-
121 a close squeak
опасное, рискованное положение, опасность, которую едва удалось избежать, почти неизбежная гибель; ≈ на волосок от гибели; см. тж. a close call и a close shaveI've operated a woman for appendicitis in a Dutch kitchen. Came awful close to losing her, too, but I pulled her through all right. Close squeak. (S. Lewis, ‘Main Street’, ch. XV) — Сделал женщине операцию аппендицита прямо на кухне. Она чуть не погибла, но мне все-таки удалось спасти ее. На волосок была от гибели.
Burke: "But I won't be denying 'twas a damn narrow squeak. We'd all ought to be with Davy Jones at the bottom of the sea, be [= by] rights." (E. O'Neill, ‘Anna Christie’, act II) — Берк: "Однако отрицать не стану: мы были на краю гибели. Честное слово, место на дне морском было для нас приготовлено."
‘I knew from the first she would go.’ ‘Not a minute too soon.’ ‘A narrow Squeak, b'gosh!’ (J. Conrad, ‘Lord Jim’, ch. 10) — - Я с самого начала знал, что судно затонет! - Еще минута, и мы... - Еле-еле спаслись, ей-богу!
-
122 still as death
безмолвный (как смерть; ср. мёртвая тишина, гробовое молчание)Old Jolyon stood, still as death, his eyes fixed on the body. (J. Galsworthy, ‘The Man of Property’, part III, ch. VIII) — Старый Джолион стоял безмолвный как смерть и пристально смотрел на труп Босини.
A silence of the sea, of the sky merged into one immensity still as death around these saved, palpitating lives. (J. Conrad, ‘Lord Jim’, ch. X) — Молчание моря и неба, необъятное как смерть, сомкнулось вокруг этих спасенных, трепещущих жизней.
The house was still as death. (L. M. Alcott, ‘Little Women’, ch. XVIII) — В доме было тихо как в могиле.
He went to the door... and looked out over the sleeping buildings. ‘Still as the grave.’ (D. Cusack, ‘Say No to Death’, ch. XLV) — Барт подошел к двери... и окинул взглядом дремавшие больничные корпуса. "Тихо, как на кладбище".
-
123 Field, Cyrus West
SUBJECT AREA: Telecommunications[br]b. 30 November 1819 Stockbridge, Massachusetts, USAd. 12 July 1892 New York City, New York, USA[br]American financier and entrepreneur noted for his successful promotion of the first transatlantic telegraph cable.[br]At the age of 15 Field left home to seek his fortune in New York, starting work on Broadway as an errand boy for $1 per week. Returning to Massachusetts, in 1838 he became an assistant to his brother Matthew, a paper-maker, leaving to set up his own business two years later. By the age of 21 he was also a partner in a New York firm of paper wholesalers, but this firm collapsed because of large debts. Out of the wreckage he set up Cyrus W.Field \& Co., and by 1852 he had paid off all the debts. With $250,000 in the bank he therefore retired and travelled in South America. Returning to the USA, he then became involved with the construction of a telegraph line in Newfoundland by an English engineer, F.N. Osborne. Although the company collapsed, he had been fired by the dream of a transatlantic cable and in 1854 was one of the founders of the New York, Newfoundland and London Telegraph Company. He began to promote surveys and hold discussions with British telegraph pioneers and with Isambard Brunel, who was then building the Great Eastern steamship. In 1856 he helped to set up the Atlantic Telegraph Company in Britain and, as a result of his efforts and those of the British physicist and inventor Sir William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), work began in 1857 on the laying of the first transatlantic cable from Newfoundland to Ireland. After many tribulations the cable was completed on 5 August 1857, but it failed after barely a month. Following several unsuccessful attempts to repair and replace it, the cable was finally completed on 27 July 1866. Building upon his success, Field expanded his business interests. In 1877 he bought a controlling interest in and was President of the New York Elevated Railroad Company. He also helped develop the Wabash Railroad and became owner of the New York Mail and Express newspaper; however, he subsequently suffered large financial losses.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsCongressional Gold Medal.Further ReadingA.C.Clarke, 1958, Voice Across the Sea, London: Frederick Muller (describes the development of the transatlantic telegraph).H.M.Field, 1893, Story of the Atlantic Telegraph (also describes the transatlantic telegraph development).L.J.Judson (ed.), 1893, Cyrus W.Field: His Life and Work (a complete biography).KF -
124 Pilcher, Percy Sinclair
SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace[br]b. 16 January 1867 Bath, Englandd. 2 October 1899 Stanford Hall, Northamptonshire, England[br]English designer and glider aeronaut.[br]He was educated at HMS Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, from 1880 to 1882. He sailed on HMS Duke of Wellington, Agincourt, Northampton and other ships and resigned from the navy on 18 April 187 after seven years at sea. In June 1887 he was apprenticed at Randolph, Elder \& Co.'s shipyard at Govan, and was then an apprentice moulder at Cairn \& Co., Glasgow. For some time he "studied" at London University (though there is no official record of his doing so) while living with his sister at Phillbeck Gardens, South Kensington. In May 1890 he was working for John H.Biles, Manager of the Southampton Naval Works Ltd. Biles was later appointed Professor of Naval Architecture at Glasgow University with Pilcher as his Assistant Lecturer. In 1895 he was building his first glider, the Bat, which was built mainly of Riga pine and weighed 44 lb (20 kg). In succeeding months he travelled to Lichterfelde to study the gliders made by the German Lilienthal and built a further three machines, the Beetle, the Gull and the Hawk. In 1896 he applied for his only aeronautical patent, for "Improved flying and soaring machines", which was accepted on March 1897. In April 1896 he resigned his position at Glasgow University to become Assistant to Sir Hiram Maxim, who was also doing experiments with flying machines at his Nordenfeld Guns and Ammunition Co. Ltd at Crayford. He took up residence in Artillery Mansions, Victoria Street, later taken over by Vickers Ltd. Maxim had a hangar at Upper Lodge Farm, Austin Eynsford, Kent: using this, Pilcher reached a height of 12 ft (3.66m) in 1899 with a cable launch. He planned to build a 2 hp (1.5 kW) petrol engine In September 1899 he went to stay with Lord Braye at Stanford Hall, Northamptonshire, where many people came to see his flying machine, a triplane. The weather was far from ideal, windy and raining, but Pilcher would not disappoint them. A bracing wire broke, the tail collapsed and the pilot crashed to the ground suffering two broken legs and concussion. He did not regain consciousness and died the following day. He was buried in Brompton Cemetery.[br]Bibliography1896, British patent no. 9144 "Improved flying and soaring machines".Further ReadingP.Jarrett, 1987, Another Icarus. Percy Pilcher and the Quest for Flight, Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.A.Welch and L.Welch, 1965, The Story of Gliding, London: John Murray.IMcNBiographical history of technology > Pilcher, Percy Sinclair
-
125 Smith, Sir Francis Pettit
SUBJECT AREA: Ports and shipping[br]b. 9 February 1808 Copperhurst Farm, near Hythe, Kent, Englandd. 12 February 1874 South Kensington, London, England[br]English inventor of the screw propeller.[br]Smith was the only son of Charles Smith, Postmaster at Hythe, and his wife Sarah (née Pettit). After education at a private school in Ashford, Kent, he took to farming, first on Romney Marsh, then at Hendon, Middlesex. As a boy, he showed much skill in the construction of model boats, especially in devising their means of propulsion. He maintained this interest into adult life and in 1835 he made a model propelled by a screw driven by a spring. This worked so well that he became convinced that the screw propeller offered a better method of propulsion than the paddle wheels that were then in general use. This notion so fired his enthusiasm that he virtually gave up farming to devote himself to perfecting his invention. The following year he produced a better model, which he successfully demonstrated to friends on his farm at Hendon and afterwards to the public at the Adelaide Gallery in London. On 31 May 1836 Smith was granted a patent for the propulsion of vessels by means of a screw.The idea of screw propulsion was not new, however, for it had been mooted as early as the seventeenth century and since then several proposals had been advanced, but without successful practical application. Indeed, simultaneously but quite independently of Smith, the Swedish engineer John Ericsson had invented the ship's propeller and obtained a patent on 13 July 1836, just weeks after Smith. But Smith was completely unaware of this and pursued his own device in the belief that he was the sole inventor.With some financial and technical backing, Smith was able to construct a 10 ton boat driven by a screw and powered by a steam engine of about 6 hp (4.5 kW). After showing it off to the public, Smith tried it out at sea, from Ramsgate round to Dover and Hythe, returning in stormy weather. The screw performed well in both calm and rough water. The engineering world seemed opposed to the new method of propulsion, but the Admiralty gave cautious encouragement in 1839 by ordering that the 237 ton Archimedes be equipped with a screw. It showed itself superior to the Vulcan, one of the fastest paddle-driven ships in the Navy. The ship was put through its paces in several ports, including Bristol, where Isambard Kingdom Brunel was constructing his Great Britain, the first large iron ocean-going vessel. Brunel was so impressed that he adapted his ship for screw propulsion.Meanwhile, in spite of favourable reports, the Admiralty were dragging their feet and ordered further trials, fitting Smith's four-bladed propeller to the Rattler, then under construction and completed in 1844. The trials were a complete success and propelled their lordships of the Admiralty to a decision to equip twenty ships with screw propulsion, under Smith's supervision.At last the superiority of screw propulsion was generally accepted and virtually universally adopted. Yet Smith gained little financial reward for his invention and in 1850 he retired to Guernsey to resume his farming life. In 1860 financial pressures compelled him to accept the position of Curator of Patent Models at the Patent Museum in South Kensington, London, a post he held until his death. Belated recognition by the Government, then headed by Lord Palmerston, came in 1855 with the grant of an annual pension of £200. Two years later Smith received unofficial recognition when he was presented with a national testimonial, consisting of a service of plate and nearly £3,000 in cash subscribed largely by the shipbuilding and engineering community. Finally, in 1871 Smith was honoured with a knighthood.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsKnighted 1871.Further ReadingObituary, 1874, Illustrated London News (7 February).1856, On the Invention and Progress of the Screw Propeller, London (provides biographical details).Smith and his invention are referred to in papers in Transactions of the Newcomen Society, 14 (1934): 9; 19 (1939): 145–8, 155–7, 161–4, 237–9.LRDBiographical history of technology > Smith, Sir Francis Pettit
См. также в других словарях:
sea lord — noun : one of those lords commissioners of admiralty having direct charge of naval matters under the first lord of the admiralty and including the chief of naval staff with his deputy and assistant, the chief of naval personnel, the controller,… … Useful english dictionary
Sea Lord — noun either of two senior officers in the Royal Navy (First Sea Lord, Second Sea Lord) serving originally as members of the Admiralty Board (now of the Ministry of Defence) … English new terms dictionary
Sea Lord — n either of two senior admirals (the First and Second Sea Lords) who are responsible for the training, equipment, etc. of the British Royal Navy. * * * … Universalium
sea lord — n. one of the two most senior serving naval officers on the Admiralty Board of the British Ministry of Defense … English contemporary dictionary
Second Sea Lord — Amirauté (Royaume Uni) Pour les articles homonymes, voir Amirauté. L ancien batiment de l amirauté à Londres. L amirauté (en anglais, Admiralty) est l organ … Wikipédia en Français
Third Sea Lord — Le Third Sea Lord and Controller of the Navy était un Naval Lord et membre du Board of Admiralty responsable du procurement et du matériel dans la Royal Navy. Le titre de cette charge est Controller of the Navy (CofN), et le Controller of the… … Wikipédia en Français
Second Sea Lord — The Second Sea Lord and Commander in Chief Naval Home Command (2SL/CNH), commonly just known as the Second Sea Lord (2SL), is one of the most senior admirals of the British Royal Navy (after the First Sea Lord and the Commander in Chief Fleet),… … Wikipedia
Third Sea Lord — The Third Sea Lord and Controller of the Navy was formerly the Naval Lord and member of the Board of Admiralty responsible for procurement and matériel in the British Royal Navy. The title of the office is now simply Controller of the Navy (CofN) … Wikipedia
First Sea Lord — The First Sea Lord is the professional head of the Royal Navy and the whole Naval Service. He also holds the title of Chief of Naval Staff and is known by the abbreviations 1SL/CNS. The current First Sea Lord is Admiral Sir Jonathon Band… … Wikipedia
First Sea Lord — Le First Sea Lord (« Premier Seigneur de la Mer ») ou « 1SL » est le titre du commandant général de la Royal Navy et de tous les services de la marine britannique. Il détient aussi le titre de Chef d État Major de la Marine… … Wikipédia en Français
Fourth Sea Lord — The Fourth Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Supplies was formerly one of the Naval Lords and members of the Board of Admiralty which controlled the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom.The Fourth Sea Lord as Chief of Naval Supplies was responsible for… … Wikipedia
