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101 Pounder, Cuthbert Coulson
[br]b. 10 May 1891 Hartlepool, Englandd. 18 December 1982 Belfast (?), Northern Ireland[br]English marine engineer and exponent of the slow-speed diesel engine.[br]Pounder served an apprenticeship with Richardsons Westgarth, marine engineers in north east England. Shortly after, he moved to Harland \& Wolff of Belfast and there fulfilled his life's work. He rose to the rank of Director but is remembered for his outstanding leadership in producing the most advanced steam and diesel machinery installations of their time. Harland \& Wolff were the main licensees for the Burmeister \& Wain marine diesel system, and the Copenhagen company made most of the decisions on design; however, Pounder often found himself in the hot seat and once had the responsibility of concurring with the shipyard's decision to build three Atlantic liners with the largest diesel engines in the world, well beyond the accepted safe levels of extrapolation. With this, Belfast secured worldwide recognition as builders of diesel-driven liners. During the German occupation of Denmark (1940–5), the engineering department at Belfast worked on its own and through systematic research and experimentation built up a database of information that was invaluable in the postwar years.Pounder was instrumental in the development of airless injection diesel fuel pumps. He was a stalwart supporter of all research and development, and while at Belfast was involved in the building of twelve hundred power units. While in his twenties, Pounder began a literary career which continued for sixty years. The bulk of his books and papers were on engineering and arguably the best known is his work on marine diesel engines, which ran to many editions. He was Chairman of Pametrada, the marine engineering research council of Great Britain, and later of the machinery committee of the British Ship Research Association. He regarded good relations within the industry as a matter of paramount importance.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsPresident, Institute of Marine Engineers; Denny Gold Medal 1839, 1959. Institution of Mechanical Engineers Ackroyd Stewart Award; James Clay ton Award.Further ReadingMichael Moss and John R.Hume, 1986, Shipbuilders to the World, Belfast: Blackstaff.FMWBiographical history of technology > Pounder, Cuthbert Coulson
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102 Trevithick, Richard
[br]b. 13 April 1771 Illogan, Cornwall, Englandd. 22 April 1833 Dartford, Kent, England[br]English engineer, pioneer of non-condensing steam-engines; designed and built the first locomotives.[br]Trevithick's father was a tin-mine manager, and Trevithick himself, after limited formal education, developed his immense engineering talent among local mining machinery and steam-engines and found employment as a mining engineer. Tall, strong and high-spirited, he was the eternal optimist.About 1797 it occurred to him that the separate condenser patent of James Watt could be avoided by employing "strong steam", that is steam at pressures substantially greater than atmospheric, to drive steam-engines: after use, steam could be exhausted to the atmosphere and the condenser eliminated. His first winding engine on this principle came into use in 1799, and subsequently such engines were widely used. To produce high-pressure steam, a stronger boiler was needed than the boilers then in use, in which the pressure vessel was mounted upon masonry above the fire: Trevithick designed the cylindrical boiler, with furnace tube within, from which the Cornish and later the Lancashire boilers evolved.Simultaneously he realized that high-pressure steam enabled a compact steam-engine/boiler unit to be built: typically, the Trevithick engine comprised a cylindrical boiler with return firetube, and a cylinder recessed into the boiler. No beam intervened between connecting rod and crank. A master patent was taken out.Such an engine was well suited to driving vehicles. Trevithick built his first steam-carriage in 1801, but after a few days' use it overturned on a rough Cornish road and was damaged beyond repair by fire. Nevertheless, it had been the first self-propelled vehicle successfully to carry passengers. His second steam-carriage was driven about the streets of London in 1803, even more successfully; however, it aroused no commercial interest. Meanwhile the Coalbrookdale Company had started to build a locomotive incorporating a Trevithick engine for its tramroads, though little is known of the outcome; however, Samuel Homfray's ironworks at Penydarren, South Wales, was already building engines to Trevithick's design, and in 1804 Trevithick built one there as a locomotive for the Penydarren Tramroad. In this, and in the London steam-carriage, exhaust steam was turned up the chimney to draw the fire. On 21 February the locomotive hauled five wagons with 10 tons of iron and seventy men for 9 miles (14 km): it was the first successful railway locomotive.Again, there was no commercial interest, although Trevithick now had nearly fifty stationary engines completed or being built to his design under licence. He experimented with one to power a barge on the Severn and used one to power a dredger on the Thames. He became Engineer to a project to drive a tunnel beneath the Thames at Rotherhithe and was only narrowly defeated, by quicksands. Trevithick then set up, in 1808, a circular tramroad track in London and upon it demonstrated to the admission-fee-paying public the locomotive Catch me who can, built to his design by John Hazledine and J.U. Rastrick.In 1809, by which date Trevithick had sold all his interest in the steam-engine patent, he and Robert Dickinson, in partnership, obtained a patent for iron tanks to hold liquid cargo in ships, replacing the wooden casks then used, and started to manufacture them. In 1810, however, he was taken seriously ill with typhus for six months and had to return to Cornwall, and early in 1811 the partners were bankrupt; Trevithick was discharged from bankruptcy only in 1814.In the meantime he continued as a steam engineer and produced a single-acting steam engine in which the cut-off could be varied to work the engine expansively by way of a three-way cock actuated by a cam. Then, in 1813, Trevithick was approached by a representative of a company set up to drain the rich but flooded silver-mines at Cerro de Pasco, Peru, at an altitude of 14,000 ft (4,300 m). Low-pressure steam engines, dependent largely upon atmospheric pressure, would not work at such an altitude, but Trevithick's high-pressure engines would. Nine engines and much other mining plant were built by Hazledine and Rastrick and despatched to Peru in 1814, and Trevithick himself followed two years later. However, the war of independence was taking place in Peru, then a Spanish colony, and no sooner had Trevithick, after immense difficulties, put everything in order at the mines then rebels arrived and broke up the machinery, for they saw the mines as a source of supply for the Spanish forces. It was only after innumerable further adventures, during which he encountered and was assisted financially by Robert Stephenson, that Trevithick eventually arrived home in Cornwall in 1827, penniless.He petitioned Parliament for a grant in recognition of his improvements to steam-engines and boilers, without success. He was as inventive as ever though: he proposed a hydraulic power transmission system; he was consulted over steam engines for land drainage in Holland; and he suggested a 1,000 ft (305 m) high tower of gilded cast iron to commemorate the Reform Act of 1832. While working on steam propulsion of ships in 1833, he caught pneumonia, from which he died.[br]BibliographyTrevithick took out fourteen patents, solely or in partnership, of which the most important are: 1802, Construction of Steam Engines, British patent no. 2,599. 1808, Stowing Ships' Cargoes, British patent no. 3,172.Further ReadingH.W.Dickinson and A.Titley, 1934, Richard Trevithick. The Engineer and the Man, Cambridge; F.Trevithick, 1872, Life of Richard Trevithick, London (these two are the principal biographies).E.A.Forward, 1952, "Links in the history of the locomotive", The Engineer (22 February), 226 (considers the case for the Coalbrookdale locomotive of 1802).See also: Blenkinsop, JohnPJGR
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beyond of (all) recognition — beyond/out/of (all) recognition phrase in a way that makes it impossible to recognize who someone is or what something is Many of the bodies were burned beyond all recognition. Family life has changed out of all recognition in the space of a few… … Useful english dictionary
out of (all) recognition — beyond/out/of (all) recognition phrase in a way that makes it impossible to recognize who someone is or what something is Many of the bodies were burned beyond all recognition. Family life has changed out of all recognition in the space of a few… … Useful english dictionary
fouled up beyond all recognition — (FUBAR) A mess. ► “With its myriad of programs the welfare system in the U.S. is FUBAR.” (Professor Martin McMahon, University of Kentucky, 1996) … American business jargon
(to) change beyond of (all) recognition — to change, alter, etc. beyond/out of (all) recogˈnition idiom to change so much that you can hardly recognize it • The town has changed beyond recognition since I was last here. • Capitalism has been reformed almost out of all recognition.… … Useful english dictionary
(to) alter beyond of (all) recognition — to change, alter, etc. beyond/out of (all) recogˈnition idiom to change so much that you can hardly recognize it • The town has changed beyond recognition since I was last here. • Capitalism has been reformed almost out of all recognition.… … Useful english dictionary
(to) change out of (all) recognition — to change, alter, etc. beyond/out of (all) recogˈnition idiom to change so much that you can hardly recognize it • The town has changed beyond recognition since I was last here. • Capitalism has been reformed almost out of all recognition.… … Useful english dictionary
(to) alter out of (all) recognition — to change, alter, etc. beyond/out of (all) recogˈnition idiom to change so much that you can hardly recognize it • The town has changed beyond recognition since I was last here. • Capitalism has been reformed almost out of all recognition.… … Useful english dictionary
beyond recognition — beyond belief/recognition/ phrase used for saying that you cannot believe or recognize something The centre of Manchester has changed beyond all recognition. Thesaurus: ways of emphasizing that something is not true or likelysynonym Main entry … Useful english dictionary
recognition — [[t]re̱kəgnɪ̱ʃ(ə)n[/t]] ♦♦♦ 1) N UNCOUNT Recognition is the act of recognizing someone or identifying something when you see it. George said, Ida, how are you? She frowned for a moment and then recognition dawned. George Black. Well, I never … English dictionary
recognition — noun 1 remembering/identifying sb/sth ADJECTIVE ▪ immediate, instant ▪ early, prompt ▪ the early recognition of a disease ▪ dawning … Collocations dictionary
recognition — rec|og|ni|tion [ ,rekəg nıʃn ] noun *** 1. ) uncount the ability to recognize a person or thing: She looked at me without a flicker of recognition in her eyes. a ) beyond/out of (all) recognition in a way that makes it impossible to recognize who … Usage of the words and phrases in modern English
