build+market

(1863–1947) Gen Mgt

U.S. industrialist. Founder of the Ford Motor Company, who organized the assembly line along the scientific management principles of Frederick Winslow Taylor and recorded his philosophy in My Life and Work (1922)

     After spending time as a machinist’s apprentice, a watch repairer, and a mechanic, Ford built his first car in 1896. He quickly became convinced of the vehicle’s commercial potential and started his own company in 1903. His first car was the Model A. After a year in business he was selling 600 a month.

     In 1907 Ford professed that his aim was to build a motor car for the masses. In 1908 his Model T was born. Through innovative use of new mass-production techniques, 15 million Model Ts were produced between 1908 and 1927.

     At that time, Ford’s factory at Highland Park, Michigan, was the biggest in the world. Over 14,000 people worked on the 57-acre site. He was quick to establish international operations as well. Ford’s first overseas sales branch was opened in France in 1908 and, in 1911, Ford began making cars in the United Kingdom.

     In 1919 Henry Ford resigned as the company’s president, letting his son, Edsel, take over. By then the Ford company was making a car a minute and Ford’s market share was in excess of 57%.

SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace, Electricity, Land transport, Ports and shipping

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Sperry was born into a farming community in Cortland County. He received a rudimentary education at the local school, but an interest in mechanical devices was aroused by the agricultural machinery he saw around him. His attendance at the Normal School in Cortland provided a useful theoretical background to his practical knowledge. He emerged in 1880 with an urge to pursue invention in electrical engineering, then a new and growing branch of technology. Within two years he was able to patent and demonstrate his arc lighting system, complete with its own generator, incorporating new methods of regulating its output. The Sperry Electric Light, Motor and Car Brake Company was set up to make and market the system, but it was difficult to keep pace with electric-lighting developments such as the incandescent lamp and alternating current, and the company ceased in 1887 and was replaced by the Sperry Electric Company, which itself was taken over by the General Electric Company.

In the 1890s Sperry made useful inventions in electric mining machinery and then in electric street-or tramcars, with his patent electric brake and control system. The patents for the brake were important enough to be bought by General Electric. From 1894 to 1900 he was manufacturing electric motor cars of his own design, and in 1900 he set up a laboratory in Washington, where he pursued various electrochemical processes.

In 1896 he began to work on the practical application of the principle of the gyroscope, where Sperry achieved his most notable inventions, the first of which was the gyrostabilizer for ships. The relatively narrow-hulled steamship rolled badly in heavy seas and in 1904 Ernst Otto Schuck, a German naval engineer, and Louis Brennan in England began experiments to correct this; their work stimulated Sperry to develop his own device. In 1908 he patented the active gyrostabilizer, which acted to correct a ship's roll as soon as it started. Three years later the US Navy agreed to try it on a destroyer, the USS Worden. The successful trials of the following year led to widespread adoption. Meanwhile, in 1910, Sperry set up the Sperry Gyroscope Company to extend the application to commercial shipping.

At the same time, Sperry was working to apply the gyroscope principle to the ship's compass. The magnetic compass had worked well in wooden ships, but iron hulls and electrical machinery confused it. The great powers' race to build up their navies instigated an urgent search for a solution. In Germany, Anschütz-Kämpfe (1872–1931) in 1903 tested a form of gyrocompass and was encouraged by the authorities to demonstrate the device on the German flagship, the Deutschland. Its success led Sperry to develop his own version: fortunately for him, the US Navy preferred a home-grown product to a German one and gave Sperry all the backing he needed. A successful trial on a destroyer led to widespread acceptance in the US Navy, and Sperry was soon receiving orders from the British Admiralty and the Russian Navy.

In the rapidly developing field of aeronautics, automatic stabilization was becoming an urgent need. In 1912 Sperry began work on a gyrostabilizer for aircraft. Two years later he was able to stage a spectacular demonstration of such a device at an air show near Paris.

Sperry continued research, development and promotion in military and aviation technology almost to the last. In 1926 he sold the Sperry Gyroscope Company to enable him to devote more time to invention.

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SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace

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Gabriel Voisin was one of a group of aviation pioneers working in France c. 1905. One of the leaders of this group was a rich lawyer-sportsman, Ernest Archdeacon. For a number of years they had been building gliders based on those of the Wright brothers. Archdeacon's glider of 1904 was flown by Voisin, who went on to assist in the design and manufacture of gliders for Archdeacon and Louis Blériot, including successful float-gliders. Gabriel Voisin was joined by his brother Charles in 1905 and they set up the first commercial aircraft factory. As the Voisins had limited funds, they had to seek customers who could afford to indulge in the fashionable hobby of flying. One was Santos- Dumont, who commissioned Voisin to build his "14 bis" aeroplane in 1906.

Early in 1907 the Voisins built their first powered aeroplane, but it was not a success.

Later that year they completed a biplane for a Paris sculptor, Léon Delagrange, and another for Henri Farman. The basic Voisin was a biplane with the engine behind the pilot and a "pusher" propeller. Pitching was controlled by biplane elevators forward of the pilot and rudders were fitted to the box kite tail, but there was no control of roll.

Improvements were gradually introduced by the Voisins and their customers, such as Farman. Incidentally, to flatter their clients the Voisins often named the aircraft after them, thus causing some confusion to historians. Many Voisins were built up until 1910, when the company's fortunes sank. Competition was growing, the factory was flooded, and Charles left. Gabriel started again, building robust biplanes of steel construction. Voisin bombers were widely used during the First World War, and a subsidiary factory was built in Russia.

In August 1917, Voisin sold his business when the French Air Ministry decided that Voisin aeroplanes were obsolete and that the factory should be turned over to the building of engines. After the war he started another business making prefabricated houses, and then turned to manufacturing motor cars. From 1919 to 1939 his company produced various models, mainly for the luxury end of the market but also including a few sports and racing cars. In the early 1950s he designed a small two-seater, which was built by the Biscuter company in Spain. The Voisin company finally closed in 1958.

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"1. /ı/ to pull. 2. /ı/ to draw; to haul, drag, tug. 3. /ı/ (for an animal) to pull, draw (a vehicle). 4. /ı/ to pull on (one´s boots, trousers). 5. /ı/ to tow. 6. /ı/ to draw (a weapon). 7. /ı/ to pull, extract (a tooth). 8. /ı/ to attract, draw. 9. /ı/ to absorb. 10. /ı/ (for someone) to inhale, breathe in, inspire (air, smoke); (for a machine, an opening) to suck in, pull in, draw in (air, smoke, a liquid). 11. /ı/ to support, bear, take, carry (a weight, a load): Bu sütun o ağırlığı çekmez. This pillar won´t carry that weight. 12. /ı/ to bear (an expense). 13. /ı/ to bear, endure, put up with, suffer (an illness, pain, sorrow, trouble, a troublesome person). 14. /ı, dan, a/ to take (a harvest) from (the fields) to (a granary, a storehouse). 15. /ı, dan/ to withdraw (a product) from (a market). 16. /ı, dan/ to withdraw (money) from (a bank). 17. /ı, dan/ to get (someone) to give up (a bad habit). 18. /ı, dan/ to clear (goods) through (customs). 19. /ı, dan/ to draw (water) from (a well). 20. /ı/ to distill. 21. (for a chimney) to draw. 22. /ı/ to draw (a line). 23. /ı, a/ to apply (kohl) to. 24. /ı/ to build (a fence, a wall, a barrier); to string up (a curtain). 25. /ı/ to hoist (a flag). 26. /ı/ to lay (a cable); to stretch, string up (a wire, a rope). 27. to weigh, have a weight of; /ı/ to weigh, measure the weight of. 28. /ı/ to draw (lots, chances) (in a lottery). 29. /a, ı/ to send (someone) (an official notice, a telegram, a fax). 30. /ı, a/ to interrupt (someone´s words) in (a specified way). 31. /ı/ to take (a photograph); cin. to shoot (a movie). 32. /ı, da/ to sew (something) on (a sewing machine). 33. /ı/ to grind (coffee, etc.). 34. /ı, a/ to put (one animal) together with (another) so that they will mate. 35. /a/ (for one person) to resemble, take after (another). 36. (for cloth) to shrink. 37. /a, ı/ to give (something) (a coat of paint). 38. /a, ı/ to give (someone) (a beating). 39. /ı/ gram. to conjugate (a verb); to decline (a noun). 40. (for a month) to be (a specified number of days) long; /dan/ (for one place) to be (a specified amount of time) away from (another). 41. /ı/ to deliver, make (a speech). 42. /ı/ to give (a banquet). 43. /ı/ to repair a run in (a woman´s silk or nylon stocking). 44. slang to drink, down (an alcoholic beverage). 45. /a/ slang (for one player or team) to score (points, goals) against (another player or team). 46. /ı/ slang to fill (a specified number of glasses) with (tea, beer, etc.) (used by waiters and barmen): İki çay çek! Give me two teas! 47. /a/ slang to hit, sock (someone): Yüzüne öyle bir çekerim ki! I´ll give you a wallop you won´t forget! Çek!/ Çek arabanı! colloq. Clear out!/Get out! çekip çekiştirmek /ı/ to backbite (someone). çekip çevirmek /ı/ 1. to run, manage (a place). 2. to get things running smoothly in (a place). 3. to manage (people). 4. to straighten (someone) out; to set (someone´s house) in order. çekip gitmek to leave, clear out; to slip away. Çekiver kuyruğunu! slang Forget about him/her/them (as he/she/they will be of no use to you)! çekeceği olmak /dan/ (for someone, something) to be a real pain for, make life unpleasant for (used only to refer to the future): Ondan çekeceğimiz var! He´s going to be a real pain!"