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121 Wren, Sir Christopher
SUBJECT AREA: Architecture and building[br]b. 20 October 1632 East Knoyle, Wiltshire, Englandd. 25 February 1723 London, England[br]English architect whose background in scientific research and achievement enhanced his handling of many near-intractable architectural problems.[br]Born into a High Church and Royalist family, the young Wren early showed outstanding intellectual ability and at Oxford in 1654 was described as "that miracle of a youth". Educated at Westminster School, he went up to Oxford, where he graduated at the age of 19 and obtained his master's degree two years later. From this time onwards his interests were in science, primarily astronomy but also physics, engineering and meteorology. While still at college he developed theories about and experimentally solved some fifty varied problems. At the age of 25 Wren was appointed to the Chair of Astronomy at Gresham College in London, but he soon returned to Oxford as Savilian Professor of Astronomy there. At the same time he became one of the founder members of the Society of Experimental Philosophy at Oxford, which was awarded its Royal Charter soon after the Restoration of 1660; Wren, together with such men as Isaac Newton, Robert Hooke, John Evelyn and Robert Boyle, then found himself a member of the Royal Society.Wren's architectural career began with the classical chapel that he built, at the request of his uncle, the Bishop of Ely, for Pembroke College, Cambridge (1663). From this time onwards, until he died at the age of 91, he was fully occupied with a wide and taxing variety of architectural problems which he faced in the execution of all the great building schemes of the day. His scientific background and inventive mind stood him in good stead in solving such difficulties with an often unusual approach and concept. Nowhere was this more apparent than in his rebuilding of fifty-one churches in the City of London after the Great Fire, in the construction of the new St Paul's Cathedral and in the grand layout of the Royal Hospital at Greenwich.The first instance of Wren's approach to constructional problems was in his building of the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford (1664–9). He based his design upon that of the Roman Theatre of Marcellus (13–11 BC), which he had studied from drawings in Serlio's book of architecture. Wren's reputation as an architect was greatly enhanced by his solution to the roofing problem here. The original theatre in Rome, like all Roman-theatres, was a circular building open to the sky; this would be unsuitable in the climate of Oxford and Wren wished to cover the English counterpart without using supporting columns, which would have obscured the view of the stage. He solved this difficulty mathematically, with the aid of his colleague Dr Wallis, the Professor of Geometry, by means of a timber-trussed roof supporting a painted ceiling which represented the open sky.The City of London's churches were rebuilt over a period of nearly fifty years; the first to be completed and reopened was St Mary-at-Hill in 1676, and the last St Michael Cornhill in 1722, when Wren was 89. They had to be rebuilt upon the original medieval sites and they illustrate, perhaps more clearly than any other examples of Wren's work, the fertility of his imagination and his ability to solve the most intractable problems of site, limitation of space and variation in style and material. None of the churches is like any other. Of the varied sites, few are level or possess right-angled corners or parallel sides of equal length, and nearly all were hedged in by other, often larger, buildings. Nowhere is his versatility and inventiveness shown more clearly than in his designs for the steeples. There was no English precedent for a classical steeple, though he did draw upon the Dutch examples of the 1630s, because the London examples had been medieval, therefore Roman Catholic and Gothic, churches. Many of Wren's steeples are, therefore, Gothic steeples in classical dress, but many were of the greatest originality and delicate beauty: for example, St Mary-le-Bow in Cheapside; the "wedding cake" St Bride in Fleet Street; and the temple diminuendo concept of Christ Church in Newgate Street.In St Paul's Cathedral Wren showed his ingenuity in adapting the incongruous Royal Warrant Design of 1675. Among his gradual and successful amendments were the intriguing upper lighting of his two-storey choir and the supporting of the lantern by a brick cone inserted between the inner and outer dome shells. The layout of the Royal Hospital at Greenwich illustrates Wren's qualities as an overall large-scale planner and designer. His terms of reference insisted upon the incorporation of the earlier existing Queen's House, erected by Inigo Jones, and of John Webb's King Charles II block. The Queen's House, in particular, created a difficult problem as its smaller size rendered it out of scale with the newer structures. Wren's solution was to make it the focal centre of a great vista between the main flanking larger buildings; this was a masterstroke.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsKnighted 1673. President, Royal Society 1681–3. Member of Parliament 1685–7 and 1701–2. Surveyor, Greenwich Hospital 1696. Surveyor, Westminster Abbey 1699.Surveyor-General 1669–1712.Further ReadingR.Dutton, 1951, The Age of Wren, Batsford.M.Briggs, 1953, Wren the Incomparable, Allen \& Unwin. M.Whinney, 1971, Wren, Thames \& Hudson.K.Downes, 1971, Christopher Wren, Allen Lane.G.Beard, 1982, The Work of Sir Christopher Wren, Bartholomew.DY -
122 second
I [sɪ'kɔnd] vt ( BRIT) II 1. ['sɛkənd] adj 2. adv( in race etc) jako drugi; ( when listing) po drugie3. n( unit of time) sekunda f; ( AUT) (also: second gear) drugi bieg m, dwójka f (inf); ( COMM) towar m wybrakowany4. vtupper/lower second ( BRIT) — dyplom ukończenia studiów z wynikiem dobrym/zadowalającym
second floor ( BRIT) — drugie piętro; (US) pierwsze piętro
to ask for a second opinion — zasięgać (zasięgnąć perf) drugiej opinii
* * *I 1. ['sekənd] adjective1) (next after, or following, the first in time, place etc: February is the second month of the year; She finished the race in second place.) drugi2) (additional or extra: a second house in the country.) dodatkowy3) (lesser in importance, quality etc: She's a member of the school's second swimming team.) rezerwowy2. adverb(next after the first: He came second in the race.) drugi3. noun1) (a second person, thing etc: You're the second to arrive.) drugi2) (a person who supports and helps a person who is fighting in a boxing match etc.) sekundant4. verb(to agree with (something said by a previous speaker), especially to do so formally: He proposed the motion and I seconded it.) poprzeć (przedmówcę)5. noun(a secondary school.) szkoła średnia- seconder- secondly
- secondary colours
- secondary school
- second-best
- second-class
- second-hand
- second lieutenant
- second-rate
- second sight
- second thoughts
- at second hand
- come off second best
- every second week
- month
- second to none II ['sekənd] noun1) (the sixtieth part of a minute: He ran the race in three minutes and forty-two seconds.) sekunda2) (a short time: I'll be there in a second.) sekunda, chwila -
123 a ray of hope
This Victory was the first ray of hope that had penetrated into the benighted packing industry since the unions were destroyed there in the great strike of thirteen years before. (W. Foster, ‘Pages From a Worker's Life’, ch. IV) — Эта победа была первым лучом надежды для рабочих упаковочной промышленности с тех пор, как тринадцать лет назад во время большой забастовки были разгромлены профсоюзы.
Charles liked him; he had the faint, but genuine, appeal of the harmless and ordinary character. He, on his part, seemed to find in Charles his one ray of hope. (J. Wain, ‘Hurry On Down’, ch. VIII) — Чарлзу Брейсуэйн нравился: в нем была неброская, но неподдельная привлекательность человека скромного и безобидного. А Брейсуэйн, со своей стороны, видел в Чарлзе единственную свою надежду.
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124 Breguet, Louis
SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace[br]b. 2 January 1880 Paris, Franced. 4 May 1955 Paris, France[br]French aviation pioneer who built a helicopter in 1907 and designed many successful aircraft.[br]The Breguet family had been manufacturing fine clocks since before the French Revolution, but Louis Breguet and his brother Jacques used their mechanical skills to produce a helicopter, or "gyroplane" as they named it. It was a complex machine with four biplane rotors (i.e. thirty-two lifting surfaces). Louis Breguet had carried out many tests to determine the most suitable rotor design. The Breguet brothers were assisted by Professor Charles Richet and the Breguet-Richet No. 1 was tested in September 1907 when it succeeded in lifting itself, and its pilot, to a height of 1.5 metres. Unfortunately, the gyroplane was rather unstable and four helpers had to steady it; consequently, the flight did not qualify as a "free" flight. This was achieved two months later, also in France, by Paul Cornu who made a 20-second free flight.Louis Breguet turned his attention to aeroplane design and produced a tractor biplane when most other biplanes followed the Wright brothers' layout with a forward elevator and pusher propeller. The Breguet I made quite an impression at the 1909 Reims meeting, but the Breguet IV created a world record the following year by carrying six people. During the First World War the Breguet Type 14 bomber was widely used by French and American squadrons. Between the First and Second World Wars a wide variety of designs were produced, including flying boats and another helicopter, the Breguet- Dorand Gyroplane which flew for over one hour in 1936. The Breguet company survived World War II and in the late 1940s developed a successful four-engined airliner/transport, the Deux-Ponts, which had a bulbous double-deck fuselage.Breguet was an innovative designer, although his designs were functional rather than elegant. He was an early advocate of metal construction and developed an oleo- (oil-spring) undercarriage leg.[br]Bibliography1925, Le Vol à voile dynamique des oiseaux. Analyse des effets des pulsations du vent sur la résultante aérodynamique moyenne d'un planeur, Paris.Further ReadingP.Faure, 1938, Louis Breguet, Paris (biography).C.H.Gibbs-Smith, 1965, The Invention of the Aeroplane 1799–1909, London (provides a careful analysis of Breguet's early aircraft).JDS -
125 Cooke, William Fothergill
SUBJECT AREA: Telecommunications[br]b. 1806 Baling, London, Englandd. 25 June 1879 Farnham, Surrey, England[br]English physicist, pioneer of electric telegraphy.[br]The son of a surgeon who became Professor of Anatomy at Durham University, Cooke received a conventional classical education, with no science, in Durham and at Edinburgh University. He joined the East India Company's aimy in Madras, but resigned because of ill health in 1833. While convalescent, Cooke travelled in Europe and began making wax models of anatomical sections, possibly as teaching aids for his father. In Germany he saw an experimental electric-telegraph demonstration, and was so impressed with the idea of instantaneous long-distance communication that he dropped the modelling and decided to devote all his energies to developing a practical electric telegraph. His own instruments were not successful: they worked across a room, but not over a mile of wire. His search for scientific advice led him to Charles Wheatstone, who was working on a similar project, and together they obtained a patent for the first practical electric telegraph. Cooke's business drive and Wheatstone's scientific abilities should have made a perfect partnership, but the two men quarrelled and separated. Cooke's energy and enthusiasm got the telegraph established, first on the newly developing railways, then independently. Sadly, the fortune he made from the telegraph was lost in other ventures, and he died a poor man.[br]Further ReadingG.Hubbard, 1965, Cooke and Wheatstone and the Invention of the Electric Telegraph, London, Routledge \& Kegan Paul (provides a short account of Cooke's life; there is no full biography).BBBiographical history of technology > Cooke, William Fothergill
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126 Locke, Joseph
[br]b. 9 August 1805 Attercliffe, Yorkshire, Englandd. 18 September 1860 Moffat, Scotland[br]English civil engineer who built many important early main-line railways.[br]Joseph Locke was the son of a colliery viewer who had known George Stephenson in Northumberland before moving to Yorkshire: Locke himself became a pupil of Stephenson in 1823. He worked with Robert Stephenson at Robert Stephenson \& Co.'s locomotive works and surveyed railways, including the Leeds \& Selby and the Canterbury \& Whitstable, for George Stephenson.When George Stephenson was appointed Chief Engineer for construction of the Liverpool \& Manchester Railway in 1826, the first resident engineer whom he appointed to work under him was Locke, who took a prominent part in promoting traction by locomotives rather than by fixed engines with cable haulage. The pupil eventually excelled the master and in 1835 Locke was appointed in place of Stephenson as Chief Engineer for construction of the Grand Junction Railway. He introduced double-headed rails carried in chairs on wooden sleepers, the prototype of the bullhead track that became standard on British railways for more than a century. By preparing the most detailed specifications, Locke was able to estimate the cost of the railway much more accurately than was usual at that time, and it was built at a cost close to the estimate; this made his name. He became Engineer to the London \& Southampton Railway and completed the Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyme \& Manchester Railway, including the 3-mile (3.8 km) Woodhead Tunnel, which had been started by Charles Vignoles. He was subsequently responsible for many British main lines, including those of the companies that extended the West Coast Route northwards from Preston to Scotland. He was also Engineer to important early main lines in France, notably that from Paris to Rouen and its extension to Le Havre, and in Spain and Holland. In 1847 Locke was elected MP for Honiton.Locke appreciated early in his career that steam locomotives able to operate over gradients steeper than at first thought practicable would be developed. Overall his monument is not great individual works of engineering, such as the famous bridges of his close contemporaries Robert Stephenson and I.K. Brunel, but a series of lines built economically but soundly through rugged country without such works; for example, the line over Shap, Cumbria.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsOfficier de la Légion d'honneur, France. FRS. President, Institution of Civil Engineers 1858–9.Further ReadingObituary, 1861, Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers 20. L.T.C.Rolt, 1962, Great Engineers, London: G. Bell \& Sons, ch. 6.Industrial Heritage, 1991, Vol. 9(2):9.See also: Brassey, ThomasPJGR -
127 Maiman, Theodore Harold
[br]b. 11 July 1927 Los Angeles, California, USA[br]American physicist who developed the laser.[br]The son of an electrical engineer, Theodore H. Maiman graduated with the degree of BS in engineering physics from the University of Colorado in 1949. He then went on to do postgraduate work at Stanford University, where he gained an MS in electrical engineering in 1951 and a PhD in physics in 1955 for work on spectroscopy using microwave-optical techniques. He then joined the Hughes Research Laboratories, where he worked on the stimulated emission of microwave energy. In this field Charles H. Townes had developed the maser (an acronym of microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) and in a paper in 1958 with Arthur L. Schawlow he had suggested the possibility of a further development into optical frequencies, or, of an optical maser, later known as a laser (an acronym of light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation). Maiman was the first to achieve this when in May 1960 he operated a ruby laser and coherent light was produced for the first time. In 1962 he founded his own company, Korad Corporation, for research, development and manufacture of high-power lasers. He founded Maiman Associates in 1968, acting as consultant on lasers and optics. He was a co-founder of the Laser Video Corporation in 1972, and in 1976 he became Vice-President for advanced technology at TRW Electronics.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsFranklin Institute Stuart Ballantine Medal 1962. American Electrical Society/American Astronautical Society Award 1965. American Physical Society Oliver E.Buckley Solid State Physics Prize 1966. Fannie and John Hertz Foundation Award for Applied Physical Science 1966. American Optical Society R.W.Wood Prize 1976.Bibliography1980, entry in McGraw-Hill Modern Scientists and Engineers, Part 2, New York, pp. 271–2 (autobiographical).RTSBiographical history of technology > Maiman, Theodore Harold
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128 Worsdell, Nathaniel
[br]b. 10 October 1809 London, Englandd. 24 July 1886 Birkenhead, England[br]English coachbuilder and inventor.[br]Worsdell \& Son, Coachbuilders, was set up in Liverpool by Thomas Clarke Worsdell and his son Nathaniel in 1827. They were introduced to George Stephenson and built the tender for Rocket. More importantly, they designed and built for the Liverpool \& Manchester Railway coaches of a type comprising three coach bodies, of contemporary road-coach pattern, mounted together on a rail-wagon underframe. This became the prototype for the conventional, compartment railway coach. Nathaniel Worsdell subsequently became Carriage Superintendent of the Grand Junction Railway and patented the first mail-bag-exchange apparatus early in 1838. The terms he required for its use by the Post Office were too steep, however, and the first bagexchange apparatus of the type subsequently used extensively on British railways was designed later the same year by John Ramsey, a senior Post Office clerk.[br]Further ReadingJ.Marshall, 1978, A Biographical Dictionary of Railway Engineers, Newton Abbot: David \& Charles (the article on Worsdell is derived from family records).C.Hamilton Ellis, 1958, Twenty Locomotive Men, Shepperton: Ian Allan.P.J.G.Ransom, 1990, The Victorian Railway and How It Evolved, London: Heinemann.PJGR
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