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principal+quality+engineer

  • 1 principal quality engineer

    Military: PQE

    Универсальный русско-английский словарь > principal quality engineer

  • 2 старший инженер по качеству

    Универсальный русско-английский словарь > старший инженер по качеству

  • 3 главный инженер проекта

    3) Hydroelectric power stations: design chief engineer
    5) Automation: project engineer
    6) Quality control: chief project engineer
    7) Makarov: project leader
    8) Research and development: project engineer / design

    Универсальный русско-английский словарь > главный инженер проекта

  • 4 cuerpo

    m.
    1 body.
    a cuerpo without a coat on
    de cuerpo entero full-length (retrato, espejo)
    en cuerpo y alma body and soul
    luchar cuerpo a cuerpo to fight hand-to-hand
    de cuerpo presente (lying) in state
    tomar cuerpo to take shape
    vivir a cuerpo de rey to live like a king
    ¡cuerpo a tierra! hit the ground!, get down!
    cuerpo celeste heavenly body
    cuerpo extraño foreign body
    el cuerpo humano the human body
    2 main body (parte principal).
    3 thickness (consistencia).
    mover hasta que la mezcla tome cuerpo stir until the mixture thickens
    el proyecto de nuevo aeropuerto va tomando cuerpo the new airport project is taking shape
    4 corps.
    cuerpo diplomático diplomatic corps
    cuerpo de policía police force
    5 section (parte de armario, edificio).
    7 corpus, body, main section of a bodily part, main section of an organism.
    8 mass of tissue, corpus.
    * * *
    1 ANATOMÍA body
    3 (figura) figure; (tronco) trunk
    4 (tronco) trunk
    5 (grupo) body, force, corps
    6 (cadáver) corpse, body
    7 (parte) section, part; (parte principal) main part, main body
    8 QUÍMICA substance
    9 FÍSICA body
    10 (vino, tela, etc) body
    11 DEPORTE length
    \
    a cuerpo descubierto defenceless (US defenseless)
    cuerpo a cuerpo hand-to-hand
    de cuerpo entero full-length
    en cuerpo y alma figurado heart and soul, body and soul
    estar de cuerpo presente to lie in state
    hacer de cuerpo eufemístico to relieve oneself
    no tener nada en el cuerpo to have an empty stomach
    tener buen cuerpo to have a good figure
    tomar cuerpo figurado to take shape
    cuerpo de baile corps de ballet
    cuerpo del delito DERECHO evidence, corpus delicti
    cuerpo diplomático diplomatic corps
    cuerpo legislativo legislative body
    cuerpo geométrico regular solid
    cuerpos celestes heavenly bodies
    * * *
    noun m.
    1) body
    * * *
    SM
    1) (Anat) body

    me dolía todo el cuerpo — my body was aching all over, I was aching all over

    cuerpo a cuerpo —

    un cuerpo a cuerpo entre los dos políticosa head-on o head-to-head confrontation between the two politicians

    de cuerpo entero[retrato, espejo] full-length

    de medio cuerpo — [retrato, espejo] half-length

    cuerpo serranohum body to die for

    ¡cuerpo a tierra!hit the ground!

    dar con el cuerpo en tierra — to fall down, fall to the ground

    a cuerpo gentil —

    a cuerpo de rey —

    hurtó el cuerpo y eludió a sus vecinoshe sneaked off o away and avoided his neighbours

    pedirle a algn algo el cuerpo —

    2) (=cadáver) body, corpse

    de cuerpo presente: su marido aún estaba de cuerpo presente — her husband had not yet been buried

    funeral de cuerpo presente — funeral service, funeral

    3) (=grupo)

    cuerpo de bomberos — fire brigade, fire department (EEUU)

    4) (=parte) [de mueble] section, part; [de un vestido] bodice; (=parte principal) main body
    5) (=objeto) body, object
    6) (=consistencia) [de vino] body

    dar cuerpo a algo, el suavizante que da cuerpo a su cabello — the conditioner that gives your hair body

    tomar cuerpo — [plan, proyecto, personaje, historia] to take shape

    7) (Tip) [de letra] point, point size
    * * *
    1)
    a) (Anat) body

    tenía el miedo metido en el cuerpo — (fam) he was scared stiff (colloq)

    a cuerpo de rey — (fam)

    a cuerpo gentil — (fam) without a coat (o sweater etc)

    echarse algo al cuerpo — (fam) < comida> to have something to eat; < bebida> to have something to drink

    sacar(le) el cuerpo a alguien — (AmL fam) to steer clear of somebody

    sacar(le) el cuerpo a algo — (AmL fam) ( a trabajo) to get out of something; ( a responsabilidad) to evade o shirk something

    b) ( cadáver) body, corpse

    encontraron su cuerpo sin vida junto al río — (period) his lifeless body was found by the river (frml)

    c) ( tronco) body
    2) (Equ) length
    3)
    a) ( parte principal) main body
    b) ( de mueble) part; ( de edificio) section
    4) (conjunto de personas, de ideas, normas) body
    5) (Fís) ( objeto) body, object; ( sustancia) substance
    6) (consistencia, densidad) body

    dar/tomar cuerpo — idea/escultura to take shape

    * * *
    = body, body, type size, body-size, corps, shank, cadaver, soma.
    Ex. But when he speaks to me he always scans my body and stares at my breasts.
    Ex. Cartographic materials are, according to AACR2, all the materials that represent, in whole or in part, the earth or any celestial body.
    Ex. Using golf-ball or daisy-wheel typewriters a good range of typefaces can be used on the same page; different type sizes can also be used.
    Ex. A fount of type was a set of letters and other symbols in which each was supplied in approximate proportion to its frequency of use, all being of one body-size and design.
    Ex. Quality abstracting services take pride in their corps of abstractors.
    Ex. Another device was to make matrices for accented sorts with the punches already used for unaccented sorts: the letter punch was stepped on its shank so that one of several accent punches could be bound on to the step to make a combined punch.
    Ex. Rather than bringing in butchers to do the handiwork of his dissections, Vesalius himself worked on the human cadavers and said that students of medicine should do the same.
    Ex. Pyramidal neurons, also known as pyramidal cells, are neurons with a pyramidal-shaped cell body ( soma) and two distinct dendritic trees.
    ----
    * a cuerpo de rey = the lap of luxury.
    * crema para el cuerlpo = body lotion.
    * cuerpo calloso = corpus callosum.
    * cuerpo celeste = celestial body, heavenly body.
    * cuerpo Danone = body beautiful.
    * cuerpo de animal muerto = carcass.
    * cuerpo de bomberos = fire department.
    * cuerpo de estanterías = bay of shelves, range of shelving, range, bay of shelving.
    * cuerpo de estanterías por materia = subject bay.
    * cuerpo de inspectores = inspectorate.
    * cuerpo de la ficha = body of the card.
    * Cuerpo de Marina = Navy Corps.
    * Cuerpo de Paz, el = Peace Corps.
    * Cuerpo de Zapadores = Army Corps Engineers.
    * cuerpo expedicionario = expeditionary force.
    * cuerpo extraño = foreign body.
    * cuerpo humano, el = human body, the.
    * cuerpo político, el = body politic, the.
    * cuerpo sin vida = dead body.
    * culto al cuerpo = cult of the body, body beautiful.
    * dar cuerpo = give + substance.
    * dar cuerpo a = flesh out.
    * dar cuerpo y forma a = lend + substance and form to.
    * de cuerpo largo = long-bodied.
    * del cuerpo = body.
    * foto de medio cuerpo = mugshot [mug shot].
    * ingeniero del cuerpo de zapadores = Army Corps engineer.
    * luchar cuerpo a cuerpo = clinch.
    * miembro del cuerpo = limb.
    * órgano del cuerpo = limb, body part.
    * pegado al cuerpo = slinky [slinkier -comp., slinkiest -sup.].
    * ponerse en forma para la lucir el cuerpo en la playa = get + beach-fit.
    * que cubre todo el cuerpo = head to toe.
    * seguro por pérdida de un miembro del cuerpo = dismemberment insurance.
    * temperatura del cuerpo = body temperature.
    * vivir a cuerpo de rey = live like + a king, live in + the lap of luxury.
    * * *
    1)
    a) (Anat) body

    tenía el miedo metido en el cuerpo — (fam) he was scared stiff (colloq)

    a cuerpo de rey — (fam)

    a cuerpo gentil — (fam) without a coat (o sweater etc)

    echarse algo al cuerpo — (fam) < comida> to have something to eat; < bebida> to have something to drink

    sacar(le) el cuerpo a alguien — (AmL fam) to steer clear of somebody

    sacar(le) el cuerpo a algo — (AmL fam) ( a trabajo) to get out of something; ( a responsabilidad) to evade o shirk something

    b) ( cadáver) body, corpse

    encontraron su cuerpo sin vida junto al río — (period) his lifeless body was found by the river (frml)

    c) ( tronco) body
    2) (Equ) length
    3)
    a) ( parte principal) main body
    b) ( de mueble) part; ( de edificio) section
    4) (conjunto de personas, de ideas, normas) body
    5) (Fís) ( objeto) body, object; ( sustancia) substance
    6) (consistencia, densidad) body

    dar/tomar cuerpo — idea/escultura to take shape

    * * *
    = body, body, type size, body-size, corps, shank, cadaver, soma.

    Ex: But when he speaks to me he always scans my body and stares at my breasts.

    Ex: Cartographic materials are, according to AACR2, all the materials that represent, in whole or in part, the earth or any celestial body.
    Ex: Using golf-ball or daisy-wheel typewriters a good range of typefaces can be used on the same page; different type sizes can also be used.
    Ex: A fount of type was a set of letters and other symbols in which each was supplied in approximate proportion to its frequency of use, all being of one body-size and design.
    Ex: Quality abstracting services take pride in their corps of abstractors.
    Ex: Another device was to make matrices for accented sorts with the punches already used for unaccented sorts: the letter punch was stepped on its shank so that one of several accent punches could be bound on to the step to make a combined punch.
    Ex: Rather than bringing in butchers to do the handiwork of his dissections, Vesalius himself worked on the human cadavers and said that students of medicine should do the same.
    Ex: Pyramidal neurons, also known as pyramidal cells, are neurons with a pyramidal-shaped cell body ( soma) and two distinct dendritic trees.
    * a cuerpo de rey = the lap of luxury.
    * crema para el cuerlpo = body lotion.
    * cuerpo calloso = corpus callosum.
    * cuerpo celeste = celestial body, heavenly body.
    * cuerpo Danone = body beautiful.
    * cuerpo de animal muerto = carcass.
    * cuerpo de bomberos = fire department.
    * cuerpo de estanterías = bay of shelves, range of shelving, range, bay of shelving.
    * cuerpo de estanterías por materia = subject bay.
    * cuerpo de inspectores = inspectorate.
    * cuerpo de la ficha = body of the card.
    * Cuerpo de Marina = Navy Corps.
    * Cuerpo de Paz, el = Peace Corps.
    * Cuerpo de Zapadores = Army Corps Engineers.
    * cuerpo expedicionario = expeditionary force.
    * cuerpo extraño = foreign body.
    * cuerpo humano, el = human body, the.
    * cuerpo político, el = body politic, the.
    * cuerpo sin vida = dead body.
    * culto al cuerpo = cult of the body, body beautiful.
    * dar cuerpo = give + substance.
    * dar cuerpo a = flesh out.
    * dar cuerpo y forma a = lend + substance and form to.
    * de cuerpo largo = long-bodied.
    * del cuerpo = body.
    * foto de medio cuerpo = mugshot [mug shot].
    * ingeniero del cuerpo de zapadores = Army Corps engineer.
    * luchar cuerpo a cuerpo = clinch.
    * miembro del cuerpo = limb.
    * órgano del cuerpo = limb, body part.
    * pegado al cuerpo = slinky [slinkier -comp., slinkiest -sup.].
    * ponerse en forma para la lucir el cuerpo en la playa = get + beach-fit.
    * que cubre todo el cuerpo = head to toe.
    * seguro por pérdida de un miembro del cuerpo = dismemberment insurance.
    * temperatura del cuerpo = body temperature.
    * vivir a cuerpo de rey = live like + a king, live in + the lap of luxury.

    * * *
    A
    le dolía todo el cuerpo his whole body ached
    es de cuerpo muy menudo she's very slightly built o she has a very slight build
    tenía el miedo metido en el cuerpo ( fam); he was scared stiff ( colloq)
    un retrato/espejo de cuerpo entero a full-length portrait/mirror
    a cuerpo de rey ( fam): vive a cuerpo de rey he lives like a king
    nos atendieron a cuerpo de rey they treated us like royalty, they gave us real V.I.P. treatment ( colloq)
    a cuerpo or en or de cuerpo gentil ( fam); without a coat ( o sweater etc)
    cuerpo a cuerpo hand-to-hand
    en un combate cuerpo a cuerpo in hand-to-hand combat
    dárselo a algn el cuerpo ( fam): me lo daba el cuerpo que algo había ocurrido I had a feeling that something had happened
    echarse algo al cuerpo ( fam); ‹comida› to have sth to eat;
    ‹bebida› to have sth to drink, knock sth back ( colloq)
    en cuerpo y alma ( fam); wholeheartedly
    hacer or ir del cuerpo ( euf); to do one's business ( euph)
    logró hurtarle el cuerpo al golpe she managed to dodge the blow
    el cuerpo le pedía un descanso he felt he had to have a rest, his body was crying out for a rest
    pintar or retratar a algn de cuerpo entero: en pocas líneas pinta al personaje de cuerpo entero in a few lines she gives you a complete picture of what the character is like
    eso lo pinta de cuerpo entero that shows him in his true colors, that shows him for what he is
    sacar(le) el cuerpo a algn ( AmL fam); to steer clear of sb
    sacar(le) el cuerpo a algo ( AmL fam) (a un trabajo) to get out of sth; (a una responsabilidad) to evade o shirk sth
    suelto de cuerpo (CS fam); cool as anything ( colloq), cool as you like ( colloq)
    2 (cadáver) body, corpse
    allí encontraron su cuerpo sin vida ( frml); his lifeless body was found there
    3 (tronco) body
    Compuesto:
    corpus delicti
    B ( Dep, Equ) length
    ganó por tres cuerpos de ventaja she won by three lengths
    C
    1 (parte principal) main body
    un armario de dos cuerpos a double wardrobe
    se negaron a hacer declaraciones como cuerpo they refused to make any statement as a body o group
    su separación del cuerpo his dismissal from the force ( o service etc)
    2 (de ideas, normas) body
    Compuestos:
    corps de ballet
    fire department ( AmE), fire brigade ( BrE)
    body of teaching
    body of laws
    peace corps
    police force
    security corps
    diplomatic corps
    electorate
    legislative body
    medical corps
    E ( Fís)
    1 (objeto) body, object
    2 (sustancia) substance
    Compuestos:
    heavenly body
    compound
    foreign body
    geometric shape o figure
    element
    F (consistencia, densidad) body
    un vino de mucho cuerpo a full-bodied wine
    le da cuerpo al pelo it gives the hair body
    dar/tomar cuerpo: la escultura iba tomando cuerpo the sculpture was taking shape
    hay que dar cuerpo legal a estas asociaciones we have to give legal status to these organizations
    G ( Impr) point size
    * * *

     

    cuerpo sustantivo masculino
    1
    a) (Anat) body;


    retrato/espejo de cuerpo entero full-length portrait/mirror;
    cuerpo a cuerpo hand-to-hand

    c) (Fís) ( objeto) body, object

    2 (conjunto de personas, de ideas, normas) body;

    cuerpo de policía police force;
    cuerpo diplomático diplomatic corps
    3 (consistencia, densidad) body;


    vino full-bodied
    cuerpo sustantivo masculino
    1 body
    2 (humano) body, (tronco humano) trunk
    3 (cadáver) corpse
    4 (de un edificio o mueble) section, part
    un armario de tres cuerpos, a wardrobe with three sections
    (de un libro, una doctrina) body
    5 (grupo) corps, force
    cuerpo de bomberos, fire brigade
    cuerpo diplomático, diplomatic corps
    ♦ Locuciones: figurado tomar cuerpo, to take shape
    a cuerpo de rey, like a king
    cuerpo a cuerpo, hand-to-hand
    de cuerpo entero, full-length
    de cuerpo presente, lying in state
    un retrato de medio cuerpo, a half portrait
    ' cuerpo' also found in these entries:
    Spanish:
    abotargarse
    - adormecerse
    - apéndice
    - caída
    - caído
    - cd
    - deformar
    - deformarse
    - delito
    - derecha
    - derecho
    - desnuda
    - desnudo
    - dilatar
    - dilatarse
    - diplomática
    - diplomático
    - el
    - encima
    - encoger
    - extraña
    - extraño
    - grasa
    - guardia
    - holgada
    - holgado
    - inclinación
    - interfecta
    - interfecto
    - línea
    - llaga
    - lugar
    - perecedera
    - perecedero
    - proporcionada
    - proporcionado
    - quiebro
    - rebanar
    - reclinar
    - silueta
    - titilar
    - vaivén
    - volverse
    - abotagado
    - asamblea
    - bola
    - bombero
    - bulto
    - cana
    - carga
    English:
    attitude
    - bar
    - beauty spot
    - bodice
    - body
    - bow
    - bruise
    - corps
    - decay
    - diplomatic corps
    - figure
    - fire brigade
    - fire department
    - force
    - full-length
    - hair
    - legislative
    - over
    - police force
    - position
    - proportionate
    - their
    - tingly
    - carcass
    - department
    - faculty
    - fellow
    - fire
    - foreign
    - full
    - length
    - profession
    - riddle
    - rigor mortis
    - wash
    * * *
    cuerpo nm
    1. [objeto material] body
    Astron cuerpo celeste heavenly body; Quím cuerpo compuesto compound;
    cuerpo extraño foreign body;
    Náut cuerpo muerto mooring buoy; Fís cuerpo negro black body; Quím cuerpo simple element
    2. [de persona, animal] body;
    el cuerpo humano the human body;
    tiene un cuerpo estupendo he's got a great body;
    ¡cuerpo a tierra! hit the ground!, get down!;
    luchar cuerpo a cuerpo to fight hand-to-hand;
    de medio cuerpo [retrato, espejo] half-length;
    de cuerpo entero [retrato, espejo] full-length;
    Fam
    a cuerpo (gentil) without a coat on;
    a cuerpo descubierto o [m5]limpio: se enfrentaron a cuerpo descubierto o [m5] limpio they fought each other hand-to-hand;
    Fam
    dejar mal cuerpo: la comida le dejó muy mal cuerpo the meal disagreed with him;
    la discusión con mi padre me dejó muy mal cuerpo the argument with my father left a bad taste in my mouth;
    en cuerpo y alma: se dedicó en cuerpo y alma a ayudar a los necesitados he devoted himself body and soul to helping the poor;
    se entrega en cuerpo y alma a la empresa she gives her all for the company;
    Fam
    demasiado para el cuerpo: ¡esta película es demasiado para el cuerpo! this movie o Br film is just great!, Br this film is the business!;
    echarse algo al cuerpo: se echó al cuerpo dos botellas de vino he downed two bottles of wine;
    Fam Euf
    hacer de cuerpo to relieve oneself;
    le metieron el miedo en el cuerpo they filled her with fear, they scared her stiff;
    Fam
    pedir algo el cuerpo: esta noche el cuerpo me pide bailar I'm in the mood for dancing tonight;
    no bebas más si no te lo pide el cuerpo don't have any more to drink if you don't feel like it;
    Am Fam
    sacarle el cuerpo a algo to get out of (doing) sth;
    RP Fam
    suelto de cuerpo as cool o nice as you like o please;
    a pesar de todo lo que le dije, después se me acercó muy suelto de cuerpo despite everything I said to him, he came up to me later as cool o nice as you like;
    Fam
    tratar a alguien a cuerpo de rey to treat sb like royalty o like a king;
    Fam
    vivir a cuerpo de rey to live like a king
    3. [tronco] trunk
    4. [parte principal] main body;
    el cuerpo del libro the main part o body of the book
    5. [densidad, consistencia] thickness;
    la tela de este vestido tiene mucho cuerpo this dress is made from a very heavy cloth;
    un vino con mucho cuerpo a full-bodied wine;
    dar cuerpo a [salsa] to thicken;
    tomar cuerpo: mover hasta que la mezcla tome cuerpo stir until the mixture thickens;
    están tomando cuerpo los rumores de remodelación del gobierno the rumoured cabinet reshuffle is beginning to look like a distinct possibility;
    el proyecto de nuevo aeropuerto va tomando cuerpo the new airport project is taking shape
    6. [cadáver] body, corpse;
    de cuerpo presente (lying) in state
    7. [corporación consular, militar] corps;
    el agente fue expulsado del cuerpo por indisciplina the policeman was thrown out of the force for indiscipline
    cuerpo de baile dance company;
    cuerpo de bomberos Br fire brigade, US fire department;
    cuerpo diplomático diplomatic corps;
    cuerpo expedicionario expeditionary force;
    cuerpo médico medical corps;
    cuerpo de policía police force
    8. [conjunto de informaciones] body;
    cuerpo de doctrina body of ideas, doctrine;
    cuerpo legal body of legislation
    9. [parte de armario, edificio] section
    10. [parte de vestido] body, bodice
    11. [en carreras] length;
    el caballo ganó por cuatro cuerpos the horse won by four lengths
    12. Der cuerpo del delito corpus delicti, = evidence of a crime or means of perpetrating it
    13. Imprenta point;
    letra de cuerpo diez ten point font
    * * *
    m
    1 body;
    cuerpo a cuerpo hand-to-hand;
    retrato de cuerpo entero/de medio cuerpo full-length/half-length portrait;
    a cuerpo de rey like a king;
    en cuerpo y alma body and soul;
    aún estaba de cuerpo presente he had not yet been buried;
    me lo pide el cuerpo I feel like it;
    hacer del cuerpo euph do one’s business
    2 de policía force;
    3
    :
    tomar cuerpo take shape
    * * *
    cuerpo nm
    1) : body
    2) : corps
    * * *
    1. (en general) body [pl. bodies]
    2. (tronco) trunk
    tomar cuerpo to take shape [pt. took; pp. taken]

    Spanish-English dictionary > cuerpo

  • 5 Vermuyden, Sir Cornelius

    SUBJECT AREA: Civil engineering
    [br]
    b. c. 1590 St Maartensdijk, Zeeland, the Netherlands
    d. 4 February 1656 probably London, England
    [br]
    Dutch/British civil engineer responsible for many of the drainage and flood-protection schemes in low-lying areas of England in the seventeenth century.
    [br]
    At the beginning of the seventeenth century, several wealthy men in England joined forces as "adventurers" to put their money into land ventures. One such group was responsible for the draining of the Fens. The first need was to find engineers who were versed in the processes of land drainage, particularly when that land was at, or below, sea level. It was natural, therefore, to turn to the Netherlands to find these skilled men. Joachim Liens was one of the first of the Dutch engineers to go to England, and he started work on the Great Level; however, no real progress was made until 1621, when Cornelius Vermuyden was brought to England to assist in the work.
    Vermuyden had grown up in a district where he could see for himself the techniques of embanking and reclaiming land from the sea. He acquired a reputation of expertise in this field, and by 1621 his fame had spread to England. In that year the Thames had flooded and breached its banks near Havering and Dagenham in Essex. Vermuyden was commissioned to repair the breach and drain neighbouring marshland, with what he claimed as complete success. The Commissioners of Sewers for Essex disputed this claim and whthheld his fee, but King Charles I granted him a portion of the reclaimed land as compensation.
    In 1626 Vermuyden carried out his first scheme for drainage works as a consultant. This was the drainage of Hatfield Chase in South Yorkshire. Charles I was, in fact, Vermuyden's employer in the drainage of the Chase, and the work was undertaken as a means of raising additional rents for the Royal Exchequer. Vermuyden was himself an "adventurer" in the undertaking, putting capital into the venture and receiving the title to a considerable proportion of the drained lands. One of the important elements of his drainage designs was the principal of "washes", which were flat areas between the protective dykes and the rivers to carry flood waters, to prevent them spreading on to nearby land. Vermuyden faced bitter opposition from those whose livelihoods depended on the marshlands and who resorted to sabotage of the embankments and violence against his imported Dutch workmen to defend their rights. The work could not be completed until arbiters had ruled out on the respective rights of the parties involved. Disagreements and criticism of his engineering practices continued and he gave up his interest in Hatfield Chase. The Hatfield Chase undertaking was not a great success, although the land is now rich farmland around the river Don in Doncaster. However, the involved financial and land-ownership arrangements were the key to the granting of a knighthood to Cornelius Vermuyden in January 1628, and in 1630 he purchased 4,000 acres of low-lying land on Sedgemoor in Somerset.
    In 1629 Vermuyden embarked on his most important work, that of draining the Great Level in the fenlands of East Anglia. Francis Russell, 4th Earl of Bedford, was given charge of the work, with Vermuyden as Engineer; in this venture they were speculators and partners and were recompensed by a grant of land. The area which contains the Cambridgeshire tributaries of the Great Ouse were subject to severe and usually annual flooding. The works to contain the rivers in their flood period were important. Whilst the rivers were contained with the enclosed flood plain, the land beyond became highly sought-after because of the quality of the soil. The fourteen "adventurers" who eventually came into partnership with the Earl of Bedford and Vermuyden were the financiers of the scheme and also received land in accordance with their input into the scheme. In 1637 the work was claimed to be complete, but this was disputed, with Vermuyden defending himself against criticism in a pamphlet entitled Discourse Touching the Great Fennes (1638; 1642, London). In fact, much remained to be done, and after an interruption due to the Civil War the scheme was finished in 1652. Whilst the process of the Great Level works had closely involved the King, Oliver Cromwell was equally concerned over the success of the scheme. By 1655 Cornelius Vermuyden had ceased to have anything to do with the Great Level. At that stage he was asked to account for large sums granted to him to expedite the work but was unable to do so; most of his assets were seized to cover the deficiency, and from then on he subsided into obscurity and poverty.
    While Cornelius Vermuyden, as a Dutchman, was well versed in the drainage needs of his own country, he developed his skills as a hydraulic engineer in England and drained acres of derelict flooded land.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    Knighted 1628.
    Further Reading
    L.E.Harris, 1953, Vermuyden and the Fens, London: Cleaver Hume Press. J.Korthals-Altes, 1977, Sir Cornelius Vermuyden: The Lifework of a Great Anglo-
    Dutchman in Land-Reclamation and Drainage, New York: Alto Press.
    KM / LRD

    Biographical history of technology > Vermuyden, Sir Cornelius

  • 6 Sopwith, Sir Thomas (Tommy) Octave Murdoch

    SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace
    [br]
    b. 18 January 1888 London, England
    d. 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 Distinctions
    Knighted 1953. CBE 1918.
    Bibliography
    1961, "My first ten years in aviation", Journal of the Royal Aeronautical Society (April) (a very informative and amusing paper).
    Further Reading
    A.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 / JDS

    Biographical history of technology > Sopwith, Sir Thomas (Tommy) Octave Murdoch

  • 7 Goldmark, Peter Carl

    [br]
    b. 2 December 1906 Budapest, Hungary
    d. 7 December 1977 Westchester Co., New York, USA
    [br]
    Austro-Hungarian engineer who developed the first commercial colour television system and the long-playing record.
    [br]
    After education in Hungary and a period as an assistant at the Technische Hochschule, Berlin, Goldmark moved to England, where he joined Pye of Cambridge and worked on an experimental thirty-line television system using a cathode ray tube (CRT) for the display. In 1936 he moved to the USA to work at Columbia Broadcasting Laboratories. There, with monochrome television based on the CRT virtually a practical proposition, he devoted his efforts to finding a way of producing colour TV images: in 1940 he gave his first demonstration of a working system. There then followed a series of experimental field-sequential colour TV systems based on segmented red, green and blue colour wheels and drums, where the problem was to find an acceptable compromise between bandwidth, resolution, colour flicker and colour-image breakup. Eventually he arrived at a system using a colour wheel in combination with a CRT containing a panchromatic phosphor screen, with a scanned raster of 405 lines and a primary colour rate of 144 fields per second. Despite the fact that the receivers were bulky, gave relatively poor, dim pictures and used standards totally incompatible with the existing 525-line, sixty fields per second interlaced monochrome (black and white) system, in 1950 the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), anxious to encourage postwar revival of the industry, authorized the system for public broadcasting. Within eighteen months, however, bowing to pressure from the remainder of the industry, which had formed its own National Television Systems Committee (NTSC) to develop a much more satisfactory, fully compatible system based on the RCA three-gun shadowmask CRT, the FCC withdrew its approval.
    While all this was going on, Goldmark had also been working on ideas for overcoming the poor reproduction, noise quality, short playing-time (about four minutes) and limited robustness and life of the long-established 78 rpm 12 in. (30 cm) diameter shellac gramophone record. The recent availability of a new, more robust, plastic material, vinyl, which had a lower surface noise, enabled him in 1948 to reduce the groove width some three times to 0.003 in. (0.0762 mm), use a more lightly loaded synthetic sapphire stylus and crystal transducer with improved performance, and reduce the turntable speed to 33 1/3 rpm, to give thirty minutes of high-quality music per side. This successful development soon led to the availability of stereophonic recordings, based on the ideas of Alan Blumlein at EMI in the 1930s.
    In 1950 Goldmark became a vice-president of CBS, but he still found time to develop a scan conversion system for relaying television pictures to Earth from the Lunar Orbiter spacecraft. He also almost brought to the market a domestic electronic video recorder (EVR) system based on the thermal distortion of plastic film by separate luminance and coded colour signals, but this was overtaken by the video cassette recorder (VCR) system, which uses magnetic tape.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Morris N.Liebmann Award 1945. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Vladimir K. Zworykin Award 1961.
    Bibliography
    1951, with J.W.Christensen and J.J.Reeves, "Colour television. USA Standard", Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers 39: 1,288 (describes the development and standards for the short-lived field-sequential colour TV standard).
    1949, with R.Snepvangers and W.S.Bachman, "The Columbia long-playing microgroove recording system", Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers 37:923 (outlines the invention of the long-playing record).
    Further Reading
    E.W.Herold, 1976, "A history of colour television displays", Proceedings of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers 64:1,331.
    KF

    Biographical history of technology > Goldmark, Peter Carl

  • 8 Bollée, Ernest-Sylvain

    [br]
    b. 19 July 1814 Clefmont (Haute-Marne), France
    d. 11 September 1891 Le Mans, France
    [br]
    French inventor of the rotor-stator wind engine and founder of the Bollée manufacturing industry.
    [br]
    Ernest-Sylvain Bollée was the founder of an extensive dynasty of bellfounders based in Le Mans and in Orléans. He and his three sons, Amédée (1844–1917), Ernest-Sylvain fils (1846–1917) and Auguste (1847-?), were involved in work and patents on steam-and petrol-driven cars, on wind engines and on hydraulic rams. The presence of the Bollées' car industry in Le Mans was a factor in the establishment of the car races that are held there.
    In 1868 Ernest-Sylvain Bollée père took out a patent for a wind engine, which at that time was well established in America and in England. In both these countries, variable-shuttered as well as fixed-blade wind engines were in production and patented, but the Ernest-Sylvain Bollée patent was for a type of wind engine that had not been seen before and is more akin to the water-driven turbine of the Jonval type, with its basic principle being parallel to the "rotor" and "stator". The wind drives through a fixed ring of blades on to a rotating ring that has a slightly greater number of blades. The blades of the fixed ring are curved in the opposite direction to those on the rotating blades and thus the air is directed onto the latter, causing it to rotate at a considerable speed: this is the "rotor". For greater efficiency a cuff of sheet iron can be attached to the "stator", giving a tunnel effect and driving more air at the "rotor". The head of this wind engine is turned to the wind by means of a wind-driven vane mounted in front of the blades. The wind vane adjusts the wind angle to enable the wind engine to run at a constant speed.
    The fact that this wind engine was invented by the owner of a brass foundry, with all the gear trains between the wind vane and the head of the tower being of the highest-quality brass and, therefore, small in scale, lay behind its success. Also, it was of prefabricated construction, so that fixed lengths of cast-iron pillar were delivered, complete with twelve treads of cast-iron staircase fixed to the outside and wrought-iron stays. The drive from the wind engine was taken down the inside of the pillar to pumps at ground level.
    Whilst the wind engines were being built for wealthy owners or communes, the work of the foundry continued. The three sons joined the family firm as partners and produced several steam-driven vehicles. These vehicles were the work of Amédée père and were l'Obéissante (1873); the Autobus (1880–3), of which some were built in Berlin under licence; the tram Bollée-Dalifol (1876); and the private car La Mancelle (1878). Another important line, in parallel with the pumping mechanism required for the wind engines, was the development of hydraulic rams, following the Montgolfier patent. In accordance with French practice, the firm was split three ways when Ernest-Sylvain Bollée père died. Amédée père inherited the car side of the business, but it is due to Amédée fils (1867– 1926) that the principal developments in car manufacture came into being. He developed the petrol-driven car after the impetus given by his grandfather, his father and his uncle Ernest-Sylvain fils. In 1887 he designed a four-stroke single-cylinder engine, although he also used engines designed by others such as Peugeot. He produced two luxurious saloon cars before putting Torpilleur on the road in 1898; this car competed in the Tour de France in 1899. Whilst designing other cars, Amédée's son Léon (1870–1913) developed the Voiturette, in 1896, and then began general manufacture of small cars on factory lines. The firm ceased work after a merger with the English firm of Morris in 1926. Auguste inherited the Eolienne or wind-engine side of the business; however, attracted to the artistic life, he sold out to Ernest Lebert in 1898 and settled in the Paris of the Impressionists. Lebert developed the wind-engine business and retained the basic "stator-rotor" form with a conventional lattice tower. He remained in Le Mans, carrying on the business of the manufacture of wind engines, pumps and hydraulic machinery, describing himself as a "Civil Engineer".
    The hydraulic-ram business fell to Ernest-Sylvain fils and continued to thrive from a solid base of design and production. The foundry in Le Mans is still there but, more importantly, the bell foundry of Dominique Bollée in Saint-Jean-de-Braye in Orléans is still at work casting bells in the old way.
    [br]
    Further Reading
    André Gaucheron and J.Kenneth Major, 1985, The Eolienne Bollée, The International Molinological Society.
    Cénomane (Le Mans), 11, 12 and 13 (1983 and 1984).
    KM

    Biographical history of technology > Bollée, Ernest-Sylvain

  • 9 Napier, Robert

    SUBJECT AREA: Ports and shipping
    [br]
    b. 18 June 1791 Dumbarton, Scotland
    d. 23 June 1876 Shandon, Dunbartonshire, Scotland
    [br]
    Scottish shipbuilder one of the greatest shipbuilders of all time, known as the "father" of Clyde shipbuilding.
    [br]
    Educated at Dumbarton Grammar School, Robert Napier had been destined for the Church but persuaded his father to let him serve an apprenticeship as a blacksmith under him. For a while he worked in Edinburgh, but then in 1815 he commenced business in Glasgow, the city that he served for the rest of his life. Initially his workshop was in Camlachie, but it was moved in 1836 to a riverside factory site at Lancefield in the heart of the City and again in 1841 to the Old Shipyard in the Burgh of Govan (then independent of the City of Glasgow). The business expanded through his preparedness to build steam machinery, beginning in 1823 with the engines for the paddle steamer Leven, still to be seen a few hundred metres from Napier's grave in Dumbarton. His name assured owners of quality, and business expanded after two key orders: one in 1836 for the Honourable East India Company; and the second two years later for the Royal Navy, hitherto the preserve of the Royal Dockyards and of the shipbuilders of south-east England. Napier's shipyard and engine shops, then known as Robert Napier and Sons, were to be awarded sixty Admiralty contracts in his lifetime, with a profound influence on ship and engine procurement for the Navy and on foreign governments, which for the first time placed substantial work in the United Kingdom.
    Having had problems with hull subcontractors and also with the installation of machinery in wooden hulls, in 1843 Napier ventured into shipbuilding with the paddle steamer Vanguard, which was built of iron. The following year the Royal Navy took delivery of the iron-hulled Jackall, enabling Napier to secure the contract for the Black Prince, Britain's second ironclad and sister ship to HMS Warrior now preserved at Portsmouth. With so much work in iron Napier instigated studies into metallurgy, and the published work of David Kirkaldy bears witness to his open-handedness in assisting the industry. This service to industry was even more apparent in 1866 when the company laid out the Skelmorlie Measured Mile on the Firth of Clyde for ship testing, a mile still in use by ships of all nations.
    The greatest legacy of Robert Napier was his training of young engineers, shipbuilders and naval architects. Almost every major Scottish shipyard, and some English too, was influenced by him and many of his early foremen left to set up rival establishments along the banks of the River Clyde. His close association with Samuel Cunard led to the setting up of the company now known as the Cunard Line. Napier designed and engined the first four ships, subcontracting the hulls of this historic quartet to other shipbuilders on the river. While he contributed only 2 per cent to the equity of the shipping line, they came back to him for many more vessels, including the magnificent paddle ship Persia, of 1855.
    It is an old tradition on the Clyde that the smokestacks of ships are made by the enginebuilders. The Cunard Line still uses red funnels with black bands, Napier's trademark, in honour of the engineer who set them going.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    Knight Commander of the Dannebrog (Denmark). President, Institution of Mechanical Engineers 1864. Honorary Member of the Glasgow Society of Engineers 1869.
    Further Reading
    James Napier, 1904, The Life of Robert Napier, Edinburgh, Blackwood.
    J.M.Halliday, 1980–1, "Robert Napier. The father of Clyde shipbuilding", Transactions of the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland 124.
    Fred M.Walker, 1984, Song of the Clyde. A History of Clyde Shipbuilding, Cambridge: PSL.
    FMW

    Biographical history of technology > Napier, Robert

  • 10 Nervi, Pier Luigi

    [br]
    b. 21 June 1891 Sondrio, Italy
    d. 9 January 1979 (?), Italy
    [br]
    Italian engineer who played a vital role in the use and adaptation of reinforced concrete as a structural material from the 1930s to the 1970s.
    [br]
    Nervi early established a reputation in the use of reinforced concrete with his stadium in Florence (1930–2). This elegant concrete structure combines graceful curves with functional solidity and is capable of seating some 35,000 spectators. The stadium was followed by the aircraft hangars built for the Italian Air Force at Orvieto and Ortebello, in which he spanned the vast roofs of the hangars with thin-shelled vaults supported by precast concrete beams and steel-reinforced ribs. The structural strength and subtle curves of these ribbed roofs set the pattern for Nervi's techniques, which he subsequently varied and elaborated on to solve problems that arose in further commissions.
    Immediately after the Second World War Italy was short of supplies of steel for structural purposes so, in contrast to the USA, Britain and Germany, did not for some years construct any quantity of steel-framed rectangular buildinngs used for offices, housing or industrial use. It was Nervi who led the way to a ferroconcrete approach, using a new type of structure based on these materials in the form of a fine steel mesh sprayed with cement mortar and used to roof all kinds of structures. It was a method that resulted in expressionist curves instead of rectangular blocks, and the first of his great exhibition halls at Turin (1949), with a vault span of 240 ft (73 m), was an early example of this technique. Nervi continued to create original and beautiful ferroconcrete structures of infinite variety: for example, the hall at the Lido di Roma, Ostia; the terme at Chianciano; and the three buildings that he designed for the Rome Olympics in 1960. The Palazzetto dello Sport is probably the most famous of these, for which he co-operated with the architect Annibale Vitellozzi to construct a small sports palace seating 5,000 spectators under a concrete "big top" of 194 ft (59 m) diameter, its enclosing walls supported by thirtysix guy ropes of concrete; inside, the elegant roof displays a floral quality. In 1960 Nervi returned to Turin to build his imaginative Palace of Labour for the centenary celebrations of Garibaldi and Victor Emmanuel in the city. This vast hall, like the Crystal Palace in England a century earlier (see Paxton), had to be built quickly and be suitable for later adaptation. It was therefore constructed partly in steel, and the metal supporting columns rose to palm-leaf capitals reminiscent of those in ancient Nile palaces.
    Nervi's aim was always to create functional buildings that simultaneously act by their aesthetic qualities as an effective educational influence. Functionalism for Nervi never became "brutalism". In consequence, his work is admired by the lay public as well as by architects. He collaborated with many of the outstanding architects of the day: with Gio Ponti on the Pirelli Building in Milan (1955–9); with Zehrfuss and Breuer on the Y-plan UNESCO Building in Paris (1953–7); and with Marcello Piacentini on the 16,000-seat Palazzo dello Sport in Rome. Nervi found time to write a number of books on building construction and design, lectured in the Universities of Rio de Janiero and Buenos Aires, and was for many years Professor of Technology and Technique of Construction in the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Rome. He continued to design new structures until well into the 1970s.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    RIBA Royal Gold Medal 1960. Royal Institute of Structural Engineers Gold Medal 1968. Honorary Degree Edinburgh University, Warsaw University, Munich University, London University, Harvard University. Member International Institute of Arts and Letters, Zurich; American Academy of Arts and Sciences; Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Stockholm.
    Bibliography
    1956, Structures, New York: Dodge.
    1945, Scienza o Arte del Costruire?, Rome: Bussola.
    Further Reading
    P.Desideri et al., 1979, Pier Luigi Nervi, Bologna: Zanichelli.
    A.L.Huxtable, 1960, Masters of World Architecture; Pier Luigi Nervi, New York: Braziller.
    DY

    Biographical history of technology > Nervi, Pier Luigi

  • 11 Rosenhain, Walter

    SUBJECT AREA: Metallurgy
    [br]
    b. 24 August 1875 Berlin, Germany
    d. 17 March 1934 Kingston Hill, Surrey, England
    [br]
    German metallurgist, first Superintendent of the Department of Metallurgy and Metallurgical Chemistry at the National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, Middlesex.
    [br]
    His family emigrated to Australia when he was 5 years old. He was educated at Wesley College, Melbourne, and attended Queen's College, University of Melbourne, graduating in physics and engineering in 1897. As an 1851 Exhibitioner he then spent three years at St John's College, Cambridge, under Sir Alfred Ewing, where he studied the microstructure of deformed metal crystals and abandoned his original intention of becoming a civil engineer. Rosenhain was the first to observe the slip-bands in metal crystals, and in the Bakerian Lecture delivered jointly by Ewing and Rosenhain to the Royal Society in 1899 it was shown that metals deformed plastically by a mechanism involving shear slip along individual crystal planes. From this conception modern ideas on the plasticity and recrystallization of metals rapidly developed. On leaving Cambridge, Rosenhain joined the Birmingham firm of Chance Brothers, where he worked for six years on optical glass and lighthouse-lens systems. A book, Glass Manufacture, written in 1908, derives from this period, during which he continued his metallurgical researches in the evenings in his home laboratory and published several papers on his work.
    In 1906 Rosenhain was appointed Head of the Metallurgical Department of the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), and in 1908 he became the first Superintendent of the new Department of Metallurgy and Metallurgical Chemistry. Many of the techniques he introduced at Teddington were described in his Introduction to Physical Metallurgy, published in 1914. At the outbreak of the First World War, Rosenhain was asked to undertake work in his department on the manufacture of optical glass. This soon made it possible to manufacture optical glass of high quality on an industrial scale in Britain. Much valuable work on refractory materials stemmed from this venture. Rosenhain's early years at the NPL were, however, inseparably linked with his work on light alloys, which between 1912 and the end of the war involved virtually all of the metallurgical staff of the laboratory. The most important end product was the well-known "Y" Alloy (4% copper, 2% nickel and 1.5% magnesium) extensively used for the pistons and cylinder heads of aircraft engines. It was the prototype of the RR series of alloys jointly developed by Rolls Royce and High Duty Alloys. An improved zinc-based die-casting alloy devised by Rosenhain was also used during the war on a large scale for the production of shell fuses.
    After the First World War, much attention was devoted to beryllium, which because of its strength, lightness, and stiffness would, it was hoped, become the airframe material of the future. It remained, however, too brittle for practical use. Other investigations dealt with impurities in copper, gases in aluminium alloys, dental alloys, and the constitution of alloys. During this period, Rosenhain's laboratory became internationally known as a centre of excellence for the determination of accurate equilibrium diagrams.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    FRS 1913. President, Institute of Metals 1828–30. Iron and Steel Institute Bessemer Medal, Carnegie Medal.
    Bibliography
    1908, Glass Manufacture.
    1914, An Introduction to the Study of Physical Metallurgy, London: Constable. Rosenhain published over 100 research papers.
    Further Reading
    J.L.Haughton, 1934, "The work of Walter Rosenhain", Journal of the Institute of Metals 55(2):17–32.
    ASD

    Biographical history of technology > Rosenhain, Walter

  • 12 Whitworth, Sir Joseph

    [br]
    b. 21 December 1803 Stockport, Cheshire, England
    d. 22 January 1887 Monte Carlo, Monaco
    [br]
    English mechanical engineer and pioneer of precision measurement.
    [br]
    Joseph Whitworth received his early education in a school kept by his father, but from the age of 12 he attended a school near Leeds. At 14 he joined his uncle's mill near Ambergate, Derbyshire, to learn the business of cotton spinning. In the four years he spent there he realized that he was more interested in the machinery than in managing a cotton mill. In 1821 he obtained employment as a mechanic with Crighton \& Co., Manchester. In 1825 he moved to London and worked for Henry Maudslay and later for the Holtzapffels and Joseph Clement. After these years spent gaining experience, he returned to Manchester in 1833 and set up in a small workshop under a sign "Joseph Whitworth, Tool Maker, from London".
    The business expanded steadily and the firm made machine tools of all types and other engineering products including steam engines. From 1834 Whitworth obtained many patents in the fields of machine tools, textile and knitting machinery and road-sweeping machines. By 1851 the company was generally regarded as the leading manufacturer of machine tools in the country. Whitworth was a pioneer of precise measurement and demonstrated the fundamental mode of producing a true plane by making surface plates in sets of three. He advocated the use of the decimal system and made use of limit gauges, and he established a standard screw thread which was adopted as the national standard. In 1853 Whitworth visited America as a member of a Royal Commission and reported on American industry. At the time of the Crimean War in 1854 he was asked to provide machinery for manufacturing rifles and this led him to design an improved rifle of his own. Although tests in 1857 showed this to be much superior to all others, it was not adopted by the War Office. Whitworth's experiments with small arms led on to the construction of big guns and projectiles. To improve the quality of the steel used for these guns, he subjected the molten metal to pressure during its solidification, this fluid-compressed steel being then known as "Whitworth steel".
    In 1868 Whitworth established thirty annual scholarships for engineering students. After his death his executors permanently endowed the Whitworth Scholarships and distributed his estate of nearly half a million pounds to various educational and charitable institutions. Whitworth was elected an Associate of the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1841 and a Member in 1848 and served on its Council for many years. He was elected a Member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1847, the year of its foundation.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    Baronet 1869. FRS 1857. President, Institution of Mechanical Engineers 1856, 1857 and 1866. Hon. LLD Trinity College, Dublin, 1863. Hon. DCL Oxford University 1868. Member of the Smeatonian Society of Civil Engineers 1864. Légion d'honneur 1868. Society of Arts Albert Medal 1868.
    Bibliography
    1858, Miscellaneous Papers on Mechanical Subjects, London; 1873, Miscellaneous Papers on Practical Subjects: Guns and Steel, London (both are collections of his papers to technical societies).
    1854, with G.Wallis, The Industry of the United States in Machinery, Manufactures, and
    Useful and Ornamental Arts, London.
    Further Reading
    F.C.Lea, 1946, A Pioneer of Mechanical Engineering: Sir Joseph Whitworth, London (a short biographical account).
    A.E.Musson, 1963, "Joseph Whitworth: toolmaker and manufacturer", Engineering Heritage, Vol. 1, London, 124–9 (a short biography).
    D.J.Jeremy (ed.), 1984–6, Dictionary of Business Biography, Vol. 5, London, 797–802 (a short biography).
    W.Steeds, 1969, A History of Machine Tools 1700–1910, Oxford (describes Whitworth's machine tools).
    RTS

    Biographical history of technology > Whitworth, Sir Joseph

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