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1 Percy, John
SUBJECT AREA: Metallurgy[br]b. 23 March 1817 Nottingham, Englandd. 19 June 1889 London, England[br]English metallurgist, first Professor of Metallurgy at the School of Mines, London.[br]After a private education, Percy went to Paris in 1834 to study medicine and to attend lectures on chemistry by Gay-Lussac and Thenard. After 1838 he studied medicine at Edinburgh, obtaining his MD in 1839. In that year he was appointed Professor of Chemistry at Queen's College, Birmingham, moving to Queen's Hospital at Birmingham in 1843. During his time at Birmingham, Percy became well known for his analysis of blast furnace slags, and was involved in the manufacture of optical glass. On 7 June 1851 Percy was appointed Metallurgical Professor and Teacher at the Museum of Practical Geology established in Jermyn Street, London, and opened in May 1851. In November of 1851, when the Museum became the Government (later Royal) School of Mines, Percy was appointed Lecturer in Metallurgy. In addition to his work at Jermyn Street, Percy lectured on metallurgy to the Advanced Class of Artillery at Woolwich from 1864 until his death, and from 1866 he was Superintendent of Ventilation at the Houses of Parliament. He served from 1861 to 1864 on the Special Committee on Iron set up to examine the performance of armour-plate in relation to its purity, composition and structure.Percy is best known for his metallurgical text books, published by John Murray. Volume I of Metallurgy, published in 1861, dealt with fuels, fireclays, copper, zinc and brass; Volume II, in 1864, dealt with iron and steel; a volume on lead appeared in 1870, followed by one on fuels and refractories in 1875, and the first volume on gold and silver in 1880. Further projected volumes on iron and steel, noble metals, and on copper, did not materialize. In 1879 Percy resigned from his School of Mines appointment in protest at the proposed move from Jermyn Street to South Kensington. The rapid growth of Percy's metallurgical collection, started in 1839, eventually forced him to move to a larger house. After his death, the collection was bought by the South Kensington (later Science) Museum. Now comprising 3,709 items, it provides a comprehensive if unselective record of nineteenth-century metallurgy, the most interesting specimens being those of the first sodium-reduced aluminium made in Britain and some of the first steel produced by Bessemer in Baxter House. Metallurgy for Percy was a technique of chemical extraction, and he has been criticized for basing his system of metallurgical instruction on this assumption. He stood strangely aloof from new processes of steel making such as that of Gilchrist and Thomas, and tended to neglect early developments in physical metallurgy, but he was the first in Britain to teach metallurgy as a discipline in its own right.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsFRS 1847. President, Iron and Steel Institute 1885, 1886.Bibliography1861–80, Metallurgy, 5 vols, London: John Murray.Further ReadingS.J.Cackett, 1989, "Dr Percy and his metallurgical collection", Journal of the Hist. Met. Society 23(2):92–8.RLH -
2 Pilcher, Percy Sinclair
SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace[br]b. 16 January 1867 Bath, Englandd. 2 October 1899 Stanford Hall, Northamptonshire, England[br]English designer and glider aeronaut.[br]He was educated at HMS Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, from 1880 to 1882. He sailed on HMS Duke of Wellington, Agincourt, Northampton and other ships and resigned from the navy on 18 April 187 after seven years at sea. In June 1887 he was apprenticed at Randolph, Elder \& Co.'s shipyard at Govan, and was then an apprentice moulder at Cairn \& Co., Glasgow. For some time he "studied" at London University (though there is no official record of his doing so) while living with his sister at Phillbeck Gardens, South Kensington. In May 1890 he was working for John H.Biles, Manager of the Southampton Naval Works Ltd. Biles was later appointed Professor of Naval Architecture at Glasgow University with Pilcher as his Assistant Lecturer. In 1895 he was building his first glider, the Bat, which was built mainly of Riga pine and weighed 44 lb (20 kg). In succeeding months he travelled to Lichterfelde to study the gliders made by the German Lilienthal and built a further three machines, the Beetle, the Gull and the Hawk. In 1896 he applied for his only aeronautical patent, for "Improved flying and soaring machines", which was accepted on March 1897. In April 1896 he resigned his position at Glasgow University to become Assistant to Sir Hiram Maxim, who was also doing experiments with flying machines at his Nordenfeld Guns and Ammunition Co. Ltd at Crayford. He took up residence in Artillery Mansions, Victoria Street, later taken over by Vickers Ltd. Maxim had a hangar at Upper Lodge Farm, Austin Eynsford, Kent: using this, Pilcher reached a height of 12 ft (3.66m) in 1899 with a cable launch. He planned to build a 2 hp (1.5 kW) petrol engine In September 1899 he went to stay with Lord Braye at Stanford Hall, Northamptonshire, where many people came to see his flying machine, a triplane. The weather was far from ideal, windy and raining, but Pilcher would not disappoint them. A bracing wire broke, the tail collapsed and the pilot crashed to the ground suffering two broken legs and concussion. He did not regain consciousness and died the following day. He was buried in Brompton Cemetery.[br]Bibliography1896, British patent no. 9144 "Improved flying and soaring machines".Further ReadingP.Jarrett, 1987, Another Icarus. Percy Pilcher and the Quest for Flight, Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.A.Welch and L.Welch, 1965, The Story of Gliding, London: John Murray.IMcNBiographical history of technology > Pilcher, Percy Sinclair
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3 Willys, John North
(1873-1935) Виллис, Джон НортАвтомобилестроитель. Начинал в мастерской по ремонту велосипедов, затем создал фирму по их производству. В 1907 купил компанию "Оверленд отомобил" [Overland Automobile Co.], превратив ее со временем в "Виллис-Оверленд моторс" [Willys-Overland Motors] (с 1919 корпорация "Виллис" [Willys Corp.]); в конце 1920-х реорганизацию фирмы возглавил У. Крайслер [ Chrysler, Walter Percy]English-Russian dictionary of regional studies > Willys, John North
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4 Gibbons, John
SUBJECT AREA: Metallurgy[br]fl. 1800–50 Staffordshire, England[br]English ironmaster who introduced the round hearth in the blastfurnace.[br]Gibbons was an ironmaster in the Black Country, South Staffordshire, in charge of six blast furnaces owned by the family business. Until Gibbons's innovation in 1832, small changes in the form of the furnace had at times been made, but no one had seriously questioned the square shape of the hearth. Gibbons noticed that a new furnace often worked poorly by improved as time went on. When it was "blown out", i.e. taken out of commission, he found that the corners of the hearth had been rounded off and the sides gouged out, so that it was roughly circular in shape. Gibbons wisely decided to build a blast furnace with a round hearth alongside an existing one with a traditionally shaped hearth and work them in exactly the same conditions. The old furnace produced 75 tons of iron in a week, about normal for the time, while the new one produced 100 tons. Further improvements followed and in 1838 a fellow ironmaster in the same district, T. Oakes, considerably enlarged the furnace, its height attaining no less than 60ft (18m). As a result, output soared to over 200 tons a week. Most other ironmasters adopted the new form with enthusiasm and it proved to be the basis for the modern blast furnace. Gibbons made another interesting innovation: he began charging his furnace with the "rubbish", slag or cinder, from earlier ironmaking operations. It contained a significant amount of iron and was cheaper to obtain than iron ore, as it was just lying around in heaps. Some ironmasters scorned to use other people's throw-outs, but Gibbons sensibly saw it as a cheap source of iron; it was a useful source for some years during the nineteenth century but its use died out when the heaps were used up. Gibbons published an account of his improvements in ironmaking in a pamphlet entitled Practical Remarks on the Construction of the Staffordshire Blast Furnace.[br]Bibliography1839, Practical Remarks on the Construction of the Staffordshire Blast Furnace, Birmingham; reprinted 1844.Further ReadingJ.Percy, 1864, Metallurgy. Iron and Steel, London, p. 476. W.K.V.Gale, 1969, Iron and Steel, London: Longmans, pp. 44–6.LRD -
5 Metallurgy
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6 Land transport
See also: INDEX BY SUBJECT AREA[br]Austin, HerbertHamilton, Harold LeeIssigonis, Sir Alexander Arnold ConstantineMa JunMorris, William RichardSauerbrun, Charles de -
7 Railways and locomotives
Biographical history of technology > Railways and locomotives
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8 Civil engineering
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9 Aerospace
See also: INDEX BY SUBJECT AREA[br]Caproni, Giovanni BattistaDassault, MarcelGiffard, Baptiste Henry JacquesJohnson, Clarence LeonardKorolov, Sergei PavlovichSopwith, Sir Thomas Octave MurdochTsiolkovsky, Konstantin Eduardovich -
10 пенис
1) General subject: (половой) cock, penis2) Biology: phallus3) Colloquial: wand, gentleman's sausage4) Australian slang: old teller5) Euphemism: Uncle Sam6) Jargon: peen (short for penis), choad, braun7) Invective: bicho, jang, middle leg, piccolo (при оральном половом акте), pinga, tool, wag (обычно маленького мальчика), wang, ying-yang, Johnson, arm, cock, jing-jang, joy knob, joy-stick, pecker, pencil, peter, pole, prick, pud, pudding (особенно используемый при мастурбации), rod, whang, yang8) Taboo: Anglican length, Athenaeum, Cyclops, Fagan, Irish root, Jezebel, John, John Thomas, Little Willie, Long Dong Silver, Mister Tom, Mr Jones, Mr. Happy, Mr. Sausage, Oscar, Perce, Percy, Randy Rupert, Rumple Foreskin, Rupert, Spam javelin, Spurt Reynolds (игра слов на spurt и имени актера Burt Reynolds), Wolver, Zab (из арабского), ace poker, almond, arbor vitae, baby-maker, bacon bazooka, bald-headed hermit, banana, bat, baton, bazooka, bean, bean-tosser, beard-jammer, beaver cleaver, bed flute (см. pink oboe; особ. как объект орального секса), bell-rope, best leg of three, big bamboo, big daddy, bingey, bit of hard (см. hard-on), bit of snug, blade, blow stick, blowtorch, blue veined steak, bog bamboo, bolt, bone phone, bowel trowel, boy, boymeat, bozak, brush, business, button worker (см. button), cannon, captain, chanticleer, cheesepipe (см. cheese), cheesy wheelbarrow, chopper, chum, clam ram, cock-opener, cocklet, copper stick, corey, corker, corn beef cudgel, cory, crab ladder, crack-haunter, cracksman, crank, cranny-hunter, cream-stick, crimson crowbar, cuckoo, cucumber, custard cannon (см. lamb cannon, mutton musket), dagger, dang, dangle, dangler, dearest member, derrick, dick, diddle, dildo, ding dong, dingle-dangle, dinosaur, dipstick, dirk, dolly, dong, donger, doob, doodle (обыч. у ребенка), doover, dork, driving post, drumstick, dummy, (от еврейского 80+90, означающего буквы pay и tzadik, являющиеся эвфемизмом слова putz q.v.) eighty-ninety, eleventh finger, enob, eye opener, fallos, fanny battering ram, fanny rat, ferret (см. exercise the ferret), fiddle-bow (см. fiddle), fishing-rod, flapjack, flapper, fleshy fugelhorn, flip-flap, flute, fool-maker, fornicating engine, fornicator, four-eleven-forty-four (4-11-44), (4-9-3-11, по номерам букв в алфавите) four-nine-three-eleven, fuck stick, fuckstick, gap-stopper, gardener, generating tool, gibbon gristle, giggle-stick, girl-catcher, girlometer, goo gun, goober, goose's neck, gooser, gravy-giver, grinding tool, gristle, guided muscle (см. meat seeking pissile), gully raker, gun, gut-stick, hair-divider, ham howitzer, hambone, hammer, hampton (см. Hampton Wick), handstaff, hang down, hanging johnny (особ. у импотента или мужчины, зараженного венерическим заболеванием), happy lamp, hermit, hickey, hicky, high pressure vein cane, hissing Sid, holy iron, holy poker, honker, hood, hoop stretcher, hootchee, horn, horse, hot dog, hot rod, ice cream machine, inch, incher, instrument, jack, jack in the box, jammy, jerking iron, jigger, jiggling bore, jimmy, jing-jang (см. jang), jock, joint, jojo, jones, junior (обычно мужчина называет так свой собственный), key, kidney-scraper, kirp (перевертыш от prick q.v.), knob, knock, knocker, labia lard, ladies' delight, ladies' lollipop, lamb cannon, lamp of life, lance, langer, langolee, large lad, leather-stretcher, leg, lemon, length (см. yardage), lingam (из санскрита), lipstick (по аналогии с тем, как помада появляется из тюбика), little Davy, little brother (см. little sister), little finger, little friend, live rabbit, live sausage (см. sausage), liver tickler (см. lung disturber), living flute, lizard, lollipop, long John (об. большого размера), love muscle, love sausage, love torpedo, lucky Pierre, lullaby, luncheon truncheon, lung-disturber (см. kidney-wiper), mac, mack, mad mick, maggot, magic wand (особ. эрегированный), main cable, man Thomas, man-root, manhood, marrowbone, matrimonial peacemaker, meat, meat flute, meat seeking pissile, meat whistle, member, mickey, middle finger, milkman, mole, mouse, mouth-muscle, mulligan, mutton dagger (см. meat), mutton musket (см. lamb cannon), needle, nightstick, nimrod, nippy, nob, noodle, old Adam, old blind Bob, old fella, old horney, old man, old root, one eyed zipper fish, one-eyed milkman, one-eyed trouser-snake, one-holed flute, organ, pax-wax, peacemaker, pecnoster, pee-pee, peeny, peewee, peg, pen, pendulum (см. dingle dangle), perch, pestle (см. mortar), pickle, piece, pike staff, pile-driver, pillock, pin, pink Darth Vader (по имени одного из героев "Звездных войн" в каске специфической формы), pink cigar (особ. как объект фелляции), pink oboe (см. blue veined trumpet), pintle, pipe, pirate of men's pants, piss-maker, pisser, pisslit, pistol, piston, pizzle, plonker, plunger, pocket rocket, pointer, poker, poo pipe pirate, pood, poontanger, pork prescription, pork sword, porridge gun, power, pricklet, pride and joy, private property, prong, pulse, pump, pump action mottgun, pump-handle, pup, purple pearler, putter, putz, quim-stake, quim-wedge, rammer, ranger, rat, raw meat, reamer, rector of the females, red cap, red-hot poker, rhythm stick, rising main, roger, rolling pin, roly-poly, rooster, root, rotoplooker (произносится ro-to-ploo-ka), salami, sausage, schlong, schmuck, screwdriver (см. screw), sexing piece, shaft, she, shit-disturber, shlong, shotgun, silent flute, skin boat, skin flute, skinflute (особ. как объект орального секса), sky-scraper, slug, snack (особ. как объект фелляции), snake, snorker, sperm worm, spindle, spout, staff, stalk, stem, stern-post, stick, sting, stormy dick, strap, strap-on, string, sucker, sugar-stick, swack, sweet meat, swipe, tadger, tail, tail-end, tail-pike, tallywag, tallywhacker, that thing, thing, thingumbob, third leg, tickler, timothy, tinkler, todger, tommy, tonge, tonk, toot meat, tosh, tossle, touch-trap, trouser snake, trouser trout, trumpet (см. blue veined trumpet, pink oboe), truncheon, tube, tummy banana, turkey neck, umbrella, unemployed, veiny bang stick, wab, weapon, wedge, wee-poh, whacker, whammer, whistle, wick, wiener, wigga-wagga, willie, willy, winkie, winkle, wire, wong, wriggling pole, yard, yosh, yutz, zipperfish, zubrick, zucchini, Baby spanner -
11 половой член
1) General subject: cock3) Dialect: pizzle (животного)4) Australian slang: old teller5) Rude: prick, donga (новозеландский сленг)6) Jargon: meat puppet, restless dragon (Дословно - неустающий дракон. Примечание - кто-то сильно льстит сам себе.), (ср. "пуденциал" в романе "Кысь" Т.Толстой) endowment, private, peen, braun, bulge, hilt7) Taboo: Anglican length (особ. большого размера), Athenaeum, Cyclops, Irish root, Jezebel, John, John Thomas, Johnson, Little Willie (особ. маленького мальчика), Perce, Percy, Randy Rupert, Rupert, Wolver, almond, arbor vitae (от лат. "древо жизни"), arm, baby-maker, bacon bazooka, bald-headed hermit, banana, bat, bean, bean-tosser, beard-jammer, beaver cleaver, beaver leaver, beef, beef bayonet, bell-rope, best leg of three, bicho (из испанского), big bamboo, big daddy, bingey, bit of hard (см. hard-on; эрегированный), bit of snug, blow stick, blowtorch, bog bamboo, business, button worker (см. button), captain, chanticleer, cheesy wheelbarrow, chopper, cock (особ. эрегированный), cock-opener, copper stick, corey, corn beef cudgel, crack-haunter, cracksman, crank, cranny-hunter, cream-stick, cuckoo, cucumber, dang, dearest member, derrick, dick, diddle, dik, dildo, dingle-dangle, dink, dipstick, dirk, dolly, dong, doob, dork, drumstick, dummy, eighty-ninety, enob (перевертыш от bone q.v), eye opener, fallos, fiddle-bow (см. fiddle), fishing-rod, flip-flap, flute, fool-maker, fornicating engine, fornicator, four-nine-three-eleven, fuckmeat, fuckpole, fuckstick, gap-stopper, gardener, generating tool, giggle-stick, girl-catcher, girlometer, goose's neck, gooser, gravy-giver, grinding tool, gristle, gully raker, gun, gut-stick, hair-divider, hambone, hammer, handstaff, hang down, hermit, holy iron (игра слов на hole q.v.), holy poker (игра слов на hole, poker и poke somebody), honker, hootchee, horn (особ. эрегированный), hot dog, instrument, jack, jack in the box, jak, jang, jerking iron, jigger, jiggling bore, jing-jang (см. jang), joint, jones, joy knob, joy-stick, key, kidney-scraper, knock, knocker, ladies' delight, ladies' lollipop, lamp of life, lance, langolee, leather-stretcher, little Davy, little brother (см. little sister), little finger, live rabbit, live sausage (см. sausage), living flute, lollipop, lullaby, lung-disturber (см. kidney-wiper), man Thomas, man-root, marrowbone, matrimonial peacemaker, meat, meaty flesh, member, (лат.) membrum virile, mickey, middle finger, mole, mouse, mutton dagger (см. meat), needle, nimrod, nippy, old Adam, old blind Bob, old horney, old man, old root, one-eyed milkman, one-holed flute, organ, pax-wax, pecker (в Великобритании обозначает нос), pecnoster (игра слов на pecker и pater noster), pee-pee, peg, pen, pencil, pendulum (см. dingle dangle), pestle (см. mortar), peter, pickle, piece, pike staff, pile-driver, pin, pinga (из испанского), pintle, piss-maker, pisser, pistol, piston, pizzle (обыч. животного), plonker, pointer, poker, pole, poontanger, pork sword, power, private property, pudding (особ. в связи с мастурбацией), pulse, pump, pump-handle, putz, quim-stake, quim-wedge, rammer, ranger, raw meat, reamer, rector, rector of the females, red cap, red-hot poker, rod, roger, rolling pin, roly-poly, rooster, root, sausage, schlong (из идиш), schmuck, sexing piece, shaft, she, shit-disturber, shotgun, silent flute, sky-scraper, snorker, spindle, spout, staff, stem, stern-post, stick, sting, sucker, sugar-stick, sweet meat, tadger, tail, tail-end, tail-pike, tallywag, tallywhacker, thing, thingumbob, tickler, timothy (особ. у ребенка), todger, tommy, tonge, tool, tosh, tossle, touch-trap, trouser trout, truncheon, tube, turkey neck, wag (особ. ребенка), wang, wanger, weapon, wee-poh, weiner, whammer, whang, whanger, whistle (особ. у ребенка), wiener (особ. в расслабленном состоянии), wigga-wagga, willie (особ. детский), winkie, winkle, wire, wriggling pole, yang (от китайского ying-yang инь и ян), yutz, zubrick (из арабского), zucchini, lunch box, ramrod8) Scuba diving: crotch -
12 Malouin, Paul-Jacques
SUBJECT AREA: Metallurgy[br]b. 29 June 1701 Caen, Franced. 3 January 1778 Versailles, France[br]French medical practitioner who suggested producing tin plate with zinc.[br]Setting out to study law, Malouin turned to scientific studies, settling in Paris to teach and practice medicine. He retained his scientific interest in the field of chemistry, producing memoirs on zinc and tin, and. as early as 1742 suggested that a type of tin plate might instead be produced with zinc. A method of zinc-coating hammered-iron saucepans was introduced briefly at Rouen in the early 1780s.His contribution to early volumes of Diderot's Encyclopédie included those on "Alchemy", "Antimony", "Acid" and "Alkali". Malouin also applied his scientific knowledge to articles on milling and baking for the Academy in Descriptions des arts et métiers.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsElected to Academy 1742. FRS 1753.Further ReadingDumas, 1831, Treatise de chimie appliqué aux arts 3, 218.J.R.Partington, 1961, A History of Chemistry, Vol. III (refers to Malouin's work in chemistry).John Percy, 1864, Metallurgy: Iron and Steel, London: John Murray, 155 (provides brief references to his theories on zinc coatings).See also: Craufurd, Henry WilliamJD -
13 the Cockney School
['kɔknɪskuːl]неодобр.Кокни́йская шко́ла (группа известных поэтов, живших в Лондоне: Дж.Г.Ли Хант [J.H.Leigh Hunt, 1784-1859], У.Хазлитт [William Hazlitt, 1778-1830], П.Б.Шелли [Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1792-1822] и Дж.Китс [John Keats, 1795-1821])название впервые появилось в 1817 в статье одного из сторонников классического пуризма в поэзии; автор осуждал поэтов Кокнийской школы за их якобы "простонародные" рифмы; см. тж. cockney 1.English-Russian Great Britain dictionary (Великобритания. Лингвострановедческий словарь) > the Cockney School
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14 Broadcasting
See also: INDEX BY SUBJECT AREA[br] -
15 Fairbairn, Sir Peter
SUBJECT AREA: Textiles[br]b. September 1799 Kelso, Roxburghshire, Scotlandd. 4 January 1861 Leeds, Yorkshire, England[br]British inventor of the revolving tube between drafting rollers to give false twist.[br]Born of Scottish parents, Fairbairn was apprenticed at the age of 14 to John Casson, a mill-wright and engineer at the Percy Main Colliery, Newcastle upon Tyne, and remained there until 1821 when he went to work for his brother William in Manchester. After going to various other places, including Messrs Rennie in London and on the European continent, he eventually moved in 1829 to Leeds where Marshall helped him set up the Wellington Foundry and so laid the foundations for the colossal establishment which was to employ over one thousand workers. To begin with he devoted his attention to improving wool-weaving machinery, substituting iron for wood in the construction of the textile machines. He also worked on machinery for flax, incorporating many of Philippe de Girard's ideas. He assisted Henry Houldsworth in the application of the differential to roving frames, and it was to these machines that he added his own inventions. The longer fibres of wool and flax need to have some form of support and control between the rollers when they are being drawn out, and inserting a little twist helps. However, if the roving is too tightly twisted before passing through the first pair of rollers, it cannot be drawn out, while if there is insufficient twist, the fibres do not receive enough support in the drafting zone. One solution is to twist the fibres together while they are actually in the drafting zone between the rollers. In 1834, Fairbairn patented an arrangement consisting of a revolving tube placed between the drawing rollers. The tube inserted a "middle" or "false" twist in the material. As stated in the specification, it was "a well-known contrivance… for twisting and untwisting any roving passing through it". It had been used earlier in 1822 by J. Goulding of the USA and a similar idea had been developed by C.Danforth in America and patented in Britain in 1825 by J.C. Dyer. Fairbairn's machine, however, was said to make a very superior article. He was also involved with waste-silk spinning and rope-yarn machinery.Fairbairn later began constructing machine tools, and at the beginning of the Crimean War was asked by the Government to make special tools for the manufacture of armaments. He supplied some of these, such as cannon rifling machines, to the arsenals at Woolwich and Enfield. He then made a considerable number of tools for the manufacture of the Armstrong gun. He was involved in the life of his adopted city and was elected to Leeds town council in 1832 for ten years. He was elected an alderman in 1854 and was Mayor of Leeds from 1857 to 1859, when he was knighted by Queen Victoria at the opening of the new town hall. He was twice married, first to Margaret Kennedy and then to Rachel Anne Brindling.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsKnighted 1858.Bibliography1834, British patent no. 6,741 (revolving tube between drafting rollers to give false twist).Further ReadingDictionary of National Biography.Obituary, 1861, Engineer 11.W.English, 1969, The Textile Industry, London (provides a brief account of Fairbairn's revolving tube).C.Singer (ed.), 1958, A History of Technology, Vols IV and V, Oxford: Clarendon Press (provides details of Fairbairn's silk-dressing machine and a picture of a large planing machine built by him).RLH -
16 Maxim, Sir Hiram Stevens
[br]b. 5 February 1840 Brockway's Mills, Maine, USAd. 24 November 1916 Streatham, London, England[br]American (naturalized British) inventor; designer of the first fully automatic machine gun and of an experimental steam-powered aircraft.[br]Maxim was born the son of a pioneer farmer who later became a wood turner. Young Maxim was first apprenticed to a carriage maker and then embarked on a succession of jobs before joining his uncle in his engineering firm in Massachusetts in 1864. As a young man he gained a reputation as a boxer, but it was his uncle who first identified and encouraged Hiram's latent talent for invention.It was not, however, until 1878, when Maxim joined the first electric-light company to be established in the USA, as its Chief Engineer, that he began to make a name for himself. He developed an improved light filament and his electric pressure regulator not only won a prize at the first International Electrical Exhibition, held in Paris in 1881, but also resulted in his being made a Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur. While in Europe he was advised that weapons development was a more lucrative field than electricity; consequently, he moved to England and established a small laboratory at Hatton Garden, London. He began by investigating improvements to the Gatling gun in order to produce a weapon with a faster rate of fire and which was more accurate. In 1883, by adapting a Winchester carbine, he successfully produced a semi-automatic weapon, which used the recoil to cock the gun automatically after firing. The following year he took this concept a stage further and produced a fully automatic belt-fed weapon. The recoil drove barrel and breechblock to the vent. The barrel then halted, while the breechblock, now unlocked from the former, continued rearwards, extracting the spent case and recocking the firing mechanism. The return spring, which it had been compressing, then drove the breechblock forward again, chambering the next round, which had been fed from the belt, as it did so. Keeping the trigger pressed enabled the gun to continue firing until the belt was expended. The Maxim gun, as it became known, was adopted by almost every army within the decade, and was to remain in service for nearly fifty years. Maxim himself joined forces with the large British armaments firm of Vickers, and the Vickers machine gun, which served the British Army during two world wars, was merely a refined version of the Maxim gun.Maxim's interests continued to occupy several fields of technology, including flight. In 1891 he took out a patent for a steam-powered aeroplane fitted with a pendulous gyroscopic stabilizer which would maintain the pitch of the aeroplane at any desired inclination (basically, a simple autopilot). Maxim decided to test the relationship between power, thrust and lift before moving on to stability and control. He designed a lightweight steam-engine which developed 180 hp (135 kW) and drove a propeller measuring 17 ft 10 in. (5.44 m) in diameter. He fitted two of these engines into his huge flying machine testrig, which needed a wing span of 104 ft (31.7 m) to generate enough lift to overcome a total weight of 4 tons. The machine was not designed for free flight, but ran on one set of rails with a second set to prevent it rising more than about 2 ft (61 cm). At Baldwyn's Park in Kent on 31 July 1894 the huge machine, carrying Maxim and his crew, reached a speed of 42 mph (67.6 km/h) and lifted off its rails. Unfortunately, one of the restraining axles broke and the machine was extensively damaged. Although it was subsequently repaired and further trials carried out, these experiments were very expensive. Maxim eventually abandoned the flying machine and did not develop his idea for a stabilizer, turning instead to other projects. At the age of almost 70 he returned to the problems of flight and designed a biplane with a petrol engine: it was built in 1910 but never left the ground.In all, Maxim registered 122 US and 149 British patents on objects ranging from mousetraps to automatic spindles. Included among them was a 1901 patent for a foot-operated suction cleaner. In 1900 he became a British subject and he was knighted the following year. He remained a larger-than-life figure, both physically and in character, until the end of his life.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsChevalier de la Légion d'Honneur 1881. Knighted 1901.Bibliography1908, Natural and Artificial Flight, London. 1915, My Life, London: Methuen (autobiography).Further ReadingObituary, 1916, Engineer (1 December).Obituary, 1916, Engineering (1 December).P.F.Mottelay, 1920, The Life and Work of Sir Hiram Maxim, London and New York: John Lane.Dictionary of National Biography, 1912–1921, 1927, Oxford: Oxford University Press.See also: Pilcher, Percy SinclairCM / JDSBiographical history of technology > Maxim, Sir Hiram Stevens
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