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61 Auenbrugger, Leopold Elder von
SUBJECT AREA: Medical technology[br]b. 19 November 1722 Graz, Austriad. 18 May 1809 Vienna, Austria[br]Austrian physician and the first to describe percussion as an aid to diagnosis of diseases of the chest.[br]The son of an innkeeper, Auenbrugger had originally learned to use percussion to ascertain the level of wine in casks. When later he became Physician to the Military Hospital of Vienna, he developed the technique, stating in the monograph that he published on the subject, "I here present the reader with a new sign which I have discovered for detecting disease of the chest. It consists in percussion of the human thorax whereby…an opinion is formed of the internal state of that cavity". The monograph attracted little attention until some twenty years later. Jean Corvisart, personal physician to Napoleon, translated it into French in 1808, giving full credit to its original author. Auenbrugger also had some musical expertise, and with Salieri composed an opera for Maria Theresa.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsEnnobled 1784.Bibliography1761, Inventum novumex percussione thoracis humani ut signo abstrusos interni pectoris morbos detegendi, Vienna.Further ReadingJ.Forbes (trans.), 1936, "On percussion of the chest"; a translation of Auenbrugger's original treatise, Bulletin of the History of Medicine.Z.Cope, 1957, Sidelights on the History of Medicine, London.MGBiographical history of technology > Auenbrugger, Leopold Elder von
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62 Blackett, William Cuthbert
SUBJECT AREA: Mining and extraction technology[br]b. 18 November 1859 Durham, Englandd. 13 June 1935 Durham, England[br]English mine manager, expert in preventing mine explosions and inventor of a coal-face conveyor.[br]After leaving Durham college of Physical Science and having been apprenticed in different mines, he received the certificate for colliery managers and subsequently, in 1887, was appointed Manager of all the mines of Charlaw and Sacriston collieries in Durham. He remained in this position for the rest of his working life.Frequent explosions in mines led him to investigate the causes. He was among the first to recognize the role contributed by coal-dust on mine roads, pioneered the use of inert rock-or stone-dust to render the coal-dust harmless and was the originator of many technical terms on the subject. He contributed many papers on explosion and was appointed a member of many advisory committees on prevention measures. A liquid-air rescue apparatus, designed by him and patented in 1910, was installed in various parts of the country.Blackett also developed various new devices in mining machinery. He patented a wire-rope socket which made use of a metal wedge; invented a rotary tippler driven by frictional contact instead of gearing and which stopped automatically; and he designed a revolving cylindrical coal-washer, which also gained interest among German mining engineers. His most important invention, the first successful coal-face conveyor, was patented in 1902. It was driven by compressed air and consisted of a trough running along the length of the race through which ran an endless scraper chain. Thus fillers cast the coal into the trough, and the scraper chain drew it to the main gate to be loaded into trams.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsKnight of Grace of the Order of St John of Jerusalem. OBE. Honorary MSc University of Durham; Honorary LLD University of Birmingham. Honorary Member, Institution of Mining and Metallurgy. Honorary Member, American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers. Royal Humane Society Medal.Further ReadingTransactions of the Institution of Mining Engineers (1934–5) 89:339–41.Mining Association of Great Britain (ed.), 1924, Historical Review of Coal Mining London (describes early mechanical devices for the extraction of coal).WKBiographical history of technology > Blackett, William Cuthbert
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63 Booth, Henry
[br]b. 4 April 1789 Liverpool, Englandd. 28 March 1869 Liverpool, England[br]English railway administrator and inventor.[br]Booth followed his father as a Liverpool corn merchant but had great mechanical aptitude. In 1824 he joined the committee for the proposed Liverpool \& Manchester Railway (L \& MR) and after the company obtained its Act of Parliament in 1826 he was appointed Treasurer.In 1829 the L \& MR announced a prize competition, the Rainhill Trials, for an improved steam locomotive: Booth, realizing that the power of a locomotive depended largely upon its capacity to raise steam, had the idea that this could be maximized by passing burning gases from the fire through the boiler in many small tubes to increase the heating surface, rather than in one large one, as was then the practice. He was apparently unaware of work on this type of boiler even then being done by Marc Seguin, and the 1791 American patent by John Stevens. Booth discussed his idea with George Stephenson, and a boiler of this type was incorporated into the locomotive Rocket, which was built by Robert Stephenson and entered in the Trials by Booth and the two Stephensons in partnership. The boiler enabled Rocket to do all that was required in the trials, and far more: it became the prototype for all subsequent conventional locomotive boilers.After the L \& MR opened in 1830, Booth as Treasurer became in effect the general superintendent and was later General Manager. He invented screw couplings for use with sprung buffers. When the L \& MR was absorbed by the Grand Junction Railway in 1845 he became Secretary of the latter, and when, later the same year, that in turn amalgamated with the London \& Birmingham Railway (L \& BR) to form the London \& North Western Railway (L \& NWR), he became joint Secretary with Richard Creed from the L \& BR.Earlier, completion in 1838 of the railway from London to Liverpool had brought problems with regard to local times. Towns then kept their own time according to their longitude: Birmingham time, for instance, was 7¼ minutes later than London time. This caused difficulties in railway operation, so Booth prepared a petition to Parliament on behalf of the L \& MR that London time should be used throughout the country, and in 1847 the L \& NWR, with other principal railways and the Post Office, adopted Greenwich time. It was only in 1880, however, that the arrangement was made law by Act of Parliament.[br]Bibliography1835. British patent no. 6,814 (grease lubricants for axleboxes). 1836. British patent no. 6,989 (screw couplings).Booth also wrote several pamphlets on railways, uniformity of time, and political matters.Further ReadingH.Booth, 1980, Henry Booth, Ilfracombe: Arthur H.Stockwell (a good full-length biography, the author being the great-great-nephew of his subject; with bibliography).R.E.Carlson, 1969, The Liverpool \& Manchester Railway Project 1821–1831, Newton Abbot: David \& Charles.PJGR -
64 Bothe, Walter Wilhelm Georg Franz
SUBJECT AREA: Weapons and armour[br]b. 8 January 1891 Oranienburg, Berlin, Germanyd. 8 February 1957 Heidelberg, Germany[br]German nuclear scientist.[br]Bothe studied under Max Planck at the University of Berlin, gaining his doctorate in 1914. After military service during the First World War, he resumed his investigations into nuclear physics and achieved a breakthrough in 1929 when he developed a method of studying cosmic radiation by placing one Geiger counter on top of another. From this he evolved the means of high-speed counting known as "coincidence counting". The following year, in conjunction with Hans Becker, Bothe made a Further stride forward when they identified a very penetrative neutral particle by bombarding beryllium with alpha particles; this was a significant advance towards creating nuclear energy in that the neutral particle was what Chadwick later identified as the neutron.In 1934 Bothe's achievements were recognized by his appointment as Director of the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, although this was after Planck himself had been deposed because of his Jewish sympathies. Bothe did, however, become primarily involved in Germany's pursuit of the atomic bomb and in 1944 constructed Germany's first cyclotron for accelerating nuclear particles. By that time Germany was faced with military defeat and Bothe was not able to develop his ideas further. Even so, for his work in the field of cosmic radiation Bothe shared the 1954 Nobel Prize for Physics with the naturalized Briton (formerly German) Max Born, whose subject was statistical mechanics.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsCo-winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics 1954.CMBiographical history of technology > Bothe, Walter Wilhelm Georg Franz
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65 Chain, Ernst Boris
SUBJECT AREA: Medical technology[br]b. 19 June 1906 Berlin, Germanyd. 12 August 1979 Ireland[br]Anglo-German biochemist and physiologist, co-worker with Florey in the isolation of sufficient supplies of the antibiotic penicillin for clinical use during wartime.[br]Chain graduated in Berlin at the Charite Hospital in 1930. A refugee from political persecution, in 1933 he went to the School of Biochemistry in Cambridge, and in 1935 moved to the School of Pathology at Oxford. He became a British subject in 1939. His interests had involved the study of enzymes and the isolation of physiologically active substances from natural sources. In 1938 he drew Florey's attention to Fleming's note of 1929 reporting the bacterial growth inhibiting qualities of Penicillium mould. Using makeshift equipment and with little initial support, they isolated small quantities of penicillin, which they were then able to use clinically with dramatic effect.Chain had always hoped for adequate resources to develop penicillin and other antibiotics in Britain. This was not forthcoming, however, and in 1948 a research chair and institute was created for him in Rome, at the International Research Centre for Chemical Microbiology. In 1961 he returned to London to the Chair of Biochemistry at Imperial College. There, with the help of a large donation from the Wolfson Foundation, an appropriate building with facilities for the large-scale development and production of biochemical substances was finally made available. His co-equal part in the development of penicillin was recognized by the sharing of the Nobel Prize for Medicine between Florey, Fleming and himself, and he received numerous honours and honorary degrees from a large number of governments and international institutions.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsKnighted 1944. Nobel Prize for Medicine (jointly with H.W.Florey and A.Fleming) 1945. Fellow of the Royal Society 1949. Ehrlich Prize 1954.Bibliography1941, "Penicillin as a chemotherapeutic agent", Lancet (with Florey). 1941, "Further observations on penicillin", Lancet.1949, Antibiotics, Oxford, (with Florey et al.) MG -
66 Chevenard, Pierre Antoine Jean Sylvestre
SUBJECT AREA: Metallurgy[br]b. 31 December 1888 Thizy, Rhône, Franced. 15 August 1960 Fontenoy-aux-Roses, France[br]French metallurgist, inventor of the alloys Elinvar and Platinite and of the method of strengthening nickel-chromium alloys by a precipitate ofNi3Al which provided the basis of all later super-alloy development.[br]Soon after graduating from the Ecole des Mines at St-Etienne in 1910, Chevenard joined the Société de Commentry Fourchambault et Decazeville at their steelworks at Imphy, where he remained for the whole of his career. Imphy had for some years specialized in the production of nickel steels. From this venture emerged the first austenitic nickel-chromium steel, containing 6 per cent chromium and 22–4 per cent nickel and produced commercially in 1895. Most of the alloys required by Guillaume in his search for the low-expansion alloy Invar were made at Imphy. At the Imphy Research Laboratory, established in 1911, Chevenard conducted research into the development of specialized nickel-based alloys. His first success followed from an observation that some of the ferro-nickels were free from the low-temperature brittleness exhibited by conventional steels. To satisfy the technical requirements of Georges Claude, the French cryogenic pioneer, Chevenard was then able in 1912 to develop an alloy containing 55–60 per cent nickel, 1–3 per cent manganese and 0.2–0.4 per cent carbon. This was ductile down to −190°C, at which temperature carbon steel was very brittle.By 1916 Elinvar, a nickel-iron-chromium alloy with an elastic modulus that did not vary appreciably with changes in ambient temperature, had been identified. This found extensive use in horology and instrument manufacture, and even for the production of high-quality tuning forks. Another very popular alloy was Platinite, which had the same coefficient of thermal expansion as platinum and soda glass. It was used in considerable quantities by incandescent-lamp manufacturers for lead-in wires. Other materials developed by Chevenard at this stage to satisfy the requirements of the electrical industry included resistance alloys, base-metal thermocouple combinations, magnetically soft high-permeability alloys, and nickel-aluminium permanent magnet steels of very high coercivity which greatly improved the power and reliability of car magnetos. Thermostatic bimetals of all varieties soon became an important branch of manufacture at Imphy.During the remainder of his career at Imphy, Chevenard brilliantly elaborated the work on nickel-chromium-tungsten alloys to make stronger pressure vessels for the Haber and other chemical processes. Another famous alloy that he developed, ATV, contained 35 per cent nickel and 11 per cent chromium and was free from the problem of stress-induced cracking in steam that had hitherto inhibited the development of high-power steam turbines. Between 1912 and 1917, Chevenard recognized the harmful effects of traces of carbon on this type of alloy, and in the immediate postwar years he found efficient methods of scavenging the residual carbon by controlled additions of reactive metals. This led to the development of a range of stabilized austenitic stainless steels which were free from the problems of intercrystalline corrosion and weld decay that then caused so much difficulty to the manufacturers of chemical plant.Chevenard soon concluded that only the nickel-chromium system could provide a satisfactory basis for the subsequent development of high-temperature alloys. The first published reference to the strengthening of such materials by additions of aluminium and/or titanium occurs in his UK patent of 1929. This strengthening approach was adopted in the later wartime development in Britain of the Nimonic series of alloys, all of which depended for their high-temperature strength upon the precipitated compound Ni3Al.In 1936 he was studying the effect of what is now known as "thermal fatigue", which contributes to the eventual failure of both gas and steam turbines. He then published details of equipment for assessing the susceptibility of nickel-chromium alloys to this type of breakdown by a process of repeated quenching. Around this time he began to make systematic use of the thermo-gravimetrie balance for high-temperature oxidation studies.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsPresident, Société de Physique. Commandeur de la Légion d'honneur.Bibliography1929, Analyse dilatométrique des matériaux, with a preface be C.E.Guillaume, Paris: Dunod (still regarded as the definitive work on this subject).The Dictionary of Scientific Biography lists around thirty of his more important publications between 1914 and 1943.Further Reading"Chevenard, a great French metallurgist", 1960, Acier Fins (Spec.) 36:92–100.L.Valluz, 1961, "Notice sur les travaux de Pierre Chevenard, 1888–1960", Paris: Institut de France, Académie des Sciences.ASDBiographical history of technology > Chevenard, Pierre Antoine Jean Sylvestre
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67 Chubb, John
SUBJECT AREA: Domestic appliances and interiors[br]b. 1816 Portsea, Hampshire, Englandd. 30 October 1872 Brixton Rise, London, England.[br]English locksmith.[br]He succeeded his father, who had founded the family firm of Chubb \& Son, and patented many improvements to locks, safes, strong rooms and the like. He was elected a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1845, where he delivered an important paper on locks and keys which included a list of all British patents in the field up to the date of the paper as well as of all communications on the same subject to the Royal Society of Arts; for this he was awarded the Telford Medal.John Chubb was followed into the family business by his three sons, John C.Chubb, George H.Chubb (who was created Lord Hayter of Chislehurst in 1928) and Henry W.Chubb.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsInstitution of Civil Engineers Telford Medal 1845. See also: Chubb, Charles.IMcN -
68 Cross, Charles Frederick
[br]b. 11 December 1855 Brentwood, Middlesex, Englandd. 15 April 1935 Hove, England[br]English chemist who contributed to the development of viscose rayon from cellulose.[br]Cross was educated at the universities of London, Zurich and Manchester. It was at Owens College, Manchester, that Cross first met E.J. Bevan and where these two first worked together on the nature of cellulose. After gaining some industrial experience, Cross joined Bevan to set up a partnership in London as analytical and consulting chemists, specializing in the chemistry and technology of cellulose and lignin. They were at the Jodrell laboratory, Kew Gardens, for a time and then set up their own laboratory at Station Avenue, Kew Gardens. In 1888, the first edition of their joint publication A Textbook of Paper-making, appeared. It went into several editions and became the standard reference and textbook on the subject. The long introductory chapter is a discourse on cellulose.In 1892, Cross, Bevan and Clayton Beadle took out their historic patent on the solution and regeneration of cellulose. The modern artificial-fibre industry stems from this patent. They made their discovery at New Court, Carey Street, London: wood-pulp (or another cheap form of cellulose) was dissolved in a mixture of carbon disulphide and aqueous alkali to produce sodium xanthate. After maturing, it was squirted through fine holes into dilute acid, which set the liquid to give spinnable fibres of "viscose". However, it was many years before the process became a commercial operation, partly because the use of a natural raw material such as wood involved variations in chemical content and each batch might react differently. At first it was thought that viscose might be suitable for incandescent lamp filaments, and C.H.Stearn, a collaborator with Cross, continued to investigate this possibility, but the sheen on the fibres suggested that viscose might be made into artificial silk. The original Viscose Spinning Syndicate was formed in 1894 and a place was rented at Erith in Kent. However, it was not until some skeins of artificial silk (a term to which Cross himself objected) were displayed in Paris that textile manufacturers began to take an interest in it. It was then that Courtaulds decided to investigate this new fibre, although it was not until 1904 that they bought the English patents and developed the first artificial silk that was later called "rayon". Cross was also concerned with the development of viscose films and of cellulose acetate, which became a rival to rayon in the form of "Celanese". He retained his interest in the paper industry and in publishing, in 1895 again collaborating with Bevan and publishing a book on Cellulose and other technical articles. He was a cultured man and a good musician. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1917.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsFRS 1917.Bibliography1888, with E.J.Bevan, A Text-book of Papermaking. 1892, British patent no. 8,700 (cellulose).Further ReadingObituary Notices of the Royal Society, 1935, London. Obituary, 1935, Journal of the Chemical Society 1,337. Chambers Concise Dictionary of Scientists, 1989, Cambridge.Edwin J.Beer, 1962–3, "The birth of viscose rayon", Transactions of the Newcomen Society 35 (an account of the problems of developing viscose rayon; Beer worked under Cross in the Kew laboratories).C.Singer (ed.), 1978, A History of Technology, Vol. VI, Oxford: Clarendon Press.RLHBiographical history of technology > Cross, Charles Frederick
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69 Douglas, Donald Wills
SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace[br]b. 6 April 1892 Brooklyn, New York, USAd. 1 February 1981 Palm Springs, California, USA[br]American aircraft designer best known for bis outstanding airliner', the DC-3.[br]In 1912 Donald Douglas went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study aeronautical engineering. After graduating in this relatively new subject he joined the Glenn L.Martin Company as Chief Engineer. In 1920 he founded the Davis-Douglas Company in California to build an aircraft capable of flying across America non-stop: unfortunately, the Cloudster failed to achieve its target. Douglas reorganized the company in 1921 as the Douglas Company (later it became the Douglas Aircraft Company). In 1924 a team of US Army personnel made the first round-the-world flight in specially designed Douglas World Cruisers, a feat which boosted Douglas's reputation considerably. This reputation was further enhanced by his airliner, designed in 1935, that revolutionized air travel: the Douglas Commercial 3, or DC-3, of which some 13,000 were built. A series of piston-engined airliners followed, culminating in the DC-7. Meanwhile, in the military field, Douglas aircraft played a major part in the Second World War. In the jet age Douglas continued to produce a wide range of successful civil and military aircraft, and the company also moved into the rocket and guided missile business. In 1966 Donald W. Douglas was still Chairman of the company, with Donald W.Douglas Jr as President. In 1967 the company merged with the McDonnell Aircraft Company to become the giant McDonnell Douglas Corporation.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsAmerican Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics; Daniel Guggenheim Medal 1939.Bibliography1935, "The development and reliability of the modern multi-engined airliner", Journal of the Royal Aeronautical Society, London (lecture).Further ReadingB.Yenne, 1985, McDonnell Douglas: A Tale of Two Giants, London (pays some attention to both Douglas and McDonnell, but also covers the history of the companies and the aircraft they produced).René J.Francillon, 1979, McDonnell Douglas Aircraft since 1920, London; 1988, 2nd edn (a comprehensive history of the company's aircraft).JDS -
70 Eads, James Buchanan
SUBJECT AREA: Civil engineering[br]b. 23 May 1820 Lawrenceburg, Indiana, USAd. 8 March 1887 Nassau, Bahamas[br]American bridge-builder and hydraulic engineer.[br]The son of an immigrant merchant, he was educated at the local school, leaving at the age of 13 to take on various jobs, eventually becoming a purser on a Mississippi steamboat. He was struck by the number of wrecks lying in the river; he devised a diving bell and, at the age of 22, set up in business as a salvage engineer. So successful was he at this venture that he was able to retire in three years' time and set up the first glassworks west of the Ohio River. This, however, was a failure and in 1848 he returned to the business of salvage on the Ohio River. He was so successful that he was able to retire permanently in 1857. From the start of the American Civil War in 1861 he recommended to President Lincoln that he should obtain a fleet of armour-plated, steam-powered gunboats to operate on the western rivers. He built seven of these himself, later building or converting a further eighteen. After the end of the war he obtained the contract to design and build a bridge over the Mississippi at St Louis. In this he made use of his considerable knowledge of the river-bed currents. He built a bridge with a 500 ft (150 m) centre span and a clearance of 50 ft (15 m) that was completed in 1874. The three spans are, respectively, 502 ft, 520 ft and 502 ft (153 m, 158 m and 153 m), each being spanned by an arch. The Mississippi river is subject to great changes, both seasonal and irregular, with a range of over 41 ft (12.5 m) between low and high water and a velocity varying from 4 ft (1.2 m) to 12 1/2 ft (3.8 m) per second. The Eads Bridge was completed in 1874 and in the following year Eads was commissioned to open one of the mouths of the Mississippi, for which he constructed a number of jetty traps. He was involved later in attempts to construct a ship railway across the isthmus of Panama. He had been suffering from indifferent health for some years, and this effort was too much for him. He died on 8 March 1887. He was the first American to be awarded the Royal Society of Arts' Albert Medal.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsRoyal Society of Arts Albert Medal.Further ReadingD.B.Steinman and S.R.Watson, 1941, Bridges and their Builders, New York: Dover Publications.T.I.Williams, Biographical Dictionary of Science.IMcN -
71 Fermi, Enrico
[br]b. 29 September 1901 Rome, Italyd. 28 November 1954 Chicago, USA[br]Italian nuclear physicist.[br]Fermi was one of the most versatile of twentieth-century physicists, one of the few to excel in both theory and experiment. His greatest theoretical achievements lay in the field of statistics and his theory of beta decay. His statistics, parallel to but independent of Dirac, were the key to the modern theory of metals and the statistical modds of the atomic nucleus. On the experimental side, his most notable discoveries were artificial radioactivity produced by neutron bombardment and the realization of a controlled nuclear chain reaction, in the world's first nuclear reactor.Fermi received a conventional education with a chemical bias, but reached proficiency in mathematics and physics largely through his own reading. He studied at Pisa University, where he taught himself modern physics and then travelled to extend his knowledge, spending time with Max Born at Göttingen. On his return to Italy, he secured posts in Florence and, in 1927, in Rome, where he obtained the first Italian Chair in Theoretical Physics, a subject in which Italy had so far lagged behind. He helped to bring about a rebirth of physics in Italy and devoted himself to the application of statistics to his model of the atom. For this work, Fermi was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1938, but in December of that year, finding the Fascist regime uncongenial, he transferred to the USA and Columbia University. The news that nuclear fission had been achieved broke shortly before the Second World War erupted and it stimulated Fermi to consider this a way of generating secondary nuclear emission and the initiation of chain reactions. His experiments in this direction led first to the discovery of slow neutrons.Fermi's work assumed a more practical aspect when he was invited to join the Manhattan Project for the construction of the first atomic bomb. His small-scale work at Columbia became large-scale at Chicago University. This culminated on 2 December 1942 when the first controlled nuclear reaction took place at Stagg Field, Chicago, an historic event indeed. Later, Fermi spent most of the period from September 1944 to early 1945 at Los Alamos, New Mexico, taking part in the preparations for the first test explosion of the atomic bomb on 16 July 1945. President Truman invited Fermi to serve on his Committee to advise him on the use of the bomb. Then Chicago University established an Institute for Nuclear Studies and offered Fermi a professorship, which he took up early in 1946, spending the rest of his relatively short life there.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsNobel Prize for Physics 1938.Bibliography1962–5, Collected Papers, ed. E.Segrè et al., 2 vols, Chicago (includes a biographical introduction and bibliography).Further ReadingL.Fermi, 1954, Atoms in the Family, Chicago (a personal account by his wife).E.Segrè, 1970, Enrico Fermi, Physicist, Chicago (deals with the more scientific aspects of his life).LRD -
72 Gabor, Dennis (Dénes)
SUBJECT AREA: Photography, film and optics[br]b. 5 June 1900 Budapest, Hungaryd. 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 DistinctionsRoyal Society Rumford Medal 1968. Franklin Institute Michelson Medal 1968. CBE 1970. Nobel Prize for Physics 1971.Bibliography1948. "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 ReadingT.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 -
73 Grimthorpe (of Grimthorpe), Edmund Beckett, Baron
SUBJECT AREA: Horology[br]b. 12 May 1816 Newark, Nottinghamshire, Englandd. 29 April 1905 St Albans, Hertfordshire, England[br]English lawyer and amateur horologist who was the first successfully to apply the gravity escapement to public clocks.[br]Born Edmund Beckett Denison, he was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied mathematics, graduating in 1838. He was called to the Bar in 1841 and became a Queen's Counsel in 1854. He built up a large and lucrative practice which gave him the independence to pursue his many interests outside law. His interest in horology may have been stimulated by a friend and fellow lawyer, J.M. Bloxham, who interestingly had invented a gravity escapement with an affinity to the escapement eventually used by Denison. Denison studied horology with his usual thoroughness and by 1850 he had published his Rudimentary Treatise on Clock and Watchmaking. It was natural, therefore, that he should have been invited to be a referee when a disagreement arose over the design of the clock for the new Houses of Parliament. Typically, he interpreted his brief very liberally and designed the clock himself. The most distinctive feature of the clock, in its final form, was the incorporation of a gravity escapement. A gravity escapement was particularly desirable in a public clock as it enabled the pendulum to receive a constant impulse (and thus swing with a constant amplitude), despite the variable forces that might be exerted by the wind on the exposed hands. The excellent performance of the prestigious clock at Westminster made Denison's form of gravity escapement de rigueur for large mechanical public clocks produced in Britain and in many other countries. In 1874 he inherited his father's baronetcy, dropping the Denison name, but later adopted the name Grimthorpe when he was created a Baron in 1886.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsPeerage 1886. President, British Horological Institute 1868–1905.BibliographyHis highly idiosyncratic A Rudimentary Treatise on Clocks and Watchmaking first published in 1850, went through eight editions, with slight changes of title, and became the most influential work in English on the subject of public clocks.Further ReadingVaudrey Mercer, 1977, The Life and Letters of Edward John Dent, London, pp. 650–1 (provides biographical information relating to horology; also contains a reliable account of Denison's involvement with the clock at Westminster).A.L.Rawlings, 1948, The Science of Clocks and Watcher, repub. 1974, pp. 98–102 (provides a technical assessment of Denison's escapement).DVBiographical history of technology > Grimthorpe (of Grimthorpe), Edmund Beckett, Baron
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74 Herreshoff, Nathaniel Greene
SUBJECT AREA: Ports and shipping[br]b. 18 March 1848 Bristol, Rhode Island, USAd. 2 June 1938 Bristol, Rhode Island, USA[br]American naval architect and designer of six successful America's Cup defenders.[br]Herreshoff, or, as he was known, Captain Nat, was seventh in a family of nine, four of whom became blind in childhood. Association with such problems may have sharpened his appreciation of shape and form; indeed, he made a lengthy European small-boat trip with a blind brother. While working on yacht designs, he used three-dimensional models in conjunction with the sheer draught on the drawing-board. With many of the family being boatbuilders, he started designing at the age of 16 and then decided to make this his career. As naval architecture was not then a graduating subject, he studied mechanical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. While still studying, c.1867, he broke new ground by preparing direct reading time handicapping tables for yachts up to 110 ft (33.5 m) long. After working with the Corliss Company, he set up the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company, in partnership with J.B.Herreshoff, as shipbuilders and engineers. Over the years their output included steam machinery, fishing vessels, pleasure craft and racing yachts. They built the first torpedo boat for the US Navy and another for the Royal Navy, the only such acquisition in the late nineteenth century. Herreshoff designed six of the world's greatest yachts, of the America's Cup, between 1890 and 1920. His accomplishments included new types of lightweight wood fasteners, new systems of framing, hollow spars and better methods of cutting sails. He continued to work full-time until 1935 and his work was internationally acclaimed. He maintained cordial relations with his British rivals Fife, Nicholson and G.L. Watson, and enjoyed friendship with his compatriot Edward Burgess. Few will ever match Herreshoff as an all-round engineer and designer.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsHerreshoff was one of the very few, other than heads of state, to become an Honorary Member of the New York Yacht Club.Further ReadingL.F.Herreshoff, 1953, Capt. Nat Herreshoff. The Wizard of Bristol, White Plains, NY: Sheridan House; 2nd edn 1981.FMWBiographical history of technology > Herreshoff, Nathaniel Greene
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75 Holland, John Philip
SUBJECT AREA: Ports and shipping[br]b. 29 February 1840 Liscanor, Co. Clare, Irelandd. 12 August 1915 Newark, New Jersey, USA[br]Irish/American inventor of the successful modern submarine[br]Holland was educated first in his native town and later in Limerick, a seaport bustling with coastal trade ships. His first job was that of schoolteacher, and as such he worked in various parts of Ireland until he was about 32 years old. A combination of his burning patriotic zeal for Ireland and his interest in undersea technology (then in its infancy) made him consider designs for underwater warships for use against the British Royal Navy in the fight for Irish independence. He studied all known works on the subject and commenced drawing plans, but he was unable to make real headway owing to a lack of finance.In 1873 he travelled to the United States, ultimately settling in New Jersey and continuing in the profession of teaching. His work on submarine design continued, but in 1875 he suffered a grave setback when the United States Navy turned down his designs. Help came from an unexpected source, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, or Fenian Society, which had been founded in Dublin and New York in 1858. Financial help enabled Holland to build a 4 m (13 ft) one-person craft, which was tested in 1878, and then a larger boat of 19 tonnes' displacement that was tested with a crew of three to depths of 20 m (65 ft) in New York's harbour in 1883. Known as the Fenian Ram, it embodied most of the principles of modern submarines, including weight compensation. The Fenians commandeered this boat, but they were unable to operate it satisfactorily and it was relegated to history.Holland continued work, at times independently and sometimes with others, and continuously advocated submarines to the United States Navy. In 1895 he was successful in winning a contract for US$150,000 to build the US Submarine Plunger at Baltimore. With too much outside interference, this proved an unsatisfactory venture. However, with only US$5,000 of his capital left, Holland started again and in 1898 he launched the Holland at Elizabeth, New Jersey. This 16 m (52 ft) vessel was successful, and in 1900 it was purchased by the United States Government.Six more boats were ordered by the Americans, and then some by the Russians and the Japanese. The British Royal Navy ordered five, which were built by Vickers Son and Maxim (now VSEL) at Barrow-in-Furness in the years up to 1903, commencing their long run of submarine building. They were licensed by another well-known name, the Electric Boat Company, which had formerly been the J.P.Holland Torpedo Boat Company.Holland now had some wealth and was well known. He continued to work, trying his hand at aeronautical research, and in 1904 he invented a respirator for use in submarine rescue work. It is pleasing to record that one of his ships can be seen to this day at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum, Gosport: HM Submarine Holland No. 1, which was lost under tow in 1913 but salvaged and restored in the 1980s.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsOrder of the Rising Sun, Japan, 1910.Bibliography1900, "The submarine boat and its future", North American Review (December). Holland wrote several other articles of a similar nature.Further ReadingR.K.Morris, 1966 John P.Holland 1841–1914, Inventor of the Modern Submarine, Annapolis, MD: US Naval Institute.F.W.Lipscomb, 1975, The British Submarine, London: Conway Maritime Press. A.N.Harrison, 1979, The Development of HM Submarines from Holland No. 1 (1901) toPorpoise (1930), Bath: MoD Ships Department (internal publication).FMW -
76 Hooke, Robert
[br]b. 18 July 1635 Freshwater, Isle of Wight, Englandd. 3 March 1703 London, England[br]English physicist, astronomer and mechanician.[br]Son of Revd John Hooke, minister of the parish, he was a sickly child who was subject to headaches which prevented protracted study. He devoted his time while alone to making mechanical models including a wooden clock. On the death of his father in October 1648 he was left £100 and went to London, where he became a pupil of Sir Peter Lely and then went to Westminster School under Dr Busby. There he learned the classical languages, some Hebrew and oriental languages while mastering six books of Euclid in one week. In 1653 he entered Christ Church College, Oxford, where he graduated MA in 1663, after studying chemistry and astronomy. In 1662 he was appointed Curator of Experiments to the Royal Society and was elected a Fellow in 1663. In 1665 his appointment was made permanent and he was given apartments in Gresham College, where he lived until his death in 1703. He was an indefatigable experimenter, perhaps best known for the invention of the universal joint named after him. The properties of the atmosphere greatly engaged him and he devised many forms of the barometer. He was the first to apply the spiral spring to the regulation of the balance wheel of the watch in an attempt to measure longitude at sea, but he did not publish his results until after Huygens's reinvention of the device in 1675. Several of his "new watches" were made by Thomas Tompion, one of which was presented to King Charles II. He is said to have invented, among other devices, thirty different ways of flying, the first practical system of telegraphy, an odometer, a hearing aid, an arithmetical machine and a marine barometer. Hooke was a small man, somewhat deformed, with long, lank hair, who went about stooped and moved very quickly. He was of a melancholy and mistrustful disposition, ill-tempered and sharp-tongued. He slept little, often working all night and taking a nap during the day. John Aubrey, his near-contemporary, wrote of Hooke, "He is certainly the greatest Mechanick this day in the World." He is said to have been the first to establish the true principle of the arch. His eyesight failed and he was blind for the last year of his life. He is best known for his Micrographia, or some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies, first published in 1665. After the Great Fire of London, he exhibited a model for the rebuilding of the City. This was not accepted, but it did result in Hooke's appointment as one of two City Surveyors. This proved a lucrative post and through it Hooke amassed a fortune of some thousands of pounds, which was found intact after his death some thirty years later. It had never been opened in the interim period. Among the buildings he designed were the new Bethlehem (Bedlam) Hospital, the College of Physicians and Montague House.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsFRS 1663; Secretary 1677–82.IMcN -
77 Kapp, Gisbert Johann Eduard Karl
SUBJECT AREA: Electricity[br]b. 2 September 1852 Mauer, Vienna, Austriad. 10 August 1922 Birmingham, England[br]Austrian (naturalized British in 1881) engineer and a pioneer of dynamo design, being particularly associated with the concept of the magnetic circuit.[br]Kapp entered the Polytechnic School in Zurich in 1869 and gained a mechanical engineering diploma. He became a member of the engineering staff at the Vienna International Exhibition of 1873, and then spent some time in the Austrian navy before entering the service of Gwynne \& Co. of London, where he designed centrifugal pumps and gas exhausters. Kapp resolved to become an electrical engineer after a visit to the Paris Electrical Exhibition of 1881 and in the following year was appointed Manager of the Crompton Co. works at Chelmsford. There he developed and patented the dynamo with compound field winding. Also at that time, with Crompton, he patented electrical measuring instruments with over-saturated electromagnets. He became a naturalized British subject in 1881.In 1886 Kapp's most influential paper was published. This described his concept of the magnetic circuit, providing for the first time a sound theoretical basis for dynamo design. The theory was also developed independently by J. Hopkinson. After commencing practice as a consulting engineer in 1884 he carried out design work on dynamos and also electricity-supply and -traction schemes in Germany, Italy, Norway, Russia and Switzerland. From 1891 to 1894 much of his time was spent designing a new generating station in Bristol, officially as Assistant to W.H. Preece. There followed an appointment in Germany as General Secretary of the Verband Deutscher Electrotechniker. For some years he edited the Electrotechnische Zeitschrift and was also a part-time lecturer at the Charlottenberg Technical High School in Berlin. In 1904 Kapp was invited to accept the new Chair of Electrical Engineering at the University of Birmingham, which he occupied until 1919. He was the author of several books on electrical machine and transformer design.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsInstitution of Civil Engineers Telford Medal 1886 and 1888. President, Institution of Electrical Engineers 1909.Bibliography10 October 1882, with R.E.B.Crompton, British patent no. 4,810; (the compound wound dynamo).1886, "Modern continuous current dynamo electric machines and their engines", Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers 83: 123–54.Further ReadingD.G.Tucker, 1989, "A new archive of Gisbert Kapp papers", Proceedings of the Meeting on History of Electrical Engineering, IEE 4/1–4/11 (a transcript of an autobiography for his family).D.G.Tucker, 1973, Gisbert Kapp 1852–1922, Birmingham: Birmingham University (includes a bibliography of his most important publications).GWBiographical history of technology > Kapp, Gisbert Johann Eduard Karl
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78 Le Roy, Pierre
SUBJECT AREA: Horology[br]b. 24 November 1717 Paris, Franced. 25 August 1785 Viry-sur-Orge, France[br]French horologist who invented the detached détente escapement and the compensation balance.[br]Le Roy was born into a distinguished horological family: his father, Julien, was Clockmaker to the King. Pierre became Master in 1737 and continued to work with his father, taking over the business when his father died in 1759. However, he seems to have left the commercial side of the business to others so that he could concentrate on developing the marine chronometer. Unlike John Harrison, he believed that the solution lay in detaching the escapement from the balance, and in 1748 he submitted a proposal for the first detached escapement to the Académie des Sciences in Paris. He also differed from Harrison in his method of temperature compensation, which acted directly on the balance by altering its radius of gyration. This was achieved either by mounting thermometers on the balance or by using bimetallic strips which effectively reduced the diameter of the balance as the temperature rose (with refinements, this later became the standard method of temperature compensation in watches and chronometers). Le Roy had already discovered that for every spiral balance spring there was a particular length at which it would be isochronous, and this method of temperature compensation did not destroy that isochronism by altering the length, as other methods did. These innovations were incorporated in a chronometer with an improved detached escapement which he presented to Louis XV in 1766 and described in a memoir to the Académie des Sciences. This instrument contained the three essential elements of all subsequent chronometers: an isochronous balance spring, a detached escapement and a balance with temperature compensation. Its performance was similar to that of Harrison's fourth timepiece, and Le Roy was awarded prizes by the Académie des Sciences for the chronometer and for his memoir. However, his work was never fully appreciated in France, where he was over-shadowed by his rival Ferdinand Berthoud. When Berthoud was awarded the coveted title of Horloger de la Marine, Le Roy became disillusioned and shortly afterwards gave up chronometry and retired to the country.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsHorloger du Roi 1760.Bibliography1748, "Echappement à détente", Histoire et mémoires de l'Académie Royale des Sciences.Further ReadingR.T.Gould, 1923, The Marine Chronometer: Its History and Development, London; reprinted 1960, Holland Press (still the standard work on the subject).DV -
79 Lippman, Gabriel
SUBJECT AREA: Photography, film and optics[br]b. 16 August 1845 Hallerick, Luxembourgd. 14 July 1921 at sea, in the North Atlantic[br]French physicist who developed interference colour photography.[br]Born of French parents, Lippman's work began with a distinguished career in classics, philosophy, mathematics and physics at the Ecole Normale in Luxembourg. After further studies in physics at Heidelberg University, he returned to France and the Sorbonne, where he was in 1886 appointed Director of Physics. He was a leading pioneer in France of research into electricity, optics, heat and other branches of physics.In 1886 he conceived the idea of recording the existence of standing waves in light when it is reflected back on itself, by photographing the colours so produced. This required the production of a photographic emulsion that was effectively grainless: the individual silver halide crystals had to be smaller than the shortest wavelength of light to be recorded. Lippman succeeded in this and in 1891 demonstrated his process. A glass plate was coated with a grainless emulsion and held in a special plate-holder, glass towards the lens. The back of the holder was filled with mercury, which provided a perfect reflector when in contact with the emulsion. The standing waves produced during the exposure formed laminae in the emulsion, with the number of laminae being determined by the wavelength of the incoming light at each point on the image. When the processed plate was viewed under the correct lighting conditions, a theoretically exact reproduction of the colours of the original subject could be seen. However, the Lippman process remained a beautiful scientific demonstration only, since the ultra-fine-grain emulsion was very slow, requiring exposure times of over 10,000 times that of conventional negative material. Any method of increasing the speed of the emulsion also increased the grain size and destroyed the conditions required for the process to work.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsRoyal Photographic Society Progress Medal 1897. Nobel Prize (for his work in interference colour photography) 1908.Further ReadingJ.S.Friedman, 1944, History of Colour Photography, Boston.Brian Coe, 1978, Colour Photography: The First Hundred Years, London. Gert Koshofer, 1981, Farbfotografie, Vol. I, Munich.BC -
80 Lobnitz, Frederick
SUBJECT AREA: Ports and shipping[br]b. 7 September 1863 Renfrew, Scotlandd. 7 December 1932 Crookston, Renfrewshire, Scotland[br]Scottish shipbuilder, expert in dredge technology.[br]Lobnitz was the son of Henry Christian Lobnitz. His father was born in Denmark in 1831, and had worked for some years in both England and Scotland before becoming a naturalized British subject. Ultimately Henry joined the Clyde shipyard of James Henderson \& Son and worked there until his death, by which time he was sole proprietor and the yard was called Lobnitz \& Co. By this time the shipyard was the acknowledged world leader in rock-cutting machinery.Frederick was given the opportunity to travel in Europe during the late 1870s and early 1880s. He studied at Bonn, Heidelberg and at the Zurich Polytechnic, and also served an apprenticeship at the Fairfield Shipyard of John Elder \& Co. of Glasgow. One of his first tasks was to supervise the construction and commissioning of a subaqueous rock excavator, and then he was asked to direct rock excavations at the Suez Canal.In 1888 Frederick Lobnitz was made a partner of the company by his father and was to remain with them until his death, at which time he was Chairman. By this time the shipyard was a private limited company and had continued to enhance its name in the specialized field of dredging. At that time the two greatest dredge builders in the world (and deadly rivals) were situated next to each other on the banks of the Clyde at Renfrew; in 1957 they merged as Simons-Lobnitz Ltd. In 1915 Lobnitz was appointed Deputy Director for Munitions in Scotland and one year later he became Director, a post he held until 1919. Having investigated the running of munitions factories in France, he released scarce labour for the war effort by staffing the plants under his control with female and unskilled labour.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsKnighted 1920. Officier de la Légion d'honneur.Further ReadingFred M.Walker, 1984, Song of the Clyde. A History of Clyde Shipbuilding Cambridge: PSL.Lobnitz \& Co., n.d., Romance of Dredging.FMW
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principal — prin·ci·pal 1 / prin sə pəl/ adj 1: being the main or most important, consequential, or influential their principal place of business the principal obligor 2: of, relating to, or constituting principal or a principal the principal amount of the… … Law dictionary
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principal — [prin′sə pəl] adj. [OFr < L principalis < princeps: see PRINCE] 1. first in rank, authority, importance, degree, etc. 2. that is or has to do with PRINCIPAL (n. 3) n. 1. a principal person or thing; specif., a) a ch … English World dictionary
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principal — adj Chief; leading; most important or considerable; primary; original. Highest in rank, authority, character, importance, or degree. As to principal challenge principal contract principal obligation principal office principal vein, see those… … Black's law dictionary
Principal homogeneous space — In mathematics, a principal homogeneous space, or torsor, for a group G is a set X on which G acts freely and transitively. That is, X is a homogeneous space for G such that the stabilizer of any point is trivial. An analogous definition holds in … Wikipedia
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subject — subjectable, adj. subjectability, n. subjectedly, adv. subjectedness, n. subjectless, adj. subjectlike, adj. n., adj. /sub jikt/; v. /seuhb jekt /, n. 1. that which forms a basic matter of thought, discussion, investigation, etc.: a subject of… … Universalium
subject — sub•ject n., adj. [[t]ˈsʌb dʒɪkt[/t]] v. [[t]səbˈdʒɛkt[/t]] n. 1) that which forms a basic matter of thought, discussion, investigation, etc 2) edu a branch of knowledge as a course of study 3) a motive, cause, or ground: a subject for… … From formal English to slang
