method+development

issue, matter, problem, subject.

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► nombre femenino

1 (pregunta) question

2 (asunto) business, matter, question

3 (discusión) dispute, quarrel, argument

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en cuestión in question

en cuestión de... (tiempo) in just a few..., in a matter of...

■ lo acabaré en cuestión de minutos I'll finish it in a few minutes

eso es otra cuestión that's a whole different matter

la cuestión es que... the thing is that...

ser cuestión de vida o muerte figurado to be a matter of life or death

cuestión candente burning question

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1) (=asunto) matter, question

2) (=pregunta) question

3) (=duda)

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1)

a) (tema, problema) question, matter

b) (en locs)

2) ( duda)

3) (fam) ( problema) disagreement, problem; (cosa, objeto) thing, thingamajig* (colloq)

* * *

= affair, consideration, enquiry [inquiry, -USA], issue, matter, point, question, topic, business [businesses, -pl.], concern, question.

Ex. And also until Groome appeared, newcomers were a nullity as an active political force, exerting little influence in city affairs.

Ex. This broader consideration of descriptive cataloguing problems serves to set a context for the consideration of cataloguing problems associated with nonbook materials.

Ex. A threshold weight appropriate to the specificity of the searcher's enquiry must be established.

Ex. These issues are reviewed more thoroughly in chapter 10.

Ex. AACR2 generally recommends collocation although it is suggested that the extent of collocation and the need for uniform titles is a matter for local decisions.

Ex. The point being that these systems are very much in their infancy and have a long way to go before they reach the comparable sophistication of space probes and reusable rocketry.

Ex. One argument against including a list of questions is that often analysts will think they are the only questions that might be asked.

Ex. A book index is an alphabetically arranged list of words or terms leading the reader to the numbers of pages on which specific topics are considered, or on which specific names appear.

Ex. I think this whole business about whether punctuation is obtrusive or not is quite honestly not worth discussing.

Ex. Her article lays emphasis on some of the concerns that are important to the continued development of effective information policies.

Ex. The question is not how much time we have, but what we do with it and how we utilize it.

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* aclarar una cuestión = clarify + matter, clarify + issue.

* adoptar una postura firme ante una cuestión = take + position on + issue.

* analizar una cuestión = explore + question, explore + issue.

* cuestión administrativa = management issue, administrative issue.

* cuestión candente = burning issue, burning question.

* cuestión científica = scientific issue.

* cuestión controvertida = vexed question, vexing question.

* cuestión crítica = critical issue.

* cuestión debatible = debatable point.

* cuestión de importancia = matter of consequence.

* cuestión delicada = sensitive issue.

* cuestión de vida o muerte = life or death issue.

* cuestión difícil = thorny issue, thorny question, poser.

* cuestión económica = economic issue, financial issue.

* cuestiones = matters.

* cuestiones bibliotecarias = library issues.

* cuestiones clave = key issues.

* cuestiones de intendencia = housekeeping.

* cuestiones de reglamento = policy issue.

* cuestiones implicadas = issues involved.

* cuestión específica = topical issue.

* cuestiones poco claras = grey area [gray area].

* cuestiones prácticas = mechanics, how-to.

* cuestiones problemáticas = problem areas.

* cuestiones sociales = social affairs.

* cuestiones técnicas = check + under the hood, crawl + under the hood.

* cuestión ética = ethical issue.

* cuestión financiera = financial issue.

* cuestión + girar en torno a = question + revolve around.

* cuestión histórica = historical issue.

* cuestión imprescindible = imperative.

* cuestión insignificante = matter of no consequence.

* cuestión laboral = work-related issue.

* cuestión legal = legal issue.

* cuestión negociable = negotiable point.

* cuestión peliaguda = sticky issue.

* cuestión personal = life issue, personal issue.

* cuestión polémica = vexed question, vexing question.

* cuestión política = political issue.

* cuestión práctica = practicality.

* cuestión problemática = issue of concern, sticky issue.

* cuestión relacionada con el trabajo = work-related issue.

* cuestión sin importancia = matter of no consequence.

* cuestión sin trascendencia = matter of no consequence.

* cuestión social = social issue, societal issue.

* cuestión + surgir = issue + surface.

* cuestión técnica = technical issue.

* cuestión tecnológica = technological issue.

* debatir una cuestión = discuss + idea, discuss + issue.

* dejar la cuestión abierta = leave + the question open.

* desviarse del tema en cuestión = go off on + another track.

* discutir una cuestión = air + issue.

* el quid de la cuestión = the crux of the problem, the crux of the matter.

* eludir una cuestión = dodge + issue.

* en cuestión = at hand, concerned, in hand, in question, individual, at issue, of concern.

* en cuestión de minutos = within minutes, in a matter of minutes.

* en cuestión de segundos = within seconds, in a matter of seconds.

* en cuestión de + Tiempo = in a matter of + Tiempo, within a matter of + Tiempo.

* en cuestiones de = in matters of.

* enfrentarse a una cuestión = run up against + issue.

* en las cuestiones relacionadas con = in the areas of.

* esa es la cuestión = herein lies the rub, there's the rub.

* esquivar la cuestión = sidestep + the issue.

* esquivar una cuestión = dodge + issue.

* estado de la cuestión = state of the art.

* estudio crítico del estado de la cuestión = review.

* estudio del estado de la cuestión = survey.

* evitar discutir una cuestión = circumvent + issue.

* evitar una cuestión = skirt + issue, tiptoe around + issue.

* exponer una cuestión = raise + point.

* informe del estado de la cuestión = state of the art report, state of the art review.

* la cuestión es que = the thing is.

* la juventud no es cuestión de edad sino de espíritu = you are as old as you feel.

* llegar al fondo de la cuestión = see to the + bottom of things.

* llegar al meollo de la cuestión = arrive at + the heart of the matter.

* llegar al quid de la cuestión = arrive at + the heart of the matter.

* llevar a hablar de una cuestión = bring up + issue.

* mencionar una cuestión = bring up + matter, bring up + point.

* meollo de la cuestión, el = heart of the matter, the, heart of the question, the.

* no ser cuestión de = there + be + no question of.

* partes en cuestión, las = parties concerned, the.

* plantearle a Alguien una cuestión = put before + Nombre + an issue.

* plantear una cuestión = bring forth + issue, issue + arise, pose + question, raise + argument, raise + issue, raise + point, open up + issue.

* poner en cuestión = call into + question, render + questionable.

* poner en cuestión la validez de = bring into + question the validity of, question + the validity of.

* proyección de cuestiones de interés = issues management.

* quid de la cuestión, el = heart of the matter, the, heart of the question, the.

* relacionado con cuestiones raciales = race-related.

* resolver las cuestiones menores = work out + details.

* resolver una cuestión = resolve + point, resolve + question, issue + settle.

* responder la cuestión = get behind + the question.

* sacar a colación una cuestión = bring up + matter, bring up + issue, bring up + point.

* ser cuestión de = come down to.

* ser la cuestión = be the point.

* ser una cuestión de = be a matter for/of.

* ser una cuestión debatible = be an open question.

* ser una cuestión problemática = be at issue.

* surgir una cuestión = issue + arise, arise + question.

* suscitar una cuestión = evoke + issue, open up + issue.

* tocar una cuestión = touch on/upon + issue.

* tratar la cuestión de = get to + the issue of.

* tratar una cuestión = address + constraint, address + issue, address + question, consider + issue, tackle + issue, address + concern, deal with + issue, broach + issue, broach + question, grapple with + issue.

* tratar una cuestión ligeramente = touch on/upon + issue.

* una cuestión de principios = a matter of principle.

* una cuestión de vida o muerte = a matter of life and death.

* zanjar la cuestión = clinch + the affair, clinch + the argument.

* * *

1)

a) (tema, problema) question, matter

b) (en locs)

2) ( duda)

3) (fam) ( problema) disagreement, problem; (cosa, objeto) thing, thingamajig* (colloq)

* * *

* * *

1 (tema, problema) question, matter

es experto en cuestiones de derecho internacional he is an expert on matters o questions of international law

otra cuestión sería que or si estuviera enfermo if he were ill, that would be another matter o a different matter

llegar al fondo de la cuestión to get to the heart of the matter o issue, to get to the root of the problem

2 ( en locs):

en cuestión in question

el museo en cuestión va a ser clausurado the museum in question is going to be closed

en cuestión de in a matter of

aprendió inglés en cuestión de meses she learnt English in a matter of months

la cuestión es … the thing is …

la cuestión es que no tengo tiempo the problem o thing is that I don't have time

la cuestiónes divertirnos the main thing is to enjoy ourselves

pide por pedir, la cuestión es molestar she asks just for the sake of asking, she only does it to annoy

ser cuestión de to be a matter o question of

es una cuestión de principios it's a matter o question of principle

en taxi es cuestión de diez minutos it's only a ten-minute taxi ride

si fuera cuestión de dinero, no habría problema if it were a question of money, there'd be no problem

todo es cuestión de darle tiempo al tiempo it's just a question of waiting

todo es cuestión de poner atención it's just o all a question of concentrating, it's just o all a matter of concentration

será cuestión de planteárselo y ver we'll just have to put it to him and see

tampoco es cuestión de enloquecernos there's no need to get in a flap ( colloq)

ayúdala, pero tampoco es cuestión de que lo hagas todo tú help her by all means, but there's no reason why you should do it all yourself

(duda): poner algo en cuestión to call sth into question, to raise questions o doubts about sth

este descubrimiento pone en cuestión la validez del método this discovery raises questions about o raises doubts about o calls into question the validity of the method

C ( fam)

1 (problema) disagreement, problem

2 (cosa, objeto) thing, thingamajig* ( colloq)

* * *

a) (tema, problema) question, matter;

◊ cuestiones de derecho internacional matters o questions of international law;

b) ( en locs)

◊ en cuestión in question;

* * *

cuestión nf

1. [pregunta] question

2. [problema] problem;

no es cuestión de tamaño sino de peso it's a question o matter of weight not size

3. [asunto] matter, issue;

una cuestión de honor/de principios a matter of honour/principle;

los investigadores quieren llegar al fondo de la cuestión the investigators want to get to the bottom of the matter;

la cuestión es que no he tenido tiempo the thing is, I haven't had time;

en cuestión in question;

el candidato en cuestión es venezolano the candidate in question is Venezuelan;

tenemos que discutir el tema en cuestión we must discuss the matter at hand;

en cuestión de [en materia de] as regards;

en cuestión de una hora in no more than an hour;

el edificio se hundió en cuestión de segundos the building collapsed in a matter of seconds;

es cuestión de un par de días it is a matter of a couple of days;

ya acabo, es cuestión de cinco minutos I'm nearly finished, I'll only be five minutes;

es cuestión de trabajar más it's a question of working harder;

será cuestión de ir yéndose it's time we were on our way;

será cuestión de esforzarnos más we'll just have to work harder;

no es cuestión de que el abuelo se ponga a hacerlo there's no need for grandad to have to do it

4.

* * *

1 question

2 ( asunto) matter, question;

en cuestión de dinero as far as money is concerned;

no es cuestión de dinero it’s not a question of money;

en cuestión in question;

la cuestión es que the thing is

* * *

cuestión nf, pl - tiones asunto, tema: matter, affair

* * *

cuestión n

1. (asunto) matter

2. (pregunta) question

m. going orﾠ turning orﾠ winding round, revolving, revolution KātyṠr. ;

1) ( хозяйственная деятельность) development [-'vel-]

2) ( использование нового оборудования и технологии) getting on to ( the new technology or equipment)

SUBJECT AREA: Mining and extraction technology

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After studying law at the University of Göttingen, Albert turned to the mining industry and in 1806 started his career in mining administration in the Harz district, where he became Chief Inspector of mines thirty years later. His influence on the organization of the mining industry was considerable and he contributed valuable ideas for the development of mining technology. For example, he initiated experiments with Reichenbach's water-column pump in Harz when it had been working successfully in the transportation of brine in Bavaria, and he encouraged Dörell to work on his miner's elevator.

The increasing depths of shafts in the Harz district brought problems with hoisting as the ropes became too heavy and tended to break. At the beginning of the nineteenth century, iron link chains replaced the hempen ropes which were expensive and wore out too quickly, especially in the wet conditions in the shafts. After he had experimented for six years using counterbalancing iron link chains, which broke too easily, in 1834 he conceived the idea of producing stranded cables from iron wires. Their breaking strength and flexibility depended greatly on the softness of the iron and the way of laying the strands. Albert produced the cable by attaching the wires to strings which he turned evenly; this method became known as "Albert lay". He was not the first to conceive the idea of metal cables: there exists evidence for such cables as far back as Pompeii; Leonardo da Vinci made sketches of cables made from brass wires; and in 1780 the French engineer Reignier applied iron cables for lightning conductors. The idea also developed in various other mining areas, but Albert cables were the first to gain rapidly direct common usage worldwide.

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SUBJECT AREA: Ports and shipping

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He was the son of Jeremiah Bentham, a lawyer. His mother died when he was an infant and his early education was at Westminster. At the age of 14 he was apprenticed to a master shipwright at Woolwich and later at Chatham Dockyard, where he made some small improvements in the fittings of ships. In 1778 he completed his apprenticeship and sailed on the Bienfaisant on a summer cruise of the Channel Fleet where he suggested and supervised several improvements to the steering gear and gun fittings.

Unable to find suitable employment at home, he sailed for Russia to study naval architecture and shipbuilding, arriving at St Petersburg in 1780, whence he travelled throughout Russia as far as the frontier of China, examining mines and methods of working metals. He settled in Kritchev in 1782 and there established a small shipyard with a motley work-force. In 1784 he was appointed to command a battalion. He set up a yard on the "Panopticon" principle, with all workshops radiating from his own central office. He increased the armament of his ships greatly by strengthening the hulls and fitting guns without recoil, which resulted in a great victory over the Turks at Liman in 1788. For this he was awarded the Cross of St George and promoted to Brigadier- General. Soon after, he was appointed to a command in Siberia, where he was responsible for opening up the resources of the country greatly by developing river navigation.

In 1791 he returned to England, where he was at first involved in the development of the Panopticon for his brother as well as with several other patents. In 1795 he was asked to look into the mechanization of the naval dockyards, and for the next eighteen years he was involved in improving methods of naval construction and machinery. He was responsible for the invention of the steam dredger, the caisson method of enclosing the entrances to docks, and the development of non-recoil cannonades of large calibre.

His intervention in the maladministration of the naval dockyards resulted in an enquiry that brought about the clearing-away of much corruption, making him very unpopular. As a result he was sent to St Petersburg to arrange for the building of a number of ships for the British navy, in which the Russians had no intention of co-operating. On his return to England after two years he was told that his office of Inspector-General of Navy Works had been abolished and he was appointed to the Navy Board; he had several disagreements with John Rennie and in 1812 was told that this office, too, had been abolished. He went to live in France, where he stayed for thirteen years, returning in 1827 to arrange for the publication of some of his papers.

There is some doubt about his use of his title: there is no record of his having received a knighthood in England, but it was assumed that he was authorized to use the title, granted to him in Russia, after his presentation to the Tsar in 1809.

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SUBJECT AREA: Recording

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He was a nobleman and an Italian cavalry lieutenant and went to the USA, where he married Daisy Abbott (of Stamford, Connecticut). From 1888 he made amateur recordings of a wide circle of artistic acquaintances and improved the recording diaphragm attachment by the development of a "spider" (a mechanical link that attacks the diaphragm in several points on its surface, rather than in the centre only). From 1892, through the Bettini Phonograph Laboratories, he published recordings of operatic artists and selections, and this led to the development of improved duplicating techniques by the so-called pantographic method. In 1901 he sold his US company and moved to Paris, although he continued to publish both cylinders and discs. In 1908 Bettini made a venture into cinematography, without success.

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SUBJECT AREA: Agricultural and food technology

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Clarence Birdseye went to high school at Montclair in New Jersey, and from there to Amherst College between 1906 and 1910. He became a field naturalist on the US Department of Agriculture's survey of 1910 to 1912, and during the following five years worked as a fur trader. He was the Purchasing Agent for the US Navy Corps between 1917 and 1919, and acted as Assistant to the President of the US Fisherman's Association between 1920 and 1922.

Birdseye was a keen fisherman, and during his time in Labrador learnt how to fast-freeze his catch in the wind. He formed the Birdseye Seafood Company in 1923 and pioneered the development of quick-freezing methods for the preservation of dressed seafood. His first company went bankrupt, but he quickly formed the General Seafoods Corporation. He filed his first patent in 1924 for the plate freezer, and in the late 1920s developed the double belt freezer. In 1929 Birdseye's company was bought out for $22 million, Birdseye himself receiving $1 million. He was an active member of the American Fisherman's Society, the American Society of Refrigeration Engineers, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Society of Mammalogists and the Institute of Food Technologists.

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SUBJECT AREA: Electricity, Public utilities, Railways and locomotives

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After attending the Technical College in Winterthur, Brown served with Emile Burgin in Basle before entering the Oerlikon engineering works near Zurich. Two years later he became Director of the electrical department of Oerlikon and from that time was involved in the development of electrical equipment for the generation and distribution of power. The Lauffen-Frankfurt 110-mile (177 km) transmission line of 1891 demonstrated the commercial feasibility of transmitting electrical power over great distances with three-phase alternating current. For this he designed a generator and early examples of oil-cooled transformers, and the scheme gave an impetus to the development of electric-power transmission throughout Europe. In 1891, in association with Walter Boveri, Brown founded the works of Brown Boveri \& Co. at Baden, Switzerland, and until his retirement in 1911 he devoted his energies to the design of polyphase alternating-current machinery. Important installations included the Frankfurt electricity works (1894), the Paderno-Milan transmission line, and the Lugano tramway of 1894, the first system in Europe to use three-phase traction motors. This tramway was followed by many other polyphase and mountain railways. The acquisition by Brown Boveri \& Co. in 1900 of the manufacturing rights of the Parsons steam turbine directed Brown's attention to problems associated with high-speed machines. Recognizing the high centrifugal stress involved, he began to employ solid cylindrical generator rotors with slots for the excitation winding, a method that has come to be universally adopted in large alternators.

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SUBJECT AREA: Electronics and information technology, Telecommunications

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After early education at home and at private school, Eccles won a scholarship to the Royal College of Science (now Imperial College), London, where he gained a First Class BSc in physics in 1898. He then worked as a demonstrator at the college and studied coherers, for which he obtained a DSc in 1901. Increasingly interested in electrical engineering, he joined the Marconi Company in 1899 to work on oscillators at the Poole experimental radio station, but in 1904 he returned to academic life as Professor of Mathematics and Physics and Department Head at South West Polytechnic, Chelsea. There he discovered ways of using the negative resistance of galena-crystal detectors to generate oscillations and gave a mathematical description of the operation of the triode valve. In 1910 he became Reader in Engineering at University College, London, where he published a paper explaining the reflection of radio waves by the ionosphere and designed a 60 MHz short-wave transmitter. From 1916 to 1926 he was Professor of Applied Physics and Electrical Engineering at the Finsbury City \& Guilds College and a private consulting engineer. During the First World War he was a military scientific adviser and Secretary to the Joint Board of Scientific Societies. After the war he made many contributions to electronic-circuit development, many of them (including the Eccles-Jordan "flip-flop" patented in 1918 and used in binary counters) in conjunction with F.W.Jordan, about whom little seems to be known. Illness forced Eccles's premature academic retirement in 1926, but he remained active as a consultant for many years.

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See also: Heaviside, Oliver; Kennelly, Arthur Edwin

SUBJECT AREA: Electricity, Public utilities

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Ferranti, who had taken an interest in electrical and mechanical devices from an early age, was educated at St Augustine's College in Ramsgate and for a short time attended evening classes at University College, London. Rather than pursue an academic career, Ferranti, who had intense practical interests, found employment in 1881 with the Siemens Company (see Werner von Siemens) in their experimental department. There he had the opportunity to superintend the installation of electric-lighting plants in various parts of the country. Becoming acquainted with Alfred Thomson, an engineer, Ferranti entered into a short-lived partnership with him to manufacture the Ferranti alternator. This generator, with a unique zig-zag armature, had an efficiency exceeding that of all its rivals. Finding that Sir William Thomson had invented a similar machine, Ferranti formed a company with him to combine the inventions and produce the Ferranti- Thomson machine. For this the Hammond Electric Light and Power Company obtained the sole selling rights.

In 1885 the Grosvenor Gallery Electricity Supply Corporation was having serious problems with its Gaulard and Gibbs series distribution system. Ferranti, when consulted, reviewed the design and recommended transformers connected across constant-potential mains. In the following year, at the age of 22, he was appointed Engineer to the company and introduced the pattern of electricity supply that was eventually adopted universally. Ambitious plans by Ferranti for London envisaged the location of a generating station of unprecedented size at Deptford, about eight miles (13 km) from the city, a departure from the previous practice of placing stations within the area to be supplied. For this venture the London Electricity Supply Corporation was formed. Ferranti's bold decision to bring the supply from Deptford at the hitherto unheard-of pressure of 10,000 volts required him to design suitable cables, transformers and generators. Ferranti planned generators with 10,000 hp (7,460 kW)engines, but these were abandoned at an advanced stage of construction. Financial difficulties were caused in part when a Board of Trade enquiry in 1889 reduced the area that the company was able to supply. In spite of this adverse situation the enterprise continued on a reduced scale. Leaving the London Electricity Supply Corporation in 1892, Ferranti again started his own business, manufacturing electrical plant. He conceived the use of wax-impregnated paper-insulated cables for high voltages, which formed a landmark in the history of cable development. This method of flexible-cable manufacture was used almost exclusively until synthetic materials became available. In 1892 Ferranti obtained a patent which set out the advantages to be gained by adopting sector-shaped conductors in multi-core cables. This was to be fundamental to the future design and development of such cables.

A total of 176 patents were taken out by S.Z. de Ferranti. His varied and numerous inventions included a successful mercury-motor energy meter and improvements to textile-yarn produc-tion. A transmission-line phenomenon where the open-circuit voltage at the receiving end of a long line is greater than the sending voltage was named the Ferranti Effect after him.

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SUBJECT AREA: Recording

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He graduated from the Dover Academy (Delaware) in 1882 and was apprenticed in a machine-repair firm in Philadelphia and studied in evening classes at the Spring Garden Institute. In 1888 he took employment in a small Philadelphia machine shop owned by Andrew Scull, specializing in repair and bookbinding machinery. After travels in the western part of the US, in 1891 he became a partner in Scull \& Johnson, Manufacturing Machinists, and established a further company, the New Jersey Wire Stitching Machine Company. He bought out Andrew Scull's interest in October 1894 (the last instalment being paid in 1897) and became an independent general machinist. In 1896 he had perfected a spring motor for the Berliner flat-disc gramophone, and he started experimenting with a more direct method of recording in a spiral groove: that of cutting in wax. Co-operation with Berliner eventually led to the incorporation of the Victor Talking Machine Company in 1901. The innumerable court cases stemming from the fact that so many patents for various elements in sound recording and reproduction were in very many hands were brought to an end in 1903 when Johnson was material in establishing cross-licencing agreements between Victor, Columbia Graphophone and Edison to create what is known as a patent pool. Early on, Johnson had a thorough experience in all matters concerning the development and manufacture of both gramophones and records. He made and patented many major contributions in all these fields, and his approach was very business-like in that the contribution to cost of each part or process was always a decisive factor in his designs. This attitude was material in his consulting work for the sister company, the Gramophone Company, in London before it set up its own factories in 1910. He had quickly learned the advantages of advertising and of providing customers with durable equipment and records. This motivation was so strong that Johnson set up a research programme for determining the cause of wear in records. It turned out to depend on groove profile, and from 1911 one particular profile was adhered to and processes for transforming the grooves of valuable earlier records were developed. Without precise measuring instruments, he used the durability as the determining factor. Johnson withdrew more and more to the role of manager, and the Victor Talking Machine Company gained such a position in the market that the US anti-trust legislation was used against it. However, a generation change in the Board of Directors and certain erroneous decisions as to product line started a decline, and in February 1926 Johnson withdrew on extended sick leave: these changes led to the eventual sale of Victor. However, Victor survived due to the advent of radio and the electrification of replay equipment and became a part of Radio Corporation of America. In retirement Johnson took up various activities in the arts and sciences and financially supported several projects; his private yacht was used in 1933 in work with the Smithsonian Institution on a deep-sea hydrographie and fauna-collecting expedition near Puerto Rico.

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SUBJECT AREA: Textiles

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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.

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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: Chemical technology

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Pilkington was educated at Sherborne School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated in mechanical science. He spent one year at Cambridge followed by war service, which lasted until 1945. He returned to complete his degree and then joined Pilkington, the well-known glass manufacturer at St Helens' Lancashire, in 1947. Sir Alastair is not, however, related to the Pilkington family of glassmakers.

The forming of perfectly flat glass that retained its fire finish had eluded glassmakers for centuries. Until the 1950s the only way of making really flat glass was to form plate glass by continuous casting between steel rollers. This destroyed the fire finish, which had to be restored by expensive grinding and polishing. The process entailed the loss of 20 per cent of good glass. The idea of floating glass on molten metal occurred to Sir Alastair in October 1952, and thereafter he remained in charge of development until commercial success had been achieved. The idea of floating molten glass on molten tin had been patented in the United States as early as 1902, but had never been pursued. The Pilkington process in essence was to float a ribbon of molten glass on a bath of molten tin in an inert atmosphere of nitrogen, to prevent oxidation of the tin. It was patented in Britain in 1957 and in the USA two years later. The first production glass issued from the plant in May 1957, although the first good glass did not appear until July 1958. The process was publicly announced the following year and was quickly taken up by the industry. It is now the universal method for manufacturing high quality flat glass.

Having seen through the greatest single advance in glassmaking and one of the most important technological developments this century, Sir Alastair became Chairman of Pilkingtons until 1980 and President thereafter.

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SUBJECT AREA: Photography, film and optics

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His first patent was granted on 27 January 1890 and described a method of measuring the "actinic" value of light as a means of determining exposure. A strip of sensitized paper which darkened on exposure to light was used, and the time taken for it to darken to match a standard tint was measured. This time could be used to calculate the necessary exposure time, taking into account the speed of the plate, shutter speed and aperture. Watkins marketed a number of these actinometer designs, of which the most popular was the Watkins Bee Meter, which was in a pocket-watch form, introduced in 1903 and remaining on sale until 1939. Watkins was concerned that photographers recognize that exposure measurement had to take into account the effect of development time and temperature. In 1893 he devised the concept of the "Watkins Factor": he showed that when plates were developed by inspection, as was the practice at the time, a fixed relationship existed between the time of the first appearance of the image and the total time required to give a fully developed negative. The Watkins Factor was the figure that the first time must be multiplied by to give the second time. Watkins published tables of factors for different brands of plates and for different developers, and marketed various aids such as specially calibrated thermometers and clocks, as aids in using "Fac-torial Development" to give consistent negatives. After the early years of the twentieth century Watkins gave up direct participation in photography and devoted his time to a variety of interests, including the plotting of ley lines in England.

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The method has been used by subsequent investigators.

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A more recent development is the application of similar genetic principles to...

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The method has been used by subsequent investigators.

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A more recent development is the application of similar genetic principles to...

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In 1949 giant computers were coming into their own.

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Structural bonding is rapidly taking its place along with bolting, rivetting, welding, and brazing as a method of fastening.

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Another on-the-horizon development that is gaining ground is the laser.

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This method is still in a primitive state of development.