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101 MacCready, Paul
SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace[br]b. 29 September 1925 New Haven, Connecticut, USA[br]American designer of man-powered aeroplanes, one of which flew across the English Channel in 1979.[br]As a boy, Paul MacCready was an enthusiastic builder of flying model aeroplanes; he became US National Junior Champion in 1941. He learned to fly and became a pilot with the US Navy in 1943. he developed an interest in gliding in 1945 and became National Soaring Champion in 1948 and 1949. After graduating from the California Institute of Technology (Cal Tech) as a meteorologist, he set up Meteorological Research Inc. In 1953 MacCready became the first American to win the World Gliding Championship. When hang-gliders became popular in the early 1970s MacCready studied their performance and compared them with soaring birds: he came to the conclusion that man-powered flight was a possibility. In an effort to generate an interest in man-powered flight, a cash prize had been offered in Britain by Henry Kremer, a wealthy industrialist and fitness enthusiast. A man-powered aircraft had to complete a one-mile (1.6km) figure-of-eight course in order to win. However, the figure-of-eight proved to be a major obstacle and the prize money was increased over the years to £50,000. In 1976 MacCready and his friend Dr Peter Lissaman set to work on their computer and came up with their optimum design for a man-powered aircraft. The Gossamer Condor had a wing span of 96 ft (27.4 m), about the same as a Douglas DC-9 airliner, yet it weighed just 70 lb (32 kg). It was a tail-first design with a pedaldriven pusher propeller just behind the pilot. Bryan Allen, a biologist, pilot and racing cyclist, joined the team to provide the muscle-power. After over two hundred flights they were ready to make an attempt on the prize, and on 23 August 1977 they succeeded where many had failed, in 7 minutes. Kremer then offered £100,000 for the first manpowered flight across the English Channel. Many thought this would be impossible, but MacCready and his team set about the task of designing a new machine based on their Condor, which they called the Gossamer Albatross. Bryan Allen also had a major task: getting fit for a flight which might take three hours of pedalling. The weather was more of a problem than in California, and after a long delay the Gossamer Albatross took off, on 12 June 1979. After pedalling for 2 hours 49 minutes, Bryan Allen landed in France: it was seventy years since Blériot's flight, although Blériot was much quicker.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsWorld Gliding Champion 1953.Bibliography1979, "The Channel crossing and the future", Man Powered Aircraft Symposium, London: Royal Aeronautical Society.Further ReadingM.Grosser, 1981, Gossamer Odyssey, London (provides a brief biography and detailed accounts of the two aircraft).M.F.Jerram, 1980, Incredible Flying Machines, London (a short survey of pedal planes).Articles by Ron Moulton on the Gossamer Albatross appeared in Aerospace (Royal Aeronautical Society) London, August/September 1979, and the Aeromodeller, London, September 1979.JDS -
102 Macintosh, Charles
[br]b. 29 December 1766 Glasgow, Scotlandd. 25 July 1843 Dunchattan, near Glasgow, Scotland[br]Scottish inventor of rubberized waterproof clothing.[br]As the son of the well-known and inventive dyer George Macintosh, Charles had an early interest in chemistry. At the age of 19 he gave up his work as a clerk with a Glasgow merchant to manufacture sal ammoniac (ammonium chloride) and developed new processes in dyeing. In 1797 he started the first Scottish alum works, finding the alum in waste shale from coal mines. His first works was at Hurlet, Renfrewshire, and was followed later by others. He then formed a partnership with Charles Tennant, the proprietor of a chemical works at St Rollox, near Glasgow, and sold "lime bleaching liquor" made with chlorine and milk of lime from their bleach works at Darnley. A year later the use of dry lime to make bleaching powder, a process worked out by Macintosh, was patented. Macintosh remained associated with Tennant's St Rollox chemical works until 1814. During this time, in 1809, he had set up a yeast factory, but it failed because of opposition from the London brewers.There was a steady demand for the ammonia that gas works produced, but the tar was often looked upon as an inconvenient waste product. Macintosh bought all the ammonia and tar that the Glasgow works produced, using the ammonia in his establishment to produce cudbear, a dyestuff extracted from various lichens. Cudbear could be used with appropriate mordants to make shades from pink to blue. The tar could be distilled to produce naphtha, which was used as a flare. Macintosh also became interested in ironmaking. In 1825 he took out a patent for converting malleable iron into steel by taking it to white heat in a current of gas with a carbon content, such as coal gas. However, the process was not commercially successful because of the difficulty keeping the furnace gas-tight. In 1828 he assisted J.B. Neilson in bringing hot blast into use in blast furnaces; Neilson assigned Macintosh a share in the patent, which was of dubious benefit as it involved him in the tortuous litigation that surrounded the patent until 1843.In June 1823, as a result of experiments into the possible uses of naphtha obtained as a by-product of the distillation of coal tar, Macintosh patented his process for waterproofing fabric. This comprised dissolving rubber in naphtha and applying the solution to two pieces of cloth which were afterwards pressed together to form an impermeable compound fabric. After an experimental period in Glasgow, Macintosh commenced manufacture in Manchester, where he formed a partnership with H.H.Birley, B.Kirk and R.W.Barton. Birley was a cotton spinner and weaver and was looking for ways to extend the output of his cloth. He was amongst the first to light his mills with gas, so he shared a common interest with Macintosh.New buildings were erected for the production of waterproof cloth in 1824–5, but there were considerable teething troubles with the process, particularly in the spreading of the rubber solution onto the cloth. Peter Ewart helped to install the machinery, including a steam engine supplied by Boulton \& Watt, and the naphtha was supplied from Macintosh's works in Glasgow. It seems that the process was still giving difficulties when Thomas Hancock, the foremost rubber technologist of that time, became involved in 1830 and was made a partner in 1834. By 1836 the waterproof coat was being called a "mackintosh" [sic] and was gaining such popularity that the Manchester business was expanded with additional premises. Macintosh's business was gradually enlarged to include many other kinds of indiarubber products, such as rubber shoes and cushions.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsFRS 1823.Further ReadingG.Macintosh, 1847, Memoir of Charles Macintosh, London (the fullest account of Charles Macintosh's life).T.Hancock, 1957, Narrative of the Indiarubber Manufacture, London.H.Schurer, 1953, "The macintosh: the paternity of an invention", Transactions of the Newcomen Society 28:77–87 (an account of the invention of the mackintosh).RLH / LRD -
103 Marcus, Siegfried
[br]b. 18 September 1831 Malchin, Mecklenburgd. 30 June 1898 Vienna, Austria[br]German inventor, builder of the world's first self-propelled vehicle driven by an internal combustion engine.[br]Marcus was apprenticed as a mechanic and was employed in the newly founded enterprise of Siemens \& Halske in Berlin. He then went to Vienna and, from 1853, was employed in the workshop of the Imperial Court Mechanic, Kraft, and in the same year he was a mechanic in the Royal and Imperial Institute of Physics of the University of Vienna. In 1860 he became independent of the Imperial Court, but he installed an electrical bell system for the Empress Elizabeth and instructed the Crown Prince Rudolf in natural science.Marcus was granted thirty-eight patents in Austria, as well as many foreign patents. The magnetic electric ignition engine, for which he was granted a patent in 1864, brought him the biggest financial reward; it was introduced as the "Viennese Ignition" engine by the Austrian Navy and the pioneers of the Prussian and Russian armies. The engine was exhibited at the World Fair in Paris in 1867 together with the "Thermoscale" which was also constructed by Marcus; this was a magnetic/electric rotative engine for electric lighting and field telegraphy.Marcus's reputation is due mainly to his attempts to build a new internal combustion engine. By 1870 he had assembled a simple, direct-working internal combustion engine on a primitive chassis. This was, in fact, the first petrol-engined vehicle with electric ignition, and tradition records that when Marcus drove the vehicle in the streets of Vienna it made so much noise that the police asked him to remove it; this he did and did not persist with his experiments. Thus ended the trials of the world's first petrol-engined vehicle; it was running in 1875, ten years before Daimler and Benz were carrying out their early trials in Stuttgart.[br]Further ReadingAustrian Dictionary of National Biography.IMcN -
104 Matteucci, Felice
SUBJECT AREA: Steam and internal combustion engines[br]b. 1803 Italyd. 1887 Italy[br]Italian engineer, co-inventor of internal-combustion engines.[br]A distinguished hydraulic engineer, Matteucci is more widely known for his work on early internal-combustion engines. In 1851, during a landreclamation project in Florence, he became acquainted with Eugenio Barsanti. Together they succeeded in designing and producing a number of the first type of gas engines to produce a vacuum within a closed cylinder, atmospheric pressure then being utilized to produce the power stroke. The principle was demonstrated by Cecil in 1820 and was used by Samuel Brown in 1827 and by N.A. Otto in 1867. The company Società Promotrice del Nuovo Motore Barsanti e Matteucci was formed in 1860, but ill health forced Matteucci to resign in 1862, and in 1864 Barsanti, whilst negotiating mass production of engines with Cockerill of Seraing, Belgium, contracted typhoid and later died. Efforts to continue the business in Italy subsequently failed and Matteucci returned to his engineering practice.[br]Bibliography13 May 1852, British Provisional Patent no. 1,072 (the Barsanti and Matteucci engine). 12 June 1857, British patent no. 1,655 (contained many notable improvements to the design).Further ReadingThe Engineer (1858) 5:73–4 (for an account of the Italian engine).Vincenzo Vannacci, 1955, L'invenzione del motore a scoppio realizzota dai toscani Barsanti e Matteucci 1854–1954, Florence.KAB -
105 Moissan, Ferdinand-Frédéric-Henri
SUBJECT AREA: Chemical technology[br]b. 28 September 1852 Paris, Franced. 20 February 1907 Paris, France[br]French chemist, the first to isolate fluorine, and a pioneer in high-temperature technology.[br]His family, of modest means, moved in 1864 to Meaux, where he attended the municipal college; he returned to Paris before completing his education and apprenticed himself to a pharmacist. In 1872 he began work as a laboratory assistant at the Musée d'Histoire Naturelle, while continuing studies in chemistry. He qualified as a pharmacist at the Ecole Supérieure de Pharmacie in 1879, and by this time he had decided that his main interest was inorganic chemistry. His early investigations concerned the oxides of iron and related metals; his work attracted the favourable attention of Sainte-Claire Deville and was the subject of his doctoral thesis. In 1882 Moissan married Leonie Lugan, whose father provided generous financial support, enabling him to pursue his researches with greater freedom and security. He became, successively, Professor of Toxicology at the Ecole in 1886 and of Inorganic Chemistry in 1899. In 1884 Moissan began both his investigation of the compounds of fluorine and his attempts to isolate the highly reactive element itself. Previous attempts by chemists had ended in failure and sometimes injury. Moissan's health, too, was affected, but in June 1886 he succeeded in isolating fluorine by electrolysing potassium fluoride in hydrogen fluoride at −50°C (−58°F) in platinum apparatus. He was then able to prepare further compounds of fluorine, some of technological importance, such as carbon tetrafluoride. At the same time, Moissan turned his attention to the making of artificial diamonds. To achieve this, he devised his celebrated electric-arc furnace; this was first demonstrated in December 1892 and consisted of two lime blocks placed one above the other, with a cavity for a crucible and two grooves for carbon electrodes, and could attain a temperature of 3,500°C (6,332°F). It seemed at first that he had succeeded in making diamonds, but this attempt is now regarded as a failure. Nevertheless, with the aid of his furnace he was able to produce and study many substances of technological importance, including refractory oxides, borides and carbides, and such metals as manganese, chromium, uranium, tungsten, vanadium, molybdenum, titanium and zirconium; many of these materials had useful applications in the chemical and metallurgical industries (e.g. calcium carbide became the main source of acetylene).[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsNobel Prize in Chemistry 1906.BibliographyThere are several listings of his more than 300 publications, such as Lebeau, cited below. Major works are Le Four électrique (1897, Paris) and Le Fluor et ses composés (1900, Paris).Further ReadingCentenaire de l'Ecole supérieure de pharmacie de l'Université de Paris 1803–1903,1904, Paris, pp. 249–57.B.Harrow, 1927, Eminent Chemists of Our Time, 2nd edn, New York, pp. 135–54, 374– 88.P.Lebeau, 1908, "Notice sur la vie et les travaux de Henri Moissan", Bulletin Soc. chim. de France (4 ser.) 3:i–xxxviii.LRDBiographical history of technology > Moissan, Ferdinand-Frédéric-Henri
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106 Poelzig, Hans
SUBJECT AREA: Architecture and building[br]b. 1869 Berlin, Germanyd. June 1936 Berlin, Germany[br]German teacher and practising architect, the most notable individualistic exponent of the German Expressionist movement in the modern school.[br]In the last decade of the nineteenth century and in the first of the twentieth, Poelzig did not, like most of his colleagues in Germany and Austria, follow the Jugendstil theme or the eclectic or fundamentalist lines: he set a path to individualism. In 1898 he began a teaching career at the Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poland) Academy of Arts and Crafts, remaining there until 1916. He early introduced workshop practice into the curriculum, presaging Gropius's Bauhaus ideas by many years; the school's workshop produced much of the artisan needs for a number of his buildings. From Breslau Poelzig moved to Dresden, where he was appointed City Architect. It was there that he launched his Expressionist line: which was particularly evident in the town hall and concert hall in the city. The structure for which Poelzig is best known and with which his name will always be associated is the Großes Schauspielhaus in Berlin; he had returned to his native city after the First World War and this great theatre was his first commission there. Using modern materials, he created a fabulous interior to seat 5,000 spectators. It was in the form of a vast amphitheatre with projecting stage and with the curving area roofed by a cavernous, stalactited dome, the Arabic-style stalactites of which were utilized by Poelzig for acoustic purposes. In the 1920s Poelzig went on to design cinemas, a field for which Expressionism was especially suited; these included the Capitol Cinema in Berlin and the Deli in Breslau. For his later industrial commissions—for example, the administrative building for the chemical firm I.G.Far ben in Frankfurt—he had perforce to design in more traditional modern manner.Poelzig died in 1936, which spared him, unlike many of his contemporaries, the choice of emigrating or working for National Socialism.[br]Further ReadingDennis Sharp, 1966, Modern Architecture and Expressionism, Longmans.Theodor Heuss, 1966, Hans Poelzig: Lebensbild eines Baumeister, Tübingen, Germany: Wunderlich.DY -
107 Randall, Sir John Turton
SUBJECT AREA: Medical technology[br]b. 23 March 1905 Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire, Englandd. 16 June 1984 Edinburgh, Scotland[br]English physicist and biophysicist, primarily known for the development, with Boot of the cavity magnetron.[br]Following secondary education at Ashton-inMakerfield Grammar School, Randall entered Manchester University to read physics, gaining a first class BSc in 1925 and his MSc in 1926. From 1926 to 1937 he was a research physicist at the General Electric Company (GEC) laboratories, where he worked on luminescent powders, following which he became Warren Research Fellow of the Royal Society at Birmingham University, studying electronic processes in luminescent solids. With the outbreak of the Second World War he became an honorary member of the university staff and transferred to a group working on the development of centrimetric radar. With Boot he was responsible for the development of the cavity magnetron, which had a major impact on the development of radar.When Birmingham resumed its atomic research programme in 1943, Randall became a temporary lecturer at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge. The following year he was appointed Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of St Andrews, but in 1946 he moved again to the Wheatstone Chair of Physics at King's College, London. There his developing interest in biophysical research led to the setting up of a multi-disciplinary group in 1951 to study connective tissues and other biological components, and in 1950– 5 he was joint Editor of Progress in Biophysics. From 1961 until his retirement in 1970 he was Professor of Biophysics at King's College and for most of that time he was also Chairman of the School of Biological Sciences. In addition, for many years he was honorary Director of the Medical Research Council Biophysics Research Unit.After he retired he returned to Edinburgh and continued to study biological problems in the university zoology laboratory.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsKnighted 1962. FRS 1946. FRS Edinburgh 1972. DSc Manchester 1938. Royal Society of Arts Thomas Gray Memorial Prize 1943. Royal Society Hughes Medal 1946. Franklin Institute John Price Wetherill Medal 1958. City of Pennsylvania John Scott Award 1959. (All jointly with Boot for the cavity magnetron.)Bibliography1934, Diffraction of X-Rays by Amorphous Solids, Liquids \& Gases (describes his early work).1953, editor, Nature \& Structure of Collagen.1976, with H.Boot, "Historical notes on the cavity magnetron", Transactions of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers ED-23: 724 (gives an account of the cavity-magnetron development at Birmingham).Further ReadingM.H.F.Wilkins, "John Turton Randall"—Bio-graphical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, London: Royal Society.KFBiographical history of technology > Randall, Sir John Turton
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108 Rickman, Thomas
SUBJECT AREA: Architecture and building[br]b. 8 June 1776 Maidenhead, Englandd. 4 January 1841 Birmingham, England[br]English architect who published the first serious study of the development of the styles of medieval architecture.[br]Thomas Rickman trained first in medicine and then, after practising for a short while, became an insurance clerk. During his thirties, having taught himself draughtsmanship, he travelled the country drawing, and recording some 3,000 medieval churches. He became deeply interested in and knowledgeable about ecclesiastical medieval architecture and in 1817 he began architectural practice. Rickman was responsible for a great deal of collegiate and ecclesiastical building. His understanding of true medieval materials and construction was much greater than that of his contemporaries, but like them he saw nothing incongruous about using modern materials such as plaster and cast iron for vault supports and tracery, so changing the structural proportions from medieval precepts. Characteristic of his work was St George Edgbaston (1819–22; demolished 1960) and Hartlebury Church (1836–7). Rickman is known primarily for his book An Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of English Architecture from the Conquest to the Reformation, in which he suggested classifying periods of architecture as Norman, Early English, Decorated and Perpendicular. These terms are still largely accepted even today.[br]Further ReadingH.Colvin, 1978, A Biographical Dictionary of English Architects 1600–1840, John Murray.DY -
109 Séguin, Louis
[br]b. 1869d. 1918[br]French co-designer, with his brother Laurent Séguin (b. 1883 Rhône, France; d. 1944), of the extremely successful Gnome rotary engines.[br]Most early aero-engines were adaptations of automobile engines, but Louis Séguin and his brother Laurent set out to produce a genuine aero-engine. They decided to build a "rotary" engine in which the crankshaft remained stationary and the cylinders rotated: the propeller was attached to the cylinders. The idea was not new, for rotary engines had been proposed by engineers from James Watt to Samuel P. Langley, rival of the Wright brothers. (An engine with stationary cylinders and a rotating crankshaftplus-propeller is classed as a "radial".) Louis Séguin formed the Société des Moteurs Gnome in 1906 to build stationary industrial engines. Laurent joined him to develop a lightweight engine specifically for aeronautical use. They built a fivecylinder air-cooled radial engine in 1908 and then a prototype seven-cylinder rotary engine. Later in the year the Gnome Oméga rotary, developing 50 hp (37 kW), was produced. This was test-flown in a Voisin biplane during June 1909. The Gnome was much lighter than its conventional rivals and surprisingly reliable in view of the technical problems of supplying rotating cylinders with the petrol-air mixture and a spark to ignite it. It was an instant success.Gnomes were mass-produced for use during the First World War. Both sides built and flew rotary engines, which were improved over the years until, by 1917, their size had grown to such an extent that a further increase was not practicable. The gyroscopic effects of a large rotating engine became a serious handicap to manoeuvrability, and the technical problems inherent in a rotary engine were accentuated.[br]Bibliography1912, L'Aérophile 20(4) (Louis Séguin's description of the Gnome).Further ReadingC.F.Taylor, 1971, "Aircraft Propulsion", Smithsonian Annals of Flight 1(4) (an account of the evolution of aircraft piston engines).A.Nahum, 1987, the Rotary Aero-Engine, London.JDS -
110 Shrapnel, General Henry
SUBJECT AREA: Weapons and armour[br]b. 3 June 1761 Bradford-on-Avon, Englandd. 13 March 1842 Southampton, England[br]English professional soldier and inventor of shrapnel ammunition.[br]The youngest of nine children, Shrapnel was commissioned into the Royal Artillery in July 1779. His early military service was in Newfoundland and it was on his return to England in 1784 that he began to interest himself in artillery ammunition. His particular concern was to develop a round that would be more effective against infantry than the existing solid cannon-ball and canister round. The result was a hollow, spherical shell filled with lead musket balls and fitted with a bursting charge and fuse. His development of the shell was interrupted by active service in the Low Countries in 1793–4, during which he was wounded, and duty in the West Indies. Nevertheless, in 1803 the British Army adopted his shell, which during the next twelve years played a significant part on the battlefield.In 1804 Shrapnel was appointed Assistant Inspector of Artillery and made further contributions to the science of gunnery, drawing up a series of range tables to improve accuracy of fire, inventing the brass tangent slide for better sighting of guns, and improving the production of howitzers and mortars by way of the invention of parabolic chambers. His services were recognized in 1814 by a Treasury grant of £1,200 per annum for life. He was promoted Major-General in 1819 and appointed a Colonel-Commandant of the Royal Artillery in 1827, and in the 1830s there was talk of him being made a baronet, but nothing came of it. Shrapnel remains a current military term, although modern bursting shells rely on the fragmentation of the casing of the projectile for their effect rather than his original concept of having shot inside them.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsColonel-Commandant of the Royal Artillery 1827.Further ReadingDictionary of National Biography, 1897, Vol. 52, London: Smith, Elder.CMBiographical history of technology > Shrapnel, General Henry
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111 Smeaton, John
SUBJECT AREA: Civil engineering, Mechanical, pneumatic and hydraulic engineering, Steam and internal combustion engines[br]b. 8 June 1724 Austhorpe, near Leeds, Yorkshire, Englandd. 28 October 1792 Austhorpe, near Leeds, Yorkshire, England[br]English mechanical and civil engineer.[br]As a boy, Smeaton showed mechanical ability, making for himself a number of tools and models. This practical skill was backed by a sound education, probably at Leeds Grammar School. At the age of 16 he entered his father's office; he seemed set to follow his father's profession in the law. In 1742 he went to London to continue his legal studies, but he preferred instead, with his father's reluctant permission, to set up as a scientific instrument maker and dealer and opened a shop of his own in 1748. About this time he began attending meetings of the Royal Society and presented several papers on instruments and mechanical subjects, being elected a Fellow in 1753. His interests were turning towards engineering but were informed by scientific principles grounded in careful and accurate observation.In 1755 the second Eddystone lighthouse, on a reef some 14 miles (23 km) off the English coast at Plymouth, was destroyed by fire. The President of the Royal Society was consulted as to a suitable engineer to undertake the task of constructing a new one, and he unhesitatingly suggested Smeaton. Work began in 1756 and was completed in three years to produce the first great wave-swept stone lighthouse. It was constructed of Portland stone blocks, shaped and pegged both together and to the base rock, and bonded by hydraulic cement, scientifically developed by Smeaton. It withstood the storms of the English Channel for over a century, but by 1876 erosion of the rock had weakened the structure and a replacement had to be built. The upper portion of Smeaton's lighthouse was re-erected on a suitable base on Plymouth Hoe, leaving the original base portion on the reef as a memorial to the engineer.The Eddystone lighthouse made Smeaton's reputation and from then on he was constantly in demand as a consultant in all kinds of engineering projects. He carried out a number himself, notably the 38 mile (61 km) long Forth and Clyde canal with thirty-nine locks, begun in 1768 but for financial reasons not completed until 1790. In 1774 he took charge of the Ramsgate Harbour works.On the mechanical side, Smeaton undertook a systematic study of water-and windmills, to determine the design and construction to achieve the greatest power output. This work issued forth as the paper "An experimental enquiry concerning the natural powers of water and wind to turn mills" and exerted a considerable influence on mill design during the early part of the Industrial Revolution. Between 1753 and 1790 Smeaton constructed no fewer than forty-four mills.Meanwhile, in 1756 he had returned to Austhorpe, which continued to be his home base for the rest of his life. In 1767, as a result of the disappointing performance of an engine he had been involved with at New River Head, Islington, London, Smeaton began his important study of the steam-engine. Smeaton was the first to apply scientific principles to the steam-engine and achieved the most notable improvements in its efficiency since its invention by Newcomen, until its radical overhaul by James Watt. To compare the performance of engines quantitatively, he introduced the concept of "duty", i.e. the weight of water that could be raised 1 ft (30 cm) while burning one bushel (84 lb or 38 kg) of coal. The first engine to embody his improvements was erected at Long Benton colliery in Northumberland in 1772, with a duty of 9.45 million pounds, compared to the best figure obtained previously of 7.44 million pounds. One source of heat loss he attributed to inaccurate boring of the cylinder, which he was able to improve through his close association with Carron Ironworks near Falkirk, Scotland.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsFRS 1753.Bibliography1759, "An experimental enquiry concerning the natural powers of water and wind to turn mills", Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.Towards the end of his life, Smeaton intended to write accounts of his many works but only completed A Narrative of the Eddystone Lighthouse, 1791, London.Further ReadingS.Smiles, 1874, Lives of the Engineers: Smeaton and Rennie, London. A.W.Skempton, (ed.), 1981, John Smeaton FRS, London: Thomas Telford. L.T.C.Rolt and J.S.Allen, 1977, The Steam Engine of Thomas Newcomen, 2nd edn, Hartington: Moorland Publishing, esp. pp. 108–18 (gives a good description of his work on the steam-engine).LRD -
112 Smith, Willoughby
[br]b. 16 April 1828 Great Yarmouth, Englandd. 17 July 1891 Eastbourne, England[br]English engineer of submarine telegraph cables who observed that light reduced the resistance of selenium.[br]Smith joined the Gutta Percha Company, London, in 1848 and successfully experimented with the use of gutta-percha, a natural form of latex, for the insulation of conducting wires. As a result, he was made responsible for the laying of the first cross-Channel cable between Dover and Calais in 1850. Four years later he laid the first Mediterranean cable between Spezia, Italy, and Corsica and Sardinia, later extending it to Algeria. On its completion he became Manager of the Gutta Percha works, which in 1864 became the Telegraph and Construction Company. In 1865 he assisted on board the Great Eastern with the laying of the transatlantic cable by Bright.Clearly his management responsibilities did not stop him from experimenting practically. In 1866 he discovered that the resistance of a selenium rod was reduced by the action of incident light, an early discovery of the photoelectric effect more explicitly observed by Hertz and subsequently explained by Einstein. In 1883 he read a paper to the Society of Telegraph Engineers (later the Institution of Electrical Engineers), suggesting the possibility of wireless communication with moving trains, an idea that was later successfully taken up by others, and in 1888 he demonstrated the use of water as a practical means of communication with a lighthouse. Four years later, after his death, the system was tried between Alum Bay and the Needles in the Isle of Wight, and it was used subsequently for the Fastnet Rock lighthouse some 10 miles (16 km) off the south-west coast of Ireland.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsFounder and Council Member of the Society of Telegraph Engineers 1871; President 1873.BibliographyThe effect of light on the resistance of selenium was reported in a letter to the Vice- Chairman of the Society of Telegraph Engineers on 4 February 1873.7 June 1897, British patent no. 8,159 (the use of water, instead of cable, as a conductor).November 1888, article in Electrician (describes his idea of using water as a conductor, rather than cable).Further ReadingE.Hawkes, 1927, Pioneers of Wireless, London: Methuen.C.T.Bright, 1898, Submarine Cables, Their History, Construction and Working.See also: Field, Cyrus WestKF -
113 Tuve, Merle Antony
[br]b. 27 June 1901 Canton, South Dakota, USAd. 20 May 1982 Bethesda, Maryland, USA[br]American physicist and geophysicist who developed radio exploration of the ionosphere and made contributions to seismology and atomic physics.[br]After BS and AM degrees from the University of Minnesota, Tuve gained a PhD in physics from Johns Hopkins University in 1926. He then joined the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism at the Carnegie Institute, Washington, DC, where with Breit he established by experiment the existence and characteristics of the ionosphere. He also studied gamma and beta rays, artificial radioactivity and atomic transmutation, verified the existence of the neutron and measured nuclear binding forces. During the Second World War he performed military research, producing a proximity fuse for use against the VI flying bomb. He returned to Carnegie in 1946 as Director of the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, where he remained until 1966, making many contributions to the study of the earth and space.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science Prize for atomic and nuclear research 1931. National Academy of Science 1946. Research Corporation Award 1947. Comstock Prize 1948. National Academy of Science Barnard Medal 1955. Presidential Medal of Merit and Distinguished Service Member of the Carnegie Institute 1966.Bibliography1926, with G.Breit, "A test of the existence of the conducting layer", Physical Review 28:554 (gives an account of the early ionospheric studies).See also: Appleton, Sir Edward VictorKF -
114 Weber, Wilhelm Eduard
SUBJECT AREA: Electricity[br]b. 24 October 1804 Wittenberg, Germanyd. 23 June 1891 Göttingen, Germany[br]German physicist, the founder of precise measurement of electrical quantities.[br]Weber began scientific experiments at an early age and entered the University of Halle, where he came under the influence of J.S.C.Schweigger, inventor of the galvanometer. Completing his education with a dissertation on the theory of organ pipes and making important contributions to the science of acoustics, he was awarded a lectureship and later an assistant professorship at Halle. Weber was offered the Chair of Physics at Göttingen in 1831 and jointly with Gauss began investigations into the precision measurement of magnetic quantities. In 1841 he invented the electrodynamometer type of electrical measuring instrument. This was a development of the galvanometer in which, instead of a needle, a small coil was suspended within an outer coil. A current flowing through both coils tended to turn the inner coil, the sine of the angle through which the suspending wires were twisted being proportional to the square of the strength of the current. A variation of the electrodynamometer was capable of measuring directly the power in electrical circuits.The introduction by Weber of a system of absolute units for the measurement of electrical quantities was a most important step in electrical science. He had a considerable influence on the British Association committees on electrical standards organized in 1861 to promote a coherent system of electrical units. Weber's ideas also led him to define elementary electric particles, ascribing mass and charge to them. His name was used for a time before 1883 as the unit of electric current, until the name "ampere" was proposed by Helmholtz. Since 1948 the term "weber" has been used for the SI unit of magnetic flux.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsFRS 1850. Royal Society Copley Medal 1859.Bibliography1892–4, William Weber's Werke, 6 vols, Berlin.Further ReadingP.Lenard, 1954, Great Men of Science, London, pp. 263–70 (a reliable, short biography). C.C.Gillispie (ed.), 1976, Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Vol. XIV, New York, pp.203–9 (discusses his theoretical contributions).S.P.Bordeau, 1982, Volts to Herz, Minneapolis, pp. 172 and 181 (discusses Weber's influence on contemporary scientists).GW -
115 Yost, Paul Edward
SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace[br]b. 30 June 1919 Bristow, Iowa, USA[br]American designer of balloons who reintroduced the hot-air balloon.[br]After the early hot-air balloons of the Montgolfier brothers in the 1780s, this branch of ballooning was superseded by hydrogen, coal gas and helium balloons. Following the research by Auguste Piccard into cosmic radiation during the 1930s, a renewed interest in this branch of research arose in the United States from 1947 onwards, using helium-filled balloons. Modern plastics were available by this time, and polythene was used for the envelopes.Paul E.Yost developed an improved form of envelope using nylon fabric laminated with mylar plastic film. This provided a strong impermeable material that was ideal for balloons. Using this material for the envelope, Yost produced the Vulcoon in 1960. He also reintroduced the use of hot air to inflate his balloon and developed an easily controlled gas burner fuelled by propane gas, which was readily available in cylinders for portable cooking stoves. Yost's company, Raven Industries, developed these very basic balloons as a military project. The pilot was suspended in a sling, but they improved the design by fitting wicker or aluminium baskets and turned to a market in the field of sport. After a slow start, hot-air ballooning became popular as a sport. In 1963 Yost made the first crossing of the English Channel in a hot-air balloon, accompanied by Donald Piccard, nephew of the balloonist Auguste Piccard, and Charles Dollfus, the eminent French aviation historian. Yost's attempt to cross the Atlantic in his balloon Silver Fox during 1976 failed and he was rescued from the sea near the Azores. The popularity of hot-air ballooning increased during the 1970s, and evolved into a very original form of advertising with unusual shapes for the envelopes, including a house, a bottle and an elephant.JDS -
116 kohekohe
Dysoxylum spectabile (New Zealand cedar, New Zealand Mahogany)Tree found in lowland forest. Produces scented orchid-like white waxy flowers during May and June (in Auckland) on long streamers (called panicles), which can be up to 60 cm in some cases, directly from the branches and the trunk. Flowers and fruit are popular with tui, bellbird, stitchbird and waxeye in early Winter. Possums ravage this tree. This is the only NZ species of a genus of 200 south-east Asian trees.Kohekohe also means rowdy
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