engineer's+method

SUBJECT AREA: Land transport, Railways and locomotives

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Chapelon's technical education at the Ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, Paris, was interrupted by extended military service during the First World War. From experience of observing artillery from the basket of a captive balloon, he developed a method of artillery fire control which was more accurate than that in use and which was adopted by the French army.

In 1925 he joined the motive-power and rolling-stock department of the Paris-Orléans Railway under Chief Mechanical Engineer Maurice Lacoin and was given the task of improving the performance of its main-line 4–6–2 locomotives, most of them compounds. He had already made an intensive study of steam locomotive design and in 1926 introduced his Kylchap exhaust system, based in part on the earlier work of the Finnish engineer Kyläla. Chapelon improved the entrainment of the hot gases in the smokebox by the exhaust steam and so minimized back pressure in the cylinders, increasing the power of a locomotive substantially. He also greatly increased the cross-sectional area of steam passages, used poppet valves instead of piston valves and increased superheating of steam. PO (Paris-Orléans) 4–6–2s rebuilt on these principles from 1929 onwards proved able to haul 800-ton trains, in place of the previous 500-ton trains, and to do so to accelerated schedules with reduced coal consumption. Commencing in 1932, some were converted, at the time of rebuilding, into 4–8–0s to increase adhesive weight for hauling heavy trains over the steeply graded Paris-Toulouse line.

Chapelon's principles were quickly adopted on other French railways and elsewhere.

H.N. Gresley was particularly influenced by them. After formation of the French National Railways (SNCF) in 1938, Chapelon produced in 1941 a prototype rebuilt PO 2–10–0 freight locomotive as a six-cylinder compound, with four low-pressure cylinders to maximize expansive use of steam and with all cylinders steam-jacketed to minimize heat loss by condensation and radiation. War conditions delayed extended testing until 1948–52. Meanwhile Chapelon had, by rebuilding, produced in 1946 a high-powered, three-cylinder, compound 4–8–4 intended as a stage in development of a proposed range of powerful and thermally efficient steam locomotives for the postwar SNCF: a high-speed 4–6–4 in this range was to run at sustained speeds of 125 mph (200 km/h). However, plans for improved steam locomotives were then overtaken in France by electriflcation and dieselization, though the performance of the 4–8–4, which produced 4,000 hp (3,000 kW) at the drawbar for the first time in Europe, prompted modification of electric locomotives, already on order, to increase their power.

Chapelon retired from the SNCF in 1953, but continued to act as a consultant. His principles were incorporated into steam locomotives built in France for export to South America, and even after the energy crisis of 1973 he was consulted on projects to build improved, high-powered steam locomotives for countries with reserves of cheap coal. The eventual fall in oil prices brought these to an end.

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SUBJECT AREA: Land transport, Railways and locomotives

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Robert Stephenson's father was George Stephenson, who ensured that his son was educated to obtain the theoretical knowledge he lacked himself. In 1821 Robert Stephenson assisted his father in his survey of the Stockton \& Darlington Railway and in 1822 he assisted William James in the first survey of the Liverpool \& Manchester Railway. He then went to Edinburgh University for six months, and the following year Robert Stephenson \& Co. was named after him as Managing Partner when it was formed by himself, his father and others. The firm was to build stationary engines, locomotives and railway rolling stock; in its early years it also built paper-making machinery and did general engineering.

In 1824, however, Robert Stephenson accepted, perhaps in reaction to an excess of parental control, an invitation by a group of London speculators called the Colombian Mining Association to lead an expedition to South America to use steam power to reopen gold and silver mines. He subsequently visited North America before returning to England in 1827 to rejoin his father as an equal and again take charge of Robert Stephenson \& Co. There he set about altering the design of steam locomotives to improve both their riding and their steam-generating capacity. Lancashire Witch, completed in July 1828, was the first locomotive mounted on steel springs and had twin furnace tubes through the boiler to produce a large heating surface. Later that year Robert Stephenson \& Co. supplied the Stockton \& Darlington Railway with a wagon, mounted for the first time on springs and with outside bearings. It was to be the prototype of the standard British railway wagon. Between April and September 1829 Robert Stephenson built, not without difficulty, a multi-tubular boiler, as suggested by Henry Booth to George Stephenson, and incorporated it into the locomotive Rocket which the three men entered in the Liverpool \& Manchester Railway's Rainhill Trials in October. Rocket, was outstandingly successful and demonstrated that the long-distance steam railway was practicable.

Robert Stephenson continued to develop the locomotive. Northumbrian, built in 1830, had for the first time, a smokebox at the front of the boiler and also the firebox built integrally with the rear of the boiler. Then in Planet, built later the same year, he adopted a layout for the working parts used earlier by steam road-coach pioneer Goldsworthy Gurney, placing the cylinders, for the first time, in a nearly horizontal position beneath the smokebox, with the connecting rods driving a cranked axle. He had evolved the definitive form for the steam locomotive.

Also in 1830, Robert Stephenson surveyed the London \& Birmingham Railway, which was authorized by Act of Parliament in 1833. Stephenson became Engineer for construction of the 112-mile (180 km) railway, probably at that date the greatest task ever undertaken in of civil engineering. In this he was greatly assisted by G.P.Bidder, who as a child prodigy had been known as "The Calculating Boy", and the two men were to be associated in many subsequent projects. On the London \& Birmingham Railway there were long and deep cuttings to be excavated and difficult tunnels to be bored, notoriously at Kilsby. The line was opened in 1838.

In 1837 Stephenson provided facilities for W.F. Cooke to make an experimental electrictelegraph installation at London Euston. The directors of the London \& Birmingham Railway company, however, did not accept his recommendation that they should adopt the electric telegraph and it was left to I.K. Brunel to instigate the first permanent installation, alongside the Great Western Railway. After Cooke formed the Electric Telegraph Company, Stephenson became a shareholder and was Chairman during 1857–8.

Earlier, in the 1830s, Robert Stephenson assisted his father in advising on railways in Belgium and came to be increasingly in demand as a consultant. In 1840, however, he was almost ruined financially as a result of the collapse of the Stanhope \& Tyne Rail Road; in return for acting as Engineer-in-Chief he had unwisely accepted shares, with unlimited liability, instead of a fee.

During the late 1840s Stephenson's greatest achievements were the design and construction of four great bridges, as part of railways for which he was responsible. The High Level Bridge over the Tyne at Newcastle and the Royal Border Bridge over the Tweed at Berwick were the links needed to complete the East Coast Route from London to Scotland. For the Chester \& Holyhead Railway to cross the Menai Strait, a bridge with spans as long-as 460 ft (140 m) was needed: Stephenson designed them as wrought-iron tubes of rectangular cross-section, through which the trains would pass, and eventually joined the spans together into a tube 1,511 ft (460 m) long from shore to shore. Extensive testing was done beforehand by shipbuilder William Fairbairn to prove the method, and as a preliminary it was first used for a 400 ft (122 m) span bridge at Conway.

In 1847 Robert Stephenson was elected MP for Whitby, a position he held until his death, and he was one of the exhibition commissioners for the Great Exhibition of 1851. In the early 1850s he was Engineer-in-Chief for the Norwegian Trunk Railway, the first railway in Norway, and he also built the Alexandria \& Cairo Railway, the first railway in Africa. This included two tubular bridges with the railway running on top of the tubes. The railway was extended to Suez in 1858 and for several years provided a link in the route from Britain to India, until superseded by the Suez Canal, which Stephenson had opposed in Parliament. The greatest of all his tubular bridges was the Victoria Bridge across the River St Lawrence at Montreal: after inspecting the site in 1852 he was appointed Engineer-in-Chief for the bridge, which was 1 1/2 miles (2 km) long and was designed in his London offices. Sadly he, like Brunel, died young from self-imposed overwork, before the bridge was completed in 1859.

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See also: Pihl, Carl Abraham; Seguin, Marc

SUBJECT AREA: Steam and internal combustion engines

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Jonathan came from a family with an engineering tradition: his grandfather Joseph had worked under Thomas Newcomen. Jonathan was the sixth child in a family of thirteen whose names all began with "J". In 1781 he was living at Penryn, Cornwall and described himself as a plumber, brazier and engineer. As early as 1776, when he wished to amuse himself by making a small st-eam engine, he wanted to make something new and wondered if the steam would perform more than one operation in an engine. This was the foundation for his compound engine. He worked on engines in Cornwall, and in 1778 was Engineer at the Ting Tang mine where he helped Boulton \& Watt erect one of their engines. He was granted a patent in 1781 and in that year tried a large-scale experiment by connecting together two engines at Wheal Maid. Very soon John Winwood, a partner in a firm of iron founders at Bristol, acquired a share in the patent, and in 1782 an engine was erected in a colliery at Radstock, Somerset. This was probably not very successful, but a second was erected in the same area. Hornblower claimed greater economy from his engines, but steam pressures at that time were not high enough to produce really efficient compound engines. Between 1790 and 1794 ten engines with his two-cylinder arrangement were erected in Cornwall, and this threatened Boulton \& Watt's near monopoly. At first the steam was condensed by a surface condenser in the bottom of the second, larger cylinder, but this did not prove very successful and later a water jet was used. Although Boulton \& Watt proceeded against the owners of these engines for infringement of their patent, they did not take Jonathan Hornblower to court. He tried a method of packing the piston rod by a steam gland in 1781 and his work as an engineer must have been quite successful, for he left a considerable fortune on his death.

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1) (of person) Fähigkeit, die; Tüchtigkeit, die; (of machine, factory, engine) Leistungsfähigkeit, die; (of organization, method) Rationalität, die; gutes Funktionieren

2) (Mech., Phys.) Wirkungsgrad, der

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noun die Tüchtigkeit, die Tauglichkeit

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1. no pl (proficiency) of a company Leistungsfähigkeit f; of a system Effizienz f geh, Leistungsfähigkeit f; of a person Tüchtigkeit f; of a method Wirksamkeit f, Effizienz f geh

2. no pl (frugality) Wirtschaftlichkeit f, Effizienz f geh

energy \efficiency sparsame Energieverwendung

3. ( spec: of a machine, an engine) Wirkungsgrad m fachspr

4. AM (apartment) kleines Apartment

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efficiency [ıˈfıʃənsı] s

1. Effizienz f, Tüchtigkeit f, (Leistungs)Fähigkeit f:

efficiency rating Leistungsbewertung f;

efficiency report Leistungsbericht m;

efficiency wages pl leistungsbezogener Lohn; → academic.ru/57988/principle">principle 1

2. Effizienz f, Wirksamkeit f

3. Effizienz f, Tauglichkeit f, Brauchbarkeit f

4. Effizienz f, rationelle Arbeitsweise, Wirtschaftlichkeit f:

efficiency engineer ( oder expert) WIRTSCH Rationalisierungsfachmann m

5. auch efficiency apartment US Einzimmerappartement n

6. Effizienz f, PHYS, TECH Leistung(sfähigkeit) f, Wirkungsgrad m, Nutzleistung f, Ausbeute f

7. wirkende Ursächlichkeit

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1) (of person) Fähigkeit, die; Tüchtigkeit, die; (of machine, factory, engine) Leistungsfähigkeit, die; (of organization, method) Rationalität, die; gutes Funktionieren

2) (Mech., Phys.) Wirkungsgrad, der

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Arbeitsleistung f.

Effektivität f.

Effizienz f.

Leistungsfähigkeit f.

Wirksamkeit f.

1) fis. telev. rad. suono m.

2) (noise) rumore m.; (of bell, instrument, voice) suono m.

3) (volume) audio m., volume m.

4) mus. (distinctive style)

5) fig. (impression from hearsay)

modificatore [engineer, technician] del suono

1) (in good condition) [building, constitution] solido; [ heart] forte; [lungs, physique] sano; [ health] buono

2) (well-founded) [basis, education] solido; [ judgment] sensato; [ advice] valido

3) (trustworthy)

4) econ. comm. [ investment] sicuro; [ management] oculato

5) (deep) [ sleep] profondo

6) (correct, acceptable)

1) fare suonare [ siren]; suonare [ trumpet]

2) ling. pronunciare [ letter]

3) med. auscultare [ chest]

4) (express) dare [ warning]

1) (seem) sembrare

2) (give impression by voice or tone)

3) (convey impression) fare, suonare

4) (make a noise) [trumpet, alarm, buzzer, siren] suonare

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- sound off

- sound out

nome geogr. stretto m.

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1) (strong or in good condition: The foundations of the house are not very sound; He's 87, but he's still sound in mind and body.)

2) ((of sleep) deep: She's a very sound sleeper.)

3) (full; thorough: a sound basic training.)

4) (accurate; free from mistakes: a sound piece of work.)

5) (having or showing good judgement or good sense: His advice is always very sound.)

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- soundly

1) (the impressions transmitted to the brain by the sense of hearing: a barrage of sound; ( also adjective) sound waves.)

2) (something that is, or can be, heard: The sounds were coming from the garage.)

3) (the impression created in the mind by a piece of news, a description etc: I didn't like the sound of her hairstyle at all!)

1) (to (cause something to) make a sound: Sound the bell!; The bell sounded.)

2) (to signal (something) by making a sound: Sound the alarm!)

3) ((of something heard or read) to make a particular impression; to seem; to appear: Your singing sounded very good; That sounds like a train.)

4) (to pronounce: In the word `pneumonia', the letter p is not sounded.)

5) (to examine by tapping and listening carefully: She sounded the patient's chest.)

•

- soundless

- sound-track

- sounding

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1 sano ( anche fig.); buono; in buone condizioni fisiche; solido; valido; efficace; fondato (fig.): a sound mind in a sound body, mente sana in corpo sano; safe and sound, sano e salvo; a sound economic policy, una sana politica economica; sound advice, buoni consigli; consigli validi; a sound ship, una nave in buone condizioni; a sound bank, una banca solida; a sound method, un metodo valido; sound criticism, critiche efficaci, fondate

2 accurato; completo: a sound investigation, un'accurata indagine

3 ( del sonno) profondo; tranquillo: to be sound asleep, dormir della grossa; dormire profondamente

4 (comm.) solvibile

5 ( di persona) integro; onesto; fidato: a sound friend, un amico fidato

6 (leg.: di un titolo di proprietà, ecc.) valido

7 (fam.) buono; bravo; capace: a sound player, un bravo giocatore

8 (fam.) forte; sonoro; bello (fam.): a sound defeat, una bella batosta; a sound slap, un sonoro ceffone, un bello schiaffo

● sound-headed, equilibrato (fig.) □ (fam.) sound in life and limb, in buona salute; in forma □ (fin.) a sound investment, un investimento sicuro □ sound-minded, dotato di buonsenso □ (fin.) sound money, moneta stabile □ sound sense, buonsenso □ a sound thrashing, una bella bastonatura; un fracco di botte (pop.) □ sound views, vedute giuste; idee sane □ (fam.) as sound as a bell, ( di persona) sano come un pesce; ( di cosa) in perfette condizioni.

A n. [uc]

1 suono ( anche fig.); rumore; rombo; rimbombo; rintocco: (fon.) vowel sounds, suoni vocalici; What was that sound?, cosa è stato quel rumore?; the sound of footsteps, il rumore dei passi; The sound of aircraft landing, il rombo degli aerei che atterrano; the sound of bells, il rintocco delle campane; a metallic sound, un suono metallico

2 tono: I like the sound of her voice, mi piace il tono della sua voce

3 ( radio) suono; voce (fam.)

4 (cinem.) (il) sonoro

5 (TV) (il) sonoro; audio: loss of sound, scomparsa del sonoro; Turn down the sound, will you?, abbassa l'audio (o il volume), per favore!

6 (fig.) modo in cui si mettono le cose: From the sound of it, I'm afraid the strike may go on for weeks, da come si mettono le cose, temo che lo sciopero vada avanti per delle settimane; by the sound of it, a quanto pare

B a. attr.

1 (fis.) acustico: sound absorption, assorbimento acustico

2 (mus., cinem., TV) sonoro: a sound film, un film sonoro; sound effects, effetti sonori

3 (ling.) fonetico: sound law, legge fonetica; sound system, sistema fonetico

● (aeron.) sound barrier, muro del suono: to break the sound barrier, superare il muro del suono □ (fam.) sound bite ► sound-bite □ (mus.) sound body ► soundbox □ (cinem., TV) sound by…, tecnico del suono… ( seguito dal nome) □ (comput.) sound card, scheda audio □ (tecn.) sound check, controllo dell'audio □ sound conditioned, insonorizzato □ (tecn.) sound deadener, materiale fonoassorbente □ sound engineer, tecnico del suono; (cinem.) fonico □ (comm.) sound equipment, attrezzature acustiche □ (mus.) sound grill, griglia sonora ( di fisarmonica) □ (fis.) sound-level meter, fonometro □ sound library, fonoteca □ sound meter = sound-level meter ► sopra □ sound mixer, apparecchio per il missaggio ( di un film, ecc.), mixer; tecnico addetto al missaggio □ (mus.) sound post, anima ( di un violino, ecc.) □ sound projector, proiettore sonoro □ ( anche mil.) sound ranging, fonotelemetria □ (tecn.) sound-ranging altimeter, altimetro acustico □ sound recorder, fonoregistratore □ ( slang USA) sound sheet, disco fonografico inserito in una rivista; dischetto ( da pochi soldi) □ (ling.) sound shift, cambiamento fonetico; rotazione consonantica □ (cinem., radio, TV) sound technician (o recordist), fonico; tecnico del suono □ (cinem.) sound track, colonna sonora □ ( USA) sound truck, furgone con altoparlante □ (fis.) sound wave, onda sonora □ out of sound, fuori del campo uditivo □ to be within sound of st., essere in grado di udire qc.; essere a portata di orecchio □ We liked the sound of his report, il tenore della sua relazione ci fece piacere.

sonda ( anche med.); scandaglio.

n. (geogr.)

1 braccio di mare; stretto

2 ( USA) laguna.

(zool.) vescica natatoria ( dei pesci).

A v. i.

1 suonare ( anche fig.); echeggiare; rimbombare; risuonare; squillare: His last words sounded in my ears, le sue ultime parole mi risuonavano nelle orecchie; The bugles sounded, squillarono le trombe; This sentence doesn't sound well, questa frase suona male

2 sembrare, apparire, parere ( al suono): His idea sounds like a good one, la sua idea pare buona; DIALOGO → - After the cinema- That sounds good, buona idea; His voice sounded troubled, la sua voce appariva turbata; Your cough sounds better, sembra che la tosse ti stia passando; to sound as if (o as though) sembrare che: It sounds as if the economic situation is getting worse and worse, sembra che la congiuntura peggiori sempre più

B v. t.

1 suonare; ( dell'orologio) battere: (mil.) to sound the alarm [the retreat], suonare l'allarme [la ritirata]; The clock sounds the hour, l'orologio batte l'ora

2 far risuonare; battere su (qc. per controllarne il suono): to sound the wheels of a railway carriage, battere sulle ruote di una carrozza ferroviaria

3 (med.) auscultare

4 (fon.) pronunciare: The «h» in «heir» is not sounded, l'«h» nella parola «heir» non si pronuncia (o è muta)

5 (lett.) celebrare; proclamare; cantare (fig.): to sound sb. 's praises, cantar le lodi di q.

● to sound hollow, dare un suono cupo (o sordo); ( di scusa, pretesto, ecc.) suonare falso (o fasullo) □ (autom.) to sound one's horn, suonare (il clacson) □ (fig.) to sound a note of warning, far squillare un campanello d'allarme □ to sound off, (mil.) suonare; dare un segnale suonando; ( di soldati in marcia) cadenzare il passo ad alta voce; (fig. fam.) cantarla chiara, parlare apertamente; (fam. USA) concionare, pontificare; ( anche) lagnarsi, protestare, fare rimostranze □ to sound sb. 's praises far and wide, fare lodi sperticate a q.; portare q. alle stelle.

A v. t.

1 sondare; (naut.) scandagliare; (med.) esaminare con la sonda: to sound the bottom of the sea, scandagliare il fondo del mare; to sound the depth of a channel, sondare la profondità d'un canale marittimo; (med.) to sound the bladder, esaminare la vescica con la sonda

2 (fig., spesso to sound out) scandagliare; sondare; indagare su; sondare l'animo di, tastare il terreno (fig.): to sound sb. 's feelings, sondare i sentimenti di q.; Did you sound him out on ( o about) the subject?, hai tastato il terreno con lui in proposito?

B v. i.

1 (naut.) affondare lo scandaglio; misurare la profondità dell'acqua

2 ( delle balene e di alcuni pesci) immergersi; puntare verso il fondo.

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1) fis. telev. rad. suono m.

2) (noise) rumore m.; (of bell, instrument, voice) suono m.

3) (volume) audio m., volume m.

4) mus. (distinctive style)

5) fig. (impression from hearsay)

modificatore [engineer, technician] del suono

1) (in good condition) [building, constitution] solido; [ heart] forte; [lungs, physique] sano; [ health] buono

2) (well-founded) [basis, education] solido; [ judgment] sensato; [ advice] valido

3) (trustworthy)

4) econ. comm. [ investment] sicuro; [ management] oculato

5) (deep) [ sleep] profondo

6) (correct, acceptable)

1) fare suonare [ siren]; suonare [ trumpet]

2) ling. pronunciare [ letter]

3) med. auscultare [ chest]

4) (express) dare [ warning]

1) (seem) sembrare

2) (give impression by voice or tone)

3) (convey impression) fare, suonare

4) (make a noise) [trumpet, alarm, buzzer, siren] suonare

•

- sound off

- sound out

nome geogr. stretto m.

SUBJECT AREA: Electricity, Public utilities

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Ferranti, who had taken an interest in electrical and mechanical devices from an early age, was educated at St Augustine's College in Ramsgate and for a short time attended evening classes at University College, London. Rather than pursue an academic career, Ferranti, who had intense practical interests, found employment in 1881 with the Siemens Company (see Werner von Siemens) in their experimental department. There he had the opportunity to superintend the installation of electric-lighting plants in various parts of the country. Becoming acquainted with Alfred Thomson, an engineer, Ferranti entered into a short-lived partnership with him to manufacture the Ferranti alternator. This generator, with a unique zig-zag armature, had an efficiency exceeding that of all its rivals. Finding that Sir William Thomson had invented a similar machine, Ferranti formed a company with him to combine the inventions and produce the Ferranti- Thomson machine. For this the Hammond Electric Light and Power Company obtained the sole selling rights.

In 1885 the Grosvenor Gallery Electricity Supply Corporation was having serious problems with its Gaulard and Gibbs series distribution system. Ferranti, when consulted, reviewed the design and recommended transformers connected across constant-potential mains. In the following year, at the age of 22, he was appointed Engineer to the company and introduced the pattern of electricity supply that was eventually adopted universally. Ambitious plans by Ferranti for London envisaged the location of a generating station of unprecedented size at Deptford, about eight miles (13 km) from the city, a departure from the previous practice of placing stations within the area to be supplied. For this venture the London Electricity Supply Corporation was formed. Ferranti's bold decision to bring the supply from Deptford at the hitherto unheard-of pressure of 10,000 volts required him to design suitable cables, transformers and generators. Ferranti planned generators with 10,000 hp (7,460 kW)engines, but these were abandoned at an advanced stage of construction. Financial difficulties were caused in part when a Board of Trade enquiry in 1889 reduced the area that the company was able to supply. In spite of this adverse situation the enterprise continued on a reduced scale. Leaving the London Electricity Supply Corporation in 1892, Ferranti again started his own business, manufacturing electrical plant. He conceived the use of wax-impregnated paper-insulated cables for high voltages, which formed a landmark in the history of cable development. This method of flexible-cable manufacture was used almost exclusively until synthetic materials became available. In 1892 Ferranti obtained a patent which set out the advantages to be gained by adopting sector-shaped conductors in multi-core cables. This was to be fundamental to the future design and development of such cables.

A total of 176 patents were taken out by S.Z. de Ferranti. His varied and numerous inventions included a successful mercury-motor energy meter and improvements to textile-yarn produc-tion. A transmission-line phenomenon where the open-circuit voltage at the receiving end of a long line is greater than the sending voltage was named the Ferranti Effect after him.

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SUBJECT AREA: Electricity, Electronics and information technology, Public utilities

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After attending Owens College, Manchester, Hopkinson was admitted to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1867 to read for the Mathematical Tripos. An appointment in 1872 with the lighthouse department of the Chance Optical Works in Birmingham directed his attention to electrical engineering. His most noteworthy contribution to lighthouse engineering was an optical system to produce flashing lights that distinguished between individual beacons. His extensive researches on the dielectric properties of glass were recognized when he was elected to a Fellowship of the Royal Society at the age of 29. Moving to London in 1877 he became established as a consulting engineer at a time when electricity supply was about to begin on a commercial scale. During the remainder of his life, Hopkinson's researches resulted in fundamental contributions to electrical engineering practice, dynamo design and alternating current machine theory. In making a critical study of the Edison dynamo he developed the principle of the magnetic circuit, a concept also arrived at by Gisbert Kapp around the same time. Hopkinson's improvement of the Edison dynamo by reducing the length of the field magnets almost doubled its output. In 1890, in addition to-his consulting practice, Hopkinson accepted a post as the first Professor of Electrical Engineering and Head of the Siemens laboratory recently established at King's College, London. Although he was not involved in lecturing, the position gave him the necessary facilities and staff and student assistance to continue his researches. Hopkinson was consulted on many proposals for electric traction and electricity supply, including schemes in London, Manchester, Liverpool and Leeds. He also advised Mather and Platt when they were acting as contractors for the locomotives and generating plant for the City and South London tube railway. As early as 1882 he considered that an ideal method of charging for the supply of electricity should be based on a two-part tariff, with a charge related to maximum demand together with a charge for energy supplied. Hopkinson was one the foremost expert witnesses of his day in patent actions and was himself the patentee of over forty inventions, of which the three-wire system of distribution and the series-parallel connection of traction motors were his most successful. Jointly with his brother Edward, John Hopkinson communicated the outcome of his investigations to the Royal Society in a paper entitled "Dynamo Electric Machinery" in 1886. In this he also described the later widely used "back to back" test for determining the characteristics of two identical machines. His interest in electrical machines led him to more fundamental research on magnetic materials, including the phenomenon of recalescence and the disappearance of magnetism at a well-defined temperature. For his work on the magnetic properties of iron, in 1890 he was awarded the Royal Society Royal Medal. He was a member of the Alpine Club and a pioneer of rock climbing in Britain; he died, together with three of his children, in a climbing accident.

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SUBJECT AREA: Mining and extraction technology

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A former Second Lieutenant of the Austrian navy (hence his later nickname "Captain") and graduate of the Polytechnic Institute of Graz, Lucas decided to stay in Michigan when he visited his relatives in 1879. He changed his original name, Lucie, into the form his uncle had adopted and became a naturalized American citizen at the age of 30. He worked in the lumber industry for some years and then became a consulting mechanical and mining engineer in Washington, DC. He began working for a salt-mining company in Louisiana in 1893 and became interested in the geology of the Mexican Gulf region, with a view to prospecting for petroleum. In the course of this work he came to the conclusion that the hills in this elevated area, being geological structures distinct from the surrounding deposits, were natural reservoirs of petroleum. To prove his unusual theory he subsequently chose Spindle Top, near Beaumont, Texas, where in 1899 he began to bore a first oil-well. A second drill-hole, started in October 1900, was put through clay and quicksand. After many difficulties, a layer of rock containing marine shells was reached. When the "gusher" came out on 10 January 1901, it not only opened up a new era in the oil and gas business, but it also led to the future exploration of the terrestrial crust.

Lucas's boring was a breakthrough for the rotary drilling system, which was still in its early days although its principles had been established by the English engineer Robert Beart in his patent of 1884. It proved to have advantages over the pile-driving of pipes. A pipe with a simple cutter at the lower end was driven with a constantly revolving motion, grinding down on the bottom of the well, thus gouging and chipping its way downward. To deal with the quicksand he adopted the use of large and heavy casings successively telescoped one into the other. According to Fauvelle's method, water was forced through the pipe by means of a pump, so the well was kept full of circulating liquid during drilling, flushing up the mud. When the salt-rock was reached, a diamond drill was used to test the depth and the character of the deposit.

When the well blew out and flowed freely he developed a preventer in order to save the oil and, even more importantly at the time, to shut the well and to control the oil flow. This assembly, patented in 1903, consisted of a combined system of pipes, valves and casings diverting the stream into a horizontal direction.

Lucas's fame spread around the world, but as he had to relinquish the larger part of his interest to the oil company supporting the exploration, his financial reward was poor. One year after his success at Spindle Top he started oil exploration in Mexico, where he stayed until 1905, when he resumed his consulting practice in Washington, DC.

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SUBJECT AREA: Broadcasting, Electronics and information technology

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In 1884, while still a student engineer, Nipkow patented a mechanical television pick-up device using a disc with a spiral of twenty-four holes rotating at 600 rpm in front of a selenium cell. He also proposed a display on an identical synchronous disc in conjunction with a light-modulator based on the Faraday effect. Unfortunately it was not possible to realize a working system at the time because of the slow response of selenium cells and the lack of suitable electronic-sig-nal amplifiers; he was unable to pay the extension fees and so the patent lapsed. Others took up the idea, however, and in 1907 pictures were sent between London and Paris by wire. Subsequently, the principle was used by Baird, Ives, and Jenkins.

For most of his working life after obtaining his doctorate, Nipkow was employed as an engineer by a company that made railway-signalling equipment, but his pioneering invention was finally recognized in 1934 when he was made Honorary President of the newly formed German Television Society.

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SUBJECT AREA: Paper and printing, Photography, film and optics

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Poitevin graduated as a chemical engineer from the Ecole Centrale in Paris in 1843. He was appointed as a chemist with the Salines National de l'Est, a post which allowed him time for research, and he soon became interested in the recent invention of photography. He conducted a series of electrolytic experiments on daguerreotype plates in 1847 and 1848 which led him to propose a method of photochemical engraving on plates coated with silver or gold. In 1850 he joined the firm of Periere in Lyons, and the same year travelled to Paris. During the 1850s, Poitevin conducted a series of far-reaching experiments on the reactions of chromates with light, and in 1855 he took out two important patents which exploited the light sensitivity of bichromated gelatine. Poitevin's work during this period is generally recognized as having established the essential principles of photolithography, carbon printing and collotype printing, key steps in the development of modern photomechanical printing. His contribution to the advancement of photography was widely recognized and honours were showered upon him. Particularly welcome was the greater part of the 10,000 franc prize awarded by the Duke of Lynes, a wealthy art lover, for the discovery of permanent photographic printing processes. This sum was not sufficient to allow Poitevin to stop working, however, and in 1869 he resumed his career as a chemical engineer, first managing a glass works and then travelling to Africa to work in silver mines. Upon the death of his father he returned to his home town, where he remained until his own death in 1882.

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SUBJECT AREA: Metallurgy

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Wöhler, the son of a schoolteacher, was born at Soltau on the Luneburg Heath and received his early education at his father's school, where his mathematical abilities soon became apparent. He completed his studies at the Technical High School, Hannover.

In 1840 he obtained a position at the Borsig Engineering Works in Berlin and acquired there much valuable experience in railway technology. He trained as an engine driver in Belgium and in 1843 was appointed as an engineer to the first Hannoverian Railway, then being constructed between Hannover and Lehrte. In 1847 he became Chief Superintendent of rolling stock on the Lower Silesian-Brandenhurg Railway, where his technical abilities influenced the Prussian Minister of Commerce to appoint him to a commission set up to investigate the reasons for the unusually high incidence of axle failures then being encountered on the railways. This was in 1852, and by 1854, when the Brandenburg line had been nationalized, Wöhler had already embarked on the long, systematic programme of mechanical testing which eventually provided him with a clear insight into the process of what is now referred to as "fatigue failure". He concentrated initially on the behaviour of machined iron and steel specimens subjected to fluctuating direct, bending and torsional stresses that were imposed by testing machines of his own design.

Although Wöhler was not the first investigator in this area, he was the first to recognize the state of "fatigue" induced in metals by the repeated application of cycles of stress at levels well below those that would cause immediate failure. His method of plotting the fatigue stress amplitude "S" against the number of stress cycles necessary to cause failure "N" yielded the well-known S-N curve which described very precisely the susceptibility to fatigue failure of the material concerned. Engineers were thus provided with an invaluable testing technique that is still widely used in the 1990s.

Between 1851 and 1898 Wöhler published forty-two papers in German technical journals, although the importance of his work was not initially fully appreciated in other countries. A display of some of his fracture fatigue specimens at the Paris Exposition in 1867, however, stimulated a short review of his work in Engineering in London. Four years later, in 1871, Engineering published a series of nine articles which described Wöhler's findings in considerable detail and brought them to the attention of engineers. Wöhler became a member of the newly created management board of the Imperial German Railways in 1874, an appointment that he retained until 1889. He is also remembered for his derivation in 1855 of a formula for calculating the deflections under load of lattice girders, plate girders, and other continuous beams resting on more than two supports. This "Three Moments" theorem appeared two years before Clapeyron independently advanced the same expression. Wöhler's other major contribution to bridge design was to use rollers at one end to allow for thermal expansion and contraction.

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1) (an arrangement of many parts that work together: a railway system; the solar system; the digestive system.) sistema

2) (a person's body: Take a walk every day - it's good for the system!) organismo

3) (a way of organizing something according to certain ideas, principles etc: a system of government/education.) sistema

4) (a plan or method: What is your system for washing the dishes?) método

5) (the quality of being efficient and methodical: Your work lacks system.) organización, sistema, método

•

- systematic

system n sistema

tr['sɪstəm]

noun

1 (gen) sistema nombre masculino

■ she bought a stereo system se compró un equipo de estéreo

2 (body) cuerpo, organismo

■ too much fat is not good for the system el exceso de grasa no es bueno para el organismo

\

all systems go! ¡todo bien!

to get something out of one's system desahogarse

systems analysis análisis nombre masculino de sistemas

systems analyst analista nombre masulino o femenino de sistemas

system ['sɪstəm] n

1) method: sistema m, método m

2) apparatus: sistema m, instalación f, aparato m

electrical system: instalación eléctrica

digestive system: aparato digestivo

3) body: organismo m, cuerpo m

diseases that affect the whole system: enfermedades que afectan el organismo entero

4) network: red f

• constitución s.f.

• mecanismo s.m.

• método s.m.

• red s.f.

• régimen s.m.

• sistema s.m.

1)

a) u c ( ordered structure) sistema m, método m

b) c ( procedure) sistema m

c) c ( organizational whole) sistema m

2) c

a) (technical, mechanical) sistema m

b) ( Comput) sistema m

c) ( Audio) equipo m (de sonido or audio)

3) c

a) (Anat, Physiol)

b) ( body) cuerpo m, organismo m

4) c

a) ( form of government) sistema m

b) (establishment, status quo)

5) c ( for gambling) fórmula f, martingala f (CS)

1. N

1) (=method) sistema m

2) (Pol, Sociol) (=organization) sistema m

3) (Math, Sci) (=principles) sistema m

4) (Elec, Comput, Mech) sistema m

5) (=network) sistema m, red f

6) (=order) método m

7) (Med) (=organism) organismo m, cuerpo m

- get sth out of one's system

8)

9) (=classification) sistema m

10) (Astron) sistema m

* * *

1)

a) u c ( ordered structure) sistema m, método m

b) c ( procedure) sistema m

c) c ( organizational whole) sistema m

2) c

a) (technical, mechanical) sistema m

b) ( Comput) sistema m

c) ( Audio) equipo m (de sonido or audio)

3) c

a) (Anat, Physiol)

b) ( body) cuerpo m, organismo m

4) c

a) ( form of government) sistema m

b) (establishment, status quo)

5) c ( for gambling) fórmula f, martingala f (CS)

SUBJECT AREA: Steam and internal combustion engines

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Renowned more for his ideas on technical matters than his practical deeds, Beau de Rochas was a prolific thinker. Within a few years he proposed a rail tunnel beneath the English Channel, a submarine telegraph, a new kind of drive for canal boats, the use of steel for high-pressure boilers and a method of improving the adhesion of locomotive wheels travelling the Alps.

The most notable of Beau de Rochas's ideas occurred in 1862 when he was employed as Ingenieur Attaché to the Central de Chemins. With remarkable foresight, he expressed the theoretical considerations for the cycle of operations for the now widely used four-stroke cycle engine. A French patent of 1862 lapsed with a failure to pay the annuity and thus the proposals for a new motive power lapsed into obscurity. Resurrected some twenty years later, the Beau de Rochas tract figures prominently in patent litigation cases. In 1885, a German court upheld a submission by a German patent lawyer that Otto's four-stroke engine of 1876 infringed the Beau de Rochas patent. It remains a mystery why Beau de Rochas never emerged at any time to defend his claims. In France he is regarded as the inventor of the four-stroke cycle engine.

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See also: Langen, Eugen

SUBJECT AREA: Mechanical, pneumatic and hydraulic engineering

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Hugo Bilgram studied mechanical engineering at the Augsburg Maschinenbau Schule and graduated in 1865. He worked as a machinist and draughtsman for several firms in Germany before going to the United States in 1869.

In America he first worked for L.B.Flanders Company and Southwark Foundry \& Machine Company in Philadelphia, designing instruments and machines. In the 1870s he also assisted in an evening class in drawing at The Franklin Institute. He devised the Bilgram Valve Diagram for analysing the action of steam engine slide valves and he developed a method of drawing accurate outlines of gear teeth. This led him to design a machine for cutting the teeth of gear wheels, particularly bevel wheels, which he patented in 1884. He was in charge of the American branch of Brehmer Brothers Company from 1879 and in 1884 became the sole owner of the company, which was later incorporated as the Bilgram Machine Works. He was responsible for several other inventions and developments in gear manufacture.

Bilgram was a member of the Franklin Institute, the American Academy of Political and Social Science, the Philadelphia Technische Verein and the Philadelphia Engineer's Club, and was elected a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1885. He was also an amateur botanist, keenly interested in microscopic work.

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SUBJECT AREA: Electricity, Public utilities, Railways and locomotives

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After attending the Technical College in Winterthur, Brown served with Emile Burgin in Basle before entering the Oerlikon engineering works near Zurich. Two years later he became Director of the electrical department of Oerlikon and from that time was involved in the development of electrical equipment for the generation and distribution of power. The Lauffen-Frankfurt 110-mile (177 km) transmission line of 1891 demonstrated the commercial feasibility of transmitting electrical power over great distances with three-phase alternating current. For this he designed a generator and early examples of oil-cooled transformers, and the scheme gave an impetus to the development of electric-power transmission throughout Europe. In 1891, in association with Walter Boveri, Brown founded the works of Brown Boveri \& Co. at Baden, Switzerland, and until his retirement in 1911 he devoted his energies to the design of polyphase alternating-current machinery. Important installations included the Frankfurt electricity works (1894), the Paderno-Milan transmission line, and the Lugano tramway of 1894, the first system in Europe to use three-phase traction motors. This tramway was followed by many other polyphase and mountain railways. The acquisition by Brown Boveri \& Co. in 1900 of the manufacturing rights of the Parsons steam turbine directed Brown's attention to problems associated with high-speed machines. Recognizing the high centrifugal stress involved, he began to employ solid cylindrical generator rotors with slots for the excitation winding, a method that has come to be universally adopted in large alternators.

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SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace

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Chanute was born in Paris, but from the age of 6 he lived in the United States, where he became a prominent railway engineer. He developed an interest in aviation relatively late in life, and in fact built his first glider at the age of 64. Before that, he had collected all the information he could find on aviation, especially on the work of Otto Lilienthal in Germany. In 1894 he published an account of these researches in a classic work, Progress in Flying Machines.

By 1896 Chanute was ready to carry out practical experiments of his own and designed a series of hang-gliders. He started with a Lilienthal-type monoplane and progressed to his very successful biplane glider. He used a bridge-truss method of cross-bracing to give his wings the required strength, a system used by many of his successors, including the Wright brothers. Chanute's gliders were flown on the shore of Lake Michigan by his two young assistants A.M.Herring and W.Avery. The biplane glider made some seven hundred flights without mishap, covering up to 100 m (110 yds). In 1898 Herring fitted an engine into a modified glider and claimed to have made two short hops.

In 1900 the Wright brothers made contact with Chanute and sought his advice, which he readily gave, indeed, he became one of their most trusted advisors. In 1903 Chanute travelled to Paris and gave an illustrated lecture describing his own and the Wrights' gliding successes, generating much interest amongst European aviators.

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SUBJECT AREA: Architecture and building, Civil engineering

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Eugène Freyssinet was an army engineer during the First World War who pioneered pre-stressed reinforced concrete and experimented with building concrete bridges. After 1918 he formed his own company to develop his ideas. He investigated the possibilities of very high-strength concrete, and in so doing studied shrinkage and creep. He combined high-quality concrete with highly stressed, stretched steel to give top quality results. His work in 1926 on Plougastel Bridge, at that time the longest reinforced concrete bridge, is a notable example of his use of this technique. In 1916 Freyssinet had built his famous airship hangars at Orly, which were destroyed in the Second World War; the hangars were roofed in parabolic sections to a height of about 200 ft. In 1934 he succeeded in saving the Ocean Terminal at Le Havre from sinking into the mud and being covered by the sea by using his pre-stressing techniques. By 1938 he had developed a superior method of pre-stressing with steel which led to widespread adoption of his methods.

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SUBJECT AREA: Metallurgy

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After a general education at Vickery's School at Southsea, Izod (who pronounced his name Izzod, not Izod) started his career as a premium apprentice at the works of Maudslay, Sons and Field at Lambeth in January 1893. When in 1995 he was engaged in the installation of machinery in HMS Renown at Pembroke, he gained some notoriety for his temerity in ordering Rear Admiral J.A.Fisher, who had no pass, out of the main engine room. He subsequently worked at Portsmouth Dockyard where the battleships Caesar and Gladiator were being engined by Maudslay's. From 1898 to 1900 Izod worked as a Demonstrator in the laboratories of University College London, and he was then engaged by Captain H. Riall Sankey as his Personal Assistant at the Rugby works of Willans and Robinson. Soon after going to Rugby, Izod was asked by Sankey to examine a failed gun barrel and try to ascertain why it burst in testing. Conventional mechanical testing did not reveal any significant differences in the properties of good and bad material. Izod found, however, that, when specimens from the burst barrel were notched, gripped in a vice, and then struck with a hammer they broke in a brittle manner, whereas sounder material merely bent plastically. From these findings his well-known notched-bar impact test emerged. His address to the British Association in September 1903 described the test and his testing machine, and was subsequently published in Engineering. Izod never claimed any priority for this method of test, and generously acknowledged his predecessors in this field, Swedenborg, Fremont, Arnold and Bent Russell. The Izod Test was rapidly adopted by the English-speaking world, although Izod himself, being a busy man, did little to publicize his work, which was introduced to the engineering world largely through the efforts of Captain Sankey. Izod became Assistant Managing Director at Willans, and in 1910 was appointed Chief Consulting Mechanical and Electrical Engineer to the Central Mining Corporation at Johannesburg. He became Managing Director of the Rand Mines in 1918, and returned to the UK in 1927 to become the Managing Director of Weymann Motor Bodies Ltd of Addlestone. As Chairman of this company he extended its activitiesconsiderably.

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SUBJECT AREA: Mining and extraction technology

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After attending the School of Mines at Bochum, from 1862 he worked as an overseer in the coal-mining district of Ibbenbüren until he joined a mining company in the Ruhr area. There, as head of the machine shop, he was mainly concerned with sinking new shafts. In 1873 he became the Technical Director of the Hannover mine, near Bochum, which belonged to Krupp. When the shaft hoisting was to be extended to a lower level Koepe conceived the idea of applying a friction winder to the hoist instead of a drum, in order to save weight and costs. His method involved the use of an endless rope to which the cages were fixed without a safety catch. The rope passed over pulleys instead of coiling and uncoiling on a drum, and he consequently proposed to have the motor erected on top of the shaft rather than beside it, as had been the practice until then.

Koepe's innovation turned out to be highly effective for hoisting heavy loads from deep shafts and was still popular in many countries in the 1990s, although the Krupp company did not accept it for a long time. He had severe personal problems with the company, and as Krupp refused to have his system patented he had to take it out in his own name in 1877. However, Krupp did not pay for the extension of the patent, nor did they pass the dossiers over to him, so the patent expired two years later. It was not until 1888 that a hoisting engine equipped with a friction winder was erected for the first time in a head gear, above the new Hannover II shaft. The following year Koepe left the Krupp company and settled as a freelance consulting engineer in Bochum; he was successful in having his system introduced by other mining companies. Ironi-cally, in 1948 the world's first four-rope winding, based on his system, was installed at the Hannover mine.

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SUBJECT AREA: Civil engineering

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The son of Caleb and Sally Pratt, Thomas Pratt attended public school in Boston before going on to the Rensselaer School (now the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) in Troy, New York. While at school, his spare time was spent assisting his father, a well-known architect, in his practice. He is said to have drawn a complete set of plans for a substantial house when only 12 years old. At the conclusion of his studies, he was offered a teaching position at Rensselaer but turned it down as he was planning an engineering career; he became a government assistant on the construction of dry docks at Charleston, South Carolina, and Norfolk, Virginia.

After this experience of government work, he turned to railroad construction, first with the Boston and Lowell and Boston and Maine railroads, followed by many others. In this work, he became involved in bridge construction, mostly as consulting engineer. His best-known bridge was that over the Merrimack River at Newburyport, Massachusetts, which he built with six long timber spans and a metal drawspan. He also invented a new method of ship propulsion, a form of steam boiler, an equalizer for drawbridge supports and an improved form of combined timber and steel truss; he is best known, however, for the Pratt truss. This did not truly come into its own until the inception of all-metal construction for bridges, by which time it was too late for Pratt to gain much financial reward from it.

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