subject, broach + topic, touch on + a point.
    * número de tema = thematic index number.
    * organizado alrededor de un tema = theme-based.
    * por temas = topically.
    * profundizar sobre un tema = go into + detail.
    * que no tiene que ver con el tema debatido = off-topic.
    * reunión por temas de interés = breakout session.
    * sacar a colación un tema = bring up + topic, bring up + subject.
    * sección de temas locales = local studies department, local studies library, local studies collection.
    * sesión por tema de interés = breakout session.
    * tema candente = hot topic, hot issue, burning issue, burning question, hot potato.
    * tema central = motif.
    * tema clave = key area.
    * tema común = common thread.
    * tema controvertido = vexed issue, vexing issue.
    * tema de actualidad = topical theme, current issue, hot topic.
    * tema de aprovechamiento político = political football.
    * tema de búsqueda = search topic.
    * tema de conversación = talking point.
    * tema de debate = thesis, talking point, subject of debate, discussion topic.
    * tema de discusión = discussion topic.
    * tema de estudio = study area, under study.
    * tema de importancia secundaria = footnote.
    * tema de interés = area of concern, area of enquiry [area of inquiry], area of interest, focus area, issue of concern, topic of interest.
    * tema de investigación = area of enquiry [area of inquiry], research question, research topic.
    * tema delicado = sore subject, sore spot, sore point, sensitive issue, hot potato.
    * tema de preocupación = issue of concern.
    * tema de secundaria importancia = footnote.
    * tema espinoso = sore subject, sore spot, sore point.
    * tema favorito = hobby-horse.
    * tema muerto = dead issue.
    * tema polémico = vexed issue, vexing issue.
    * tema principal = dominant theme, main focus, leitmotif.
    * temas africanos = Africana.
    * temas de actualidad = current affairs.
    * temas de interés de los usuarios = user interests.
    * temas de interés particular = particular concerns.
    * tema sensible = sore subject, sore spot, sore point.
    * tema tratado = aboutness.
    * tocar un tema = touch on + a point.
    * tratar un tema = broach + subject, broach + topic, address + theme, address + topic.
    * tratar un tema conocido = tread + familiar ground.
    * tratar un tema en detalle = go into + detail.
    * * *
    1)
    a) (asunto, cuestión) matter; (de conferencia, composición) topic; ( de examen) subject; (Art, Cin, Lit) subject
    b) (Mús) ( motivo) theme
    2) (Ling) stem
    * * *
    = subject, theme, topic, locus [loci, -pl.], rubric, item of business, thread, question, topic area, issue.

    Ex: What is a subject?.

    Ex: Informative abstracts are appropriate for texts describing experimental work, and document with a central theme.
    Ex: A book index is an alphabetically arranged list of words or terms leading the reader to the numbers of pages on which specific topics are considered, or on which specific names appear.
    Ex: The locus of government policy making has been shifted to the Ministry of Research and Technology.
    Ex: And, as another instance, it's not fair to employ rubrics for ethnic groups that are not their own, preferred names.
    Ex: The Midwinter Meeting of the American Library Association included various items of business such as: the ALA stand on UNESCO; a new dues schedule; grants; role of school librarians in ALA; new cataloguing tools; and standards.
    Ex: The thread linking these giants is the acknowledgement that libraries exist to serve their users.
    Ex: The question is not how much time we have, but what we do with it and how we utilize it.
    Ex: This is the second revision of the topic areas in as many years.
    Ex: These issues are reviewed more thoroughly in chapter 10.
    * analizar un tema = explore + theme.
    * biblioteca especializada en temas polares = polar library.
    * biblioteconomía relacionada con los temas de las bibliotecas escolare = school librarianship.
    * cambiando de tema = on another topic, on another matter, on another note, on other matters.
    * centrado en un tema específico = topic-centred.
    * clasificado por temas = classified.
    * de acuerdo con el tema = thematically.
    * debate por tema de interés = breakout discussion.
    * desviarse del tema = go off on + a tangent, go off at + a tangent, wander off + track, wander off + topic, go off + the track, get off + the track.
    * desviarse del tema en cuestión = go off on + another track.
    * desviarse del tema principal = sidetrack.
    * desviarse de un tema temporalmente = go off on + side excursions.
    * divagar sobre varios temas = roam over + topics.
    * editor de temas educativos = educational publisher.
    * el tema de la discusión = the focus of the discussion.
    * el tema del debate = the focus of the discussion.
    * entendido en el tema = knowledgeable.
    * establecer el tema = set + the theme.
    * estar con el tema = be on the topic.
    * estar hablando del tema = be on the topic.
    * estudiar un tema = pursue + subject.
    * evitar temas delicados = eschew + issues.
    * evitar un tema = skirt + issue, tiptoe around + issue.
    * examinar un tema = explore + theme.
    * frase que recoge el tema principal del artículo = topic sentence.
    * grado de coincidencia entre el tema de un documento y el tema de búsqu = topicality.
    * grupo de trabajo por tema de interés = breakout group.
    * interesarse por el tema = enter + the field.
    * mencionar un tema = broach + subject, broach + topic, touch on + a point.
    * número de tema = thematic index number.
    * organizado alrededor de un tema = theme-based.
    * por temas = topically.
    * profundizar sobre un tema = go into + detail.
    * que no tiene que ver con el tema debatido = off-topic.
    * reunión por temas de interés = breakout session.
    * sacar a colación un tema = bring up + topic, bring up + subject.
    * sección de temas locales = local studies department, local studies library, local studies collection.
    * sesión por tema de interés = breakout session.
    * tema candente = hot topic, hot issue, burning issue, burning question, hot potato.
    * tema central = motif.
    * tema clave = key area.
    * tema común = common thread.
    * tema controvertido = vexed issue, vexing issue.
    * tema de actualidad = topical theme, current issue, hot topic.
    * tema de aprovechamiento político = political football.
    * tema de búsqueda = search topic.
    * tema de conversación = talking point.
    * tema de debate = thesis, talking point, subject of debate, discussion topic.
    * tema de discusión = discussion topic.
    * tema de estudio = study area, under study.
    * tema de importancia secundaria = footnote.
    * tema de interés = area of concern, area of enquiry [area of inquiry], area of interest, focus area, issue of concern, topic of interest.
    * tema de investigación = area of enquiry [area of inquiry], research question, research topic.
    * tema delicado = sore subject, sore spot, sore point, sensitive issue, hot potato.
    * tema de preocupación = issue of concern.
    * tema de secundaria importancia = footnote.
    * tema espinoso = sore subject, sore spot, sore point.
    * tema favorito = hobby-horse.
    * tema muerto = dead issue.
    * tema polémico = vexed issue, vexing issue.
    * tema principal = dominant theme, main focus, leitmotif.
    * temas africanos = Africana.
    * temas de actualidad = current affairs.
    * temas de interés de los usuarios = user interests.
    * temas de interés particular = particular concerns.
    * tema sensible = sore subject, sore spot, sore point.
    * tema tratado = aboutness.
    * tocar un tema = touch on + a point.
    * tratar un tema = broach + subject, broach + topic, address + theme, address + topic.
    * tratar un tema conocido = tread + familiar ground.
    * tratar un tema en detalle = go into + detail.

    * * *
    A
    1 (asunto, materia) subject
    ¿no tienes otro tema de conversación? don't you ever talk about anything else?
    nos estamos alejando del tema we're getting off the subject o point
    procuren ceñirse al tema del debate please try to keep to the point o subject o topic of the discussion
    en el programa se tratan temas de actualidad the program deals with current issues
    el tema de la novela the subject matter of the novel
    hay que preparar 20 temas para el examen you have to prepare 20 subjects o topics for the exam
    2 ( Art, Mús) (motivo) theme
    el tema central de la película the central theme of the film
    B ( Ling) stem
    * * *

     

    Del verbo temer: ( conjugate temer)

    tema es:

    1ª persona singular (yo) presente subjuntivo

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

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

    Multiple Entries:
    tema    
    temer
    tema sustantivo masculino
    a) (asunto, cuestión) matter;

    (de conferencia, composición) topic;
    ( de examen) subject;
    (Art, Cin, Lit) subject;

    tema de conversación topic of conversation;
    cambiar de tema to change the subject
    b) (Mús) ( motivo) theme

    temer ( conjugate temer) verbo transitivo ‹castigo/reacción› to fear, dread;
    ‹ persona› to be afraid of;

    temo ofenderlo I'm afraid of offending him
    verbo intransitivo
    to be afraid;
    no temas don't be afraid
    temerse verbo pronominal


    me temo que tená razón I fear that he was right


    tema sustantivo masculino
    1 (de un libro, una conversación) subject, topic: no cambies de tema, don't change the subject
    2 (de una tesis, clase, conferencia) topic: no me preparé ese tema, I haven't studied that subject
    nos dio una conferencia sobre el tema, he gave us a lecture on the topic
    3 Mús theme
    ♦ Locuciones: familiar (cada uno a lo suyo) cada loco con su tema, each to his/her own
    temer
    I verbo transitivo
    1 (sentir miedo, temor) to fear, be afraid: temo que lo haya oído, I'm afraid she heard it
    sus hijos lo temen, his sons are afraid of him
    2 (tener un presagio, presentir) temíamos que no viniera, we were afraid he wouldn't come
    II verbo intransitivo to be afraid: temo por su vida, I'm afraid for his life ➣ Ver nota en afraid y fear
    ' tema' also found in these entries:
    Spanish:
    abordar
    - acotar
    - adentrarse
    - ahondar
    - apartarse
    - braga
    - capítulo
    - ceñirse
    - circunscribirse
    - concretar
    - desviarse
    - empaparse
    - en
    - enfoque
    - enjuiciar
    - enjundia
    - espinosa
    - espinoso
    - ilustrar
    - jota
    - liosa
    - lioso
    - materia
    - oscuras
    - palpitante
    - particular
    - poca
    - poco
    - rehuir
    - repasar
    - soslayo
    - trabajo
    - actualidad
    - apartar
    - apasionante
    - apasionar
    - cambiar
    - candente
    - ceñir
    - conflictivo
    - conocer
    - controvertido
    - cuanto
    - cuestión
    - dar
    - delicado
    - desarrollar
    - desviar
    - discusión
    - divagar
    English:
    about
    - affair
    - agenda
    - anyhow
    - bring forward
    - bring up
    - central
    - change
    - depart
    - dominant
    - enlarge
    - euthanasia
    - get off
    - get on to
    - get onto
    - go off
    - hobbyhorse
    - ignorance
    - issue
    - motif
    - point
    - stray
    - subject
    - switch
    - talking point
    - theme
    - topic
    - touch on
    - touchy
    - bearing
    - drop
    - get
    - go
    - matter
    - side
    - sore
    - talking
    - track
    - turn
    - whichever
    - wrong
    * * *
    tema nm
    1. [asunto] subject;
    será mejor no sacar/tocar ese tema it would be best not to bring up that subject;
    ¿de qué tema quieres que hablemos? what do you want to talk about?;
    el tema de la película son las drogas the film deals with drugs;
    alejarse o [m5] salirse del tema to wander off the subject;
    cambiar de tema to change the subject;
    Fam
    el tema es que necesita ayuda the fact of the matter is she needs help
    temas de actualidad current affairs;
    tema de conversación talking point, topic of conversation;
    tema espinoso thorny issue
    2. [lección, unidad] topic;
    en el examen entran cinco temas the exam covers five topics
    3. [canción] track, song;
    una versión de un viejo tema a cover of an old song
    4. Mús [melodía básica] theme;
    el tema principal de la suite the main theme of the suite
    5. Ling theme
    * * *
    m de conversación subject, topic; MÚS, de novela theme
    * * *
    tema nm
    1) asunto: theme, topic, subject
    2) motivo: motif, central theme
    * * *
    tema n
    1. (en general) subject
    2. (canción) song

    Spanish-English dictionary > tema

  • 6 mayor

    adj.
    1 bigger.
    2 grown-up (adulto).
    cuando sea mayor when I grow up
    ser mayor de edad to be an adult
    3 older (no joven).
    una mujer mayor an older woman
    ser muy mayor to be very old
    4 main (principal) (plaza, calle, palo).
    5 major, main, chief, leading.
    f. & m.
    1 major (military).
    2 head.
    * * *
    1 (comparativo) bigger, greater, larger; (persona) older; (hermanos, hijos) elder, older
    2 (superlativo) biggest, greatest, largest; (persona) oldest; (hermanos, hijos) eldest, oldest
    3 (de edad) mature, elderly
    4 (adulto) grown-up
    ■ ya eres mayor, así que defiéndete tú solo you are old enough to stand up for yourself now
    6 MÚSICA major
    1 MILITAR major
    1 (adultos) grown-ups, adults; (antepasados) ancestors
    ► nombre masculino,nombre femenino el/la mayor
    1 (entre varios) the oldest; (entre hermanos, hijos) the eldest, the oldest
    \
    al por mayor wholesale
    hacerse mayor to grow up
    no ir/pasar a mayores not to come to anything, not to be anything serious
    ser mayor de edad to be of age
    calle mayor high street, US main street
    * * *
    1. noun mf. 2. adj.
    1) main, major
    2) bigger, biggest
    3) larger, largest
    4) greater, greatest
    5) elder, oldest
    •
    * * *
    1. ADJ
    1) [comparativo]
    a) (=más grande)

    un mayor número de visitantes — a larger o greater number of visitors, more visitors

    son temas de mayor importancia — they are more important issues, they are issues of greater importance

    • la mayor parte de los ciudadanos — most citizens

    • ser mayor que algo, mi casa es mayor que la suya — my house is bigger o larger than his

    b) (=de más edad) older

    • mayor que algn — older than sb

    vivió con un hombre muchos años mayor que ella — she lived with a man many years her senior, she lived with a man who was several years older than her

    2) [superlativo]
    a) (=más grande)

    esta es la mayor iglesia del mundo — this is the biggest o largest church in the world

    su mayor problema — his biggest o greatest problem

    su mayor enemigo — his biggest o greatest enemy

    b) (=de más edad) oldest

    mi hijo (el) mayor — my oldest o eldest son

    3) (=principal) [plaza, mástil] main; [altar, misa] high

    calle mayor — high street, main street (EEUU)

    colegio 1), libro 2)
    4) (=adulto) grown-up, adult

    las personas mayores — grown-ups, adults

    • ser mayor de edad — to be of age

    • hacerse mayor — to grow up

    5) (=de edad avanzada) old, elderly
    6) (=jefe) head antes de s
    7) (Mús) major
    2. SMF
    1) (=adulto) grown-up, adult

    mayor de edad — adult, person who is legally of age

    2) (=anciano)

    ¡más respeto con los mayores! — be more respectful to your elders (and betters)!

    3) LAm (Mil) major
    3.
    SM

    • al por mayor — wholesale

    repartir golpes al por mayor — to throw punches left, right and centre

    * * *
    I
    1)

    a la mayor brevedad posible — (Corresp) as soon as possible o (frml) at your earliest convenience

    la mayor parte de los estudiantes — most students, the majority of students

    2) ( en edad)
    a) ( comparativo) older

    ¿tienes hermanos mayores? — do you have any older o elder brothers or sisters?

    mi hijo mayor — my eldest o oldest son

    c) ( anciano) elderly
    d) ( adulto)

    ser mayor de edad — (Der) to be of age

    no pasar or llegar a mayores: tuvo un novio, pero el asunto no pasó a mayores she had a boyfriend, but it didn't come to anything; afortunadamente la cosa no llegó a mayores — fortunately it was nothing serious

    4) ( en nombres) ( principal) main

    Calle Mayor — Main Street ( in US), High Street ( in UK)

    5) (Mús) major
    6) (Com)
    II
    masculino y femenino
    1) ( adulto) adult, grown-up (colloq)

    mis/tus mayores — my/your elders

    2) mayor masculino (AmL) (Mil) major
    * * *
    I
    1)

    a la mayor brevedad posible — (Corresp) as soon as possible o (frml) at your earliest convenience

    la mayor parte de los estudiantes — most students, the majority of students

    2) ( en edad)
    a) ( comparativo) older

    ¿tienes hermanos mayores? — do you have any older o elder brothers or sisters?

    mi hijo mayor — my eldest o oldest son

    c) ( anciano) elderly
    d) ( adulto)

    ser mayor de edad — (Der) to be of age

    no pasar or llegar a mayores: tuvo un novio, pero el asunto no pasó a mayores she had a boyfriend, but it didn't come to anything; afortunadamente la cosa no llegó a mayores — fortunately it was nothing serious

    4) ( en nombres) ( principal) main

    Calle Mayor — Main Street ( in US), High Street ( in UK)

    5) (Mús) major
    6) (Com)
    II
    masculino y femenino
    1) ( adulto) adult, grown-up (colloq)

    mis/tus mayores — my/your elders

    2) mayor masculino (AmL) (Mil) major
    * * *
    mayor1
    1 = senior, elderly, eldest.

    Ex: If we instruct it to ponder this question more leisurely, it will quickly try the user's patience with digressions concerning the less illustrious senior MOZART, LEOPOLD.

    Ex: To the general public 'the female librarian is still angular, elderly, acidulous and terrifying', to use Geoffrey Langley's words, 'and a male librarian is impossible under any hypothesis'.
    Ex: When her eldest son developed a glaucoma she became aware of the lack of suitable books.
    * apto para mayores de 13 años o menores acompañados = PG-13.
    * asistencia social para los mayores = elderly care, elder care [eldercare].
    * centro de día para mayores = day centre for the elderly.
    * cuidado de los mayores = kinkeeping.
    * cuidados de los mayores = elderly care, elder care [eldercare].
    * cuidados para personas mayores = elderly care, elder care [eldercare].
    * familiar que cuida de los mayores = kinkeeper.
    * gente mayor = elderly people.
    * hombre mayor = elderly man.
    * mayor de 25 años = mature adult.
    * mayores, los = elderly, the.
    * muy mayor = over the hill.
    * pesonas mayores = elderly people.
    * ser mayor = be older.

    mayor2
    2 = largest, greater, heightened, increased.

    Ex: Together they constitute the world's largest data base.

    Ex: The likelihood of data transmission errors is greater, however, and it is not recommended for constant use.
    Ex: The heightened level of community awareness has led some local authorities to take the initiative and to become information disseminators in their own right.
    Ex: Information networks are critical tools to ensure the exchange, transfer, and use of information which will facilitate the increased quality and quantity of agricultural production.
    * admitir un número de reservas mayor a las plazas existentes = overbook.
    * alcanzar mayores cotas = rise to + greater heights.
    * al por mayor = in bulk.
    * cada vez en mayor grado = ever-increasing.
    * cada vez mayor = escalating, ever-growing, ever-increasing, expanded, growing, increasing, mounting, rising, spiralling [spiraling, -USA], deepening, rapidly growing, expanding, constantly rising, swelling, ever larger [ever-larger], galloping, steadily rising, steadily growing, mushrooming, ever greater, rapidly expanding, ever-widening, burgeoning, heightening.
    * cada vez mucho mayor = fast-increasing, exploding.
    * calle mayor, la = main street, the.
    * causa de fuerza mayor = act of God.
    * colegio mayor = residence hall, dormitory [dorm, -abbr.], student residence.
    * comprar al por mayor = buy + in bulk.
    * con el mayor cuidado = with utmost care.
    * con el mayor secreto = a veil of secrecy.
    * con mayor detalle = in greater detail.
    * con mayor profundidad = in most detail, in more detail.
    * con un mayor nivel educativo = better educated [better-educated].
    * dar mayor importancia a = give + pride of place to.
    * demasiado mayor en relación con Algo = overage.
    * demasiado mayor para su curso = overage for grade.
    * de mayor edad = senior.
    * de mayor o menor importancia = great and small.
    * desajuste cada vez mayor entre... y = widening of the gap beween.... and, widening gap between... and.
    * descuento por compra al por mayor = bulk deal, bulk rate, bulk rate discount.
    * diferencia cada vez mayor entre... y = widening of the gap beween.... and, widening gap between... and.
    * distanciamiento cada vez mayor entre... y, = widening gap between... and, widening of the gap beween.... and.
    * durante la mayor parte de = for much of.
    * durante la mayor parte del año = for the best part of the year.
    * en caso de fuerza mayor = in the event of circumstances beyond + Posesivo + control.
    * en el mayor secreto = a veil of secrecy.
    * en la mayor parte de = in the majority of.
    * en mayor grado = to a greater degree, a fortiori, to a greater extent, to a larger degree, to a larger extent.
    * en mayor medida = to a greater extent, to a greater degree, a fortiori, to a larger degree, to a larger extent.
    * en mayor o menor grado = to a greater or lesser degree.
    * en mayor o menor medida = to a greater or lesser extent.
    * en su mayor parte = largely, mostly, for the most part.
    * en un número cada vez mayor = in increasing numbers.
    * fuerza mayor = force majeure.
    * hora de mayor demanda = peak time.
    * importancia cada vez mayor = growing importance, growing significance.
    * interés cada vez mayor = growing interest.
    * jefe del estado mayor = Chief of Staff.
    * la mayor parte de = the majority of, the main bulk of, the lion's share of.
    * la mayor parte de las veces = more often than not.
    * la proporción mayor de = the lion's share of.
    * libro de mayor venta = bestseller [best seller/best-seller].
    * material de tamaño mayor de lo normal = outsize material.
    * mayor + Nombre = longer + Nombre.
    * mayor rendimiento = efficiencies of scale.
    * mucho mayor = far greater, far larger, very much greater.
    * obtener el mayor rendimiento posible = maximise + opportunities.
    * para mayor información sobre = for details of.
    * para mayor información véase + Nombre = see + Nombre + for further details.
    * para mayor inri = to cap it all (off), on top of everything else, on top of everything else, but to make things worse, but to make matters worse.
    * período de mayor demanda = peak time.
    * precio al por mayor = block rate, wholesale price, bulk rate.
    * precio especial por compra al por mayor = bulk deal.
    * preocupación cada vez mayor (por) = growing concern (about).
    * problema cada vez mayor = growing problem.
    * problemas cada vez mayores = mounting problems.
    * programación televisiva de mayor audiencia = prime time television.
    * programa de mayor audiencia = prime time programme, prime time show.
    * sacar el mayor partido al dinero de uno = get + the most for + Posesivo + money.
    * sacar mayor partido a = squeeze + more life out of.
    * sacar mayor provecho = stretch + further.
    * separación cada vez mayor entre... y = widening gap between... and.
    * ser el que con mayor frecuencia = be (the) most likely to.
    * símbolo de mayor-que (>) = greater-than sign (>), greater-than symbol (>), right angled bracket (>).
    * suministro al por mayor = bulk supply.
    * tonto de marca mayor = prize idiot.
    * una mayor variedad de = a wider canvas of.
    * una necesidad cada vez mayor = a growing need.
    * un conjunto cada vez mayor de = a growing body of.
    * un grupo cada vez mayor de = a growing body of.
    * un número cada vez mayor = growing numbers.
    * un número cada vez mayor de = a growing number of, a growing body of.
    * vender al por mayor = sell + in bulk, wholesale.
    * venta al por mayor = wholesaling, wholesale.

    * * *
    A
    pueden volar a mayor altura they can fly at a greater height
    estas tablas le dan mayor amplitud a la falda these pleats make the skirt fuller
    un material de mayor flexibilidad a more flexible material
    en otros países el índice de mortalidad infantil es aún mayor in other countries the infant mortality rate is even higher
    esto podría reportar beneficios aún mayores this could bring even greater benefits
    mayor QUE algo:
    una superficie cuatro veces mayor que la de nuestro país a surface area four times greater than that of our country
    cualquier número mayor que 40 any number above 40 o greater than 40 o higher than 40
    X > Z ( Mat) (read as: equis es mayor que zeta) X > Z (léase: x is greater than z)
    el mayor país de América Latina the biggest country in Latin America
    el mayor número de accidentes de Europa the greatest o highest number of accidents in Europe
    ésa ha sido siempre su mayor preocupación that has always been her greatest worry
    le ruego lo envíe a la mayor brevedad posible ( Corresp) please send it as soon as possible o ( frml) at your earliest convenience
    la mayor parte de los argentinos most Argentinians, the majority of Argentinians
    ¿tienes hermanos mayores? do you have any older o elder brothers or sisters?
    mayor QUE algn older THAN sb
    soy dos meses mayor que tú I am two months older than you
    2
    (superlativo): ¿quién de los dos es el mayor? who is the older o elder of the two?
    éste es mi hijo mayor this is my eldest o oldest son
    el mayor de todos los residentes the oldest of all the residents
    3 (viejo) elderly
    ya es muy mayor y no puede valerse sola she's very old o ( colloq) she's getting on and she can't manage on her own
    4
    (adulto): no se les habla así a las personas mayores you shouldn't talk to adults o grown-ups like that
    cuando sea mayor quiero ser bombero when I grow up I want to be a fireman
    vamos, que ya eres mayorcito para estar haciendo esas cosas come on, you're a bit old to be doing things like that
    cuando sea mayor de edad ( Der) when he reaches the age of majority
    soy mayor de edad y haré lo que quiera I'm over 18 ( o 21 etc) and I'll do as I please
    (grande): no creo que esto requiera mayores explicaciones I don't think this needs much in the way of explanation
    no tengo mayor interés en el tema I'm not particularly interested in o I don't have any great interest in the subject
    la noticia no me produjo mayor inquietud the news did not worry me particularly o unduly
    se llevó a cabo sin mayores contratiempos it was carried out without any serious o major hitches
    no pasar or llegar a mayores: tuvo un pretendiente, pero la cosa no pasó a mayores she had a boyfriend, but it didn't come to anything o but nothing came of it
    hubo una pelea pero no llegó a mayores there was a fight but it was nothing serious
    (principal): Calle Mayor Main Street ( in US), High Street ( in UK)
    E ( Mús) major
    F ( Com):
    (al) por mayor wholesale
    [ S ] venta sólo (al) por mayor wholesale only
    los compran (al) por mayor they buy them wholesale
    hubo problemas (al) por mayor there were innumerable problems
    A
    1
    (adulto): no te metas en las conversaciones de los mayores don't interrupt when the adults o grown-ups are talking
    cada niño debe ir acompañado de un mayor each child must be accompanied by an adult
    mis/tus mayores my/your elders
    Compuesto:
    masculine and feminine person who is legally of age o who has reached the age of majority
    B
    mayor masculine ( AmL) ( Mil) major
    * * *

     

    mayor adjetivo
    1

    ◊ grande) ‹número/porcentaje› greater, higher;


    ‹ beneficio› greater;

    a mayor escala on a larger scale;
    un número mayor que 40 a number greater than 40

    ◊ grande): el mayor número de accidentes the greatest o highest number of accidents;

    su mayor preocupación her greatest o biggest worry;
    a la mayor brevedad posible as soon as possible;
    la mayor parte de los estudiantes most students, the majority of students
    2 ( en edad)

    mayor que algn older than sb

    ◊ es la mayor de las dos she is the older o elder of the two;

    mi hijo mayor my eldest o oldest son

    d) ( adulto):


    cuando sea mayor when I grow up;
    ser mayor de edad (Der) to be of age;
    soy mayor de edad y haré lo que quiera I'm over 18 (o 21 etc) and I'll do as I please
    3 ( en nombres) ( principal) main;

    4 (Mús) major
    5 (Com):

    ■ sustantivo masculino y femenino ( adulto) adult, grown-up (colloq);

    mis/tus mayores my/your elders;
    mayor de edad person who is legally of age
    mayor
    I adjetivo
    1 (comparativo de tamaño) larger, bigger: necesitas una talla mayor, you need a larger size
    (superlativo) largest, biggest: ésa es la mayor, that is the biggest one
    2 (comparativo de grado) greater: su capacidad es mayor que la mía, his capacity is greater than mine
    la ciudad no tiene mayor atractivo, the town isn't particularly appealing
    (superlativo) greatest: ésa es la mayor tontería que he oído nunca, that is the most absurd thing I've ever heard
    3 (comparativo de edad) older: es mayor que tu madre, she is older than your mother
    (superlativo) oldest
    el mayor de los tres, the oldest one 4 está muy mayor, (crecido, maduro) he's quite grown-up
    (anciano) he looks old
    ser mayor de edad, to be of age
    (maduro) old: es un hombre mayor, he's an old man
    eres mayor para entenderlo, you are old enough to understand it
    5 (principal) major, main: tu mayor responsabilidad es su educación, the thing that's most important to you is her education; la calle mayor, the main street
    6 Mús major
    7 Com al por mayor, wholesale
    II sustantivo masculino
    1 Mil major 2 mayores, (adultos) grownups, adults
    (ancianos) elders
    ♦ Locuciones: al por mayor, wholesale
    ir/pasar a mayores, to become serious: discutió con su marido, pero el asunto no pasó a mayores, she had an argument with her husband but they soon forgot about it

    ' mayor' also found in these entries:
    Spanish:
    abundar
    - adicta
    - adicto
    - afán
    - alcalde
    - alcaldía
    - almacén
    - amable
    - brevedad
    - burgomaestre
    - calle
    - caza
    - colegio
    - confluencia
    - desarrollar
    - edad
    - engrandecer
    - escaparate
    - estado
    - Excemo.
    - Excmo.
    - fuerza
    - gruesa
    - grueso
    - hacer
    - hacerse
    - inri
    - obra
    - osa
    - palo
    - persona
    - plana
    - polemizar
    - predilección
    - re
    - safari
    - salir
    - sol
    - teniente
    - vender
    - venta
    - abuelo
    - ama
    - anhelo
    - atractivo
    - audiencia
    - cazar
    - ciudad
    - compás
    - de
    English:
    act
    - address
    - adult
    - big
    - bomb
    - bulk
    - capacity
    - cash-and-carry
    - claw back
    - densely
    - dipper
    - dormitory
    - elaborate
    - elder
    - eldest
    - few
    - frisky
    - grow up
    - growing
    - high street
    - hill
    - inquest
    - lion
    - little
    - main
    - major
    - mayor
    - mostly
    - much
    - nominee
    - often
    - old
    - outflow
    - outweigh
    - over
    - part
    - perpendicular
    - residence
    - senior
    - sergeant major
    - spur
    - staff
    - trade price
    - utmost
    - wholesale
    - wholesale trade
    - wholesaler
    - worship
    - abject
    - cash
    * * *
    ♦ adj
    1. [comparativo] [en tamaño] bigger ( que than); [en edad] older ( que than); [en importancia] greater ( que than); [en número] higher ( que than);
    este puente es mayor que el otro this bridge is bigger than the other one;
    mi hermana mayor my older sister;
    es ocho años mayor que yo she's eight years older than me;
    un mayor número de víctimas a higher number of victims;
    una mayor tasa de inflación a higher rate of inflation;
    en mayor o menor grado to a greater or lesser extent;
    no creo que tenga mayor interés I don't think it's particularly interesting;
    no te preocupes, no tiene mayor importancia don't worry, it's not (all) that important;
    apartamentos mayores de 100 metros cuadrados Br flats o US apartments of over 100 square metres;
    subsidios para parados mayores de cuarenta y cinco años benefits for unemployed people (of) over forty-five;
    la mayor parte de most of, the majority of;
    la mayor parte de los británicos piensa que… most British people o the majority of British people think that…;
    Mat
    mayor que greater than
    2. [superlativo]
    el/la mayor… [en tamaño] the biggest…;
    [en edad] the oldest…; [en importancia] the greatest…; [en número] the highest…;
    la mayor de las islas the biggest island, the biggest of the islands;
    la mayor crisis que se recuerda the biggest crisis in living memory;
    el mayor de todos nosotros/de la clase the oldest of all of us/in the class;
    el mayor de los dos hermanos the older of the two brothers;
    vive en la mayor de las pobrezas he lives in the most abject poverty
    3. [más] further, more;
    para mayor información solicite nuestro catálogo for further o more details, send for our catalogue
    4. [adulto] grown-up;
    cuando sea mayor when I grow up;
    hacerse mayor to grow up;
    ser mayor de edad to be an adult
    5. [no joven] older;
    [anciano] elderly;
    una mujer ya mayor an older woman;
    ser muy mayor to be very old;
    hay que escuchar a las personas mayores you should listen to older people;
    la gente mayor, las personas mayores [los ancianos] the elderly
    6. [principal] major, main;
    la plaza mayor the main square;
    la calle mayor the main street;
    el palo mayor the main mast
    7. Mús major;
    en do mayor in C major
    8. Com
    al por mayor wholesale;
    ♦ nmf
    el/la mayor [hijo, hermano] the eldest;
    mayores [adultos] grown-ups;
    [antepasados] ancestors, forefathers;
    es una película/revista para mayores it's an adult movie o Br film/magazine;
    respeta a tus mayores you should respect your elders;
    la cosa no llegó o [m5] pasó a mayores the matter didn't go any further
    ♦ nm
    Mil major
    * * *
    I adj
    1 comp: en tamaño larger, bigger; en edad older; en importancia greater;
    mayor que greater than, larger than;
    ser mayor de edad be an adult;
    ser (muy) mayor be (very) elderly;
    mayor que older than
    2 sup
    :
    el mayor en edad the oldest o eldest; en tamaño the largest o
    biggest; en importancia the greatest;
    los mayores the adults;
    la mayor parte the majority
    3 MÚS tono, modo
    major;
    do mayor MÚS C major
    4 COM
    :
    al por mayor wholesale
    II m MIL major
    :
    ir o
    pasar a mayores get serious
    * * *
    mayor adj
    1) (comparative of grande) : bigger, larger, greater, elder, older
    2) (superlative of grande) : biggest, largest, greatest, eldest, oldest
    3) : grown-up, mature
    4) : main, major
    5)
    mayor de edad : of (legal) age
    6)
    por mayor : wholesale
    mayor nmf
    1) : major (in the military)
    2) : adult
    * * *
    mayor1 adj
    2. (más grande) bigger
    4. (anciano) old / elderly
    5. (adulto) grown up
    6. (principal) main
    mayor2 n
    ¿cuántos años tiene el mayor? how old is the oldest?
    2. (adulto) grown up
    de mayor when I grow up / when you grow up etc.
    hacerse mayor to grow up [pt. grew; pp. grown]

    Spanish-English dictionary > mayor

  • 7 Abel, Sir Frederick August

    [br]
    b. 17 July 1827 Woolwich, London, England
    d. 6 September 1902 Westminster, London, England
    [br]
    English chemist, co-inventor of cordite find explosives expert.
    [br]
    His family came from Germany and he was the son of a music master. He first became interested in science at the age of 14, when visiting his mineralogist uncle in Hamburg, and studied chemistry at the Royal Polytechnic Institution in London. In 1845 he became one of the twenty-six founding students, under A.W.von Hofmann, of the Royal College of Chemistry. Such was his aptitude for the subject that within two years he became von Hermann's assistant and demonstrator. In 1851 Abel was appointed Lecturer in Chemistry, succeeding Michael Faraday, at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and it was while there that he wrote his Handbook of Chemistry, which was co-authored by his assistant, Charles Bloxam.
    Abel's four years at the Royal Military Academy served to foster his interest in explosives, but it was during his thirty-four years, beginning in 1854, as Ordnance Chemist at the Royal Arsenal and at Woolwich that he consolidated and developed his reputation as one of the international leaders in his field. In 1860 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, but it was his studies during the 1870s into the chemical changes that occur during explosions, and which were the subject of numerous papers, that formed the backbone of his work. It was he who established the means of storing gun-cotton without the danger of spontaneous explosion, but he also developed devices (the Abel Open Test and Close Test) for measuring the flashpoint of petroleum. He also became interested in metal alloys, carrying out much useful work on their composition. A further avenue of research occurred in 1881 when he was appointed a member of the Royal Commission set up to investigate safety in mines after the explosion that year in the Sealham Colliery. His resultant study on dangerous dusts did much to further understanding on the use of explosives underground and to improve the safety record of the coal-mining industry. The achievement for which he is most remembered, however, came in 1889, when, in conjunction with Sir James Dewar, he invented cordite. This stable explosive, made of wood fibre, nitric acid and glycerine, had the vital advantage of being a "smokeless powder", which meant that, unlike the traditional ammunition propellant, gunpowder ("black powder"), the firer's position was not given away when the weapon was discharged. Although much of the preliminary work had been done by the Frenchman Paul Vieille, it was Abel who perfected it, with the result that cordite quickly became the British Army's standard explosive.
    Abel married, and was widowed, twice. He had no children, but died heaped in both scientific honours and those from a grateful country.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    Grand Commander of the Royal Victorian Order 1901. Knight Commander of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath 1891 (Commander 1877). Knighted 1883. Created Baronet 1893. FRS 1860. President, Chemical Society 1875–7. President, Institute of Chemistry 1881–2. President, Institute of Electrical Engineers 1883. President, Iron and Steel Institute 1891. Chairman, Society of Arts 1883–4. Telford Medal 1878, Royal Society Royal Medal 1887, Albert Medal (Society of Arts) 1891, Bessemer Gold Medal 1897. Hon. DCL (Oxon.) 1883, Hon. DSc (Cantab.) 1888.
    Bibliography
    1854, with C.L.Bloxam, Handbook of Chemistry: Theoretical, Practical and Technical, London: John Churchill; 2nd edn 1858.
    Besides writing numerous scientific papers, he also contributed several articles to The Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1875–89, 9th edn.
    Further Reading
    Dictionary of National Biography, 1912, Vol. 1, Suppl. 2, London: Smith, Elder.
    CM

    Biographical history of technology > Abel, Sir Frederick August

  • 8 Gabor, Dennis (Dénes)

    [br]
    b. 5 June 1900 Budapest, Hungary
    d. 9 February 1979 London, England
    [br]
    Hungarian (naturalized British) physicist, inventor of holography.
    [br]
    Gabor became interested in physics at an early age. Called up for military service in 1918, he was soon released when the First World War came to an end. He then began a mechanical engineering course at the Budapest Technical University, but a further order to register for military service prompted him to flee in 1920 to Germany, where he completed his studies at Berlin Technical University. He was awarded a Diploma in Engineering in 1924 and a Doctorate in Electrical Engineering in 1927. He then went on to work in the physics laboratory of Siemens \& Halske. He returned to Hungary in 1933 and developed a new kind of fluorescent lamp called the plasma lamp. Failing to find a market for this device, Gabor made the decision to abandon his homeland and emigrate to England. There he joined British Thompson-Houston (BTH) in 1934 and married a colleague from the company in 1936. Gabor was also unsuccessful in his attempts to develop the plasma lamp in England, and by 1937 he had begun to work in the field of electron optics. His work was interrupted by the outbreak of war in 1939, although as he was not yet a British subject he was barred from making any significant contribution to the British war effort. It was only when the war was near its end that he was able to return to electron optics and begin the work that led to the invention of holography. The theory was developed during 1947 and 1948; Gabor went on to demonstrate that the theories worked, although it was not until the invention of the laser in 1960 that the full potential of his invention could be appreciated. He coined the term "hologram" from the Greek holos, meaning complete, and gram, meaning written. The three-dimensional images have since found many applications in various fields, including map making, medical imaging, computing, information technology, art and advertising. Gabor left BTH to become an associate professor at the Imperial College of Science and Technology in 1949, a position he held until his retirement in 1967. In 1971 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for his work on holography.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    Royal Society Rumford Medal 1968. Franklin Institute Michelson Medal 1968. CBE 1970. Nobel Prize for Physics 1971.
    Bibliography
    1948. "A new microscopic principle", Nature 161:777 (Gabor's earliest publication on holography).
    1949. "Microscopy by reconstructed wavefronts", Proceedings of the Royal Society A197: 454–87.
    1951, "Microscopy by reconstructed wavefronts II", Proc. Phys. Soc. B, 64:449–69. 1966, "Holography or the “Whole Picture”", New Scientist 29:74–8 (an interesting account written after laser beams were used to produce optical holograms).
    Further Reading
    T.E.Allibone, 1980, contribution to Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 26: 107–47 (a full account of Gabor's life and work).
    JW

    Biographical history of technology > Gabor, Dennis (Dénes)

  • 9 Perkins, Jacob

    [br]
    b. 9 July 1766 Newburyport, Massachusetts, USA
    d. 30 July 1849 London, England
    [br]
    American inventor of a nail-making machine and a method of printing banknotes, investigator of the use of steam at very high pressures.
    [br]
    Perkins's occupation was that of a gold-and silversmith; while he does not seem to have followed this after 1800, however, it gave him the skills in working metals which he would continue to employ in his inventions. He had been working in America for four years before he patented his nail-making machine in 1796. At the time there was a great shortage of nails because only hand-forged ones were available. By 1800, other people had followed his example and produced automatic nail-making machines, but in 1811 Perkins' improved machines were introduced to England by J.C. Dyer. Eventually Perkins had twenty-one American patents for a range of inventions in his name.
    In 1799 Perkins invented a system of engraving steel plates for printing banknotes, which became the foundation of modern siderographic work. It discouraged forging and was adopted by many banking houses, including the Federal Government when the Second United States Bank was inaugurated in 1816. This led Perkins to move to Philadelphia. In the intervening years, Perkins had improved his nail-making machine, invented a machine for graining morocco leather in 1809, a fire-engine in 1812, a letter-lock for bank vaults and improved methods of rolling out spoons in 1813, and improved armament and equipment for naval ships from 1812 to 1815.
    It was in Philadelphia that Perkins became interested in the steam engine, when he met Oliver Evans, who had pioneered the use of high-pressure steam. He became a member of the American Philosophical Society and conducted experiments on the compressibility of water before a committee of that society. Perkins claimed to have liquified air during his experiments in 1822 and, if so, was the real discoverer of the liquification of gases. In 1819 he came to England to demonstrate his forgery-proof system of printing banknotes, but the Bank of England was the only one which did not adopt his system.
    While in London, Perkins began to experiment with the highest steam pressures used up to that time and in 1822 took out his first of nineteen British patents. This was followed by another in 1823 for a 10 hp (7.5 kW) engine with only 2 in. (51 mm) bore, 12 in. (305 mm) stroke but a pressure of 500 psi (35 kg/cm2), for which he claimed exceptional economy. After 1826, Perkins abandoned his drum boiler for iron tubes and steam pressures of 1,500 psi (105 kg/cm2), but the materials would not withstand such pressures or temperatures for long. It was in that same year that he patented a form of uniflow cylinder that was later taken up by L.J. Todd. One of his engines ran for five days, continuously pumping water at St Katherine's docks, but Perkins could not raise more finance to continue his experiments.
    In 1823 one his high-pressure hot-water systems was installed to heat the Duke of Wellington's house at Stratfield Saye and it acquired a considerable vogue, being used by Sir John Soane, among others. In 1834 Perkins patented a compression ice-making apparatus, but it did not succeed commercially because ice was imported more cheaply from Norway as ballast for sailing ships. Perkins was often dubbed "the American inventor" because his inquisitive personality allied to his inventive ingenuity enabled him to solve so many mechanical challenges.
    [br]
    Further Reading
    Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1943, biography which appeared previously as a shortened version in the Transactions of the Newcomen Society 24.
    D.Bathe and G.Bathe, 1943–5, "The contribution of Jacob Perkins to science and engineering", Transactions of the Newcomen Society 24.
    D.S.L.Cardwell, 1971, From Watt to Clausius. The Rise of Thermodynamics in the Early Industrial Age, London: Heinemann (includes comments on the importance of Perkins's steam engine).
    A.F.Dufton, 1940–1, "Early application of engineering to warming of buildings", Transactions of the Newcomen Society 21 (includes a note on Perkins's application of a high-pressure hot-water heating system).
    RLH

    Biographical history of technology > Perkins, Jacob

  • 10 Sutton, Thomas

    [br]
    b. 1819 England
    d. 1875 Jersey, Channel Islands
    [br]
    English photographer and writer on photography.
    [br]
    In 1841, while studying at Cambridge, Sutton became interested in photography and tried out the current processes, daguerreotype, calotype and cyanotype among them. He subsequently settled in Jersey, where he continued his photographic studies. In 1855 he opened a photographic printing works in Jersey, in partnership with L.-D. Blanquart- Evrard, exploiting the latter's process for producing developed positive prints. He started and edited one of the first photographic periodicals, Photographic Notes, in 1856; until its cessation in 1867, his journal presented a fresher view of the world of photography than that given by its London-based rivals. He also drew up the first dictionary of photography in 1858.
    In 1859 Sutton designed and patented a wideangle lens in which the space between two meniscus lenses, forming parts of a sphere and sealed in a metal rim, was filled with water; the lens so formed could cover an angle of up to 120 degrees at an aperture of f12. Sutton's design was inspired by observing the images produced by the water-filled sphere of a "snowstorm" souvenir brought home from Paris! Sutton commissioned the London camera-maker Frederick Cox to make the Panoramic camera, demonstrating the first model in January 1860; it took panoramic pictures on curved glass plates 152×381 mm in size. Cox later advertised other models in a total of four sizes. In January 1861 Sutton handed over manufacture to Andrew Ross's son Thomas Ross, who produced much-improved lenses and also cameras in three sizes. Sutton then developed the first single-lens reflex camera design, patenting it on 20 August 1961: a pivoted mirror, placed at 45 degrees inside the camera, reflected the image from the lens onto a ground glass-screen set in the top of the camera for framing and focusing. When ready, the mirror was swung up out of the way to allow light to reach the plate at the back of the camera. The design was manufactured for a few years by Thomas Ross and J.H. Dallmeyer.
    In 1861 James Clerk Maxwell asked Sutton to prepare a series of photographs for use in his lecture "On the theory of three primary colours", to be presented at the Royal Institution in London on 17 May 1861. Maxwell required three photographs to be taken through red, green and blue filters, which were to be printed as lantern slides and projected in superimposition through three projectors. If his theory was correct, a colour reproduction of the original subject would be produced. Sutton used liquid filters: ammoniacal copper sulphate for blue, copper chloride for the green and iron sulphocyanide for the red. A fourth exposure was made through lemon-yellow glass, but was not used in the final demonstration. A tartan ribbon in a bow was used as the subject; the wet-collodion process in current use required six seconds for the blue exposure, about twice what would have been needed without the filter. After twelve minutes no trace of image was produced through the green filter, which had to be diluted to a pale green: a twelve-minute exposure then produced a serviceable negative. Eight minutes was enough to record an image through the red filter, although since the process was sensitive only to blue light, nothing at all should have been recorded. In 1961, R.M.Evans of the Kodak Research Laboratory showed that the red liquid transmitted ultraviolet radiation, and by an extraordinary coincidence many natural red dye-stuffs reflect ultraviolet. Thus the red separation was made on the basis of non-visible radiation rather than red, but the net result was correct and the projected images did give an identifiable reproduction of the original. Sutton's photographs enabled Maxwell to establish the validity of his theory and to provide the basis upon which all subsequent methods of colour photography have been founded.
    JW / BC

    Biographical history of technology > Sutton, Thomas

  • 11 Faraday, Michael

    SUBJECT AREA: Electricity
    [br]
    b. 22 September 1791 Newington, Surrey, England
    d. 25 August 1867 London, England
    [br]
    English physicist, discoverer of the principles of the electric motor and dynamo.
    [br]
    Faraday's father was a blacksmith recently moved south from Westmorland. The young Faraday's formal education was limited to attendance at "a Common Day School", and then he worked as an errand boy for George Riebau, a bookseller and bookbinder in London's West End. Riebau subsequently took him as an apprentice bookbinder, and Faraday seized every opportunity to read the books that came his way, especially scientific works.
    A customer in the shop gave Faraday tickets to hear Sir Humphry Davy lecturing at the Royal Institution. He made notes of the lectures, bound them and sent them to Davy, asking for scientific employment. When a vacancy arose for a laboratory assistant at the Royal Institution, Davy remembered Faraday, who he took as his assistant on an 18- month tour of France, Italy and Switzerland (despite the fact that Britain and France were at war!). The tour, and especially Davy's constant company and readiness to explain matters, was a scientific education for Faraday, who returned to the Royal Institution as a competent chemist in his own right. Faraday was interested in electricity, which was then viewed as a branch of chemistry. After Oersted's announcement in 1820 that an electric current could affect a magnet, Faraday devised an arrangement in 1821 for producing continuous motion from an electric current and a magnet. This was the basis of the electric motor. Ten years later, after much thought and experiment, he achieved the converse of Oersted's effect, the production of an electric current from a magnet. This was magneto-electric induction, the basis of the electric generator.
    Electrical engineers usually regard Faraday as the "father" of their profession, but Faraday himself was not primarily interested in the practical applications of his discoveries. His driving motivation was to understand the forces of nature, such as electricity and magnetism, and the relationship between them. Faraday delighted in telling others about science, and studied what made a good scientific lecturer. At the Royal Institution he introduced the Friday Evening Discourses and also the Christmas Lectures for Young People, now televised in the UK every Christmas.
    [br]
    Bibliography
    1991, Curiosity Perfectly Satisfyed. Faraday's Travels in Europe 1813–1815, ed. B.Bowers and L.Symons, Peter Peregrinus (Faraday's diary of his travels with Humphry Davy).
    Further Reading
    L.Pearce Williams, 1965, Michael Faraday. A Biography, London: Chapman \& Hall; 1987, New York: Da Capo Press (the most comprehensive of the many biographies of Faraday and accounts of his work).
    For recent short accounts of his life see: B.Bowers, 1991, Michael Faraday and the Modern World, EPA Press. G.Cantor, D.Gooding and F.James, 1991, Faraday, Macmillan.
    J.Meurig Thomas, 1991, Michael Faraday and the Royal Institution, Adam Hilger.
    BB

    Biographical history of technology > Faraday, Michael

  • 12 Cartwright, Revd Edmund

    [br]
    b. 24 April 1743 Marnham, Nottingham, England
    d. 30 October 1823 Hastings, Sussex, England
    [br]
    English inventor of the power loom, a combing machine and machines for making ropes, bread and bricks as well as agricultural improvements.
    [br]
    Edmund Cartwright, the fourth son of William Cartwright, was educated at Wakefield Grammar School, and went to University College, Oxford, at the age of 14. By special act of convocation in 1764, he was elected Fellow of Magdalen College. He married Alice Whitaker in 1772 and soon after was given the ecclesiastical living of Brampton in Derbyshire. In 1779 he was presented with the living of Goadby, Marwood, Leicestershire, where he wrote poems, reviewed new works, and began agricultural experiments. A visit to Matlock in the summer of 1784 introduced him to the inventions of Richard Arkwright and he asked why weaving could not be mechanized in a similar manner to spinning. This began a remarkable career of inventions.
    Cartwright returned home and built a loom which required two strong men to operate it. This was the first attempt in England to develop a power loom. It had a vertical warp, the reed fell with the weight of at least half a hundredweight and, to quote Gartwright's own words, "the springs which threw the shuttle were strong enough to throw a Congreive [sic] rocket" (Strickland 19.71:8—for background to the "rocket" comparison, see Congreve, Sir William). Nevertheless, it had the same three basics of weaving that still remain today in modern power looms: shedding or dividing the warp; picking or projecting the shuttle with the weft; and beating that pick of weft into place with a reed. This loom he proudly patented in 1785, and then he went to look at hand looms and was surprised to see how simply they operated. Further improvements to his own loom, covered by two more patents in 1786 and 1787, produced a machine with the more conventional horizontal layout that showed promise; however, the Manchester merchants whom he visited were not interested. He patented more improvements in 1788 as a result of the experience gained in 1786 through establishing a factory at Doncaster with power looms worked by a bull that were the ancestors of modern ones. Twenty-four looms driven by steam-power were installed in Manchester in 1791, but the mill was burned down and no one repeated the experiment. The Doncaster mill was sold in 1793, Cartwright having lost £30,000, However, in 1809 Parliament voted him £10,000 because his looms were then coming into general use.
    In 1789 he began working on a wool-combing machine which he patented in 1790, with further improvements in 1792. This seems to have been the earliest instance of mechanized combing. It used a circular revolving comb from which the long fibres or "top" were. carried off into a can, and a smaller cylinder-comb for teasing out short fibres or "noils", which were taken off by hand. Its output equalled that of twenty hand combers, but it was only relatively successful. It was employed in various Leicestershire and Yorkshire mills, but infringements were frequent and costly to resist. The patent was prolonged for fourteen years after 1801, but even then Cartwright did not make any profit. His 1792 patent also included a machine to make ropes with the outstanding and basic invention of the "cordelier" which he communicated to his friends, including Robert Fulton, but again it brought little financial benefit. As a result of these problems and the lack of remuneration for his inventions, Cartwright moved to London in 1796 and for a time lived in a house built with geometrical bricks of his own design.
    Other inventions followed fast, including a tread-wheel for cranes, metallic packing for pistons in steam-engines, and bread-making and brick-making machines, to mention but a few. He had already returned to agricultural improvements and he put forward suggestions in 1793 for a reaping machine. In 1801 he received a prize from the Board of Agriculture for an essay on husbandry, which was followed in 1803 by a silver medal for the invention of a three-furrow plough and in 1805 by a gold medal for his essay on manures. From 1801 to 1807 he ran an experimental farm on the Duke of Bedford's estates at Woburn.
    From 1786 until his death he was a prebendary of Lincoln. In about 1810 he bought a small farm at Hollanden near Sevenoaks, Kent, where he continued his inventions, both agricultural and general. Inventing to the last, he died at Hastings and was buried in Battle church.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    Board of Agriculture Prize 1801 (for an essay on agriculture). Society of Arts, Silver Medal 1803 (for his three-furrow plough); Gold Medal 1805 (for an essay on agricultural improvements).
    Bibliography
    1785. British patent no. 1,270 (power loom).
    1786. British patent no. 1,565 (improved power loom). 1787. British patent no. 1,616 (improved power loom).
    1788. British patent no. 1,676 (improved power loom). 1790, British patent no. 1,747 (wool-combing machine).
    1790, British patent no. 1,787 (wool-combing machine).
    1792, British patent no. 1,876 (improved wool-combing machine and rope-making machine with cordelier).
    Further Reading
    M.Strickland, 1843, A Memoir of the Life, Writings and Mechanical Inventions of Edmund Cartwright, D.D., F.R.S., London (remains the fullest biography of Cartwright).
    Dictionary of National Biography (a good summary of Cartwright's life). For discussions of Cartwright's weaving inventions, see: A.Barlow, 1878, The History and Principles of Weaving by Hand and by Power, London; R.L. Hills, 1970, Power in the Industrial Revolution, Manchester. F.Nasmith, 1925–6, "Fathers of machine cotton manufacture", Transactions of the
    Newcomen Society 6.
    H.W.Dickinson, 1942–3, "A condensed history of rope-making", Transactions of the Newcomen Society 23.
    W.English, 1969, The Textile Industry, London (covers both his power loom and his wool -combing machine).
    RLH

    Biographical history of technology > Cartwright, Revd Edmund

  • 13 Clark, Edwin

    SUBJECT AREA: Civil engineering
    [br]
    b. 7 January 1814 Marlow, Buckinghamshire, England
    d. 22 October 1894 Marlow, Buckinghamshire, England
    [br]
    English civil engineer.
    [br]
    After a basic education in mathematics, latin, French and geometry, Clark was articled to a solicitor, but he left after two years because he did not like the work. He had no permanent training otherwise, and for four years he led an idle life, becoming self-taught in the subjects that interested him. He eventually became a teacher at his old school before entering Cambridge, although he returned home after two years without taking a degree. He then toured the European continent extensively, supporting himself as best he could. He returned to England in 1839 and obtained further teaching posts. With the railway boom in progress he decided to become a surveyor and did some work on a proposed line between Oxford and Brighton.
    After being promised an interview with Robert Stephenson, he managed to see him in March 1846. Stephenson took a liking to Clark and asked him to investigate the strains on the Britannia Bridge tubes under various given conditions. This work so gained Stephenson's full approval that, after being entrusted with experiments and designs, Clark was appointed Resident Engineer for the Britannia Bridge across the Menai Straits. He not only completed the bridge, which was opened on 19 October 1850, but also wrote the history of its construction. After the completion of the bridge—and again without any professional experience—he was appointed Engineer-in-Chief to the Electric and International Telegraph Company. He was consulted by Captain Mark Huish of the London \& North Western Railway on a telegraphic system for the railway, and in 1853 he introduced the Block Telegraph System.
    Clark was engaged on the Crystal Palace and was responsible for many railway bridges in Britain and abroad. He was Engineer and part constructor of the harbour at Callao, Peru, and also of harbour works at Colón, Panama. On canal works he was contractor for the marine canal, the Morskoy Canal, in 1875 between Kronstadt and St Petersburg. His great work on canals, however, was the concept with Edward Leader Williams of the hydraulically operated barge lift at Anderton, Cheshire, linking the Weaver Navigation to the Trent \& Mersey Canal, whose water levels have a vertical separation of 50 ft (15 m). This was opened on 26 July 1875. The structure so impressed the French engineers who were faced with a bottleneck of five locks on the Neuffossée Canal south of Saint-Omer that they commissioned Clark to design a lift there. This was completed in 1878 and survives as a historic monument. The design was also adopted for four lifts on the Canal du Centre at La Louvière in Belgium, but these were not completed until after Clark's death.
    JHB

    Biographical history of technology > Clark, Edwin

  • 14 Smith, Oberlin

    [br]
    b. 22 March 1840 Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
    d. 18 July 1926
    [br]
    American mechanical engineer, pioneer in experiments with magnetic recording.
    [br]
    Of English descent, Smith embarked on an education in mechanical engineering, graduating from West Jersey Academy, Bridgeton, New Jersey, in 1859. In 1863 he established a machine shop in Bridgeton, New Jersey, that became the Ferracute Machine Company in 1877, eventually specializing in the manufacture of presses for metalworking. He seems to have subscribed to design principles considered modern even in the 1990s, "always giving attention to the development of artistic form in combination with simplicity, and with massive strength where required" (bibliographic reference below). He was successful in his business, and developed and patented a large number of mechanical constructions.
    Inspired by the advent of the phonograph of Edison, in 1878 Smith obtained the tin-foil mechanical phonograph, analysed its shortcomings and performed some experiments in magnetic recording. He filed a caveat in the US Patent Office in order to be protected while he "reduced the invention to practice". However, he did not follow this trail. When there was renewed interest in practical sound recording and reproduction in 1888 (the constructions of Berliner and Bell \& Tainter), Smith published an account of his experiments in the journal Electrical World. In a corrective letter three weeks later it is clear that he was aware of the physical requirements for the interaction between magnetic coil and magnetic medium, but his publications also indicate that he did not as such obtain reproduction of recorded sound.
    Smith did not try to develop magnetic recording, but he felt it imperative that he be given credit for conceiving the idea of it. When accounts of Valdemar Poulsen's work were published in 1900, Smith attempted to prove some rights in the invention in the US Patent Office, but to no avail.
    He was a highly respected member of both his community and engineering societies, and in later life became interested in the anti-slavery cause that had also been close to the heart of his parents, as well as in the YMCA movement and in women's suffrage.
    [br]
    Bibliography
    Apart from numerous technical papers, he wrote the book Press Working of Metals, 1896. His accounts on the magnetic recording experiments were "Some possible forms of phonograph", Electrical World (8 September 1888): 161 ff, and "Letter to the Editor", Electrical World (29 September 1888): 179.
    Further Reading
    F.K.Engel, 1990, Documents on the Invention of Magnetic Recording in 1878, New York: Audio Engineering Society, Reprint no. 2,914 (G2) (a good overview of the material collected by the Oberlin Smith Society, Bridgeton, New Jersey, in particular as regards the recording experiments; it is here that it is doubted that Valdemar Poulsen developed his ideas independently).
    GB-N

    Biographical history of technology > Smith, Oberlin

  • 15 Harwood, John

    SUBJECT AREA: Horology
    [br]
    b. 1893 Bolton, England
    d. 9 August 1964
    [br]
    English watchmaker, inventor and producer of the first commercial self-winding wrist watch.
    [br]
    John Harwood served an apprenticeship as a watch repairer in Bolton, and after service in the First World War he obtained a post with a firm of jewellers in Douglas, Isle of Man. He became interested in the self-winding wrist watch, not because of the convenience of not having to wind it, but because of its potential to keep the mainspring fully wound and to exclude dust and moisture from the watch movement. His experience at the bench had taught him that these were the most common factors to affect adversely the reliability of watches. Completely unaware of previous work in this area, in 1922 he started experimenting and two years later he had produced a serviceable model for which he was granted a patent in 1924. The watch operated on the pedometer principle, the mainspring being wound by a pivoted weight that oscillated in the watch case as a result of the motion of the arm. The hands of his watch were set by rotating the bezel surrounding the dial, dispensing with the usual winding/hand-setting stem which allowed dust and moisture to enter the watch case. He took the watch to Switzerland, but he was unable to persuade the watchmaking firms to produce it until he had secured independent finance to cover the cost of tooling. The Harwood Self-Winding Watch Company Ltd was set up in 1928 to market the watches, but although several thousand were produced the company became a victim of the slump and closed down in 1932. The first practical self-winding watch also operated on the pedometer principle and is attributed to Abraham-Louis Perrellet (1770). The method was refined by Breguet in France and by Recordon, who patented the device in England, but it proved troublesome and went out of fashion. There was a brief revival of interest in self-winding watches towards the end of the nineteenth century, but they never achieved great popularity until after the Second World War, when they used either self-winding mechanisms similar to that devised by Harwood or weights which rotated in the case.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    British Horological Institute Gold Medal 1957.
    Bibliography
    1 September 1924, Swiss patent no. 106,582.
    Further Reading
    A.Chapuis and E.Jaquet, 1956, The History of the Self-Winding Watch, London (provides general information).
    "How the automatic wrist watch was invented", 1957, Horological Journal 99:612–61 (for specific information).
    DV

    Biographical history of technology > Harwood, John

  • 16 Mercer, John

    SUBJECT AREA: Textiles
    [br]
    b. 21 February 1791 Great Harwood, Lancashire, England
    d. 30 November 1866 Oakenshaw, Lancashire, England
    [br]
    English pioneer in textile chemistry.
    [br]
    Mercer began work at the age of 9 as a bobbinwinder and then a hand-loom weaver. He had no formal education in chemistry but taught himself and revealed remarkable ability in both theoretical and applied aspects of the subject. He became the acknowledged "father of textile chemistry" and the Royal Society elected him Fellow in 1850. His name is remembered in connection with the lustrous "mercerized" cotton which, although not developed commercially until 1890, arose from his discovery, c. 1844, of the effect of caustic soda on cotton linters. He also discovered that cotton could be dissolved in a solution of copper oxide in ammonia, a phenomenon later exploited in the manufacture of artificial silk. As a youth, Mercer experimented at home with dyeing processes and soon acquired sufficient skill to set up as an independent dyer. Most of his working life was, however, spent with the calico-printing firm of Oakenshaw Print Works in which he eventually became a partner, and it was there that most of his experimental work was done. The association was a very appropriate one, for it was a member of this firm's staff who first recognized Mercer's potential talent and took the trouble in his spare time to teach him reading, writing and arithmetic. Mercer developed manganese-bronze colours and researched into catalysis and the ferrocyanides. Among his innovations was the chlorination of wool in order to make it print as easily as cotton. It was many years later that it was realized that this treatment also conferred valuable shrink-resisting qualities. Becoming interested in photochemistry, he devised processes for photographic printing on fabric. Queen Victoria was presented with a handkerchief printed in this way when she visited the Great Exhibition of 1851, of which Mercer was a juror. A photograph of Mercer himself on cloth is preserved in the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester. He presented papers to the British Association and was a member of the Chemical Society.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    FRS 1850.
    Further Reading
    Obituary, Manchester Memoirs, Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society.
    Dictionary of National Biography.
    E.A.Parnell, 1886. The Life and Labours of John Mercer, F.R.S., London (biography). 1867, biography, Journal of the Chemical Society.
    A.E.Musson and E.Robinson, 1969, Science and Technology in the Industrial Revolution, Manchester (includes a brief reference to Mercer's work).
    RLH

    Biographical history of technology > Mercer, John

  • 17 Fischer, E.

    [br]
    fl. 1930s Switzerland
    [br]
    Swiss engineer who invented the Eidophor large-screen television projector.
    [br]
    Fischer was a professor of engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in the late 1930s. Interested in the emerging technology for television, he was of the opinion that the growth of television would take place through the development and use of large-screen cinema-type displays serving large audiences. He therefore carried out research into suitable techniques. Realizing the brightness limitations of projection systems based on the optical magnification of the image produced by a conventional cathode ray tube, he used the deflected electron-beam, not to excite a phosphor screen, but to deposit a variable charge on the surface of a film or oil. By means of a Schlieren slit system, the consequent deformations of the surface were used to spatially modulate the light from an electric arc or a discharge tube, giving a large, high-brightness image. Although the idea, first put forward in 1939, was not taken up for cinema television, the subsequent requirement of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration in the 1960s for large colour displays in its Command and Control Centres led to the successful development of the idea by Gretag AG, a subsidiary of Ciba-Geigy: separate units were used for the red, green and blue images. In the 1990s, colour Eidophor projectors were used for large conference meetings and pop concerts.
    [br]
    Bibliography
    1946, "Views on the suitability of a cathode ray tube with a fluorescent screen for projection in cinemas", Bulletin of the Association of Swiss Electricians 39:468 (describes the concept of the Eidophor).
    Further Reading
    E.H.Baumann, 1953, "The Fischer large screen projection system", Journal of Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers 60:344.
    A.Robertson, 1976, "Projection television. A review of current practice in large-screen projectors", Wireless World 47.
    KF

    Biographical history of technology > Fischer, E.

  • 18 Renard, Charles

    SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace
    [br]
    b. 23 November 1847 Damblain, Vosges, France
    d. 13 April 1905 Chalais-Meudon, France
    [br]
    French pioneer of military aeronautics who, with A.C.Krebs, built an airship powered by an electric motor.
    [br]
    Charles Renard was a French army officer with an interest in aviation. In 1873 he constructed an unusual unmanned glider with ten wings and an automatic stabilizing device to control rolling. This operated by means of a pendulum device linked to moving control surfaces. The model was launched from a tower near Arras, but unfortunately it spiralled into the ground. The control surfaces could not cope with the basic instability of the design, but as an idea for automatic flight control it was ahead of its time.
    Following a Commission report on the military use of balloons, carrier pigeons and an optical telegraph, an aeronautical establishment was set up in 1877 at Chalais-Meudon, near Paris, under the direction of Charles Renard, who was assisted by his brother Paul. The following year Renard and a colleague, Arthur Krebs, began to plan an airship. They received financial help from Léon Gambetta, a prominent politician who had escaped from Paris by balloon in 1870 during the siege by the Prussians. Renard and Krebs studied earlier airship designs: they used the outside shape of Paul Haenlein's gas-engined airship of 1872 and included Meusnier's internal air-filled ballonnets. The gas-engine had not been a success so they decided on an electric motor. Renard developed lightweight pile batteries while Krebs designed a motor, although this was later replaced by a more powerful Gramme motor of 6.5 kW (9 hp). La France was constructed at Chalais-Meudon and, after a two-month wait for calm conditions, the airship finally ascended on 9 August 1884. The motor was switched on and the flight began. Renard and Krebs found their airship handled well and after twenty-three minutes they landed back at their base. La, France made several successful flights, but its speed of only 24 km/h (15 mph) meant that flights could be made only in calm weather. Parts of La, France, including the electric motor, are preserved in the Musée de l'Air in Paris.
    Renard remained in charge of the establishment at Chalais-Meudon until his death. Among other things, he developed the "Train Renard", a train of articulated road vehicles for military and civil use, of which a number were built between 1903 and 1911. Towards the end of his life Renard became interested in helicopters, and in 1904 he built a large twin-rotor model which, however, failed to take off.
    [br]
    Bibliography
    1886, Le Ballon dirigeable La France, Paris (a description of the airship).
    Further Reading
    Descriptions of Renard and Kreb's airship are given in most books on the history of lighter-than-air flight, e.g.
    L.T.C.Rolt, 1966, The Aeronauts, London; pub. in paperback 1985.
    C.Bailleux, c. 1988, Association pour l'Histoire de l'Electricité en France, (a detailed account of the conception and operations of La France).
    1977, Centenaire de la recherche aéronautique à Chalais-Meudon, Paris (an official memoir on the work of Chalais-Meudon with a chapter on Renard).
    JDS

    Biographical history of technology > Renard, Charles

  • 19 Voigt, Paul Gustavus Adolphus Helmuth

    [br]
    b. 9 December 1901 Forest Hill, London, England
    d. 9 February 1981 Brighton, Ontario, Canada
    [br]
    English/Canadian electronics engineer, developer of electromechanical recording and reproductions systems, amplifiers and loudspeakers.
    [br]
    He received his education at Dulwich College and in 1922 graduated with a BSc from University College, London. He had an early interest in the application of valve amplifiers, and after graduating he was employed by J.E.Hough, Edison Bell Works, to develop a line of radio-receiving equipment. However, he became interested in the mechanical (and later electrical) side of recording and from 1925 developed principles and equipment. In particular he developed capacitor microphones, not only for in-house work but also commercially, until the mid-1930s. The Edison Bell company did not survive the Depression and closed in 1933. Voigt founded his own company, Voigt Patents Ltd, concentrating on loudspeakers for cinemas and developing horn loudspeakers for domestic use. During the Second World War he continued to develop loudspeaker units and gramophone pick-ups, and in 1950 he emigrated to Toronto, Canada, but his company closed. Voigt taught electronics, and from 1960 to 1969 he was employed by the Radio Regulations Laboratory in Ottawa. After retirement he worked with theoretical cosmology and fundamental interactions.
    [br]
    Bibliography
    Most of Voigt's patents are concerned with improvements in the magnetic circuit in dynamic loudspeakers and centring devices for diaphragms. However, UK patent nos. 278,098, 404,037 and 447,749 may be regarded as particularly relevant. In 1940 Voigt contributed a remarkable paper on the principles of equalization in mechanical recording: "Getting the best from records, part 1—the recording characteristic", Wireless World (February): 141–4.
    Further Reading
    Personal accounts of experiences with Voigt may be found in "Paul Voigt's contribution to Audio", British Kinematography Sound and Television (October 1970): 316–27, which also includes a list of his patents.
    GB-N

    Biographical history of technology > Voigt, Paul Gustavus Adolphus Helmuth

  • 20 Wright, Frank Lloyd

    [br]
    b. 8 June 1869 Richland Center, Wisconsin, USA
    d. 9 April 1959 Phoenix, Arizona, USA
    [br]
    American architect who, in an unparalleled career spanning almost seventy years, became the most important figure on the modern architectural scene both in his own country and far further afield.
    [br]
    Wright began his career in 1887 working in the Chicago offices of Adler \& Sullivan. He conceived a great admiration for Sullivan, who was then concentrating upon large commercial projects in modern mode, producing functional yet decorative buildings which took all possible advantage of new structural methods. Wright was responsible for many of the domestic commissions.
    In 1893 Wright left the firm in order to set up practice on his own, thus initiating a career which was to develop into three distinct phases. In the first of these, up until the First World War, he was chiefly designing houses in a concept in which he envisaged "the house as a shelter". These buildings displayed his deeply held opinion that detached houses in country areas should be designed as an integral part of the landscape, a view later to be evidenced strongly in the work of modern Finnish architects. Wright's designs were called "prairie houses" because so many of them were built in the MidWest of America, which Wright described as a "prairie". These were low and spreading, with gently sloping rooflines, very plain and clean lined, built of traditional materials in warm rural colours, blending softly into their settings. Typical was W.W.Willit's house of 1902 in Highland Park, Illinois.
    In the second phase of his career Wright began to build more extensively in modern materials, utilizing advanced means of construction. A notable example was his remarkable Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, carefully designed and built in 1916–22 (now demolished), with special foundations and structure to withstand (successfully) strong earthquake tremors. He also became interested in the possibilities of reinforced concrete; in 1906 he built his church at Oak Park, Illinois, entirely of this material. In the 1920s, in California, he abandoned his use of traditional materials for house building in favour of precast concrete blocks, which were intended to provide an "organic" continuity between structure and decorative surfacing. In his continued exploration of the possibilities of concrete as a building material, he created the dramatic concept of'Falling Water', a house built in 1935–7 at Bear Run in Pennsylvania in which he projected massive reinforced-concrete terraces cantilevered from a cliff over a waterfall in the woodlands. In the later 1930s an extraordinary run of original concepts came from Wright, then nearing 70 years of age, ranging from his own winter residence and studio, Taliesin West in Arizona, to the administration block for Johnson Wax (1936–9) in Racine, Wisconsin, where the main interior ceiling was supported by Minoan-style, inversely tapered concrete columns rising to spreading circular capitals which contained lighting tubes of Pyrex glass.
    Frank Lloyd Wright continued to work until four days before his death at the age of 91. One of his most important and certainly controversial commissions was the Solomon R.Guggenheim Museum in New York. This had been proposed in 1943 but was not finally built until 1956–9; in this striking design the museum's exhibition areas are ranged along a gradually mounting spiral ramp lit effectively from above. Controversy stemmed from the unusual and original design of exterior banding and interior descending spiral for wall-display of paintings: some critics strongly approved, while others, equally strongly, did not.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    RIBA Royal Gold Medal 1941.
    Bibliography
    1945, An Autobiography, Faber \& Faber.
    Further Reading
    E.Kaufmann (ed.), 1957, Frank Lloyd Wright: an American Architect, New York: Horizon Press.
    H.Russell Hitchcock, 1973, In the Nature of Materials, New York: Da Capo.
    T.A.Heinz, 1982, Frank Lloyd Wright, New York: St Martin's.
    DY

    Biographical history of technology > Wright, Frank Lloyd

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