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41 Blumlein, Alan Dower
SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace, Broadcasting, Electronics and information technology, Photography, film and optics, Recording, Telecommunications[br]b. 29 June 1903 Hampstead, London, Englandd. 7 June 1942[br]English electronics engineer, developer of telephone equipment, highly linear electromechanical recording and reproduction equipment, stereo techniques, video and radar technology.[br]He was a very bright scholar and received a BSc in electrical technology from City and Guilds College in 1923. He joined International Western Electric (later to become Standard Telephone and Cables) in 1924 after a period as an instructor/demonstrator at City and Guilds. He was instrumental in the design of telephone measuring equipment and in international committee work for standards for long-distance telephony.From 1929 Blumlein was employed by the Columbia Graphophone Company to develop an electric recording cutterhead that would be independent of Western Electric's patents for the system developed by Maxfield and Harrison. He attacked the problems in a most systematic fashion, and within a year he had developed a moving-coil cutterhead that was much more linear than the iron-cored systems known at the time. Eventually Blumlein designed a complete line of recording equipment, from microphone and through-power amplifiers. The design was used by Columbia; after the merger with the Gramophone Company in 1931 to form Electrical and Musical Industries Ltd (later known as EMI) it became the company standard, certainly for coarse-groove records, until c.1950.Blumlein became interested in stereophony (binaural sound), and developed and demonstrated a complete line of equipment, from correctly placed microphones via two-channel records and stereo pick-ups to correctly placed loudspeakers. The advent of silent surfaces of vinyl records made this approach commercial from the late 1950s. His approach was independent and quite different from that of A.C. Keller.His extreme facility for creating innovative solutions to electronic problems was used in EMI's development from 1934 to 1938 of the electronic television system, which became the BBC standard of 405 lines after the Second World War, when television broadcasting again became possible. Independent of official requirements, EMI developed a 60 MHz radar system and Blumlein was involved in the development of a centimetric radar and display system. It was during testing of this aircraft mounted equipment that he was killed in a crash.[br]BibliographyBlumlein was inventor or co-inventor of well over 120 patents, a complete list of which is to be found in Burns (1992; see below). The major sound-recording achievements are documented by British patent nos. 350,954, 350,998, 363,627 (highly linear cutterhead, 1930) and 394,325 (reads like a textbook on stereo technology, 1931).Further ReadingThe definitive biography of Blumlein has not yet been written; the material seems to have been collected, but is not yet available. However, R.W.Burns, 1992, "A.D.Blumlein, engineer extraordinary", Engineering Science and Education Journal (February): 19– 33 is a thorough account. Also B.J.Benzimra, 1967, "A.D. Blumlein: an electronics genius", Electronics \& Power (June): 218–24 provides an interesting summary.GB-N -
42 Boot, Henry Albert Howard
[br]b. 29 July 1917 Birmingham, Englandd. 8 February 1983 Cambridge, England[br]English physicist who, with John Randall, invented the cavity magnetron used in radar systems.[br]After secondary education at King Edward School, Birmingham, Boot studied physics at Birmingham University, obtaining his BSc in 1938 and PhD in 1941. With the outbreak of the Second World War, he became involved with Randall and others in the development of a source of microwave power suitable for use in radar transmitters. Following unsuccessful attempts to use klystrons, they turned to investigation of the magnetron, and by adding cavity resonators they obtained useful power on 21 February 1940 at a wavelength of 9.8 cm. By May a cavity magnetron radar system had been constructed at TRE, Swanage, and in September submarine periscopes were detected at a range of 7 miles (11 km).In 1943 the physics department at Birmingham resumed its research in atomic physics and Boot moved to BTH at Rugby to continue development of magnetrons, but in 1945 he returned to Birmingham as Nuffield Research Fellow and helped construct the cyclotron there. Three years later he took up a post as a Principal Scientific Officer (PSO) at the Services Electronic Research Laboratories at Baldock, Hertfordshire, becoming a Senior PSO in 1954. He remained there until his retirement in 1977, variously carrying out research on microwaves, magnetrons, plasma physics and lasers.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsRoyal Society of Arts Thomas Gray Memorial Prize 1943. Royal Commission Inventors Award 1946. Franklin Institute John Price Wetherill Medal 1958. City of Pennsylvania John Scott Award 1959. (All jointly with Randall.)Bibliography1976, with J.T.Randall, "Historical notes on the cavity magnetron", Transactions of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers ED-23: 724 (provides an account of their development of the cavity magnetron).Further ReadingE.H.Dix and W.H.Aldous, 1966, Microwave Valves.KFBiographical history of technology > Boot, Henry Albert Howard
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43 Clarke, Arthur Charles
[br]b. 16 December 1917 Minehead, Somerset, England[br]English writer of science fiction who correctly predicted the use of geo-stationary earth satellites for worldwide communications.[br]Whilst still at Huish's Grammar School, Taunton, Clarke became interested in both space science and science fiction. Unable to afford a scientific education at the time (he later obtained a BSc at King's College, London), he pursued both interests in his spare time while working in the Government Exchequer and Audit Department between 1936 and 1941. He was a founder member of the British Interplanetary Society, subsequently serving as its Chairman in 1946–7 and 1950–3. From 1941 to 1945 he served in the Royal Air Force, becoming a technical officer in the first GCA (Ground Controlled Approach) radar unit. There he began to produce the first of many science-fiction stories. In 1949–50 he was an assistant editor of Science Abstracts at the Institution of Electrical Engineers.As a result of his two interests, he realized during the Second World War that an artificial earth satellite in an equatorial orbital with a radius of 35,000 km (22,000 miles) would appear to be stationary, and that three such geo-stationary, or synchronous, satellites could be used for worldwide broadcast or communications. He described these ideas in a paper published in Wireless World in 1945. Initially there was little response, but within a few years the idea was taken up by the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration and in 1965 the first synchronous satellite, Early Bird, was launched into orbit.In the 1950s he moved to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) to pursue an interest in underwater exploration, but he continued to write science fiction, being known in particular for his contribution to the making of the classic Stanley Kubrick science-fiction film 2001: A Space Odyssey, based on his book of the same title.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsClarke received many honours for both his scientific and science-fiction writings. For his satellite communication ideas his awards include the Franklin Institute Gold Medal 1963 and Honorary Fellowship of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics 1976. For his science-fiction writing he received the UNESCO Kalinga Prize (1961) and many others. In 1979 he became Chancellor of Moratuwa University in Sri Lanka and in 1980 Vikran Scrabhai Professor at the Physical Research Laboratory of the University of Ahmedabad.Bibliography1945. "Extra-terrestrial relays: can rocket stations give world wide coverage?", Wireless World L1: 305 (puts forward his ideas for geo-stationary communication satellites).1946. "Astronomical radar: some future possibilities", Wireless World 52:321.1948, "Electronics and space flight", Journal of the British Interplanetary Society 7:49. Other publications, mainly science-fiction novels, include: 1955, Earthlight, 1956, TheCoast of Coral; 1958, Voice Across the Sea; 1961, Fall of Moondust; 1965, Voicesfrom the Sky, 1977, The View from Serendip; 1979, Fountain of Paradise; 1984, Ascent to Orbit: A Scientific Autobiography, and 1984, 2010: Odyssey Two (a sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey that was also made into a film).Further Reading1986, Encyclopaedia Britannica.1991, Who's Who, London: A. \& C.Black.See also: Pierce, John RobinsonKF -
44 Cockerell, Christopher Sydney
[br]b. 4 June 1910 Cambridge, England[br]British designer and engineer who invented the hovercraft.[br]He was educated at Gresham's School in Holt and at Peterhouse College, Cambridge, where he graduated in engineering in 1931; he was made an Honorary Fellow in 1974. Cockerell entered the engineering firm of W.H.Allen \& Sons of Bedford as a pupil in 1931, and two years later he returned to Cambridge to engage in radio research for a further two years. In 1935 he joined Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company, working on very high frequency (VHF) transmitters and direction finders. During the Second World War he worked on airborne navigation and communication equipment, and later he worked on radar. During this period he filed thirty six patents in the fields of radio and navigational systems.In 1950 Cockerell left Marconi to set up his own boat-hire business on the Norfolk Broads. He began to consider how to increase the speed of boats by means of air lubrication. Since the 1870s engineers had at times sought to reduce the drag on a boat by means of a thin layer of air between hull and water. After his first experiments, Cockerell concluded that a significant reduction in drag could only be achieved with a thick cushion of air. After experimenting with several ways of applying the air-cushion principle, the first true hovercraft "took off" in 1955. It was a model in balsa wood, 2 ft 6 in. (762 mm) long and weighing 4½ oz. (27.6 g); it was powered by a model-aircraft petrol engine and could travel over land or water at 13 mph (20.8 km/h). Cockerell filed his first hovercraft patent on 12 December 1955. The following year he founded Hovercraft Ltd and began the search for a manufacturer. The government was impressed with the invention's military possibilities and placed it on the secret list. The secret leaked out, however, and the project was declassified. In 1958 the National Research and Development Corporation decided to give its backing, and the following year Saunders Roe Ltd with experience of making flying boats, produced the epoch-making SR N1, a hovercraft with an air cushion produced by air jets directed downwards and inwards arranged round the periphery of the craft. It made a successful crossing of the English Channel, with the inventor on board.Meanwhile Cockerell had modified the hovercraft so that the air cushion was enclosed within flexible skirts. In this form it was taken up by manufacturers throughout the world and found wide application as a passenger-carrying vehicle, for military transport and in scientific exploration and survey work. The hover principle found other uses, such as for air-beds to relieve severely burned patients and for hover mowers.The development of the hovercraft has occupied Cockerell since then and he has been actively involved in the several companies set up to exploit the invention, including Hovercraft Development Ltd and British Hovercraft Corporation. In the 1970s and 1980s he took up the idea of the generation of electricity by wavepower; he was Founder of Wavepower Ltd, of which he was Chairman from 1974 to 1982.[br]Principal Honours find DistinctionsKnighted 1969. CBE 1955. FRS 1967.LRDBiographical history of technology > Cockerell, Christopher Sydney
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45 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 -
46 Griffith, Alan Arnold
[br]b. 13 June 1893 London, Englandd. 13 October 1963 Farnborough, England[br]English research engineer responsible for many original ideas, including jet-lift aircraft.[br]Griffith was very much a "boffin", for he was a quiet, thoughtful man who shunned public appearances, yet he produced many revolutionary ideas. During the First World War he worked at the Royal Aircraft Factory, Farnborough, where he carried out research into structural analysis. Because of his use of soap films in solving torsion problems, he was nicknamed "Soap-bubble".During the 1920s Griffith carried out research into gas-turbine design at the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE; as the Royal Aircraft Factory had become). In 1929 he made proposals for a gas turbine driving a propeller (a turboprop), but the idea was shelved. In the 1930s he was head of the Engine Department of the RAE and developed multi-stage axial compressors, which were later used in jet engines. This work attracted the attention of E.W. (later Lord) Hives of Rolls-Royce who persuaded Griffith to join Rolls-Royce in 1939. His first major project was a "contra-flow" jet engine, which was a good idea but a practical failure. However, Griffith's axial-flow compressor experience played an important part in the success of Rolls-Royce jet engines from the Avon onwards. He also proposed the bypass principle used for the Conway.Griffith experimented with suction to control the boundary layer on wings, but his main interest in the 1950s centred on vertical-take-off and -landing aircraft. He developed the remarkable "flying bedstead", which consisted of a framework (the bedstead) in which two jet engines were mounted with their jets pointing downwards, thus lifting the machine vertically. It first flew in 1954 and provided much valuable data. The Short SC1 aircraft followed, with four small jets providing lift for vertical take-off and one conventional jet to provide forward propulsion. This flew successfully in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Griffith proposed an airliner with lifting engines, but the weight of the lifting engines when not in use would have been a serious handicap. He retired in 1960.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsCBE 1948. FRS 1941. Royal Aeronautical Society Silver Medal 1955; Blériot Medal 1962.BibliographyGriffith produced many technical papers in his early days; for example: 1926, Aerodynamic Theory of Turbine Design, Farnborough.Further ReadingD.Eyre, 1966, "Dr A.A.Griffith, CBE, FRS", Journal of the Royal Aeronautical Society (June) (a detailed obituary).F.W.Armstrong, 1976, "The aero engine and its progress: fifty years after Griffith", Aeronautical Journal (December).O.Stewart, 1966, Aviation: The Creative Ideas, London (provides brief descriptions of Griffith's many projects).JDS -
47 Leonardo da Vinci
[br]b. 15 April 1452 Vinci, near Florence, Italy,d. 2 May 1519 St Cloux, near Amboise, France.[br]Italian scientist, engineer, inventor and artist.[br]Leonardo was the illegitimate son of a Florentine lawyer. His first sixteen years were spent with the lawyer's family in the rural surroundings of Vinci, which aroused in him a lifelong love of nature and an insatiable curiosity in it. He received little formal education but extended his knowledge through private reading. That gave him only a smattering of Latin, a deficiency that was to be a hindrance throughout his active life. At sixteen he was apprenticed in the studio of Andrea del Verrochio in Florence, where he received a training not only in art but in a wide variety of crafts and technical arts.In 1482 Leonardo went to Milan, where he sought and obtained employment with Ludovico Sforza, later Duke of Milan, partly to sculpt a massive equestrian statue of Ludovico but the work never progressed beyond the full-scale model stage. He did, however, complete the painting which became known as the Virgin of the Rocks and in 1497 his greatest artistic achievement, The Last Supper, commissioned jointly by Ludovico and the friars of Santa Maria della Grazie and painted on the wall of the monastery's refectory. Leonardo was responsible for the court pageants and also devised a system of irrigation to supply water to the plains of Lombardy. In 1499 the French army entered Milan and deposed Leonardo's employer. Leonardo departed and, after a brief visit to Mantua, returned to Florence, where for a time he was employed as architect and engineer to Cesare Borgia, Duke of Romagna. Around 1504 he completed another celebrated work, the Mona Lisa.In 1506 Leonardo began his second sojourn in Milan, this time in the service of King Louis XII of France, who appointed him "painter and engineer". In 1513 Leonardo left for Rome in the company of his pupil Francesco Melzi, but his time there was unproductive and he found himself out of touch with the younger artists active there, Michelangelo above all. In 1516 he accepted with relief an invitation from King François I of France to reside at the small château of St Cloux in the royal domain of Amboise. With the pension granted by François, Leonardo lived out his remaining years in tranquility at St Cloux.Leonardo's career can hardly be regarded as a success or worthy of such a towering genius. For centuries he was known only for the handful of artistic works that he managed to complete and have survived more or less intact. His main activity remained hidden until the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, during which the contents of his notebooks were gradually revealed. It became evident that Leonardo was one of the greatest scientific investigators and inventors in the history of civilization. Throughout his working life he extended a searching curiosity over an extraordinarily wide range of subjects. The notes show careful investigation of questions of mechanical and civil engineering, such as power transmission by means of pulleys and also a form of chain belting. The notebooks record many devices, such as machines for grinding and polishing lenses, a lathe operated by treadle-crank, a rolling mill with conical rollers and a spinning machine with pinion and yard divider. Leonardo made an exhaustive study of the flight of birds, with a view to designing a flying machine, which obsessed him for many years.Leonardo recorded his observations and conclusions, together with many ingenious inventions, on thousands of pages of manuscript notes, sketches and drawings. There are occasional indications that he had in mind the publication of portions of the notes in a coherent form, but he never diverted his energy into putting them in order; instead, he went on making notes. As a result, Leonardo's impact on the development of science and technology was virtually nil. Even if his notebooks had been copied and circulated, there were daunting impediments to their understanding. Leonardo was left-handed and wrote in mirror-writing: that is, in reverse from right to left. He also used his own abbreviations and no punctuation.At his death Leonardo bequeathed his entire output of notes to his friend and companion Francesco Melzi, who kept them safe until his own death in 1570. Melzi left the collection in turn to his son Orazio, whose lack of interest in the arts and sciences resulted in a sad period of dispersal which endangered their survival, but in 1636 the bulk of them, in thirteen volumes, were assembled and donated to the Ambrosian Library in Milan. These include a large volume of notes and drawings compiled from the various portions of the notebooks and is now known as the Codex Atlanticus. There they stayed, forgotten and ignored, until 1796, when Napoleon's marauding army overran Italy and art and literary works, including the thirteen volumes of Leonardo's notebooks, were pillaged and taken to Paris. After the war in 1815, the French government agreed to return them but only the Codex Atlanticus found its way back to Milan; the rest remained in Paris. The appendix to one notebook, dealing with the flight of birds, was later regarded as of sufficient importance to stand on its own. Four small collections reached Britain at various times during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; of these, the volume in the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle is notable for its magnificent series of anatomical drawings. Other collections include the Codex Leicester and Codex Arundel in the British Museum in London, and the Madrid Codices in Spain.Towards the end of the nineteenth century, Leonardo's true stature as scientist, engineer and inventor began to emerge, particularly with the publication of transcriptions and translations of his notebooks. The volumes in Paris appeared in 1881–97 and the Codex Atlanticus was published in Milan between 1894 and 1904.[br]Principal Honours and Distinctions"Premier peintre, architecte et mécanicien du Roi" to King François I of France, 1516.Further ReadingE.MacCurdy, 1939, The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, 2 vols, London; 2nd edn, 1956, London (the most extensive selection of the notes, with an English translation).G.Vasari (trans. G.Bull), 1965, Lives of the Artists, London: Penguin, pp. 255–271.C.Gibbs-Smith, 1978, The Inventions of Leonardo da Vinci, Oxford: Phaidon. L.H.Heydenreich, Dibner and L. Reti, 1981, Leonardo the Inventor, London: Hutchinson.I.B.Hart, 1961, The World of Leonardo da Vinci, London: Macdonald.LRD / IMcN -
48 Ohain, Hans Joachim Pabst von
SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace[br]b. 14 December 1911 Dessau, Germany[br]German engineer who designed the first jet engine to power an aeroplane successfully.[br]Von Ohain studied engineering at the University of Göttingen, where he carried out research on gas-turbine engines, and centrifugal compressors in particular. In 1935 he patented a design for a jet engine (in Britain, Frank Whittle patented his jet-engine design in 1930). Von Ohain was recruited by the Heinkel company in 1936 to develop an engine for a jet aircraft. Ernst Heinkel was impressed by von Ohain's ideas and gave the project a high priority. The first engine was bench tested in September 1937. A more powerful version was developed and tested in air, suspended beneath a Heinkel dive-bomber, during the spring of 1939. A new airframe was designed to house the revolutionary power plant and designated the Heinkel He 178. A short flight was made on 24 August 1939 and the first recognized flight on 27 August. This important achievement received only a lukewarm response from the German authorities. Von Ohain's turbojet engine had a centrifugal compressor and developed a thrust of 380 kg (837 lb). An improved, more powerful, engine was developed and installed in a new twin-engined fighter design, the He 280. This flew on 2 April 1941 but never progressed beyond the prototype stage. By this time two other German companies, BMW and Junkers, were constructing successful turbojets with axial compressors: luckily for the Allies, Hitler was reluctant to pour his hard-pressed resources into this new breed of jet fighters. After the war, von Ohain emigrated to the United States and worked for the Air Force there.[br]Bibliography1929, "The evolution and future of aeropropulsion system", The Jet Age. 40 Years of Jet Aviation, Washington, DC: National Air \& Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution.Further ReadingVon Ohain's work is described in many books covering the history of aviation, and aero engines in particular, for example: R.Schlaifer and S.D.Heron, 1950, Development of Aircraft Engines and fuels, Boston. G.G.Smith, 1955, Gas Turbines and Jet Propulsion.Grover Heiman, 1963, Jet Pioneers.JDSBiographical history of technology > Ohain, Hans Joachim Pabst von
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49 Pierce, John Robinson
[br]b. 27 March 1910 Des Moines, Iowa, USA[br]American scientist and communications engineer said to be the "father" of communication satellites.[br]From his high-school days, Pierce showed an interest in science and in science fiction, writing under the pseudonym of J.J.Coupling. After gaining Bachelor's, Master's and PhD degrees at the California Institute of Technology (CalTech) in Pasadena in 1933, 1934 and 1936, respectively, Pierce joined the Bell Telephone Laboratories in New York City in 1936. There he worked on improvements to the travelling-wave tube, in which the passage of a beam of electrons through a helical transmission line at around 7 per cent of the speed of light was made to provide amplification at 860 MHz. He also devised a new form of electrostatically focused electron-multiplier which formed the basis of a sensitive detector of radiation. However, his main contribution to electronics at this time was the invention of the Pierce electron gun—a method of producing a high-density electron beam. In the Second World War he worked with McNally and Shepherd on the development of a low-voltage reflex klystron oscillator that was applied to military radar equipment.In 1952 he became Director of Electronic Research at the Bell Laboratories' establishment, Murray Hill, New Jersey. Within two years he had begun work on the possibility of round-the-world relay of signals by means of communication satellites, an idea anticipated in his early science-fiction writings (and by Arthur C. Clarke in 1945), and in 1955 he published a paper in which he examined various possibilities for communications satellites, including passive and active satellites in synchronous and non-synchronous orbits. In 1960 he used the National Aeronautics and Space Administration 30 m (98 1/2 ft) diameter, aluminium-coated Echo 1 balloon satellite to reflect telephone signals back to earth. The success of this led to the launching in 1962 of the first active relay satellite (Telstar), which weighed 170 lb (77 kg) and contained solar-powered rechargeable batteries, 1,000 transistors and a travelling-wave tube capable of amplifying the signal 10,000 times. With a maximum orbital height of 3,500 miles (5,600 km), this enabled a variety of signals, including full bandwidth television, to be relayed from the USA to large receiving dishes in Europe.From 1971 until his "retirement" in 1979, Pierce was Professor of Electrical Engineering at CalTech, after which he became Chief Technologist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratories, also in Pasadena, and Emeritus Professor of Engineering at Stanford University.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Morris N.Liebmann Memorial Award 1947; Edison Medal 1963; Medal of Honour 1975. Franklin Institute Stuart Ballantine Award 1960. National Medal of Science 1963. Danish Academy of Science Valdemar Poulsen Medal 1963. Marconi Award 1974. National Academy of Engineering Founders Award 1977. Japan Prize 1985. Arthur C.Clarke Award 1987. Honorary DEng Newark College of Engineering 1961. Honorary DSc Northwest University 1961, Yale 1963, Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute 1963. Editor, Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers 1954–5.Bibliography23 October 1956, US patent no. 2,768,328 (his development of the travelling-wave tube, filed on 5 November 1946).1947, with L.M.Field, "Travelling wave tubes", Proceedings of the Institute of RadioEngineers 35:108 (describes the pioneering improvements to the travelling-wave tube). 1947, "Theory of the beam-type travelling wave tube", Proceedings of the Institution ofRadio Engineers 35:111. 1950, Travelling Wave Tubes.1956, Electronic Waves and Messages. 1962, Symbols, Signals and Noise.1981, An Introduction to Information Theory: Symbols, Signals and Noise: Dover Publications.1990, with M.A.Knoll, Signals: Revolution in Electronic Communication: W.H.Freeman.KF -
50 Ricardo, Sir Harry Ralph
[br]b. 26 January 1885 London, Englandd. 18 May 1974 Graffham, Sussex, England[br]English mechanical engineer; researcher, designer and developer of internal combustion engines.[br]Harry Ricardo was the eldest child and only son of Halsey Ricardo (architect) and Catherine Rendel (daughter of Alexander Rendel, senior partner in the firm of consulting civil engineers that later became Rendel, Palmer and Tritton). He was educated at Rugby School and at Cambridge. While still at school, he designed and made a steam engine to drive his bicycle, and by the time he went up to Cambridge in 1903 he was a skilled craftsman. At Cambridge, he made a motor cycle powered by a petrol engine of his own design, and with this he won a fuel-consumption competition by covering almost 40 miles (64 km) on a quart (1.14 1) of petrol. This brought him to the attention of Professor Bertram Hopkinson, who invited him to help with research on turbulence and pre-ignition in internal combustion engines. After leaving Cambridge in 1907, he joined his grandfather's firm and became head of the design department for mechanical equipment used in civil engineering. In 1916 he was asked to help with the problem of loading tanks on to railway trucks. He was then given the task of designing and organizing the manufacture of engines for tanks, and the success of this enterprise encouraged him to set up his own establishment at Shoreham, devoted to research on, and design and development of, internal combustion engines.Leading on from the work with Hopkinson were his discoveries on the suppression of detonation in spark-ignition engines. He noted that the current paraffinic fuels were more prone to detonation than the aromatics, which were being discarded as they did not comply with the existing specifications because of their high specific gravity. He introduced the concepts of "highest useful compression ratio" (HUCR) and "toluene number" for fuel samples burned in a special variable compression-ratio engine. The toluene number was the proportion of toluene in heptane that gave the same HUCR as the fuel sample. Later, toluene was superseded by iso-octane to give the now familiar octane rating. He went on to improve the combustion in side-valve engines by increasing turbulence, shortening the flame path and minimizing the clearance between piston and head by concentrating the combustion space over the valves. By these means, the compression ratio could be increased to that used by overhead-valve engines before detonation intervened. The very hot poppet valve restricted the advancement of all internal combustion engines, so he turned his attention to eliminating it by use of the single sleeve-valve, this being developed with support from the Air Ministry. By the end of the Second World War some 130,000 such aero-engines had been built by Bristol, Napier and Rolls-Royce before the piston aero-engine was superseded by the gas turbine of Whittle. He even contributed to the success of the latter by developing a fuel control system for it.Concurrent with this was work on the diesel engine. He designed and developed the engine that halved the fuel consumption of London buses. He invented and perfected the "Comet" series of combustion chambers for diesel engines, and the Company was consulted by the vast majority of international internal combustion engine manufacturers. He published and lectured widely and fully deserved his many honours; he was elected FRS in 1929, was President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1944–5 and was knighted in 1948. This shy and modest, though very determined man was highly regarded by all who came into contact with him. It was said that research into internal combustion engines, his family and boats constituted all that he would wish from life.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsKnighted 1948. FRS 1929. President, Institution of Mechanical Engineers 1944–5.Bibliography1968, Memo \& Machines. The Pattern of My Life, London: Constable.Further ReadingSir William Hawthorne, 1976, "Harry Ralph Ricardo", Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 22.JBBiographical history of technology > Ricardo, Sir Harry Ralph
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51 Roe, Sir Edwin Alliott Verdon
SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace[br]b. 26 April 1877 Manchester, Englandd. 4 January 1958 London, England[br]English designer of one of the most successful biplanes of all time, the Avro 504.[br]A.V.Roe served an apprenticeship at a railway works, studied marine engineering at Kings College London, served at sea as an engineer, and then took a job in the motor-car industry. His hobby was flying: after studying bird-flight, he built several flying models and in 1907 one of these won a prize offered by the Daily Mail. With the prize money he built a full-size aeroplane loosely based on the Flyer of the Wright brothers, with whom he had corresponded. In September, Roe took his biplane to the motorracing circuit at Brooklands, in Surrey, but it made only a few hops and his activities were not welcomed. Roe then moved to Essex, where he assembled his new aeroplane under the arch of a railway bridge. This was a triplane design with the engine at the front (a "tractor"), and during 1909 it made several flights (this triplane is preserved by the Science Museum in London).In 1910 Roe and his brother Humphrey founded A.V.Roe \& Co. in Manchester, they described it the "Aviator's Storehouse". During the next three years Roe designed and built aeroplanes in Manchester, then transported them to Brooklands to fly (the authorities now made him more welcome). One of the most significant of these was his Type D tractor biplane of 1911, which led to the Avro 504 two-seater trainer of 1913. This was one of the most successful trainers of all time, as around 10,000 were built. In November 1914 a flight of Avro 504s carried out the first-ever bombing raid when they attacked German airship sheds as Friedrichshafen. A.V.Roe produced the first aeroplanes with enclosed cabins during 1912: the Type F monoplane and Type G biplane. After the war, his Avian was used for several record-breaking flights. In 1928 he sold his interest in the company bearing his name and joined forces with Saunders Ltd of Cowes, on the Isle of Wight, to found Saunders-Roe Ltd. "Saro" produced a series of flying boats, from the four-seat Cutty Sark of 1929 to the large, and ill-fated, Princess of 1952.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsKnighted 1929 (in 1933 he incorporated his mother's name to become Sir Alliott VerdonRoe). Honorary Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society 1948.Bibliography1939, The World of Wings and Things, London.Further ReadingL.J.Ludovic, 1956, the Challenging Sky.A.J.Jackson, 1908, Avro Aircraft since 1908, London (a detailed account).JDSBiographical history of technology > Roe, Sir Edwin Alliott Verdon
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52 Séguin, Louis
[br]b. 1869d. 1918[br]French co-designer, with his brother Laurent Séguin (b. 1883 Rhône, France; d. 1944), of the extremely successful Gnome rotary engines.[br]Most early aero-engines were adaptations of automobile engines, but Louis Séguin and his brother Laurent set out to produce a genuine aero-engine. They decided to build a "rotary" engine in which the crankshaft remained stationary and the cylinders rotated: the propeller was attached to the cylinders. The idea was not new, for rotary engines had been proposed by engineers from James Watt to Samuel P. Langley, rival of the Wright brothers. (An engine with stationary cylinders and a rotating crankshaftplus-propeller is classed as a "radial".) Louis Séguin formed the Société des Moteurs Gnome in 1906 to build stationary industrial engines. Laurent joined him to develop a lightweight engine specifically for aeronautical use. They built a fivecylinder air-cooled radial engine in 1908 and then a prototype seven-cylinder rotary engine. Later in the year the Gnome Oméga rotary, developing 50 hp (37 kW), was produced. This was test-flown in a Voisin biplane during June 1909. The Gnome was much lighter than its conventional rivals and surprisingly reliable in view of the technical problems of supplying rotating cylinders with the petrol-air mixture and a spark to ignite it. It was an instant success.Gnomes were mass-produced for use during the First World War. Both sides built and flew rotary engines, which were improved over the years until, by 1917, their size had grown to such an extent that a further increase was not practicable. The gyroscopic effects of a large rotating engine became a serious handicap to manoeuvrability, and the technical problems inherent in a rotary engine were accentuated.[br]Bibliography1912, L'Aérophile 20(4) (Louis Séguin's description of the Gnome).Further ReadingC.F.Taylor, 1971, "Aircraft Propulsion", Smithsonian Annals of Flight 1(4) (an account of the evolution of aircraft piston engines).A.Nahum, 1987, the Rotary Aero-Engine, London.JDS -
53 Short, Hugh Oswald
SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace[br]b. 16 January 1883 Derbyshire, Englandd. 4 December 1969 Haslemere, England[br]English co-founder, with his brothers Horace Short (1872–1917) and Eustace (1875–1932), of the first company to design and build aeroplanes in Britain.[br]Oswald Short trained as an engineer; he was largely self-taught but was assisted by his brothers Eustace and Horace. In 1898 Eustace and the young Oswald set up a balloon business, building their first balloon in 1901. Two years later they sold observation balloons to the Government of India, and further orders followed. Meanwhile, in 1906 Horace designed a high-altitude balloon with a spherical pressurized gondola, an idea later used by Auguste Piccard, in 1931. Horace, a strange genius with a dominating character, joined his younger brothers in 1908 to found Short Brothers. Their first design, based on the Wright Flyer, was a limited success, but No. 2 won a Daily Mail prize of £1,000. In the same year, 1909, the Wright brothers chose Shorts to build six of their new Model A biplanes. Still using the basic Wright layout, Horace designed the world's first twin-engined aeroplane to fly successfully: it had one engine forward of the pilot, and one aft. During the years before the First World War the Shorts turned to tractor biplanes and specialized in floatplanes for the Admiralty.Oswald established a seaplane factory at Rochester, Kent, during 1913–14, and an airship works at Cardington, Bedfordshire, in 1916. Short Brothers went on to build the rigid airship R 32, which was completed in 1919. Unfortunately, Horace died in 1917, which threw a greater responsibility onto Oswald, who became the main innovator. He introduced the use of aluminium alloys combined with a smooth "stressed-skin" construction (unlike Junkers, who used corrugated skins). His sleek biplane the Silver Streak flew in 1920, well ahead of its time, but official support was not forthcoming. Oswald Short struggled on, trying to introduce his all-metal construction, especially for flying boats. He eventually succeeded with the biplane Singapore, of 1926, which had an all-metal hull. The prototype was used by Sir Alan Cobham for his flight round Africa. Several successful all-metal flying boats followed, including the Empire flying boats (1936) and the ubiquitous Sunderland (1937). The Stirling bomber (1939) was derived from the Sunderland. The company was nationalized in 1942 and Oswald Short retired the following year.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsHonorary Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society. Freeman of the City of London. Oswald Short turned down an MBE in 1919 as he felt it did not reflect the achievements of the Short Brothers.Bibliography1966, "Aircraft with stressed skin metal construction", Journal of the Royal Aeronautical Society (November) (an account of the problems with patents and officialdom).Further ReadingC.H.Barnes, 1967, Shorts Aircraft since 1900, London; reprinted 1989 (a detailed account of the work of the Short brothers).JDS -
54 Sikorsky, Igor Ivanovich
SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace[br]b. 25 May 1889 Kiev, Ukrained. 26 October 1972 Easton, Connecticut, USA[br]Russian/American pioneer of large aeroplanes, flying boats, and helicopters.[br]Sikorsky trained as an engineer but developed an interest in aviation at the age of 19 when he was allowed to spend several months in Paris to meet French aviators. He bought an Anzani aero-engine and took it back to Russia, where he designed and built a helicopter. In his own words, "It had one minor technical problem—it would not fly—but otherwise it was a good helicopter".Sikorsky turned to aeroplanes and built a series of biplanes: by 1911 the 5–5 was capable of flights lasting an hour. Following this success, the Russian-Baltic Railroad Car Company commissioned Sikorsky to build a large aeroplane. On 13 May 1913 Sikorsky took off in the Grand, the world's first four-engined aeroplane. With a wing span of 28 m (92 ft) it was also the world's largest, and was unique in that the crew were in an enclosed cabin with dual controls. The even larger Ilia Mourometz flew the following year and established many records, including the carriage of sixteen people. During the First World War many of these aircraft were built and served as heavy bombers.Following the revolution in Russia during 1917, Sikorsky emigrated first to France and then the United States, where he founded his own company. After building the successful S-38 passenger-carrying amphibian, the Sikorsky Aviation Corporation became part of the United Aircraft Corporation and went on to produce several large flying boats. Of these, the four-engined S-42 was probably the best known, for its service to Hawaii in 1935 and trial flights across the Atlantic in 1937.In the late 1930s Sikorsky once again turned his attention to helicopters, and on 14 September 1939 his VS-300 made its first tentative hop, with Sikorsky at the controls. Many improvements were made and on 6 May 1941 Sikorsky made a record-breaking flight of over 1½ hours. The Sikorsky design of a single main lifting rotor combined with a small tail rotor to balance the torque effect has dominated helicopter design to this day. Sikorsky produced a long series of outstanding helicopter designs which are in service throughout the world.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsChevalier de la Légion d'honneur 1960. Presidential Certificate of Merit 1948. Aeronautical Society Silver Medal 1949.Bibliography1971, "Sixty years in flying", Aeronautical Journal (Royal Aeronautical Society) (November) (interesting and amusing).1938, The Story of the Winged S., New York; 1967, rev. edn.Further ReadingD.Cochrane et al., 1990, The Aviation Careers of Igor Sikorsky, Seattle.K.N.Finne, 1988, Igor Sikorsky: The Russian Years, ed. C.J.Bobrow and V.Hardisty, Shrewsbury; orig. pub. in Russian, 1930.F.J.Delear, 1969, Igor Sikorsky: His Three Careers in Aviation, New York.JDSBiographical history of technology > Sikorsky, Igor Ivanovich
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