-
1 Siemens, Sir Charles William
[br]b. 4 April 1823 Lenthe, Germanyd. 19 November 1883 London, England[br]German/British metallurgist and inventory pioneer of the regenerative principle and open-hearth steelmaking.[br]Born Carl Wilhelm, he attended craft schools in Lübeck and Magdeburg, followed by an intensive course in natural science at Göttingen as a pupil of Weber. At the age of 19 Siemens travelled to England and sold an electroplating process developed by his brother Werner Siemens to Richard Elkington, who was already established in the plating business. From 1843 to 1844 he obtained practical experience in the Magdeburg works of Count Stolburg. He settled in England in 1844 and later assumed British nationality, but maintained close contact with his brother Werner, who in 1847 had co-founded the firm Siemens \& Halske in Berlin to manufacture telegraphic equipment. William began to develop his regenerative principle of waste-heat recovery and in 1856 his brother Frederick (1826–1904) took out a British patent for heat regeneration, by which hot waste gases were passed through a honeycomb of fire-bricks. When they became hot, the gases were switched to a second mass of fire-bricks and incoming air and fuel gas were led through the hot bricks. By alternating the two gas flows, high temperatures could be reached and considerable fuel economies achieved. By 1861 the two brothers had incorporated producer gas fuel, made by gasifying low-grade coal.Heat regeneration was first applied in ironmaking by Cowper in 1857 for heating the air blast in blast furnaces. The first regenerative furnace was set up in Birmingham in 1860 for glassmaking. The first such furnace for making steel was developed in France by Pierre Martin and his father, Emile, in 1863. Siemens found British steelmakers reluctant to adopt the principle so in 1866 he rented a small works in Birmingham to develop his open-hearth steelmaking furnace, which he patented the following year. The process gradually made headway; as well as achieving high temperatures and saving fuel, it was slower than Bessemer's process, permitting greater control over the content of the steel. By 1900 the tonnage of open-hearth steel exceeded that produced by the Bessemer process.In 1872 Siemens played a major part in founding the Society of Telegraph Engineers (from which the Institution of Electrical Engineers evolved), serving as its first President. He became President for the second time in 1878. He built a cable works at Charlton, London, where the cable could be loaded directly into the holds of ships moored on the Thames. In 1873, together with William Froude, a British shipbuilder, he designed the Faraday, the first specialized vessel for Atlantic cable laying. The successful laying of a cable from Europe to the United States was completed in 1875, and a further five transatlantic cables were laid by the Faraday over the following decade.The Siemens factory in Charlton also supplied equipment for some of the earliest electric-lighting installations in London, including the British Museum in 1879 and the Savoy Theatre in 1882, the first theatre in Britain to be fully illuminated by electricity. The pioneer electric-tramway system of 1883 at Portrush, Northern Ireland, was an opportunity for the Siemens company to demonstrate its equipment.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsKnighted 1883. FRS 1862. Institution of Civil Engineers Telford Medal 1853. President, Institution of Mechanical Engineers 1872. President, Society of Telegraph Engineers 1872 and 1878. President, British Association 1882.Bibliography27 May 1879, British patent no. 2,110 (electricarc furnace).1889, The Scientific Works of C.William Siemens, ed. E.F.Bamber, 3 vols, London.Further ReadingW.Poles, 1888, Life of Sir William Siemens, London; repub. 1986 (compiled from material supplied by the family).S.von Weiher, 1972–3, "The Siemens brothers. Pioneers of the electrical age in Europe", Transactions of the Newcomen Society 45:1–11 (a short, authoritative biography). S.von Weihr and H.Goetler, 1983, The Siemens Company. Its Historical Role in theProgress of Electrical Engineering 1847–1980, English edn, Berlin (a scholarly account with emphasis on technology).GWBiographical history of technology > Siemens, Sir Charles William
-
2 Ferranti, Sebastian Ziani de
[br]b. 9 April 1864 Liverpool, Englandd. 13 January 1930 Zurich, Switzerland[br]English manufacturing engineer and inventor, a pioneer and early advocate of high-voltage alternating-current electric-power systems.[br]Ferranti, who had taken an interest in electrical and mechanical devices from an early age, was educated at St Augustine's College in Ramsgate and for a short time attended evening classes at University College, London. Rather than pursue an academic career, Ferranti, who had intense practical interests, found employment in 1881 with the Siemens Company (see Werner von Siemens) in their experimental department. There he had the opportunity to superintend the installation of electric-lighting plants in various parts of the country. Becoming acquainted with Alfred Thomson, an engineer, Ferranti entered into a short-lived partnership with him to manufacture the Ferranti alternator. This generator, with a unique zig-zag armature, had an efficiency exceeding that of all its rivals. Finding that Sir William Thomson had invented a similar machine, Ferranti formed a company with him to combine the inventions and produce the Ferranti- Thomson machine. For this the Hammond Electric Light and Power Company obtained the sole selling rights.In 1885 the Grosvenor Gallery Electricity Supply Corporation was having serious problems with its Gaulard and Gibbs series distribution system. Ferranti, when consulted, reviewed the design and recommended transformers connected across constant-potential mains. In the following year, at the age of 22, he was appointed Engineer to the company and introduced the pattern of electricity supply that was eventually adopted universally. Ambitious plans by Ferranti for London envisaged the location of a generating station of unprecedented size at Deptford, about eight miles (13 km) from the city, a departure from the previous practice of placing stations within the area to be supplied. For this venture the London Electricity Supply Corporation was formed. Ferranti's bold decision to bring the supply from Deptford at the hitherto unheard-of pressure of 10,000 volts required him to design suitable cables, transformers and generators. Ferranti planned generators with 10,000 hp (7,460 kW)engines, but these were abandoned at an advanced stage of construction. Financial difficulties were caused in part when a Board of Trade enquiry in 1889 reduced the area that the company was able to supply. In spite of this adverse situation the enterprise continued on a reduced scale. Leaving the London Electricity Supply Corporation in 1892, Ferranti again started his own business, manufacturing electrical plant. He conceived the use of wax-impregnated paper-insulated cables for high voltages, which formed a landmark in the history of cable development. This method of flexible-cable manufacture was used almost exclusively until synthetic materials became available. In 1892 Ferranti obtained a patent which set out the advantages to be gained by adopting sector-shaped conductors in multi-core cables. This was to be fundamental to the future design and development of such cables.A total of 176 patents were taken out by S.Z. de Ferranti. His varied and numerous inventions included a successful mercury-motor energy meter and improvements to textile-yarn produc-tion. A transmission-line phenomenon where the open-circuit voltage at the receiving end of a long line is greater than the sending voltage was named the Ferranti Effect after him.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsFRS 1927. President, Institution of Electrical Engineers 1910 and 1911. Institution of Electrical Engineers Faraday Medal 1924.Bibliography18 July 1882, British patent no. 3,419 (Ferranti's first alternator).13 December 1892, British patent no. 22,923 (shaped conductors of multi-core cables). 1929, "Electricity in the service of man", Journal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers 67: 125–30.Further ReadingG.Z.de Ferranti and R. Ince, 1934, The Life and Letters of Sebastian Ziani de Ferranti, London.A.Ridding, 1964, S.Z.de Ferranti. Pioneer of Electric Power, London: Science Museum and HMSO (a concise biography).R.H.Parsons, 1939, Early Days of the Power Station Industry, Cambridge, pp. 21–41.GWBiographical history of technology > Ferranti, Sebastian Ziani de
См. также в других словарях:
Siemens, Sir William — ▪ British inventor in full Charles William Siemens, original name Karl Wilhelm Siemens born April 4, 1823, Lenthe, Prussia [now in Germany] died Nov. 19, 1883, London, Eng. German born English engineer and inventor, important in the… … Universalium
Siemens — Siemens, 1) Franz Ernst, Landwirt, geb. 1780 in Lutter am Barenberg, gest. 1855 in List bei Hannover, war 1806–30 Pächter der fürstlich waldeckschen Domäne Pyrmont und führte Aräometer und Thermometer, das Sieden und Zerkleinern der Kartoffeln… … Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon
Carl Wilhelm Siemens — Born 4 April 1823 (2011 04 04T18:23) Gehrden … Wikipedia
Carl Wilhelm Siemens — Wilhelm Siemens (1880), Photographie, beleuchtet durch elektrisches Licht … Deutsch Wikipedia
Ernst Werner von Siemens — Infobox Scientist name = Werner von Siemens image width = 240px caption = birth date = birth date|1816|12|13 birth place = Lenthe, Germany death date= death date and age|1892|12|6|1816|12|13 death place = residence = citizenship = ethnicity =… … Wikipedia
William Unwin — Infobox Engineer image width = caption = name = William Unwin nationality = English birth date = 12 December 1838 birth place = Coggeshall, Essex death date = Death date and age|1933|3|17|1838|12|12 death place = education = City of London School … Wikipedia
Albert Medal (RSA) — This article describes the Albert Medal for distinguished merit in promoting Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. For the Albert Medal for Lifesaving, see Albert Medal (lifesaving). The Albert Medal of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) was instituted… … Wikipedia
Alexander Bain (inventor) — Infobox Celebrity name = Alexander Bain caption = For many years I have devoted myself to rendering electricity practically useful, and have been extensively engaged, not only in this country, but in America and on the Continent, in the… … Wikipedia
List of inventors — This is a list of inventors. See also: List of scientists, Timeline of invention, List of inventions named after people, List of inventors killed by their own inventions, and . Alphabetical list compactTOC NOTOC A * Vitaly Mikhaylovich Abalakov,… … Wikipedia
Goslar — Infobox German Location Art = Stadt Wappen = Wappen Goslar.svg lat deg = 51 | lat min = 54 | lat sec = 26 lon deg = 10 | lon min = 25 | lon sec = 48 Bundesland = Lower Saxony Landkreis = Goslar Höhe = 255 Fläche = 92.58 Einwohner = 43058 Stand =… … Wikipedia
Giant's Causeway Tramway — The Giant s Causeway Tramway, operated by the Giant s Causeway, Portrush and Bush Valley Railway Tramway Company Ltd, was a pioneering RailGauge|36 gauge electric narrow gauge railway operating between Portrush and the Giant s Causeway on the… … Wikipedia
