real inventor

1) Law: actual inventor, true inventor

2) Patents: actual deviser of invention, original inventor, real inventor

SUBJECT AREA: Weapons and armour

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Wilkinson's father Isaac was a farmer turned ironmaster. Soon after 1750, the family acquired Bersham furnace, near Wrexham. This was later in the hands of John and his brother William. By 1763, John had risen to take sole charge of Broseley furnace near Coalbrookdale, Shropshire, and in 1770 he set up a third furnace at Bradley, Staffordshire. By this time he had become one of the country's leading ironmasters, known for the wide range of ware made of cast iron, doubtless the reason for his nickname "Ironmad Wilkinson". He made a cast-iron boat which, to the surprise of many, floated. For his own eventual use, he also made a cast-iron coffin, but did not make sufficient allowance for increasing girth with age! Wilkinson's most notable invention was his cannon-boring machine, patented in 1774. The gun barrel was held rigidly while the cutter head moved forward on a rod inside a hollow boring bar. The machine was easily adapted to bore the cylinders for Boulton \& Watt's steam engines and he became a regular supplier, as only he could bore them with the required accuracy. On the other hand, their second engine was supplied to Wilkinson to power a blowing engine to provide air blast for his Broseley furnace: this was the first use of a Boulton \& Watt engine for a purpose other than pumping. By 1780 he had three further steam engines at work. Wilkinson installed the first Boulton \& Watt engine in France at the Paris waterworks, for which he supplied the iron pipes. Another patent was obtained in 1794 for the invention of the cupola or furnace for melting metal for small castings, although it is now thought that the real inventor was his brother William. Apart from domestic and engineering ironware, Wilkinson was supplier of arms to the American and, illicitly, to the French.

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SUBJECT AREA: Chemical technology, Land transport

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Goodyear entered his father's country hardware business before setting up his own concern in Philadelphia. While visiting New York, he noticed in the window of the Roxburgh India Rubber Company a rubber life-preserver. Goodyear offered to improve its inflating valve, but the manager, impressed with Goodyear's inventiveness, persuaded him to tackle a more urgent problem, that of seeking a means of preventing rubber from becoming tacky and from melting or decomposing when heated. Goodyear tried treatments with one substance after another, without success. In 1838 he started using Nathaniel M.Hayward's process of spreading sulphur on rubber. He accidentally dropped a mass of rubber and sulphur on to a hot stove and noted that the mixture did not melt: Goodyear had discovered the vulcanization of rubber. More experiments were needed to establish the correct proportions for a uniform mix, and eventually he was granted his celebrated patent no. 3633 of 15 June 1844. Goodyear's researches had been conducted against a background of crippling financial difficulties and he was forced to dispose of licences to vulcanize rubber at less than their real value, in order to pay off his most pressing debts.

Goodyear travelled to Europe in 1851 to extend his patents. To promote his process, he designed a spectacular exhibit for London, consisting of furniture, floor covering, jewellery and other items made of rubber. A similar exhibit in Paris in 1855 won him the Grande Médaille d'honneur and the Croix de la Légion d'honneur from Napoleon III. Patents were granted to him in all countries except England. The improved properties of vulcanized rubber and its stability over a much wider range of temperatures greatly increased its applications; output rose from a meagre 31.5 tonnes a year in 1827 to over 28,000 tonnes by 1900. Even so, Goodyear profited little from his invention, and he bequeathed to his family debts amounting to over $200,000.

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SUBJECT AREA: Ports and shipping

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Holland was educated first in his native town and later in Limerick, a seaport bustling with coastal trade ships. His first job was that of schoolteacher, and as such he worked in various parts of Ireland until he was about 32 years old. A combination of his burning patriotic zeal for Ireland and his interest in undersea technology (then in its infancy) made him consider designs for underwater warships for use against the British Royal Navy in the fight for Irish independence. He studied all known works on the subject and commenced drawing plans, but he was unable to make real headway owing to a lack of finance.

In 1873 he travelled to the United States, ultimately settling in New Jersey and continuing in the profession of teaching. His work on submarine design continued, but in 1875 he suffered a grave setback when the United States Navy turned down his designs. Help came from an unexpected source, the Irish Republican Brotherhood, or Fenian Society, which had been founded in Dublin and New York in 1858. Financial help enabled Holland to build a 4 m (13 ft) one-person craft, which was tested in 1878, and then a larger boat of 19 tonnes' displacement that was tested with a crew of three to depths of 20 m (65 ft) in New York's harbour in 1883. Known as the Fenian Ram, it embodied most of the principles of modern submarines, including weight compensation. The Fenians commandeered this boat, but they were unable to operate it satisfactorily and it was relegated to history.

Holland continued work, at times independently and sometimes with others, and continuously advocated submarines to the United States Navy. In 1895 he was successful in winning a contract for US$150,000 to build the US Submarine Plunger at Baltimore. With too much outside interference, this proved an unsatisfactory venture. However, with only US$5,000 of his capital left, Holland started again and in 1898 he launched the Holland at Elizabeth, New Jersey. This 16 m (52 ft) vessel was successful, and in 1900 it was purchased by the United States Government.

Six more boats were ordered by the Americans, and then some by the Russians and the Japanese. The British Royal Navy ordered five, which were built by Vickers Son and Maxim (now VSEL) at Barrow-in-Furness in the years up to 1903, commencing their long run of submarine building. They were licensed by another well-known name, the Electric Boat Company, which had formerly been the J.P.Holland Torpedo Boat Company.

Holland now had some wealth and was well known. He continued to work, trying his hand at aeronautical research, and in 1904 he invented a respirator for use in submarine rescue work. It is pleasing to record that one of his ships can be seen to this day at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum, Gosport: HM Submarine Holland No. 1, which was lost under tow in 1913 but salvaged and restored in the 1980s.

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SUBJECT AREA: Chemical technology, Mining and extraction technology, Weapons and armour

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The son of a barber-surgeon who deserted his family to serve in the Swedish army, Nobel showed little interest in academic pursuits as a child and was sent to sea at the age of 16, but jumped ship in Egypt and was eventually employed as an architect by the pasha. Returning to Sweden, he won a scholarship to the Stockholm School of Architecture, where he studied from 1821 to 1825 and was awarded a number of prizes. His interest then leaned towards mechanical matters and he transferred to the Stockholm School of Engineering. Designs for linen-finishing machines won him a prize there, and he also patented a means of transforming rotary into reciprocating movement. He then entered the real-estate business and was successful until a fire in 1833 destroyed his house and everything he owned. By this time he had married and had two sons, with a third, Alfred (of Nobel Prize fame; see Alfred Nobel), on the way. Moving to more modest quarters on the outskirts of Stockholm, Immanuel resumed his inventions, concentrating largely on India rubber, which he applied to surgical instruments and military equipment, including a rubber knapsack.

It was talk of plans to construct a canal at Suez that first excited his interest in explosives. He saw them as a means of making mining more efficient and began to experiment in his backyard. However, this made him unpopular with his neighbours, and the city authorities ordered him to cease his investigations. By this time he was deeply in debt and in 1837 moved to Finland, leaving his family in Stockholm. He hoped to interest the Russians in land and sea mines and, after some four years, succeeded in obtaining financial backing from the Ministry of War, enabling him to set up a foundry and arms factory in St Petersburg and to bring his family over. By 1850 he was clear of debt in Sweden and had begun to acquire a high reputation as an inventor and industrialist. His invention of the horned contact mine was to be the basic pattern of the sea mine for almost the next 100 years, but he also created and manufactured a central-heating system based on hot-water pipes. His three sons, Ludwig, Robert and Alfred, had now joined him in his business, but even so the outbreak of war with Britain and France in the Crimea placed severe pressures on him. The Russians looked to him to convert their navy from sail to steam, even though he had no experience in naval propulsion, but the aftermath of the Crimean War brought financial ruin once more to Immanuel. Amongst the reforms brought in by Tsar Alexander II was a reliance on imports to equip the armed forces, so all domestic arms contracts were abruptly cancelled, including those being undertaken by Nobel. Unable to raise money from the banks, Immanuel was forced to declare himself bankrupt and leave Russia for his native Sweden. Nobel then reverted to his study of explosives, particularly of how to adapt the then highly unstable nitroglycerine, which had first been developed by Ascanio Sobrero in 1847, for blasting and mining. Nobel believed that this could be done by mixing it with gunpowder, but could not establish the right proportions. His son Alfred pursued the matter semi-independently and eventually evolved the principle of the primary charge (and through it created the blasting cap), having taken out a patent for a nitroglycerine product in his own name; the eventual result of this was called dynamite. Father and son eventually fell out over Alfred's independent line, but worse was to follow. In September 1864 Immanuel's youngest son, Oscar, then studying chemistry at Uppsala University, was killed in an explosion in Alfred's laboratory: Immanuel suffered a stroke, but this only temporarily incapacitated him, and he continued to put forward new ideas. These included making timber a more flexible material through gluing crossed veneers under pressure and bending waste timber under steam, a concept which eventually came to fruition in the form of plywood.

In 1868 Immanuel and Alfred were jointly awarded the prestigious Letterstedt Prize for their work on explosives, but Alfred never for-gave his father for retaining the medal without offering it to him.

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SUBJECT AREA: Architecture and building, Paper and printing

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Perkins's occupation was that of a gold-and silversmith; while he does not seem to have followed this after 1800, however, it gave him the skills in working metals which he would continue to employ in his inventions. He had been working in America for four years before he patented his nail-making machine in 1796. At the time there was a great shortage of nails because only hand-forged ones were available. By 1800, other people had followed his example and produced automatic nail-making machines, but in 1811 Perkins' improved machines were introduced to England by J.C. Dyer. Eventually Perkins had twenty-one American patents for a range of inventions in his name.

In 1799 Perkins invented a system of engraving steel plates for printing banknotes, which became the foundation of modern siderographic work. It discouraged forging and was adopted by many banking houses, including the Federal Government when the Second United States Bank was inaugurated in 1816. This led Perkins to move to Philadelphia. In the intervening years, Perkins had improved his nail-making machine, invented a machine for graining morocco leather in 1809, a fire-engine in 1812, a letter-lock for bank vaults and improved methods of rolling out spoons in 1813, and improved armament and equipment for naval ships from 1812 to 1815.

It was in Philadelphia that Perkins became interested in the steam engine, when he met Oliver Evans, who had pioneered the use of high-pressure steam. He became a member of the American Philosophical Society and conducted experiments on the compressibility of water before a committee of that society. Perkins claimed to have liquified air during his experiments in 1822 and, if so, was the real discoverer of the liquification of gases. In 1819 he came to England to demonstrate his forgery-proof system of printing banknotes, but the Bank of England was the only one which did not adopt his system.

While in London, Perkins began to experiment with the highest steam pressures used up to that time and in 1822 took out his first of nineteen British patents. This was followed by another in 1823 for a 10 hp (7.5 kW) engine with only 2 in. (51 mm) bore, 12 in. (305 mm) stroke but a pressure of 500 psi (35 kg/cm²), for which he claimed exceptional economy. After 1826, Perkins abandoned his drum boiler for iron tubes and steam pressures of 1,500 psi (105 kg/cm²), but the materials would not withstand such pressures or temperatures for long. It was in that same year that he patented a form of uniflow cylinder that was later taken up by L.J. Todd. One of his engines ran for five days, continuously pumping water at St Katherine's docks, but Perkins could not raise more finance to continue his experiments.

In 1823 one his high-pressure hot-water systems was installed to heat the Duke of Wellington's house at Stratfield Saye and it acquired a considerable vogue, being used by Sir John Soane, among others. In 1834 Perkins patented a compression ice-making apparatus, but it did not succeed commercially because ice was imported more cheaply from Norway as ballast for sailing ships. Perkins was often dubbed "the American inventor" because his inquisitive personality allied to his inventive ingenuity enabled him to solve so many mechanical challenges.

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SUBJECT AREA: Electricity, Land transport, Railways and locomotives, Telecommunications

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He was first apprenticed in Columbus as a machinist and blacksmith. In 1872 he moved to Missouri, where he was engaged as a fireman and then engine-driver on the Iron Mountain Railroad. In his spare time he devoted much time to the study of electrical engineering. In 1878 he went to sea for two years as engineer on a British vessel. He returned to Ohio, taking up his previous occupation as engine-driver, and in 1884 he achieved his first patent, for a locomotive firebox. However, the drive towards things electrical was too strong and he set up the Woods Electric Company in Cincinnati, Ohio, to develop and market electrical inventions. Woods gained some fame as an inventor and became known as the "black Edison ". His first device, a telephone transmitter, was patented in December 1884 but faced stiff competition from similar inventions by Alexander Graham Bell and others. The following year he patented a device for transmitting messages in Morse code or by voice that was valuable enough to be bought up by the Bell Telephone Company. A stream of inventions followed, particularly for railway telegraph and electrical systems. This brought him into conflict with Edison, who was working in the same field. The US Patent Office ruled in Woods's favour; as a result of the ensuing publicity, one newspaper hailed Woods as the "greatest electrician in the world". In 1890 Woods moved to New York, where the opportunities for an electrical engineer seemed more favourable. He turned his attention to inventions that would improve the tram-car. One device enabled electric current to be transferred to the car with less friction than previously, incorporating a grooved wheel known as a "troller", whence came the popular term "trolley car".

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1 incredible, tremendous (informal). (peninsular Spanish)

se armó el lío padre there was a terrible o huge fuss

fue el cachondeo padre it was a great laugh

2 great. (Mexican Spanish)

está muy padre it's really great o fantastic

3 parent.

4 neat, super.

1 father (man).

de padre y muy señor mío (informal) incredible, tremendous

hacer padre a alguien (informal) to make somebody a happy man (peninsular Spanish)

padre de familia head of the family

padre político father-in-law

2 father (religion).

Santo padre Holy Father, Pope

padre espiritual confessor

Padres de la Iglesia Fathers of the Christian Church

3 priest, father.

* * *

► nombre masculino

1 father

2 RELIGIÓN (sacerdote) father

3 Padre RELIGIÓN Father

► nombre masculino plural padres

1 parents

► adjetivo

1 familiar (fenomenal) terrific

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de padre y muy señor mío familiar almighty

no tener ni padre, ni madre, ni perrito que le ladre to be all alone in the world

ser cada uno de su padre y su madre to be an odd mixture

¡su (tu etc) padre! familiar and the same to you!

padre de familia head of the family

padre espiritual confessor

padre político father-in-law

el Santo Padre the Holy Father, the Pope

* * *

- padres

* * *

1. SM

1) (=progenitor) father; (Zool) father, sire

- no tiene padre ni madre, ni perrito que le ladre

2) pl padres (=padre y madre) parents

3) (Rel) father

4) [de disciplina] father

5) *

ADJ * (=enorme) huge

* * *

a) (fam) ( grande) terrible (colloq)

b) [estar] (Méx fam) <coche/persona> great (colloq), fantastic

1) ( pariente) father

- padre de familia

- padre de la patria

2) (Relig) ( sacerdote) father

- padre espiritual

3) Padre ( Dios)

* * *

= father, dad.

Ex. A patronymic is the name derived from the given name of the father, often by the addition of a suffix.

Ex. Tuan is his new father figure after his real dad sadly died after being poorly for a long time.

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* Asociación de Madres y Padres de Alumnos (AMPA) = Parent-Teacher Association (PTA).

* asociación de padres = parents' association.

* asociación de padres de alumnos = Parent-Teacher Association (PTA).

* de los padres = parental.

* día del padre, el = Father's Day.

* el padre de = the father of.

* familia en la que los dos padres trabajan = dual-income family.

* formación de padres = parenting, parenting education.

* madre o padre adoptivo = foster parent.

* madre o padre biológico = biological parent.

* madre o padre de nacimiento = birth parent.

* madre o padre natural = birth parent.

* madre or padre adoptivo = adoptive parent.

* padre adoptivo = foster father, adoptive father.

* padre biológico = biological father.

* padre de familia = pater familias, family man.

* padre de nacimiento = birth father.

* padre fundador = founding father.

* padre natural = birth father.

* padres = parents.

* padres adoptivos = adopted parents.

* padres biológicos = biological parents.

* padre soltero = single father.

* reunión a la que los padres acuden con sus bebés = lapsit.

* sueño de los padres = hand-me-down dream.

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a) (fam) ( grande) terrible (colloq)

b) [estar] (Méx fam) <coche/persona> great (colloq), fantastic

1) ( pariente) father

- padre de familia

- padre de la patria

2) (Relig) ( sacerdote) father

- padre espiritual

3) Padre ( Dios)

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1 ( fam) (grande) terrible ( colloq)

nos dimos or nos llevamos un susto padre we got a hell of a o a terrible fright ( colloq)

se armó un escándalo padre there was an almighty o a terrible fuss

2 [ ESTAR] ( Méx fam); ‹coche/película/persona› great ( colloq), fantastic

¡qué padre! great!

A (pariente) father

mis padres my parents

cada uno es/era de su padre y de su madre they are/were all different

de padre y (muy) señor mío terrible ( colloq)

le pegó una paliza de padre y (muy) señor mío he gave him the thrashing of his life, he gave him a terrible o an almighty beating

un dolor de cabeza de padre y (muy) señor mío a terrible o an almighty o ( colloq) a splitting headache

no tener padre ni madre, ni perrito que le ladre to be all alone in the world

father, family man

( Hist) hero of the nation

los padres de la patria (fundadores) the founding fathers, the founders of the nation

veo que los padres de la patria acaban de votarse otro aumento ( iró) (diputados) I see our esteemed leaders have awarded themselves another salary increase ( iro)

B ( Relig) (sacerdote) father

el padre Miguel Father Miguel

confessor

Padre (Dios): el Padre the Father

Dios Padre God the Father

* * *

◊ mis padres my parents;

a) (fam) ( grande) terrible (colloq)

b) [estar] (Méx fam) ‹coche/persona› great (colloq), fantastic

* * *

♦ nm

1. [pariente] father;

Cervantes es el padre de la novela moderna Cervantes is the father of the modern novel;

Emilio padre Emilio senior;

cada uno es de su padre y de su madre each one is different;

de padre y muy señor mío incredible, tremendous;

hacer padre a alguien to make sb a happy man

¡tu padre! sod you!;

no tener padre ni madre ni perrito que le ladre to be without o not to have a friend in the world

padre de la patria founding father;

padre político father-in-law;

padre soltero single parent

2. [sacerdote] father

3. Rel

♦ adj inv

1. Esp [tremendo] incredible, tremendous;

se armó el lío padre there was a terrible o huge fuss;

fue el cachondeo padre it was a great laugh

2. Méx [genial] great, fantastic;

esa canción está muy padre that song is really great o fantastic;

¡ay qué padre! hey, that's great o fantastic!

♦ padres nmpl

1. [padre y madre] parents

2. [antepasados] forefathers, ancestors;

las tradiciones de nuestros padres the traditions of our forefathers o ancestors

* * *

m father;

padres pl parents;

de padre y muy señor mío terrible;

¡qué padre! Méx brilliant!

* * *

padre adj, Mex fam : fantastic, great

padre nm

1) : father

2) padres nmpl

: parents

* * *

padre n father

La palabra más familiar es dad ( papá)

SUBJECT AREA: Steam and internal combustion engines

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McCoy was born into a community of escaped African-American slaves. As a youth he went to Scotland and served an apprenticeship in Edinburgh in mechanical engineering. He returned to North America and ended up in Ypsilanti, Michigan, seeking employment at the headquarters of the Michigan Central Railroad Company. In spite of his training, the only job McCoy could obtain was that of locomotive fireman. Still, that enabled him to study at close quarters the problem of lubricating adequately the moving parts of a steam locomotive. Inefficient lubrication led to overheating, delays and even damage. In 1872 McCoy patented the first of his lubricating devices, applicable particularly to stationary engines. He assigned his patent rights to W. and S.C.Hamlin of Ypsilanti, from which he derived enough financial resources to develop his invention. A year later he patented an improved hydrostatic lubricator, which could be used for both stationary and locomotive engines, and went on to make further improvements. McCoy's lubricators were widely taken up by other railroads and his employers promoted him from the footplate to the task of giving instruction in the use of his lubricating equipment. Many others had been attempting to achieve the same result and many rival products were on the market, but none was superior to McCoy's, which came to be known as "the Real McCoy", a term that has since acquired a wider application than to engine lubricators. McCoy moved to Detroit, Michigan, as a patent consultant in the railroad business. Altogether, he took out over fifty patents for various inventions, so that he became one of the most prolific of nineteenth-century black inventors, whose activities had been so greatly stimulated by the freedoms they acquired after the American Civil War. His more valuable patents were assigned to investors, who formed the Elijah McCoy Manufacturing Company. McCoy himself, however, was not a major shareholder, so he seems not to have derived the benefit that was due to him.

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

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

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

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SUBJECT AREA: Weapons and armour

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Commissioned into the Royal Artillery in 1839, Boxer's flair for the technical aspects of gunnery led to his appointment, at the early age of 33, as Superintendent of the Laboratory at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich. He was able to devote his attention to the design of more effective shells, cartridges and fuses, with his greatest achievement being the invention, in 1866, of the Boxer cartridge, which had a case made of brass and a percussion cap set into the base. The real significance of the cartridge was that for the first time the chamber could be fully sealed, by way of the propellant gases expanding the case against the chamber wall, with the result that effective weapon range and accuracy could be dramatically increased. His achievement was recognized when Parliament voted a special financial grant, and the Boxer cartridge is still in wide use today. Boxer was promoted Colonel in 1868 and retired the following year as an honorary Major-General.

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SUBJECT AREA: Paper and printing

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Clymer was born on his father's farm, of a family that emigrated from Switzerland in the early eighteenth century. He attended local schools, helping out on the farm in his spare time, and he showed a particular talent for maintaining farm machinery. At the age of 16 he learned the trade of carpenter and joiner, which he followed in the same district for over twenty-five years. During that time, he showed his talent for mechanical invention in many ways, including the invention of a plough specially adapted to the local soils. Around 1800, he moved to Philadelphia, where his interest was aroused by the erection of the first bridge over the Schuylkill River. He devised a pump to remove water from the cofferdams at a rate of 500 gallons per day, superior to any other pumps then in use. He obtained a US patent for this in 1801, and a British one soon after.

Clymer then turned his attention to the improvement of the printing press. For three and a half centuries after its invention, the old wooden-framed press had remained virtually unchanged except in detail. The first real change came in 1800 with the introduction of the iron press by Earl Stanhope. Modified versions were developed by other inventors, notably George Clymer, who after more than ten years' effort achieved his Columbian press. With its new system of levers, it enabled perfect impressions to be obtained with far less effort by the pressman. The Columbian was also notable for its distinctive cast-iron ornamentation, including a Hermes on each pillar and alligators and other reptiles on the levers. Most spectacular, it was surmounted by an American spread eagle, usually covered in gilt, which also served as a counterweight to raise the platen. The earliest known Columbian, surviving only in an illustration, bears the inscription Columbian Press/No.25/invented by George Clymer/Anno Domini 1813/Made in Philadelphia 1816. Few American printers could afford the US$400 selling price, so in 1817 Clymer went to England, where it was taken up enthusiastically. He obtained a British patent for it the same year, and by the following March it was being manufactured by the engineering firm R.W.Cope, although Clymer was probably making it on his own account soon afterwards. The Columbian was widely used for many years and continued to be made even into the twentieth century. The King of the Netherlands awarded Clymer a gold medal for his invention and the Tsar of Russia gave him a present for installing the press in Russia. Doubtless for business reasons, Clymer spent most of his remaining years in England and Europe.

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SUBJECT AREA: Paper and printing

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The papermaking machine developed by the Fourdrinier brothers in 1807 produced a reel of paper which was cut into sheets, which were then hung up to dry in a loft. The paper often became badly cockled as a result, and ways were sought to improve the drying part of the process. Drying cylinders were introduced, but the first real benefit came from the use of dry felt in Crompton's drying machine. Various materials could be used, but Crompton found that felt made from linen wrap and a woollen weft was best. In 1820 he took out a patent for steam-heated drying cylinders, and in the following year a patent for a cutter to cut the paper reel into sheets. With Crompton's improvements, the papermaking machine assumed its modern form in essentials. In 1839 Crompton installed centrifugal air fans for reciprocating suction pumps in the suction boxes to extract water from the paper on the continuous wire mould. Crompton owned and operated a successful paper mill at Farnworth in Lancashire, supplying the principal merchants and newspaper publishers in London. He was also a cotton manufacturer and, for a time, owned the Morning Post and other newspapers. By the time he died in 1858 he had amassed a considerable fortune.

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SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace

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Curtiss started his career in the bicycle business, then became a designer of motor-cycle engines, and in 1904 he designed and built an airship engine. The success of his engine led to him joining the Aerial Experimental Association (AEA), founded by the inventor Alexander Graham Bell. Working with the AEA, Curtiss built several engines and designed a biplane, June Bug, in which he won a prize for the first recorded flight of over 1 km (1,100yd) in the USA. In 1909 Curtiss joined forces with Augustus M.Herring, who had earlier flown Octave Chanute's gliders, to form the Herring-Curtiss Company. Their Gold Bug was a success and led to the Golden Flyer, in which Glenn Curtiss won the Gordon Bennett Cup at Rheims in France with a speed of 75.7 km/h (47 mph). At this time the Wright brothers accused Curtiss and the new Curtiss Aeroplane Company of infringing their patent rights, and a bitter lawsuit ensued. The acrimony subsided during the First World War and in 1929 the two companies merged to form the Curtiss-Wright Corporation.

Curtiss had started experimenting with water-based aircraft in 1908, but it was not until 1911 that he managed to produce a successful float-plane. He then co-operated with the US Navy in developing catapults to launch aircraft from ships at sea. During the First World War, Curtiss produced the JN-4 Jenny trainer, which became probably his best-known design. This sturdy bi-plane continued in service long after the war and was extensively used by "barnstorming" pilots at air shows and for early mail flights. In 1919 a Navy-Curtiss NC-4 flying boat achieved the first flight across the Atlantic, having made the crossing in stages, refuelling en route. Curtiss himself, however, had little interest in aviation in his later years and turned his attention to real-estate development in Florida.

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SUBJECT AREA: Textiles

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After being woven, woollen cloth needed to be cleaned and compacted to thicken it and take out the signs of weaving. The traditional way of doing this was to place the length of cloth in fulling stocks, where hammers pounded it in a solution of fuller's earth, but in 1833 John Dyer, a Trowbridge engineer, took out a patent for the first alternative way with real possibilities. He sold the patent the following year but must have reserved the right to make his machine himself, incorporating various additions and improvements into it, because many of the machines used in Trowbridge after 1850 came from him. Milling machines were often used in conjunction with fulling stocks. The cloth was made up into a continuous length and milled by rollers forcing it through a hole or spout, from where it dropped into the fulling liquid to be soaked before being pulled out and pushed through the hole again. Dyer had three pairs of rollers, with one pair set at right angles to the others so that the cloth was squeezed in two directions. These machines do not seem to have come into general use until the 1850s. His machine closely resembled those still in use.

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SUBJECT AREA: Electronics and information technology

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Born on a cattle ranch, Forrester obtained a BSc in electrical engineering at the University of Nebraska in 1939 and his MSc at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he remained to teach and carry out research. Becoming interested in computing, he established the Digital Computer Laboratory at MIT in 1945 and became involved in the construction of Whirlwind I, an early general-purpose computer completed in March 1951 and used for flight-simulation by the US Army Air Force. Finding the linear memories then available for storing data a major limiting factor in the speed at which computers were able to operate, he developed a three-dimensional store based on the binary switching of the state of small magnetic cores that could be addressed and switched by a matrix of wires carrying pulses of current. The machine used parallel synchronous fixed-point computing, with fifteen binary digits and a plus sign, i.e. 16 bits in all, and contained 5,000 vacuum tubes, eleven semiconductors and a 2 MHz clock for the arithmetic logic unit. It occupied a two-storey building and consumed 150kW of electricity. From his experience with the development and use of computers, he came to realize their great potential for the simulation and modelling of real situations and hence for the solution of a variety of management problems, using data communications and the technique now known as interactive graphics. His later career was therefore in this field, first at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington, Massachusetts (1951) and subsequently (from 1956) as Professor at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

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See also: Burks, Arthur Walter; Goldstine, Herman H.; Wilkes, Maurice Vincent; Williams, Sir Frederic Calland