as+noted+later

SUBJECT AREA: Automotive engineering, Land transport

[br]

[br]

[br]

Ackermann's father was a coachbuilder and harness-maker who in 1775 moved to Schneeberg. Rudolph was educated there and later entered his father's workshop for a short time. He visited Dresden, among other towns in Germany, and was resident in Paris for a short time, but eventually settled in London. For the first ten years of his life there he was employed in making designs for many of the leading coach builders. His steering-gear consisted of an arrangement of the track arms on the stub axles and their connection by the track rod in such a way that the inner wheel moved through a greater angle than the outer one, so giving approximately true rolling of the wheels in cornering. A necessary condition for this is that, in the plan view, the point of intersection of the axes of all the wheels must be at a point which always lies on the projection of the rear axle. In addition, the front wheels are inclined to bring the line of contact of the front wheels under the line of the pivots, about which they turn when cornering. This mechanism was not entirely new, having been proposed for windmill carriages in 1714 by Du Quet, but it was brought into prominence by Ackermann and so has come to bear his name.

In 1801 he patented a method of rendering paper, cloth and other materials waterproof and set up a factory in Chelsea for that purpose. He was one of the first private persons to light his business premises with gas. He also devoted some time to a patent for movable carriage axles between 1818 and 1820. In 1805 he was put in charge of the preparation of the funeral car for Lord Nelson.

Most of his life and endeavours were devoted to fine-art printing and publishing. He was responsible for the introduction into England of lithography as a fine art: it had first been introduced as a mechanical process in 1801, but was mainly used for copying until Ackermann took it up in 1817, setting up a press and engaging the services of a number of prominent artists, including W.H.Pyne, W.Combe, Pugin and Thomas Rowlandson. In 1819 he published an English translation of J.A.Senefelder's A Complete Course of Lithography, illustrated with lithographic plates from his press. He was much involved in charitable works for widows, children and wounded soldiers after the war of 1814. In 1830 he suffered "an attack of paralysis" which left him unable to continue in business. He died four years later and was buried at St Clement Danes.

[br]

SUBJECT AREA: Land transport, Railways and locomotives

[br]

[br]

[br]

Ill health forced Adams to live abroad when he was a young man and when he returned to England in the early 1830s he became a partner in his father's firm of coachbuilders. Coaches during that period were steered by a centrally pivoted front axle, which meant that the front wheels had to swing beneath the body and were therefore made smaller than the rear wheels. Adams considered this design defective and invented equirotal coaches, built by his firm, in which the front and rear wheels were of equal diameter and the coach body was articulated midway along its length so that the front part pivoted. He also applied himself to improving vehicles for railways, which were developing rapidly then.

In 1843 he opened his own engineering works, Fairfield Works in north London (he was not related to his contemporary William Adams, who was appointed Locomotive Superintendent to the North London Railway in 1854). In 1847 he and James Samuel, Engineer to the Eastern Counties Railway, built for that line a small steam inspection car, the Express, which was light enough to be lifted off the track. The following year Adams built a broad-gauge steam railcar, the Fairfield, for the Bristol \& Exeter Railway at the insistance of the line's Engineer, C.H.Gregory: self-propelled and passenger-carrying, this was the first railcar. Adams developed the concept further into a light locomotive that could haul two or three separate carriages, and light locomotives built both by his own firm and by other noted builders came into vogue for a decade or more.

In 1847 Adams also built eight-wheeled coaches for the Eastern Counties Railway that were larger and more spacious than most others of the day: each in effect comprised two four-wheeled coaches articulated together, with wheels that were allowed limited side-play. He also realized the necessity for improvements to railway track, the weakest point of which was the joints between the rails, whose adjoining ends were normally held in common chairs. Adams invented the fishplated joint, first used by the Eastern Counties Railway in 1849 and subsequently used almost universally.

Adams was a prolific inventor. Most important of his later inventions was the radial axle, which was first applied to the leading and trailing wheels of a 2–4–2 tank engine, the White Raven, built in 1863; Adams's radial axle was the forerunner of all later radial axles. However, the sprung tyres with which White Raven was also fitted (an elastic steel hoop was interposed between wheel centre and tyre) were not perpetuated. His inventiveness was not restricted to engineering: in matters of dress, his adoption, perhaps invention, of the turn-down collar at a time when men conventionally wore standup collars had lasting effect.

[br]

SUBJECT AREA: Medical technology

[br]

[br]

[br]

After studies at colleges in Limoges and later in Paris, Arsonval became a doctor of medicine in 1877. In 1882 the Collège de France established a laboratory of biophysics with Arsonval as Director, and he was Professor from 1894.

His most outstanding scientific contributions were in the field of biological applications of electricity. His interest in muscle currents led to a series of inventions to assist in research, including the moving-coil galvanometer. In 1881 he made a significant improvement to the galvanometer by reversing the magnetic elements. It had been usual to suspend a compass needle in the centre of a large, stationary coil, but Arsonval's invention was to suspend a small, light coil between the poles of a powerful fixed magnet. This simple arrangement was independent of the earth's magnetic field and insensitive to vibration. A great increase in sensitivity was achieved by attaching a mirror to the coil in order to reflect a spot of light. For bacterial-research purposes he designed the first constant-temperature incubator controlled by electricity. His experiments on the effects of high-frequency, low-voltage alternating currents on animals led to the first high-frequency heat-therapy unit being established in 1892, and later to methods of physiotherapy becoming a professional discipline.

[br]

SUBJECT AREA: Textiles

[br]

[br]

[br]

William Cockerill began his career in Lancashire by making "roving billies" and flying shuttles. He was reputed to have an extraordinary mechanical genius and it is said that he could make models of almost any machine. He followed in the footsteps of many other enterprising British engineers when in 1794 he went to St Petersburg in Russia, having been recommended as a skilful artisan to the Empress Catherine II. After her death two years later, her successor Paul sent Cockerill to prison because he failed to finish a model within a certain time. Cockerill, however, escaped to Sweden where he was commissioned to construct the locks on a public canal. He attempted to introduce textile machinery of his own invention but was unsuccessful and so in 1799 he removed to Verviers, Belgium, where he established himself as a manufacturer of textile machinery. In 1802 he was joined by James Holden, who before long set up his own machine-building business. In 1807 Cockerill moved to Liège where, with his three sons (William Jnr, Charles James and John), he set up factories for the construction of carding machines, spinning frames and looms for the woollen industry. He secured for Verviers supremacy in the woollen trade and introduced at Liège an industry of which England had so far possessed the monopoly. His products were noted for their fine craftsmanship, and in the heyday of the Napoleonic regime about half of his output was sold in France. In 1813 he imported a model of a Watt steam-engine from England and so added another range of products to his firm. Cockerill became a naturalized Belgian subject c. 1810, and a few years later he retired from the business in favour of his two younger sons, Charles James and John (b. 30 April 1790 Haslingden, Lancashire, England; d. 19 June 1840 Warsaw, Poland), but in 1830 at Andenne he converted a vast factory formerly used for calico printing into a paper mill. Little is known of his eldest son William, but the other two sons expanded the enterprise, setting up a woollen factory at Berlin after 1815 and establishing at Seraing-on-the-Meuse in 1817 blast furnaces, an iron foundry and a machine workshop which became the largest on the European continent. William Cockerill senior died in 1832 at the Château du Behrensberg, the residence of his son Charles James, near Aix-la-Chapelle.

[br]

RTS / RLH

SUBJECT AREA: Chemical technology, Mining and extraction technology

[br]

[br]

[br]

Educated at the Latin School at Penzance and from 1792 at Truro Grammar School, Davy was apprenticed to a surgeon in Penzance. In 1797 he began to teach himself chemistry by reading, among other works, Lavoisier's elementary treatise on chemistry. In 1798 Dr Thomas Beddoes of Bristol engaged him as assistant in setting up his Pneumatic Institution to pioneer the medical application of the newly discovered gases, especially oxygen.

In 1799 he discovered the anaesthetic properties of nitrous oxide, discovered not long before by the chemist Joseph Priestley. He also noted its intoxicating qualities, on account of which it was dubbed "laughing-gas". Two years later Count Rumford, founder of the Royal Institution in 1800, appointed Davy Assistant Lecturer, and the following year Professor. His lecturing ability soon began to attract large audiences, making science both popular and fashionable.

Davy was stimulated by Volta's invention of the voltaic pile, or electric battery, to construct one for himself in 1800. That enabled him to embark on the researches into electrochemistry by which is chiefly known. In 1807 he tried decomposing caustic soda and caustic potash, hitherto regarded as elements, by electrolysis and obtained the metals sodium and potassium. He went on to discover the metals barium, strontium, calcium and magnesium by the same means. Next, he turned his attention to chlorine, which was then regarded as an oxide in accordance with Lavoisier's theory that oxygen was the essential component of acids; Davy failed to decompose it, however, even with the aid of electricity and concluded that it was an element, thus disproving Lavoisier's view of the nature of acids. In 1812 Davy published his Elements of Chemical Philosophy, in which he presented his chemical ideas without, however, committing himself to the atomic theory, recently advanced by John Dalton.

In 1813 Davy engaged Faraday as Assistant, perhaps his greatest service to science. In April 1815 Davy was asked to assist in the development of a miner's lamp which could be safely used in a firedamp (methane) laden atmosphere. The "Davy lamp", which emerged in January 1816, had its flame completely surrounded by a fine wire mesh; George Stephenson's lamp, based on a similar principle, had been introduced into the Northumberland pits several months earlier, and a bitter controversy as to priority of invention ensued, but it was Davy who was awarded the prize for inventing a successful safety lamp.

In 1824 Davy was the first to suggest the possibility of conferring cathodic protection to the copper bottoms of naval vessels by the use of sacrificial electrodes. Zinc and iron were found to be equally effective in inhibiting corrosion, although the scheme was later abandoned when it was found that ships protected in this way were rapidly fouled by weeds and barnacles.

[br]

SUBJECT AREA: Metallurgy, Mining and extraction technology

[br]

[br]

[br]

Educated at Wittenberg University during 1547–8, Ercker obtained in 1554, through one of his wife's relatives, the post of Assayer from the Elector Augustus at Dresden. From then on he took a succession of posts in mining and metallurgy. In 1555 he was Chief Consultant and Supervisor of all matters relating to mines, but for some unknown reason was demoted to Warden of the Mint at Annaberg. In 1558 he travelled to the Tyrol to study the mines in that region, and in the same year Prince Henry of Brunswick appointed him Warden, then Master, of the Mint at Goslar. Ercker later moved to Prague where, through another of his wife's relatives, he was appointed Control Tester at Kutna Hora. It was there that he wrote his best-known book, Die Beschreibung allfürnemisten mineralischen Ertz, which drew him to the attention of the Emperor Maximilian, who made him Courier for Mining and a clerk of the Supreme Court of Bohemia. The next Emperor, Rudolf II, a noted patron of science and alchemy, promoted Ercker to Chief Inspector of Mines and ennobled him in 1586 with the title Von Schreckenfels'. His second wife managed the mint at Kutna Hora and his two sons became assayers. These appointments gained him much experience of the extraction and refining of metals. This first bore fruit in a book on assaying, Probierbüchlein, printed in 1556, followed by one on minting, Münzbuch, in 1563. His main work, Die Beschreibung, was a systematic review of the methods of obtaining, refining and testing the alloys and minerals of gold, silver, copper, antimony, mercury and lead. The preparation of acids, salts and other compounds is also covered, and his apparatus is fully described and illustrated. Although Ercker used Agricola's De re metattica as a model, his own work was securely based on his practical experience. Die Beschreibung was the first manual of analytical and metallurgical chemistry and influenced later writers such as Glauber on assaying. After the first edition in Prague came four further editions in Frankfurt-am-Main.

[br]

SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace

[br]

[br]

[br]

Messerschmitt studied engineering at the Munich Institute of Tchnology and obtained his degree in 1923. By 1926 he was Chief Designer at the Bayerische Flugzeugwerke in Augsburg. Due to the ban on military aircraft in Germany following the First World War, his early designs included gliders, light aircraft, and a series of high-wing airliners. He began to make a major impact on German aircraft design once Hitler came to power and threw off the shackles of the Treaty of Versailles, which so restricted Germany's armed forces. In 1932 he bought out the now-bankrupt Bayerische Flugzeugwerke, but initially, because of enmity between himself and the German aviation minister, was not invited to compete for an air force contract for a single-engined fighter. However, in 1934 Messerschmitt designed the Bf 108 Taifun, a small civil aircraft with a fighter-like appearance. This displayed the quality of his design and the German air ministry was forced to recognize him. As a result, he unveiled the famous Bf 109 fighter which first flew in August 1935; it was used during the Spanish Civil War in 1936–9, and was to become one of the foremost combat aircraft of the Second World War. In 1938, after several name changes, the company became Messerschmitt Aktien-Gesellschaft (and hence a change of prefix from Bf to Me). During April 1939 a Messerschmitt aircraft broke the world air-speed record at 755.14 km/h (469.32 mph): it was entered in the FAI records as a Bf 109R, but was more accurately a new design designated Me 209V-1.

During the Second World War, the 5/70P was progressively improved, and eventually almost 35,000 were built. Other successful fighters followed, such as the twin-engined Me 110 which also served as a bomber and night fighter. The Messerschmitt Me 262 twin-engined jet fighter, the first jet aircraft in the world to enter service, flew during the early years of the war, but it was never given a high priority by the High Command and only a small number were in service when the war ended. Another revolutionary Messerschmitt AG design was the Me 163 Komet, the concept of Professor Alexander Lippisch who had joined Messerschmitt's company in 1939; this was the first rocket-propelled fighter to enter service. It was a small tailless design capable of 880 km/hr (550 mph), but its duration under power was only about 10 minutes and it was very dangerous to fly. From late 1944 onwards it was used to intercept the United States Air Force bombers during their daylight raids. At the other end of the scale, Messerschmitt produced the Me 321 Gigant, a huge transport glider which was towed behind a flight of three Me 110s. Later it was equipped with six engines, but it was an easy target for allied fighters. This was a costly white elephant, as was his high-speed twin-engined Me 210 fighter-bomber project which nearly made his company bankrupt. Nevertheless, he was certainly an innovator and was much admired by Hitler, who declared that he had "the skull of a genius", because of the Me 163 Komet rocket-powered fighter and the Me 262.

At the end of the war Messerschmitt was detained by the Americans for two years. In 1952 Messerschmitt became an aviation adviser to the Spanish government, and his Bf109 was produced in Spain as the Hispano Buchon for a number of years and was powered by Rolls-Royce Merlin engines. A factory was also constructed in Egypt to produce aircraft to Messerschmitt's designs. His German company, banned from building aircraft, produced prefabricated houses, sewing machines and, from 1953 to 1962, a series of bubble-cars: the KR 175 (1953–55) and the KR 200 (1955–62) were single-cylinder three-wheeled bubble-cars, and the Tiger (1958–62) was a twin-cylinder, 500cc four-wheeler. In 1958 Messerschmitt resumed aircraft construction in Germany and later became the Honorary Chairman of the merged Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm company (now part of the Franco-German Eurocopter company).

[br]

JDS / CM

SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace, Steam and internal combustion engines

[br]

[br]

[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]

•

However, as noted (or indicated, or remarked, or stated, or shown, or pointed out) later (or below), special low-temperature enamels are fired at 1280 to 1350°F.

1) General subject: Gabriel, Gavriil

2) Religion: Gavrilo (Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church, 1938-50, noted for his anti-Nazi stand and, later, for his limited accommodations with the Communists)

3) Bible: Gabe

• В данной главе рассматривается еще один подход... - This chapter is concerned with yet another approach to...

• В этой формуле мы все еще не предположили, что... - In this formula we have not yet assumed that...

• Еще более общие решения могли бы быть сконструированы (= построены) (с помощью и т. п.).. - Still more general solutions may be constructed by...

• Еще одним следствием этих результатов является то, что... - One further consequence of these results is that...

• Еще раз отметим, что... - Once again it is noted that...

• Еще раз, выбирая подходящим образом L, мы можем... - Again, by making a suitable choice of L, we can...

• Еще раз, это зависит от... - Again, it depends on...

• Здесь надо отметить еще следующее. - There is a further point to be made here.

• Из этого вытекает еще одно выражение для... - This yields yet another expression for...

• Можно привести еще одно замечание. - One further observation may be made.

• Мы еще вернемся к этой аналогии во второй главе. - We shall return later to this analogy in Chapter 2.

• Мы еще далеки от... - We are a long way still from...

• Мы могли бы еще раньше вывести этот результат из... - We could have deduced this result from...

• Мы подчеркиваем еще раз, что... - We stress again that...

• Нам все еще необходимо решить, как (действовать и т. п.)... - We have yet to decide how to...

• Однако давайте рассмотрим еще раз... - But let us reconsider...

• Что еще хуже, кажется, мы не можем найти... - Worse yet, we cannot seem to find...

• Чтобы привести еще более простой пример, мы можем рассмотреть... - То take an even simpler example, we can consider...

• Эта возможность еще более вероятна в специальных приложениях, где... - This possibility is even more likely in special applications, where...

• Эти аспекты проблемы все еще не исследованы. - These aspects of the problem have not yet been investigated.

• Это еще будет проиллюстрировано в следующем параграфе, где мы рассматриваем... - This will be illustrated further in the next section where we consider...

• Это показывает еще раз, что... - This shows once more that...

• Это прочный, но все еще гибкий слой. - It is a strong yet flexible layer.

• Этот эффект становится еще более заметным, когда... - This effect becomes even more marked when...

affaiblissement [afeblismɑ̃]

weakening ; [de facultés] deterioration

• l'affaiblissement de notre pays au plan international our country's waning influence on the international scene

* * *

nom masculin

1) (de personne, pays, monnaie, sens) ( processus) weakening; ( état) weakened state

2) (de bruit, vue, santé) fading

3) (de volonté, courage, détermination) diminishing

4) (de volume, quantité) reduction (de in)

* * *

* * *

affaiblissement nm

1 (de personne, pays, monnaie, sens) ( processus) weakening; ( état) weakened state;

2 (de bruit, vue, santé) fading;

3 (de volonté, courage, détermination) diminishing;

4 (de style, d'œuvre) les critiques ont remarqué l'affaiblissement de son style dans ses derniers écrits critics have noted that his style lost its edge in his later writings;

5 (de volume, quantité) reduction (de in).

[afeblismɑ̃] nom masculin

[d'une personne, d'une idée, d'un sentiment] weakening

[d'une lumière, d'un bruit] fading

•

However, as noted (or indicated, or remarked, or stated, or shown, or pointed out) later (or below), special low-temperature enamels are fired at 1280 to 1350°F.

nōbĭlis, e (old collat. form gnōbĭlis: nobilem antiqui pro noto ponebant, et quidem per g litteram, ut Plautus in Pseudolo: peregrina facies videtur hominis atque ignobilis, et: oculis meis obviam ignobilis obicitur. Attius in Diomede: ergo me Argos referam, nam hic sum gnobilis. Livius in Virgo: ornamento incedunt gnobili ignobiles, Paul. ex Fest. p. 174 Müll.), adj. [for gnobilis, from gnosco; Gr. gignôskô; v. nosco], that can be known or is known, knowable, known.

In gen. (very rare):

neque his umquam nobilis fui,

Plaut. Ps. 4, 7, 9:

addidit facinori fidem nobili gaudio,

Tac. H. 3, 39.—

In partic.

Wellknown, famous, noted, celebrated, renowned (freq. and class.; cf.:

clarus, insignis, inclutus, illustris): die festo celebri nobilique, Aphrodisiis,

Plaut. Poen. 3, 5, 13:

magnus et nobilis rhetor Isocrates,

Cic. Inv. 2, 2, 7:

illustre et nobile municipium,

id. Verr. 2, 5, 16, § 40:

oppidum clarum et nobile,

id. ib. 2, 1, 24, §

63: ex doctrinā nobilis et clarus,

id. Rab. Post. 9, 23:

gladiatorum par nobilissimum,

id. Opt. Gen. 6, 17:

multi in philosophiā praeclari et nobiles,

id. de Or. 1, 11, 46:

ut arcendis sceleribus exemplum nobile esset,

Liv. 2, 5:

Corinthus aere,

Ov. M. 6, 416:

puerosque Ledae, Hunc equis, illum superare pugnis Nobilem,

Hor. C. 1, 12, 25:

palma nobilis,

id. ib. 1, 1, 5:

nobilis e tectis fundere gaesa rotis,

Prop. 4 (5), 10, 42:

tamquam Feceris ipse aliquid propter quod nobilis esses,

Juv. 8, 41: aquae salubritate et medendis corporibus nobiles. Vell. 2, 25, 4:

vitulis marinis ad multa nobile fel,

Plin. 11, 37, 75, § 195:

emplastra nobilia ad extrahendum fel,

Cels. 5, 19:

Cicero vir nobilissimae novitatis,

Vell. 2, 34, 3.—In a bad sense, notorious:

innocentes qui se scelere fieri nolunt nobiles,

Plaut. Rud. 3, 2, 5:

mea (amica) est potens, procax, magnifica, sumtuosa, nobilis,

Ter. Heaut. 2, 1, 15:

ille nobilis taurus, quem Phalaris habuisse dicitur,

Cic. Verr. 2, 4, 33, § 73; Liv. 39, 9, 5.—

High-born, of noble birth, noble, i. e. sprung from a family (either patrician or plebeian) many members of which had filled curule offices, and consequently possessing the jus imaginum (opp. homo novus or ignobilis; cf.:

generosus, amplus): non facit nobilem atrium plenum fumosis imaginibus,

Sen. Ep. 44, 5:

quanta sit in invidiā apud quosdam nobilis homines novorum hominum virtus et industria,

Cic. Verr. 2, 5, 71, § 181:

Clodia mulier non solum nobilis sed etiam nota,

id. Cael. 13, 31:

nobili genere nati,

id. Verr. 2, 5, 70, § 180:

homines apud nos noti, inter suos nobiles,

id. Fl. 22, 52; Liv. 22, 58.—Hence, subst.: nōbĭlis, is, m., a nobleman:

nobiles nostri,

Plin. Ep. 5, 17, 5; Vulg. Isa. 5, 13; id. Psa. 149, 8: Nobilissimus, most noble, under the later emperors, a title of the Cæsars and of the members of the imperial family, Cod. Th. 10, 25, 1; Dig. 40, 11, 3.—

Of a noble kind, noble, excellent, superior:

tres nobilissimi fundi,

Cic. Rosc. Am. 35, 99:

nobiliumque greges custos servabat equarum,

Ov. M. 2, 690:

nobilis hic (equus), quocumque venit de gramine,

Juv. 8, 60.—Hence, adv.: nōbĭlĭter, famously, excellently, splendidly, nobly (mostly post-Aug.;

not in Cic. or Cæs.),

Vitr. 7 praef.:

nobiliter caelare argentum,

Plin. 34, 8, 19, § 91.— Comp.:

nobilius philosophari,

Sid. Ep. 9, 9.— Sup.:

ab exercitu nobilissime tumulatus,

Liv. Epit. 54.

(1855-1902)

   Portugal's most celebrated colonial soldier of the modern era, governor and conqueror of the Gaza state in Mozambique. A career army officer with noble lineage, "Mousinho," as he became known to his generation, later helped to shape Portugal's administration and policies in Mozambique, following army service in India. He served largely as a soldier involved in so-called "pacification" campaigns in Mozambique (1890-95) and then as an administrator, where he acted as royal commissioner and governor-general of Mozambique from 1896 to 1898. After he first visited Africa in 1890, the year of the English Ultimatum, the principal part of his career would be devoted to Portuguese Africa, and he was to become a noted authority on African affairs and policies. Appointed governor of the district of Lourenço Marques (today, Maputo) in late 1890, he returned to Portugal in 1892, then became part of the most famous military expedition to Portuguese Africa of the modern era, the 1895 force sent to Mozambique to conquer the African state of Gaza, in southern Mozambique. Albuquerque distinguished himself in this bloody campaign; at the battle of Coolela, on 7 November 1895, Portuguese forces using the novel machine gun defeated and slaughtered the army of Gaza king Gungunyane. Following his appointment as military governor of the Gaza district, Albuquerque grew impatient with the failure of his superiors to give the coup d'grace to the Gaza kingdom by killing or capturing its leader, Gungunyane, who had escaped after the battle of Coolela. With a small force, Mousinho raided his refuge at Chaimite, Mozambique, and captured Gungunyane, who did not resist (January 1896). These bold deeds in the 1895 campaign and the surprise kidnapping of Mozambique's most powerful African leader made Albuquerque a hero in Portugal and a colonial celebrity in several other European states. Among the honors showered upon this unusual soldier was the 1896 double appointment as governor-general and royal commissioner of Mozambique colony. His service as chief administrator of Portugal's second most important African territory during 1896-98 was significant but frustrating. His efforts at sweeping reforms, rejuvenation, and decentralization of authority and power were noble but made little impact at the time. He resigned in anger after his failure to move the Lisbon colonial bureaucracy and returned to a restless, relatively inactive life in Portugal. Unable to adjust to dull garrison duty, after he completed his masterful colonial report-memoir on his African service (Mozambique, 1896-98), Albuquerque in vain sought new challenges. Briefly he served as tutor to Prince Luís, heir apparent of King Carlos I, but his efforts to volunteer as an officer in wars in South Africa and China failed. His idea of a military dictatorship to reform a lagging constitutional monarchy rejected both by his patron, King Carlos, and by much of the political elite, Lieutenant Colonel Mousinho de Albuquerque found life too painful to bear. On 8 January 1902, while on a Lisbon tram, Albuquerque committed suicide with his own pistol. His importance for future colonial policy in Africa was manifest as Portugal made efforts to decentralize and reform administration until 1930. After 1930, his personal legend as a brave colonial soldier who was an epitome of patriotism grew and was exploited by the dictatorship led by Sala- zar. Mousinho de Albuquerque was adopted by this regime, between 1930 and 1960, as the military-colonial patron saint of the regime and as an example to Portuguese youth. The name of the place where he surprised Gungunyane, Chaimite, was adopted as the name of an armored car used by the Portuguese Army in its post-1961 campaigns in Africa.

    See also Carlos I, King; Generation of 1895.

   The Portuguese breed of horse known as Lusitano has a history of at least a thousand years. Other noted Portuguese horse breeds are the Garrano and Sorraia, which evolved from ancient Iberian ponies and horses. Some authorities believe that the Lusitano breed evolved from the ancient Sorraia. The breed's name derives from Lusitania, the name the Romans gave to a portion of southwestern Iberia, a section of which became known in later centuries as Portugal. The breed's name also could be related to the name Luso, in ancient mythology a son of Bacchus, the god of wine and merriment. In recent decades, the Lusitano breed has become fashionable again in equestrian circles that participate in international riding competitions, as well as in producing mounts for the Portuguese bullfight. Despite a declining economy, less public interest and higher expenses in the bull- fighting industry, more opposition from animal rights advocates, and the constraints of European Union regulations, the bull-fight has endured as a sport. Breeding such horses has become a growing business not only for competitive riding, especially dressage, and an increasingly popular equestrian tourism, but also for bull-fighting. Lusitano breeding farms are located mainly in two provinces in Ribatejo, part of the Tagus River valley, and in Alentejo.

    See also Equestrianism.

(1608-1666)

   One of Portugal's two greatest prose writers of the 17th century, along with Father An- tónio Vieira, and one of the greatest in both Spain and Portugal in early modern times. Noted as a prose writer for his clarity, wit, satire, and realism, Melo lived through the supreme dramas of his time: the final struggle between the Inquisition and the New Christians, the loss and also recovery of parts of Portugal's overseas empire, as well as the independence of Portugal from Spain in 1640, following 60 years of Castilian rule. Melo was born in Lisbon to a noble family of Spanish descent. His profession was soldiering and, later, diplomacy. After he participated in the restoration of Portugal's independence and in the triumph of the Braganza dynasty as the ruling royal family of Portugal, Melo was imprisoned and exiled to Brazil. He ended his life as a diplomat on important missions in London, Rome, and Paris.

   Educated by the Jesuits in a Lisbon school, Melo led the life of a man of action rather than that of a sedentary scribbler. His greatest works, some written in Castilian, some in Portuguese, gave him fame outside Portugal and well after his relatively brief life span. His História de los Movimientos y Separación de Cataluna (1645) is a classic, eyewitness account of the 1640 Catalan revolt against Castile. Among other works that mark the author's enduring accomplishment are his Cartas Familiares (1664); Apólogos Dialogaes, his short histories; Epanéforas (1649-59); and his internationally popular Carta de Guia de Casados (Guide Map for Married Persons), which was translated into English first in 1697 by Captain Stevens as The Government of a Wife and was a minor best-seller of the early modern age.

(1320-1367)

   The eighth king of Portugal and fourth son of King Afonso IV and Beatriz of Castile. His first marriage as prince and heir was to a daughter of a Castilian hidalgo (in Portuguese, fidalgo), Constança Manuel. In Constanca's retinue from Spain came the alluring lady-in-waiting, Dona Inês de Castro, a Gallician of Castilian stock. The notorious love affair between Inês and Pedro soon sparked a bitter conflict between Pedro and his father. Fearing the threat of Castilian intervention in Portuguese affairs using Ines's connection with Pedro, Afonso ordered the murder of Inês in 1355. Reacting to this tragedy, Pedro rebelled and went to war against his father, although a truce was called after a short period. Afonso died in 1357. Pedro became noted, during his brief reign of a decade, for avoiding war and for a record of even-handed justice. The legend that Pedro disint erred the corpse of Inês de Castro and proclaimed it queen grew up after Pedro's death in 1367 and became a popular theme in European literature centuries later.