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61 Griffith, Alan Arnold
[br]b. 13 June 1893 London, Englandd. 13 October 1963 Farnborough, England[br]English research engineer responsible for many original ideas, including jet-lift aircraft.[br]Griffith was very much a "boffin", for he was a quiet, thoughtful man who shunned public appearances, yet he produced many revolutionary ideas. During the First World War he worked at the Royal Aircraft Factory, Farnborough, where he carried out research into structural analysis. Because of his use of soap films in solving torsion problems, he was nicknamed "Soap-bubble".During the 1920s Griffith carried out research into gas-turbine design at the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE; as the Royal Aircraft Factory had become). In 1929 he made proposals for a gas turbine driving a propeller (a turboprop), but the idea was shelved. In the 1930s he was head of the Engine Department of the RAE and developed multi-stage axial compressors, which were later used in jet engines. This work attracted the attention of E.W. (later Lord) Hives of Rolls-Royce who persuaded Griffith to join Rolls-Royce in 1939. His first major project was a "contra-flow" jet engine, which was a good idea but a practical failure. However, Griffith's axial-flow compressor experience played an important part in the success of Rolls-Royce jet engines from the Avon onwards. He also proposed the bypass principle used for the Conway.Griffith experimented with suction to control the boundary layer on wings, but his main interest in the 1950s centred on vertical-take-off and -landing aircraft. He developed the remarkable "flying bedstead", which consisted of a framework (the bedstead) in which two jet engines were mounted with their jets pointing downwards, thus lifting the machine vertically. It first flew in 1954 and provided much valuable data. The Short SC1 aircraft followed, with four small jets providing lift for vertical take-off and one conventional jet to provide forward propulsion. This flew successfully in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Griffith proposed an airliner with lifting engines, but the weight of the lifting engines when not in use would have been a serious handicap. He retired in 1960.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsCBE 1948. FRS 1941. Royal Aeronautical Society Silver Medal 1955; Blériot Medal 1962.BibliographyGriffith produced many technical papers in his early days; for example: 1926, Aerodynamic Theory of Turbine Design, Farnborough.Further ReadingD.Eyre, 1966, "Dr A.A.Griffith, CBE, FRS", Journal of the Royal Aeronautical Society (June) (a detailed obituary).F.W.Armstrong, 1976, "The aero engine and its progress: fifty years after Griffith", Aeronautical Journal (December).O.Stewart, 1966, Aviation: The Creative Ideas, London (provides brief descriptions of Griffith's many projects).JDS -
62 Leschot, Georges Auguste
[br]b. 24 March 1800 Geneva, Switzerlandd. 4 February 1884 Geneva, Switzerland[br]Swiss clockmaker, inventor of diamond drilling.[br]By about 1843, Leschot, who was renowned for designing machines to produce parts of clocks on an industrialized scale, had gathered that the fine, deep lines he found on an Egyptian red porphyry plate must have been cut by diamonds. He thus resurrected a technology that had been largely forgotten over the centuries, when in 1862 his son, who was engaged in constructing a railway line in Italy, was confronted with the problems of tunnelling through hard rock. In Paris he developed a drilling machine consisting of a casing that rotated in a similar way to the American rope drilling method. The crown of the machine was mounted with eight black diamonds, and inside the casing a stream of water circulated continuously to flush out the mud.He took out his first patent in France in 1862, and followed it with further ones in many European countries and in America. He continued to concentrate on his watchmaker's profession and left the rights to his patents to his son. It was Leschot's ingenious idea of utilizing diamonds for drilling hard rock that was later applied in different mining processes. It influenced a series of further developments in many countries, including those of Alfred Brandt and Major Beaumont in England. In particular, the fact that the hollow casing produced a complete core was of importance for the increasing amount of petroleum prospecting in Pennsylvania after Edwin Laurentine Drake's find of 1859, where M.C.Bullock sunk the first deep well (200 m) in the world by diamond drilling in 1870. The efforts of Per Anton Crælius in Sweden made diamond drilling a success worldwide.[br]Further ReadingD.Colladon, 1884, "Notice sur les inventions mécaniques de M.G.Leschot, horloger", Archives des Sciences Physiques et Naturelles 3, XI (1):297–313 (discusses the influences of Leschot's invention on other engineers in Europe).D.Hoffmann, 1962, "Die Erfindung der Diamantbohrmaschine vor 100 Jahren", Der Anschnitt 14(1):15–19 (contains detailed biographical outlines).WKBiographical history of technology > Leschot, Georges Auguste
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63 Moulton, Alexander
[br]b. 9 April 1920 Stratford-on-Avon[br]English inventor of vehicle suspension systems and the Moulton bicycle.[br]He spent his childhood at The Hall in Bradfordon-Avon. He was educated at Marlborough College, and in 1937 was apprenticed to the Sentinel Steam Wagon Company of Shrewsbury. About that same time he went to King's College, Cambridge, where he took the Mechanical Sciences Tripos. It was then wartime, and he did research on aero-engines at the Bristol Aeroplane Company, where he became Personal Assistant to Sir Roy Fedden. He left Bristol's in 1945 to join his family firm, Spencer \& Moulton, of which he eventually became Technical Director and built up the Research Department. In 1948 he invented his first suspension unit, the "Flexitor", in which an inner shaft and an outer shell were separated by an annular rubber body which was bonded to both.In 1848 his great-grandfather had founded the family firm in an old woollen mill, to manufacture vulcanized rubber products under Charles Goodyear's patent. The firm remained a family business with Spencer's, consultants in railway engineering, until 1956 when it was sold to the Avon Rubber Company. He then formed Moulton Developments to continue his work on vehicle suspensions in the stables attached to The Hall. Sponsored by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and the Dunlop Rubber Company, he invented a rubber cone spring in 1951 which was later used in the BMC Mini (see Issigonis, Sir Alexander Arnold Constantine): by 1994 over 4 million Minis had been fitted with these springs, made by Dunlop. In 1954 he patented the Hydrolastic suspension system, in which all four wheels were independently sprung with combined rubber springs and damper assembly, the weight being supported by fluid under pressure, and the wheels on each side being interconnected, front to rear. In 1962 he formed Moulton Bicycles Ltd, having designed an improved bicycle system for adult use. The conventional bicycle frame was replaced by a flat-sided oval steel tube F-frame on a novel rubber front and rear suspension, with the wheel size reduced to 41 cm (16 in.) with high-pressure tyres. Raleigh Industries Ltd having refused his offer to produce the Moulton Bicycle under licence, he set up his own factory on his estate, producing 25,000 bicycles between 1963 and 1966. In 1967 he sold out to Raleigh and set up as Bicycle Consultants Ltd while continuing the suspension development of Moulton Developments Ltd. In the 1970s the combined firms employed some forty staff, nearly 50 per cent of whom were graduates.He won the Queen's Award for Industry in 1967 for technical innovation in Hydrolastic car suspension and the Moulton Bicycle. Since that time he has continued his innovative work on suspensions and the bicycle. In 1983 he introduced the AM bicycle series of very sophisticated space-frame design with suspension and 43 cm (17 in.) wheels; this machine holds the world speed record fully formed at 82 km/h (51 mph). The current Rover 100 and MGF use his Hydragas interconnected suspension. By 1994 over 7 million cars had been fitted with Moulton suspensions. He has won many design awards and prizes, and has been awarded three honorary doctorates of engineering. He is active in engineering and design education.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsQueen's Award for Industry 1967; CBE; RDI. Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.Further ReadingP.R.Whitfield, 1975, Creativity in Industry, London: Penguin Books.IMcN -
64 Pääbo, Max
SUBJECT AREA: Textiles[br]b. Estonia fl. 1950s Sweden[br]Estonian inventor of one of the most successful looms, in which the weft is sent across the warp by a jet of air.[br]The earliest patent for using a jet of air to propel a shuttle across a loom was granted to J.C. Brooks in 1914. A different method was tried by E.H.Ballou in 1929, but the really important patent was taken out by Max Pääbo, a refugee from Estonia. He exhibited his machine in Sweden in 1951, weaving cotton cloth 80 cm (31 1/2 in.) wide at a speed of 350 picks per minute, but it was not widely publicized until 1954. One shown in Manchester in 1958 ran at 410 picks per minute while weaving 90 cm (35 1/2 in.) cloth. His looms were called "Maxbo" after him. They had no shuttle; instead a jet of air drove a measured amount of weft drawn from a supply package across the warp threads. Efficient control of the airstream was the main reason for its success; not only was weaving much quicker, but it was also much quieter than traditional methods, and as the warp was nearly vertical the looms took up little space. Manufacture of these looms in Sweden ceased in 1962, but development continued in other countries.[br]Further ReadingJ.J.Vincent, 1980, Shuttle less Looms, Manchester (a good account of the development of modern looms).RLH -
65 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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66 Santos-Dumont, Alberto
SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace[br]b. 20 July 1873 Cabangu, Rocha Dias, Brazild. 23 July 1932 d. Santos, Sâo Paulo, Brazil[br]Brazilian pioneer in airship and aeroplane flights.[br]Alberto Santos-Dumont, the son of a wealthy Brazilian coffee planter, was sent to Paris to study engineering but developed a passion for flying. After several balloon flights he turned his attention to powered airships. His first small airship, powered by a motorcycle engine, flew in 1898. A series of airships followed and his flights over Paris—and his narrow escapes—generated much public interest. A large cash prize had been offered for the first person to fly from Saint-Cloud around the Eiffel Tower and back inside thirty minutes. Santos-Dumont made two attempts in his airship No. 5, but engine failures caused him to crash, once in a tree and once on a hotel roof. Undismayed, he prepared airship No. 6 and on 19 October 1901 he set out and rounded the Tower, only to suffer yet another engine failure. This time he managed to restart the engine and claim the prize. This flight created a sensation in Paris and beyond. Santos-Dumont continued to create news with a series of airship exploits, and by 1906 he had built a total of fourteen airships. In 1904 Santos-Dumont visited the United States and met Octave Chanute, who described to him the achievements of the Wright brothers. On his return to Paris he set about designing an aeroplane which was unlike any other aeroplane of the period. It had box-kite-like wings and tail, and flew tail-first (a canard) powered by an Antoinette engine at the rear. It was built for him by Gabriel Voisin and was known as the "14 bis" because it was air-tested suspended beneath airship No. 14. It made its first free take-off on 13 September 1906, and then a series of short hops, including one of 220 m (720 ft) which won Santos-Dumont an Aero-Club prize and recognition for the first aeroplane flight in Europe; indeed, it was the first officially witnessed aeroplane flight in the world. Santos-Dumont's most successful aeroplane was his No. 20 of 1909, known as the Demoiselle: a tiny machine popular with sporting pilots. About this time, however, Santos-Dumont became ill and had to abandon his aeronautical activities. Although he had not made any great technical breakthroughs, Santos-Dumont had played a major role in arousing public interest in flying.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsAéro Club de France Grand Prix de l'Aéronautique 1901. Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur 1904.Bibliography1904, Dans l'air, Paris; 1904, pub. as My Airships (repub. 1973, New York: Dover).Further ReadingPeter Wykeham, 1962, Santos-Dumont, A Study in Obsession, London.F.H.da Costa, c. 1971, Alberto Santos-Dumont, O Pai da Aviaçāo; pub. in English asAlberto Santos Dumont, Father of Aviation, Rio de Janeiro.JDS -
67 Thomson, Sir William, Lord Kelvin
[br]b. 26 June 1824 Belfast, Ireland (now Northern Ireland)d. 17 December 1907 Largs, Scotland[br]Irish physicist and inventor who contributed to submarine telegraphy and instrumentation.[br]After education at Glasgow University and Peterhouse, Cambridge, a period of study in France gave Thomson an interest in experimental work and instrumentation. He became Professor of Natural Philosophy at Glasgow in 1846 and retained the position for the rest of his career, establishing the first teaching laboratory in Britain.Among his many contributions to science and engineering was his concept, introduced in 1848, of an "absolute" zero of temperature. Following on from the work of Joule, his investigations into the nature of heat led to the first successful liquefaction of gases such as hydrogen and helium, and later to the science of low-temperature physics.Cable telegraphy gave an impetus to the scientific measurement of electrical quantities, and for many years Thomson was a member of the British Association Committee formed in 1861 to consider electrical standards and to develop units; these are still in use. Thomson first became Scientific Adviser to the Atlantic Telegraph Company in 1857, sailing on the Agamemnon and Great Eastern during the cable-laying expeditions. He invented a mirror galvanometer and more importantly the siphon recorder, which, used as a very sensitive telegraph receiver, provided a permanent record of signals. He also laid down the design parameters of long submarine cables and discovered that the conductivity of copper was greatly affected by its purity. A major part of the success of the Atlantic cable in 1866 was due to Thomson, who received a knighthood for his contribution.Other instruments he designed included a quadrant electrostatic voltmeter to measure high voltages, and his "multi-cellular" instrument for low voltages. They could be used on alternating or direct current and were free from temperature errors. His balances for precision current measurement were widely used in standardizing laboratories.Thomson was a prolific writer of scientific papers on subjects across the whole spectrum of physics; between 1855 and 1866 he published some 110 papers, with a total during his life of over 600. In 1892 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Kelvin of Largs. By the time of his death he was looked upon as the "father" of British physics, but despite his outstanding achievements his later years were spent resisting change and progress.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsKnighted 1866. Created Lord Kelvin of Largs 1892. FRS 1851. President, Royal Society 1890–4. An original member of the Order of Merit 1902. President, Society of Telegraph Engineers 1874. President, Institution of Electrical Engineers 1889 and 1907. Royal Society Royal Medal 1856, Copley Medal 1883.Bibliography1872, Reprints of Papers on Electrostatics and Magnetism, London; 1911, Mathematical and Physical Papers, 6 vols, Cambridge (collections of Thomson's papers).Further ReadingSilvanus P.Thompson, 1910, The Life of William Thomson, Baron Kelvin of Largs, 2 vols, London (an uncritical biography).D.B.Wilson, 1987, Kelvin and Stokes: A Comparative Study in Victorian Physics, Bristol (provides a present-day commentary on all aspects of Thomson's work).J.G.Crowther, 1962, British Scientists of the 19th Century, London, pp. 199–257 (a short critical biography).GWBiographical history of technology > Thomson, Sir William, Lord Kelvin
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68 Langen, Eugen
[br]b. 1839 Germanyd. 1895 Germany[br]German engineer and businessmen.[br]A sound engineering training combined with an inherited business sense were credentials that Langen put to good use in his association with internal-combustion engines. The sight of a working engine built by N.A. Otto in 1864 convinced Langen that this was a means to provide power in industry. Shortly afterwards, assisted by members of his family, he formed the company N.A.Otto and Cie, Cologne, the world's first engine factory. At the Paris Exhibition of 1867, the new Otto-Langen Atmospheric Gas Engine was awarded a Gold Medal, and in 1870 Crossley Bros of Manchester was appointed sole agent and manufacturer in Britain. Under Langen's guidance, the firm grew, and in 1872 it was renamed Die Gasmotoren Fabrik, employing Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach. Apart from running the business, Langen often played peacemaker when differences arose between Daimler and Otto. The success of the firm, known today as Klockner-Humboldt-Deutz, owed much to Langen's business and technical skills. Langen was a strong supporter of Otto's constant efforts to produce a better engine, and his confidence was justified by the appearance, in 1876, of Otto's four-stroke engine. The two men remained close friends until Otto's death in 1892.[br]Further ReadingFriederick Sass, 1962, Geschichte des deutschen Verbrennungsmotorenbaues von 1860 bis 1918, Berlin: Springen Verlag (a detailed account).Gustav Goldbeck, 1964, Kraft für die Welt: 100 Jahre Klockner-Humboldt-Deutz AG, Dusseldorf (an account of the history and development of Klockner Humboldt).KAB -
69 Mitchell, Charles
SUBJECT AREA: Ports and shipping[br]b. 20 May 1820 Aberdeen, Scotlandd. 22 August 1895 Jesmond, Newcastle upon Tyne, England[br]Scottish industrialist whose Tyneside shipyard was an early constituent of what became the Vickers Shipbuilding Group.[br]Mitchell's early education commenced at Ledingham's Academy, Correction Wynd, Aberdeen, and from there he became a premium apprentice at the Footdee Engineering Works of Wm Simpson \& Co. Despite being employed for around twelve hours each day, Mitchell matriculated at Marischal College (now merged with King's College to form the University of Aberdeen). He did not graduate, although in 1840 he won the chemistry prize. On the completion of his apprenticeship, like Andrew Leslie (founder of Hawthorn Leslie) and other young Aberdonians he moved to Tyneside, where most of his working life was spent. From 1842 until 1844 he worked as a draughtsman for his friend Coutts, who had a shipyard at Low Walker, before moving on to the drawing offices of Maudslay Sons and Field of London, then one of the leading shipbuilding and engineering establishments in the UK. While in London he studied languages, acquiring a skill that was to stand him in good stead in later years. In 1852 he returned to the North East and set up his own iron-ship building yard at Low Walker near Newcastle. Two years later he married Anne Swan, the sister of the two young men who were to found the company now known as Swan Hunter Ltd. The Mitchell yard grew in size and reputation and by the 1850s he was building for the Russian Navy and Merchant Marine as well as advising the Russians on their shipyards in St Petersburg. In 1867 the first informal business arrangement was concluded with Armstrongs for the supply of armaments for ships; this led to increased co-operation and ultimately in 1882 to the merger of the two shipyards as Sir W.G.Armstrong Mitchell \& Co. At the time of the merger, Mitchell had launched 450 ships in twenty-nine years. In 1886 the new company built the SS Gluckauf, the world's first bulk oil tanker. After ill health in 1865 Mitchell reduced his workload and lived for a while in Surbiton, London, but returned to Tyneside to a new house at Jesmond. In his later years he was a generous benefactor to many good causes in Tyneside and Aberdeen, to the Church and to the University of Aberdeen.[br]Further ReadingD.F.McGuire, 1988, Charles Mitchell 1820–1895, Victorian Shipbuilder, Newcastle upon Tyne: City Libraries and Arts.J.D.Scott, 1962, Vickers. A History, London: Weidenfeld \& Nicolson (a recommended overview of the Vickers Group).FMW -
70 Reis, (Johann) Philipp
SUBJECT AREA: Telecommunications[br]b. 7 January 1834 Geinherusen, Hesse-Kassel, Germanyd. 14 January 1874 Friedrichsdorf, Germany[br]German schoolteacher and inventor who constructed an early form of telephone.[br]Reis entered the Garniers Institute in Friedrichsdorf in 1844 and then the Hassels Institute in Frankfurt. There he developed an interest in science, but on leaving school in 1850 he was apprenticed to the colour trade by his uncle. This involved study at the trade school and Dr Poppe's Institute in Frankfurt; while there he joined the Frankfurt Physical Society. Following military service in 1855 he studied to be a teacher. After his graduation he obtained a post at Garniers, where he began to pursue experiments with electricity and the development of hearing aids. In 1859 he sent a paper on the radiation of electricity to the editor of Annalen der Physik, but this was rejected, as was a later submission. Undeterred, he continued his experiments and by 1861 he had designed several instruments for the transmission of sound. The transmitter consisted of a membrane on which rested a metal strip that made contact with a metal point and completed an electrical circuit under the action of sound. The receiver consisted of an iron needle surrounded by a coil and resting on a sounding box, the operation probably being achieved by magnetostriction. The invention, which he described in a lecture to the Frankfurt Physical Society on 26 October 1861 and in a published paper, could produce tones and probably also speech, but was largely rejected by the scientific fraternity. The claim to produce speech was discounted in subsequent court cases that upheld the patents of Alexander Bell.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsOn 8 December 1878 a monument to Reis was erected in the Friedrichsdorf Cemetery by the Physical Society of Frankfurt.Bibliography1860–1, "Über Telephone durch den galvani-schen Strom", Jahresbericht der Physikalische 57.Further ReadingJ.Munro, 1891, Heroes of the Telegraph.Silvanus P.Thompson, 1883, Philipp Reis. Inventor of the Telephone.B.B.Bauer, 1962, "A century of the microphone", Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers: 720.KF -
71 Schawlow, Arthur Leonard
[br]b. 5 May 1921 Mount Vernon, New York, USA[br]American physicist involved in laser-spectroscopy research.[br]When Arthur L.Schawlow was 3 years old his family moved to Canada: it was in Toronto that he received his education, graduating from the University of Toronto with a BA in physics in 1941. He was awarded an MA in 1942, taught classes for military personnel at the University until 1944 and worked for a year on radar equipment. He returned to the University of Toronto in 1945 to carry out research on optical spectroscopy and received his PhD in 1949. From 1949 to 1951 he held a postgraduate fellowship at Columbia University, where he worked with Charles H. Townes on microwave spectroscopy. From 1951 to 1961 he was a research physicist at the Bell Telephone Laboratories, working mainly on superconductivity, but he maintained his association with Townes, who had pioneered the maser (an acronym of microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation). In a paper published in Physical Review in December 1958, Townes and Schawlow suggested the possibility of a development into optical frequencies or an optical maser, later known as a laser (an acronym of light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation). In 1960 the first such device was made by Theodore H. Maiman. In 1960 Schawlow returned to Columbia University as a visiting professor and in the following year was appointed Professor of Physics at Stanford University, where he continued his researches in laser spectroscopy. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Physical Society, the Optical Society of America and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsNobel Prize for Physics 1981. Franklin Institute Stuart Ballantine Medal 1962. Institute of Physics of London Thomas Young Medal and Prize 1963. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Morris N.Liebmann Memorial Prize 1964. Optical Society of America Frederick Ives Medal 1976. Honorary degrees from the State University of Ghent, the University of Bradford and the University of Toronto.BibliographySchawlow is the author of many scientific papers and, with Charles H.Townes, ofMicrowave Spectroscopy (1955).Further ReadingT.Wasson (ed.), 1987, Nobel Prize Winners, New York, pp. 930–3 (contains a short biography).RTSBiographical history of technology > Schawlow, Arthur Leonard
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72 Zworykin, Vladimir Kosma
[br]b. 30 July 1889 Mourum (near Moscow), Russiad. 29 July 1982 New York City, New York, USA[br]Russian (naturalized American 1924) television pioneer who invented the iconoscope and kinescope television camera and display tubes.[br]Zworykin studied engineering at the Institute of Technology in St Petersburg under Boris Rosing, assisting the latter with his early experiments with television. After graduating in 1912, he spent a time doing X-ray research at the Collège de France in Paris before returning to join the Russian Marconi Company, initially in St Petersburg and then in Moscow. On the outbreak of war in 1917, he joined the Russian Army Signal Corps, but when the war ended in the chaos of the Revolution he set off on his travels, ending up in the USA, where he joined the Westinghouse Corporation. There, in 1923, he filed the first of many patents for a complete system of electronic television, including one for an all-electronic scanning pick-up tube that he called the iconoscope. In 1924 he became a US citizen and invented the kinescope, a hard-vacuum cathode ray tube (CRT) for the display of television pictures, and the following year he patented a camera tube with a mosaic of photoelectric elements and gave a demonstration of still-picture TV. In 1926 he was awarded a PhD by the University of Pittsburgh and in 1928 he was granted a patent for a colour TV system.In 1929 he embarked on a tour of Europe to study TV developments; on his return he joined the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) as Director of the Electronics Research Group, first at Camden and then Princeton, New Jersey. Securing a budget to develop an improved CRT picture tube, he soon produced a kinescope with a hard vacuum, an indirectly heated cathode, a signal-modulation grid and electrostatic focusing. In 1933 an improved iconoscope camera tube was produced, and under his direction RCA went on to produce other improved types of camera tube, including the image iconoscope, the orthicon and image orthicon and the vidicon. The secondary-emission effect used in many of these tubes was also used in a scintillation radiation counter. In 1941 he was responsible for the development of the first industrial electron microscope, but for most of the Second World War he directed work concerned with radar, aircraft fire-control and TV-guided missiles.After the war he worked for a time on high-speed memories and medical electronics, becoming Vice-President and Technical Consultant in 1947. He "retired" from RCA and was made an honorary vice-president in 1954, but he retained an office and continued to work there almost up until his death; he also served as Director of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research from 1954 until 1962.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsZworykin received some twenty-seven awards and honours for his contributions to television engineering and medical electronics, including the Institution of Electrical Engineers Faraday Medal 1965; US Medal of Science 1966; and the US National Hall of Fame 1977.Bibliography29 December 1923, US patent no. 2,141, 059 (the original iconoscope patent; finally granted in December 1938!).13 July 1925, US patent no. 1,691, 324 (colour television system).1930, with D.E.Wilson, Photocells and Their Applications, New York: Wiley. 1934, "The iconoscope. A modern version of the electric eye". Proceedings of theInstitute of Radio Engineers 22:16.1946, Electron Optics and the Electron Microscope.1940, with G.A.Morton, Television; revised 1954.1949, with E.G.Ramberg, Photoelectricity and Its Applications. 1958, Television in Science and Industry.Further ReadingJ.H.Udelson, 1982, The Great Television Race: History of the Television Industry 1925– 41: University of Alabama Press.KFBiographical history of technology > Zworykin, Vladimir Kosma
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73 Bunning, James Bunstone
SUBJECT AREA: Architecture and building[br]b. 1802 London, Englandd. 1863 London (?), England[br]English surveyor responsible for some impressive structures in London.[br]For the last twenty years of his life Bunning served as architect to the Corporation of London. During this time he was especially noted for three large buildings: Holloway Prison (1849–52), built in stone in a bold, castellated style; Caledonian Market (1855); and, most important and original, the Coal Exchange (1847–9).Bunning's larger replacement for an earlier building in Lower Thames Street was a ferrovitreous triumph. The exterior was of fashionable Italianate design, but inside it contained an elegant 60 ft (18 m) diameter rotunda of cast iron intended for the meeting of merchants. Galleries made entirely of iron and supported on brackets encircled the walls at three levels, and above was a glazed dome of ground plate glass rising to over 74 ft (22.5 m) from ground level, supported by thirty-two iron ribs. For decoration there were twenty-four painted panels depicting plants and fossils found in coal seams, and eight smaller compartments showing coal implements. The demolition of this outstanding structure in 1962 so that the road could be widened, served as a trigger to public concern over the then-increasing rate of demolition of notable nineteenth-century structures. During excavation for this building, a structure which cost £40,000, a Roman hypocaust system was found beneath and preserved.[br]Further ReadingG.Godwin, 1850, "Buildings and Monuments: Modern and Medieval", The Builder.DYBiographical history of technology > Bunning, James Bunstone
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74 Chaudron, Joseph
SUBJECT AREA: Mining and extraction technology[br]b. 29 November 1822 Gosselies, Belgiumd. 16 January 1905 Auderghem, Belgium[br]Belgian mining engineer, pioneer in boring shafts.[br]In 1842, as a graduate of the Ecole des Mines in Liège, he became a member of the Belgian Corps Royal des Mines, which he left ten years later as Chief Engineer. By that time he had become decisively influential in the Société Anglo-Belge des Mines du Rhin, founded in 1848. After it became the Gelsenkirchen-based Bergwerkgesellschaft Dahlbusch in 1873, he became President of its Board of Directors and remained in this position until his death. Thanks to his outstanding technical and financial abilities, the company developed into one of the largest in the Ruhr coal district.When K.G. Kind practised his shaft-boring for the company in the early 1850s but did not overcome the difficulty of making the bottom of the bore-hole watertight, Chaudron joined forces with him to solve the problem and constructed a rotary heading which was made watertight with a box stuffed with moss; rings of iron tubing were placed on this as the sinking progressed, effectively blocking off the aquiferous strata as a result of the hydrostatic pressure which helped support the weight of the tubing until it was secured permanently. The Kind-Chaudron system of boring shafts in the full section marked an important advance upon existing methods, and was completely applied for the first time at a coalmine near Mons, Belgium, in 1854–6. In Brussels Chaudron and Kind founded the Société de Fonçage par le Procédé Kind et Chaudron in 1854, and Chaudron was granted a patent the next year. Foreign patents followed and the Kind-Chaudron system was the one most frequently applied in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Altogether, under Chaudron's control, there were more than eighty shafts sunk in wet strata in Germany, Belgium, France and England.[br]Bibliography1853–4, "Notice sur le procédé inventé par l'ingénieur Kind, pour l"établissement des puits de mines', Annales des travaux publics de Belgique 12:327–38.1862, "Über die nach dem Kindschen Erdbohrverfahren in Belgien ausgefùhrten Schachtbohrarbeiten", Berg-und Hüttenmännische Zeitschrift 21:402−7, 419−21, 444−7.1867, "Notice sur les travaux exécutés en France, en Belgique et en Westphalie de 1862– 1867", Annales des travaux publics de Belgique 25: 136–45.1872, "Remplacement d'un cuvelage en bois par un cuvelage en fonte", Annales destravaux publics de Belgique 30:77–91.Further ReadingD.Hoffmann, 1962, Acht Jahrzehnte Gefrierverfahren nachPötsch, Essen, pp. 12–18 (evaluates the Kind-Chaudron system as a new era).W.Kesten, 1952, Geschichte der Bergwerksgesellschaft Dahlbusch, Essen (gives a delineation of the mining company's flourishing as well as the technical measures under his influence).T.Tecklenburg, 1914, Handbuch der Tiefbohrkunde, 2nd edn, Vol VI, Berlin, pp. 39–58 (provides a detailed description of Chaudron's tubing).WK -
75 Florey, Howard Walter
SUBJECT AREA: Medical technology[br]b. 24 September 1898 Adelaide, Australiad. 21 February 1968 Oxford, England[br]Australian pathologist who contributed to the research and technology resulting in the practical clinical availability of penicillin.[br]After graduating MB and BS from Adelaide University in 1921, he went to Oxford University, England, as a Rhodes Scholar in 1922. Following a period at Cambridge and as a Rockefeller Fellow in the USA, he returned to Cambridge as Lecturer in Pathology. He was appointed to the Chair of Pathology at Sheffield at the age of 33, and to the Sir William Dunne Chair of Pathology at Oxford in 1935.Although historically his name is inseparable from that of penicillin, his experimental interests and achievements covered practically the whole range of general pathology. He was a determined advocate of the benefits to research of maintaining close contact between different disciplines. He was an early believer in the need to study functional changes in cells as much as the morphological changes that these brought about.With E. Chain, Florey perceived the potential of Fleming's 1929 note on the bacteria-inhibiting qualities of Penicillium mould. His forthright and dynamic character played a vital part in developing what was perceived to be not just a scientific and medical discovery of unparalleled importance, but a matter of the greatest significance in a war of survival. Between them, Florey and Chain were able to establish the technique of antibiotic isolation and made their findings available to those implementing large-scale fermentation production processes in the USA.Despite being domiciled in England, he played an active role in Australian medical and educational affairs and was installed as Chancellor of the Australian National University in 1966.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsLife peer 1965. Order of Merit 1965. Knighted 1944. FRS 1941. President, Royal Society 1960–5. Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology (jointly with E.B.Chain and A.Fleming) 1945. Copley Medal 1957. Commander, Légion d'honneur 1946. British Medical Association Gold Medal 1964.Bibliography1940, "Penicillin as a chemotherapeutic agent", Lancet (with Chain). 1949, Antibiotics, Oxford (with Chain et al.).1962, General Pathology, Oxford.MG -
76 Gramme, Zénobe Théophile
[br]b. 4 April 1826 Jehay-Bodignée, Belgiumd. 20 January 1901 Bois de Colombes, Paris, France[br]Belgian engineer whose improvements to the dynamo produced a machine ready for successful commercial exploitation.[br]Gramme trained as a carpenter and showed an early talent for working with machinery. Moving to Paris he found employment in the Alliance factory as a model maker. With a growing interest in electricity he left to become an instrument maker with Heinrich Daniel Rühmkorff. In 1870 he patented the uniformly wound ring-armature dynamo with which his name is associated. Together with Hippolyte Fontaine, in 1871 Gramme opened a factory to manufacture his dynamos. They rapidly became a commercial success for both arc lighting and electrochemical purposes, international publicity being achieved at exhibitions in Vienna, Paris and Philadelphia. It was the realization that a Gramme machine was capable of running as a motor, i.e. the reversibility of function, that illustrated the entire concept of power transmission by electricity. This was first publicly demonstrated in 1873. In 1874 Gramme reduced the size and increased the efficiency of his generators by relying completely on the principle of self-excitation. It was the first practical machine in which were combined the features of continuity of commutation, self-excitation, good lamination of the armature core and a reasonably good magnetic circuit. This dynamo, together with the self-regulating arc lamps then available, made possible the innumerable electric-lighting schemes that followed. These were of the greatest importance in demonstrating that electric lighting was a practical and economic means of illumination. Gramme also designed an alternator to operate Jablochkoff candles. For some years he took an active part in the operations of the Société Gramme and also experimented in his own workshop without collaboration, but made no further contribution to electrical technology.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsKnight Commander, Order of Leopold of Belgium 1897. Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur. Chevalier, Order of the Iron Crown, Austria.Bibliography9 June 1870, British patent no. 1,668 (the ring armature machine).1871, Comptes rendus 73:175–8 (Gramme's first description of his invention).Further ReadingW.J.King, 1962, The Development of Electrical Technology in the 19th Century, Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, Paper 30, pp. 377–90 (an extensive account of Gramme's machines).S.P.Thompson, 1901, obituary, Electrician 66: 509–10.C.C.Gillispie (ed.), 1972, Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Vol. V, New York, p. 496.GWBiographical history of technology > Gramme, Zénobe Théophile
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77 Holmes, Frederic Hale
[br]fl. 1850s–60s[br]British engineer who pioneered the electrical illumination of lighthouses in Great Britain.[br]An important application of the magneto generator was demonstrated by Holmes in 1853 when he showed that it might be used to supply an arc lamp. This had many implications for the future because it presented the possibility of making electric lighting economically successful. In 1856 he patented a machine with six disc armatures on a common axis rotating between seven banks of permanent magnets. The following year Holmes suggested the possible application of his invention to lighthouse illumination and a trial was arranged and observed by Faraday, who was at that time scientific adviser to Trinity House, the corporation entrusted with the care of light-houses in England and Wales. Although the trial was successful and gained the approval of Faraday, the Elder Brethren of Trinity House imposed strict conditions on Holmes's design for machines to be used for a more extensive trial. These included connecting the machine directly to a slow-speed steam engine, but this resulted in a reduced performance. The experiments of Holmes and Faraday were brought to the attention of the French lighthouse authorities and magneto generators manufactured by Société Alliance began to be installed in some lighthouses along the coast of France. After noticing the French commutatorless machines, Holmes produced an alternator of similar type in 1867. Two of these were constructed for a new lighthouse at Souter Point near Newcastle and two were installed in each of the two lighthouses at South Foreland. One of the machines from South Foreland that was in service from 1872 to 1922 is preserved in the Royal Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh. A Holmes generator is also preserved in the Science Museum, London. Holmes obtained a series of patents for generators between 1856 and 1869, with all but the last being of the magneto-electric type.[br]Bibliography7 March 1856, British patent no. 573 (the original patent for Holmes's invention).1863, "On magneto electricity and its application to lighthouse purposes", Journal of the Society of Arts 12:39–43.Further ReadingW.J.King, 1962, in The Development of Electrical Technology in the 19th Century; Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, Paper 30, pp. 351–63 (provides a detailed account of Holmes's generators).J.N.Douglas, 1879, "The electric light applied to lighthouse illumination", Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers 57(3):77–110 (describes trials of Holmes's machines).GW -
78 Theophilus Presbyter
[br]fl. late eleventh/early twelfth century[br]German author of the most detailed medieval treatise relating to technology.[br]The little that is known of Theophilus is what can be inferred from his great work, De diversis artibus. He was a Benedictine monk and priest living in north-west Germany, probably near an important art centre. He was an educated man, conversant with scholastic philosophy and at the same time a skilled, practising craftsman. Even his identity is obscure: Theophilus is a pseudonym, possibly for Roger of Helmarshausen, for the little that is known of both is in agreement.Evidence in De diversis suggests that it was probably composed during 1110 to 1140. White (see Further Reading) goes on to suggest late 1122 or early 1123, on the grounds that Theophilus only learned of St Bernard of Clairvaulx's diatribe against lavish church ornamentation during the writing of the work, for it is only in the preface to Book 3 that Theophilus seeks to justify his craft. St Bernard's Apologia can be dated late 1122. No other medieval work on art combines the comprehensive range, orderly presentation and attention to detail as does De diversis. It has been described as an encyclopedia of medieval skills and crafts. It also offers the best and often the only description of medieval technology, including the first direct reference to papermaking in the West, the earliest medieval account of bell-founding and the most complete account of organ building. Many metallurgical techniques are described in detail, such as the making of a crucible furnace and bloomery hearth.The treatise is divided into three books, the first on the materials and art of painting, the second on glassmaking, including stained glass, glass vessels and the blown-cylinder method for flat glass, and the final and longest book on metalwork, including working in iron, copper, gold and silver for church use, such as chalices and censers. The main texts are no mere compilations, but reveal the firsthand knowledge that can only be gained by a skilled craftsman. The prefaces to each book present perhaps the only medieval expression of an artist's ideals and how he sees his art in relation to the general scheme of things. For Theophilus, his art is a gift from God and every skill an act of praise and piety. Theophilus is thus an indispensable source for medieval crafts and technology, but there are indications that the work was also well known at the time of its composition and afterwards.[br]BibliographyThe Wolfenbuttel and Vienna manuscripts of De diversis are the earliest, both dating from the first half of the twelfth century, while the British Library copy, in an early thirteenth-century hand, is the most complete. Two incomplete copies from the thirteenth century held at Cambridge and Leipzig offer help in arriving at a definitive edition.There are several references to De diversis in sixteenth-century printed works, such as Cornelius Agrippa (1530) and Josias Simmler (1585). The earliest printed edition ofDe diversis was prepared by G.H.Lessing in 1781 with the title, much used since, Diversarium artium schedula.There are two good recent editions: Theophilus: De diversis artibus. The Various Arts, 1964, trans. with introd. by C.R.Dodwell, London: Thomas Nelson, and On Diverse Arts. The Treatise of Theophilus, 1963, trans. with introd. and notes by J.G.Harthorne and C.S.Smith, Chicago University Press.Further ReadingLynn White, 1962, "Theophilus redivivus", Technology and Culture 5:224–33 (a comparative review of Theophilus (op. cit.) and On Diverse Arts (op. cit.)).LRD -
79 Vitruvius Pollio
SUBJECT AREA: Architecture and building[br]b. early first century BCd. c. 25 BC[br]Roman writer on architecture and engineering subjects.[br]Nothing is known of Vitruvius apart from what can be gleaned from his only known work, the treatise De architectura. He seems to have been employed in some capacity by Julius Caesar and continued to serve under his heir, Octavianus, later Emperor Augustus, to whom he dedicated his book. It was written towards the end of his life, after Octavianus became undisputed ruler of the Empire by his victory at Actium in 31 BC, and was based partly on his own experience and partly on earlier, Hellenistic, writers.The De architectura is divided into ten books. The first seven books expound the general principles of architecture and the planning, design and construction of various types of building, public and domestic, including a consideration of techniques and materials. Book 7 deals with interior decoration, including stucco work and painting, while Book 8 treats water supply, from the location of sources to the transport of water by aqueducts, tunnels and pipes. Book 9, after a long and somewhat confused account of the astronomical theories of the day, describes various forms of clock and sundial. Finally, Book 10 deals with mechanical devices for handling building materials and raising and pumping water, for which Vitruvius draws on the earlier Greek authors Ctesibius and Hero.Although this may seem a motley assembly of subjects, to the Roman architect and builder it was a logical compendium of the subjects he was expected to know about. At the time, Vitruvius' rigid rules for the design of buildings such as temples seem to have had little influence, but his accounts of more practical matters of building materials and techniques were widely used. His illustrations to the original work were lost in antiquity, for no later manuscript includes them. Through the Middle Ages, manuscript copies were made in monastic scriptoria, although the architectural style in vogue had little relevance to those in Vitruvius: these came into their own with the Italian Renaissance. Alberti, writing the first great Renaissance treatise on architecture from 1452 to 1467, drew heavily on De architectura; those who sought to revive the styles of antiquity were bound to regard the only surviving text on the subject as authoritative. The appearance of the first printed edition in 1486 only served to extend its influence.During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Vitruvius was used as a handbook for constructing machines and instruments. For the modern historian of technology and architecture the work is a source of prime importance, although it must be remembered that the illustrations in the early printed editions are of contemporary reproductions of ancient devices using the techniques of the time, rather than authentic representations of ancient technology.[br]BibliographyOf the several critical editions of De architectura there are the Teubner edition, 1899. ed. V.Rose, Leipzig; the Loeb Classical Library edition, 1962, ed. F.Granger, London: Heinemann, (with English trans. and notes); and the Collection Guillaume Budé with French trans. and full commentary, 10 vols, Paris (in progress).Further ReadingApart from the notes to the printed editions, see also: H.Plommer, 1973, Vitruvius and Later Roman Building Manuals, London. A.G.Drachmann, 1963, The Mechanical Technology of Greek and Roman Antiquity Copenhagen and London.S.L.Gibbs, 1976, Greek and Roman Sundials, New Haven and London.LRD -
80 Creativity
Put in this bald way, these aims sound utopian. How utopian they areor rather, how imminent their realization-depends on how broadly or narrowly we interpret the term "creative." If we are willing to regard all human complex problem solving as creative, then-as we will point out-successful programs for problem solving mechanisms that simulate human problem solvers already exist, and a number of their general characteristics are known. If we reserve the term "creative" for activities like discovery of the special theory of relativity or the composition of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony, then no example of a creative mechanism exists at the present time. (Simon, 1979, pp. 144-145)Among the questions that can now be given preliminary answers in computational terms are the following: how can ideas from very different sources be spontaneously thought of together? how can two ideas be merged to produce a new structure, which shows the influence of both ancestor ideas without being a mere "cut-and-paste" combination? how can the mind be "primed," so that one will more easily notice serendipitous ideas? why may someone notice-and remember-something fairly uninteresting, if it occurs in an interesting context? how can a brief phrase conjure up an entire melody from memory? and how can we accept two ideas as similar ("love" and "prove" as rhyming, for instance) in respect of a feature not identical in both? The features of connectionist AI models that suggest answers to these questions are their powers of pattern completion, graceful degradation, sensitization, multiple constraint satisfaction, and "best-fit" equilibration.... Here, the important point is that the unconscious, "insightful," associative aspects of creativity can be explained-in outline, at least-by AI methods. (Boden, 1996, p. 273)There thus appears to be an underlying similarity in the process involved in creative innovation and social independence, with common traits and postures required for expression of both behaviors. The difference is one of product-literary, musical, artistic, theoretical products on the one hand, opinions on the other-rather than one of process. In both instances the individual must believe that his perceptions are meaningful and valid and be willing to rely upon his own interpretations. He must trust himself sufficiently that even when persons express opinions counter to his own he can proceed on the basis of his own perceptions and convictions. (Coopersmith, 1967, p. 58)he average level of ego strength and emotional stability is noticeably higher among creative geniuses than among the general population, though it is possibly lower than among men of comparable intelligence and education who go into administrative and similar positions. High anxiety and excitability appear common (e.g. Priestley, Darwin, Kepler) but full-blown neurosis is quite rare. (Cattell & Butcher, 1970, p. 315)he insight that is supposed to be required for such work as discovery turns out to be synonymous with the familiar process of recognition; and other terms commonly used in the discussion of creative work-such terms as "judgment," "creativity," or even "genius"-appear to be wholly dispensable or to be definable, as insight is, in terms of mundane and well-understood concepts. (Simon, 1989, p. 376)From the sketch material still in existence, from the condition of the fragments, and from the autographs themselves we can draw definite conclusions about Mozart's creative process. To invent musical ideas he did not need any stimulation; they came to his mind "ready-made" and in polished form. In contrast to Beethoven, who made numerous attempts at shaping his musical ideas until he found the definitive formulation of a theme, Mozart's first inspiration has the stamp of finality. Any Mozart theme has completeness and unity; as a phenomenon it is a Gestalt. (Herzmann, 1964, p. 28)Great artists enlarge the limits of one's perception. Looking at the world through the eyes of Rembrandt or Tolstoy makes one able to perceive aspects of truth about the world which one could not have achieved without their aid. Freud believed that science was adaptive because it facilitated mastery of the external world; but was it not the case that many scientific theories, like works of art, also originated in phantasy? Certainly, reading accounts of scientific discovery by men of the calibre of Einstein compelled me to conclude that phantasy was not merely escapist, but a way of reaching new insights concerning the nature of reality. Scientific hypotheses require proof; works of art do not. Both are concerned with creating order, with making sense out of the world and our experience of it. (Storr, 1993, p. xii)The importance of self-esteem for creative expression appears to be almost beyond disproof. Without a high regard for himself the individual who is working in the frontiers of his field cannot trust himself to discriminate between the trivial and the significant. Without trust in his own powers the person seeking improved solutions or alternative theories has no basis for distinguishing the significant and profound innovation from the one that is merely different.... An essential component of the creative process, whether it be analysis, synthesis, or the development of a new perspective or more comprehensive theory, is the conviction that one's judgment in interpreting the events is to be trusted. (Coopersmith, 1967, p. 59)In the daily stream of thought these four different stages [preparation; incubation; illumination or inspiration; and verification] constantly overlap each other as we explore different problems. An economist reading a Blue Book, a physiologist watching an experiment, or a business man going through his morning's letters, may at the same time be "incubating" on a problem which he proposed to himself a few days ago, be accumulating knowledge in "preparation" for a second problem, and be "verifying" his conclusions to a third problem. Even in exploring the same problem, the mind may be unconsciously incubating on one aspect of it, while it is consciously employed in preparing for or verifying another aspect. (Wallas, 1926, p. 81)he basic, bisociative pattern of the creative synthesis [is] the sudden interlocking of two previously unrelated skills, or matrices of thought. (Koestler, 1964, p. 121)11) The Earliest Stages in the Creative Process Involve a Commerce with DisorderEven to the creator himself, the earliest effort may seem to involve a commerce with disorder. For the creative order, which is an extension of life, is not an elaboration of the established, but a movement beyond the established, or at least a reorganization of it and often of elements not included in it. The first need is therefore to transcend the old order. Before any new order can be defined, the absolute power of the established, the hold upon us of what we know and are, must be broken. New life comes always from outside our world, as we commonly conceive that world. This is the reason why, in order to invent, one must yield to the indeterminate within him, or, more precisely, to certain illdefined impulses which seem to be of the very texture of the ungoverned fullness which John Livingston Lowes calls "the surging chaos of the unexpressed." (Ghiselin, 1985, p. 4)New life comes always from outside our world, as we commonly conceive our world. This is the reason why, in order to invent, one must yield to the indeterminate within him, or, more precisely, to certain illdefined impulses which seem to be of the very texture of the ungoverned fullness which John Livingston Lowes calls "the surging chaos of the unexpressed." Chaos and disorder are perhaps the wrong terms for that indeterminate fullness and activity of the inner life. For it is organic, dynamic, full of tension and tendency. What is absent from it, except in the decisive act of creation, is determination, fixity, and commitment to one resolution or another of the whole complex of its tensions. (Ghiselin, 1952, p. 13)[P]sychoanalysts have principally been concerned with the content of creative products, and with explaining content in terms of the artist's infantile past. They have paid less attention to examining why the artist chooses his particular activity to express, abreact or sublimate his emotions. In short, they have not made much distinction between art and neurosis; and, since the former is one of the blessings of mankind, whereas the latter is one of the curses, it seems a pity that they should not be better differentiated....Psychoanalysis, being fundamentally concerned with drive and motive, might have been expected to throw more light upon what impels the creative person that in fact it has. (Storr, 1993, pp. xvii, 3)A number of theoretical approaches were considered. Associative theory, as developed by Mednick (1962), gained some empirical support from the apparent validity of the Remote Associates Test, which was constructed on the basis of the theory.... Koestler's (1964) bisociative theory allows more complexity to mental organization than Mednick's associative theory, and postulates "associative contexts" or "frames of reference." He proposed that normal, non-creative, thought proceeds within particular contexts or frames and that the creative act involves linking together previously unconnected frames.... Simonton (1988) has developed associative notions further and explored the mathematical consequences of chance permutation of ideas....Like Koestler, Gruber (1980; Gruber and Davis, 1988) has based his analysis on case studies. He has focused especially on Darwin's development of the theory of evolution. Using piagetian notions, such as assimilation and accommodation, Gruber shows how Darwin's system of ideas changed very slowly over a period of many years. "Moments of insight," in Gruber's analysis, were the culminations of slow long-term processes.... Finally, the information-processing approach, as represented by Simon (1966) and Langley et al. (1987), was considered.... [Simon] points out the importance of good problem representations, both to ensure search is in an appropriate problem space and to aid in developing heuristic evaluations of possible research directions.... The work of Langley et al. (1987) demonstrates how such search processes, realized in computer programs, can indeed discover many basic laws of science from tables of raw data.... Boden (1990a, 1994) has stressed the importance of restructuring the problem space in creative work to develop new genres and paradigms in the arts and sciences. (Gilhooly, 1996, pp. 243-244; emphasis in original)Historical dictionary of quotations in cognitive science > Creativity
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