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101 Bell, Alexander Graham
SUBJECT AREA: Telecommunications[br]b. 3 March 1847 Edinburgh, Scotlandd. 3 August 1922 Beinn Bhreagh, Baddeck, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada[br]Scottish/American inventor of the telephone.[br]Bell's grandfather was a professor of elocution in London and his father an authority on the physiology of the voice and on elocution; Bell was to follow in their footsteps. He was educated in Edinburgh, leaving school at 13. In 1863 he went to Elgin, Morayshire, as a pupil teacher in elocution, with a year's break to study at Edinburgh University; it was in 1865, while still in Elgin, that he first conceived the idea of the electrical transmission of speech. He went as a master to Somersetshire College, Bath (now in Avon), and in 1867 he moved to London to assist his father, who had taken up the grandfather's work in elocution. In the same year, he matriculated at London University, studying anatomy and physiology, and also began teaching the deaf. He continued to pursue the studies that were to lead to the invention of the telephone. At this time he read Helmholtz's The Sensations of Tone, an important work on the theory of sound that was to exert a considerable influence on him.In 1870 he accompanied his parents when they emigrated to Canada. His work for the deaf gained fame in both Canada and the USA, and in 1873 he was apponted professor of vocal physiology and the mechanics of speech at Boston University, Massachusetts. There, he continued to work on his theory that sound wave vibrations could be converted into a fluctuating electric current, be sent along a wire and then be converted back into sound waves by means of a receiver. He approached the problem from the background of the theory of sound and voice production rather than from that of electrical science, and by 1875 he had succeeded in constructing a rough model. On 7 March 1876 Bell spoke the famous command to his assistant, "Mr Watson, come here, I want you": this was the first time a human voice had been transmitted along a wire. Only three days earlier, Bell's first patent for the telephone had been granted. Almost simultaneously, but quite independently, Elisha Gray had achieved a similar result. After a period of litigation, the US Supreme Court awarded Bell priority, although Gray's device was technically superior.In 1877, three years after becoming a naturalized US citizen, Bell married the deaf daughter of his first backer. In August of that year, they travelled to Europe to combine a honeymoon with promotion of the telephone. Bell's patent was possibly the most valuable ever issued, for it gave birth to what later became the world's largest private service organization, the Bell Telephone Company.Bell had other scientific and technological interests: he made improvements in telegraphy and in Edison's gramophone, and he also developed a keen interest in aeronautics, working on Curtiss's flying machine. Bell founded the celebrated periodical Science.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsLegion of Honour; Hughes Medal, Royal Society, 1913.Further ReadingObituary, 7 August 1922, The Times. Dictionary of American Biography.R.Burlingame, 1964, Out of Silence into Sound, London: Macmillan.LRD -
102 Donald, Ian
SUBJECT AREA: Medical technology[br]b. 27 December 1910 Paisley, Scotlandd. 19 June 1987 Paglesham, Essex, England[br]Scottish obstetrician and gynaecologist, pioneer of the diagnostic use of ultrasound in medicine.[br]After he received his initial education in Scotland, Donald's family moved to South Africa, where he obtained a BA degree in Cape Town in 1930. After the death of his parents he returned to England, graduating in medicine in 1937. He served in the RAF from 1942 to 1946 and was awarded the MBE for bravery in rescuing air-crews. In 1954, following a fruitful period as Reader and Lecturer at St Thomas's Hospital and the Hammersmith Hospital, he was appointed Regius Professor of Midwifery in Glasgow. It was while at St Thomas's and Hammersmith that he evolved a demand-response respirator for infants. With the assistance of Tom Brown, an engineer, and the company Kelvin Hughes—which had earlier produced ultrasound equipment for detecting flaws in metal castings—he was able to originate, develop and improve the diagnostic use of ultra-sound in obstetrics and gynaecology. The use of this technique rapidly spread into other disciplines. Donald was fortunate in that the procedure proved to have no untoward influence on pregnancy; at the time, little was known of possible side effects.He was the proponent of other advances in the speciality, including laparoscopy, breast-feeding and the preservation of the membranes during labour. An ardent anti-abortionist, his authoritarian Scottish approach made Glasgow a world centre, with himself as a renowned and loved teacher. Despite undergoing three major cardiac interventions, his longevity did not surprise those who knew of his immense vitality.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsCBE 1973. Honorary DSc, London and Glasgow Universities. Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists Eardley Holland Gold Medal. Royal College of Surgeons Victor Bonney Prize. Royal Society of Medicine Blair Bell Gold Medal.Bibliography1958, "Investigation of abdominal masses by pulsed ultrasound", Lancet (with Brown and MacVicar).Numerous other papers in learned journals.Further ReadingObituary, 1987, Lancet (18 July).MG -
103 Downing, Samuel
SUBJECT AREA: Civil engineering[br]b. 19 July 1811 Bagenalstown, Co. Carlow, Irelandd. 21 April 1882[br]Irish engineer and teacher.[br]Samuel Downing had a formative influence on the development of engineering education in Ireland. He was educated at Kilkenny College and Trinity College, Dublin, where he took a BA in 1834. He subsequently attended courses in natural philosophy at Edinburgh, before taking up work as a railway and bridge engineer. Amongst structures on which he worked were the timber viaduct connecting Portland Island to the mainland in Dorset, England, and the curved viaduct at Coed-re-Coed on the Taff Vale Railway, Wales. In 1847 he was persuaded to return to Trinity College, Dublin, as Assistant to Sir John MacNeill, who had been appointed Professor of Engineering in the School of Engineering on its establishment in 1842. MacNeill always found it difficult to give up time on his engineering practice to spend on his teaching duties, so the addition of Downing to the staff gave a great impetus to the effectiveness of the School. When MacNeill retired from the Chair in 1852, Downing was his obvious successor and held the post until his death. For thirty years Downing devoted his engineering expertise and the energy of his warm personality to the School of Engineering and its students, of whom almost four hundred passed through the School in the years when he was responsible for it.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsAssociate Member, Institution of Civil Engineers 1852.BibliographyFurther ReadingProceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers 72:310–11.AB -
104 Fabricius (of Aquapendente), Hieronymus
SUBJECT AREA: Medical technology[br]b. 20 May 1537 Aquapendente, central Italyd. 21 May 1619 Padua, Italy[br]Italian physician and anatomist, teacher of William Harvey, first known exponent of tracheotomy.[br]Of well-to-do origins, Fabricius studied at the University of Padua and obtained his doctorate in medicine and philosophy c.1559. He succeeded his master Fallopius in the Chair of Surgery at Padua in 1565 and was created Professor Supraordinarius for life c.1600. His discoveries and researches embraced a wide range of subjects, from the course and valves of blood-vessels to the embryology of the chick. He also covered a great variety of surgical innovations. His description of the technique of tracheotomy is clearly based on practical experience and sets out the contraindications as well as the practical requirements. He also wrote extensively on the senses, the mechanics of body movement, the mechanism of respiration and the language of animals.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsKnighthood of St Mark of Venice.Bibliography1617, Opera chirurgica in duas partes divisa, Padua. 1621, The Formation of the Egg and of the Chick, Padua.Further ReadingZimmerman and Veith, 1961, Great Ideas in the History of Surgery, Baltimore.MGBiographical history of technology > Fabricius (of Aquapendente), Hieronymus
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105 Holden, Sir Isaac
SUBJECT AREA: Textiles[br]b. 7 May 1807 Hurlet, between Paisley and Glasgow, Scotlandd. 13 August 1897[br]British developer of the wool-combing machine.[br]Isaac Holden's father, who had the same name, had been a farmer and lead miner at Alston in Cumbria before moving to work in a coal-mine near Glasgow. After a short period at Kilbarchan grammar school, the younger Isaac was engaged first as a drawboy to two weavers and then, after the family had moved to Johnstone, Scotland, worked in a cotton-spinning mill while attending night school to improve his education. He was able to learn Latin and bookkeeping, but when he was about 15 he was apprenticed to an uncle as a shawl-weaver. This proved to be too much for his strength so he returned to scholastic studies and became Assistant to an able teacher, John Kennedy, who lectured on physics, chemistry and history, which he also taught to his colleague. The elder Isaac died in 1826 and the younger had to provide for his mother and younger brother, but in 1828, at the age of 21, he moved to a teaching post in Leeds. He filled similar positions in Huddersfield and Reading, where in October 1829 he invented and demonstrated the lucifer match but did not seek to exploit it. In 1830 he returned because of ill health to his mother in Scotland, where he began to teach again. However, he was recommended as a bookkeeper to William Townend, member of the firm of Townend Brothers, Cullingworth, near Bingley, Yorkshire. Holden moved there in November 1830 and was soon involved in running the mill, eventually becoming a partner.In 1833 Holden urged Messrs Townend to introduce seven wool-combing machines of Collier's designs, but they were found to be very imperfect and brought only trouble and loss. In 1836 Holden began experimenting on the machines until they showed reasonable success. He decided to concentrate entirely on developing the combing machine and in 1846 moved to Bradford to form an alliance with Samuel Lister. A joint patent in 1847 covered improvements to the Collier combing machine. The "square motion" imitated the action of the hand-comber more closely and was patented in 1856. Five more patents followed in 1857 and others from 1858 to 1862. Holden recommended that the machines should be introduced into France, where they would be more valuable for the merino trade. This venture was begun in 1848 in the joint partnership of Lister \& Holden, with equal shares of profits. Holden established a mill at Saint-Denis, first with Donisthorpe machines and then with his own "square motion" type. Other mills were founded at Rheims and at Croix, near Roubaix. In 1858 Lister decided to retire from the French concerns and sold his share to Holden. Soon after this, Holden decided to remodel all their machinery for washing and carding the gill machines as well as perfecting the square comb. Four years of excessive application followed, during which time £20,000 was spent in experiments in a small mill at Bradford. The result fully justified the expenditure and the Alston Works was built in Bradford.Holden was a Liberal and from 1865 to 1868 he represented Knaresborough in Parliament. Later he became the Member of Parliament for the Northern Division of the Riding, Yorkshire, and then for the town of Keighley after the constituencies had been altered. He was liberal in his support of religious, charitable and political objectives. His house at Oakworth, near Keighley, must have been one of the earliest to have been lit by electricity.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsBaronet 1893.Bibliography1847, with Samuel Lister, British patent no. 11,896 (improved Collier combing machine). 1856. British patent no. 1,058 ("square motion" combing machine).1857. British patent no. 278 1857, British patent no. 279 1857, British patent no. 280 1857, British patent no. 281 1857, British patent no. 3,177 1858, British patent no. 597 1859, British patent no. 52 1860, British patent no. 810 1862, British patent no. 1,890 1862, British patent no. 3,394Further ReadingJ.Hogg (ed.), c.1888, Fortunes Made in Business, London (provides an account of Holden's life).Obituary, 1897, Engineer 84.Obituary, 1897, Engineering 64.E.M.Sigsworth, 1973, "Sir Isaac Holden, Bt: the first comber in Europe", in N.B.Harte and K.G.Ponting (eds), Textile History and Economic History, Essays in Honour ofMiss Julia de Lacy Mann, Manchester.W.English, 1969, The Textile Industry, London (provides a good explanation of the square motion combing machine).RLH -
106 Hutchinson, Sir Jonathan
SUBJECT AREA: Medical technology[br]b. 23 July 1828 Selby, Yorkshire, Englandd. 26 June 1913 Haslemere, Surrey, England[br]English physician and surgeon, ophthalmologist, syphilologist, neuropathologist and inventor of the spirometer for the measurement of lung volumes.[br]Born of Quaker stock, he was educated at home and apprenticed in 1845 to Caleb Williams, apothecary and surgeon of York. It was during this period that he developed and described his spirometer, which he had used in testing 121 sailors, 24 pugilists and wrestlers and 4 giants and dwarfs.In 1850 he left York to complete his medical training at St Bartholomew's Hospital. By 1859 he was on the staff of the London Hospital as well as the many other specialist hospitals, including the Royal London Ophthalmic, the Blackfriars Hospital for Skin Diseases and the Royal Lock, the multiplicity of which reflected the very wide variety of his interests and expertise.By 1863, having obtained the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons, he had been appointed full Surgeon to London Hospital and was also responsible for medical ophthalmology. In 1883 he was appointed Emeritus Professor, and for many years after was deeply involved in a wide variety of medical interests. A vivid and memorable teacher, his name has been given to a large number of conditions, particularly in the fields of syphilis and ophthalmology. His special gift was an acuity of observation coupled with the accumulation and collation of clinical facts.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsKnighted 1908. FRS 1882. Hunterian Professor, Royal College of Surgeons 1879–83; Hunterian Orator 1891.Bibliography1846, "On the capacity of the lungs", Med-Chi. Transactions, London (describes his spirometer).1878–84, Illustrations of Clinical Surgery, London.Further ReadingObituary, 1913, Lancet (June).Obituary, 1913, British Medical Journal (June).Lives of the Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons, London: Royal College of Surgeons of England.MGBiographical history of technology > Hutchinson, Sir Jonathan
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107 Oberth, Hermann Julius
SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace[br]b. 25 June 1894 Nagyszeben, Transylvania (now Sibiu, Romania)d. 29 December 1989 Nuremberg, Germany[br]Austro-Hungarian lecturer who is usually regarded, with Robert Goddard, as one of the "fathers" of modern astronautics.[br]The son of a physician, Oberth originally studied medicine in Munich, but his education was interrupted by the First World War and service in the Austro-Hungarian Army. Wounded, he passed the time by studying astronautics. He apparently simulated weightlessness and worked out the design for a long-range liquid-propelled rocket, but his ideas were rejected by the War Office; after the war he submitted them as a dissertation for a PhD at Heidelberg University, but this was also rejected. Consequently, in 1923, whilst still an unknown mathematics teacher, he published his ideas at his own expense in the book The Rocket into Interplanetary Space. These included a description of how rockets could achieve a sufficient velocity to escape the gravitational field of the earth. As a result he gained international prestige almost overnight and learned of the work of Robert Goddard and Konstantin Tsiolkovsky. After correspondence with the Goddard and Tsiolkovsky, Oberth published a further work in 1929, The Road to Space Travel, in which he acknowledged the priority of Goddard's and Tsiolkovski's calculations relating to space travel; he went on to anticipate by more than thirty years the development of electric and ionic propulsion and to propose the use of giant mirrors to control the weather. For this he was awarded the annual Hirsch Prize of 10,000 francs. From 1925 to 1938 he taught at a college in Mediasch, Transylvania, where he carried out experiments with petroleum and liquid-air rockets. He then obtained a lecturing post at Vienna Technical University, moving two years later to Dresden University and becoming a German citizen. In 1941 he became assistant to the German rocket engineer Werner von Braun at the rocket development centre at Peenemünde, and in 1943 he began work on solid propellants. After the Second World War he spent a year in Switzerland as a consultant, then in 1950 he moved to Italy to develop solid-propellant anti-aircraft rockets for the Italian Navy. Five years later he moved to the USA to carry out advanced rocket research for the US Army at Huntsville, Alabama, and in 1958 he retired to Feucht, near Nuremberg, Germany, where he wrote his autobiography.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsFrench Astronautical Society REP-Hirsch Prize 1929. German Society for Space Research Medal 1950. Diesel German Inventors Medal 1954. American Astronautical Society Award 1955. German Federal Republic Award 1961. Institute of Aviation and Astronautics Medal 1969.Bibliography1923, Die Rakete zu den Planetenraumen; repub. 1934 as The Rocket into Interplanetary Space (autobiography).1929, Wege zur Raumschiffahrt [Road to Space Travel].1959, Stoff und Leben [Material and Life].Further ReadingR.Spangenburg and D.Moser, 1990, Space People from A to Z, New York: Facts on File. H.Wulforst, 1991, The Rocketmakers: The Dreamers who made Spaceflight a Reality, New York: Crown Publishers.KF / IMcN -
108 Ohm, Georg Simon
SUBJECT AREA: Electricity[br]b. 16 March 1789 Erlangen, near Nuremberg, Germanyd. 6 July 1854 Munich, Germany[br]German physicist who laid the foundations of electrical science with his discovery of Ohm's Law.[br]Given the same first name as his father, Johann, at his baptism, Ohm was generally known by the name of Georg to avoid confusion. While still a child he became interested in science and learned many of his basic skills from his father, a mechanical engineer. After basic education he attended the Gymnasium at Erlangen for a year, then in 1805 he entered the University of Erlangen. Probably for financial reasons, he left after three terms in 1806 and obtained a post as a mathematics tutor at a school in Gottstadt, Switzerland, where he may well have begun to experiment with electrical circuits. In 1811 he returned to Erlangen. He appears to have obtained his doctorate in the same year. After studying physics for a year, he became a tutor at the Studienanstalt (girls' secondary school) at Bamberg in Bavaria. There, in 1817, he wrote a book on the teaching of geometry in schools, as a result of which King Freidrich Wilhelm III of Prussia had him appointed Oberlehrer (Senior Master) in Mathematics and Physics at the Royal Consistory in Cologne. He continued his electrical experiments and in 1826 was given a year's leave of absence to concentrate on this work, which culminated the following year in publication of his "Die galvanische Kette", in which he demonstrated his now-famous Law, that the current in a resistor is proportional to the applied voltage and inversely proportional to the resistance. Because he published only a theoretical treatment of his Law, without including the supporting experimental evidence, his conclusions were widely ignored and ridiculed by the eminent German scientists of his day; bitterly disappointed, he was forced to resign his post at the Consistory. Reduced to comparative poverty he took a position as a mathematics teacher at the Berlin Military School. Fortunately, news of his discovery became more widely known, and in 1833 he was appointed Professor at the Nuremberg Polytechnic School. Two years later he was given the Chair of Higher Mathematics at the University of Erlangen and the position of State Inspector of Scientific Education. Honoured by the Royal Society of London in 1841 and 1842, in 1849 he became Professor of Physics at Munich University, apost he held until his death.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsRoyal Society Copley Medal 1841. FRS 1842.Bibliography1817, "Grundlinien zu einer zweckmàssigen Behandlung der Geometric als hohern Bildungsmittels an vorbereitenden Lehranstalt".1827, "Die galvanische Kette, mathematische bearbeit".Further ReadingF.E.Terman, 1943, Radio Engineers' Handbook, New York: McGraw-Hill, Section 3 (for circuit theory based on Ohm's Law).See also: Thévénin, Léon CharlesKF -
109 Percy, John
SUBJECT AREA: Metallurgy[br]b. 23 March 1817 Nottingham, Englandd. 19 June 1889 London, England[br]English metallurgist, first Professor of Metallurgy at the School of Mines, London.[br]After a private education, Percy went to Paris in 1834 to study medicine and to attend lectures on chemistry by Gay-Lussac and Thenard. After 1838 he studied medicine at Edinburgh, obtaining his MD in 1839. In that year he was appointed Professor of Chemistry at Queen's College, Birmingham, moving to Queen's Hospital at Birmingham in 1843. During his time at Birmingham, Percy became well known for his analysis of blast furnace slags, and was involved in the manufacture of optical glass. On 7 June 1851 Percy was appointed Metallurgical Professor and Teacher at the Museum of Practical Geology established in Jermyn Street, London, and opened in May 1851. In November of 1851, when the Museum became the Government (later Royal) School of Mines, Percy was appointed Lecturer in Metallurgy. In addition to his work at Jermyn Street, Percy lectured on metallurgy to the Advanced Class of Artillery at Woolwich from 1864 until his death, and from 1866 he was Superintendent of Ventilation at the Houses of Parliament. He served from 1861 to 1864 on the Special Committee on Iron set up to examine the performance of armour-plate in relation to its purity, composition and structure.Percy is best known for his metallurgical text books, published by John Murray. Volume I of Metallurgy, published in 1861, dealt with fuels, fireclays, copper, zinc and brass; Volume II, in 1864, dealt with iron and steel; a volume on lead appeared in 1870, followed by one on fuels and refractories in 1875, and the first volume on gold and silver in 1880. Further projected volumes on iron and steel, noble metals, and on copper, did not materialize. In 1879 Percy resigned from his School of Mines appointment in protest at the proposed move from Jermyn Street to South Kensington. The rapid growth of Percy's metallurgical collection, started in 1839, eventually forced him to move to a larger house. After his death, the collection was bought by the South Kensington (later Science) Museum. Now comprising 3,709 items, it provides a comprehensive if unselective record of nineteenth-century metallurgy, the most interesting specimens being those of the first sodium-reduced aluminium made in Britain and some of the first steel produced by Bessemer in Baxter House. Metallurgy for Percy was a technique of chemical extraction, and he has been criticized for basing his system of metallurgical instruction on this assumption. He stood strangely aloof from new processes of steel making such as that of Gilchrist and Thomas, and tended to neglect early developments in physical metallurgy, but he was the first in Britain to teach metallurgy as a discipline in its own right.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsFRS 1847. President, Iron and Steel Institute 1885, 1886.Bibliography1861–80, Metallurgy, 5 vols, London: John Murray.Further ReadingS.J.Cackett, 1989, "Dr Percy and his metallurgical collection", Journal of the Hist. Met. Society 23(2):92–8.RLH -
110 Reis, (Johann) Philipp
SUBJECT AREA: Telecommunications[br]b. 7 January 1834 Geinherusen, Hesse-Kassel, Germanyd. 14 January 1874 Friedrichsdorf, Germany[br]German schoolteacher and inventor who constructed an early form of telephone.[br]Reis entered the Garniers Institute in Friedrichsdorf in 1844 and then the Hassels Institute in Frankfurt. There he developed an interest in science, but on leaving school in 1850 he was apprenticed to the colour trade by his uncle. This involved study at the trade school and Dr Poppe's Institute in Frankfurt; while there he joined the Frankfurt Physical Society. Following military service in 1855 he studied to be a teacher. After his graduation he obtained a post at Garniers, where he began to pursue experiments with electricity and the development of hearing aids. In 1859 he sent a paper on the radiation of electricity to the editor of Annalen der Physik, but this was rejected, as was a later submission. Undeterred, he continued his experiments and by 1861 he had designed several instruments for the transmission of sound. The transmitter consisted of a membrane on which rested a metal strip that made contact with a metal point and completed an electrical circuit under the action of sound. The receiver consisted of an iron needle surrounded by a coil and resting on a sounding box, the operation probably being achieved by magnetostriction. The invention, which he described in a lecture to the Frankfurt Physical Society on 26 October 1861 and in a published paper, could produce tones and probably also speech, but was largely rejected by the scientific fraternity. The claim to produce speech was discounted in subsequent court cases that upheld the patents of Alexander Bell.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsOn 8 December 1878 a monument to Reis was erected in the Friedrichsdorf Cemetery by the Physical Society of Frankfurt.Bibliography1860–1, "Über Telephone durch den galvani-schen Strom", Jahresbericht der Physikalische 57.Further ReadingJ.Munro, 1891, Heroes of the Telegraph.Silvanus P.Thompson, 1883, Philipp Reis. Inventor of the Telephone.B.B.Bauer, 1962, "A century of the microphone", Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers: 720.KF -
111 Russell, John Scott
SUBJECT AREA: Ports and shipping[br]b. 9 May 1808 Parkhead, near Glasgow, Scotlandd. 8 June 1882 Isle of Wight, England[br]Scottish engineer, naval architect and academic.[br]A son of the manse, Russell was originally destined for the Church and commenced studies at the University of St Andrews, but shortly afterwards he transferred to Glasgow, graduating MA in 1825 when only 17 years old. He began work as a teacher in Edinburgh, working up from a school to the Mechanics Institute and then in 1832 to the University, where he took over the classes in natural philosophy following the death of the professor. During this period he designed and advised on the application of steam power to road transport and to the Forth and Clyde Canal, thereby awakening his interest in ships and naval architecture.Russell presented papers to the British Association over several years, and one of them, The Wave Line Theory of Ship Form (although now superseded), had great influence on ship designers of the time and helped to establish the formal study of hydromechanics. With a name that was becoming well known, Russell looked around for better opportunities, and on narrowly missing appointment to the Chair of Mathematics at Edinburgh University he joined the upand-coming Clyde shipyard of Caird \& Co., Greenock, as Manager in 1838.Around 1844 Russell and his family moved to London; following some business problems he was in straitened circumstances. However, appointment as Secretary to the Committee setting up the Great Exhibition of 1851 eased his path into London's intellectual society and allowed him to take on tasks such as, in 1847, the purchase of Fairbairn's shipyard on the Isle of Dogs and the subsequent building there of I.K. Brunel's Great Eastern steamship. This unhappy undertaking was a millstone around the necks of Brunel and Russell and broke the health of the former. With the yard failing to secure the order for HMS Warrior, the Royal Navy's first ironclad, Russell pulled out of shipbuilding and for the remainder of his life was a designer, consultant and at times controversial, but at all times polished and urbane, member of many important committees and societies. He is remembered as one of the founders of the Institution of Naval Architects in 1860. His last task was to design a Swiss Lake steamer for Messrs Escher Wyss, a company that coincidentally had previously retained Sir William Fairbairn.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsFRS 1847.BibliographyJohn Scott Russell published many papers under the imprint of the British Association, the Royal Society of Arts and the Institution of Naval Architects. His most impressive work was the mammoth three-volume work on shipbuilding published in London in 1865 entitled The Modern System of Naval Architecture. Full details and plans of the Great Eastern are included.Further ReadingG.S.Emmerson, 1977, John Scott Russell, a Great Victorian Engineer and Naval Architect, London: MurrayFMW -
112 Strowger, Almon Brown
SUBJECT AREA: Telecommunications[br]b. 19 October 1839 Penfield, New York, USAd. 26 May 1902 St Petersburg, Florida, USA[br]American soldier, teacher and undertaker who developed the first commercially successful automatic telephone-switching system.[br]Enlisting in the 8th New York Cavalry on his twenty-second birthday at the beginning of the American Civil War, Strowger reached the rank of Second Lieutenant. After the war he taught in a number of schools, including that where he had been a pupil, then bought an undertaking business in North Topeka, Kansas. After the death of his wife, he remarried and moved the business to Kansas City.In 1887, suspecting that the local telephone operator was diverting his potential clients to a rival, he devised a cardboard mock-up of an automatic switching mechanism comprising ten layers of ten contacts, in which electromagnets would be used to lift and rotate the contact wiper arm and thus connect the caller to any one of 100 telephone destinations. Two years later he filed a patent for a 1,000-line automatic exchange.With the help of his nephew he made a 100line working demonstration and eventually, with the aid of financial backers, the Strowger Automatic Exchange Company was established on 30 October 1891; its first exchange was installed in La Porte, Indiana, in 1892. By the end of 1896 Strowger exchanges had been established in a number of other towns. That year the Strowger engineers introduced the dial system to replace the confusing push-button mechanism, an innovation that was to survive until relatively recently, and the following year saw development of a "trunking" system. In failing health, Strowger retired to Florida, but the company flourished and eventually became part of General Telephones and Electronics (GTE).[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsStrowger's pioneering development was commemorated in 1949 by the telephone industry placing a bronze plaque on his grave in St Petersburg, Florida.Bibliography12 March 1889, US patent no. 447, 918.Further ReadingR.J.Chaphuis, 1982, 100 Years of Telephone Switching 1878–1978. Part I: Manual and Electromechanical Switching 1878–1960.KF -
113 Thomson, Elihu
SUBJECT AREA: Electricity[br]b. 29 March 1853 Manchester, Englandd. 13 March 1937 Swampscott, Massachusetts, USA[br]English (naturalized) American electrical engineer and inventor.[br]Thomson accompanied his parents to Philadelphia in 1858; he received his education at the Central High School there, and afterwards remained as a teacher of chemistry. At this time he constructed several dynamos after studying their design, and was invited by the Franklin Institute to give lectures on the subject. After observing an arc-lighting system operating commercially in Paris in 1878, he collaborated with Edwin J. Houston, a senior colleague at the Central High School, in working out the details of such a system. An automatic regulating device was designed which, by altering the position of the brushes on the dynamo commutator, maintained a constant current irrespective of the number of lamps in use. To overcome the problem of commutation at the high voltages necessary to operate up to forty arc lamps in a series circuit, Thomson contrived a centrifugal blower which suppressed sparking. The resulting system was efficient and reliable with low operating costs. Thomson's invention of the motor meter in 1882 was the first of many such instruments for the measurement of electrical energy. In 1886 he invented electric resistance welding using low-voltage alternating current derived from a transformer of his own design. Thomson's work is recorded in his technical papers and in the 700plus patents granted for his inventions.The American Electric Company, founded to exploit the Thomson patents, later became the Thomson-Houston Company, which was destined to be a leader in the electrical manufacturing industry. They entered the field of electric power in 1887, supplying railway equipment and becoming a major innovator of electric railways. Thomson-Houston and Edison General Electric were consolidated to form General Electric in 1892. Thomson remained associated with this company throughout his career.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsChevalier and Officier de la Légion d'honneur 1889. American Academy of Arts and Sciences Rumford Medal 1901. American Institute of Electrical Engineers Edison Medal 1909. Royal Society Hughes Medal 1916. Institution of Electrical Engineers Kelvin Medal 1923, Faraday Medal 1927.Bibliography1934, "Some highlights of electrical history", Electrical Engineering 53:758–67 (autobiography).Further ReadingD.O.Woodbury, 1944, Beloved Scientist, New York (a full biography). H.C.Passer, 1953, The Electrical Manufacturers: 1875–1900, Cambridge, Mass, (describes Thomson's industrial contribution).K.T.Compton, 1940, Biographical Memoirs of Elihu Thomson, Washington, DCovides an abridged list of Thomson's papers and patents).GW -
114 Varian, Russell Harrison
[br]b. 24 April 1898 Washington, DC, USAd. 28 July 1959 Juneau, Alaska, USA[br]American physicist who, with his brother Sigurd Varian and others, developed the klystron.[br]After attending schools in Palo Alto and Halcyon, Russell Varian went to Stanford University, gaining his BA in 1925 and his MA in 1927 despite illness and being dyslexic. His family being in need of financial help, he first worked for six months for Bush Electric in San Francisco and then for an oil company in Texas, returning to San Francisco in 1930 to join Farnsworth's Television Laboratory. After a move to Philadelphia, in 1933 the laboratory closed and Russell tried to take up a PhD course at Stanford but was rejected, so he trained as a teacher. However, although he did some teaching at Stanford it was not to be his career, for in 1935 he joined his brothers Sigurd and Eric in the setting up of a home laboratory.There, with William Hansen, a former colleague of Russell's at Stanford, they worked on the development of microwave oscillators, based on some of the latter's ideas. By 1937 they had made sufficient progress on an electron velocity-bunching tube, which they called the klystron, to obtain an agreement with the university to provide laboratory facilities in return for a share of any proceeds. By August that year they were able to produce continuous power at a wavelength of 13 cm. Clearly needing greater resources to develop and manufacture the tube, and with a possible war looming, a deal was struck with the Sperry Gyroscope Company to finance the work, which was transferred to the East Coast.In 1946, after the death of his first wife, Russell returned to Palo Alto, and in 1948 the brothers and Hansen founded Varian Associates to make microwave tubes for transmitters and linear accelerators and nuclear magnetic-resonance detectors. Subsequent research also resulted in the development of a satellite-borne magnetometer for measuring the earth's magnetic field.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsHonorary DSc Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute 1943. Franklin Institute Medal.Bibliography1939, with S.F.Varian, "High frequency oscillator and amplifier", Journal of Applied Physics 10:321 (describes the klystron).Further ReadingJ.R.Pierce, 1962, "History of the microwave tube art", Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers 979 (provides background to development of the klystron).D.Varian, 1983, The Inventor and the Pilot (biographies of the brothers).See also: Varian, Sigurd FergusKFBiographical history of technology > Varian, Russell Harrison
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115 Volta, Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio
SUBJECT AREA: Electricity[br]b. 18 February 1745 Como, Italyd. 5 March 1827 Como, Italy[br]Italian physicist, discoverer of a source of continuous electric current from a pile of dissimilar metals.[br]Volta had an early command of English, French and Latin, and also learned to read Dutch and Spanish. After completing studies at the Royal Seminary in Como he was involved in the study of physics, chemistry and electricity. He became a teacher of physics in his native town and in 1779 was appointed Professor of Physics at the University of Pavia, a post he held for forty years.With a growing international reputation and a wish to keep abreast of the latest developments, in 1777 he began the first of many travels abroad. A journey started in 1781 to Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Holland, France and England lasted about one year. By 1791 he had been elected to membership of many learned societies, including those in Zurich, Berlin, Berne and Paris. Volta's invention of his pile resulted from a controversy with Luigi Galvani, Professor of Anatomy at the University of Bologna. Galvani discovered that the muscles of frogs' legs contracted when touched with two pieces of different metals and attributed this to a phenomenon of the animal tissue. Volta showed that the excitation was due to a chemical reaction resulting from the contact of the dissimilar metals when moistened. His pile comprised a column of zinc and silver discs, each pair separated by paper moistened with brine, and provided a source of continuous current from a simple and accessible source. The effectiveness of the pile decreased as the paper dried and Volta devised his crown of cups, which had a longer life. In this, pairs of dissimilar metals were placed in each of a number of cups partly filled with an electrolyte such as brine. Volta first announced the results of his experiments with dissimilar metals in 1800 in a letter to Sir Joseph Banks, President of the Royal Society. This letter, published in the Transactions of the Royal Society, has been regarded as one of the most important documents in the history of science. Large batteries were constructed in a number of laboratories soon after Volta's discoveries became known, leading immediately to a series of developments in electrochemistry and eventually in electromagnetism. Volta himself made little further contribution to science. In recognition of his achievement, at a meeting of the International Electrical Congress in Paris in 1881 it was agreed to name the unit of electrical pressure the "volt".[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsFRS 1791. Royal Society Copley Medal 1794. Knight of the Iron Crown, Austria, 1806. Senator of the Realm of Lombardy 1809.Bibliography1800, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 18:744–6 (Volta's report on his discovery).Further ReadingG.Polvani, 1942, Alessandro Volta, Pisa (the best account available).B.Dibner, 1964, Alessandro Volta and the Electric Battery, New York (a detailed account).C.C.Gillispie (ed.), 1976, Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Vol. XIV, New York, pp.66–82 (includes an extensive biography).F.Soresni, 1988, Alessandro Volta, Milan (includes illustrations of Volta's apparatus, with brief text).GWBiographical history of technology > Volta, Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio
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116 אב II
אָבII m. (b. h.; אבה, cmp. אֵם), const. אֲבִי, אַב (embracer), father, ancestor, progenitor; teacher; chief, leader; author, originator. Ex. R. s. 46 end המגדל אב the educator is the real father. Lev. R. s. 1 אבי החכמהוכ׳, the father of all wisdom,. the father of prophets. Y.Ned.V, 39b; a. fr.אַב בית דין (abbr. אב״ד) president of the Court (Great Sanhedrin), next in dignity to the Nassi. Taan.II, 1; a. fr.Metaph. origin, cause. Num. R. s. 10 (play on אֲבוֹי, Prov. 23:29) א׳ אוי the cause of woe (sin). אב מלאכה (for which also עיקר) one of the chief labors forbidden on the Sabbath, opp. תולדה a labor the prohibition of which is based on the ground of its being a species of the former, or derived from the former. Sabb.VII, 1 sq.; a. fr.Y.Sabb.II, 5a, אב שלה, sub. מלאכה. אב הטומאה one of the original or direct causes of levitical uncleanness, opp. ולד (child) secondary cause. Toh. I, 5; a. fr.א׳ הנזק v. Pl.בנין א׳ creation of a class, i. e. a conclusion, by analogy, from a case explicitly stated in the bibl. law on all similar cases not specified in detail. Sifra introd.Ib. Kdoshim, end, ch. 11 (ref. to Lev. 20:27) זה ב׳ א׳ לכל דמיהם בם this forms the rule for all cases in which the Bible uses the word dmēhem bam (that the penalty is stoning to death); a. fr.; v. also בֵּית אב.Pl. אָבוֹת־, const. אֲבוֹת, 1) fathers, ancestors, patriarchs Ber.26b prayers א׳ תקנום have been instituted by the Patriarchs; a. fr. אבות בתי דינין, v. supra. Hag. 2:2,בת א׳ a woman of noble descent. Num. R. s. 1; a. e.Metaph. principal, chief א׳ מלאכות, v. supra. א׳ חטומא׳ Kel. I, 1; v. supra.א׳ מזיקין (sing. אב הנזק) the chief actionable injuries or damages, from which the subordinate are deduced ( תולדות). B. Kam.I, 1; a. e. 2) Aboth, the first section of the Prayer of Benedictions (v. תְּפִלָּה), so called because it alludes to the Patriarchs. R. Hash. IV, 5; a. fr. 3) Aboth, name of a treatise of the Mishnah, containing sayings of Talmudic authorities and belonging to the fourth section, נזיקין, of the Mishnah collection ( משניות); also styled פִּרְקֵי א׳ a. מְסֶכֶת א׳. A similar collection of a later date is contained in Talmud Babli editions, named א׳ דרבי נתן Aboth dRabbi Nathan. Y.Yoma VIII, 44d top אב בית נפש v. אֲבֵידָה. -
117 אָב
אָבII m. (b. h.; אבה, cmp. אֵם), const. אֲבִי, אַב (embracer), father, ancestor, progenitor; teacher; chief, leader; author, originator. Ex. R. s. 46 end המגדל אב the educator is the real father. Lev. R. s. 1 אבי החכמהוכ׳, the father of all wisdom,. the father of prophets. Y.Ned.V, 39b; a. fr.אַב בית דין (abbr. אב״ד) president of the Court (Great Sanhedrin), next in dignity to the Nassi. Taan.II, 1; a. fr.Metaph. origin, cause. Num. R. s. 10 (play on אֲבוֹי, Prov. 23:29) א׳ אוי the cause of woe (sin). אב מלאכה (for which also עיקר) one of the chief labors forbidden on the Sabbath, opp. תולדה a labor the prohibition of which is based on the ground of its being a species of the former, or derived from the former. Sabb.VII, 1 sq.; a. fr.Y.Sabb.II, 5a, אב שלה, sub. מלאכה. אב הטומאה one of the original or direct causes of levitical uncleanness, opp. ולד (child) secondary cause. Toh. I, 5; a. fr.א׳ הנזק v. Pl.בנין א׳ creation of a class, i. e. a conclusion, by analogy, from a case explicitly stated in the bibl. law on all similar cases not specified in detail. Sifra introd.Ib. Kdoshim, end, ch. 11 (ref. to Lev. 20:27) זה ב׳ א׳ לכל דמיהם בם this forms the rule for all cases in which the Bible uses the word dmēhem bam (that the penalty is stoning to death); a. fr.; v. also בֵּית אב.Pl. אָבוֹת־, const. אֲבוֹת, 1) fathers, ancestors, patriarchs Ber.26b prayers א׳ תקנום have been instituted by the Patriarchs; a. fr. אבות בתי דינין, v. supra. Hag. 2:2,בת א׳ a woman of noble descent. Num. R. s. 1; a. e.Metaph. principal, chief א׳ מלאכות, v. supra. א׳ חטומא׳ Kel. I, 1; v. supra.א׳ מזיקין (sing. אב הנזק) the chief actionable injuries or damages, from which the subordinate are deduced ( תולדות). B. Kam.I, 1; a. e. 2) Aboth, the first section of the Prayer of Benedictions (v. תְּפִלָּה), so called because it alludes to the Patriarchs. R. Hash. IV, 5; a. fr. 3) Aboth, name of a treatise of the Mishnah, containing sayings of Talmudic authorities and belonging to the fourth section, נזיקין, of the Mishnah collection ( משניות); also styled פִּרְקֵי א׳ a. מְסֶכֶת א׳. A similar collection of a later date is contained in Talmud Babli editions, named א׳ דרבי נתן Aboth dRabbi Nathan. Y.Yoma VIII, 44d top אב בית נפש v. אֲבֵידָה.
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