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81 Breguet, Abraham-Louis
SUBJECT AREA: Horology[br]baptized 10 January 1747 Neuchâtel, Switzerlandd. 17 September 1823 Paris, France[br]Swiss clock-and watchmaker who made many important contributions to horology.[br]When Breguet was 11 years old his father died and his mother married a Swiss watchmaker who had Paris connections. His stepfather introduced him to horology and this led to an apprenticeship in Paris, during which he also attended evening classes in mathematics at the Collège Mazarin. In 1775 he married and set up a workshop in Paris, initially in collaboration with Xavier Gide. There he established a reputation among the aristocracy for elegant and innovative timepieces which included a perpétuelle, or self-winding watch, which he developed from the ideas of Perrelet. He also enjoyed the patronage of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI. During the French Revolution his life was in danger and in 1793 he fled to Neuchâtel. The two years he spent there comprised what was intellectually one of his most productive periods and provided many of the ideas that he was able to exploit after he had returned to Paris in 1795. By the time of his death he had become the most prestigious watchmaker in Europe: he supplied timepieces to Napoleon and, after the fall of the Empire, to Louis XVIII, as well as to most of the crowned heads of Europe.Breguet divided his contributions to horology into three categories: improvements in appearance and functionality; improvements in durability; and improvements in timekeeping. His pendule sympathique was in the first category and consisted of a clock which during the night set a watch to time, regulated it and wound it. His parachute, a spring-loaded bearing, made a significant contribution to the durability of a watch by preventing damage to its movement if it was dropped. Among the many improvements that Breguet made to timekeeping, two important ones were the introduction of the overcoil balance spring and the tourbillon. By bending the outside end of the balance spring over the top of the coils Breguet was able to make the oscillations of the balance isochronous, thus achieving for the flat spring what Arnold had already accomplished for the cylindrical balance spring. The timekeeping of a balance is also dependent on its position, and the tourbillon was an attempt to average-out positional errors by placing the balance wheel and the escapement in a cage that rotated once every minute. This principle was revived in a simplified form in the karussel at the end of the nineteenth century.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsHorloger de la marine 1815. Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur 1815.BibliographyBreguet gathered information for a treatise on horology that was never published but which was later plagiarized by Louis Moinet in his Traité d'horlogerie, 1848.Further ReadingG.Daniels, 1974, The An of Breguet, London (an account of his life with a good technical assessment of his work).DV -
82 Cobham, Sir Alan John
SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace[br]b. 6 May 1894 London, Englandd. 21 October 1973 British Virgin Islands[br]English pilot who pioneered worldwide air routes and developed an in-flight refuelling system which is in use today.[br]Alan Cobham was a man of many parts. He started as a veterinary assistant in France during the First World War, but transferred to the Royal Flying Corps in 1917. After the war he continued flying, by giving joy-rides and doing aerial photography work. In 1921 he joined the De Havilland Aircraft Company (see de Havilland, Geoffrey) as a test and charter pilot; he was also successful in a number of air races. During the 1920s Cobham made many notable flights to distant parts of the British Empire, pioneering possible routes for airline operations. During the early 1930s Sir Alan (he was knighted in 1926) devoted his attention to generating a public interest in aviation and to campaigning for more airfields. Cobham's Flying Circus toured the country giving flying displays and joy-rides, which for thousands of people was their first experience of flying.In 1933 Cobham planned a non-stop flight to India by refuelling his aircraft while flying: this was not a new idea but the process was still experimental. The flight was unsuccessful due to a fault in his aircraft, unrelated to the in-flight refuelling system. The following year Flight Refuelling Ltd was founded, and by 1939 two Short flying boats were operating the first inflight-refuelled service across the Atlantic. Inflight refuelling was not required during the early years of the Second World War, so Cobham turned to other projects such as thermal de-icing of wings, and a scheme which was not carried out, for delivering fighters to the Middle East by towing them behind Wellington bombers.After the Second World War the fortunes of Flight Refuelling Ltd were at a low ebb, especially when British South American Airways abandoned the idea of using in-flight refuelling. Then an American contract and the use of their tanker aircraft to ferry oil during the Berlin Airlift saved the day. In 1949 Cobham's chief designer, Peter Macgregor, came up with an idea for refuelling fighters using a probe and drogue system. A large tanker aircraft trailed a hose with a conical drogue at the free end. The fighter pilot manoeuvred the probe, fitted to his aircraft, so that it locked into the drogue, enabling fuel to be transferred. Since the 1950s this system has become the effective world standard.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsKnighted 1926. Air Force Cross 1926.Bibliography1978, A Time to Fly, ed. C.Derrick, London; pub. in paperback 1986 (Cobham's memoirs).Cobham produced films of some of his flights and published Skyways, 1925, London; MyFlight to the Cape and Back, 1926, London; Australia and Back, 1926, London;Twenty Thousand Miles in a Flying Boat, 1930, London.Further ReadingPeter G.Proctor, 1975, "The life and work of Sir Alan Cobham", Aerospace (RAeS) (March).JDS -
83 Cooper, Peter
[br]b. 12 February 1791 New York, USAd. 4 April 1883 New York, USA[br]American entrepreneur and steam locomotive pioneer.[br]Cooper had minimal formal education, but following a childhood spent helping his small-businessman father, he had by his early twenties become a prosperous glue maker. In 1828, with partners, he set up an ironworks at Baltimore. The Baltimore \& Ohio Railroad, intended for horse haulage, was under construction and, to confound those sceptical of the powers of steam, Cooper built a steam locomotive, with vertical boiler and single vertical cylinder, that was so small that it was called Tom Thumb. Nevertheless, when on test in 1830, it proved a match for horse power and became one of the first locomotives to run on an American railway. Cooper did not, however, personally take this line of development further; rather, he built up a vast industrial empire and later in life became a noted philanthropist.[br]Further ReadingJ.F.Stover, 1961, American Railroads, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Dictionary of American Biography.PJGR -
84 Eiffel, Alexandre Gustave
SUBJECT AREA: Civil engineering[br]b. 15 December 1832 Dijon, Franced. 27 December 1923 Paris, France[br]French engineer, best known for the famous tower in Paris that bears his name.[br]During his long life Eiffel, together with a number of architects, was responsible for the design and construction of a wide variety of bridges, viaducts, harbour installations, exhibition halls, galleries and department stores; he set up his own firm in 1867 to handle such construction. Of particular note were his great arched bridges, such as the 530 ft (162 m) span arch over the River Douro at Oporto in Portugal (1877–9) and the 550 ft (168 m) span of the Pont de Garabit over the Truyère in France (1880–4). He was responsible in 1884 for the protective iron-work for the Statue of Liberty in New York and, a year later, for the great dome over the Nice Observatory. In 1876 he had collaborated with Boileau to build the Bon Marché department store in Paris. The predominant material for all these structures was iron, and, in some cases glass was important. The famous Eiffel Tower in Paris is entirely of wrought iron, and the legs are supported on masonry piers that are each set into concrete beneath the ground. The idea of the tower was first conceived in 1884 by Maurice Koechlin and Emile Nougier, and Eiffel won a competition for the commission to built the structure. His imaginative and practical scheme was for a strong lightweight construction 984 ft (300 m) high, with its 12,000 sections to be prefabricated and riveted together largely before erection; the open, perforated design reduced the problems of wind resistance. The tower was constructed on schedule by 1889 to commemorate the centenary of the outbreak of the French Revolution and was the tallest structure in the world until the erection of the Empire State Building in New York in 1930–2.[br]Further ReadingJ.Harriss, 1975, The Tallest Tower: Eiffel and the Belle Epoque, Boston: Hough ton Mifflin.F.Poncetton, 1939, Eiffel: Le Magicien du Fer, Paris: Tournelle.DYBiographical history of technology > Eiffel, Alexandre Gustave
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85 Krupp, Alfred
[br]b. 26 April 1812 Essen, Germanyd. 14 July 1887 Bredeney, near Essen, Germany[br]German manufacturer of steel and armaments.[br]Krupp's father founded a small cast-steel works at Essen, but at his early death in 1826 the firm was left practically insolvent to his sons. Alfred's formal education ended at that point and he entered the ailing firm. The expansion of trade brought about by the Zollverein, or customs union, enabled him to increase output, and by 1843 he had 100 workers under him, making steel springs and machine parts. Five years later he was able to buy out his co-heirs, and in 1849 he secured his first major railway contract. The quality of his product was usefully advertised by displaying a flawless 2-ton steel ingot at the Great Exhibition of 1851. Krupp was then specializing in the manufacture of steel parts for railways and steamships, notably a weldless steel tire for locomotives, from which was derived the three-ring emblem of the Krupp concern. Krupp made a few cannon from 1847 but sold his first to the Khedive of Egypt in 1857. Two years later he won a major order of 312 cannon from the Prussian Government. With the development of this side of the business, he became the largest steel producer in Europe. In 1862 he adopted the Bessemer steelmaking process. The quality and design of his cannon were major factors in the victory of the Prussian artillery bombardment at Sedan in the Franco- Prussian War of 1870. Krupp expanded further during the boom years of the early 1870s and he was able to gain control of German coal and Spanish iron-ore supplies. He went on to manufacture heavy artillery, with a celebrated testing ground at Osnabrück. By this time he had a workforce of 21,000, whom he ruled with benevolent but strict control. His will instructed that the firm should not be divided.[br]Further ReadingP.Batty, 1966, The House of Krupp (includes a bibliography). G.von Klass, 1954, Krupp: The Story of an Industrial Empire.LRD -
86 Lithgow, James
SUBJECT AREA: Ports and shipping[br]b. 27 January 1883 Port Glasgow, Renfrewshire, Scotlandd. 23 February 1952 Langbank, Renfrewshire, Scotland[br]Scottish shipbuilder; creator of one of the twentieth century's leading industrial organizations.[br]Lithgow attended Glasgow Academy and then spent a year in Paris. In 1901 he commenced a shipyard apprenticeship with Russell \& Co., where his father, William Lithgow, was sole proprietor. For years Russell's had topped the Clyde tonnage output and more than once had been the world's leading yard. Along with his brother Henry, Lithgow in 1908 was appointed a director, and in a few years he was Chairman and the yard was renamed Lithgows Ltd. By the outbreak of the First World War the Lithgow brothers were recognized as good shipbuilders and astute businessmen. In 1914 he joined the Royal Artillery; he rose to the rank of major and served with distinction, but his skills in administration were recognized and he was recalled home to become Director of Merchant Shipbuilding when British shipping losses due to submarine attack became critical. This appointment set a pattern, with public duties becoming predominant and the day-to-day shipyard business being organized by his brother. During the interwar years, Lithgow served on many councils designed to generate work and expand British commercial interests. His public appointments were legion, but none was as controversial as his directorship of National Shipbuilders Security Ltd, formed to purchase and "sterilize" inefficient shipyards that were hindering recovery from the Depression. To this day opinions are divided on this issue, but it is beyond doubt that Lithgow believed in the task in hand and served unstintingly. During the Second World War he was Controller of Merchant Shipbuilding and Repairs and was one of the few civilians to be on the Board of Admiralty. On the cessation of hostilities, Lithgow devoted time to research boards and to the expansion of the Lithgow Group, which now included the massive Fairfield Shipyard as well as steel, marine engineering and other companies.Throughout his life Lithgow worked for the Territorial Army, but he was also a devoted member of the Church of Scotland. He gave practical support to the lona Community, no doubt influenced by unbounded love of the West Highlands and Islands of Scotland.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsMilitary Cross and mentioned in dispatches during the First World War. Baronet 1925. Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire 1945. Commander of the Order of the Orange-Nassau (the Netherlands). CB 1947. Served as the employers' representative on the League of Nations International Labour Conference in the 1930s. President, British Iron and Steel Cofederation 1943.Further ReadingJ.M.Reid, 1964, James Lithgow, Master of Work, London: Hutchinson.FMW -
87 Marconi, Marchese Guglielmo
[br]b. 25 April 1874 Bologna, Italyd. 20 July 1937 Rome, Italy[br]Italian radio pioneer whose inventiveness and business skills made radio communication a practical proposition.[br]Marconi was educated in physics at Leghorn and at Bologna University. An avid experimenter, he worked in his parents' attic and, almost certainly aware of the recent work of Hertz and others, soon improved the performance of coherers and spark-gap transmitters. He also discovered for himself the use of earthing and of elevated metal plates as aerials. In 1895 he succeeded in transmitting telegraphy over a distance of 2 km (1¼ miles), but the Italian Telegraph authority rejected his invention, so in 1896 he moved to England, where he filed the first of many patents. There he gained the support of the Chief Engineer of the Post Office, and by the following year he had achieved communication across the Bristol Channel.The British Post Office was also slow to take up his work, so in 1897 he formed the Wireless Telegraph \& Signal Company to work independently. In 1898 he sold some equipment to the British Army for use in the Boer War and established the first permanent radio link from the Isle of Wight to the mainland. In 1899 he achieved communication across the English Channel (a distance of more than 31 miles or 50 km), the construction of a wireless station at Spezia, Italy, and the equipping of two US ships to report progress in the America's Cup yacht race, a venture that led to the formation of the American Marconi Company. In 1900 he won a contract from the British Admiralty to sell equipment and to train operators. Realizing that his business would be much more successful if he could offer his customers a complete radio-communication service (known today as a "turnkey" deal), he floated a new company, the Marconi International Marine Communications Company, while the old company became the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company.His greatest achievement occurred on 12 December 1901, when Morse telegraph signals from a transmitter at Poldhu in Cornwall were received at St John's, Newfoundland, a distance of some 2,100 miles (3,400 km), with the use of an aerial flown by a kite. As a result of this, Marconi's business prospered and he became internationally famous, receiving many honours for his endeavours, including the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1909. In 1904, radio was first used to provide a daily bulletin at sea, and in 1907 a transatlantic wireless telegraphy service was inaugurated. The rescue of 1,650 passengers from the shipwreck of SS Republic in 1909 was the first of many occasions when wireless was instrumental in saving lives at sea, most notable being those from the Titanic on its maiden voyage in April 1912; more lives would have been saved had there been sufficient lifeboats. Marconi was one of those who subsequently pressed for greater safety at sea. In 1910 he demonstrated the reception of long (8 km or 5 miles) waves from Ireland in Buenos Aires, but after the First World War he began to develop the use of short waves, which were more effectively reflected by the ionosphere. By 1918 the first link between England and Australia had been established, and in 1924 he was awarded a Post Office contract for short-wave communication between England and the various parts of the British Empire.With his achievements by then recognized by the Italian Government, in 1915 he was appointed Radio-Communications Adviser to the Italian armed forces, and in 1919 he was an Italian delegate to the Paris Peace Conference. From 1921 he lived on his yacht, the Elettra, and although he joined the Fascist Party in 1923, he later had reservations about Mussolini.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsNobel Prize for Physics (jointly with K.F. Braun) 1909. Russian Order of S t Anne. Commander of St Maurice and St Lazarus. Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown (i.e. Knight) of Italy 1902. Freedom of Rome 1903. Honorary DSc Oxford. Honorary LLD Glasgow. Chevalier of the Civil Order of Savoy 1905. Royal Society of Arts Albert Medal. Honorary knighthood (GCVO) 1914. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Medal of Honour 1920. Chairman, Royal Society of Arts 1924. Created Marquis (Marchese) 1929. Nominated to the Italian Senate 1929. President, Italian Academy 1930. Rector, University of St Andrews, Scotland, 1934.Bibliography1896, "Improvements in transmitting electrical impulses and in apparatus thereof", British patent no. 12,039.1 June 1898, British patent no. 12,326 (transformer or "jigger" resonant circuit).1901, British patent no. 7,777 (selective tuning).1904, British patent no. 763,772 ("four circuit" tuning arrangement).Further ReadingD.Marconi, 1962, My Father, Marconi.W.J.Baker, 1970, A History of the Marconi Company, London: Methuen.KFBiographical history of technology > Marconi, Marchese Guglielmo
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88 Mole, Lancelot de
SUBJECT AREA: Weapons and armour[br]b. 13 March 1880 Adelaide, Australiad. 6 May 1950 Sydney, Australia[br]Australian engineer and early tank designer.[br]De Mole's father was an architect and surveyor and he himself followed a similar avenue as a draughtsman working on mining, surveying and engineering projects in Australia. It was in 1911, while surveying in particularly rough terrain in Western Australia, that he first conceived the idea of the tank as a tracked, armoured vehicle capable of traversing the most difficult ground. He drew up detailed plans and submitted them to the War Office in London the following year, but although they were rejected, not all the plans were returned to him. When war broke out in 1914 he tried without success to interest the Australian authorities, even after he had constructed a model at their request. A further blow came in 1916, when the first tanks, built by the British, appeared on the battlefields of France and looked remarkably similar in design to his own. Believing that he could play a significant role in further tank development, but lacking the funds to travel to Britain, de Mole eventually succeeded, after an initial rejection by a medical board, in enlisting in the Australian Army, which got him to England at the beginning of 1918. He immediately took his model to the British Inventions Committee, who were sufficiently impressed to pass it to the Tank Board, who promptly mislaid it for six weeks. Meanwhile, in March 1918, Private de Mole was ordered to France and was unable to take matters further. On his return to England in early 1919 he made a formal claim for a reward for his invention, but this was turned down on the grounds that no direct link could be established between his design and the first tanks that were built. Even so, the Inventions Committee did authorize a sum of money to cover his expenses, and in 1920 de Mole was a made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.Returning to Australia, de Mole worked as an engineer in the design branch of the Sydney Water Board. He continued to invent, but none of his designs, which covered a wide range of items, were ever taken up.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsCBE 1920.Further ReadingAustralian Dictionary of Biography, 1918, Vol. 8.A.J.Smithers, 1986, A New Excalibur: The Development of the Tank 1909–1939, London: Leo Cooper (for illustrations of the model of his tank).Mention of his invention is made in a number of books on the history of the tank.CM -
89 Morris, William Richard, Viscount Nuffield
[br]b. 10 October 1877 Worcester, Englandd. 22 August 1963 Nuffield Place, England[br]English industrialist, car manufacturer and philanthropist.[br]Morris was the son of Frederick Morris, then a draper. He was the eldest of a family of seven, all of whom, except for one sister, died in childhood. When he was 3 years old, his father moved to Cowley, near Oxford, where he attended the village school. After a short time with a local bicycle firm he set up on his own at the age of 16 with a capital of £4. He manufactured pedal cycles and by 1902 he had designed a motor cycle and was doing car-repair work. By 1912, at the Motor Show, he was able to announce his first car, the 8.9 hp, two-seater Morris Oxford with its characteristic "bull-nose". It could perform at up to 50 mph (80 km/h) and 50 mpg (5.65 1/100 km). It cost £165.Though untrained, Morris was a born engineer as well as a natural judge of character. This enabled him to build up a reliable team of assistants in his growing business, with an order for four hundred cars at the Motor Show in 1912. Much of his business was built up in the assembly of components manufactured by outside suppliers. In he moved out of his initial premises by New College in Longwall and bought land at Cowley, where he brought out his second model, the 11.9hp Morris Oxford. This was after the First World War, during which car production was reduced to allow the manufacture of tanks and munitions. He was awarded the OBE in 1917 for his war work. Morris Motors Ltd was incorporated in 1919, and within fifteen months sales of cars had reached over 3,000 a year. By 1923 he was producing 20,000 cars a year, and in 1926 50,000, equivalent to about one-third of Britain's output. With the slump, a substantial overdraft, and a large stock of unsold cars, Morris took the bold decision to cut the prices of cars in stock, which then sold out within three weeks. Other makers followed suit, but Morris was ahead of them.Morris was part-founder of the Pressed Steel Company, set up to produce car bodies at Cowley. A clever operation with the shareholding of the Morris Motors Company allowed Morris a substantial overall profit to provide expansion capital. By 1931 his "empire" comprised, in addition to Morris Motors, the MG Car Company, the Wolseley Company, the SU Carburettor Company and Morris Commercial Cars. In 1936, the value of Morris's financial interest in the business was put at some £16 million.William Morris was a frugal man and uncomplicated, having little use for all the money he made except to channel it to charitable purposes. It is said that in all he gave away some £30 million during his lifetime, much of it invested by the recipients to provide long-term benefits. He married Elizabeth Anstey in 1904 and lived for thirty years at Nuffield Place. He lived modestly, and even after retirement, when Honorary President of the British Motor Corporation, the result of a merger between Morris Motors and the Austin Motor Company, he drove himself to work in a modest 10 hp Wolseley. His generosity benefited many hospitals in London, Oxford, Birmingham and elsewhere. Oxford Colleges were another class of beneficiary from his largesse.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsViscount 1938; Baron (Lord Nuffield) 1934; Baronet 1929; OBE 1917; GBE 1941; CH 1958. FRS 1939. He was a doctor of seven universities and an honorary freeman of seven towns.Further ReadingR.Jackson, 1964, The Nuffield Story.P.W.S.Andrews and E.Brunner, The Life of Lord Nuffield.IMcNBiographical history of technology > Morris, William Richard, Viscount Nuffield
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90 Pliny the Elder (Gaius Plinius Secundus)
SUBJECT AREA: Metallurgy[br]b. c. 23 AD Como, Italyd. 25 August 79 AD near Pompeii, Italy[br]Roman encyclopedic writer on the natural world.[br]Pliny was well educated in Rome, and for ten years or so followed a military career with which he was able to combine literary work, writing especially on historical subjects. He completed his duties c. 57 AD and concentrated on writing until he resumed his official career in 69 AD with administrative duties. During this last phase he began work on his only extant work, the thirty-seven "books" of his Historia Naturalis (Natural History), each dealing with a broad subject such as astronomy, geography, mineralogy, etc. His last post was the command of the fleet based at Misenum, which came to an end when he sailed too near Vesuvius during the eruption that engulfed Pompeii and he was overcome by the fumes.Pliny developed an insatiable curiosity about the natural world. Unlike the Greeks, the Romans made few original contributions to scientific thought and observation, but some made careful compilations of the learning and observations of Greek scholars. The most notable and influential of these was the Historia Naturalis. To the ideas about the natural world gleaned from earlier Greek authors, he added information about natural history, mineral resources, crafts and some technological processes, such as the extraction of metals from their ores, reported to him from the corners of the Empire. He added a few observations of his own, noted during travels on his official duties. Not all the reports were reliable, and the work often presents a tangled web of fact and fable. Gibbon described it as an immense register in which the author has "deposited the discoveries, the arts, and the errors of mankind". Pliny was indefatigable in his relentless note-taking, even dictating to his secretary while dining.During the Dark Ages and early Middle Ages in Western Europe, Pliny's Historia Naturalis was the largest known collection of facts about the natural world and was drawn upon freely by a succession of later writers. Its influence survived the influx into Western Europe, from the twelfth century, of translations of the works of Greek and Arab scholars. After the invention of printing in the middle of the fifteenth century, Pliny was the first work on a scientific subject to be printed, in 1469. Many editions followed and it may still be consulted with profit for its insights into technical knowledge and practice in the ancient world.[br]BibliographyThe standard Latin text with English translation is that edited by H.Rackham et al.(1942– 63, Loeb Classical Library, London: Heinemann, 10 vols). The French version is by A.Further ReadingThe editions mentioned above include useful biographical and other details. For special aspects of Pliny, see K.C.Bailey, 1929–32, The Elder Pliny's Chapters on Chemical Subjects, London, 2 vols.LRDBiographical history of technology > Pliny the Elder (Gaius Plinius Secundus)
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91 Rittinger, Peter von
SUBJECT AREA: Mining and extraction technology[br]b. 23 January 1811 Neutitschein, Moravia (now Now Jicin, Czech Republic)d. 7 December 1872 Vienna, Austria[br]Austrian mining engineer, improver of the processing of minerals.[br]After studying law, philosophy and politics at the University of Olmutz (now Olomouc), in 1835 Rittinger became a fellow of the Mining Academy in Schemnitz (now Banská Štiavnica), Slovakia. In 1839, the year he finished at the academy, he published a book on perspective drawing. The following year, he became Inspector of Mills at the ore mines in Schemnitz, and in 1845 he was engaged in coal mining in Bohemia and Moravia. In 1849 he joined the mining administration at Joachimsthal (now Jáchymov), Bohemia. In these early years he contributed his first important innovations for the mining industry and thus fostered his career in the government's service. In 1850 he was called to Vienna to become a high-ranked officer in various ministries. He was responsible for the construction of buildings, pumping installations and all sorts of machinery in the mining industry; he reorganized the curricula of the mining schools, was responsible for the mint and became head of the department of mines, forests and salt-works in the Austrian empire.During all his years of public service, Rittinger continued his concern with technological innovations. He improved the processing of ores by introducing in 1844 the rotary washer and the box classifier, and later his continuously shaking concussion table which, having been exhibited at the Vienna World Fair of 1873, was soon adopted in other countries. He constructed water-column pumps, invented a differential shaft pump with hydraulic linkage to replace the heavy iron rods and worked on centrifugal pumps. He was one of the first to be concerned with the transfer of heat, and he developed a system of using exhaust steam for heating in salt-works. He kept his eye on current developments abroad, using his function as official Austrian commissioner to the world exhibitions, on which he published frequently as well as on other matters related to technology. With his systematic handbook on mineral processing, first published in 1867, he emphasized his international reputation in this specialized field of mining.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsKnighted 1863. Order of the Iron Crown 1863. Honorary Citizen of Joachimsthal 1864. President, Austrian Chamber of Engineers and Architects 1863–5.Bibliography1849, Der Spitzkasten-Apparat statt Mehlrinnen und Sümpfen…bei der nassen Aufbereitung, Freiberg.1854, Theoretisch-praktische Anleitung zur Rader-Verzahnung, Vienna.1855, Theoretisch-praktische Abhandlung über ein für alle Gattungen von Flüssigkeiten anwendbares neues Abdampfverfahren, Vienna.1861, Theorie und Bau der Rohrturbinen, Prague.1867, Lehrbuch der Aufbereitungskunde, Berlin (with supplements, 1870–73).Further ReadingH.Kunnert, 1972, "Peter Ritter von Rittinger. Lebensbild eines grossen Montanisten", Der Anschnitt 24:3–7 (a detailed description of his life, based on source material).J.Steiner, 1972, "Der Beitrag von Peter Rittinger zur Entwicklung der Aufbereitungstechnik". Berg-und hüttenmännische Monatshefte 117: 471–6 (an evaluation of Rittinger's achievements for the processing of ores).WK -
92 Short, Hugh Oswald
SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace[br]b. 16 January 1883 Derbyshire, Englandd. 4 December 1969 Haslemere, England[br]English co-founder, with his brothers Horace Short (1872–1917) and Eustace (1875–1932), of the first company to design and build aeroplanes in Britain.[br]Oswald Short trained as an engineer; he was largely self-taught but was assisted by his brothers Eustace and Horace. In 1898 Eustace and the young Oswald set up a balloon business, building their first balloon in 1901. Two years later they sold observation balloons to the Government of India, and further orders followed. Meanwhile, in 1906 Horace designed a high-altitude balloon with a spherical pressurized gondola, an idea later used by Auguste Piccard, in 1931. Horace, a strange genius with a dominating character, joined his younger brothers in 1908 to found Short Brothers. Their first design, based on the Wright Flyer, was a limited success, but No. 2 won a Daily Mail prize of £1,000. In the same year, 1909, the Wright brothers chose Shorts to build six of their new Model A biplanes. Still using the basic Wright layout, Horace designed the world's first twin-engined aeroplane to fly successfully: it had one engine forward of the pilot, and one aft. During the years before the First World War the Shorts turned to tractor biplanes and specialized in floatplanes for the Admiralty.Oswald established a seaplane factory at Rochester, Kent, during 1913–14, and an airship works at Cardington, Bedfordshire, in 1916. Short Brothers went on to build the rigid airship R 32, which was completed in 1919. Unfortunately, Horace died in 1917, which threw a greater responsibility onto Oswald, who became the main innovator. He introduced the use of aluminium alloys combined with a smooth "stressed-skin" construction (unlike Junkers, who used corrugated skins). His sleek biplane the Silver Streak flew in 1920, well ahead of its time, but official support was not forthcoming. Oswald Short struggled on, trying to introduce his all-metal construction, especially for flying boats. He eventually succeeded with the biplane Singapore, of 1926, which had an all-metal hull. The prototype was used by Sir Alan Cobham for his flight round Africa. Several successful all-metal flying boats followed, including the Empire flying boats (1936) and the ubiquitous Sunderland (1937). The Stirling bomber (1939) was derived from the Sunderland. The company was nationalized in 1942 and Oswald Short retired the following year.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsHonorary Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society. Freeman of the City of London. Oswald Short turned down an MBE in 1919 as he felt it did not reflect the achievements of the Short Brothers.Bibliography1966, "Aircraft with stressed skin metal construction", Journal of the Royal Aeronautical Society (November) (an account of the problems with patents and officialdom).Further ReadingC.H.Barnes, 1967, Shorts Aircraft since 1900, London; reprinted 1989 (a detailed account of the work of the Short brothers).JDS -
93 Simms, Frederick
[br]b. 1863 Hamburg, Germany d. 1944[br]English engineer and entrepreneur who imported the first internal combustion engines into Britain.[br]Simms was born of English parents in Hamburg. He met Gottlieb Daimler at an exhibition in Bremen in 1890, where he had gone to exhibit an aerial cableway that he had designed to provide passenger transport over rivers and valleys; in the previous year, he had invented and patented an automatic railway ticket machine, the principle of which is still in use worldwide. He obtained a licence to develop the Daimler engine throughout the British Empire (excluding Canada). He had great trouble in arranging any demonstration of the Daimler engine as authorities were afraid of the risk of fire and explosion with petroleum spirit, particularly at indoor venues. He succeeded eventually in operating a boat with an internal combustion engine between Charing Cross and Westminster piers on the River Thames in 1891. He then rented space under a railway arch at Putney Bridge station for installing Daimler engines in boats. With Sir David Salomans he was responsible for organizing the first motor show in Britain in 1895; four cars were on show. Simms became a director of the main Daimler company, and was a consultant to the Coventry Daimler Company. He was the founder of the Automobile Club of Great Britain and Ireland, a forerunner of the Royal Automobile Club (RAC), as well as the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders.[br]Further ReadingE.Johnson, 1986, The Dawn of Motoring, London: Mercedes-Benz UK Ltd.IMcN -
94 Sopwith, Sir Thomas (Tommy) Octave Murdoch
SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace[br]b. 18 January 1888 London, Englandd. 27 January 1989 Stockbridge, Hampshire, England[br]English aeronautical engineer and industrialist.[br]Son of a successful mining engineer, Sopwith did not shine at school and, having been turned down by the Royal Navy as a result, attended an engineering college. His first interest was motor cars and, while still in his teens, he set up a business in London with a friend in order to sell them; he also took part in races and rallies.Sopwith's interest in aviation came initially through ballooning, and in 1906 he purchased his own balloon. Four years later, inspired by the recent flights across the Channel to France and after a joy-ride at Brooklands, he bought an Avis monoplane, followed by a larger biplane, and taught himself to fly. He was awarded the Royal Aero Society's Aviator Certificate No. 31 on 21 November 1910, and he quickly distinguished himself in flying competitions on both sides of the Atlantic and started his own flying school. In his races he was ably supported by his friend Fred Sigrist, a former motor engineer. Among the people Sopwith taught to fly were an Australian, Harry Hawker, and Major Hugh Trenchard, who later became the "father" of the RAF.In 1912, depressed by the poor quality of the aircraft on trial for the British Army, Sopwith, in conjunction with Hawker and Sigrist, bought a skating rink in Kingston-upon-Thames and, assisted by Fred Sigrist, started to design and build his first aircraft, the Sopwith Hybrid. He sold this to the Royal Navy in 1913, and the following year his aviation manufacturing company became the Sopwith Aviation Company Ltd. That year a seaplane version of his Sopwith Tabloid won the Schneider Trophy in the second running of this speed competition. During 1914–18, Sopwith concentrated on producing fighters (or "scouts" as they were then called), with the Pup, the Camel, the 1½ Strutter, the Snipe and the Sopwith Triplane proving among the best in the war. He also pioneered several ideas to make flying easier for the pilot, and in 1915 he patented his adjustable tailplane and his 1 ½ Strutter was the first aircraft to be fitted with air brakes. During the four years of the First World War, Sopwith Aviation designed thirty-two different aircraft types and produced over 16,000 aircraft.The end of the First World War brought recession to the aircraft industry and in 1920 Sopwith, like many others, put his company into receivership; none the less, he immediately launched a new, smaller company with Hawker, Sigrist and V.W.Eyre, which they called the H.G. Hawker Engineering Company Ltd to avoid any confusion with the former company. He began by producing cars and motor cycles under licence, but was determined to resume aircraft production. He suffered an early blow with the death of Hawker in an air crash in 1921, but soon began supplying aircraft to the Royal Air Force again. In this he was much helped by taking on a new designer, Sydney Camm, in 1923, and during the next decade they produced a number of military aircraft types, of which the Hart light bomber and the Fury fighter, the first to exceed 200 mph (322 km/h), were the best known. In the mid-1930s Sopwith began to build a large aviation empire, acquiring first the Gloster Aircraft Company and then, in quick succession, Armstrong-Whitworth, Armstrong-Siddeley Motors Ltd and its aero-engine counterpart, and A.V.Roe, which produced Avro aircraft. Under the umbrella of the Hawker Siddeley Aircraft Company (set up in 1935) these companies produced a series of outstanding aircraft, ranging from the Hawker Hurricane, through the Avro Lancaster to the Gloster Meteor, Britain's first in-service jet aircraft, and the Hawker Typhoon, Tempest and Hunter. When Sopwith retired as Chairman of the Hawker Siddeley Group in 1963 at the age of 75, a prototype jump-jet (the P-1127) was being tested, later to become the Harrier, a for cry from the fragile biplanes of 1910.Sopwith also had a passion for yachting and came close to wresting the America's Cup from the USA in 1934 when sailing his yacht Endeavour, which incorporated a number of features years ahead of their time; his greatest regret was that he failed in his attempts to win this famous yachting trophy for Britain. After his retirement as Chairman of the Hawker Siddeley Group, he remained on the Board until 1978. The British aviation industry had been nationalized in April 1977, and Hawker Siddeley's aircraft interests merged with the British Aircraft Corporation to become British Aerospace (BAe). Nevertheless, by then the Group had built up a wide range of companies in the field of mechanical and electrical engineering, and its board conferred on Sopwith the title Founder and Life President.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsKnighted 1953. CBE 1918.Bibliography1961, "My first ten years in aviation", Journal of the Royal Aeronautical Society (April) (a very informative and amusing paper).Further ReadingA.Bramson, 1990, Pure Luck: The Authorized Biography of Sir Thomas Sopwith, 1888– 1989, Wellingborough: Patrick Stephens.B.Robertson, 1970, Sopwith. The Man and His Aircraft, London (a detailed publication giving plans of all the Sopwith aircraft).CM / JDSBiographical history of technology > Sopwith, Sir Thomas (Tommy) Octave Murdoch
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95 Vitruvius Pollio
SUBJECT AREA: Architecture and building[br]b. early first century BCd. c. 25 BC[br]Roman writer on architecture and engineering subjects.[br]Nothing is known of Vitruvius apart from what can be gleaned from his only known work, the treatise De architectura. He seems to have been employed in some capacity by Julius Caesar and continued to serve under his heir, Octavianus, later Emperor Augustus, to whom he dedicated his book. It was written towards the end of his life, after Octavianus became undisputed ruler of the Empire by his victory at Actium in 31 BC, and was based partly on his own experience and partly on earlier, Hellenistic, writers.The De architectura is divided into ten books. The first seven books expound the general principles of architecture and the planning, design and construction of various types of building, public and domestic, including a consideration of techniques and materials. Book 7 deals with interior decoration, including stucco work and painting, while Book 8 treats water supply, from the location of sources to the transport of water by aqueducts, tunnels and pipes. Book 9, after a long and somewhat confused account of the astronomical theories of the day, describes various forms of clock and sundial. Finally, Book 10 deals with mechanical devices for handling building materials and raising and pumping water, for which Vitruvius draws on the earlier Greek authors Ctesibius and Hero.Although this may seem a motley assembly of subjects, to the Roman architect and builder it was a logical compendium of the subjects he was expected to know about. At the time, Vitruvius' rigid rules for the design of buildings such as temples seem to have had little influence, but his accounts of more practical matters of building materials and techniques were widely used. His illustrations to the original work were lost in antiquity, for no later manuscript includes them. Through the Middle Ages, manuscript copies were made in monastic scriptoria, although the architectural style in vogue had little relevance to those in Vitruvius: these came into their own with the Italian Renaissance. Alberti, writing the first great Renaissance treatise on architecture from 1452 to 1467, drew heavily on De architectura; those who sought to revive the styles of antiquity were bound to regard the only surviving text on the subject as authoritative. The appearance of the first printed edition in 1486 only served to extend its influence.During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Vitruvius was used as a handbook for constructing machines and instruments. For the modern historian of technology and architecture the work is a source of prime importance, although it must be remembered that the illustrations in the early printed editions are of contemporary reproductions of ancient devices using the techniques of the time, rather than authentic representations of ancient technology.[br]BibliographyOf the several critical editions of De architectura there are the Teubner edition, 1899. ed. V.Rose, Leipzig; the Loeb Classical Library edition, 1962, ed. F.Granger, London: Heinemann, (with English trans. and notes); and the Collection Guillaume Budé with French trans. and full commentary, 10 vols, Paris (in progress).Further ReadingApart from the notes to the printed editions, see also: H.Plommer, 1973, Vitruvius and Later Roman Building Manuals, London. A.G.Drachmann, 1963, The Mechanical Technology of Greek and Roman Antiquity Copenhagen and London.S.L.Gibbs, 1976, Greek and Roman Sundials, New Haven and London.LRD -
96 Young, Arthur
SUBJECT AREA: Agricultural and food technology[br]b. 11 September 1741 London, Englandd. 20 April 1820 Bradford, England[br]English writer and commentator on agricultural affairs; founder and Secretary of the Board of Agriculture (later the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food).[br]He was the youngest of the three children of Dr Arthur Young, who was at one time Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons. He learned Latin and Greek at Lavenham School, and at the age of 17 was apprenticed to a mercantile house, an occupation he disliked. He first published The Theatre of the Present War in North America in 1758. He then wrote four novels and began to produce the literary magazine The Universal Museum. After his father's death he returned home to manage his father's farm, and in 1765 he married Martha Allen.Young learned farming by experiment, and three years after his return he took over the rent of a 300 acre farm, Samford Hall in Essex. He was not a practical farmer, and was soon forced to give it up in favour of one of 100 acres (40.5 hectares) in Hertfordshire. He subsidized his farming with his writing, and in 1768 published The Farmer's Letters to the People of England. The first of his books on agricultural tours, Six Weeks Tours through the Counties of England and Wales, was published in 1771. Between 1784 and 1809 he published the Annals of Agriculture, one of whose contributors was George III, who wrote under the pseudonym of Ralph Robinson.By this time he was corresponding with all of influence in agricultural matters, both at home and abroad. George Washington wrote frequently to Young, and George III was reputed to travel always with a copy of his book. The Empress of Russia sent students to him and had his Tours published in Russian. Young made three trips to France in 1787, 1788 and 1789–90 respectively, prior to and during the French Revolution, and his Travels in France (1792) is a remarkable account of that period, made all the more fascinating by his personal contact with people differing as widely as Mirabeau, the French revolutionary leader, and King Louis XVI.Unfortunately, in 1811 an unsuccessful cataract operation left him blind, and he moved from London to his native Bradford, where he remained until his death.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsChairman, Agricultural Committee of the Society of Arts 1773: awarded three Gold Medals during his career for his achievements in practical agriculture. FRS. Honorary Member of the Dublin, York and Manchester learned societies, as well as the Economic Society of Berne, the Palatine Academy of Agriculture at Mannheim, and the Physical Society of Zurich. Honourary member, French Royal Society of Agriculture. Secretary, Board of Agriculture 1793.BibliographyHis first novels were The Fair Americans, Sir Charles Beaufort, Lucy Watson and Julia Benson.His earliest writings on agriculture appeared as collected letters in a periodical with the title Museum Rusticum in 1767.In 1770 he published a two-volume work entitled A Course of Experimental Agriculture, and between 1766 and 1775 he published The Farmer's Letters, Political Arithmetic, Political Essays Concerning the Present State of the British Empire and Southern, Northern and Eastern Tours, and in 1779 he published The Tour of Ireland.In addition he was author of the Board of Agriculture reports on the counties of Suffolk, Lincoln, Norfolk, Hertford, Essex and Oxford.Further ReadingJ.Thirsk (ed.), 1989, The Agrarian History of England and Wales, Vol. VI (deals with the years 1750 to 1850, the period associated with Young).T.G.Gazeley, 1973, "The life of Arthur Young, 1741–1820", Memoirs, American Philosophical Society 97.AP
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