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121 Roebuck, John
SUBJECT AREA: Chemical technology[br]b. 1718 Sheffield, Englandd. 17 July 1794[br]English chemist and manufacturer, inventor of the lead-chamber process for sulphuric acid.[br]The son of a prosperous Sheffield manufacturer, Roebuck forsook the family business to pursue studies in medicine at Edinburgh University. There he met Dr Joseph Black (1727–99), celebrated Professor of Chemistry, who aroused in Roebuck a lasting interest in chemistry. Roebuck continued his studies at Leyden, where he took his medical degree in 1742. He set up in practice in Birmingham, but in his spare time he continued chemical experiments that might help local industries.Among his early achievements was his new method of refining gold and silver. Success led to the setting up of a large laboratory and a reputation as a chemical consultant. It was at this time that Roebuck devised an improved way of making sulphuric acid. This vital substance was then made by burning sulphur and nitre (potassium nitrate) over water in a glass globe. The scale of the process was limited by the fragility of the glass. Roebuck substituted "lead chambers", or vessels consisting of sheets of lead, a metal both cheap and resistant to acids, set in wooden frames. After the first plant was set up in 1746, productivity rose and the price of sulphuric acid fell sharply. Success encouraged Roebuck to establish a second, larger plant at Prestonpans, near Edinburgh. He preferred to rely on secrecy rather than patents to preserve his monopoly, but a departing employee took the secret with him and the process spread rapidly in England and on the European continent. It remained the standard process until it was superseded by the contact process towards the end of the nineteenth century. Roebuck next turned his attention to ironmaking and finally selected a site on the Carron river, near Falkirk in Scotland, where the raw materials and water power and transport lay close at hand. The Carron ironworks began producing iron in 1760 and became one of the great names in the history of ironmaking. Roebuck was an early proponent of the smelting of iron with coke, pioneered by Abraham Darby at Coalbrookdale. To supply the stronger blast required, Roebuck consulted John Smeaton, who c. 1760 installed the first blowing cylinders of any size.All had so far gone well for Roebuck, but he now leased coal-mines and salt-works from the Duke of Hamilton's lands at Borrowstonness in Linlithgow. The coal workings were plagued with flooding which the existing Newcomen engines were unable to overcome. Through his friendship with Joseph Black, patron of James Watt, Roebuck persuaded Watt to join him to apply his improved steam-engine to the flooded mine. He took over Black's loan to Watt of £1,200, helped him to obtain the first steam-engine patent of 1769 and took a two-thirds interest in the project. However, the new engine was not yet equal to the task and the debts mounted. To satisfy his creditors, Roebuck had to dispose of his capital in his various ventures. One creditor was Matthew Boulton, who accepted Roebuck's two-thirds share in Watt's steam-engine, rather than claim payment from his depleted estate, thus initiating a famous partnership. Roebuck was retained to manage Borrowstonness and allowed an annuity for his continued support until his death in 1794.[br]Further ReadingMemoir of John Roebuck in J.Roy. Soc. Edin., vol. 4 (1798), pp. 65–87.S.Gregory, 1987, "John Roebuck, 18th century entrepreneur", Chem. Engr. 443:28–31.LRD -
122 Rowland, Thomas Fitch
SUBJECT AREA: Mining and extraction technology[br]b. 15 March 1831 New Haven, Connecticut, USAd. 13 December 1907 New York City, USA[br]American engineer and manufacturer, inventor of off-shore drilling.[br]The son of a grist miller, Rowland worked in various jobs until 1859 when he established his own business for the construction of wooden and iron steamships and for structural iron works, in Greenpoint, Long Island, New York. In 1860 he founded the Continental Works and during the American Civil War he started manufacturing gun carriages and mortar beds. He fitted out many vessels for the navy, and as a contractor for John Ericsson he built heavily armoured war vessels.He continued shipbuilding, but later diversified his business. He devoted great attention to the design of gas-works, constructing innovative storage facilities all over the United States, and he was concerned with the improvement of welding iron and steel plates and other processes in the steel industry. In the late 1860s he also began the manufacture of steam-engines and boilers for use in the new but expanding oil industry. In 1869 he took out a patent for a fixed platform for drilling for oil off-shore up to a depth of 15 m (49 ft). With this idea, just ten years after Edwin Drake's success in on-shore oil drilling in Titusville, Pennsylvania, Rowland pioneered the technology of off-shore drilling for petroleum in which the United States later became the leading nation.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsAmerican Society of Civil Engineers: Director 1871–3, Vice-President 1886–7, Honorary Member 1899.Further Reading"Thomas Fitch Rowland", Dictionary of American Biography.1909, "Memoir", Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers 62:547–9.WK -
123 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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124 Sopwith, Sir Thomas (Tommy) Octave Murdoch
SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace[br]b. 18 January 1888 London, Englandd. 27 January 1989 Stockbridge, Hampshire, England[br]English aeronautical engineer and industrialist.[br]Son of a successful mining engineer, Sopwith did not shine at school and, having been turned down by the Royal Navy as a result, attended an engineering college. His first interest was motor cars and, while still in his teens, he set up a business in London with a friend in order to sell them; he also took part in races and rallies.Sopwith's interest in aviation came initially through ballooning, and in 1906 he purchased his own balloon. Four years later, inspired by the recent flights across the Channel to France and after a joy-ride at Brooklands, he bought an Avis monoplane, followed by a larger biplane, and taught himself to fly. He was awarded the Royal Aero Society's Aviator Certificate No. 31 on 21 November 1910, and he quickly distinguished himself in flying competitions on both sides of the Atlantic and started his own flying school. In his races he was ably supported by his friend Fred Sigrist, a former motor engineer. Among the people Sopwith taught to fly were an Australian, Harry Hawker, and Major Hugh Trenchard, who later became the "father" of the RAF.In 1912, depressed by the poor quality of the aircraft on trial for the British Army, Sopwith, in conjunction with Hawker and Sigrist, bought a skating rink in Kingston-upon-Thames and, assisted by Fred Sigrist, started to design and build his first aircraft, the Sopwith Hybrid. He sold this to the Royal Navy in 1913, and the following year his aviation manufacturing company became the Sopwith Aviation Company Ltd. That year a seaplane version of his Sopwith Tabloid won the Schneider Trophy in the second running of this speed competition. During 1914–18, Sopwith concentrated on producing fighters (or "scouts" as they were then called), with the Pup, the Camel, the 1½ Strutter, the Snipe and the Sopwith Triplane proving among the best in the war. He also pioneered several ideas to make flying easier for the pilot, and in 1915 he patented his adjustable tailplane and his 1 ½ Strutter was the first aircraft to be fitted with air brakes. During the four years of the First World War, Sopwith Aviation designed thirty-two different aircraft types and produced over 16,000 aircraft.The end of the First World War brought recession to the aircraft industry and in 1920 Sopwith, like many others, put his company into receivership; none the less, he immediately launched a new, smaller company with Hawker, Sigrist and V.W.Eyre, which they called the H.G. Hawker Engineering Company Ltd to avoid any confusion with the former company. He began by producing cars and motor cycles under licence, but was determined to resume aircraft production. He suffered an early blow with the death of Hawker in an air crash in 1921, but soon began supplying aircraft to the Royal Air Force again. In this he was much helped by taking on a new designer, Sydney Camm, in 1923, and during the next decade they produced a number of military aircraft types, of which the Hart light bomber and the Fury fighter, the first to exceed 200 mph (322 km/h), were the best known. In the mid-1930s Sopwith began to build a large aviation empire, acquiring first the Gloster Aircraft Company and then, in quick succession, Armstrong-Whitworth, Armstrong-Siddeley Motors Ltd and its aero-engine counterpart, and A.V.Roe, which produced Avro aircraft. Under the umbrella of the Hawker Siddeley Aircraft Company (set up in 1935) these companies produced a series of outstanding aircraft, ranging from the Hawker Hurricane, through the Avro Lancaster to the Gloster Meteor, Britain's first in-service jet aircraft, and the Hawker Typhoon, Tempest and Hunter. When Sopwith retired as Chairman of the Hawker Siddeley Group in 1963 at the age of 75, a prototype jump-jet (the P-1127) was being tested, later to become the Harrier, a for cry from the fragile biplanes of 1910.Sopwith also had a passion for yachting and came close to wresting the America's Cup from the USA in 1934 when sailing his yacht Endeavour, which incorporated a number of features years ahead of their time; his greatest regret was that he failed in his attempts to win this famous yachting trophy for Britain. After his retirement as Chairman of the Hawker Siddeley Group, he remained on the Board until 1978. The British aviation industry had been nationalized in April 1977, and Hawker Siddeley's aircraft interests merged with the British Aircraft Corporation to become British Aerospace (BAe). Nevertheless, by then the Group had built up a wide range of companies in the field of mechanical and electrical engineering, and its board conferred on Sopwith the title Founder and Life President.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsKnighted 1953. CBE 1918.Bibliography1961, "My first ten years in aviation", Journal of the Royal Aeronautical Society (April) (a very informative and amusing paper).Further ReadingA.Bramson, 1990, Pure Luck: The Authorized Biography of Sir Thomas Sopwith, 1888– 1989, Wellingborough: Patrick Stephens.B.Robertson, 1970, Sopwith. The Man and His Aircraft, London (a detailed publication giving plans of all the Sopwith aircraft).CM / JDSBiographical history of technology > Sopwith, Sir Thomas (Tommy) Octave Murdoch
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125 Webb, Francis William
[br]b. 21 May 1836 Tixall, Staffordshire, Englandd. 4 June 1906 Bournemouth, England[br]English locomotive engineer who pioneered compound locomotives in Britain and the use of steel for boilers.[br]Webb was a pupil at Crewe Works, London \& North Western Railway (LNWR), under F. Trevithick (son of Richard Trevithick), and was subsequently placed in charge of the works under Trevithick's successor, J.Ramsbottom. After a brief spell away from the LNWR, Webb returned in 1871 and was made Chief Mechanical Engineer, a post he held until his retirement in 1904.Webb's initial designs included the highly successful "Precedent" or "Jumbo" class 2– 4–0, from which the example Hardwicke (now preserved by the National Railway Museum, York) achieved an average speed of 67.2 mph (108.1 km/h) between Crewe and Carlisle in 1895. His 0–6–0 "coal engines" were straightforward and cheap and were built in large numbers. In 1879 Webb, having noted the introduction of compound locomotives in France by J.T.A. Mallet, rebuilt an existing 2–2–2 locomotive as a two-cylinder compound. Then in 1882, seeking fuel economy and the suppression of coupling rods, he produced a compound locomotive to his own design, the 2–2, 2–0 Experiment, in which two outside high-pressure cylinders drove the rear driving-wheels, and a single inside large-diameter low-pressure cylinder drove the front driving-wheels. This was followed by a large number of compound locomotives: three successive classes of 2–2, 2–0s; some 2–2, 2–2s; some 4–4–0s; and some 0–8–0s for goods traffic. Although these were capable of good performance, their overall value was controversial: Webb, who was notoriously autocratic, may never have been fully informed of their defects, and after his retirement most were quickly scrapped. Webb made many other innovations during his career, one of the most important being the construction of boilers from steel rather than wrought iron.[br]Further ReadingC.Hamilton Ellis, 1958, Twenty Locomotive Men, Shepperton: Ian Allan, Ch. 14 (describes Webb's career).E.L.Ahrons, 1927, The British Steam Railway Locomotive 2825–1925, London: The Locomotive Publishing Co., Chs 18 and 20 (includes a critique of Webb's compound locomotives).PJGR -
126 Westinghouse, George
[br]b. 6 October 1846 Central Bridge, New York, USAd. 12 March 1914 New York, New York, USA[br]American inventor and entrepreneur, pioneer of air brakes for railways and alternating-current distribution of electricity.[br]George Westinghouse's father was an ingenious manufacturer of agricultural implements; the son, after a spell in the Union Army during the Civil War, and subsequently in the Navy as an engineer, went to work for his father. He invented a rotary steam engine, which proved impracticable; a rerailing device for railway rolling stock in 1865; and a cast-steel frog for railway points, with longer life than the cast-iron frogs then used, in 1868–9. During the same period Westinghouse, like many other inventors, was considering how best to meet the evident need for a continuous brake for trains, i.e. one by which the driver could apply the brakes on all vehicles in a train simultaneously instead of relying on brakesmen on individual vehicles. By chance he encountered a magazine article about the construction of the Mont Cenis Tunnel, with a description of the pneumatic tools invented for it, and from this it occurred to him that compressed air might be used to operate the brakes along a train.The first prototype was ready in 1869 and the Westinghouse Air Brake Company was set up to manufacture it. However, despite impressive demonstration of the brake's powers when it saved the test train from otherwise certain collision with a horse-drawn dray on a level crossing, railways were at first slow to adopt it. Then in 1872 Westinghouse added to it the triple valve, which enabled the train pipe to charge reservoirs beneath each vehicle, from which the compressed air would apply the brakes when pressure in the train pipe was reduced. This meant that the brake was now automatic: if a train became divided, the brakes on both parts would be applied. From then on, more and more American railways adopted the Westinghouse brake and the Railroad Safety Appliance Act of 1893 made air brakes compulsory in the USA. Air brakes were also adopted in most other parts of the world, although only a minority of British railway companies took them up, the remainder, with insular reluctance, preferring the less effective vacuum brake.From 1880 Westinghouse was purchasing patents relating to means of interlocking railway signals and points; he combined them with his own inventions to produce a complete signalling system. The first really practical power signalling scheme, installed in the USA by Westinghouse in 1884, was operated pneumatically, but the development of railway signalling required an awareness of the powers of electricity, and it was probably this that first led Westinghouse to become interested in electrical processes and inventions. The Westinghouse Electric Company was formed in 1886: it pioneered the use of electricity distribution systems using high-voltage single-phase alternating current, which it developed from European practice. Initially this was violently opposed by established operators of direct-current distribution systems, but eventually the use of alternating current became widespread.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsLégion d'honneur. Order of the Crown of Italy. Order of Leopold.BibliographyWestinghouse took out some 400 patents over forty-eight years.Further ReadingH.G.Prout, 1922, A Life of "George Westinghouse", London (biography inclined towards technicalities).F.E.Leupp, 1918, George Westinghouse: His Life and Achievements, Boston (London 1919) (biography inclined towards Westinghouse and his career).J.F.Stover, 1961, American Railroads, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 152–4.PJGR -
127 Winans, Ross
[br]b. 17 October 1796 Sussex County, New Jersey, USAd. 11 April 1877 Baltimore, Maryland, USA[br]American inventor and locomotive builder.[br]Winans arrived in Baltimore in 1828 to sell horses to the Baltimore \& Ohio Railroad (B \& O), which was then under construction. To reduce friction in rail vehicles, he devised a system of axles which ran in oil-baths, with outside bearings. He demonstrated a hand-driven wagon with this system at the Rainhill Trials; the Liverpool \& Manchester Railway bought some wagons fitted with the system, but found them on test to be inferior to wagons with grease axle boxes. Back in Baltimore, Winans assisted Peter Cooper in building Tom Thumb. He took charge of the B \& O shops c.1834; he is said to have built the first eight-wheeled passenger coach and to have been the first to mount such a coach on two four-wheeled trucks or bogies. The arrangement soon became standard American practice, and, with partners, he built over 100 locomotives for the B \& O. In 1847 he pioneered the use of anthracite as locomotive fuel, and from 1848 he built his "Camel" locomotives with the driver's cab above the boiler.[br]Further ReadingJ.H.White Jr, 1979, A History of the American Locomotive-Its Development: 1830–1880, New York: Dover Publications Inc.P.Ransome-Wallis (ed.), 1959, The Concise Encyclopaedia of World Railway Locomotives, London: Hutchinson, p. 503 (biography).Dictionary of American Biography.H.Booth, 1980, Henry Booth, Ilfracombe: Arthur H.Stockwell, pp. 75 and 91–2 (for the Liverpool \& Manchester wagons).See also: Stephenson, GeorgePJGR -
128 Zizka, Count Jan
SUBJECT AREA: Weapons and armour[br]b. c. 1376d. 11 October 1424 Pibyslav, Bohemia (now Czech Republic)[br]Bohemian soldier and armoured fighting vehicle pioneer.[br]Brought up in the court of King Wencelas IV of Bohemia, Zizka became a mercenary, fighting for the Poles and losing an eye in the process. In 1410 he returned to Bohemia and became a follower of the religious reformer Jan Hus, who was martyred five years later, although his Hussite movement continued after his death. In 1419 Wencelas died, and his half-brother, Sigismund, an anti-Hussite, attempted to secure the throne. The result was war. Zizka organized a peasant force, the Taborites, who quickly made their mark with their discipline and tactical originality. Not only was Zizka the first to handle his infantry, cavalry and artillery as one, but through the mounting of guns on armoured carts he also pioneered the concept of the armoured fighting vehicle as it is known today. In 1420 he overthrew Sigismund, but lost his remaining eye, and continued to fight against the forces of the Pope and other Hussite bands until his death from plague.CM
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