-
81 ESSEC
One of France's world-class business schools, the ESSEC is based in Cergy Pontoise, in the suburbs of Paris. It has a branch in Singapore. Its MBA programme was classed 7th best in the world in the 2007 Wall Street Journal world classification. Entry to ESSEC is highly selective.Dictionnaire Français-Anglais. Agriculture Biologique > ESSEC
-
82 Lefèbvre, Monseigneur Marcel
(1905-1991)Integrist Catholicarchbishop. Archbishop of Dakar, Senegal, then bishop of Tulle, France. In 1970 Lefèbvre defied the Catholic church in protest against its modernisation, and the phasing out of mass in Latin, and formed a schismatic movement, the Society (or Fraternity) of St. Pius X., based at a seminary in Switzerland. In 1975, he ordained 13 priests in defiance of the Vatican, and in 1976 was excluded from the Catholic church. Thereafter, his supporters took over the St. Nicolas du Chardonnet church in Paris. After a number of unsuccessful attempts at conciliation, the Vatican excommunicated Lefèbvre in 1988. The integrist and traditionalist Society of St Pius X still exists, and is now active in some fifty countries, including the USA and Great Britain. It appears to be a wealthy organisation.Dictionnaire Français-Anglais. Agriculture Biologique > Lefèbvre, Monseigneur Marcel
-
83 SBF 250
Dictionnaire Français-Anglais. Agriculture Biologique > SBF 250
-
84 MATIF
MATIF (Marché à terme international de France) -
85 Denier
A term used to denote the count or size of silk and rayon threads. Denier is the name formerly given to a small French coin. Its weight was quoted differently in different Continental towns and countries, and the number of metres in a unit length also varied. These differences hastened the general worldwide adoption of the International Denier System, based on data laid down at a Conference in Paris in 1900, which stated that the denier count is the weight in half-decigrammes of 450 metres of yarn. In practice the unit length is taken as 450 X 20 = 9,000 metres, and the weight unit 0.5 decigrammes X 20 = 1 gramme. The denier count is then the weight in grammes of 9,000 metres of yarn. Taking the equivalents of the metre as 1.0936143 yards, and the gramme as 15,432,356.4 grains, one pound weight of one denier yarn would contain 4,464,496.5 yards. From this figure the correct conversion factor for cotton is 5314.87, conveniently 5315, thus: ??? -
86 Socialist Party / Partido Socialista
(PS)Although the Socialist Party's origins can be traced back to the 1850s, its existence has not been continuous. The party did not achieve or maintain a large base of support until after the Revolution of 25 April 1974. Historically, it played only a minor political role when compared to other European socialist parties.During the Estado Novo, the PS found it difficult to maintain a clandestine existence, and the already weak party literally withered away. Different groups and associations endeavored to keep socialist ideals alive, but they failed to create an organizational structure that would endure. In 1964, Mário Soares, Francisco Ramos da Costa, and Manuel Tito de Morais established the Portuguese Socialist Action / Acção Socialista Português (ASP) in Geneva, a group of individuals with similar views rather than a true political party. Most members were middle-class professionals committed to democratizing the nation. The rigidity of the Portuguese Communist Party (PCP) led some to join the ASP.By the early 1970s, ASP nuclei existed beyond Portugal in Paris, London, Rome, Brussels, Frankfurt, Sweden, and Switzerland; these consisted of members studying, working, teaching, researching, or in other activities. Extensive connections were developed with other foreign socialist parties. Changing conditions in Portugal, as well as the colonial wars, led several ASP members to advocate the creation of a real political party, strengthening the organization within Portugal, and positioning this to compete for power once the regime changed.The current PS was founded clandestinely on 19 April 1973, by a group of 27 exiled Portuguese and domestic ASP representatives at the Kurt Schumacher Academy of the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung in Bad Munstereifel, West Germany. The founding philosophy was influenced by nondogmatic Marxism as militants sought to create a classless society. The rhetoric was to be revolutionary to outflank its competitors, especially the PCP, on its left. The party hoped to attract reform-minded Catholics and other groups that were committed to democracy but could not support the communists.At the time of the 1974 revolution, the PS was little more than an elite faction based mainly among exiles. It was weakly organized and had little grassroots support outside the major cities and larger towns. Its organization did not improve significantly until the campaign for the April 1975 constituent elections. Since then, the PS has become very pragmatic and moderate and has increasingly diluted its socialist program until it has become a center-left party. Among the party's most consistent principles in its platform since the late 1970s has been its support for Portugal's membership in the European Economic Community (EEC) and the European Union (EU), a view that clashed with those of its rivals to the left, especially the PCP. Given the PS's broad base of support, the increased distance between its leftist rhetoric and its more conservative actions has led to sharp internal divisions in the party. The PS and the Social Democratic Party (PSD) are now the two dominant parties in the Portuguese political party system.In doctrine and rhetoric the PS has undergone a de-Marxification and a movement toward the center as a means to challenge its principal rival for hegemony, the PSD. The uneven record of the PS in general elections since its victory in 1975, and sometimes its failure to keep strong legislative majorities, have discouraged voters. While the party lost the 1979 and 1980 general elections, it triumphed in the 1983 elections, when it won 36 percent of the vote, but it still did not gain an absolute majority in the Assembly of the Republic. The PSD led by Cavaco Silva dominated elections from 1985 to 1995, only to be defeated by the PS in the 1995 general elections. By 2000, the PS had conquered the commanding heights of the polity: President Jorge Sampaio had been reelected for a second term, PS prime minister António Guterres was entrenched, and the mayor of Lisbon was João Soares, son of the former socialist president, Mário Soares (1986-96).The ideological transformation of the PS occurred gradually after 1975, within the context of a strong PSD, an increasingly conservative electorate, and the de-Marxification of other European Socialist parties, including those in Germany and Scandinavia. While the PS paid less attention to the PCP on its left and more attention to the PSD, party leaders shed Marxist trappings. In the 1986 PS official program, for example, the text does not include the word Marxism.Despite the party's election victories in the mid- and late-1990s, the leadership discovered that their grasp of power and their hegemony in governance at various levels was threatened by various factors: President Jorge Sampaio's second term, the constitution mandated, had to be his last.Following the defeat of the PS by the PSD in the municipal elections of December 2001, Premier Antônio Guterres resigned his post, and President Sampaio dissolved parliament and called parliamentary elections for the spring. In the 17 March 2002 elections, following Guterres's resignation as party leader, the PS was defeated by the PSD by a vote of 40 percent to 38 percent. Among the factors that brought about the socialists' departure from office was the worsening post-September 11 economy and disarray within the PS leadership circles, as well as charges of corruption among PS office holders. However, the PS won 45 percent of the vote in parliamentary elections of 2005, and the leader of the party, José Sócrates, a self-described "market-oriented socialist" became prime minister.Historical dictionary of Portugal > Socialist Party / Partido Socialista
-
87 Benz, Karl
[br]b. 25 November 1844 Pfaffenrot, Black Forest, Germanyd. 4 April 1929 Ladenburg, near Mannheim, Germany[br]German inventor of one of the first motor cars.[br]The son of a railway mechanic, it is said that as a child one of his hobbies was the repair of Black Forest clocks. He trained as a mechanical engineer at the Karlsruhe Lyzeum and Polytechnikum under Ferdinand Redtenbacher (d. 1863), who pointed out to him the need for a more portable power source than the steam engine. He went to Maschinenbau Gesellschaft Karlsruhe for workshop experience and then joined Schweizer \& Cie, Mannheim, for two years. In 1868 he went to the Benkiser Brothers at Pforzheim. In 1871 he set up a small machine-tool works at Mannheim, but in 1877, in financial difficulties, he turned to the idea of an entirely new product based on the internal-combustion engine. At this time, N.A. Otto held the patent for the four-stroke internal-combustion engine, so Benz had to put his hopes on a two-stroke design. He avoided the trouble with Dugald Clerk's engine and designed one in which the fuel would not ignite in the pump and in which the cylinder was swept with fresh air between each two firing strokes. His first car had a sparking plug and coil ignition. By 1879 he had developed the engine to a stage where it would run satisfactorily with little attention. On 31 December 1879, with his wife Bertha working the treadle of her sewing machine to charge the batteries, he demonstrated his engine in street trials in Mannheim. In the summer of 1888, unknown to her husband, Bertha drove one of his cars the 80 km (50 miles) to Pforzheim and back with her two sons, aged 13 and 15. She and the elder boy pushed the car up hills while the younger one steered. They bought petrol from an apothecary in Wiesloch and had a brake block repaired in Bauschlott by the village cobbler. Karl Benz's comments on her return from this venture are not recorded! Financial problems prevented immediate commercial production of the automobile, but in 1882 Benz set up the Gasmotorenfabrik Mannheim. After trouble with some of his partners, he left in 1883 and formed a new company, Benz \& Cie, Rheinische Gasmotorenfabrik. Otto's patent was revoked in 1886 and in that year Benz patented a motor car with a gas engine drive. He manufactured a 0.8hp car, the engine running at 250 rpm with a horizontal flywheel, exhibited at the Paris Fair in 1889. He was not successful in finding anyone in France who would undertake manufacture. This first car was a three-wheeler, and soon after he produced a four-wheeled car, but he quarrelled with his co-directors, and although he left the board in 1902 he rejoined it soon after.[br]Further ReadingSt J.Nixon, 1936, The Invention of the Automobile. E.Diesel et al., 1960, From Engines to Autos. E.Johnson, 1986, The Dawn of Motoring.IMcN -
88 Bollée, Ernest-Sylvain
[br]b. 19 July 1814 Clefmont (Haute-Marne), Franced. 11 September 1891 Le Mans, France[br]French inventor of the rotor-stator wind engine and founder of the Bollée manufacturing industry.[br]Ernest-Sylvain Bollée was the founder of an extensive dynasty of bellfounders based in Le Mans and in Orléans. He and his three sons, Amédée (1844–1917), Ernest-Sylvain fils (1846–1917) and Auguste (1847-?), were involved in work and patents on steam-and petrol-driven cars, on wind engines and on hydraulic rams. The presence of the Bollées' car industry in Le Mans was a factor in the establishment of the car races that are held there.In 1868 Ernest-Sylvain Bollée père took out a patent for a wind engine, which at that time was well established in America and in England. In both these countries, variable-shuttered as well as fixed-blade wind engines were in production and patented, but the Ernest-Sylvain Bollée patent was for a type of wind engine that had not been seen before and is more akin to the water-driven turbine of the Jonval type, with its basic principle being parallel to the "rotor" and "stator". The wind drives through a fixed ring of blades on to a rotating ring that has a slightly greater number of blades. The blades of the fixed ring are curved in the opposite direction to those on the rotating blades and thus the air is directed onto the latter, causing it to rotate at a considerable speed: this is the "rotor". For greater efficiency a cuff of sheet iron can be attached to the "stator", giving a tunnel effect and driving more air at the "rotor". The head of this wind engine is turned to the wind by means of a wind-driven vane mounted in front of the blades. The wind vane adjusts the wind angle to enable the wind engine to run at a constant speed.The fact that this wind engine was invented by the owner of a brass foundry, with all the gear trains between the wind vane and the head of the tower being of the highest-quality brass and, therefore, small in scale, lay behind its success. Also, it was of prefabricated construction, so that fixed lengths of cast-iron pillar were delivered, complete with twelve treads of cast-iron staircase fixed to the outside and wrought-iron stays. The drive from the wind engine was taken down the inside of the pillar to pumps at ground level.Whilst the wind engines were being built for wealthy owners or communes, the work of the foundry continued. The three sons joined the family firm as partners and produced several steam-driven vehicles. These vehicles were the work of Amédée père and were l'Obéissante (1873); the Autobus (1880–3), of which some were built in Berlin under licence; the tram Bollée-Dalifol (1876); and the private car La Mancelle (1878). Another important line, in parallel with the pumping mechanism required for the wind engines, was the development of hydraulic rams, following the Montgolfier patent. In accordance with French practice, the firm was split three ways when Ernest-Sylvain Bollée père died. Amédée père inherited the car side of the business, but it is due to Amédée fils (1867– 1926) that the principal developments in car manufacture came into being. He developed the petrol-driven car after the impetus given by his grandfather, his father and his uncle Ernest-Sylvain fils. In 1887 he designed a four-stroke single-cylinder engine, although he also used engines designed by others such as Peugeot. He produced two luxurious saloon cars before putting Torpilleur on the road in 1898; this car competed in the Tour de France in 1899. Whilst designing other cars, Amédée's son Léon (1870–1913) developed the Voiturette, in 1896, and then began general manufacture of small cars on factory lines. The firm ceased work after a merger with the English firm of Morris in 1926. Auguste inherited the Eolienne or wind-engine side of the business; however, attracted to the artistic life, he sold out to Ernest Lebert in 1898 and settled in the Paris of the Impressionists. Lebert developed the wind-engine business and retained the basic "stator-rotor" form with a conventional lattice tower. He remained in Le Mans, carrying on the business of the manufacture of wind engines, pumps and hydraulic machinery, describing himself as a "Civil Engineer".The hydraulic-ram business fell to Ernest-Sylvain fils and continued to thrive from a solid base of design and production. The foundry in Le Mans is still there but, more importantly, the bell foundry of Dominique Bollée in Saint-Jean-de-Braye in Orléans is still at work casting bells in the old way.[br]Further ReadingAndré Gaucheron and J.Kenneth Major, 1985, The Eolienne Bollée, The International Molinological Society.Cénomane (Le Mans), 11, 12 and 13 (1983 and 1984).KM -
89 Brunel, Isambard Kingdom
SUBJECT AREA: Civil engineering, Land transport, Mechanical, pneumatic and hydraulic engineering, Ports and shipping, Public utilities, Railways and locomotives[br]b. 9 April 1806 Portsea, Hampshire, Englandd. 15 September 1859 18 Duke Street, St James's, London, England[br]English civil and mechanical engineer.[br]The son of Marc Isambard Brunel and Sophia Kingdom, he was educated at a private boarding-school in Hove. At the age of 14 he went to the College of Caen and then to the Lycée Henri-Quatre in Paris, after which he was apprenticed to Louis Breguet. In 1822 he returned from France and started working in his father's office, while spending much of his time at the works of Maudslay, Sons \& Field.From 1825 to 1828 he worked under his father on the construction of the latter's Thames Tunnel, occupying the position of Engineer-in-Charge, exhibiting great courage and presence of mind in the emergencies which occurred not infrequently. These culminated in January 1828 in the flooding of the tunnel and work was suspended for seven years. For the next five years the young engineer made abortive attempts to find a suitable outlet for his talents, but to little avail. Eventually, in 1831, his design for a suspension bridge over the River Avon at Clifton Gorge was accepted and he was appointed Engineer. (The bridge was eventually finished five years after Brunel's death, as a memorial to him, the delay being due to inadequate financing.) He next planned and supervised improvements to the Bristol docks. In March 1833 he was appointed Engineer of the Bristol Railway, later called the Great Western Railway. He immediately started to survey the route between London and Bristol that was completed by late August that year. On 5 July 1836 he married Mary Horsley and settled into 18 Duke Street, Westminster, London, where he also had his office. Work on the Bristol Railway started in 1836. The foundation stone of the Clifton Suspension Bridge was laid the same year. Whereas George Stephenson had based his standard railway gauge as 4 ft 8½ in (1.44 m), that or a similar gauge being usual for colliery wagonways in the Newcastle area, Brunel adopted the broader gauge of 7 ft (2.13 m). The first stretch of the line, from Paddington to Maidenhead, was opened to traffic on 4 June 1838, and the whole line from London to Bristol was opened in June 1841. The continuation of the line through to Exeter was completed and opened on 1 May 1844. The normal time for the 194-mile (312 km) run from Paddington to Exeter was 5 hours, at an average speed of 38.8 mph (62.4 km/h) including stops. The Great Western line included the Box Tunnel, the longest tunnel to that date at nearly two miles (3.2 km).Brunel was the engineer of most of the railways in the West Country, in South Wales and much of Southern Ireland. As railway networks developed, the frequent break of gauge became more of a problem and on 9 July 1845 a Royal Commission was appointed to look into it. In spite of comparative tests, run between Paddington-Didcot and Darlington-York, which showed in favour of Brunel's arrangement, the enquiry ruled in favour of the narrow gauge, 274 miles (441 km) of the former having been built against 1,901 miles (3,059 km) of the latter to that date. The Gauge Act of 1846 forbade the building of any further railways in Britain to any gauge other than 4 ft 8 1/2 in (1.44 m).The existence of long and severe gradients on the South Devon Railway led to Brunel's adoption of the atmospheric railway developed by Samuel Clegg and later by the Samuda brothers. In this a pipe of 9 in. (23 cm) or more in diameter was laid between the rails, along the top of which ran a continuous hinged flap of leather backed with iron. At intervals of about 3 miles (4.8 km) were pumping stations to exhaust the pipe. Much trouble was experienced with the flap valve and its lubrication—freezing of the leather in winter, the lubricant being sucked into the pipe or eaten by rats at other times—and the experiment was abandoned at considerable cost.Brunel is to be remembered for his two great West Country tubular bridges, the Chepstow and the Tamar Bridge at Saltash, with the latter opened in May 1859, having two main spans of 465 ft (142 m) and a central pier extending 80 ft (24 m) below high water mark and allowing 100 ft (30 m) of headroom above the same. His timber viaducts throughout Devon and Cornwall became a feature of the landscape. The line was extended ultimately to Penzance.As early as 1835 Brunel had the idea of extending the line westwards across the Atlantic from Bristol to New York by means of a steamship. In 1836 building commenced and the hull left Bristol in July 1837 for fitting out at Wapping. On 31 March 1838 the ship left again for Bristol but the boiler lagging caught fire and Brunel was injured in the subsequent confusion. On 8 April the ship set sail for New York (under steam), its rival, the 703-ton Sirius, having left four days earlier. The 1,340-ton Great Western arrived only a few hours after the Sirius. The hull was of wood, and was copper-sheathed. In 1838 Brunel planned a larger ship, some 3,000 tons, the Great Britain, which was to have an iron hull.The Great Britain was screwdriven and was launched on 19 July 1843,289 ft (88 m) long by 51 ft (15.5 m) at its widest. The ship's first voyage, from Liverpool to New York, began on 26 August 1845. In 1846 it ran aground in Dundrum Bay, County Down, and was later sold for use on the Australian run, on which it sailed no fewer than thirty-two times in twenty-three years, also serving as a troop-ship in the Crimean War. During this war, Brunel designed a 1,000-bed hospital which was shipped out to Renkioi ready for assembly and complete with shower-baths and vapour-baths with printed instructions on how to use them, beds and bedding and water closets with a supply of toilet paper! Brunel's last, largest and most extravagantly conceived ship was the Great Leviathan, eventually named The Great Eastern, which had a double-skinned iron hull, together with both paddles and screw propeller. Brunel designed the ship to carry sufficient coal for the round trip to Australia without refuelling, thus saving the need for and the cost of bunkering, as there were then few bunkering ports throughout the world. The ship's construction was started by John Scott Russell in his yard at Millwall on the Thames, but the building was completed by Brunel due to Russell's bankruptcy in 1856. The hull of the huge vessel was laid down so as to be launched sideways into the river and then to be floated on the tide. Brunel's plan for hydraulic launching gear had been turned down by the directors on the grounds of cost, an economy that proved false in the event. The sideways launch with over 4,000 tons of hydraulic power together with steam winches and floating tugs on the river took over two months, from 3 November 1857 until 13 January 1858. The ship was 680 ft (207 m) long, 83 ft (25 m) beam and 58 ft (18 m) deep; the screw was 24 ft (7.3 m) in diameter and paddles 60 ft (18.3 m) in diameter. Its displacement was 32,000 tons (32,500 tonnes).The strain of overwork and the huge responsibilities that lay on Brunel began to tell. He was diagnosed as suffering from Bright's disease, or nephritis, and spent the winter travelling in the Mediterranean and Egypt, returning to England in May 1859. On 5 September he suffered a stroke which left him partially paralysed, and he died ten days later at his Duke Street home.[br]Further ReadingL.T.C.Rolt, 1957, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, London: Longmans Green. J.Dugan, 1953, The Great Iron Ship, Hamish Hamilton.IMcNBiographical history of technology > Brunel, Isambard Kingdom
-
90 Davy, Sir Humphry
[br]b. 17 December 1778 Penzance, Cornwall, Englandd. 29 May 1829 Geneva, Switzerland[br]English chemist, discoverer of the alkali and alkaline earth metals and the halogens, inventor of the miner's safety lamp.[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]Principal Honours and DistinctionsKnighted 1812. FRS 1803; President, Royal Society 1820. Royal Society Copley Medal 1805.Bibliography1812, Elements of Chemical Philosophy.1839–40, The Collected Works of Sir Humphry Davy, 9 vols, ed. John Davy, London.Further ReadingJ.Davy, 1836, Memoirs of the Life of Sir Humphry Davy, London (a classic biography). J.A.Paris, 1831, The Life of Sir Humphry Davy, London (a classic biography). H.Hartley, 1967, Humphry Davy, London (a more recent biography).J.Z.Fullmer, 1969, Cambridge, Mass, (a bibliography of Davy's works).ASD -
91 De Forest, Lee
SUBJECT AREA: Broadcasting, Electronics and information technology, Photography, film and optics, Recording, Telecommunications[br]b. 26 August 1873 Council Bluffs, Iowa, USAd. 30 June 1961 Hollywood, California, USA[br]American electrical engineer and inventor principally known for his invention of the Audion, or triode, vacuum tube; also a pioneer of sound in the cinema.[br]De Forest was born into the family of a Congregational minister that moved to Alabama in 1879 when the father became President of a college for African-Americans; this was a position that led to the family's social ostracism by the white community. By the time he was 13 years old, De Forest was already a keen mechanical inventor, and in 1893, rejecting his father's plan for him to become a clergyman, he entered the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University. Following his first degree, he went on to study the propagation of electromagnetic waves, gaining a PhD in physics in 1899 for his thesis on the "Reflection of Hertzian Waves from the Ends of Parallel Wires", probably the first US thesis in the field of radio.He then joined the Western Electric Company in Chicago where he helped develop the infant technology of wireless, working his way up from a modest post in the production area to a position in the experimental laboratory. There, working alone after normal working hours, he developed a detector of electromagnetic waves based on an electrolytic device similar to that already invented by Fleming in England. Recognizing his talents, a number of financial backers enabled him to set up his own business in 1902 under the name of De Forest Wireless Telegraphy Company; he was soon demonstrating wireless telegraphy to interested parties and entering into competition with the American Marconi Company.Despite the failure of this company because of fraud by his partners, he continued his experiments; in 1907, by adding a third electrode, a wire mesh, between the anode and cathode of the thermionic diode invented by Fleming in 1904, he was able to produce the amplifying device now known as the triode valve and achieve a sensitivity of radio-signal reception much greater than possible with the passive carborundum and electrolytic detectors hitherto available. Patented under the name Audion, this new vacuum device was soon successfully used for experimental broadcasts of music and speech in New York and Paris. The invention of the Audion has been described as the beginning of the electronic era. Although much development work was required before its full potential was realized, the Audion opened the way to progress in all areas of sound transmission, recording and reproduction. The patent was challenged by Fleming and it was not until 1943 that De Forest's claim was finally recognized.Overcoming the near failure of his new company, the De Forest Radio Telephone Company, as well as unsuccessful charges of fraudulent promotion of the Audion, he continued to exploit the potential of his invention. By 1912 he had used transformer-coupling of several Audion stages to achieve high gain at radio frequencies, making long-distance communication a practical proposition, and had applied positive feedback from the Audion output anode to its input grid to realize a stable transmitter oscillator and modulator. These successes led to prolonged patent litigation with Edwin Armstrong and others, and he eventually sold the manufacturing rights, in retrospect often for a pittance.During the early 1920s De Forest began a fruitful association with T.W.Case, who for around ten years had been working to perfect a moving-picture sound system. De Forest claimed to have had an interest in sound films as early as 1900, and Case now began to supply him with photoelectric cells and primitive sound cameras. He eventually devised a variable-density sound-on-film system utilizing a glow-discharge modulator, the Photion. By 1926 De Forest's Phonofilm had been successfully demonstrated in over fifty theatres and this system became the basis of Movietone. Though his ideas were on the right lines, the technology was insufficiently developed and it was left to others to produce a system acceptable to the film industry. However, De Forest had played a key role in transforming the nature of the film industry; within a space of five years the production of silent films had all but ceased.In the following decade De Forest applied the Audion to the development of medical diathermy. Finally, after spending most of his working life as an independent inventor and entrepreneur, he worked for a time during the Second World War at the Bell Telephone Laboratories on military applications of electronics.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsInstitute of Electronic and Radio Engineers Medal of Honour 1922. President, Institute of Electronic and Radio Engineers 1930. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Edison Medal 1946.Bibliography1904, "Electrolytic detectors", Electrician 54:94 (describes the electrolytic detector). 1907, US patent no. 841,387 (the Audion).1950, Father of Radio, Chicago: WIlcox \& Follett (autobiography).De Forest gave his own account of the development of his sound-on-film system in a series of articles: 1923. "The Phonofilm", Transactions of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers 16 (May): 61–75; 1924. "Phonofilm progress", Transactions of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers 20:17–19; 1927, "Recent developments in the Phonofilm", Transactions of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers 27:64–76; 1941, "Pioneering in talking pictures", Journal of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers 36 (January): 41–9.Further ReadingG.Carneal, 1930, A Conqueror of Space (biography).I.Levine, 1964, Electronics Pioneer, Lee De Forest (biography).E.I.Sponable, 1947, "Historical development of sound films", Journal of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers 48 (April): 275–303 (an authoritative account of De Forest's sound-film work, by Case's assistant).W.R.McLaurin, 1949, Invention and Innovation in the Radio Industry.C.F.Booth, 1955, "Fleming and De Forest. An appreciation", in Thermionic Valves 1904– 1954, IEE.V.J.Phillips, 1980, Early Radio Detectors, London: Peter Peregrinus.KF / JW -
92 Dondi, Giovanni
SUBJECT AREA: Horology[br]b. 1318 Chioggia, Italyd. 22 June 1389 Milan, Italy[br]Italian physician and astronomer who produced an elaborate astronomical clock.[br]Giovanni was the son of Jacopo de'Dondi dall'-Orologio, a physician who designed a public clock that was installed in Padua in 1344. The careers of both father and son followed similar paths, for Giovanni became Physician to Emperor Charles IV and designed a complicated astronomical clock (astrarium) for which he became famous. Around 1350 he was appointed Professor of Astronomy at the University of Padua. Dondi completed his astrarium in 1381, having worked on it for sixteen years. Unlike the clock of Richard of Wallingford, it used the common form of verge escapement and had no facility for sounding the hours on a bell. It did, however, indicate time on a 24- hour dial and had calendars for both the fixed and movable feasts of the Church. Its principal function was to show the motions of the planets on the Ptolemaic theory, i.e. the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Like the Wallingford clock, it also indicated the position of the nodes, or points where the orbits of the Sun and Moon intersected, so that eclipses could be predicted. The astrarium was acquired by the Duke of Milan and its history can be traced to c.1530, when it was in disrepair. It is now known only from copies of Dondi's manuscript "Tractus astarii". Several modern reconstructions have been made based upon the details in the various manuscripts.[br]Bibliography1987, Astrarium Johannis de Dondis; fac-simile du manuscript de Padoue et traduction française par Emmanuel Poulle, Padua/Paris. For an English translation of Astrarium, see G.H. Baillie, H.A.Lloyd and F.A.B.Ward, 1974, The Planetarium of Giovanni de Dondi, London; however, this translation is less satisfactory as it is a composite of two manuscripts, with illustrations from a third.Further ReadingS.Bedini and F.Maddison, 1966, "Mechanical universe. The astrarium of Giovanni de"Dondi' Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 56:1–69 (for the history of the clock).H.A.Lloyd, 1958, Some Outstanding Clocks Over 700 Years, 1250–1950, London, pp. 9–24 (for its construction).DV -
93 Fulton, Robert
SUBJECT AREA: Ports and shipping[br]b. 14 November 1765 Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USAd. 24 February 1815 New York, USA[br]American pioneer of steamships and of North American steam navigation.[br]The early life of Fulton is documented sparsely; however, it is clear that he was brought up in poor circumstances along with three sisters and one brother by a widowed mother. The War of Independence was raging around them for some years, but despite this it is believed that he spent some time learning the jeweller's trade in Philadelphia and had by then made a name for himself as a miniaturist. Throughout his life he remained skilled with his hands and well able to record technical detail on paper. He witnessed many of the early trials of American steamboats and saw the work of William Henry and John Fitch, and in 1787 he set off for the first time to Europe. For some years he examined steamships in Paris and without doubt saw the Charlotte Dundas on the Forth and Clyde Canal near Glasgow. In 1803 he built a steamship that ran on the Seine at 4 1/2 mph (7.25 km/h), and when it was lost, another to replace it. All his designs were based on principles that had been tried and proved elsewhere, and in this respect he was more of a developer than an inventor. After some time experimenting with submersibles and torpedoes for the British and French governments, in 1806 he returned to the United States. In 1807 he took delivery of the 100 ton displacement paddle steamer Clermont from the yard of Charles Browne of East River, New York. In August of that year it started the passenger services on the Hudson River and this can be claimed as the commencement of world passenger steam navigation. Again the ship was traditional in shape and the machinery was supplied by Messrs Boulton and Watt. This was followed by other ships, including Car of Neptune, Paragon and the world's first steam warship, Demolgos, launched in New York in October 1814 and designed by Fulton for coastal defence and the breaking of the British blockade. His last and finest boat was named Chancellor Livingston after his friend and patron Robert Livingston (1746–1813); the timber hull was launched in 1816, some months after Fulton's death.[br]Further ReadingH.P.Spratt, 1958, The Birth of the Steamboat, London: Griffin. J.T.Flexner, 1978, Steamboats Come True, Boston: Little, Brown."Robert Fulton and the centenary of steam navigation", Engineer (16 August 1907).FMW -
94 Lartigue, Charles François Marie-Thérèse
[br]b. 1834 Toulouse, France d. 1907[br]French engineer and businessman, inventor of the Lartigue monorail.[br]Lartigue worked as a civil engineer in Algeria and while there invented a simple monorail for industrial or agricultural use. It comprised a single rail carried on trestles; vehicles comprised a single wheel with two tubs suspended either side, like panniers. These were pushed or pulled by hand or, occasionally, hauled by mule. Such lines were used in Algerian esparto-grass plantations.In 1882 he patented a monorail system based on this arrangement, with important improvements: traction was to be mechanical; vehicles were to have two or four wheels and to be able to be coupled together; and the trestles were to have, on each side, a light guide rail upon which horizontal rollers beneath the vehicles would bear. Early in 1883 the Lartigue Railway Construction Company was formed in London and two experimental prototype monorails were subsequently demonstrated in public. One, at the Paris Agricultural Exhibition, had an electric locomotive that was built in two parts, one either side of the rail to maintain balance, hauling small wagons. The other prototype, in London, had a small, steam locomotive with two vertical boilers and was designed by Anatole Mallet. By now Lartigue had become associated with F.B. Behr. Behr was Managing Director of the construction company and of the Listowel \& Ballybunion Railway Company, which obtained an Act of Parliament in 1886 to built a Lartigue monorail railway in the South West of Ireland between those two places. Its further development and successful operation are described in the article on Behr in this volume.A much less successful attempt to establish a Lartigue monorail railway took place in France, in the départment of Loire. In 1888 the council of the département agreed to a proposal put forward by Lartigue for a 10 1/2 mile (17 km) long monorail between the towns of Feurs and Panissières: the agreement was reached on the casting vote of the Chairman, a contact of Lartigue. A concession was granted to successive companies with which Lartigue was closely involved, but construction of the line was attended by muddle, delay and perhaps fraud, although it was completed sufficiently for trial trains to operate. The locomotive had two horizontal boilers, one either side of the track. But the inspectors of the department found deficiencies in the completeness and probable safety of the railway; when they did eventually agree to opening on a limited scale, the company claimed to have insufficient funds to do so unless monies owed by the department were paid. In the end the concession was forfeited and the line dismantled. More successful was an electrically operated Lartigue mineral line built at mines in the eastern Pyrenees.It appears to have reused equipment from the electric demonstration line, with modifications, and included gradients as steep as 1 in 12. There was no generating station: descending trains generated the electricity to power ascending ones. This line is said to have operated for at least two years.[br]Bibliography1882, French patent no. 149,301 (monorail system). 1882, British patent no. 2,764 (monorail system).Further ReadingD.G.Tucker, 1984, "F.B.Behr's development of the Lartigue monorail", Transactions of the Newcomen Society 55 (describes Lartigue and his work).P.H.Chauffort and J.-L.Largier, 1981, "Le monorail de Feurs à Panissières", Chemin defer régionaux et urbains (magazine of the Fédération des Amis des Chemins de FerSecondaires) 164 (in French; describes Lartigue and his work).PJGRBiographical history of technology > Lartigue, Charles François Marie-Thérèse
-
95 Mouriés, Hippolyte Mège
SUBJECT AREA: Agricultural and food technology[br]b. 24 October 1817 Draguignan, Franced. 1880 France[br]French inventor of margarine.[br]The son of a schoolmaster. Mouriés became a chemist's assistant in his home town at the age of 16. He then spent a period of training in Aix-enProvence, and in 1838 he moved to Paris, where he became Assistant to the Resident Pharmacist at the Hotel Dieu Hospital. He stayed there until 1846 but never sat his final exams. His main success during this period was with the drug Copahin, which was used against syphilis; he invented an oral formulation of the drug by treating it with nitric acid. In the 1840s he took out various patents relating to tanning and to sugar extraction, and in the 1850s he turned his attention to food research. He developed a health chocolate with his calcium phosphate protein, and also developed a method that made it possible to gain 14 per cent more white bread from a given quantity of wheat. He lectured on this process in Berlin and Brussels and was awarded two gold medals. After 1862 he concentrated his research on fats. His margarine process was based on the cold saponification of milk in fat emulsions and was patented in both France and Britain in 1869. These experiments were carried out at the Ferme Impériale de La Faisanderie in Vincennes, the personal property of the Emperor, and it is therefore likely that they were State-funded. He sold his knowledge to the Dutch firm Jurgens in 1871, and between 1873 and 1874 he also sold his British, American and Prussian rights. His final patent, in 1875, was for canned meat.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsNapoleon III awarded him the Légion d'honneur for his work on wheat and bread.Further ReadingJ.H.van Stuyvenberg (ed.), Margarine: An Economic, Social and Scientific History, 1869–1969 (provides a brief outline of the life of Mouriés in a comprehensive history of his discovery).APBiographical history of technology > Mouriés, Hippolyte Mège
-
96 Nervi, Pier Luigi
[br]b. 21 June 1891 Sondrio, Italyd. 9 January 1979 (?), Italy[br]Italian engineer who played a vital role in the use and adaptation of reinforced concrete as a structural material from the 1930s to the 1970s.[br]Nervi early established a reputation in the use of reinforced concrete with his stadium in Florence (1930–2). This elegant concrete structure combines graceful curves with functional solidity and is capable of seating some 35,000 spectators. The stadium was followed by the aircraft hangars built for the Italian Air Force at Orvieto and Ortebello, in which he spanned the vast roofs of the hangars with thin-shelled vaults supported by precast concrete beams and steel-reinforced ribs. The structural strength and subtle curves of these ribbed roofs set the pattern for Nervi's techniques, which he subsequently varied and elaborated on to solve problems that arose in further commissions.Immediately after the Second World War Italy was short of supplies of steel for structural purposes so, in contrast to the USA, Britain and Germany, did not for some years construct any quantity of steel-framed rectangular buildinngs used for offices, housing or industrial use. It was Nervi who led the way to a ferroconcrete approach, using a new type of structure based on these materials in the form of a fine steel mesh sprayed with cement mortar and used to roof all kinds of structures. It was a method that resulted in expressionist curves instead of rectangular blocks, and the first of his great exhibition halls at Turin (1949), with a vault span of 240 ft (73 m), was an early example of this technique. Nervi continued to create original and beautiful ferroconcrete structures of infinite variety: for example, the hall at the Lido di Roma, Ostia; the terme at Chianciano; and the three buildings that he designed for the Rome Olympics in 1960. The Palazzetto dello Sport is probably the most famous of these, for which he co-operated with the architect Annibale Vitellozzi to construct a small sports palace seating 5,000 spectators under a concrete "big top" of 194 ft (59 m) diameter, its enclosing walls supported by thirtysix guy ropes of concrete; inside, the elegant roof displays a floral quality. In 1960 Nervi returned to Turin to build his imaginative Palace of Labour for the centenary celebrations of Garibaldi and Victor Emmanuel in the city. This vast hall, like the Crystal Palace in England a century earlier (see Paxton), had to be built quickly and be suitable for later adaptation. It was therefore constructed partly in steel, and the metal supporting columns rose to palm-leaf capitals reminiscent of those in ancient Nile palaces.Nervi's aim was always to create functional buildings that simultaneously act by their aesthetic qualities as an effective educational influence. Functionalism for Nervi never became "brutalism". In consequence, his work is admired by the lay public as well as by architects. He collaborated with many of the outstanding architects of the day: with Gio Ponti on the Pirelli Building in Milan (1955–9); with Zehrfuss and Breuer on the Y-plan UNESCO Building in Paris (1953–7); and with Marcello Piacentini on the 16,000-seat Palazzo dello Sport in Rome. Nervi found time to write a number of books on building construction and design, lectured in the Universities of Rio de Janiero and Buenos Aires, and was for many years Professor of Technology and Technique of Construction in the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Rome. He continued to design new structures until well into the 1970s.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsRIBA Royal Gold Medal 1960. Royal Institute of Structural Engineers Gold Medal 1968. Honorary Degree Edinburgh University, Warsaw University, Munich University, London University, Harvard University. Member International Institute of Arts and Letters, Zurich; American Academy of Arts and Sciences; Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Stockholm.Bibliography1956, Structures, New York: Dodge.1945, Scienza o Arte del Costruire?, Rome: Bussola.Further ReadingP.Desideri et al., 1979, Pier Luigi Nervi, Bologna: Zanichelli.A.L.Huxtable, 1960, Masters of World Architecture; Pier Luigi Nervi, New York: Braziller.DY -
97 Nipkow, Paul Gottlieb
[br]b. 22 August 1860 Lauenburg, Pommern (now Lebork, Poland)d. 24 August 1940 Berlin, Germany[br]Polish electrical engineer who invented the Nipkow television scanning disc.[br]In 1884, while still a student engineer, Nipkow patented a mechanical television pick-up device using a disc with a spiral of twenty-four holes rotating at 600 rpm in front of a selenium cell. He also proposed a display on an identical synchronous disc in conjunction with a light-modulator based on the Faraday effect. Unfortunately it was not possible to realize a working system at the time because of the slow response of selenium cells and the lack of suitable electronic-sig-nal amplifiers; he was unable to pay the extension fees and so the patent lapsed. Others took up the idea, however, and in 1907 pictures were sent between London and Paris by wire. Subsequently, the principle was used by Baird, Ives, and Jenkins.For most of his working life after obtaining his doctorate, Nipkow was employed as an engineer by a company that made railway-signalling equipment, but his pioneering invention was finally recognized in 1934 when he was made Honorary President of the newly formed German Television Society.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsPresident, German Television Society 1934.Bibliography1884, German patent no. 30,105 (Nipkow's pioneering method of television image-scanning).Further ReadingR.W.Hubbell, 1946, 4,000 Years of Television, London: G.Harrap \& Co.KF -
98 Pliny the Elder (Gaius Plinius Secundus)
SUBJECT AREA: Metallurgy[br]b. c. 23 AD Como, Italyd. 25 August 79 AD near Pompeii, Italy[br]Roman encyclopedic writer on the natural world.[br]Pliny was well educated in Rome, and for ten years or so followed a military career with which he was able to combine literary work, writing especially on historical subjects. He completed his duties c. 57 AD and concentrated on writing until he resumed his official career in 69 AD with administrative duties. During this last phase he began work on his only extant work, the thirty-seven "books" of his Historia Naturalis (Natural History), each dealing with a broad subject such as astronomy, geography, mineralogy, etc. His last post was the command of the fleet based at Misenum, which came to an end when he sailed too near Vesuvius during the eruption that engulfed Pompeii and he was overcome by the fumes.Pliny developed an insatiable curiosity about the natural world. Unlike the Greeks, the Romans made few original contributions to scientific thought and observation, but some made careful compilations of the learning and observations of Greek scholars. The most notable and influential of these was the Historia Naturalis. To the ideas about the natural world gleaned from earlier Greek authors, he added information about natural history, mineral resources, crafts and some technological processes, such as the extraction of metals from their ores, reported to him from the corners of the Empire. He added a few observations of his own, noted during travels on his official duties. Not all the reports were reliable, and the work often presents a tangled web of fact and fable. Gibbon described it as an immense register in which the author has "deposited the discoveries, the arts, and the errors of mankind". Pliny was indefatigable in his relentless note-taking, even dictating to his secretary while dining.During the Dark Ages and early Middle Ages in Western Europe, Pliny's Historia Naturalis was the largest known collection of facts about the natural world and was drawn upon freely by a succession of later writers. Its influence survived the influx into Western Europe, from the twelfth century, of translations of the works of Greek and Arab scholars. After the invention of printing in the middle of the fifteenth century, Pliny was the first work on a scientific subject to be printed, in 1469. Many editions followed and it may still be consulted with profit for its insights into technical knowledge and practice in the ancient world.[br]BibliographyThe standard Latin text with English translation is that edited by H.Rackham et al.(1942– 63, Loeb Classical Library, London: Heinemann, 10 vols). The French version is by A.Further ReadingThe editions mentioned above include useful biographical and other details. For special aspects of Pliny, see K.C.Bailey, 1929–32, The Elder Pliny's Chapters on Chemical Subjects, London, 2 vols.LRDBiographical history of technology > Pliny the Elder (Gaius Plinius Secundus)
-
99 Porter, Charles Talbot
SUBJECT AREA: Steam and internal combustion engines[br]b. 18 January 1826 Auburn, New York, USAd. 1910 USA[br]American inventor of a stone dressing machine, an improved centrifugal governor and a high-speed steam engine.[br]Porter graduated from Hamilton College, New York, in 1845, read law in his father's office, and in the autumn of 1847 was admitted to the Bar. He practised for six or seven years in Rochester, New York, and then in New York City. He was drawn into engineering when aged about 30, first through a client who claimed to have invented a revolutionary type of engine and offered Porter the rights to it as payment of a debt. Having lent more money, Porter saw neither the man nor the engine again. Porter followed this with a similar experience over a patent for a stone dressing machine, except this time the machine was built. It proved to be a failure, but Porter set about redesigning it and found that it was vastly improved when it ran faster. His improved machine went into production. It was while trying to get the steam engine that drove the stone dressing machine to run more smoothly that he made a discovery that formed the basis for his subsequent work.Porter took the ordinary Watt centrifugal governor and increased the speed by a factor of about ten; although he had to reduce the size of the weights, he gained a motion that was powerful. To make the device sufficiently responsive at the right speed, he balanced the centrifugal forces by a counterweight. This prevented the weights flying outwards until the optimum speed was reached, so that the steam valves remained fully open until that point and then the weights reacted more quickly to variations in speed. He took out a patent in 1858, and its importance was quickly recognized. At first he manufactured and sold the governors himself in a specially equipped factory, because this was the only way he felt he could get sufficient accuracy to ensure a perfect action. For marine use, the counterweight was replaced by a spring.Higher speed had brought the advantage of smoother running and so he thought that the same principles could be applied to the steam engine itself, but it was to take extensive design modifications over several years before his vision was realized. In the winter of 1860–1, J.F. Allen met Porter and sketched out his idea of a new type of steam inlet valve. Porter saw the potential of this for his high-speed engine and Allen took out patents for it in 1862. The valves were driven by a new valve gear designed by Pius Fink. Porter decided to display his engine at the International Exhibition in London in 1862, but it had to be assembled on site because the parts were finished in America only just in time to be shipped to meet the deadline. Running at 150 rpm, the engine caused a sensation, but as it was non-condensing there were few orders. Porter added condensing apparatus and, after the failure of Ormerod Grierson \& Co., entered into an agreement with Joseph Whitworth to build the engines. Four were exhibited at the 1867 Paris Exposition Universelle, but Whitworth and Porter fell out and in 1868 Porter returned to America.Porter established another factory to build his engine in America, but he ran into all sorts of difficulties, both mechanical and financial. Some engines were built, and serious production was started c. 1874, but again there were further problems and Porter had to leave his firm. High-speed engines based on his designs continued to be made until after 1907 by the Southwark Foundry and Machine Company, Philadelphia, so Porter's ideas were proved viable and led to many other high-speed designs.[br]Bibliography1908, Engineering Reminiscences, New York: J. Wiley \& Sons; reprinted 1985, Bradley, Ill.: Lindsay (autobiography; the main source of information about his life).Further ReadingR.L.Hills, 1989, Power from Steam. A History of the Stationary Steam Engine, Cambridge University Press (examines his governor and steam engine).O.Mayr, 1974, "Yankee practice and engineering theory; Charles T.Porter and the dynamics of the high-speed engine", Technology and Culture 16 (4) (examines his governor and steam engine).RLH -
100 Sullivan, Louis Henry
SUBJECT AREA: Architecture and building[br]b. 3 September 1856 Boston, Massachusetts, USAd. 14 April 1924 Chicago, Illinois, USA[br]American architect whose work came to be known as the "Chicago School of Architecture" and who created a new style of architecture suited specifically to steel-frame, high-rise structures.[br]Sullivan, a Bostonian, studied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Soon he joined his parents, who had moved to Chicago, and worked for a while in the office of William Le Baron Jenney, the pioneer of steel-frame construction. After spending some time studying at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, in 1875 Sullivan returned to Chicago, where he later met and worked for the Danish architect Dankmar Adler, who was practising there. In 1881 the two architects became partners, and during the succeeding fifteen years they produced their finest work and the buildings for which Sullivan is especially known.During the early 1880s in Chicago, load-bearing, metal-framework structures that made lofty skyscrapers possible had been developed (see Jenney and Holabird). Louis H.Sullivan initiated building design to stress and complement the metal structure rather than hide it. Moving onwards from H.H.Richardson's treatment of his Marshall Field Wholesale Store in Chicago, Sullivan took the concept several stages further. His first outstanding work, built with Adler in 1886–9, was the Auditorium Building in Chicago. The exterior, in particular, was derived largely from Richardson's Field Store, and the building—now restored—is of bold but simple design, massively built in granite and stone, its form stressing the structure beneath. The architects' reputation was established with this building.The firm of Sullivan \& Adler established itself during the early 1890s, when they built their most famous skyscrapers. Adler was largely responsible for the structure, the acoustics and function, while Sullivan was responsible for the architectural design, concerning himself particularly with the limitation and careful handling of ornament. In 1892 he published his ideas in Ornament in Architecture, where he preached restraint in its quality and disposition. He established himself as a master of design in the building itself, producing a rhythmic simplicity of form, closely related to the structural shape beneath. The two great examples of this successful approach were the Wainwright Building in St Louis, Missouri (1890–1) and the Guaranty Building in Buffalo, New York (1894–5). The Wainwright Building was a ten-storeyed structure built in stone and brick and decorated with terracotta. The vertical line was stressed throughout but especially at the corners, where pilasters were wider. These rose unbroken to an Art Nouveau type of decorative frieze and a deeply projecting cornice above. The thirteen-storeyed Guaranty Building is Sullivan's masterpiece, a simple, bold, finely proportioned and essentially modern structure. The pilaster verticals are even more boldly stressed and decoration is at a minimum. In the twentieth century the almost free-standing supporting pillars on the ground floor have come to be called pilotis. As late as the 1920s, particularly in New York, the architectural style and decoration of skyscrapers remained traditionally eclectic, based chiefly upon Gothic or classical forms; in view of this, Sullivan's Guaranty Building was far ahead of its time.[br]BibliographyArticle by Louis H.Sullivan. Address delivered to architectural students June 1899, published in Canadian Architecture Vol. 18(7):52–3.Further ReadingHugh Morrison, 1962, Louis Sullivan: Prophet of Modern Architecture.Willard Connely, 1961, Louis Sullivan as He Lived, New York: Horizon Press.DY
Страницы
См. также в других словарях:
Paris Las Vegas — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda Este artículo trata sobre un hotel de Las Vegas. Para otros usos de este término, véase París (desambiguación). Paris Las Vegas … Wikipedia Español
Paris Combo — is a musical group based in Paris, France that has an eclectic style, blending elements from the traditional French chanson, American jazz and swing, Roma music and North African music. The group identifies itself as a world music group. They… … Wikipedia
Paris Society of Medicine — Formation 1730 Type Medical organization, Societe savante, Non profit organization Location Paris, France … Wikipedia
Paris Independent School District — is a public school district based in Paris, Texas (USA). It is a 3A school, and is the largest in Lamar County, with an enrollment of almost 1,500 students. In 2009, the school district was rated academically acceptable by the Texas Education… … Wikipedia
Paris Volley — is a professional Volleyball team based in Paris. It plays in Pro A and in the CEV Champions League.Palmarès*CEV Champions League (1) ** Winner : 2001 *CEV Top Teams Cup (1) ** Winner : 2000 *CEV SuperCup: (2) ** Winner : 2000, 2001 *Pro A (6) ** … Wikipedia
Paris (mythology) — Prince Paris with apple by H.W. Bissen, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen Paris (Greek … Wikipedia
Paris Saint-Germain FC — Football club infobox clubname = Paris Saint Germain fullname = Paris Saint Germain Football Club nickname = PSG founded = 1904/1970 ground = Parc des Princes, Paris capacity = 46,480 chairman = flagicon|France Charles Villeneuve manager =… … Wikipedia
Paris Evangelical Mission Society — The Paris Mission (officially the Société de missions évangéliques de Paris) is the missionary arm of the Reformed Church of France. It originated early in the 19th century as some French Protestants gathered to pray for and help support the… … Encyclopedia of Protestantism
Paris Mounties — Hockey team team = Paris Mounties logosize = 125px city = Paris, Ontario league = Niagara District Junior C Hockey League division = Western founded = 1985 arena = Syl Apps Community Centre colours = Red, Black, and White coach = Tim Macdonald GM … Wikipedia
Paris Basket Racing — The Paris Basket Racing, or PBR, is a French basketball club based in Paris. It was founded in 1922 as a section of the Racing Club de Paris. The team took the name Paris Basket Racing in 2000. It is probably best known outside France as the club … Wikipedia
Paris and Oxford between Aureoli and Rimini — Chris Schabel Oxford ideas in logic and natural philosophy were readily received, analysed, and partially incorporated into corresponding writings of a logical or natural philosophical nature at the University of Paris throughout the 1320s, 1330s … History of philosophy
