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41 Garratt, Herbert William
[br]b. 8 June 1864 London, Englandd. 25 September 1913 Richmond, Surrey, England[br]English engineer, inventor of the Beyer-Garratt articulated locomotive.[br]After apprenticeship at the North London Railway's locomotive works, Garratt had a varied career which included responsibility for the locomotive departments of several British-owned railways overseas. This gave him an insight into the problems of such lines: locomotives, which were often inadequate, had to be operated over lines with weak bridges, sharp curves and steep gradients. To overcome these problems, he designed an articulated locomotive in which the boiler, mounted on a girder frame, was sus pended between two power bogies. This enabled a wide firebox and large-diameter boiler barrel to be combined with large driving-wheels and good visibility. Coal and water containers were mounted directly upon the bogies to keep them steady. The locomotive was inherently stable on curves because the central line of the boiler between its pivots lay within the curve of the centre line of the track. Garratt applied for a patent for his locomotive in 1907 and manufacture was taken up by Beyer, Peacock \& Co. under licence: the type became known as the Beyer-Garratt. The earliest Beyer-Garratt locomotives were small, but subsequent examples were larger. Sadly, only twenty-six locomotives of the type had been built or were under construction when Garratt died in 1913. Subsequent classes came to include some of the largest and most powerful steam locomotives: they were widely used and particularly successful in Central and Southern Africa, where examples continue to give good service in the 1990s.[br]BibliographyH.W.Garratt took out nine British patents, of which the most important is: 1907, British patent no. 17,165, "Improvements in and Relating to Locomotive Engines".Further ReadingR.L.Hills, 1979–80, "The origins of the Garratt locomotive", Transactions of the Newcomen Society 51:175 (a good description of Garratt's career and the construction of the earliest Beyer-Garratt locomotives).A.E.Durrant, 1981, Garratt Locomotives of the World, Newton Abbot: David \& Charles. L.Wiener, 1930, Articulated Locomotives, London: Constable \& Co.See also: Beyer, Charles FrederickPJGRBiographical history of technology > Garratt, Herbert William
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42 Messerschmitt, Willi E.
SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace[br]b. 26 June 1898 Frankfurt-am-Main, Germanyd. 17 September 1978 Munich, Germany[br]German aircraft designer noted for successful fighters such as the Bf 109, one of the world's most widely produced aircraft.[br]Messerschmitt studied engineering at the Munich Institute of Tchnology and obtained his degree in 1923. By 1926 he was Chief Designer at the Bayerische Flugzeugwerke in Augsburg. Due to the ban on military aircraft in Germany following the First World War, his early designs included gliders, light aircraft, and a series of high-wing airliners. He began to make a major impact on German aircraft design once Hitler came to power and threw off the shackles of the Treaty of Versailles, which so restricted Germany's armed forces. In 1932 he bought out the now-bankrupt Bayerische Flugzeugwerke, but initially, because of enmity between himself and the German aviation minister, was not invited to compete for an air force contract for a single-engined fighter. However, in 1934 Messerschmitt designed the Bf 108 Taifun, a small civil aircraft with a fighter-like appearance. This displayed the quality of his design and the German air ministry was forced to recognize him. As a result, he unveiled the famous Bf 109 fighter which first flew in August 1935; it was used during the Spanish Civil War in 1936–9, and was to become one of the foremost combat aircraft of the Second World War. In 1938, after several name changes, the company became Messerschmitt Aktien-Gesellschaft (and hence a change of prefix from Bf to Me). During April 1939 a Messerschmitt aircraft broke the world air-speed record at 755.14 km/h (469.32 mph): it was entered in the FAI records as a Bf 109R, but was more accurately a new design designated Me 209V-1.During the Second World War, the 5/70P was progressively improved, and eventually almost 35,000 were built. Other successful fighters followed, such as the twin-engined Me 110 which also served as a bomber and night fighter. The Messerschmitt Me 262 twin-engined jet fighter, the first jet aircraft in the world to enter service, flew during the early years of the war, but it was never given a high priority by the High Command and only a small number were in service when the war ended. Another revolutionary Messerschmitt AG design was the Me 163 Komet, the concept of Professor Alexander Lippisch who had joined Messerschmitt's company in 1939; this was the first rocket-propelled fighter to enter service. It was a small tailless design capable of 880 km/hr (550 mph), but its duration under power was only about 10 minutes and it was very dangerous to fly. From late 1944 onwards it was used to intercept the United States Air Force bombers during their daylight raids. At the other end of the scale, Messerschmitt produced the Me 321 Gigant, a huge transport glider which was towed behind a flight of three Me 110s. Later it was equipped with six engines, but it was an easy target for allied fighters. This was a costly white elephant, as was his high-speed twin-engined Me 210 fighter-bomber project which nearly made his company bankrupt. Nevertheless, he was certainly an innovator and was much admired by Hitler, who declared that he had "the skull of a genius", because of the Me 163 Komet rocket-powered fighter and the Me 262.At the end of the war Messerschmitt was detained by the Americans for two years. In 1952 Messerschmitt became an aviation adviser to the Spanish government, and his Bf109 was produced in Spain as the Hispano Buchon for a number of years and was powered by Rolls-Royce Merlin engines. A factory was also constructed in Egypt to produce aircraft to Messerschmitt's designs. His German company, banned from building aircraft, produced prefabricated houses, sewing machines and, from 1953 to 1962, a series of bubble-cars: the KR 175 (1953–55) and the KR 200 (1955–62) were single-cylinder three-wheeled bubble-cars, and the Tiger (1958–62) was a twin-cylinder, 500cc four-wheeler. In 1958 Messerschmitt resumed aircraft construction in Germany and later became the Honorary Chairman of the merged Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm company (now part of the Franco-German Eurocopter company).[br]Further Readingvan Ishoven, 1975, Messerschmitt. Aircraft Designer, London. J.Richard Smith, 1971, Messerschmitt. An Air-craft Album, London.Anthony Pritchard, 1975, Messerschmitt, London (describes Messerschmitt aircraft).JDS / CMBiographical history of technology > Messerschmitt, Willi E.
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43 Pötsch, Friedrich Hermann
SUBJECT AREA: Mining and extraction technology[br]b. 12 December 1842 Biendorf, near Köthen, Germanyd. 9 June 1902 Dresden, Germany[br]German mine surveyor, inventor of the freezing process for sinking shafts.[br]Pötsch was the son of a forest officer and could not easily attend school, with the consequences that it took him a long time to obtain the scholarly education needed to enable him to begin work on a higher level with the mining administration in the duchy of Anhalt in 1868. Seven years later, he was licensed as a Prussian mining surveyor and in this capacity he worked with the mining inspectorate of Aschersleben. During that time he frequently came across shafts for brown-coal mines which had been sunk down to watery strata but then had to be abandoned. His solution to the problem was to freeze the quicksand with a solution of chloride; this was better than the previous attempts in England to instal cooling coils at the bottom of the shaft. Pötsch's conception implied the construction of ice walls with the means of boreholes and refrigerators. By his method a set of boreholes was driven through the watery strata, the smaller pipes contained within the main bore pipes, providing a channel through which calcium chloride was pumped, returning through the longer pipe until the ground was frozen solid. He obtained a patent in 1883 and many leading international journals reported on the method the same year.In 1884 he established the Internationale Gesselschaft für Schacht-, Brucken-und Tunnelbau in Magdeburg and he also became Director of the Poetsch-Sooy-Smith Freezing Company in New Jersey, which constructed the first freezing shaft in America in 1888.However, Pötsch was successful only for a short period of time and, being a clumsy entrepreneur, he had to dissolve his company in 1894. Unfortunately, his decision to carry out the complete shaft-sinking business did not allow him to concentrate on solving upcoming technical problems of his new process. It was Louis Gebhardt (1861–1924), his former engineer, who took care of development, especially in co-operation with French mining engineers, and thus provided the basis for the freezing process becoming widely used for shaft-sinking in complicated strata ever since.[br]Bibliography1886, Das Gefrierverfahren. Methode für schnelles, sicheres und lotrechtes Abteufen von Schächten im Schwimmsande und uberhaupt im wasserreichen Gebirge; für Herstellung tiefgehender Bruckenpfeiler und für TunnelBauten in rolligem und schwimmendem Gebirge, Freiberg.1889, Geschichtliches über die Entstehung und Herausbildung des Gefrierverfahrens, Magdeburg.1895, Das Gefrierverfahren und das kombinierte Schachtabbohr-und Gefrierverfahren (Patent Pötsch), Freiberg.Further ReadingD.Hoffmann, 1962, AchtJahrzehnte Gefrierverfahren nach Putsch, Essen: Glückauf (the most substantial biography; also covers technological aspects).G.Gach, 1986, In Schacht und Strecke, Essen: Glückauf, pp. 31–53 (provides information on the development of specialized mining companies in Germany originating in the freezing process).WKBiographical history of technology > Pötsch, Friedrich Hermann
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44 Riquet, Pierre Paul
[br]b. 29 June 1604 Béziers, Hérault, Franced. 1 October 1680 buried at Toulouse, France[br]French canal engineer and constructor of the Canal du Midi.[br]Pierre Paul Riquet was the son of a wealthy lawyer whose ancestors came from Italy. In his education at the Jesuit College in Béziers he showed obvious natural ability in science and mathematics, but he received no formal engineering training. With his own and his wife's fortunes he was able to purchase a château at Verfeil, near Toulouse. In 1630 he was appointed a collector of the salt tax in Languedoc and in a short time became Lessee General (Fermier Général) of this tax for the whole province. This entailed constant travel through the district, with the result that he became very familiar with this part of the country. He also became involved in military contracting. He acquired a vast fortune out of both activities. At this time he pondered the possibility of building a canal from Toulouse to the Mediterranean beyond Béziers and, after further investigation as to possible water supplies, he wrote to Colbert in Paris on 16 November 1662 advocating the construction of the canal. Although the idea proved acceptable it was not until 27 May 1665 that Riquet was authorized to direct operations, and on 14 October 1666 he was given authority to construct the first part of the canal, from Toulouse to Trebes. Work started on 1 January 1667. By 1669 he had between 7,000 and 8,000 men employed on the work. Unhappily, Riquet died just over six months before the canal was completed, the official opening beingon 15 May 1681.Although Riquet's fame rightly rests on the Canal du Midi, probably the greatest work of its time in Europe, he was also consulted about and was responsible for other projects. He built an aqueduct on more than 100 arches to lead water into the grounds of the château of his friend the marquis de Castres. The plans for this work, which involved considerable practical difficulties, were finalized in 1670, and water flowed into the château grounds in 1676. Also in 1676, Riquet was commissioned to lead the waters of the river Ourcq into Paris; he drew up plans, but he was too busy to undertake the construction and on his death the work was shelved until Napoleon's time. He was responsible for the creation of the port of Sète on the Mediterranean at the end of the Canal du Midi. He was also consulted on the supply of water to the Palace of Versailles and on a proposed route which later became the Canal de Bourgogne. Riquet was a very remarkable man: when he started the construction of the canal he was well over 60 years old, an age at which most people are retiring, and lived almost to its completion.[br]Further ReadingL.T.C.Rolt, 1973, From Sea to Sea, London: Allen Lane; rev. ed. 1994, Bridgwater: Internet Ltd.Jean-Denis Bergasse, 1982–7, Le Canal de Midi, 4 vols, Hérault:—Vol. I: Pierre Paul Riquet et le Canal du Midi dans les arts et la littérature; Vol II: Trois Siècles debatellerie et de voyage; Vol. III: Des Siècles d'aventures humaine; Vol. IV: Grands Moments et grands sites.JHB
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