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1 Dictionary engine
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2 Savery, Thomas
SUBJECT AREA: Mechanical, pneumatic and hydraulic engineering[br]b. c. 1650 probably Shilston, near Modbury, Devonshire, Englandd. c. 15 May 1715 London, England[br]English inventor of a partially successful steam-driven pump for raising water.[br]Little is known of the early years of Savery's life and no trace has been found that he served in the Army, so the title "Captain" is thought to refer to some mining appointment, probably in the West of England. He may have been involved in the Glorious Revolution of 1688, for later he was well known to William of Orange. From 1705 to 1714 he was Treasurer for Sick and Wounded Seamen, and in 1714 he was appointed Surveyor of the Water Works at Hampton Court, a post he held until his death the following year. He was interested in mechanical devices; amongst his early contrivances was a clock.He was the most prolific inventor of his day, applying for seven patents, including one in 1649, for polishing plate glass which may have been used. His idea for 1697 for propelling ships with paddle-wheels driven by a capstan was a failure, although regarded highly by the King, and was published in his first book, Navigation Improved (1698). He tried to patent a new type of floating mill in 1707, and an idea in 1710 for baking sea coal or other fuel in an oven to make it clean and pure.His most famous invention, however, was the one patented in 1698 "for raising water by the impellent force of fire" that Savery said would drain mines or low-lying land, raise water to supply towns or houses, and provide a source of water for turning mills through a water-wheel. Basically it consisted of a receiver which was first filled with steam and then cooled to create a vacuum by having water poured over the outside. The water to be pumped was drawn into the receiver from a lower sump, and then high-pressure steam was readmitted to force the water up a pipe to a higher level. It was demonstrated to the King and the Royal Society and achieved some success, for a few were installed in the London area and a manufactory set up at Salisbury Court in London. He published a book, The Miner's Friend, about his engine in 1702, but although he made considerable improvements, due to excessive fuel consumption and materials which could not withstand the steam pressures involved, no engines were installed in mines as Savery had hoped. His patent was extended in 1699 until 1733 so that it covered the atmospheric engine of Thomas Newcomen who was forced to join Savery and his other partners to construct this much more practical engine.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsFRS 1706.Bibliography1698, Navigation Improved.1702, The Miner's Friend.Further ReadingThe entry in the Dictionary of National Biography (1897, Vol. L, London: Smith Elder \& Co.) has been partially superseded by more recent research. The Transactions of the Newcomen Society contain various papers; for example, Rhys Jenkins, 1922–3, "Savery, Newcomen and the early history of the steam engine", Vol. 3; A.Stowers, 1961–2, "Thomas Newcomen's first steam engine 250 years ago and the initial development of steam power", Vol. 34; A.Smith, 1977–8, "Steam and the city: the committee of proprietors of the invention for raising water by fire", 1715–1735, Vol. 49; and J.S.P.Buckland, 1977–8, "Thomas Savery, his steam engine workshop of 1702", Vol. 49. Brief accounts may be found in H.W. Dickinson, 1938, A Short History of the Steam Engine, Cambridge University Press, and R.L. Hills, 1989, Power from Steam. A History of the Stationary Steam Engine, Cambridge University Press. There is another biography in T.I. Williams (ed.), 1969, A Biographical Dictionary of Scientists, London: A. \& C.Black.RLH -
3 Carnot, Nicolas Léonard Sadi
SUBJECT AREA: Steam and internal combustion engines[br]b. 1 June 1796 Paris, Franced. 24 August 1831 Paris, France[br]French laid the foundations for modern thermodynamics through his book Réflexions sur la puissance motrice du feu when he stated that the efficiency of an engine depended on the working substance and the temperature drop between the incoming and outgoing steam.[br]Sadi was the eldest son of Lazare Carnot, who was prominent as one of Napoleon's military and civil advisers. Sadi was born in the Palais du Petit Luxembourg and grew up during the Napoleonic wars. He was tutored by his father until in 1812, at the minimum age of 16, he entered the Ecole Polytechnique to study stress analysis, mechanics, descriptive geometry and chemistry. He organized the students to fight against the allies at Vincennes in 1814. He left the Polytechnique that October and went to the Ecole du Génie at Metz as a student second lieutenant. While there, he wrote several scientific papers, but on the Restoration in 1815 he was regarded with suspicion because of the support his father had given Napoleon. In 1816, on completion of his studies, Sadi became a second lieutenant in the Metz engineering regiment and spent his time in garrison duty, drawing up plans of fortifications. He seized the chance to escape from this dull routine in 1819 through an appointment to the army general staff corps in Paris, where he took leave of absence on half pay and began further courses of study at the Sorbonne, Collège de France, Ecole des Mines and the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers. He was inter-ested in industrial development, political economy, tax reform and the fine arts.It was not until 1821 that he began to concentrate on the steam-engine, and he soon proposed his early form of the Carnot cycle. He sought to find a general solution to cover all types of steam-engine, and reduced their operation to three basic stages: an isothermal expansion as the steam entered the cylinder; an adiabatic expansion; and an isothermal compression in the condenser. In 1824 he published his Réflexions sur la puissance motrice du feu, which was well received at the time but quickly forgotten. In it he accepted the caloric theory of heat but pointed out the impossibility of perpetual motion. His main contribution to a correct understanding of a heat engine, however, lay in his suggestion that power can be produced only where there exists a temperature difference due "not to an actual consumption of caloric but to its transportation from a warm body to a cold body". He used the analogy of a water-wheel with the water falling around its circumference. He proposed the true Carnot cycle with the addition of a final adiabatic compression in which motive power was con sumed to heat the gas to its original incoming temperature and so closed the cycle. He realized the importance of beginning with the temperature of the fire and not the steam in the boiler. These ideas were not taken up in the study of thermodynartiics until after Sadi's death when B.P.E.Clapeyron discovered his book in 1834.In 1824 Sadi was recalled to military service as a staff captain, but he resigned in 1828 to devote his time to physics and economics. He continued his work on steam-engines and began to develop a kinetic theory of heat. In 1831 he was investigating the physical properties of gases and vapours, especially the relationship between temperature and pressure. In June 1832 he contracted scarlet fever, which was followed by "brain fever". He made a partial recovery, but that August he fell victim to a cholera epidemic to which he quickly succumbed.[br]Bibliography1824, Réflexions sur la puissance motrice du feu; pub. 1960, trans. R.H.Thurston, New York: Dover Publications; pub. 1978, trans. Robert Fox, Paris (full biographical accounts are provided in the introductions of the translated editions).Further ReadingDictionary of Scientific Biography, 1971, Vol. III, New York: C.Scribner's Sons. T.I.Williams (ed.), 1969, A Biographical Dictionary of Scientists, London: A. \& C.Black.Chambers Concise Dictionary of Scientists, 1989, Cambridge.D.S.L.Cardwell, 1971, from Watt to Clausius. The Rise of Thermodynamics in the Early Industrial Age, London: Heinemann (discusses Carnot's theories of heat).RLHBiographical history of technology > Carnot, Nicolas Léonard Sadi
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4 Reynolds, Edwin
[br]b. 1831 Mansfield, Connecticut, USAd. 1909 Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA[br]American contributor to the development of the Corliss valve steam engine, including the "Manhattan" layout.[br]Edwin Reynolds grew up at a time when formal engineering education in America was almost unavailable, but through his genius and his experience working under such masters as G.H. Corliss and William Wright, he developed into one of the best mechanical engineers in the country. When he was Plant Superintendent for the Corliss Steam Engine Company, he built the giant Corliss valve steam engine displayed at the 1876 Centennial Exhibition. In July 1877 he left the Corliss Steam Engine Company to join Edward Allis at his Reliance Works, although he was offered a lower salary. In 1861 Allis had moved his business to the Menomonee Valley, where he had the largest foundry in the area. Immediately on his arrival with Allis, Reynolds began desig-ning and building the "Reliance-Corliss" engine, which becamea symbol of simplicity, economy and reliability. By early 1878 the new engine was so successful that the firm had a six-month backlog of orders. In 1888 he built the first triple-expansion waterworks-pumping engine in the United States for the city of Milwaukee, and in the same year he patented a new design of blowing engine for blast furnaces. He followed this in March 1892 with the first steam engine sets coupled directly to electric generators when Allis-Chalmers contracted to build two Corliss cross-compound engines for the Narragansett Light Company of Providence, Rhode Island. In 1893, one of the impressive attractions at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago was the 3,000 hp (2,200 kW) quadruple-expansion Reynolds-Corliss engine designed by Reynolds, who continued to make significant improvements and gained worldwide recognition of his outstanding achievements in engine building.Reynolds was asked to go to New York in 1898 for consultation about some high-horsepower engines for the Manhattan transport system. There, 225 railway locomotives were to be replaced by electric trains, which would be supplied from one generating station producing 60,000 hp (45,000 kW). Reynolds sketched out his ideas for 10,000 hp (7,500 kW) engines while on the train. Because space was limited, he suggested a four-cylinder design with two horizontal-high-pressure cylinders and two vertical, low-pressure ones. One cylinder of each type was placed on each side of the flywheel generator, which with cranks at 135° gave an exceptionally smooth-running compact engine known as the "Manhattan". A further nine similar engines that were superheated and generated three-phase current were supplied in 1902 to the New York Interborough Rapid Transit Company. These were the largest reciprocating steam engines built for use on land, and a few smaller ones with a similar layout were installed in British textile mills.[br]Further ReadingConcise Dictionary of American Biography, 1964, New York: C.Scribner's Sons (contains a brief biography).R.L.Hills, 1989, Power from Steam. A History of the Stationary Steam Engine, Cambridge University Press (provides a brief account of the Manhattan engines) Part of the information for this biography is derived from a typescript in the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC: T.H.Fehring, "Technological contributions of Milwaukee's Menomonee Valley industries".RLH -
5 Corliss, George Henry
SUBJECT AREA: Steam and internal combustion engines[br]b. 2 June 1817 Easton, Washington City, New York, USAd. 21 February 1888 USA[br]American inventor of a cut-off mechanism linked to the governor which revolutionized the operation of steam engines.[br]Corliss's father was a physician and surgeon. The son was educated at Greenwich, New York, but while he showed an aptitude for mathematics and mechanics he first of all became a storekeeper and then clerk, bookkeeper, salesperson and official measurer and inspector of the cloth produced at W.Mowbray \& Son. He went to the Castleton Academy, Vermont, for three years and at the age of 21 returned to a store of his own in Greenwich. Complaints about stitching in the boots he sold led him to patent a sewing machine. He approached Fairbanks, Bancroft \& Co., Providence, Rhode Island, machine and steam engine builders, about producing his machine, but they agreed to take him on as a draughtsman providing he abandoned it. Corliss moved to Providence with his family and soon revolutionized the design and construction of steam engines. Although he started working out ideas for his engine in 1846 and completed one in 1848 for the Providence Dyeing, Bleaching and Calendering Company, it was not until March 1849 that he obtained a patent. By that time he had joined John Barstow and E.J.Nightingale to form a new company, Corliss Nightingale \& Co., to build his design of steam-engines. He used paired valves, two inlet and two exhaust, placed on opposite sides of the cylinder, which gave good thermal properties in the flow of steam. His wrist-plate operating mechanism gave quick opening and his trip mechanism allowed the governor to regulate the closure of the inlet valve, giving maximum expansion for any load. It has been claimed that Corliss should rank equally with James Watt in the development of the steam-engine. The new company bought land in Providence for a factory which was completed in 1856 when the Corliss Engine Company was incorporated. Corliss directed the business activities as well as technical improvements. He took out further patents modifying his valve gear in 1851, 1852, 1859, 1867, 1875, 1880. The business grew until well over 1,000 workers were employed. The cylindrical oscillating valve normally associated with the Corliss engine did not make its appearance until 1850 and was included in the 1859 patent. The impressive beam engine designed for the 1876 Centennial Exhibition by E. Reynolds was the product of Corliss's works. Corliss also patented gear-cutting machines, boilers, condensing apparatus and a pumping engine for waterworks. While having little interest in politics, he represented North Providence in the General Assembly of Rhode Island between 1868 and 1870.[br]Further ReadingMany obituaries appeared in engineering journals at the time of his death. Dictionary of American Biography, 1930, Vol. IV, New York: C.Scribner's Sons. R.L.Hills, 1989, Power from Steam. A History of the Stationary Steam Engine, Cambridge University Press (explains Corliss's development of his valve gear).J.L.Wood, 1980–1, "The introduction of the Corliss engine to Britain", Transactions of the Newcomen Society 52 (provides an account of the introduction of his valve gear to Britain).W.H.Uhland, 1879, Corliss Engines and Allied Steam-motors, London: E. \& F.N.Spon.RLH -
6 Allen, John F.
SUBJECT AREA: Steam and internal combustion engines[br]b. 1829 Englandd. 2 October 1900 New York (?), USA[br]English inventor of the Allen valve used on his pioneering high-speed engines.[br]Allen was taken to the United States from England when he was 12 years old. He became an engineer on the Curlew, a freight boat running between New York and Providence. A defect which caused the engine to race in rough weather led Allen to invent a new valve gear, but he found it could not be fitted to the Corliss engine. In 1856 he patented an improved form of valve and operating gear to reduce back-pressure in the cylinder, which was in fact the reverse of what happened in his later engines. In 1860 he repaired the engines of a New York felt-hat manufacturer, Henry Burr, and that winter he was introduced to Charles Porter. Porter realized the potential of Allen's valves for his idea of a high-speed engine, and the Porter-Allen engine became the pioneer of high-speed designs.Porter persuaded Allen to patent his new valves and two patents were obtained in 1862. These valves could be driven positively and yet the travel of the inlet could be varied to give the maximum expansion at different cut-offs. Also, the valves allowed an exceptionally good flow of steam. While Porter went to England and tried to interest manufacturers there, Allen remained in America and continued work on the engine. Within a few years he invented an inclined watertube boiler, but he seemed incapable of furthering his inventions once they had been placed on the market. Although he mortgaged his own house in order to help finance the factory for building the steam engine, in the early 1870s he left Porter and built a workshop of his own at Mott Haven. There he invented important systems for riveting by pneumatic machines through both percussion and pressure which led into the production of air compressors and riveting machines.[br]Further ReadingObituaries appeared in engineering journals at the time of his death.Dictionary of American Biography, 1928, Vol. I, New York: C.Scribner's Sons. C.T.Porter, 1908, Engineering Reminiscences, New York: J.Wiley \& Sons, reprint 1985, Bradley, Ill.: Lindsay Publications (provides details of Allen's valve design).R.L.Hills, 1989, Power from Steam. A History of the Stationary Steam Engine, Cambridge University Press (covers the development of the Porter-Allen engine).RLH -
7 машинный
1. mashine2. machineryмашинный слух; машинное восприятие звуков — machine hearing
3. computer basedмашинный код; система команд — computer code
4. computer generated5. computer-based6. computer-generated7. comtuter-generated8. engine9. machine; engineмашинный контроль; автоматический контроль — machine check
автоматизированный, машинный перевод — machine translation
10. mechanical -
8 Elder, John
[br]b. 9 March 1824 Glasgow, Scotlandd. 17 September 1869 London, England[br]Scottish engineer who introduced the compound steam engine to ships and established an important shipbuilding company in Glasgow.[br]John was the third son of David Elder. The father came from a family of millwrights and moved to Glasgow where he worked for the well-known shipbuilding firm of Napier's and was involved with improving marine engines. John was educated at Glasgow High School and then for a while at the Department of Civil Engineering at Glasgow University, where he showed great aptitude for mathematics and drawing. He spent five years as an apprentice under Robert Napier followed by two short periods of activity as a pattern-maker first and then a draughtsman in England. He returned to Scotland in 1849 to become Chief Draughtsman to Napier, but in 1852 he left to become a partner with the Glasgow general engineering company of Randolph Elliott \& Co. Shortly after his induction (at the age of 28), the engineering firm was renamed Randolph Elder \& Co.; in 1868, when the partnership expired, it became known as John Elder \& Co. From the outset Elder, with his partner, Charles Randolph, approached mechanical (especially heat) engineering in a rigorous manner. Their knowledge and understanding of entropy ensured that engine design was not a hit-and-miss affair, but one governed by recognition of the importance of the new kinetic theory of heat and with it a proper understanding of thermodynamic principles, and by systematic development. In this Elder was joined by W.J.M. Rankine, Professor of Civil Engineering and Mechanics at Glasgow University, who helped him develop the compound marine engine. Elder and Randolph built up a series of patents, which guaranteed their company's commercial success and enabled them for a while to be the sole suppliers of compound steam reciprocating machinery. Their first such engine at sea was fitted in 1854 on the SS Brandon for the Limerick Steamship Company; the ship showed an improved performance by using a third less coal, which he was able to reduce still further on later designs.Elder developed steam jacketing and recognized that, with higher pressures, triple-expansion types would be even more economical. In 1862 he patented a design of quadruple-expansion engine with reheat between cylinders and advocated the importance of balancing reciprocating parts. The effect of his improvements was to greatly reduce fuel consumption so that long sea voyages became an economic reality.His yard soon reached dimensions then unequalled on the Clyde where he employed over 4,000 workers; Elder also was always interested in the social welfare of his labour force. In 1860 the engine shops were moved to the Govan Old Shipyard, and again in 1864 to the Fairfield Shipyard, about 1 mile (1.6 km) west on the south bank of the Clyde. At Fairfield, shipbuilding was commenced, and with the patents for compounding secure, much business was placed for many years by shipowners serving long-distance trades such as South America; the Pacific Steam Navigation Company took up his ideas for their ships. In later years the yard became known as the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company Ltd, but it remains today as one of Britain's most efficient shipyards and is known now as Kvaerner Govan Ltd.In 1869, at the age of only 45, John Elder was unanimously elected President of the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland; however, before taking office and giving his eagerly awaited presidential address, he died in London from liver disease. A large multitude attended his funeral and all the engineering shops were silent as his body, which had been brought back from London to Glasgow, was carried to its resting place. In 1857 Elder had married Isabella Ure, and on his death he left her a considerable fortune, which she used generously for Govan, for Glasgow and especially the University. In 1883 she endowed the world's first Chair of Naval Architecture at the University of Glasgow, an act which was reciprocated in 1901 when the University awarded her an LLD on the occasion of its 450th anniversary.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsPresident, Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland 1869.Further ReadingObituary, 1869, Engineer 28.1889, The Dictionary of National Biography, London: Smith Elder \& Co. W.J.Macquorn Rankine, 1871, "Sketch of the life of John Elder" Transactions of theInstitution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland.Maclehose, 1886, Memoirs and Portraits of a Hundred Glasgow Men.The Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Works, 1909, London: Offices of Engineering.P.M.Walker, 1984, Song of the Clyde, A History of Clyde Shipbuilding, Cambridge: PSL.R.L.Hills, 1989, Power from Steam. A History of the Stationary Steam Engine, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (covers Elder's contribution to the development of steam engines).RLH / FMW -
9 Marcus, Siegfried
[br]b. 18 September 1831 Malchin, Mecklenburgd. 30 June 1898 Vienna, Austria[br]German inventor, builder of the world's first self-propelled vehicle driven by an internal combustion engine.[br]Marcus was apprenticed as a mechanic and was employed in the newly founded enterprise of Siemens \& Halske in Berlin. He then went to Vienna and, from 1853, was employed in the workshop of the Imperial Court Mechanic, Kraft, and in the same year he was a mechanic in the Royal and Imperial Institute of Physics of the University of Vienna. In 1860 he became independent of the Imperial Court, but he installed an electrical bell system for the Empress Elizabeth and instructed the Crown Prince Rudolf in natural science.Marcus was granted thirty-eight patents in Austria, as well as many foreign patents. The magnetic electric ignition engine, for which he was granted a patent in 1864, brought him the biggest financial reward; it was introduced as the "Viennese Ignition" engine by the Austrian Navy and the pioneers of the Prussian and Russian armies. The engine was exhibited at the World Fair in Paris in 1867 together with the "Thermoscale" which was also constructed by Marcus; this was a magnetic/electric rotative engine for electric lighting and field telegraphy.Marcus's reputation is due mainly to his attempts to build a new internal combustion engine. By 1870 he had assembled a simple, direct-working internal combustion engine on a primitive chassis. This was, in fact, the first petrol-engined vehicle with electric ignition, and tradition records that when Marcus drove the vehicle in the streets of Vienna it made so much noise that the police asked him to remove it; this he did and did not persist with his experiments. Thus ended the trials of the world's first petrol-engined vehicle; it was running in 1875, ten years before Daimler and Benz were carrying out their early trials in Stuttgart.[br]Further ReadingAustrian Dictionary of National Biography.IMcN -
10 Somerset, Edward, 2nd Marquis of Worcester
SUBJECT AREA: Mechanical, pneumatic and hydraulic engineering[br]b. 1601d. 3 April 1667 Lambeth (?), London, England[br]English inventor of a steam-operated pump for raising water, described in his work A Century of…Inventions.[br]Edward Somerset became 6th Earl and 2nd Marquis of Worcester and Titular Earl of Glamorgan. He was educated privately and then abroad, visiting Germany, Italy and France. He was made Councillor of Wales in 1633 and Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Monmouthshire in 1635. On the outbreak of the Civil War, he was commissioned to levy forces against the Scots in 1640. He garrisoned Raglan Castle for the King and was employed by Charles I to bring troops in from Ireland. He was declared an enemy of the realm by Parliament and was banished, remaining in France for some years. On the Restoration, he recovered most of his estates, principally in South Wales, and was able to devote most of his time to mechanical studies and experiments.Soon after 1626, he had employed the services of a skilled Dutch or German mechanic, Caspar Kaltoff, to make small-scale models for display to interested people. In 1638 he showed Charles I a 14 ft (4.3m) diameter wheel carrying forty weights that was claimed to have solved the problem of perpetual motion. He wrote his Century of the Names and Scantlings of Such Inventions as at Present I Can Call to Mind to have Tried and Perfected in 1655, but it was not published until 1663: no. 68 describes "An admirable and most forcible way to drive up water by fire", which has been claimed as an early steam-engine. Before the Civil War he made experiments at Raglan Castle, and after the war he built one of his engines at Vauxhall, London, where it raised water to a height of 40 ft (12 m). An Act of Parliament enabling Worcester to receive the benefit and profits of his water-commanding engine for ninety-nine years did not restore his fortunes. Descriptions of this invention are so vague that it cannot be reconstructed.[br]Bibliography1655, Century of the Names and Scantlings of Such Inventions as at Present I Can Call to Mind to have Tried and Perfected.Further ReadingH.Dircks, 1865, The Life, Times and Scientific Labours of the Second Marquis of Worcester.Dictionary of National Biography, 1898, Vol. L, London: Smith Elder \& Co. (mainly covers his political career).H.W.Dickinson, 1938, A Short History of the Steam Engine, Cambridge University Press (discusses his steam engine invention).W.H.Thorpe, 1932–3, "The Marquis of Worcester and Vauxhall", Transactions of the Newcomen Society 13.RLHBiographical history of technology > Somerset, Edward, 2nd Marquis of Worcester
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11 Howden, James
SUBJECT AREA: Steam and internal combustion engines[br]b. 29 February 1832 Prestonpans, East Lothian, Scotlandd. 21 November 1913 Glasgow, Scotland[br]Scottish engineer and boilermaker, inventor of the forced-draught system for the boiler combustion chamber.[br]Howden was educated in Prestonpans. While aged only 14 or 15, he travelled across Scotland by canal to Glasgow, where he served an engineering apprenticeship with James Gray \& Co. In 1853 he completed his time and for some months served with the civil engineers Bell and Miller, and then with Robert Griffiths, a designer of screw propellers for ships. In 1854, at the age of 22, Howden set up as a consulting engineer and designer. He designed a rivet-making machine from which he realized a fair sum by the sale of patent rights, this assisting him in converting the design business into a manufacturing one. His first contract for a marine engine came in 1859 for the compound steam engine and the watertube boilers of the Anchor Liner Ailsa Craig. This ship operated at 100 psi (approximately 7 kg/cm2), well above the norm for those days. James Howden \& Co. was formed in 1862. Despite operating in the world's most competitive market, the new company remained prosperous through the flow of inventions in marine propulsion. Shipbuilding was added to the company's list of services, but such work was subcontracted. Work was obtained from all the great shipping companies building in the Glasgow region, and with such throughput Howden's could afford research and experimentation. This led to the Howden hot-air forced-draught system, whereby furnace waste gases were used to heat the air being drawn into the combustion chambers. The first installation was on the New York City, built in 1885 for West Indian service. Howden's fertile mind brought about a fully enclosed high-speed marine steam engine in the 1900s and, shortly after, the Howden-Zoelly impulse steam turbine for land operation. Until his death, Howden worked on many technical and business problems: he was involved in the St Helena Whaling Company, marble quarrying in Greece and in the design of a recoilless gun for the Admiralty.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsHowden was the last surviving member of the group who founded the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland in 1857.BibliographyHowden contributed several papers to the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland.Further ReadingC.W.Munn, 1986, "James Howden", Dictionary of Scottish Business Biography, Vol. I, Aberdeen.FMW -
12 Laval, Carl Gustaf Patrik de
SUBJECT AREA: Agricultural and food technology, Electricity, Mechanical, pneumatic and hydraulic engineering, Steam and internal combustion engines[br]b. 9 May 1845 Orsa, Swedend. 2 February 1913 Stockholm, Sweden[br]Swedish inventor of an advanced cream separator and a steam turbine.[br]Gustaf de Laval was educated at the Stockholm Technical Institute and Uppsala University. He proved to have an unfailing vigour and variety in his inventive talent, for his interests ranged from electric lighting and electrometallurgy to aerodynamics. In the 1890s he employed over one hundred engineers to develop his inventions, but he was best known for two: the cream separator and a steam turbine. In 1877 he invented the high-speed centrifugal cream separator, which was probably the greatest advance in butter-making up to that time. By 1880 the separators were being successfully marketed all over the world, for they were quickly adopted in larger dairies where they effected enormous savings in labour and space. He followed this with various devices for the dairy industry, including a vacuum milking machine perfected in 1913. In c. 1882, de Laval invented a turbine on the principle of Hero's engine, but he quickly turned his attention to the impulse type, which was like Branca's, with a jet of steam impinging on a set of blades around the periphery of a wheel. He applied for a British patent in 1889. The steam was expanded in a single stage from the initial to the final pressure: to secure economy with the steam issuing at high velocity, the blades also had to rotate at high velocity. An early 5 hp (3.7 kW) turbine rotated at 30,000 rpm, so reduction gearing had to be introduced. Production started in Sweden in 1893 and in other countries at about the same time. In 1892 de Laval proposed employing one of his turbines of 15 hp (11 kW) in an experimental launch, but there is no evidence that it was ever actually installed in a vessel. However, his turbines were popular for powering electric generating sets for lighting textile mills and ships, and by 1900 were available in sizes up to 300 bhp (224 kW).[br]Bibliography1889, British patent no. 7,143 (steam turbine).Further ReadingT.Althin, 1943, Life of de Laval, Stockholm (a full biography).T.I.Williams (ed.), 1969, A Biographical Dictionary of Scientists, London: A. \& C. Black (contains a brief biography).R.M.Neilson, 1902, The Steam Turbine, London: Longmans, Green \& Co. (fully covers the development of de Laval's steam turbine).H.W.Dickinson, 1938, A Short History of the Steam Engine, Cambridge University Press (contains a short account of the development of the steam turbine).R.L.Hills, 1989, Power from Steam. A History of the Stationary Steam Engine, Cambridge University Press (contains a short account).RLHBiographical history of technology > Laval, Carl Gustaf Patrik de
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13 Menzies, Michael
[br]b. end of the seventeenth century Lanarkshire, Scotland (?)d. 13 December 1766 Edinburgh, Scotland[br]Scottish inventor and lawyer.[br]Menzies was admitted as a member of the Faculty of Advocates on 31 January 1719. It is evident from his applications for patents that he was more concerned with inventions than the law, however. He took out his first patent in 1734 for a threshing machine in which a number of flails were attached to a horizontal axis, which was moved rapidly forwards and backwards through half a revolution, essentially imitating the action of an ordinary flail. The grain to be threshed was placed on either side.Though not a practical success, Menzies's invention seems to have been the first for the mechanical threshing of grain. His idea of imitating non-mechanized action also influenced his invention of a coal cutter, for which he took out a patent in 1761 and which copied miners' tools for obtaining coal. He proposed to carry heavy chains down the pit so that they could be used to give motion to iron picks, saws or other chains with cutting implements. The chains could be set into motion by a steam-engine, by water-or windmills, or by horses gins. Although it is quite obvious that this apparatus could not work, Menzies was the first to have thought of mechanizing coal production in the style that was in use in the late twentieth century. Subsequent to Menzies's proposal, many inventors at varying intervals followed this direction until the problem was finally solved one century later by, among others, W.E. Garforth.Menzies had successfully used the power of a steam-engine on the Wear eight years beforehand, when he obtained a patent for raising coal. According to his device a descending bucket filled with water raised a basket of coals, while a steam-engine pumped the water back to the surface; the balance-tub system, in various forms, quickly spread to other coalfields. Menzies's patent from 1750 for improved methods of carrying the coals from the coalface to the pit-shaft had also been of considerable influence: this device employed self-acting inclined planes, whereon the descending loaded wagons hauled up the empty ones.[br]Further ReadingThe article entitled "Michael Menzies" in the Dictionary of National Biography neglects Menzies's inventions for mining. A comprehensive evaluation of his influence on coal cutting is given in the introductory chapter of S.F.Walker, 1902, Coal-Cutting byMachinery, London.WK -
14 Porta, Giovanni Battista (Giambattista) della
SUBJECT AREA: Steam and internal combustion engines[br]b. between 3 October and 15 November 1535 Vico Equense, near Naples, Italyd. 4 February 1615 Naples, Italy[br]Italian natural philosopher who published many scientific books, one of which covered ideas for the use of steam.[br]Giambattista della Porta spent most of his life in Naples, where some time before 1580 he established the Accademia dei Segreti, which met at his house. In 1611 he was enrolled among the Oziosi in Naples, then the most renowned literary academy. He was examined by the Inquisition, which, although he had become a lay brother of the Jesuits by 1585, banned all further publication of his books between 1592 and 1598.His first book, the Magiae Naturalis, which covered the secrets of nature, was published in 1558. He had been collecting material for it since the age of 15 and he saw that science should not merely represent theory and contemplation but must arrive at practical and experimental expression. In this work he described the hardening of files and pieces of armour on quite a large scale, and it included the best sixteenth-century description of heat treatment for hardening steel. In the 1589 edition of this work he covered ways of improving vision at a distance with concave and convex lenses; although he may have constructed a compound microscope, the history of this instrument effectively begins with Galileo. His theoretical and practical work on lenses paved the way for the telescope and he also explored the properties of parabolic mirrors.In 1563 he published a treatise on cryptography, De Furtivis Liter arum Notis, which he followed in 1566 with another on memory and mnemonic devices, Arte del Ricordare. In 1584 and 1585 he published treatises on horticulture and agriculture based on careful study and practice; in 1586 he published De Humana Physiognomonia, on human physiognomy, and in 1588 a treatise on the physiognomy of plants. In 1593 he published his De Refractione but, probably because of the ban by the Inquisition, no more were produced until the Spiritali in 1601 and his translation of Ptolemy's Almagest in 1605. In 1608 two new works appeared: a short treatise on military fortifications; and the De Distillatione. There was an important work on meteorology in 1610. In 1601 he described a device similar to Hero's mechanisms which opened temple doors, only Porta used steam pressure instead of air to force the water out of its box or container, up a pipe to where it emptied out into a higher container. Under the lower box there was a small steam boiler heated by a fire. He may also have been the first person to realize that condensed steam would form a vacuum, for there is a description of another piece of apparatus where water is drawn up into a container at the top of a long pipe. The container was first filled with steam so that, when cooled, a vacuum would be formed and water drawn up into it. These are the principles on which Thomas Savery's later steam-engine worked.[br]Further ReadingDictionary of Scientific Biography, 1975, Vol. XI, New York: C.Scribner's Sons (contains a full biography).H.W.Dickinson, 1938, A Short History of the Steam Engine, Cambridge University Press (contains an account of his contributions to the early development of the steam-engine).C.Singer (ed.), 1957, A History of Technology, Vol. III, Oxford University Press (contains accounts of some of his other discoveries).I.Asimov (ed.), 1982, Biographical Encyclopaedia of Science and Technology, 2nd edn., New York: Doubleday.G.Sarton, 1957, Six wings: Men of Science in the Renaissance, London: Bodley Head, pp. 85–8.RLH / IMcNBiographical history of technology > Porta, Giovanni Battista (Giambattista) della
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15 Torricelli, Evangelista
SUBJECT AREA: Photography, film and optics[br]b. 15 October 1608 Faenza, Italyd. 25 October 1647 Florence, Italy[br]Italian physicist, inventor of the mercury barometer and discoverer of atmospheric pressure.[br]Torricelli was the eldest child of a textile artisan. Between 1625 and 1626 he attended the Jesuit school at Faenza, where he showed such outstanding aptitude in mathematics and philosophy that his uncle was persuaded to send him to Rome to a school run by Benedetto Castelli, a mathematician and engineer and a former pupil of Galileo Galilei. Between 1630 and 1641, Torricelli was possibly Secretary to Giovanni Ciampoli, Galileo's friend and protector. In 1641 Torricelli wrote a treatise, De motugravium, amplifying Galileo's doctrine on the motion of projectiles, and Galileo accepted him as a pupil. On Galileo's death in 1642, he was appointed as mathematician and philosopher to the court of Grand Duke Ferdinando II of Tuscany. He remained in Florence until his early death in 1647, possibly from typhoid fever. He wrote a great number of mathematical papers on conic sections, the cycloid, the logarithmic curve and other subjects, which made him well known.By 1642 Torricelli was producing good lenses for telescopes; he subsequently improved them, and attained near optical perfection. He also constructed a simple microscope with a small glass sphere as a lens. Galileo had looked at problems of raising water with suction pumps, and also with a siphon in 1630. Torricelli brought up the subject again in 1640 and later produced his most important invention, the barometer. He used mercury to fill a glass tube that was sealed at one end and inverted it. He found that the height of mercury in the tube adjusted itself to a well-defined level of about 76 cm (30 in.), higher than the free surface outside. He realized that this must be due to the pressure of the air on the outside surface and predicted that it would fall with increasing altitude. He thus demonstrated the pressure of the atmosphere and the existence of a vacuum on top of the mercury, publishing his findings in 1644. He later noticed that changes in the height of the mercury were related to changes in the weather.[br]Bibliography1641, De motu gravium.Further ReadingT.I.Williams (ed.), 1969, A Biographical Dictionary of Scientists, London: A. \& C.Black.Chambers Concise Dictionary of Scientists, 1989, Cambridge.A Dictionary of Scientific Biography, 1976, Vol. XIII, New York: C.Scribner's Sons.A.Stowers, 1961–2, "Thomas Newcomen's first steam engine 250 years ago and the initial development of steam power", Transactions of the Newcomen Society 34 (provides an account of his mercury barometer).W.E.Knowles Middleton, 1964, The History of the Barometer, Baltimore.RLHBiographical history of technology > Torricelli, Evangelista
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16 tirar
v.1 to throw.tirar algo a algo/alguien to throw something to something/somebody (para que lo agarre) to throw something at something/somebody (para hacer daño)tírame una manzana throw me an appleElla tira bolas She throws balls.2 to drop (dejar caer) (object).3 to knock over (derribar) (botella, lámpara).4 to throw away.tirar algo a la basura to throw something awayeso es tirar el dinero that's a complete waste of money5 to fire (disparar) (bala, misil).tirar una foto to take a picture6 to play (jugar) (carta).7 to take (sport) (falta, penalti).tirar a gol to shoot, to have a shot at goal8 to print.La imprenta tiró la primera edición The printer printed the first edition.9 to fail (informal) (suspender).10 to shoot.tirar a matar to shoot to kill11 to have a pull (informal) (atraer).me tira la vida del campo I feel drawn toward life in the countrytirar de algo to attract something12 to draw (cigarrillo, chimenea).13 to go, to work (informal) (funcionar).14 to go, to head.tira por esa calle go up o take that street15 to (have one's) go.16 to kick (sport) (con el pie).17 to last.18 to knock down, to break down, to batter down.La policía tiró la puerta The police broke down the door.19 to pull.El tractor tira fuerte The tractor pulls hard.* * *1 (echar) to throw, fling2 (dejar caer) to drop3 (desechar) to throw away4 (derribar) to knock down; (casa, árbol) to pull down5 (derramar) to spill6 (vaso, botella) to knock over7 (estirar) to pull8 (imprimir) to print9 (hacer - foto) to take; (línea, plano) to draw12 DEPORTE to take13 figurado (malgastar) to waste, squander1 (cuerda, puerta) to pull (de, -)2 (carreta, carro) to draw (de, -)3 (atraer) to draw, attract4 (estufa, chimenea) to draw5 (en juegos) to be a player's move, be a player's turn6 familiar (funcionar) to work, run8 (quedar estrecho) to be tight on11 figurado (inclinarse) to be attracted (a/hacia, to), be drawn (a/hacia, to)12 figurado (parecerse) to take after (a, -)14 figurado (mantenerse) to get by, get along15 (disparar) to shoot, fire1 (lanzarse) to throw oneself, hurl oneself3 (tumbarse) to lie down5 argot (fornicar) to lay (a, -)\a todo tirar figurado at the most, at the latesttira y afloja figurado give and taketirar al blanco to shoot at a targettirar a alguien de la lengua figurado to draw somebody outtirar de cartera to dip into one's wallettirar la casa por la ventana figurado to spare no expense, push the boat outtirar la primera piedra figurado to cast the first stonetirar una moneda al aire to toss a cointirarse de cabeza al agua to dive into the water* * *verb1) to throw, hurl, toss2) throw away3) shoot, fire4) pull, draw5) attract6) print•- tirar a
- tirar de la cadena
- tirar para* * *Para las expresiones como tirar de la lengua, tirar de la manta, tirar por la borda, tirar por tierra, ver la otra entrada.1. VERBO TRANSITIVO1) (=lanzar) to throwtirar algo a algn — [para que lo coja] to throw sth to sb; [para hacer daño] to throw sth at sb
2) (=derribar) [+ edificio] to pull down; [+ jarrón, silla, estatua] to knock over; [+ pared, verja] to knock downvan a tirar la casa — they are going to demolish {o} pull down the house
¡abre, o tiro la puerta abajo! — open up, or I'll break the door down!
3) (=dejar caer) to drop4) (=desechar) to throw awayno tires las sobras, que se las voy a dar al perro — don't throw away the leftovers, I'll give them to the dog
no tires el aceite por el sumidero — don't tip {o} pour the oil down the drain
estos pantalones están para tirarlos — these trousers have had it, these trousers are about ready for the dustbin
5) (=malgastar) [+ dinero] to waste; [+ fortuna] to squanderhas tirado el dinero comprando eso — it was a waste of money buying that, you wasted your money buying that
6) (=disparar) [+ tiro] to fire; [+ flecha] to shoot; [+ cohete] to launch, fireel aparato tira el proyectil a 2.000m — the machine throws the projectile 2,000m
7) [+ foto] to take8) (=dar, pegar)la mula le tiró una coz — the mule kicked him {o} gave him a kick
¡mamá, Carlos me ha tirado un mordisco! — Carlos has bitten me, Mum!
9) (Tip) (=imprimir) to print, run off10) (=trazar) [+ línea] to draw, trace11) * (=suspender)ya me han vuelto a tirar en química — I've failed chemistry again, I've flunked chemistry again ( esp EEUU) *
12) And (=usar) to use14)• tirarla [de] — † (=dárselas de) to fancy oneself as, pose as
2. VERBO INTRANSITIVO1) [haciendo fuerza]a) (=traer hacia sí) to pull¡tira un poco más fuerte! — pull a bit harder!
•
tirar [de] — [+ soga, cuerda] to pull¡no le tires de la trenza a tu hermana! — don't pull your sister's pigtail!
tirar de la cadena (del wáter) — to flush the toilet, pull the chain
b) (=llevar tras sí)•
tirar [de] — to pullun burro tiraba de la carreta — a donkey was pulling the cart along, the cart was drawn by a donkey
2) * (=atraer)no le tira el estudio — studying does not appeal to him, studying holds no attraction for him
3) (=estar tirante) [ropa] to be tight4) (=usar)•
tirar [de] — [+ espada, navaja] to drawtiramos de diccionario y lo traducimos en un minuto — * if we use a dictionary it will just take a minute to translate
5) (=disparar) to shoot¡no tires! — don't shoot!
•
tirar al [blanco] — to aim•
tirar a [matar] — to shoot to kill6) (Dep) [con balón] to shoot; [con fichas, cartas etc] to go, play¡tira! — shoot!
•
tirar a [puerta] — Esp to shoot at goal7) * (=arreglárselas) to get byir tirando — to get by, manage
-¿qué tal esa salud? -vamos tirando — "how's your health?" - "we're getting by"
8) (=funcionar) [motor] to pull; [chimenea, puro] to draw, pull9) (=ir) to go¡tira de una vez! — get on with it!, go on, then!
tirar por una calle — to turn down a street, go off along a street
10) * (=durar) to last11) [seguido de preposición]tirar a (=tender)tirar para (=aspirar a ser)es mediocre tirando a malo — it's middling to bad, it's mediocre verging on bad
12)nos queda gasolina para 20km a todo tirar — we have only enough petrol for 20kms at the most {o} at the outside
13) LAm *** [sexualmente] to screw ***3.See:* * *1.verbo transitivo1)a) ( arrojar) to throwno tires los papeles al suelo — don't throw o drop the wrappers on the ground
tirarle algo a alguien — ( para que lo agarre) to throw somebody something; ( con agresividad) to throw something at somebody
b) (desechar, deshacerse de) to throw out o awayc) ( desperdiciar) to waste2)a) ( hacer caer) to knock overcuidado, que vas a tirar la leche! — be careful, you're going to knock the milk over!
tiró el jarrón al suelo de un codazo — he knocked the vase off the table (o shelf etc) with his elbow
b) ( derribar) to knock down3)b) < foto> to take4) (AmL) ( atrayendo hacia sí) to pull5) (Impr) to print, run off6) (Mat) < línea> to draw2.tirar vi1) ( atrayendo hacia sí) to pull2) ( atraer)3)a) ( disparar) to shootb) (Dep) to shoottirar al arco (AmL) or (Esp) a puerta — to shoot at goal
tirando por lo bajo/alto — at the (very) least/most
c) (Jueg) ( descartarse) to throw away; ( en juegos de dados) to throw; ( en dardos) to throw; ( en bolos) to bowl4)a) chimenea/cigarro to drawb) coche/motor to pull5)a) (fam) ( arreglárselas) to get bycon $100 podemos tirar — with $100 we could get by
b) tirando gerundio (fam)¿qué tal andas? - tirando... — how are things? - not too bad
6) (Esp fam) ( desplazarse)vamos, tira — get a move on
tira por esta calle abajo — go o turn down this street
7) (AmL vulg) ( en sentido sexual) to screw (vulg), to fuck (vulg)3.es de estatura normal, tirando a bajito — he's average to short in height
tirarse v pron1)a) (lanzarse, arrojarse) (+ compl) to throw oneselftirarse en paracaídas — to parachute; ( en emergencia) to bale out
tirarse al agua — to dive/jump into the water
tirarse de cabeza — to dive in, to jump in headfirst
b) (AmL) ( tumbarse) to lie downtirárselas de algo — (AmL fam)
2) (fam) <horas/días> to spend3) (vulg) ( en sentido sexual)tirarse a alguien — to screw somebody (vulg), to lay somebody (sl)
4) (fam) ( expulsar)tirarse un pedo — to fart (sl)
tirarse un eructo — to burp (colloq)
5) (Col fam) ( echar a perder) to ruinse tiró el examen — he flunked the exam (colloq)
* * *= dump, haul, run off, throw, throw out, throw away, tear down, toss out, fling, toss, pull down, knock down, jettison, pitch, turf out, toss away, hurl, chuck + Nombre + out.Ex. The books may simply be laid before the librarian as they are found, ' dumped in his lap', as one writer puts it.Ex. However, he would prefer a binding that will stand up to being stuffed into after-hours book drops and being hauled from one library to another.Ex. Not only are they the same work, they were run off from the same plates.Ex. The point to be made for the novice abstractor is that editors are not ghouls who must be thrown raw meat before a check is issued.Ex. The person who never throws away a newspaper is regarded as an eccentric; the person who never throws away a book is more likely to be regarded as a bibliophile no matter what the resulting motley assortment of books may be.Ex. A group opposing the incumbent alderman decided that the board's feasibility study amounted to a covert plan to tear down the house that served as the library and erect an ugly building.Ex. In preparation for computerization, let us not toss out old standards that were good.Ex. A gust of wind flung a powder of snow from the window-sill into the room.Ex. Everything being online, the exquisite oaken cabinets housing the card files were tossed.Ex. Evacuation of the building was followed by a recovery process which included covering stacks with plastic, locating damaged books, pulling down water-soaked ceiling tiles and removing computer terminals.Ex. Your note attempts to knock down an assertion not made.Ex. The whole usually has more meaning than the sum of its parts, but care must be taken not to jettison some of the more subtle parts.Ex. They pitched him unceremoniously out of the window, laming him for life, on a brick pavement below.Ex. You will be disliked and turfed out as a sacrificial goat once your job is done but there will be many others queuing up for your services.Ex. Palestinians hurled Molotov cocktails Friday at Israeli soldiers operating south of Nablus, the army said.Ex. Now to start chucking out stuff that I don't need; being a bit of a magpie, that might be difficult!.----* cuchillo de usar y tirar = disposable knife.* de tirar la piedra y esconder la mano = hit-and-run.* de usar y tirar = disposable, throwaway, single-use.* introducir tirando = haul in.* ir tirando = shuffle along, tick over, muddle along, keep + the wolves from the door.* persona que tira basura al suelo = litterbug, litter lout.* plato de usar y tirar = disposable plate.* sacar tirando = haul out.* seguir tirando el dinero = throw + good money after bad.* servilleta de usar y tirar = disposable napkin.* tenedor de usar y tirar = disposable fork.* tirando a bajo = shortish.* tirando a corto = shortish.* tirando a marrón = brownish.* tirando a morado = purplish.* tirar a Alguien al suelo = knock + Nombre + to the ground, knock + Nombre + to the floor.* tirar a Alguien al suelo de un golpe = knock + Nombre + to the floor, knock + Nombre + to the ground.* tirar a lo bajo = low-ball.* tirar al suelo = upset.* tirar a matar = go for + the jugular, deadly force, shoot to + kill.* tirar bombas = bomb.* tirar de = pull (at/on/from), tug, pull back, lug, leverage.* tirar de la cadena = flush + the toilet.* tirar de la cisterna = flush + the toilet.* tirar de la manta = let + the cat out of the bag, blow + the gaff, spill + the beans.* tirar de las orejas = tell + Nombe + off.* tirar del carro = pull + Posesivo + (own) weight, pull together, lend + a (helping) hand, put + Posesivo + shoulder to the wheel, set + Posesivo + shoulder to the wheel, muck in, pitch in.* tirar de una manivela = pull + lever.* tirar de una palanca = depress + lever.* tirar dinero y esfuerzo por la borda = be money and effort down the drain.* tirar el dinero = throw + Posesivo + money down the drain.* tirar el dinero por la ventana = be money and effort down the drain, throw + Posesivo + money down the drain, be money down the drain.* tirar la casa por la ventana = lash out (on), go to + town on.* tirar la esponja = throw in/up + the sponge.* tirar la toalla = throw in + the towel.* tirar ligeramente de = tug on.* tirar los tejos = flirt, throw + hints.* tirar piedras contra tu propio tejado = cut + the branch + you sit on, cut + the branch + you sit on, cut off + Posesivo + nose to spite + Posesivo + face.* tirar por el desagüe = pour down + the drain.* tirarse a la calle = go out on + the road.* tirarse a la jugular = go for + the jugular.* tirarse a la piscina = take + a dive.* tirarse a las calles = spill (out) into + the streets.* tirarse con ala delta = hang-glide.* tirarse de cabeza = jump in + head first, dive in, dive + head-first.* tirarse de las barbas = tear + Posesivo + hair out.* tirarse de los pelos = tear + Posesivo + hair out.* tirarse en paracaídas = parachute.* tirarse flores = blow + Posesivo + own trumpet.* tirarse piedras contra el propio tejado = shoot + Reflexivo + in the foot.* tirarse una plancha = put + Posesivo + foot in it, put + Posesivo + foot in + Posesivo + mouth, stick + Posesivo + foot in it, drop + a clanger, drop + a bollock, make + a blunder, make + a bloomer, blunder.* tirarse un eructo = belch, burp.* tirarse un farol = bullshit.* tirarse un pedo = fart, trump, break + wind, trumpet.* * *1.verbo transitivo1)a) ( arrojar) to throwno tires los papeles al suelo — don't throw o drop the wrappers on the ground
tirarle algo a alguien — ( para que lo agarre) to throw somebody something; ( con agresividad) to throw something at somebody
b) (desechar, deshacerse de) to throw out o awayc) ( desperdiciar) to waste2)a) ( hacer caer) to knock overcuidado, que vas a tirar la leche! — be careful, you're going to knock the milk over!
tiró el jarrón al suelo de un codazo — he knocked the vase off the table (o shelf etc) with his elbow
b) ( derribar) to knock down3)b) < foto> to take4) (AmL) ( atrayendo hacia sí) to pull5) (Impr) to print, run off6) (Mat) < línea> to draw2.tirar vi1) ( atrayendo hacia sí) to pull2) ( atraer)3)a) ( disparar) to shootb) (Dep) to shoottirar al arco (AmL) or (Esp) a puerta — to shoot at goal
tirando por lo bajo/alto — at the (very) least/most
c) (Jueg) ( descartarse) to throw away; ( en juegos de dados) to throw; ( en dardos) to throw; ( en bolos) to bowl4)a) chimenea/cigarro to drawb) coche/motor to pull5)a) (fam) ( arreglárselas) to get bycon $100 podemos tirar — with $100 we could get by
b) tirando gerundio (fam)¿qué tal andas? - tirando... — how are things? - not too bad
6) (Esp fam) ( desplazarse)vamos, tira — get a move on
tira por esta calle abajo — go o turn down this street
7) (AmL vulg) ( en sentido sexual) to screw (vulg), to fuck (vulg)3.es de estatura normal, tirando a bajito — he's average to short in height
tirarse v pron1)a) (lanzarse, arrojarse) (+ compl) to throw oneselftirarse en paracaídas — to parachute; ( en emergencia) to bale out
tirarse al agua — to dive/jump into the water
tirarse de cabeza — to dive in, to jump in headfirst
b) (AmL) ( tumbarse) to lie downtirárselas de algo — (AmL fam)
2) (fam) <horas/días> to spend3) (vulg) ( en sentido sexual)tirarse a alguien — to screw somebody (vulg), to lay somebody (sl)
4) (fam) ( expulsar)tirarse un pedo — to fart (sl)
tirarse un eructo — to burp (colloq)
5) (Col fam) ( echar a perder) to ruinse tiró el examen — he flunked the exam (colloq)
* * *tirar(de)(v.) = pull (at/on/from), tug, pull back, lug, leverageEx: Do not push or pull on the disc drawer.
Ex: Do not pull a book from the shelf by forcefully tugging the top of the spine.Ex: The three monkeys used in this study chose the left arm as the leading arm to reach out and pull back a spring-loaded drawer containing a food morsel.Ex: He had a tough time lugging his lumpy, oversized travelbag onto the plane and stuffing it in the overhead bin.Ex: Information seeking in electronic environments will become a collaboration among end user and various electronic systems such that users leverage their heuristic power and machines leverage algorithmic power.= dump, haul, run off, throw, throw out, throw away, tear down, toss out, fling, toss, pull down, knock down, jettison, pitch, turf out, toss away, hurl, chuck + Nombre + out.Ex: The books may simply be laid before the librarian as they are found, ' dumped in his lap', as one writer puts it.
Ex: However, he would prefer a binding that will stand up to being stuffed into after-hours book drops and being hauled from one library to another.Ex: Not only are they the same work, they were run off from the same plates.Ex: The point to be made for the novice abstractor is that editors are not ghouls who must be thrown raw meat before a check is issued.Ex: The person who never throws away a newspaper is regarded as an eccentric; the person who never throws away a book is more likely to be regarded as a bibliophile no matter what the resulting motley assortment of books may be.Ex: A group opposing the incumbent alderman decided that the board's feasibility study amounted to a covert plan to tear down the house that served as the library and erect an ugly building.Ex: In preparation for computerization, let us not toss out old standards that were good.Ex: A gust of wind flung a powder of snow from the window-sill into the room.Ex: Everything being online, the exquisite oaken cabinets housing the card files were tossed.Ex: Evacuation of the building was followed by a recovery process which included covering stacks with plastic, locating damaged books, pulling down water-soaked ceiling tiles and removing computer terminals.Ex: Your note attempts to knock down an assertion not made.Ex: The whole usually has more meaning than the sum of its parts, but care must be taken not to jettison some of the more subtle parts.Ex: They pitched him unceremoniously out of the window, laming him for life, on a brick pavement below.Ex: You will be disliked and turfed out as a sacrificial goat once your job is done but there will be many others queuing up for your services.Ex: Palestinians hurled Molotov cocktails Friday at Israeli soldiers operating south of Nablus, the army said.Ex: Now to start chucking out stuff that I don't need; being a bit of a magpie, that might be difficult!.* cuchillo de usar y tirar = disposable knife.* de tirar la piedra y esconder la mano = hit-and-run.* de usar y tirar = disposable, throwaway, single-use.* introducir tirando = haul in.* ir tirando = shuffle along, tick over, muddle along, keep + the wolves from the door.* persona que tira basura al suelo = litterbug, litter lout.* plato de usar y tirar = disposable plate.* sacar tirando = haul out.* seguir tirando el dinero = throw + good money after bad.* servilleta de usar y tirar = disposable napkin.* tenedor de usar y tirar = disposable fork.* tirando a bajo = shortish.* tirando a corto = shortish.* tirando a marrón = brownish.* tirando a morado = purplish.* tirar a Alguien al suelo = knock + Nombre + to the ground, knock + Nombre + to the floor.* tirar a Alguien al suelo de un golpe = knock + Nombre + to the floor, knock + Nombre + to the ground.* tirar a lo bajo = low-ball.* tirar al suelo = upset.* tirar a matar = go for + the jugular, deadly force, shoot to + kill.* tirar bombas = bomb.* tirar de = pull (at/on/from), tug, pull back, lug, leverage.* tirar de la cadena = flush + the toilet.* tirar de la cisterna = flush + the toilet.* tirar de la manta = let + the cat out of the bag, blow + the gaff, spill + the beans.* tirar de las orejas = tell + Nombe + off.* tirar del carro = pull + Posesivo + (own) weight, pull together, lend + a (helping) hand, put + Posesivo + shoulder to the wheel, set + Posesivo + shoulder to the wheel, muck in, pitch in.* tirar de una manivela = pull + lever.* tirar de una palanca = depress + lever.* tirar dinero y esfuerzo por la borda = be money and effort down the drain.* tirar el dinero = throw + Posesivo + money down the drain.* tirar el dinero por la ventana = be money and effort down the drain, throw + Posesivo + money down the drain, be money down the drain.* tirar la casa por la ventana = lash out (on), go to + town on.* tirar la esponja = throw in/up + the sponge.* tirar la toalla = throw in + the towel.* tirar ligeramente de = tug on.* tirar los tejos = flirt, throw + hints.* tirar piedras contra tu propio tejado = cut + the branch + you sit on, cut + the branch + you sit on, cut off + Posesivo + nose to spite + Posesivo + face.* tirar por el desagüe = pour down + the drain.* tirarse a la calle = go out on + the road.* tirarse a la jugular = go for + the jugular.* tirarse a la piscina = take + a dive.* tirarse a las calles = spill (out) into + the streets.* tirarse con ala delta = hang-glide.* tirarse de cabeza = jump in + head first, dive in, dive + head-first.* tirarse de las barbas = tear + Posesivo + hair out.* tirarse de los pelos = tear + Posesivo + hair out.* tirarse en paracaídas = parachute.* tirarse flores = blow + Posesivo + own trumpet.* tirarse piedras contra el propio tejado = shoot + Reflexivo + in the foot.* tirarse una plancha = put + Posesivo + foot in it, put + Posesivo + foot in + Posesivo + mouth, stick + Posesivo + foot in it, drop + a clanger, drop + a bollock, make + a blunder, make + a bloomer, blunder.* tirarse un eructo = belch, burp.* tirarse un farol = bullshit.* tirarse un pedo = fart, trump, break + wind, trumpet.* * *tirar [A1 ]vtA1 (lanzar, arrojar) to throw¿quiénes estaban tirando piedras? who was throwing stones?tiró la colilla por la ventanilla she threw the cigarette butt out of the windowtiró la pelota al aire he threw the ball up in the airtiraban piedrecitas al río they were throwing stones into the riverno tires los papeles al suelo don't throw o drop the wrappers on the groundtirarle algo A algn (para que lo agarre) to throw sth TO sb, to throw sb sth; (con agresividad) to throw sth AT sble tiró la pelota she threw him the ball, she threw the ball to himtírame las llaves throw me the keysme tiró una piedra she threw a stone at mele tiraron un cubo de agua they threw a bucket of water over himle tiró los brazos he put o stretched his arms out to hertírale un beso blow him a kiss2 (desechar, deshacerse de) to throw out o awaytodo esto es para tirar all this can be thrown out o away, this is all going out ( colloq)estos zapatos ya están para tirar(los) these shoes are about ready to be thrown away o out¡que asco! tira eso inmediatemente a la basura ugh! throw that away right now!, ugh! put that in the garbage can ( AmE) o ( BrE) the bin right now!3 (desperdiciar) to waste¡qué manera de tirar el dinero! what a waste of money!B (dejar en desorden) (+ compl):no tiren los juguetes por todos lados don't leave o strew your toys all over the placese quitó la camisa y la tiró en un rincón he took off his shirt and threw it into a cornerC1 (hacer caer) to knock over¡cuidado, que vas a tirar la leche! be careful, you're going to knock the milk over!tiró el jarrón al suelo de un codazo he knocked the vase off the table ( o shelf etc) with his elbow2 (derribar) to knock downel perro se le echó encima y lo tiró al suelo the dog leaped up at him and knocked him to the ground o knocked him overtiró todos los bolos de una vez he knocked all the pins down in one govan a tirar (abajo) esta pared or van a tirar esta pared (abajo) they're going to knock this wall downtiraron la puerta abajo they broke the door downD1 ‹bomba› to drop; ‹cohete› to fire, launch; ‹flecha› to shoot; ‹tiros› to firele tiraron tres tiros they shot at him three times, they fired three shots at him2 ‹foto› to takeE (dar) ‹puñetazo› to throwtiraba puñetazos a diestra y siniestra he was throwing punches o lashing out left and right ( AmE) o ( BrE) left, right and centerel perro me tiró un mordisco the dog snapped at meno me tires más pellizcos stop pinching meF ( AmL) (atrayendo hacia sí) to pulltiró la cadena he pulled the chainno le tires el pelo don't pull his hairte voy a tirar las orejas I'm going to tweak your earsle tiraba la manga she was tugging o pulling at his sleeveG ( Impr) to print, run offH ( Mat) ‹línea› to drawI ( Chi)1 ‹carrera› to start, give the starting signal for2 ‹lotería› to draw the winning number in; ‹rifa› to draw■ tirarviA1 (atrayendo hacia sí) to pull¡vamos, tiren todos a una! come on, everybody pull together![ S ] tirar pulltirar DE algo to pull sthno le tires del pelo don't pull her hairdos caballos tiraban del carro the cart was drawn by two horsestirar de la cadena to pull the chainle tiró de la manga she tugged o pulled at his sleevele tiró de la oreja she tweaked his ear2 «vestido/blusa» to be (too) tightme tira it's too tight on meB(atraer): le sigue tirando México she still hankers after o misses Mexicono parece que le tiren mucho los deportes he doesn't seem to be very interested in o keen on sportla sangre tira blood is thicker than waterC1(disparar): le tiró a traición she shot him in the back¡no tiren! don't shoot!le tiró al corazón he shot him through the hearttirar a dar to shoot to wound ( not to kill)tirar a matar (literal) to shoot to kill(para ofender, atacar): cuando empieza a criticar, tira a matar when she starts criticizing you, she really goes for the jugular o she really sticks the knife in ( colloq)siempre que me dice algo, tira a matar whenever he says anything to me, he goes all out to hurt me2 ( Dep) to shoottirando por lo bajo/alto at the (very) least/most3 ( Jueg) (descartarse) to throw away, discard; (en juegos de dados) to throw; (en dardos) to throw; (en bolos) to bowlD1 «chimenea/cigarro» to draw2 «coche/motor» to pullE1 ( fam) (llegar, sobrevivir) to get bycon $100 podríamos tirar hasta fin de mes with $100 we could get by until the end of the monthcon este uniforme podrás tirar hasta fin de año this uniform will last you o ( colloq) will do you till the end of the year2 tirandoger ( fam): ¿qué tal andas? — ya lo ves, tirando … how are things? — well, you know, not too bad o we're getting byno ganamos mucho pero vamos tirando we don't earn much but we're managingFvamos, tira come on, get moving o get a move onsi tiras para atrás cabe otro coche if you back up o go back a bit we can get another car intira (p'alante), no te pares ahora keep going, don't stop nowhay mucho que hacer pero entre todos podemos tirar p'alante there's a lot to be done but if we all pull together we can get through ittira por esta calle abajo go o turn down this streeten cuanto nos vieron, tiraron por otro lado as soon as they saw us they went off in a different direction/they turned off up a different streetH tirar ano es verde, tira más bien a azul it's not green, it's more of a bluish colorlos precios son más bien tirando a caros the prices are a bit on the expensive o ( colloq) steep sideel erotismo de la película tiraba a pornográfico the eroticism in the film tended toward(s) o verged on the pornographiclos niños tiran más a la madre the children take after their mother morees de estatura normal, tirando a bajito he's average to short in height■ tirarseA1 (lanzarse, arrojarse) (+ compl) to throw oneselfse tiró por la ventana he threw himself o he leapt out of the windowtirarse en paracaídas to parachutetirarse al agua to dive/jump into the watertirarse del trampolín to dive off the springboardtirarse de cabeza to dive in, to jump in headfirstintentó tirarse del tren en marcha she tried to throw herself from o to jump off the train while it was movingse le tiró a los brazos she threw herself into his arms2 «coche/conductor» (+ compl) to pull overse tiró bruscamente a un lado he swerved to one side3 ( AmL) (tumbarse) to lie downestoy agotada, me voy a tirar un rato I'm exhausted, I'm going to lie down for a whileB ( fam); ‹horas/días› to spendnos hemos tirado media hora para encontrar la casa it's taken us half an hour to find the housese tiró dos años escribiéndolo he spent two years writing itse ha tirado una hora entera hablando por teléfono he's been on the phone for a whole hour, he's spent a whole hour on the phoneC ( vulg)D ( fam)tirarse un eructo to belch, to burp ( colloq)el aguacero se tiró el paseo the downpour washed out o ruined our walkse tiró el examen he flunked the exam ( colloq)* * *
tirar ( conjugate tirar) verbo transitivo
1
tirarle algo a algn ( para que lo agarre) to throw sb sth;
( con agresividad) to throw sth at sb
◊ ¡qué manera de tirar el dinero! what a waste of money!
2
3
‹ cohete› to fire, launch;
‹ flecha› to shoot
4 (AmL) ( atrayendo hacia sí) to pull;
verbo intransitivo
1 ( atrayendo hacia sí) to pull;
tirar de algo to pull sth;
2
b) (Dep) to shoot;
tirar al arco (AmL) or (Esp) a puerta to shoot at goal
( en juegos de dados) to throw;
( en dardos) to throw;
( en bolos) to bowl
3
4◊ tirando ger (fam): gano poco pero vamos tirando I don't earn much but we're managing;
¿qué tal andas? — tirando how are things? — not too bad
5
ella tira más a la madre she takes after her mother more
tirarse verbo pronominal
1
tirarse en paracaídas to parachute;
( en emergencia) to bale out;
tirarse de cabeza to dive in, to jump in headfirst
2 (fam) ‹horas/días› to spend;
3 (fam) ( expulsar):◊ tirarse un pedo to fart (sl)
tirar
I verbo transitivo
1 (arrojar, echar) to throw: lo tiró al agua, he threw it into the water
no tires la cáscara al suelo, don't throw o drop the peel on the floor
(enérgicamente) to fling, hurl: lo tiró al fuego, she threw it on the fire
2 (deshacerse de) to throw out o away
tiré mis zapatos viejos, I threw my old shoes away
3 (malgastar) tiraste el dinero con esa joya falsa, you've wasted your money on that fake jewel
(despilfarrar) to squander
4 (hacer caer) to knock over: tiré el vaso, I knocked the glass over
5 (derribar a alguien) to knock o push over
tirar abajo (una pared, una puerta) to knock down
(demoler) to pull down
6 (una bomba) to drop
(un tiro, un cohete) to fire
7 (una foto) to take
8 Impr to print
II verbo intransitivo
1 (hacer fuerza hacia sí) to pull: no le tires del pelo, don't pull his hair
¡tira de la cuerda!, tug on the rope!
2 (disparar) to shoot
Dep to shoot
(dados, dardos) to throw
3 fam (gustar) le tira mucho el baloncesto, he's very keen on basketball
4 (tender) tira a azul, it's bluish
(parecerse) tira a su madre, she takes after her mother
5 fam (arreglárselas) ir tirando, to get by, manage
6 (ir) tira a la derecha, turn right
' tirar' also found in these entries:
Spanish:
aire
- bala
- borda
- calle
- casa
- esconder
- palanca
- toalla
- trapo
- apedrear
- arrojar
- basura
- blanco
- botar
- cadena
- crimen
- echar
- jalar
- pinta
- zumbar
English:
aim at
- archery
- bung
- cast
- chain
- chuck
- chuck away
- chuck out
- clearout
- dash
- drag
- draw
- fling
- flush
- haul
- heave
- keep
- knock off
- knock over
- lash out
- pitch
- pull
- pull on
- pull over
- putt
- run off
- shoot
- sling
- sling out
- splash out
- sponge
- strain
- throw
- throw aside
- throw away
- throw out
- toss
- toss away
- towel
- town
- trash
- tug
- turf out
- waste
- yank
- beat
- blow
- bring
- disposable
- ditch
* * *♦ vt1. [lanzar] to throw;tiraron las gorras al aire they threw their caps (up) in the air;tirar algo a alguien [para que lo agarre] to throw sth to sb;[para hacer daño] to throw sth at sb;tírame una manzana throw me an apple;le tiró un beso she blew him a kiss;le tiraban piedras a la policía they were throwing stones at the police2. [dejar caer] [objeto] to drop;[líquido] [derramar] to spill;no tiren los papeles al suelo don't throw o drop the wrappers on the ground;tiró las maletas y se tumbó en la cama she dropped her suitcases and lay down on the bed;me has tirado salsa en el traje you've spilt some sauce on my suit3. [derribar] [botella, lámpara] to knock over;[muro, tabique, edificio] to knock down;tiró la lámpara con un codo al pasar she knocked over the lamp with her elbow as she went by;la violencia del choque la tiró al suelo the force of the collision knocked o hurled her to the floor;esta pared habrá que tirarla we're going to have to knock this wall down4. [desechar] to throw away o out;tirar algo a la basura to throw sth out;tíralo a la papelera throw it in the wastepaper basket;eso es tirar el dinero that's a complete waste of money6. [disparar] [balas, misiles, disparos] to fire;[bomba] to drop; [petardo, cohete] to let off; [dardos, flechas] to shoot; Famtirar una foto to take a picture7. [jugar] [carta] to play;[dado] to throw8. [en deportes] [falta, penalti] to take;[balón] to pass9. [imprimir] to print10. [trazar] [línea] to draw♦ vi1. [disparar] to shoot;tirar al aire to fire shots into the air;tirar a dar to shoot to wound, not to kill;tirar a matar [con arma] to shoot to kill;[con comentario] to go for the jugularel ciclista colombiano tiraba del pelotón the Colombian cyclist was pulling the bunch along;me tiró del pelo she pulled my hair;[en letrero] pull;me tiró del brazo/de la manga she tugged at my arm/sleeve;RPtirar parejo: esto no es justo, o tiramos parejo o yo me retiro this is not fair, either we all pull together or I'm dropping out3. [estar tirante] to be tight;la chaqueta me tira de atrás the jacket's a bit tight at the back4. [en deportes] [con el pie] to kick;[con la mano] to throw; [a meta, canasta] to shoot;5. [dirigirse] to go ( hacia o para towards), to head ( hacia o para for o towards); FamFam¡tira! [para empezar a moverse] get moving!;¡tira que llegamos tarde! let's get a move on or we'll be late!;tiramos hacia la izquierda we turned left;Famtira para arriba, que ahora subo yo you go on up, I'll come up in a minute;tira por esa calle go up o take that street6. [jugar] to go, to have one's go;te toca tirar a ti [en naipes, dados, billar] it's your go7. [cigarrillo, chimenea] to draw;este tabaco no tira these cigarettes aren't drawing properlyel motor no tira the engine isn't working properly;el coche tira bien the car runs well9. [durar] to last;estos zapatos tirarán otro año these shoes will last another yearla tierra siempre tira de uno your homeland never loses its pull on you;tirarle a alguien: me tira la vida del campo country life appeals to me;no le tira la profesión de su padre his father's profession doesn't appeal to him;no le tira viajar she doesn't feel the urge to travel;tirar de alguien to exert a pull on sb11. Fam [apañárselas]aún puedo tirar con este abrigo un par de inviernos this coat should do me for another couple of winters yet;ir tirando to get by;voy tirando I'm OK, I've been worse12. [tener aspecto de o tendencia a]tirar a: tira a gris it's greyish;tira a su abuela she takes after her grandmother;este programa tira a (ser) hortera this programme is a bit on the tacky side;el tiempo tira a mejorar the weather looks as if it's getting better;es un reformista tirando a radical he's somewhere between a reformist and a radical;es verde tirando a azul it's a bluey green;es tirando a delgado if anything, he's rather thin;tira para deportista he has the makings of a sportsmancuando no hay dinero hay que tirar del ingenio when you don't have any money, you have to rely on your wits;hubo que tirar de los ahorros we had to draw on our savings* * *I v/t3 TIP print4 famen examen fail5 foto take6 tiro fireII v/i1 de coche pull;tirar de algo pull sth2 ( disparar) shoot:tirar a puerta shoot at goal;tirar fuera shoot wide4 ( atraer) pull, attract;no me tira la música music doesn’t turn me on5:tirar a tend toward;tirar a conservador/verde have conservative/Green tendencies6 ( girar):tirar a la derecha turn right, take a right7:ir tirando fam get by, manage* * *tirar vt1) : to throw, to hurl, to toss2) botar: to throw away, to throw out, to waste3) derribar: to knock down4) : to shoot, to fire, to launch5) : to take (a photo)6) : to print, to run offtirar vi1) : to pull, to draw2) : to shoot3) : to attract4) : to get by, to manageva tirando: he's getting along, he's managing5)tirar a : to tend towards, to be rathertira a picante: it's a bit spicy* * *tirar vb3. (derribar) to knock over / to knock down4. (malgastar) to waste5. (arrastrar, estirar) to pull7. (atraer, gustar) to like -
17 Gaskill, Harvey Freeman
SUBJECT AREA: Mechanical, pneumatic and hydraulic engineering[br]b. 19 January 1845 Royalton, New York, USAd. 1 April 1889 Lockport, New York, USA[br]American mechanical engineer, inventor of the water-pumping engine with flywheel and reciprocating pumps.[br]Gaskill's father was a farmer near New York, where the son attended the local schools until he was 16 years old. At the age of 13 he already showed his mechanical aptitude by inventing a revolving hayrake, which was not exploited because the family had no money. His parents moved to Lockport, New York, where Harvey became a student at Lockport Union School and then the Poughkeepsie Commercial College, from which he graduated in 1866. After a period in his uncle's law office, he entered the firm of Penfield, Martin \& Gaskill to manufacture a patent clock. Then he was involved in a planing mill and a sash-and-blind manufactory. He devised a clothes spinner and a horse hayrake, but he did not manufacture them. In 1873 he became a draughtsman in the Holly Manufacturing Company in Lockport, which made pumping machinery for waterworks. He was promoted first to Engineer and then to Superintendent of the company in 1877. In 1885 he became a member of the Board of Directors and Vice-President. But for his untimely death, he might have become President. He was also a director of several other manufacturing concerns, public utilities and banks. In 1882 he produced a pump driven by a Woolf compound engine, which was the first time that rotary power with a crank and flywheel had been applied in waterworks. His design was more compact, more economical and lower in cost than previous types and gave the Holly Company a considerable advantage for a time over their main rivals, the Worthington Pump \& Machinery Company. These steam pumps became very popular in the United States and the type was also adopted in Britain.[br]Further ReadingAs well as obituaries appearing in many American engineering journals on Gaskill's death, there is an entry in the Dictionary of American Biography, 1931, Vol. VII, New York, C.Scribner's Sons.RLHBiographical history of technology > Gaskill, Harvey Freeman
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18 Lee, Revd William
SUBJECT AREA: Textiles[br]d. c. 1615[br]English inventor of the first knitting machine, called the stocking frame.[br]It would seem that most of the stories about Lee's invention of the stocking frame cannot be verified by any contemporary evidence, and the first written accounts do not appear until the second half of the seventeenth century. The claim that he was Master of Arts from St John's College, Cambridge, was first made in 1607 but cannot be checked because the records have not survived. The date for the invention of the knitting machine as being 1589 was made at the same time, but again there is no supporting evidence. There is no evidence that Lee was Vicar of Calverton, nor that he was in Holy Orders at all. Likewise there is no evidence for the existence of the woman, whether she was girlfriend, fiancée or wife, who is said to have inspired the invention, and claims regarding the involvement of Queen Elizabeth I and her refusal to grant a patent because the stockings were wool and not silk are also without contemporary foundation. Yet the first known reference shows that Lee was the inventor of the knitting machine, for the partnership agreement between him and George Brooke dated 6 June 1600 states that "William Lee hath invented a very speedy manner of making works usually wrought by knitting needles as stockings, waistcoats and such like". This agreement was to last for twenty-two years, but terminated prematurely when Brooke was executed for high treason in 1603. Lee continued to try and exploit his invention, for in 1605 he described himself as "Master of Arts" when he petitioned the Court of Aldermen of the City of London as the first inventor of an engine to make silk stockings. In 1609 the Weavers' Company of London recorded Lee as "a weaver of silk stockings by engine". These petitions suggest that he was having difficulty in establishing his invention, which may be why in 1612 there is a record of him in Rouen, France, where he hoped to have better fortune. If he had been invited there by Henry IV, his hopes were dashed by the assassination of the king soon afterwards. He was to supply four knitting machines, and there is further evidence that he was in France in 1615, but it is thought that he died in that country soon afterwards.The machine Lee invented was probably the most complex of its day, partly because the need to use silk meant that the needles were very fine. Henson (1970) in 1831 took five pages in his book to describe knitting on a stocking frame which had over 2,066 pieces. To knit a row of stitches took eleven separate stages, and great care and watchfulness were required to ensure that all the loops were equal and regular. This shows how complex the machines were and points to Lee's great achievement in actually making one. The basic principles of its operation remained unaltered throughout its extraordinarily long life, and a few still remained in use commercially in the early 1990s.[br]Further ReadingJ.T.Millington and S.D.Chapman (eds), 1989, Four Centuries of Machine Knitting, Commemorating William Lee's Invention of the Stocking Frame in 1589, Leicester (N.Harte examines the surviving evidence for the life of William Lee and this must be considered as the most up-to-date biographical information).Dictionary of National Biography (this contains only the old stories).Earlier important books covering Lee's life and invention are G.Henson, 1970, History of the Framework Knitters, reprint, Newton Abbot (orig. pub. 1831); and W.Felkin, 1967, History of the Machine-wrought Hosiery and Lace Manufactures, reprint, Newton Abbot (orig. pub. 1867).M.Palmer, 1984, Framework Knitting, Aylesbury (a simple account of the mechanism of the stocking frame).R.L.Hills, "William Lee and his knitting machine", Journal of the Textile Institute 80(2) (a more detailed account).M.Grass and A.Grass, 1967, Stockings for a Queen. The Life of William Lee, the Elizabethan Inventor, London.RLH -
19 Maxim, Sir Hiram Stevens
[br]b. 5 February 1840 Brockway's Mills, Maine, USAd. 24 November 1916 Streatham, London, England[br]American (naturalized British) inventor; designer of the first fully automatic machine gun and of an experimental steam-powered aircraft.[br]Maxim was born the son of a pioneer farmer who later became a wood turner. Young Maxim was first apprenticed to a carriage maker and then embarked on a succession of jobs before joining his uncle in his engineering firm in Massachusetts in 1864. As a young man he gained a reputation as a boxer, but it was his uncle who first identified and encouraged Hiram's latent talent for invention.It was not, however, until 1878, when Maxim joined the first electric-light company to be established in the USA, as its Chief Engineer, that he began to make a name for himself. He developed an improved light filament and his electric pressure regulator not only won a prize at the first International Electrical Exhibition, held in Paris in 1881, but also resulted in his being made a Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur. While in Europe he was advised that weapons development was a more lucrative field than electricity; consequently, he moved to England and established a small laboratory at Hatton Garden, London. He began by investigating improvements to the Gatling gun in order to produce a weapon with a faster rate of fire and which was more accurate. In 1883, by adapting a Winchester carbine, he successfully produced a semi-automatic weapon, which used the recoil to cock the gun automatically after firing. The following year he took this concept a stage further and produced a fully automatic belt-fed weapon. The recoil drove barrel and breechblock to the vent. The barrel then halted, while the breechblock, now unlocked from the former, continued rearwards, extracting the spent case and recocking the firing mechanism. The return spring, which it had been compressing, then drove the breechblock forward again, chambering the next round, which had been fed from the belt, as it did so. Keeping the trigger pressed enabled the gun to continue firing until the belt was expended. The Maxim gun, as it became known, was adopted by almost every army within the decade, and was to remain in service for nearly fifty years. Maxim himself joined forces with the large British armaments firm of Vickers, and the Vickers machine gun, which served the British Army during two world wars, was merely a refined version of the Maxim gun.Maxim's interests continued to occupy several fields of technology, including flight. In 1891 he took out a patent for a steam-powered aeroplane fitted with a pendulous gyroscopic stabilizer which would maintain the pitch of the aeroplane at any desired inclination (basically, a simple autopilot). Maxim decided to test the relationship between power, thrust and lift before moving on to stability and control. He designed a lightweight steam-engine which developed 180 hp (135 kW) and drove a propeller measuring 17 ft 10 in. (5.44 m) in diameter. He fitted two of these engines into his huge flying machine testrig, which needed a wing span of 104 ft (31.7 m) to generate enough lift to overcome a total weight of 4 tons. The machine was not designed for free flight, but ran on one set of rails with a second set to prevent it rising more than about 2 ft (61 cm). At Baldwyn's Park in Kent on 31 July 1894 the huge machine, carrying Maxim and his crew, reached a speed of 42 mph (67.6 km/h) and lifted off its rails. Unfortunately, one of the restraining axles broke and the machine was extensively damaged. Although it was subsequently repaired and further trials carried out, these experiments were very expensive. Maxim eventually abandoned the flying machine and did not develop his idea for a stabilizer, turning instead to other projects. At the age of almost 70 he returned to the problems of flight and designed a biplane with a petrol engine: it was built in 1910 but never left the ground.In all, Maxim registered 122 US and 149 British patents on objects ranging from mousetraps to automatic spindles. Included among them was a 1901 patent for a foot-operated suction cleaner. In 1900 he became a British subject and he was knighted the following year. He remained a larger-than-life figure, both physically and in character, until the end of his life.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsChevalier de la Légion d'Honneur 1881. Knighted 1901.Bibliography1908, Natural and Artificial Flight, London. 1915, My Life, London: Methuen (autobiography).Further ReadingObituary, 1916, Engineer (1 December).Obituary, 1916, Engineering (1 December).P.F.Mottelay, 1920, The Life and Work of Sir Hiram Maxim, London and New York: John Lane.Dictionary of National Biography, 1912–1921, 1927, Oxford: Oxford University Press.See also: Pilcher, Percy SinclairCM / JDSBiographical history of technology > Maxim, Sir Hiram Stevens
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20 Olds, Ransom Eli
[br]b. 1864 Geneva, Ohio, USAd. 1950 Lansing, Michigan, USA[br]American pioneer motor manufacturer.[br]He began his working life in 1885 as a bookkeeper in his father's machine shop in Lansing, Michigan, where he became a partner soon after. Encouraged by his success in making a small steam engine, heated by an ordinary gasoline stove burner, he built a three-wheeled, self-propelled vehicle in 1887. Increasingly interested in the internal combustion engine, he adopted it for a further vehicle which he completed in 1896. The following year he founded the Olds Motor Vehicle Company and, to take the place of the family machine shop, the Olds Gasoline Machine Works. In 1899 the assets of the motorvehicle company were diverted into a new company, the Olds Motor Works, and operations were transferred to Detroit. In 1904 he resigned and founded the Reo M Car Company (an acronym of his initials) and organized several subsidiary companies as suppliers of components. After 1915 he tended to drop out to give more time to other interests such as the Ideal Power Lawn Mower Company, set up to manufacture a mower he had invented, the Capital National Bank and R.E.Olds and Co., an investment company.[br]Further ReadingDictionary of American Biography, 3rd edn, New York: Charles Scribner.IMcN
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