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1 Fox, Samson
SUBJECT AREA: Mechanical, pneumatic and hydraulic engineering, Metallurgy, Steam and internal combustion engines[br]b. 11 July 1838 Bowling, near Bradford, Yorkshire, Englandd. 24 October 1903 Walsall, Staffordshire, England[br]English engineer who invented the corrugated boiler furnace.[br]He was the son of a cloth mill worker in Leeds and at the age of 10 he joined his father at the mill. Showing a mechanical inclination, he was apprenticed to a firm of machine-tool makers, Smith, Beacock and Tannett. There he rose to become Foreman and Traveller, and designed and patented tools for cutting bevelled gears. With his brother and one Refitt, he set up the Silver Cross engineering works for making special machine tools. In 1874 he founded the Leeds Forge Company, acting as Managing Director until 1896 and then as Chairman until shortly before his death.It was in 1877 that he patented his most important invention, the corrugated furnace for steam-boilers. These furnaces could withstand much higher pressures than the conventional form, and higher working pressures in marine boilers enabled triple-expansion engines to be installed, greatly improving the performance of steamships, and the outcome was the great ocean-going liners of the twentieth century. The first vessel to be equipped with the corrugated furnace was the Pretoria of 1878. At first the furnaces were made by hammering iron plates using swage blocks under a steam hammer. A plant for rolling corrugated plates was set up at Essen in Germany, and Fox installed a similar mill at his works in Leeds in 1882.In 1886 Fox installed a Siemens steelmaking plant and he was notable in the movement for replacing wrought iron with steel. He took out several patents for making pressed-steel underframes for railway wagons. The business prospered and Fox opened a works near Chicago in the USA, where in addition to wagon underframes he manufactured the first American pressed-steel carriages. He later added a works at Pittsburgh.Fox was the first in England to use water gas for his metallurgical operations and for lighting, with a saving in cost as it was cheaper than coal gas. He was also a pioneer in the acetylene industry, producing in 1894 the first calcium carbide, from which the gas is made.Fox took an active part in public life in and around Leeds, being thrice elected Mayor of Harrogate. As a music lover, he was a benefactor of musicians, contributing no less than £45,000 towards the cost of building the Royal College of Music in London, opened in 1894. In 1897 he sued for libel the author Jerome K.Jerome and the publishers of the Today magazine for accusing him of misusing his great generosity to the College to give a misleading impression of his commercial methods and prosperity. He won the case but was not awarded costs.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsRoyal Society of Arts James Watt Silver Medal and Howard Gold Medal. Légion d'honneur 1889.Bibliography1877, British Patent nos. 1097 and 2530 (the corrugated furnace or "flue", as it was often called).Further ReadingObituary, 1903, Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers: 919–21.Obituary, 1903, Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers (the fullest of the many obituary notices).G.A.Newby, 1993, "Behind the fire doors: Fox's corrugated furnace 1877 and the high pressure steamship", Transactions of the Newcomen Society 64.LRD -
2 Mechanical, pneumatic and hydraulic engineering
See also: INDEX BY SUBJECT AREA[br]Clement, JosephDu ShiDu YuGongshu PanLi BingMa JunMurdock, WilliamSomerset, EdwardBiographical history of technology > Mechanical, pneumatic and hydraulic engineering
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3 Metallurgy
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4 Steam and internal combustion engines
See also: INDEX BY SUBJECT AREA[br]Giffard, Baptiste Henry JacquesHamilton, Harold LeePorta, Giovanni Battista dellaBiographical history of technology > Steam and internal combustion engines
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5 Stevens, Robert Livingston
SUBJECT AREA: Ports and shipping[br]b. 18 October 1787 Hoboken, New Jersey, USAd. 20 April 1856 Hoboken, New Jersey, USA[br]American engineer, pioneer of steamboats and railways.[br]R.L.Stevens was the son of John Stevens and was given the technical education his father lacked. He assisted his father with the Little Juliana and the Phoenix, managed the commercial operation of the Phoenix on the Delaware River, and subsequently built many other steamboats.In 1830 he and his brother Edwin A.Stevens obtained a charter from the New Jersey Legislature for the Camden \& Amboy Railroad \& Transportation Company, and he visited Britain to obtain rails and a locomotive. Railway track in the USA then normally comprised longitudinal timber rails with running surfaces of iron straps, but Stevens designed rails of flat-bottom section, which were to become standard, and had the first batch rolled in Wales. He also designed hookheaded spikes for them, and "iron tongues", which became fishplates. From Robert Stephenson \& Co. (see Robert Stephenson) he obtained the locomotive John Bull, which was similar to the Liverpool \& Manchester Railway's Samson. The Camden \& Amboy Railroad was opened in 1831, but John Bull, a 0–4–0, proved over sensitive to imperfections in the track; Stevens and his mechanic, Isaac Dripps, added a two-wheeled non-swivelling "pilot" at the front to guide it round curves. The locomotive survives at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.[br]Further ReadingH.P.Spratt, 1958, The Birth of the Steamboat, Charles Griffin.J.H.White Jr, 1979, A History of the American Locomotive—Its Development: 1830– 1880, New York: Dover Publications Inc.J.F.Stover, 1961, American Railroads, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.PJGRBiographical history of technology > Stevens, Robert Livingston
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SAMSON — (Heb. שִׁמְשׁוֹן; from shemesh, sun ), son of Manoah, a Danite living in Zorah, a judge in Israel. Samson s heroic exploits are recounted in Judges 13–16. His father was married to a woman who long remained childless. An angel of the Lord… … Encyclopedia of Judaism
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Samson — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda Samson Información personal Nacimiento 1977 Origen Inglaterra … Wikipedia Español
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Samson — Samson, AL U.S. city in Alabama Population (2000): 2071 Housing Units (2000): 1016 Land area (2000): 3.620157 sq. miles (9.376162 sq. km) Water area (2000): 0.005709 sq. miles (0.014787 sq. km) Total area (2000): 3.625866 sq. miles (9.390949 sq.… … StarDict's U.S. Gazetteer Places
Samson, AL — U.S. city in Alabama Population (2000): 2071 Housing Units (2000): 1016 Land area (2000): 3.620157 sq. miles (9.376162 sq. km) Water area (2000): 0.005709 sq. miles (0.014787 sq. km) Total area (2000): 3.625866 sq. miles (9.390949 sq. km) FIPS… … StarDict's U.S. Gazetteer Places