large+medal

• medallón s.m.

• large medal

• large nail

• liberally

(large medal) [große] Medaille

* * *

[mɪˈdæliən, AM məˈdæljən]

n Medaillon nt

* * *

* * *

medallion [mıˈdæljən] s

1. große Denk- oder Schaumünze

2. Medaillon n

3. US Taxilizenz f

* * *

(large medal) [große] Medaille

* * *

Schaumünze f.

• blast-hole

• blasthole

• borehole

• drill hole

• large lump

• large mask

• large mechanical drill

• large medal

• mechanical borer

• mechanical drill

1 paten.

limpio o blanco como una patena as clean as a new pin (peninsular Spanish)

2 large medal worn by female farmers.

* * *

► nombre femenino

1 paten

\

limpio,-a como una patena spotless, as clean as a new pin

* * *

SF paten

* * *

femenino paten

* * *

femenino paten

* * *

paten

limpio or reluciente como una patena ( Esp); as clean as a new pin, spick-and-span

* * *

patena nf

paten;

limpio o [m5] blanco como una patena as clean as a new pin

* * *

f paten;

limpio como una patena fig spick-and-span

1) anwesend, (geh.) zugegen (at bei)

2) (being dealt with) betreffend

3) (existing now) gegenwärtig; jetzig, derzeitig [Bischof, Chef usw.]

4) (Ling.)

1)

2) (Ling.) Präsens, das; Gegenwart, die

1) schenken; überreichen [Preis, Medaille, Geschenk]

2) (deliver) überreichen [Gesuch] (to bei); vorlegen [Scheck, Bericht, Rechnung] (to Dat.)

3) (exhibit) zeigen; bereiten [Schwierigkeit]; aufweisen [Aspekt]

4) (introduce) vorstellen (to Dat.)

5) (to the public) geben, aufführen [Theaterstück]; zeigen [Film]; moderieren [Sendung]; bringen [Fernsehserie, Schauspieler in einer Rolle]; vorstellen [Produkt usw.]; vorlegen [Abhandlung]

6)

* * *

1) (being here, or at the place, occasion etc mentioned: My father was present on that occasion; Who else was present at the wedding?; Now that the whole class is present, we can begin the lesson.) anwesend

2) (existing now: the present moment; the present prime minister.) gegenwärtig

3) ((of the tense of a verb) indicating action now: In the sentence `She wants a chocolate', the verb is in the present tense.) das Präsens

•

- presently

1) (to give, especially formally or ceremonially: The child presented a bunch of flowers to the Queen; He was presented with a gold watch when he retired.) überreichen

2) (to introduce: May I present my wife (to you)?) vorstellen

3) (to arrange the production of (a play, film etc): The Elizabethan Theatre Company presents `Hamlet', by William Shakespeare.) vorführen

4) (to offer (ideas etc) for consideration, or (a problem etc) for solving: She presents (=expresses) her ideas very clearly; The situation presents a problem.) vorbringen

5) (to bring (oneself); to appear: He presented himself at the dinner table half an hour late.) erscheinen

•

- presenter

* * *

I. n

1. no pl (now)

▪ the \present die Gegenwart

the play is set [or takes place] in the \present das Stück spielt in der Gegenwart

to live for the \present im Hier und Jetzt leben

to refuse to think beyond the \present nicht an die Zukunft denken wollen

at \present zurzeit, gegenwärtig

for the \present vorläufig

that's all [or that will be all] for the \present das ist vorläufig [o zunächst einmal] alles

up to the \present bis jetzt, bislang

2. no pl LING Gegenwart f, Präsens nt

the verbs are all in the \present die Verben stehen alle im Präsens

3. LAW

these \presents vorliegende Urkunde

by these \presents hierdurch, durch diese Urkunde

▶ there's no time like the \present ( prov) was du heute kannst besorgen, das verschiebe nicht auf morgen prov

when do you want me to leave? — no time like the \present wann möchtest du, dass ich gehe? — am besten sofort

II. adj

1. inv, attr (current) derzeitig, jetzig, gegenwärtig

sb's \present address jds derzeitige Adresse

down to the \present day bis zum heutigen Tag

duration of \present employment Dauer f der gegenwärtigen Beschäftigung

the \present generation die heutige Generation

at the \present moment im Moment [o Augenblick]

the \present month der laufende Monat

at the \present time zurzeit, gegenwärtig

\present value FIN Tageswert m

2. inv, attr (being dealt with) betreffend

that's not relevant to the \present matter das ist für diese Sache nicht von Bedeutung

in the \present case im vorliegenden Fall

in the \present connection in diesem Zusammenhang

3. inv, usu pred (in attendance) anwesend, präsent

all \present and correct BRIT

all \present and accounted for AM things alles [ist] da; people alle [sind] da

\present company excepted Anwesende ausgenommen

counting those \present Anwesende eingeschlossen

all those \present alle Anwesenden

▪ to be \present at sth bei etw dat anwesend [o geh zugegen] sein

how many people will be \present at the ceremony? wie viele Personen werden an der Feier teilnehmen?

4. inv, usu pred (existing) vorhanden

▪ to be \present [in sth] [in etw dat] vorkommen [o vorhanden sein]

are there certain chemicals \present in the air? sind in der Luft bestimmte Chemikalien enthalten?

traces of arsenic were \present in the body im Körper konnten Spuren von Arsen nachgewiesen werden

the patient was weak, fever was also \present der Patient war schwach, Fieber war auch aufgetreten

n Geschenk nt, Präsent nt geh o hum

as a retirement \present she was given a week's vacation to the Caribbean zur Pensionierung schenkte man ihr einen einwöchigen Urlaub in der Karibik

birthday/Christmas/wedding \present Geburtstags-/Weihnachts-/Hochzeitsgeschenk nt

to get [or receive] sth as a \present etw geschenkt bekommen

to give sth to sb [or sb sth] as a \present jdm etw schenken

to make sb a \present of sth jdm etw schenken

I. vt

1. (give formally)

▪ to \present sth [to sb/sth] gift [jdm/etw] etw schenken; award, medal, diploma [jdm/etw] etw überreichen

▪ to \present sb with sth gift jdm etw schenken; award, medal, diploma jdm etw überreichen

he is going to \present the town with a new hospital er wird der Stadt ein neues Krankenhaus stiften

2. (express)

to \present ones apologies ( form) [vielmals] um Entschuldigung bitten

the major \presents his apologies, but he is unable to attend der Bürgermeister lässt sich entschuldigen, aber er kann leider nicht teilnehmen

to \present one's compliments ( form or hum)

Mr Barney \presents his compliments Herr Barney lässt Grüße ausrichten

please \present my compliments to the chef mein Kompliment an den Koch

to \present a critique of sth Kritik an etw dat äußern [o üben]

to \present one's thoughts/view seine Gedanken/Ansichten darlegen

3. (hand over, show)

▪ to \present sth [to sb/sth] [jdm/etw] etw vorlegen [o präsentieren]

she \presented her passport at the checkpoint sie zeigte ihren Reisepass am Kontrollpunkt vor

to \present a bill for acceptance FIN einen Wechsel zur Annahme vorlegen

to \present a bill for £3000 eine Rechnung über 3000 Pfund präsentieren [o vorlegen]

to \present a cheque for payment einen Scheck einreichen

to \present one's credentials sich akk ausweisen

to \present a united front organization, people sich akk geeint zeigen

to \present a petition ein Gesuch einreichen

to \present proof of payment einen Zahlungsnachweis erbringen

4. (put forward)

▪ to \present sth [to sb/sth] [jdm/etw] etw präsentieren

to sth \present for acceptance/payment FIN etw zum Akzept fachspr/zur Zahlung vorlegen

to \present an argument ein Argument anführen

to \present a bill LAW einen Gesetzentwurf einbringen [o zur Zahlung vorlegen]

to \present evidence LAW Beweismittel beibringen fachspr; (in science) den Beweis erbringen

to \present a motion einen Antrag stellen

to \present a motion of no confidence einen Misstrauensantrag einbringen

to \present a paper/report eine Arbeit/einen Bericht vorlegen

to \present a plan/theory einen Plan/eine Theorie darlegen

to \present a proposal einen Vorschlag unterbreiten

5. (face, confront)

to \present sb with a challenge jdn vor eine Herausforderung stellen

to \present sb with [the] facts jdm die Fakten vor Augen führen

to be \presented with different options verschiedene Wahlmöglichkeiten geboten bekommen

to \present sb with a problem jdn vor ein Problem stellen

to \present sb with an ultimatum jdm ein Ultimatum stellen

▪ to \present sth (be) etw darstellen; (offer, provide) etw bieten; (cause) mit sich bringen

use of these chemicals may \present a fire risk die Verwendung dieser Chemikalien könnte ein Brandrisiko darstellen

the classroom \presented a cheerful atmosphere to the visitor das Klassenzimmer bot den Besuchern eine freundliche Atmosphäre

to \present a challenge to sb eine Herausforderung für jdn sein

to \present a contrast to sth einen Gegensatz zu etw dat darstellen

to \present difficulties for sb jdm Schwierigkeiten bereiten

to \present a problem for sb jdn vor ein Problem stellen

7. ( form: introduce)

▪ to \present sb [to sb] jdn [jdm] vorstellen

may I \present Professor Carter? darf ich Professor Carter vorstellen?

allow me to \present Mrs Richards to you darf ich Ihnen Frau Richards vorstellen?

8. (compère)

to \present a programme eine Sendung moderieren; (show)

to \present a film einen Film zeigen

to \present a play ein Stück aufführen

to \present a product ein Produkt vorstellen

to \present a TV-series eine Fernsehserie bringen [o zeigen

9. (portray, show)

▪ to \present sb/sth [as sb/sth] jdn/etw [als jdn/etw] präsentieren

to \present sb/sth in a favourable light jdn/etw in einem günstigen Licht präsentieren [o zeigen]

▪ to \present oneself sich akk präsentieren

you need to \present yourself better du musst dich besser präsentieren

he likes to \present himself as an intellectual er gibt sich gerne als Intellektueller

10. MIL

to \present arms das Gewehr präsentieren

\present arms! präsentiert das Gewehr!

11. (appear)

▪ to \present oneself erscheinen, sich akk einfinden geh

you will be asked to \present yourself for an interview man wird Sie bitten, zu einem Vorstellungsgespräch zu kommen

to \present oneself in court vor Gericht erscheinen

to \present oneself at the doctor's sich akk beim Arzt vorstellen

12. (arise)

▪ to \present itself opportunity, solution sich bieten [o auftun]; problem sich zeigen

the opportunity to work in Boston \presented itself quite out of the blue die Gelegenheit, in Boston zu arbeiten, kam aus heiterem Himmel

13. MED

▪ to \present itself illness sich zeigen, auftreten

II. vi MED

1. patient

▪ to \present with sth Anzeichen einer S. gen zeigen

the patient \presented with a serious case of TB der Patient zeigte Anzeichen einer schweren Tuberkulose

2. fetus ausgetrieben werden

the fetus \presented to the birth canal feet first der Fötus trat mit den Füßen zuerst in den Geburtskanal

3. illness sich zeigen, auftreten

III. n no pl

to bring the rifle down to the \present das Gewehr in Anschlag bringen

* * *

1. adj

1) (= in attendance) anwesend

2) (= existing in sth) vorhanden

3)

4) (GRAM)

2. n

1) Gegenwart f

2) (GRAM) Gegenwart f, Präsens nt

1. n

2. vt

1) (= hand over formally) medal, prize etc übergeben, überreichen; (= give as a gift) art collection, book etc schenken, zum Geschenk machen (form)

2) (= put forward) vorlegen; cheque (for payment) präsentieren; proof vorlegen, erbringen (of sth für etw); proposal vorlegen, unterbreiten

3) (= offer, provide) target, view, opportunity bieten

4) (RAD, TV) präsentieren; (THEAT) zeigen, aufführen; (commentator) moderieren

5) (= introduce) vorstellen

6) (= point) gun etc richten, zielen (at auf +acc)

3. vr

* * *

present¹ [ˈpreznt]

A adj (adv → presently)

1. gegenwärtig, anwesend ( beide:

in a place an einem Ort;

at bei einer Feier etc), vorhanden ( auch CHEM etc):

were you present? warst du da(bei)?;

those present, present company die Anwesenden;

be present at teilnehmen an (dat), einer Sache beiwohnen, bei einem Fest etc zugegen sein;

present! (bei Namensaufruf) hier!

2. gegenwärtig, augenblicklich, derzeitig, jetzig, momentan:

the present time ( oder day) die Gegenwart;

present value Gegenwarts-, WIRTSCH Tageswert m

3. heutig (besonders Tag), laufend (besonders Jahr, Monat)

4. fig (to) gegenwärtig oder vor Augen (dat), lebendig (in dat):

it is present to my mind es ist mir gegenwärtig

5. vorliegend:

the present case ( document, etc);

the present writer der Schreiber oder Verfasser (dieser Zeilen)

6. LING präsentisch, im Präsens oder in der Gegenwart (stehend oder gebraucht):

present participle Partizip n Präsens, Mittelwort n der Gegenwart;

present perfect Perfekt n, zweite Vergangenheit;

present tense Präsens n, Gegenwart f

B s

1. Gegenwart f:

at present im Augenblick, augenblicklich, gegenwärtig, zum gegenwärtigen Zeitpunkt, momentan;

for the present vorläufig, für den Augenblick, einstweilen

2. LING (Verb n im) Präsens n, (Zeitwort n in der) Gegenwart f

3. pl JUR (vorliegendes) Schriftstück oder Dokument:

by these presents hiermit, hierdurch;

know all men by these presents that … hiermit wird allen kundgetan, dass …

present² [prıˈzent]

A v/t

1. jemanden beschenken, (mit einem Preis etc) bedenken:

present sb with sth jemandem etwas schenken oder verehren;

present sb with a problem jemanden vor ein Problem stellen;

be presented with a prize einen Preis (überreicht) bekommen

2. darbieten, (über)reichen, etwas schenken:

present sth to sb jemandem etwas schenken;

present a message eine Botschaft überbringen;

present one’s compliments to sb sich jemandem empfehlen

3. jemanden vorstellen ( to sb jemandem), einführen (at bei):

a) sich vorstellen,

b) sich einfinden, erscheinen, sich melden ( alle:

for zu),

c) fig sich bieten (Möglichkeit etc)

4. bei Hof vorstellen oder einführen:

5. present no difficulty to sb jemandem keine Schwierigkeit bieten;

present a problem (a threat) ein Problem (eine Bedrohung) darstellen;

present an appearance (of) erscheinen (als);

present a smiling face ein lächelndes Gesicht zeigen

6. WIRTSCH einen Wechsel, Scheck (zur Zahlung) vorlegen, präsentieren:

present a bill for acceptance einen Wechsel zum Akzept vorlegen

7. ein Gesuch, eine Klage einreichen, vorlegen, unterbreiten

8. eine Bitte, Klage, ein Argument etc vorbringen, einen Gedanken, Wunsch äußern, unterbreiten:

present a case einen Fall vortragen oder vor Gericht vertreten

9. JUR

a) Klage oder Anzeige erstatten gegen

b) ein Vergehen anzeigen

10. ein Theaterstück, einen Film etc darbieten, geben, zeigen, auch eine Sendung bringen, eine Sendung moderieren

11. eine Rolle spielen, verkörpern

12. fig vergegenwärtigen, vor Augen führen, schildern, darstellen

13. jemanden (für ein Amt) vorschlagen

14. MIL

a) das Gewehr präsentieren

b) eine Waffe in Anschlag bringen, anlegen, richten (at auf akk): → arm² Bes Redew

B s MIL

a) Präsentiergriff m

b) (Gewehr)Anschlag m:

at the present in Präsentierhaltung;

present arms Präsentierstellung f

present³ [ˈpreznt] s Geschenk n, Präsent n, Gabe f:

make sb a present of sth, make a present of sth to sb jemandem etwas zum Geschenk machen oder schenken;

what do you want for a present? was willst du als Geschenk?

pres. abk

1. present

2. presidency

* * *

1) anwesend, (geh.) zugegen (at bei)

2) (being dealt with) betreffend

3) (existing now) gegenwärtig; jetzig, derzeitig [Bischof, Chef usw.]

4) (Ling.)

1)

2) (Ling.) Präsens, das; Gegenwart, die

1) schenken; überreichen [Preis, Medaille, Geschenk]

2) (deliver) überreichen [Gesuch] (to bei); vorlegen [Scheck, Bericht, Rechnung] (to Dat.)

3) (exhibit) zeigen; bereiten [Schwierigkeit]; aufweisen [Aspekt]

4) (introduce) vorstellen (to Dat.)

5) (to the public) geben, aufführen [Theaterstück]; zeigen [Film]; moderieren [Sendung]; bringen [Fernsehserie, Schauspieler in einer Rolle]; vorstellen [Produkt usw.]; vorlegen [Abhandlung]

6)

* * *

derzeitig (jetzig) adj.

gegenwärtig adj.

präsent adj.

vorhanden adj. n.

Geschenk -e n.

Präsent -e n. v.

aufweisen v.

beschenken v.

präsentieren v.

vorführen v.

vorlegen v.

vorstellen v.

überreichen v.

SUBJECT AREA: Architecture and building, Electricity, Land transport, Railways and locomotives

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Graduating from the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, in 1878, Sprague served at sea and with various shore establishments. In 1883 he resigned from the Navy and obtained employment with the Edison Company; but being convinced that the use of electricity for motive power was as important as that for illumination, in 1884 he founded the Sprague Electric Railway and Motor Company. Sprague began to develop reliable and efficient motors in large sizes, marketing 15 hp (11 kW) examples by 1885. He devised the method of collecting current by using a wooden, spring-loaded rod to press a roller against the underside of an overhead wire. The installation by Sprague in 1888 of a street tramway on a large scale in Richmond, Virginia, was to become the prototype of the universally adopted trolley system with overhead conductor and the beginning of commercial electric traction. Following the success of the Richmond tramway the company equipped sixty-seven other railways before its merger with Edison General Electric in 1890. The Sprague traction motor supported on the axle of electric streetcars and flexibly mounted to the bogie set a pattern that was widely adopted for many years.

Encouraged by successful experiments with multiple-sheave electric elevators, the Sprague Elevator Company was formed and installed the first set of high-speed passenger cars in 1893–4. These effectively displaced hydraulic elevators in larger buildings. From experience with control systems for these, he developed his system of multiple-unit control for electric trains, which other engineers had considered impracticable. In Sprague's system, a master controller situated in the driver's cab operated electrically at a distance the contactors and reversers which controlled the motors distributed down the train. After years of experiment, Sprague's multiple-unit control was put into use for the first time in 1898 by the Chicago South Side Elevated Railway: within fifteen years multiple-unit operation was used worldwide.

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SUBJECT AREA: Broadcasting, Electronics and information technology, Telecommunications

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Interested from childhood in anything mechanical, as a teenager Armstrong constructed a variety of wireless equipment in the attic of his parents' home, including spark-gap transmitters and receivers with iron-filing "coherer" detectors capable of producing weak Morse-code signals. In 1912, while still a student of engineering at Columbia University, he applied positive, i.e. regenerative, feedback to a Lee De Forest triode amplifier to just below the point of oscillation and obtained a gain of some 1,000 times, giving a receiver sensitivity very much greater than hitherto possible. Furthermore, by allowing the circuit to go into full oscillation he found he could generate stable continuous-waves, making possible the first reliable CW radio transmitter. Sadly, his claim to priority with this invention, for which he filed US patents in 1913, the year he graduated from Columbia, led to many years of litigation with De Forest, to whom the US Supreme Court finally, but unjustly, awarded the patent in 1934. The engineering world clearly did not agree with this decision, for the Institution of Radio Engineers did not revoke its previous award of a gold medal and he subsequently received the highest US scientific award, the Franklin Medal, for this discovery.

During the First World War, after some time as an instructor at Columbia University, he joined the US Signal Corps laboratories in Paris, where in 1918 he invented the superheterodyne, a major contribution to radio-receiver design and for which he filed a patent in 1920. The principle of this circuit, which underlies virtually all modern radio, TV and radar reception, is that by using a local oscillator to convert, or "heterodyne", a wanted signal to a lower, fixed, "intermediate" frequency it is possible to obtain high amplification and selectivity without the need to "track" the tuning of numerous variable circuits.

Returning to Columbia after the war and eventually becoming Professor of Electrical Engineering, he made a fortune from the sale of his patent rights and used part of his wealth to fund his own research into further problems in radio communication, particularly that of receiver noise. In 1933 he filed four patents covering the use of wide-band frequency modulation (FM) to achieve low-noise, high-fidelity sound broadcasting, but unable to interest RCA he eventually built a complete broadcast transmitter at his own expense in 1939 to prove the advantages of his system. Unfortunately, there followed another long battle to protect and exploit his patents, and exhausted and virtually ruined he took his own life in 1954, just as the use of FM became an established technique.

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SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace, Electronics and information technology, Telecommunications

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From his high-school days, Pierce showed an interest in science and in science fiction, writing under the pseudonym of J.J.Coupling. After gaining Bachelor's, Master's and PhD degrees at the California Institute of Technology (CalTech) in Pasadena in 1933, 1934 and 1936, respectively, Pierce joined the Bell Telephone Laboratories in New York City in 1936. There he worked on improvements to the travelling-wave tube, in which the passage of a beam of electrons through a helical transmission line at around 7 per cent of the speed of light was made to provide amplification at 860 MHz. He also devised a new form of electrostatically focused electron-multiplier which formed the basis of a sensitive detector of radiation. However, his main contribution to electronics at this time was the invention of the Pierce electron gun—a method of producing a high-density electron beam. In the Second World War he worked with McNally and Shepherd on the development of a low-voltage reflex klystron oscillator that was applied to military radar equipment.

In 1952 he became Director of Electronic Research at the Bell Laboratories' establishment, Murray Hill, New Jersey. Within two years he had begun work on the possibility of round-the-world relay of signals by means of communication satellites, an idea anticipated in his early science-fiction writings (and by Arthur C. Clarke in 1945), and in 1955 he published a paper in which he examined various possibilities for communications satellites, including passive and active satellites in synchronous and non-synchronous orbits. In 1960 he used the National Aeronautics and Space Administration 30 m (98 1/2 ft) diameter, aluminium-coated Echo 1 balloon satellite to reflect telephone signals back to earth. The success of this led to the launching in 1962 of the first active relay satellite (Telstar), which weighed 170 lb (77 kg) and contained solar-powered rechargeable batteries, 1,000 transistors and a travelling-wave tube capable of amplifying the signal 10,000 times. With a maximum orbital height of 3,500 miles (5,600 km), this enabled a variety of signals, including full bandwidth television, to be relayed from the USA to large receiving dishes in Europe.

From 1971 until his "retirement" in 1979, Pierce was Professor of Electrical Engineering at CalTech, after which he became Chief Technologist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratories, also in Pasadena, and Emeritus Professor of Engineering at Stanford University.

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SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace

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At the age of 17, Cierva and some of his friends built a successful two-seater biplane, the BCD-1 (C for Cierva). By 1919 he had designed a large three-engined biplane bomber, the C 3, which unfortunately crashed when its wing stalled (list its lift) during a slow-speed turn. Cierva turned all his energies to designing a flying machine which could not stall: his answer was the autogiro. Although an autogiro looks like a helicopter, its rotor blades are not driven by an engine, but free-wheel like a windmill. Forward speed is provided by a conventional engine and propeller, and even if this engine fails, the autogiro's rotors continue to free-wheel and it descends safely. Cierva patented his autogiro design in 1920, but it took him three years to put theory into practice. By 1925, after further improvements, he had produced a practical rotary-winged flying machine.

He moved to England and in 1926 established the Cierva Autogiro Company Ltd. The Air Ministry showed great interest and a year later the British company Avro was commissioned to manufacture the C 6A Autogiro under licence. Probably the most significant of Cierva's autogiros was the C 30A, or Avro Rota, which served in the Royal Air Force from 1935 until 1945. Several other manufacturers in France, Germany, Japan and the USA built Cierva autogiros under licence, but only in small numbers and they never really rivalled fixed-wing aircraft. The death of Cierva in an airliner crash in 1936, together with the emergence of successful helicopters, all but extinguished interest in the autogiro.

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SUBJECT AREA: Metallurgy

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After spending some years at his father's Castle Ironworks and at Ebbw Vale Works, Talbot travelled to the USA in 1890 to become Superintendent of the Southern Iron and Steel Company of Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he initiated basic open-hearth steelmaking and a preliminary slag washing to remove silicon. In 1893 he moved to Pennsylvania as Steel Superintendent at the Pencoyd works; there, six years later, he began his "continuous" steelmaking process. Returning to Britain in 1900, Talbot marketed the technique: after ten years it was in successful use in Britain, continental Europe and the USA; it promoted the growth of steel production.

Meanwhile its originator had joined the Cargo Fleet Iron Company Limited on Teesside, where he was made Managing Director in 1907. Twelve years later he assumed, in addition, the same position in the allied South Durham Steel and Iron Company Limited. While remaining Managing Director, he was appointed Deputy Chairman of both companies in 1925, and Chairman in 1940. The companies he controlled survived the depressed 1920s and 1930s and were significant contributors to British steel output, with a capacity of more than half a million tonnes per year.

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SUBJECT AREA: Architecture and building

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The name of Le Corbusier is synonymous with the International style of modern architecture and city planning, one utilizing functionalist designs carried out in twentieth-century materials with modern methods of construction. Charles-Edouard Jeanneret, born in the watch-making town of La Chaux-de-Fonds in the Jura mountain region, was the son of a watch engraver and dial painter. In the years before 1918 he travelled widely, studying building in many countries. He learned about the use of reinforced concrete in the studio of Auguste Perret and about industrial construction under Peter Behrens. In 1917 he went to live in Paris and spent the rest of his life in France; in 1920 he adopted the name of Le Corbusier, one derived from that of his ancestors (Le Corbesier), and ten years later became a French citizen.

Le Corbusier's long working life spanned a career divided into three distinct parts. Between 1905 and 1916 he designed a number of simple and increasingly modern houses; the years 1921 to 1940 were ones of research and debate; and the twenty years from 1945 saw the blossoming of his genius. After 1917 Le Corbusier gained a reputation in Paris as an architect of advanced originality. He was particularly interested in low-cost housing and in improving accommodation for the poor. In 1923 he published Vers une architecture, in which he planned estates of mass-produced houses where all extraneous and unnecessary features were stripped away and the houses had flat roofs and plain walls: his concept of "a machine for living in". These white boxes were lifted up on stilts, his pilotis, and double-height living space was provided internally, enclosed by large areas of factory glazing. In 1922 Le Corbusier exhibited a city plan, La Ville contemporaine, in which tall blocks made from steel and concrete were set amongst large areas of parkland, replacing the older concept of city slums with the light and air of modern living. In 1925 he published Urbanisme, further developing his socialist ideals. These constituted a major reform of the industrial-city pattern, but the ideas were not taken up at that time. The Depression years of the 1930s severely curtailed architectural activity in France. Le Corbusier designed houses for the wealthy there, but most of his work prior to 1945 was overseas: his Centrosoyus Administration Building in Moscow (1929–36) and the Ministry of Education Building in Rio de Janeiro (1943) are examples. Immediately after the end of the Second World War Le Corbusier won international fame for his Unité d'habitation theme, the first example of which was built in the boulevard Michelet in Marseille in 1947–52. His answer to the problem of accommodating large numbers of people in a small space at low cost was to construct an immense all-purpose block of pre-cast concrete slabs carried on a row of massive central supports. The Marseille Unité contains 350 apartments in eight double storeys, with a storey for shops half-way up and communal facilities on the roof. In 1950 he published Le Modular, which described a system of measurement based upon the human male figure. From this was derived a relationship of human and mathematical proportions; this concept, together with the extensive use of various forms of concrete, was fundamental to Le Corbusier's later work. In the world-famous and highly personal Pilgrimage Church of Notre Dame du Haut at Ronchamp (1950–5), Le Corbusier's work was in Expressionist form, a plastic design in massive rough-cast concrete, its interior brilliantly designed and lit. His other equally famous, though less popular, ecclesiastical commission showed a contrasting theme, of "brutalist" concrete construction with uncompromisingly stark, rectangular forms. This is the Dominican Convent of Sainte Marie de la Tourette at Eveux-sur-l'Arbresle near Lyon, begun in 1956. The interior, in particular, is carefully worked out, and the lighting, from both natural and artificial sources, is indirect, angled in many directions to illuminate vistas and planes. All surfaces are carefully sloped, the angles meticulously calculated to give optimum visual effect. The crypt, below the raised choir, is painted in bright colours and lit from ceiling oculi.

One of Le Corbusier's late works, the Convent is a tour de force.

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SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace

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Sikorsky trained as an engineer but developed an interest in aviation at the age of 19 when he was allowed to spend several months in Paris to meet French aviators. He bought an Anzani aero-engine and took it back to Russia, where he designed and built a helicopter. In his own words, "It had one minor technical problem—it would not fly—but otherwise it was a good helicopter".

Sikorsky turned to aeroplanes and built a series of biplanes: by 1911 the 5–5 was capable of flights lasting an hour. Following this success, the Russian-Baltic Railroad Car Company commissioned Sikorsky to build a large aeroplane. On 13 May 1913 Sikorsky took off in the Grand, the world's first four-engined aeroplane. With a wing span of 28 m (92 ft) it was also the world's largest, and was unique in that the crew were in an enclosed cabin with dual controls. The even larger Ilia Mourometz flew the following year and established many records, including the carriage of sixteen people. During the First World War many of these aircraft were built and served as heavy bombers.

Following the revolution in Russia during 1917, Sikorsky emigrated first to France and then the United States, where he founded his own company. After building the successful S-38 passenger-carrying amphibian, the Sikorsky Aviation Corporation became part of the United Aircraft Corporation and went on to produce several large flying boats. Of these, the four-engined S-42 was probably the best known, for its service to Hawaii in 1935 and trial flights across the Atlantic in 1937.

In the late 1930s Sikorsky once again turned his attention to helicopters, and on 14 September 1939 his VS-300 made its first tentative hop, with Sikorsky at the controls. Many improvements were made and on 6 May 1941 Sikorsky made a record-breaking flight of over 1½ hours. The Sikorsky design of a single main lifting rotor combined with a small tail rotor to balance the torque effect has dominated helicopter design to this day. Sikorsky produced a long series of outstanding helicopter designs which are in service throughout the world.

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SUBJECT AREA: Mechanical, pneumatic and hydraulic engineering, Metallurgy, Steam and internal combustion engines

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Adamson was apprenticed between 1835 and 1841 to Timothy Hackworth, then Locomotive Superintendent on the Stockton \& Darlington Railway. After this he was appointed Draughtsman, then Superintendent Engineer, at that railway's locomotive works until in 1847 he became Manager of Shildon Works. In 1850 he resigned and moved to act as General Manager of Heaton Foundry, Stockport. In the following year he commenced business on his own at Newton Moor Iron Works near Manchester, where he built up his business as an iron-founder and boilermaker. By 1872 this works had become too small and he moved to a 4 acre (1.6 hectare) site at Hyde Junction, Dukinfield. There he employed 600 men making steel boilers, heavy machinery including mill engines fitted with the American Wheelock valve gear, hydraulic plant and general millwrighting. His success was based on his early recognition of the importance of using high-pressure steam and steel instead of wrought iron. In 1852 he patented his type of flanged seam for the firetubes of Lancashire boilers, which prevented these tubes cracking through expansion. In 1862 he patented the fabrication of boilers by drilling rivet holes instead of punching them and also by drilling the holes through two plates held together in their assembly positions. He had started to use steel for some boilers he made for railway locomotives in 1857, and in 1860, only four years after Bessemer's patent, he built six mill engine boilers from steel for Platt Bros, Oldham. He solved the problems of using this new material, and by his death had made c.2,800 steel boilers with pressures up to 250 psi (17.6 kg/cm²).

He was a pioneer in the general introduction of steel and in 1863–4 was a partner in establishing the Yorkshire Iron and Steel Works at Penistone. This was the first works to depend entirely upon Bessemer steel for engineering purposes and was later sold at a large profit to Charles Cammell \& Co., Sheffield. When he started this works, he also patented improvements both to the Bessemer converters and to the engines which provided their blast. In 1870 he helped to turn Lincolnshire into an important ironmaking area by erecting the North Lincolnshire Ironworks. He was also a shareholder in ironworks in South Wales and Cumberland.

He contributed to the development of the stationary steam engine, for as early as 1855 he built one to run with a pressure of 150 psi (10.5 kg/cm) that worked quite satisfactorily. He reheated the steam between the cylinders of compound engines and then in 1861–2 patented a triple-expansion engine, followed in 1873 by a quadruple-expansion one to further economize steam. In 1858 he developed improved machinery for testing tensile strength and compressive resistance of materials, and in the same year patents for hydraulic lifting jacks and riveting machines were obtained.

He was a founding member of the Iron and Steel Institute and became its President in 1888 when it visited Manchester. The previous year he had been President of the Institution of Civil Engineers when he was presented with the Bessemer Gold Medal. He was a constant contributor at the meetings of these associations as well as those of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. He did not live to see the opening of one of his final achievements, the Manchester Ship Canal. He was the one man who, by his indomitable energy and skill at public speaking, roused the enthusiasm of the people in Manchester for this project and he made it a really practical proposition in the face of strong opposition.

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SUBJECT AREA: Broadcasting, Electricity, Electronics and information technology, Telecommunications

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After education in Sweden at the High School and University of Lund and the Royal Institution of Technology in Stockholm, Alexanderson took a postgraduate course at the Berlin-Charlottenburg Engineering College. In 1901 he began work for the Swedish C \& C Electric Company, joining the General Electric Company, Schenectady, New York, the following year. There, in 1906, together with Fessenden, he developed a series of high-power, high-frequency alternators, which had a dramatic effect on radio communications and resulted in the first real radio broadcast. His early interest in television led to working demonstrations in his own home in 1925 and at the General Electric laboratories in 1927, and to the first public demonstration of large-screen (7 ft (2.13 m) diagonal) projection TV in 1930. Another invention of significance was the "amplidyne", a sensitive manufacturing-control system subsequently used during the Second World War for controlling anti-aircraft guns. He also contributed to developments in electric propulsion and radio aerials.

He retired from General Electric in 1948, but continued television research as a consultant for the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), filing his 321st patent in 1955.

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SUBJECT AREA: Electronics and information technology

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Charles Babbage was the son of a banker, Benjamin Babbage, and was a sickly child who had a rather haphazard education at private schools near Exeter and later at Enfield. Even as a child, he was inordinately fond of algebra, which he taught himself. He was conversant with several advanced mathematical texts, so by the time he entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1811, he was ahead of his tutors. In his third year he moved to Peterhouse, whence he graduated in 1814, taking his MA in 1817. He first contributed to the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society in 1815, and was elected a fellow of that body in 1816. He was one of the founders of the Astronomical Society in 1820 and served in high office in it.

While he was still at Cambridge, in 1812, he had the first idea of calculating numerical tables by machinery. This was his first difference engine, which worked on the principle of repeatedly adding a common difference. He built a small model of an engine working on this principle between 1820 and 1822, and in July of the latter year he read an enthusiastically received note about it to the Astronomical Society. The following year he was awarded the Society's first gold medal. He submitted details of his invention to Sir Humphry Davy, President of the Royal Society; the Society reported favourably and the Government became interested, and following a meeting with the Chancellor of the Exchequer Babbage was awarded a grant of £1,500. Work proceeded and was carried on for four years under the direction of Joseph Clement.

In 1827 Babbage went abroad for a year on medical advice. There he studied foreign workshops and factories, and in 1832 he published his observations in On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures. While abroad, he received the news that he had been appointed Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University. He held the Chair until 1839, although he neither resided in College nor gave any lectures. For this he was paid between £80 and £90 a year! Differences arose between Babbage and Clement. Manufacture was moved from Clement's works in Lambeth, London, to new, fireproof buildings specially erected by the Government near Babbage's house in Dorset Square, London. Clement made a large claim for compensation and, when it was refused, withdrew his workers as well as all the special tools he had made up for the job. No work was possible for the next fifteen months, during which Babbage conceived the idea of his "analytical engine". He approached the Government with this, but it was not until eight years later, in 1842, that he received the reply that the expense was considered too great for further backing and that the Government was abandoning the project. This was in spite of the demonstration and perfectly satisfactory operation of a small section of the analytical engine at the International Exhibition of 1862. It is said that the demands made on manufacture in the production of his engines had an appreciable influence in improving the standard of machine tools, whilst similar benefits accrued from his development of a system of notation for the movements of machine elements. His opposition to street organ-grinders was a notable eccentricity; he estimated that a quarter of his mental effort was wasted by the effect of noise on his concentration.

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SUBJECT AREA: Automotive engineering, Steam and internal combustion engines

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Clerk began his engineering training at about the age of 15 in the drawing office of H.O.Robinson \& Company, Glasgow, and in his father's works. Meanwhile, he studied at the West of Scotland Technical College and then, from 1871 to 1876, at Anderson's College, Glasgow, and at the Yorkshire College of Science, Leeds. Here he worked under and then became assistant to the distinguished chemist T.E.Thorpe, who set him to work on the fractional distillation of petroleum, which was to be useful to him in his later work. At that time he had intended to become a chemical engineer, but seeing a Lenoir gas engine at work, after his return to Glasgow, turned his main interest to gas and other internal combustion engines. He pursued his investigations first at Thomson, Sterne \& Company (1877–85) and then at Tangyes of Birmingham (1886–88. In 1888 he began a lifelong partnership in Marks and Clerk, consulting engineers and patent agents, in London.

Beginning his work on gas engines in 1876, he achieved two patents in the two following years. In 1878 he made his principal invention, patented in 1881, of an engine working on the two-stroke cycle, in which the piston is powered during each revolution of the crankshaft, instead of alternate revolutions as in the Otto four-stroke cycle. In this engine, Clerk introduced supercharging, or increasing the pressure of the air intake. Many engines of the Clerk type were made but their popularity waned after the patent for the Otto engine expired in 1890. Interest was later revived, particularly for application to large gas engines, but Clerk's engine eventually came into its own where simple, low-power motors are needed, such as in motor cycles or motor mowers.

Clerk's work on the theory and design of gas engines bore fruit in the book The Gas Engine (1886), republished with an extended text in 1909 as The Gas, Petrol and Oil Engine; these and a number of papers in scientific journals won him international renown. During and after the First World War, Clerk widened the scope of his interests and served, often as chairman, on many bodies in the field of science and industry.

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SUBJECT AREA: Medical technology

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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.

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