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121 Baekeland, Leo Hendrik
[br]b. 14 November 1863 Saint-Martens-Latern, Belgiumd. 23 February 1944 Beacon, New York, USA[br]Belgian/American inventor of the Velox photographic process and the synthetic plastic Bakélite.[br]The son of an illiterate shoemaker, Baekeland was first apprenticed in that trade, but was encouraged by his mother to study, with spectacular results. He won a scholarship to Gand University and graduated in chemistry. Before he was 21 he had achieved his doctorate, and soon afterwards he obtained professorships at Bruges and then at Gand. Baekeland seemed set for a distinguished academic career, but he turned towards the industrial applications of chemistry, especially in photography.Baekeland travelled to New York to further this interest, but his first inventions met with little success so he decided to concentrate on one that seemed to have distinct commercial possibilities. This was a photographic paper that could be developed in artificial light; he called this "gas light" paper Velox, using the less sensitive silver chloride as a light-sensitive agent. It proved to have good properties and was easy to use, at a time of photography's rising popularity. By 1896 the process began to be profitable, and three years later Baekeland disposed of his plant to Eastman Kodak for a handsome sum, said to be $3–4 million. That enabled him to retire from business and set up a laboratory at Yonkers to pursue his own research, including on synthetic resins. Several chemists had earlier obtained resinous products from the reaction between phenol and formaldehyde but had ignored them. By 1907 Baekeland had achieved sufficient control over the reaction to obtain a good thermosetting resin which he called "Bakélite". It showed good electrical insulation and resistance to chemicals, and was unchanged by heat. It could be moulded while plastic and would then set hard on heating, with its only drawback being its brittleness. Bakelite was an immediate success in the electrical industry and Baekeland set up the General Bakelite Company in 1910 to manufacture and market the product. The firm grew steadily, becoming the Bakélite Corporation in 1924, with Baekeland still as active President.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsPresident, Electrochemical Society 1909. President, American Chemical Society 1924. Elected to the National Academy of Sciences 1936.Further ReadingJ.Gillis, 1965, Leo Baekeland, Brussels.A.R.Matthis, 1948, Leo H.Baekeland, Professeur, Docteur ès Sciences, chimiste, inventeur et grand industriel, Brussels.J.K.Mumford, 1924, The Story of Bakélite.C.F.Kettering, 1947, memoir on Baekeland, Biographical Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences 24 (includes a list of his honours and publications).LRD -
122 Baird, John Logie
[br]b. 13 August 1888 Helensburgh, Dumbarton, Scotlandd. 14 June 1946 Bexhill-on-Sea, Sussex, England[br]Scottish inventor of mechanically-based television.[br]Baird attended Larchfield Academy, then the Royal Technical College and Glasgow University. However, before he could complete his electrical-engineering degree, the First World War began, although poor health kept him out of the armed services.Employed as an engineer at the Clyde Valley Electrical Company, he lost his position when his diamond-making experiment caused a power failure in Glasgow. He then went to London, where he lived with his sister and tried manufacturing household products of his own design. To recover from poor health, he then went to Hastings and, using scrap materials, began experiments with imaging systems. In 1924 he transmitted outline images over wires, and by 1925 he was able to transmit recognizable human faces. In 1926 he was able to transmit moving images at a resolution of thirty lines per image and a frequency of ten images per second over an infrared link. Also that year, he started the world's first television station, which he named 2TV. In 1927 he transmitted moving images from London to Glasgow, and later that year to a passenger liner. In 1928 he demonstrated colour television.In 1936, when the BBC wanted to begin television service, Baird's system lost out in a competition with Marconi Electric and Musical Industries (EMI). In 1946 Baird reported that he had successfully completed research on a stereo television system.[br]Further ReadingR.Tiltman, 1933, Baird of Television, London: Seeley Service; repub. 1974, New York: Arno Press.J.Rowland, 1967, The Television Man: The Story of John Logie Baird, New York: Roy Publishers.F.Macgregor, 1984, Famous Scots, Gordon Wright (contains a short biography on Baird).HO -
123 Baxter, George
SUBJECT AREA: Paper and printing[br]b. 31 July 1804 Lewes, Sussex, Englandd. 11 January 1867 Sydenham, London, England[br]English pioneer in colour printing.[br]The son of a printer, Baxter was apprenticed to a wood engraver and there began his search for improved methods of making coloured prints, hitherto the perquisite of the rich, in order to bring them within reach of a wider public. After marriage to the daughter of Robert Harrild, founder of the printing firm of Harrild \& Co., he set up house in London, where he continued his experiments on colour while maintaining the run-of-the-mill work that kept the family.The nineteenth century saw a tremendous advance in methods of printing pictures, produced as separate prints or as book illustrations. For the first three decades colour was supplied by hand, but from the 1830s attempts were made to print in colour, using a separate plate for each one. Coloured prints were produced by chromolithography and relief printing on a small scale. Prints were first made with the latter method on a commercial scale by Baxter with a process that he patented in 1835. He generally used a key plate that was engraved, aquatinted or lithographed; the colours were then printed separately from wood or metal blocks. Baxter was a skilful printer and his work reached a high standard. An early example is the frontispiece to Robert Mudie's Summer (1837). In 1849 he began licensing his patent to other printers, and after the Great Exhibition of 1851 colour relief printing came into its own. Of the plethora of illustrated literature that appeared then, Baxter's Gems of the Great Exhibition was one of the most widely circulated souvenirs of the event.Baxter remained an active printer through the 1850s, but increasing competition from the German coloured lithographic process undermined his business and in 1860 he gave up the unequal struggle. In May of that year, all his oil pictures, engravings and blocks went up for auction, some 3,000 lots altogether. Baxter retired to Sydenham, then a country place, making occasional visits to London until injuries sustained in a mishap while he was ascending a London omnibus led to his death. Above all, he helped to initiate the change from the black and white world of pre-Victorian literature to the riotously colourful world of today.[br]Further ReadingC.T.Courtney Lewis, 1908, George Baxter, the Picture Printer, London: Sampson Lowe, Marsden (the classic account).M.E.Mitzmann, 1978, George Baxter and the Baxter Prints, Newton Abbot: David \& Charles.LRD -
124 Bell, Revd Patrick
SUBJECT AREA: Agricultural and food technology[br]b. 1799 Auchterhouse, Scotlandd. 22 April 1869 Carmyllie, Scotland[br]Scottish inventor of the first successful reaping machine.[br]The son of a Forfarshire tenant farmer, Patrick Bell obtained an MA from the University of St Andrews. His early association with farming kindled an interest in engineering and mechanics and he was to maintain a workshop not only on his father's farm, but also, in later life, at the parsonage at Carmyllie.He was still studying divinity when he invented his reaping machine. Using garden shears as the basis of his design, he built a model in 1827 and a full-scale prototype the following year. Not wishing the machine to be seen during his early experiments, he and his brother planted a sheaf of oats in soil laid out in a shed, and first tried the machine on this. It cut well enough but left the straw in a mess behind it. A canvas belt system was devised and another secret trial in the barn was followed by a night excursion into a field, where corn was successfully harvested.Two machines were at work during 1828, apparently achieving a harvest rate of one acre per hour. In 1832 there were ten machines at work, and at least another four had been sent to the United States by this time. Despite their success Bell did not patent his design, feeling that the idea should be given free to the world. In later years he was to regret the decision, feeling that the many badly-made imitations resulted in its poor reputation and prevented its adoption.Bell's calling took precedence over his inventive interests and after qualifying he went to Canada in 1833, spending four years in Fergus, Ontario. He later returned to Scotland and be-came the minister at Carmyllie, with a living of £150 per annum.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsLate in the day he was honoured for his part in the development of the reaping machine. He received an honorary degree from the University of St Andrews and in 1868 a testimonial and £1,000 raised by public subscription by the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland.Bibliography1854, Journal of Agriculture (perhaps stung by other claims, Bell wrote his own account).Further ReadingG.Quick and W.Buchele, 1978, The Grain Harvesters, American Society of Agricultural Engineers (gives an account of the development of harvesting machinery).L.J.Jones, 1979, History of Technology, pp. 101–48 (gives a critical assessment of the various claims regarding the originality of the invention).J.Hendrick, 1928, Transactions of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, pp.51–69 (provides a celebration of Bell's achievement on its centenary).AP -
125 Bramah, Joseph
SUBJECT AREA: Civil engineering, Domestic appliances and interiors, Land transport, Mechanical, pneumatic and hydraulic engineering, Public utilities[br]b. 2 April 1749 Stainborough, Yorkshire, Englandd. 9 December 1814 Pimlico, London, England[br]English inventor of the second patented water-closet, the beer-engine, the Bramah lock and, most important, the hydraulic press.[br]Bramah was the son of a tenant farmer and was educated at the village school before being apprenticed to a local carpenter, Thomas Allot. He walked to London c.1773 and found work with a Mr Allen that included the repair of some of the comparatively rare water-closets of the period. He invented and patented one of his own, which was followed by a water cock in 1783. His next invention, a greatly improved lock, involved the devising of a number of special machine tools, for it was one of the first devices involving interchangeable components in its manufacture. In this he had the help of Henry Maudslay, then a young and unknown engineer, who became Bramah's foreman before setting up business on his own. In 1784 he moved his premises from Denmark Street, St Giles, to 124 Piccadilly, which was later used as a showroom when he set up a factory in Pimlico. He invented an engine for putting out fires in 1785 and 1793, in effect a reciprocating rotary-vane pump. He undertook the refurbishment and modernization of Norwich waterworks c.1793, but fell out with Robert Mylne, who was acting as Consultant to the Norwich Corporation and had produced a remarkably vague specification. This was Bramah's only venture into the field of civil engineering.In 1797 he acted as an expert witness for Hornblower \& Maberley in the patent infringement case brought against them by Boulton and Watt. Having been cut short by the judge, he published his proposed evidence in "Letter to the Rt Hon. Sir James Eyre, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas…etc". In 1795 he was granted his most important patent, based on Pascal's Hydrostatic Paradox, for the hydraulic press which also incorporated the concept of hydraulics for the transmission of both power and motion and was the foundation of the whole subsequent hydraulic industry. There is no truth in the oft-repeated assertion originating from Samuel Smiles's Industrial Biography (1863) that the hydraulic press could not be made to work until Henry Maudslay invented the self-sealing neck leather. Bramah used a single-acting upstroking ram, sealed only at its base with a U-leather. There was no need for a neck leather.He also used the concept of the weight-loaded, in this case as a public-house beer-engine. He devised machinery for carbonating soda water. The first banknote-numbering machine was of his design and was bought by the Bank of England. His development of a machine to cut twelve nibs from one goose quill started a patent specification which ended with the invention of the fountain pen, patented in 1809. His coach brakes were an innovation that was followed bv a form of hydropneumatic carriage suspension that was somewhat in advance of its time, as was his patent of 1812. This foresaw the introduction of hydraulic power mains in major cities and included the telescopic ram and the air-loaded accumulator.In all Joseph Bramah was granted eighteen patents. On 22 March 1813 he demonstrated a hydraulic machine for pulling up trees by the roots in Hyde Park before a large crowd headed by the Duke of York. Using the same machine in Alice Holt Forest in Hampshire to fell timber for ships for the Navy, he caught a chill and died soon after at his home in Pimlico.[br]Bibliography1778, British patent no. 1177 (water-closet). 1784, British patent no. 1430 (Bramah Lock). 1795, British patent no. 2045 (hydraulic press). 1809, British patent no. 3260 (fountain pen). 1812, British patent no. 3611.Further ReadingI.McNeil, 1968, Joseph Bramah, a Century of Invention.S.Smiles, 1863, Industrial Biography.H.W.Dickinson, 1942, "Joseph Bramah and his inventions", Transactions of the Newcomen Society 22:169–86.IMcN -
126 Braun, Wernher Manfred von
[br]b. 23 March 1912 Wirsitz, Germanyd. 16 June 1977 Alexandria, Virginia, USA[br]German pioneer in rocket development.[br]Von Braun's mother was an amateur astronomer who introduced him to the futuristic books of Jules Verne and H.G.Wells and gave him an astronomical telescope. He was a rather slack and undisciplined schoolboy until he came across Herman Oberth's book By Rocket to Interplanetary Space. He discovered that he required a good deal of mathematics to follow this exhilarating subject and immediately became an enthusiastic student.The Head of the Ballistics and Armaments branch of the German Army, Professor Karl Becker, had asked the engineer Walter Dornberger to develop a solid-fuel rocket system for short-range attack, and one using liquid-fuel rockets to carry bigger loads of explosives beyond the range of any known gun. Von Braun joined the Verein für Raumschiffsfahrt (the German Space Society) as a young man and soon became a leading member. He was asked by Rudolf Nebel, VfR's chief, to persuade the army of the value of rockets as weapons. Von Braun wisely avoided all mention of the possibility of space flight and some financial backing was assured. Dornberger in 1932 built a small test stand for liquid-fuel rockets and von Braun built a small rocket to test it; the success of this trial won over Dornberger to space rocketry.Initially research was carried out at Kummersdorf, a suburb of Berlin, but it was decided that this was not a suitable site. Von Braun recalled holidays as a boy at a resort on the Baltic, Peenemünde, which was ideally suited to rocket testing. Work started there but was not completed until August 1939, when the group of eighty engineers and scientists moved in. A great fillip to rocket research was received when Hitler was shown a film and was persuaded of the efficacy of rockets as weapons of war. A factory was set up in excavated tunnels at Mittelwerk in the Harz mountains. Around 6,000 "vengeance" weapons were built, some 3,000 of which were fired on targets in Britain and 2,000 of which were still in storage at the end of the Second World War.Peenemünde was taken by the Russians on 5 May 1945, but by then von Braun was lodging with many of his colleagues at an inn, Haus Ingeburg, near Oberjoch. They gave themselves up to the Americans, and von Braun presented a "prospectus" to the Americans, pointing out how useful the German rocket team could be. In "Operation Paperclip" some 100 of the team were moved to the United States, together with tons of drawings and a number of rocket missiles. Von Braun worked from 1946 at the White Sands Proving Ground, New Mexico, and in 1950 moved to Redstone Arsenal, Huntsville, Alabama. In 1953 he produced the Redstone missile, in effect a V2 adapted to carry a nuclear warhead a distance of 320 km (199 miles). The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was formed in 1958 and recruited von Braun and his team. He was responsible for the design of the Redstone launch vehicles which launched the first US satellite, Explorer 1, in 1958, and the Mercury capsules of the US manned spaceflight programme which carried Alan Shepard briefly into space in 1961 and John Glenn into earth orbit in 1962. He was also responsible for the Saturn series of large, staged launch vehicles, which culminated in the Saturn V rocket which launched the Apollo missions taking US astronauts for the first human landing on the moon in 1969. Von Braun announced his resignation from NASA in 1972 and died five years later.[br]Bibliography1981, with F.L.Ordway, History of Rocketry and Space TravelFurther ReadingP.Marsh, 1985, The Space Business, Penguin. J.Trux, 1985, The Space Race, New English Library. T.Osman, 1983, Space History, Michael Joseph.IMcNBiographical history of technology > Braun, Wernher Manfred von
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127 Carlson, Chester Floyd
SUBJECT AREA: Photography, film and optics[br]b. 8 July 1906 Seattle, Washington, USAd. 19 September 1968 New York, USA[br][br]Carlson studied physics at the California Institute of Technology and in 1930 he took a research position at Bell Telephone Laboratories, but soon transferred to their patent department. To equip himself in this field, Carlson studied law, and in 1934 he became a patent attorney at P.R.Mallory \& Co., makers of electrical apparatus. He was struck by the difficulty in obtaining copies of documents and drawings; indeed, while still at school, he had encountered printing problems in trying to produce a newsletter for amateur chemists. He began experimenting with various light-sensitive substances, and by 1937 he had conceived the basic principles of xerography ("dry writing"), using the property of certain substances of losing an electrostatic charge when light impinges on them. His work for Mallory brought him into contact with the Battelle Memorial Institute, the world's largest non-profit research organization; their subsidiary, set up to develop promising ideas, took up Carlson's invention. Carlson received his first US patent for the process in 1940, with two more in 1942, and he assigned to Battelle exclusive patent rights in return for a share of any future proceeds. It was at Battelle that selenium was substituted as the light-sensitive material.In 1946 the Haloid Company of Rochester, manufacturers of photographic materials and photocopying equipment, heard of the Xerox copier and, seeing it as a possible addition to their products, took out a licence to develop it commercially. The first Xerox Copier was tested during 1949 and put on the market the following year. The process soon began to displace older methods, such as Photostat, but its full impact on the public came in 1959 with the advent of the Xerox 914 Copier. It is fair to apply the overworked word "revolution" to the change in copying methods initiated by Carlson. He became a multimillionaire from his royalties and stock holding, and in his last years he was able to indulge in philanthropic activities.[br]Further ReadingObituary, 1968, New York Times, 20 September.R.M.Schaffert, 1954, "Developments in xerography", Penrose Annual.J.Jewkes, 1969, The Sources of Invention, 2nd edn, London: Macmillan, pp. 405–8.LRD -
128 Chapman, Frederik Henrik af
SUBJECT AREA: Ports and shipping[br]b. 9 September 1721 Gothenburg, Swedend. 19 August 1808 Karlskrona, Sweden[br]Swedish naval architect and shipbuilder; one of the foremost ship designers of all time.[br]Chapman was born on the west coast of Sweden and was the son of a British naval officer serving in the Swedish Navy. In 1738 he followed in his father's footsteps by joining the naval dockyards as a shipbuilding apprentice. Subsequent experience was gained in other shipyards and by two years (1741–3) in London. His assiduous note taking and study of British shipbuilding were noticed and he was offered appointments in England, but these were refused and he returned to Sweden in 1744 and for a while operated as a ship repairer in partnership with a man called Bagge. In 1749 he started out on his own. He began with a period of study in Stockholm and in London, where he worked for a while under Thomas Simpson, and then went on to France and the Netherlands. During his time in England he learned the art of copper etching, a skill that later stood him in good stead. After some years he was appointed Deputy Master Shipwright to the Swedish Navy, and in 1760 he became Master Shipwright at Sveaborg (now Suomenlinna), the fortress island of Helsinki. There Chapman excelled by designing the coastal defence or skerry fleet that to this day is accepted as beautiful and fit for purpose. He understood the limitations of ship design and throughout his life strove to improve shipbuilding by using the advances in mathematics and science that were then being made. His contribution to the rationalization of thought in ship theory cannot be overemphasized.In 1764 he became Chief Shipbuilder to the Swedish Navy, with particular responsibility for Karlskrona and for Stockholm. He assisted in the new rules for the classification of warships and later introduced standardization to the naval dockyards. He continued to rise in rank and reputation until his retirement in 1793, but to the end his judgement was sought on many matters concerning not only ship design but also the administration of the then powerful Swedish Navy.His most important bequest to his profession is the great book Architectura Navalis Mercatoria, first published in 1768. Later editions were larger and contained additional material. This volume remains one of the most significant works on shipbuilding.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsKnighted 1772. Rear Admiral 1783, Vice-Admiral 1791.Bibliography1768, Architecture Navalis Mercatoria; 1975, pub. in English, trans. Adlard Coles. 1775, Tractat om Skepps-Buggeriet.Further ReadingD.G.Harris, 1989, F.H.Chapman, the First Naval Architect and His Work, London: Conway (an excellent biography).FMWBiographical history of technology > Chapman, Frederik Henrik af
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