-
1 Staite, William Edwards
[br]b. 19 April 1809 Bristol, Englandd. 26 September 1854 Caen, France[br]English inventor who did much to popularize electric lighting in early Victorian England and demonstrated the first self-regulating arc lamp.[br]Before devoting the whole of his attention to the electric light, Staite was a partner in a business of iron merchants and patented a method of obtaining extracts and essences. From 1834 he attempted to produce a continuous light by electricity. The first public exhibition of Staite's arc lamp incorporating a fixed-rate clockwork mechanism was given in 1847 to the Sunderland Literary and Philosophical Society. He also demonstrated an incandescent lamp with an iridioplatinum filament. Sir Joseph Wilson Swan recorded that it was attending lectures by Staite in Sunderland, Newcastle and Carlisle that started him on the quest which many years later was to lead to his incandescent lamp.In association with William Petrie (1821–1904), Staite made an important advance in the development of arc lamps by introducing automatic regulation of the carbon rods by way of an electromagnet. This was the first of many self-regulating arc lamps that were invented during the nineteenth century employing this principle. A contributory factor in the success of Staite's lamp was the semi enclosure of the arc in a transparent vessel that reduced the consumption of carbons, a feature not used again until the 1890s. His patents included processes for preparing carbons and the construction of primary cells for arc lighting. An improved lamp used by Staite in a theatrical production at Her Majesty's Theatre, London, in April 1849 may be considered the first commercial success of the electric light in England. In spite of the limitations imposed by the use of primary cells as the only available source of power, serious interest in this system of electric lighting was shown by railway companies and dock authorities. However, after he had developed a satisfactory arc lamp, an end to these early experiments was brought about by Staite's death.[br]BibliographyJuly 1847, British patent no. 1,1783 (electromagnetic regulation of an arc lamp).His manuscript "History of electric light" is in the Institution of Electrical Engineers archives.Further ReadingJ.J.Fahie, 1902, "Staite and Petrie's electric light 1846–1853", Electrical Engineer 30:297–301, 337–40, 374–6 (a detailed reliable account).G.Woodward, 1989, "Staite and Petrie: pioneers of electric lighting", Proceedings of the Institution of Electrical Engineers 136 (Part A): 290–6 GWBiographical history of technology > Staite, William Edwards
-
2 Electricity
-
3 Public utilities
-
4 Swan, Sir Joseph Wilson
[br]b. 31 October 1828 Sunderland, Englandd. 27 May 1914 Warlingham, Surrey, England[br]English chemist, inventor in Britain of the incandescent electric lamp and of photographic processes.[br]At the age of 14 Swan was apprenticed to a Sunderland firm of druggists, later joining John Mawson who had opened a pharmacy in Newcastle. While in Sunderland Swan attended lectures at the Athenaeum, at one of which W.E. Staite exhibited electric-arc and incandescent lighting. The impression made on Swan prompted him to conduct experiments that led to his demonstration of a practical working lamp in 1879. As early as 1848 he was experimenting with carbon as a lamp filament, and by 1869 he had mounted a strip of carbon in a vessel exhausted of air as completely as was then possible; however, because of residual air, the filament quickly failed.Discouraged by the cost of current from primary batteries and the difficulty of achieving a good vacuum, Swan began to devote much of his attention to photography. With Mawson's support the pharmacy was expanded to include a photographic business. Swan's interest in making permanent photographic records led him to patent the carbon process in 1864 and he discovered how to make a sensitive dry plate in place of the inconvenient wet collodian process hitherto in use. He followed this success with the invention of bromide paper, the subject of a British patent in 1879.Swan resumed his interest in electric lighting. Sprengel's invention of the mercury pump in 1865 provided Swan with the means of obtaining the high vacuum he needed to produce a satisfactory lamp. Swan adopted a technique which was to become an essential feature in vacuum physics: continuing to heat the filament during the exhaustion process allowed the removal of absorbed gases. The inventions of Gramme, Siemens and Brush provided the source of electrical power at reasonable cost needed to make the incandescent lamp of practical service. Swan exhibited his lamp at a meeting in December 1878 of the Newcastle Chemical Society and again the following year before an audience of 700 at the Newcastle Literary and Philosophical Society. Swan's failure to patent his invention immediately was a tactical error as in November 1879 Edison was granted a British patent for his original lamp, which, however, did not go into production. Parchmentized thread was used in Swan's first commercial lamps, a material soon superseded by the regenerated cellulose filament that he developed. The cellulose filament was made by extruding a solution of nitro-cellulose in acetic acid through a die under pressure into a coagulating fluid, and was used until the ultimate obsolescence of the carbon-filament lamp. Regenerated cellulose became the first synthetic fibre, the further development and exploitation of which he left to others, the patent rights for the process being sold to Courtaulds.Swan also devised a modification of Planté's secondary battery in which the active material was compressed into a cellular lead plate. This has remained the central principle of all improvements in secondary cells, greatly increasing the storage capacity for a given weight.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsKnighted 1904. FRS 1894. President, Institution of Electrical Engineers 1898. First President, Faraday Society 1904. Royal Society Hughes Medal 1904. Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur 1881.Bibliography2 January 1880, British patent no. 18 (incandescent electric lamp).24 May 1881, British patent no. 2,272 (improved plates for the Planté cell).1898, "The rise and progress of the electrochemical industries", Journal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers 27:8–33 (Swan's Presidential Address to the Institution of Electrical Engineers).Further ReadingM.E.Swan and K.R.Swan, 1968, Sir Joseph Wilson Swan F.R.S., Newcastle upon Tyne (a detailed account).R.C.Chirnside, 1979, "Sir Joseph Swan and the invention of the electric lamp", IEEElectronics and Power 25:96–100 (a short, authoritative biography).GWBiographical history of technology > Swan, Sir Joseph Wilson
См. также в других словарях:
Staite — ist der Name folgender Personen: Jewel Staite (* 1982), Schauspielerin William Edwards Staite (1809–1854), Englischer Erfinder Diese Seite ist eine Begriffsklärung zur Unterscheidung mehrerer mit demselben Wort bezeichneter … Deutsch Wikipedia
Staite — This interesting and unusual name is of Anglo Saxon origin, and is a topographical surname for someone who lived by a landing place, on the banks of a river or estuary, on the shore. The name derives from the Old English pre 7th Century word… … Surnames reference
staite — stait(e obs. forms of state n … Useful english dictionary
Jewel Staite — en el 2005 Nombre real Jewel Belair Staite Nacimiento 2 de junio de 1982 (28 años) … Wikipedia Español
William Edwards Staite — (* 19. April 1809 in Bristol; † 26. September 1854 in Caen) war ein englischer Erfinder. Er entwickelte und patentierte, teils zusammen mit William Petrie, eine Reihe verbesserter Bogenlampen. Wegen seines frühen Todes und der Abhängigkeit seiner … Deutsch Wikipedia
Jewel Staite — Infobox actor name = Jewel Staite caption = Jewel Staite in 2005 birthname = birthdate = birth date and age|1982|06|02 birthplace = White Rock, BC, Canada othername = occupation = actress yearsactive = 1988 present spouse = Matt Anderson children … Wikipedia
Jewel Staite — (2005) Jewel Belair Staite (* 2. Juni 1982 in White Rock, British Columbia) ist eine kanadische Schauspielerin. Bekanntheit erlangte sie vor allem durch ihre Rollen als Kaylee Frye in der Fernsehserie Firefly (2002) und dem darauf basierenden Fi … Deutsch Wikipedia
Jewel Staite — en 2005 Données clés Nom de naissance Jewel Belair Staite … Wikipédia en Français
William Staite Murray — (1881 1962) was an English studio potter.He was born in Deptford, London and attended pottery classes at Camberwell College of Arts from 1909 1912 and set up his own pottery in Rotherhithe, London in the premises of his brother s engineering and… … Wikipedia
Jennifer Keller — Jewel Staite as Jennifer Keller First appearance First Strike (Atlantis) Last appearance Enemy at the Gate (Atlantis) … Wikipedia
List of characters in the Firefly universe — This article is about characters in the television series Firefly .Major charactersMalcolm ReynoldsCaptain of the Firefly class spaceship Serenity. Volunteer in the war between the Alliance and the Independents. He got the name for his spaceship… … Wikipedia