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  • 1 простое изобретение

    Русско-английский словарь по патентам и товарным знакам > простое изобретение

  • 2 простое изобретение

    Универсальный русско-английский словарь > простое изобретение

  • 3 Lee, Revd William

    SUBJECT AREA: Textiles
    [br]
    d. c. 1615
    [br]
    English inventor of the first knitting machine, called the stocking frame.
    [br]
    It would seem that most of the stories about Lee's invention of the stocking frame cannot be verified by any contemporary evidence, and the first written accounts do not appear until the second half of the seventeenth century. The claim that he was Master of Arts from St John's College, Cambridge, was first made in 1607 but cannot be checked because the records have not survived. The date for the invention of the knitting machine as being 1589 was made at the same time, but again there is no supporting evidence. There is no evidence that Lee was Vicar of Calverton, nor that he was in Holy Orders at all. Likewise there is no evidence for the existence of the woman, whether she was girlfriend, fiancée or wife, who is said to have inspired the invention, and claims regarding the involvement of Queen Elizabeth I and her refusal to grant a patent because the stockings were wool and not silk are also without contemporary foundation. Yet the first known reference shows that Lee was the inventor of the knitting machine, for the partnership agreement between him and George Brooke dated 6 June 1600 states that "William Lee hath invented a very speedy manner of making works usually wrought by knitting needles as stockings, waistcoats and such like". This agreement was to last for twenty-two years, but terminated prematurely when Brooke was executed for high treason in 1603. Lee continued to try and exploit his invention, for in 1605 he described himself as "Master of Arts" when he petitioned the Court of Aldermen of the City of London as the first inventor of an engine to make silk stockings. In 1609 the Weavers' Company of London recorded Lee as "a weaver of silk stockings by engine". These petitions suggest that he was having difficulty in establishing his invention, which may be why in 1612 there is a record of him in Rouen, France, where he hoped to have better fortune. If he had been invited there by Henry IV, his hopes were dashed by the assassination of the king soon afterwards. He was to supply four knitting machines, and there is further evidence that he was in France in 1615, but it is thought that he died in that country soon afterwards.
    The machine Lee invented was probably the most complex of its day, partly because the need to use silk meant that the needles were very fine. Henson (1970) in 1831 took five pages in his book to describe knitting on a stocking frame which had over 2,066 pieces. To knit a row of stitches took eleven separate stages, and great care and watchfulness were required to ensure that all the loops were equal and regular. This shows how complex the machines were and points to Lee's great achievement in actually making one. The basic principles of its operation remained unaltered throughout its extraordinarily long life, and a few still remained in use commercially in the early 1990s.
    [br]
    Further Reading
    J.T.Millington and S.D.Chapman (eds), 1989, Four Centuries of Machine Knitting, Commemorating William Lee's Invention of the Stocking Frame in 1589, Leicester (N.Harte examines the surviving evidence for the life of William Lee and this must be considered as the most up-to-date biographical information).
    Dictionary of National Biography (this contains only the old stories).
    Earlier important books covering Lee's life and invention are G.Henson, 1970, History of the Framework Knitters, reprint, Newton Abbot (orig. pub. 1831); and W.Felkin, 1967, History of the Machine-wrought Hosiery and Lace Manufactures, reprint, Newton Abbot (orig. pub. 1867).
    M.Palmer, 1984, Framework Knitting, Aylesbury (a simple account of the mechanism of the stocking frame).
    R.L.Hills, "William Lee and his knitting machine", Journal of the Textile Institute 80(2) (a more detailed account).
    M.Grass and A.Grass, 1967, Stockings for a Queen. The Life of William Lee, the Elizabethan Inventor, London.
    RLH

    Biographical history of technology > Lee, Revd William

  • 4 Monro, Philip Peter

    SUBJECT AREA: Chemical technology
    [br]
    b. 27 May 1946 London, England
    [br]
    English biologist, inventor of a water-purification process by osmosis.
    [br]
    Monro's whole family background is engineering, an interest he did not share. Instead, he preferred biology, an enthusiasm aroused by reading the celebrated Science of Life by H.G. and G.P.Wells and Julian Huxley. Educated at a London comprehensive school, Monro found it necessary to attend evening classes while at school to take his advanced level science examinations. Lacking parental support, he could not pursue a degree course until he was 21 years old, and so he gained valuable practical experience as a research technician. He resumed his studies and took a zoology degree at Portsmouth Polytechnic. He then worked in a range of zoology and medical laboratories, culminating after twelve years as a Senior Experimental Officer at Southampton Medical School. In 1989 he relinquished his post to devote himself fall time to developing his inventions as Managing Director of Hampshire Advisory and Technical Services Ltd (HATS). Also in 1988 he obtained his PhD from Southampton University, in the field of embryology.
    Monro had meanwhile been demonstrating a talent for invention, mainly in microscopy. His most important invention, however, is of a water-purification system. The idea for it came from Michael Wilson of the Institute of Dental Surgery in London, who evolved a technique for osmotic production of sterile oral rehydration solutions, of particular use in treating infants suffering from diarrhoea in third-world countries. Monro broadened the original concept to include dried food, intravenous solutions and even dried blood. The process uses simple equipment and no external power and works as follows: a dry sugar/salts mixture is sealed in one compartment of a double bag, the common wall of which is a semipermeable membrane. Impure water is placed in the empty compartment and the water transfers across the membrane by the osmotic force of the sugar/salts. As the pores in the membrane exclude all viruses, bacteria and their toxins, a sterile solution is produced.
    With the help of a research fellowship granted for humanitarian reasons at King Alfred College, Winchester, the invention was developed to functional prototype stage in 1993, with worldwide patent protection. Commercial production was expected to follow, if sufficient financial backing were forthcoming. The process is not intended to replace large installations, but will revolutionize the small-scale production of sterile water in scattered third-world communities and in disaster areas where normal services have been disrupted.
    HATS was awarded First Prize in the small business category and was overall prize winner in the Toshiba Year of Invention, received a NatWest/BP award for technology and a Prince of Wales Award for Innovation.
    [br]
    Bibliography
    1993, with M.Wilson and W.A.M.Cutting, "Osmotic production of sterile oral rehydration solutions", Tropical Doctor 23:69–72.
    LRD

    Biographical history of technology > Monro, Philip Peter

  • 5 sofisticado

    adj.
    1 sophisticated, high-end, complex.
    2 sophisticated, fancy, lacking naiveté, worldly-wise.
    past part.
    past participle of spanish verb: sofisticar.
    * * *
    1→ link=sofisticar sofisticar
    1 sophisticated
    * * *
    (f. - sofisticada)
    adj.
    * * *
    ADJ
    1) [persona, gesto] sophisticated
    2) (=afectado) pey affected
    * * *
    - da adjetivo sophisticated
    * * *
    = glamorous, sophisticated, slick, glorified, stylish, licked, sophisticate, glam.
    Nota: Abreviatura de glamorous.
    Ex. Service is perhaps not a very glamorous concept, but we are nevertheless a service profession = El servicio quizás no es un concepto muy atractivo, pero no obstante somos una profesión dedicada al servicio.
    Ex. Effective retrieval from natural language indexed data bases requires sophisticated search software.
    Ex. Whether conceived as a bookmark, newspaper tabloid, balloon, slick booklet, or some other format, the client-directed annual report conveys not only the information itself but also the intent to focus on the client's interest.
    Ex. Some visual display units are no more than glorified television sets.
    Ex. A number of innovative initiatives have resulted in stylish new public libraries.
    Ex. Modern art is often characterized by its overt acknowledgement of materials and process, whereas the licked surface of academic art is perceived as a sympton of pre-modern concerns.
    Ex. No doubt to some sophisticates in the profession much of this will read like the re-invention of the wheel, or at least no more than applied common-sense.
    Ex. Ponytails are becoming glam, says the New York Times.
    ----
    * de forma sofisticada = sophisticatedly.
    * de manera sofisticada = sophisticatedly.
    * hacer más sofisticado = dumb up.
    * poco sofisticado = elementary, corn-fed.
    * * *
    - da adjetivo sophisticated
    * * *
    = glamorous, sophisticated, slick, glorified, stylish, licked, sophisticate, glam.
    Nota: Abreviatura de glamorous.

    Ex: Service is perhaps not a very glamorous concept, but we are nevertheless a service profession = El servicio quizás no es un concepto muy atractivo, pero no obstante somos una profesión dedicada al servicio.

    Ex: Effective retrieval from natural language indexed data bases requires sophisticated search software.
    Ex: Whether conceived as a bookmark, newspaper tabloid, balloon, slick booklet, or some other format, the client-directed annual report conveys not only the information itself but also the intent to focus on the client's interest.
    Ex: Some visual display units are no more than glorified television sets.
    Ex: A number of innovative initiatives have resulted in stylish new public libraries.
    Ex: Modern art is often characterized by its overt acknowledgement of materials and process, whereas the licked surface of academic art is perceived as a sympton of pre-modern concerns.
    Ex: No doubt to some sophisticates in the profession much of this will read like the re-invention of the wheel, or at least no more than applied common-sense.
    Ex: Ponytails are becoming glam, says the New York Times.
    * de forma sofisticada = sophisticatedly.
    * de manera sofisticada = sophisticatedly.
    * hacer más sofisticado = dumb up.
    * poco sofisticado = elementary, corn-fed.

    * * *
    1 ‹persona/lenguaje› sophisticated
    2 ‹sistema/tecnología› sophisticated
    * * *

    Del verbo sofisticar: ( conjugate sofisticar)

    sofisticado es:

    el participio

    Multiple Entries:
    sofisticado    
    sofisticar
    sofisticado
    ◊ -da adjetivo

    sophisticated
    sofisticado,-a adjetivo sophisticated
    sofisticar verbo transitivo to sophisticate

    ' sofisticado' also found in these entries:
    Spanish:
    sofisticada
    English:
    earthy
    - rude
    - simple
    - sophisticated
    - unsophisticated
    - glamorous
    - worldly
    * * *
    sofisticado, -a adj
    1. [refinado] sophisticated
    2. [complejo] sophisticated
    * * *
    adj sophisticated
    * * *
    sofisticado, -da adj
    : sophisticated

    Spanish-English dictionary > sofisticado

  • 6 Arsonval, Jacques Arsène d'

    SUBJECT AREA: Medical technology
    [br]
    b. 8 June 1851 Boric, France
    d. 31 December 1940 Boric, France
    [br]
    French physician and physicist noted for his invention of the reflecting galvanometer and for contributions to electrotherapy.
    [br]
    After studies at colleges in Limoges and later in Paris, Arsonval became a doctor of medicine in 1877. In 1882 the Collège de France established a laboratory of biophysics with Arsonval as Director, and he was Professor from 1894.
    His most outstanding scientific contributions were in the field of biological applications of electricity. His interest in muscle currents led to a series of inventions to assist in research, including the moving-coil galvanometer. In 1881 he made a significant improvement to the galvanometer by reversing the magnetic elements. It had been usual to suspend a compass needle in the centre of a large, stationary coil, but Arsonval's invention was to suspend a small, light coil between the poles of a powerful fixed magnet. This simple arrangement was independent of the earth's magnetic field and insensitive to vibration. A great increase in sensitivity was achieved by attaching a mirror to the coil in order to reflect a spot of light. For bacterial-research purposes he designed the first constant-temperature incubator controlled by electricity. His experiments on the effects of high-frequency, low-voltage alternating currents on animals led to the first high-frequency heat-therapy unit being established in 1892, and later to methods of physiotherapy becoming a professional discipline.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    Académie des Sciences, Prix Montyon 1882. Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur 1884. Grand Cross 1931.
    Bibliography
    1882, Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Sciences 94:1347–50 (describes the galvanometer).
    1903, Traité de physique biologique, 2 vols, Paris (an account of his technological work).
    Further Reading
    C.C.Gillispie (ed.), 1970, Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Vol. 1, New York, pp. 302–5.
    D.O.Woodbury, 1949, A Measure for Greatness, New York.
    GW

    Biographical history of technology > Arsonval, Jacques Arsène d'

  • 7 Dalen, Nils Gustav

    [br]
    b. 30 November 1869 Stenstorp, Sweden
    d. 9 December 1937 Stockholm, Sweden
    [br]
    Swedish physicist and engineer who was awarded the Nobel Prize for his "sun valve".
    [br]
    Nils Gustav Dalen is probably best known as the inventor of the solid-fuel Aga Cooker. He was confined at home for some time in the 1920s, having been blinded as the result of an accident, and found the time to consider the need for an efficient, clean, attractive-looking cooker that would be economical in fuel consumption. The resultant cooking range of 1924 was based on sound scientific principles, was simple to manage and needed a minimum of attention.
    The first Aga contained a cast-iron firebox enclosed in an insulated jacket of kieselguhr. The firebox was connected to cast-iron hotplates and ovens, all designed so that the heat was conducted to the various parts at precisely the correct temperatures for all types of cooking: simmering, boiling, roasting, baking and grilling. The hotplate heat was maintained at the desired temperature by way of insulated hinged covers that were lifted only when the hotplate was in use. The Aga was made in Sweden and was introduced into Britain in 1929. It was noted for being costly to purchase but inexpensive to run as no energy was wasted.
    Dalen is also known for his invention of the "sun valve", a device which, as required, automatically lighted or extinguished light beacons and buoys; this invention brought him the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1912.
    DY

    Biographical history of technology > Dalen, Nils Gustav

  • 8 Keller, Friedrich Gottlieb

    SUBJECT AREA: Paper and printing
    [br]
    b. 27 June 1818 Hainichen, Saxony, Germany
    d. 8 September 1895 Krippen, Bad Schandau, Germany
    [br]
    German inventor of wood-pulp paper.
    [br]
    The son of a master weaver, he originally wished to become an engineer, but while remaining in the parental home he had to follow his father's trade in the textile industry, becoming a master weaver himself in 1839 at Hainichen. He was a good observer and a keen model maker. It was at this stage, in the early 1840s, that he began experimenting with a new material for papermaking. Until then the raw material had been waste rag from the textile industry, but the ever-increasing demands of the mechanical printing presses, especially those producing newspapers, were beginning to outstrip supply. Keller tried using pine wood ground with a wet grindstone. The mass of fibres that resulted was then heated with water to form a thick brew which he then strained through a cloth. By this means Keller obtained a pulp that could be used for papermaking. He constructed a simple grinding machine that could disintegrate the wood without splinters; this was used to make paper in the Altchemnitzer paper mill, and the newspaper Frankenberger Intelligenz-und Wochenblatt was the first to be printed on wood-pulp paper. Keller could not secure state funds to promote his invention, so he approached an expert in papermaking, Heinrich Voelter, Technical Director of the Vereinigten Bautzener Papierfabrik. Voelter put up 700 thaler, and in August 1845 the state of Saxony granted a patent in both their names. In 1848 the first practical machine for grinding wood was produced, but four years later the patent expired. Unfortunately Keller could not afford the renewal fee, and it was Voelter who developed the process of wood-pulp papermaking under his own name, leaving Keller behind. Without this invention, the output of paper from the mills could not have kept pace with the demands of the printing industry, and the mass readership that these technological developments made possible could not have been served. It is no fault of Keller's that wood-pulp paper contains within itself the seeds of its own deterioration and ultimate destruction, presenting librarians of today with an intractable problem of preservation. Keller's part in this technical breakthrough is established in his "ideas" notebook covering the years 1841 and 1842, preserved in the museum at Hainichen.
    [br]
    Further Reading
    Neue deutsche Biographie. VDI Zeitschrift, Vol. 39, p. 1,238.
    "EineErfindungvon Weltruf", 1969, VDI Nachrichten. Vol. 29, p. 18.
    Clapperton, History ofPapermaking Through the Ages (provides details of the development of wood-pulp papermaking in its historical context).
    LRD

    Biographical history of technology > Keller, Friedrich Gottlieb

  • 9 трудный

    difficult, hard
    •... является далеко не таким трудным, как предполагалось первоначально. -... is much less troublesome than one would at first suppose.
    • Более трудным и тонким соотношением является... - A more difficult and subtle relation is...
    • В этой главе не делалось попыток обсудить очень трудную проблему... - In this chapter no attempt has been made to discuss the very difficult problem of...
    • Данное открытие было бы трудным, если вообще невозможным, до изобретения... - This discovery would have difficult, if not impossible, before the invention of...
    • Действительно, особенно трудным является... - In fact, it is particularly difficult to...
    • Его/ее точный смысл достаточно труден для понимания. - The precise meaning of this is rather difficult to grasp.
    • Известно, что эта задача является достаточно трудной, хотя... - This problem is known to be quite difficult, although...
    • Интересные, но трудные вопросы возникают, когда... - Interesting but difficult questions arise when...
    • Кажется довольно трудным определить... - It seems rather difficult to determine...
    • Мы стоим перед трудным выбором решения, как... - We were faced with a difficult choice in deciding how to...
    • Несколько более трудный пример предоставляется... - A more difficult example is provided by...
    • Обычно это трудная задача. - This is usually a tricky problem.
    • Обычно это трудный процесс. - This is usually a difficult operation.
    • Однако доказательство данной гипотезы трудное, потому что... - However, proof of this hypothesis is difficult because...
    • Проблема становится более трудной, когда... - The problem is more difficult when...
    • С этими уравнениями обращаться несколько труднее, поскольку... - These equations are somewhat more difficult to deal with because...
    • Строгий анализ становится значительно более трудным, когда... - A rigorous analysis becomes much more difficult when...
    • Так как эта задача трудна для аналитического решения,... - Since the problem is hard to solve analytically,...
    • Точное вычисление выражения (10) было бы трудным. - A precise evaluation of (10) would be difficult.
    • Эта задача особенно трудна в случае... - The problem is particularly severe in the case of...
    • Эта, казалось бы, трудная проблема оказывается относительно простой. - This seemingly difficult task turns out to be relatively simple.
    • Это делает трудным... - This makes it difficult to...
    • Это сложная теория, она трудна для понимания. - This theory is difficult to comprehend in simple terms.

    Русско-английский словарь научного общения > трудный

  • 10 Language

       Philosophy is written in that great book, the universe, which is always open, right before our eyes. But one cannot understand this book without first learning to understand the language and to know the characters in which it is written. It is written in the language of mathematics, and the characters are triangles, circles, and other figures. Without these, one cannot understand a single word of it, and just wanders in a dark labyrinth. (Galileo, 1990, p. 232)
       It never happens that it [a nonhuman animal] arranges its speech in various ways in order to reply appropriately to everything that may be said in its presence, as even the lowest type of man can do. (Descartes, 1970a, p. 116)
       It is a very remarkable fact that there are none so depraved and stupid, without even excepting idiots, that they cannot arrange different words together, forming of them a statement by which they make known their thoughts; while, on the other hand, there is no other animal, however perfect and fortunately circumstanced it may be, which can do the same. (Descartes, 1967, p. 116)
       Human beings do not live in the object world alone, nor alone in the world of social activity as ordinarily understood, but are very much at the mercy of the particular language which has become the medium of expression for their society. It is quite an illusion to imagine that one adjusts to reality essentially without the use of language and that language is merely an incidental means of solving specific problems of communication or reflection. The fact of the matter is that the "real world" is to a large extent unconsciously built on the language habits of the group.... We see and hear and otherwise experience very largely as we do because the language habits of our community predispose certain choices of interpretation. (Sapir, 1921, p. 75)
       It powerfully conditions all our thinking about social problems and processes.... No two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social reality. The worlds in which different societies live are distinct worlds, not merely the same worlds with different labels attached. (Sapir, 1985, p. 162)
       [A list of language games, not meant to be exhaustive:]
       Giving orders, and obeying them- Describing the appearance of an object, or giving its measurements- Constructing an object from a description (a drawing)Reporting an eventSpeculating about an eventForming and testing a hypothesisPresenting the results of an experiment in tables and diagramsMaking up a story; and reading itPlay actingSinging catchesGuessing riddlesMaking a joke; and telling it
       Solving a problem in practical arithmeticTranslating from one language into another
       LANGUAGE Asking, thanking, cursing, greeting, and praying-. (Wittgenstein, 1953, Pt. I, No. 23, pp. 11 e-12 e)
       We dissect nature along lines laid down by our native languages.... The world is presented in a kaleidoscopic flux of impressions which has to be organized by our minds-and this means largely by the linguistic systems in our minds.... No individual is free to describe nature with absolute impartiality but is constrained to certain modes of interpretation even while he thinks himself most free. (Whorf, 1956, pp. 153, 213-214)
       We dissect nature along the lines laid down by our native languages.
       The categories and types that we isolate from the world of phenomena we do not find there because they stare every observer in the face; on the contrary, the world is presented in a kaleidoscopic flux of impressions which has to be organized by our minds-and this means largely by the linguistic systems in our minds.... We are thus introduced to a new principle of relativity, which holds that all observers are not led by the same physical evidence to the same picture of the universe, unless their linguistic backgrounds are similar or can in some way be calibrated. (Whorf, 1956, pp. 213-214)
       9) The Forms of a Person's Thoughts Are Controlled by Unperceived Patterns of His Own Language
       The forms of a person's thoughts are controlled by inexorable laws of pattern of which he is unconscious. These patterns are the unperceived intricate systematizations of his own language-shown readily enough by a candid comparison and contrast with other languages, especially those of a different linguistic family. (Whorf, 1956, p. 252)
       It has come to be commonly held that many utterances which look like statements are either not intended at all, or only intended in part, to record or impart straightforward information about the facts.... Many traditional philosophical perplexities have arisen through a mistake-the mistake of taking as straightforward statements of fact utterances which are either (in interesting non-grammatical ways) nonsensical or else intended as something quite different. (Austin, 1962, pp. 2-3)
       In general, one might define a complex of semantic components connected by logical constants as a concept. The dictionary of a language is then a system of concepts in which a phonological form and certain syntactic and morphological characteristics are assigned to each concept. This system of concepts is structured by several types of relations. It is supplemented, furthermore, by redundancy or implicational rules..., representing general properties of the whole system of concepts.... At least a relevant part of these general rules is not bound to particular languages, but represents presumably universal structures of natural languages. They are not learned, but are rather a part of the human ability to acquire an arbitrary natural language. (Bierwisch, 1970, pp. 171-172)
       In studying the evolution of mind, we cannot guess to what extent there are physically possible alternatives to, say, transformational generative grammar, for an organism meeting certain other physical conditions characteristic of humans. Conceivably, there are none-or very few-in which case talk about evolution of the language capacity is beside the point. (Chomsky, 1972, p. 98)
       [It is] truth value rather than syntactic well-formedness that chiefly governs explicit verbal reinforcement by parents-which renders mildly paradoxical the fact that the usual product of such a training schedule is an adult whose speech is highly grammatical but not notably truthful. (R. O. Brown, 1973, p. 330)
       he conceptual base is responsible for formally representing the concepts underlying an utterance.... A given word in a language may or may not have one or more concepts underlying it.... On the sentential level, the utterances of a given language are encoded within a syntactic structure of that language. The basic construction of the sentential level is the sentence.
       The next highest level... is the conceptual level. We call the basic construction of this level the conceptualization. A conceptualization consists of concepts and certain relations among those concepts. We can consider that both levels exist at the same point in time and that for any unit on one level, some corresponding realizate exists on the other level. This realizate may be null or extremely complex.... Conceptualizations may relate to other conceptualizations by nesting or other specified relationships. (Schank, 1973, pp. 191-192)
       The mathematics of multi-dimensional interactive spaces and lattices, the projection of "computer behavior" on to possible models of cerebral functions, the theoretical and mechanical investigation of artificial intelligence, are producing a stream of sophisticated, often suggestive ideas.
       But it is, I believe, fair to say that nothing put forward until now in either theoretic design or mechanical mimicry comes even remotely in reach of the most rudimentary linguistic realities. (Steiner, 1975, p. 284)
       The step from the simple tool to the master tool, a tool to make tools (what we would now call a machine tool), seems to me indeed to parallel the final step to human language, which I call reconstitution. It expresses in a practical and social context the same understanding of hierarchy, and shows the same analysis by function as a basis for synthesis. (Bronowski, 1977, pp. 127-128)
        t is the language donn eґ in which we conduct our lives.... We have no other. And the danger is that formal linguistic models, in their loosely argued analogy with the axiomatic structure of the mathematical sciences, may block perception.... It is quite conceivable that, in language, continuous induction from simple, elemental units to more complex, realistic forms is not justified. The extent and formal "undecidability" of context-and every linguistic particle above the level of the phoneme is context-bound-may make it impossible, except in the most abstract, meta-linguistic sense, to pass from "pro-verbs," "kernals," or "deep deep structures" to actual speech. (Steiner, 1975, pp. 111-113)
       A higher-level formal language is an abstract machine. (Weizenbaum, 1976, p. 113)
       Jakobson sees metaphor and metonymy as the characteristic modes of binarily opposed polarities which between them underpin the two-fold process of selection and combination by which linguistic signs are formed.... Thus messages are constructed, as Saussure said, by a combination of a "horizontal" movement, which combines words together, and a "vertical" movement, which selects the particular words from the available inventory or "inner storehouse" of the language. The combinative (or syntagmatic) process manifests itself in contiguity (one word being placed next to another) and its mode is metonymic. The selective (or associative) process manifests itself in similarity (one word or concept being "like" another) and its mode is metaphoric. The "opposition" of metaphor and metonymy therefore may be said to represent in effect the essence of the total opposition between the synchronic mode of language (its immediate, coexistent, "vertical" relationships) and its diachronic mode (its sequential, successive, lineal progressive relationships). (Hawkes, 1977, pp. 77-78)
       It is striking that the layered structure that man has given to language constantly reappears in his analyses of nature. (Bronowski, 1977, p. 121)
       First, [an ideal intertheoretic reduction] provides us with a set of rules"correspondence rules" or "bridge laws," as the standard vernacular has it-which effect a mapping of the terms of the old theory (T o) onto a subset of the expressions of the new or reducing theory (T n). These rules guide the application of those selected expressions of T n in the following way: we are free to make singular applications of their correspondencerule doppelgangers in T o....
       Second, and equally important, a successful reduction ideally has the outcome that, under the term mapping effected by the correspondence rules, the central principles of T o (those of semantic and systematic importance) are mapped onto general sentences of T n that are theorems of Tn. (P. Churchland, 1979, p. 81)
       If non-linguistic factors must be included in grammar: beliefs, attitudes, etc. [this would] amount to a rejection of the initial idealization of language as an object of study. A priori such a move cannot be ruled out, but it must be empirically motivated. If it proves to be correct, I would conclude that language is a chaos that is not worth studying.... Note that the question is not whether beliefs or attitudes, and so on, play a role in linguistic behavior and linguistic judgments... [but rather] whether distinct cognitive structures can be identified, which interact in the real use of language and linguistic judgments, the grammatical system being one of these. (Chomsky, 1979, pp. 140, 152-153)
        23) Language Is Inevitably Influenced by Specific Contexts of Human Interaction
       Language cannot be studied in isolation from the investigation of "rationality." It cannot afford to neglect our everyday assumptions concerning the total behavior of a reasonable person.... An integrational linguistics must recognize that human beings inhabit a communicational space which is not neatly compartmentalized into language and nonlanguage.... It renounces in advance the possibility of setting up systems of forms and meanings which will "account for" a central core of linguistic behavior irrespective of the situation and communicational purposes involved. (Harris, 1981, p. 165)
       By innate [linguistic knowledge], Chomsky simply means "genetically programmed." He does not literally think that children are born with language in their heads ready to be spoken. He merely claims that a "blueprint is there, which is brought into use when the child reaches a certain point in her general development. With the help of this blueprint, she analyzes the language she hears around her more readily than she would if she were totally unprepared for the strange gabbling sounds which emerge from human mouths. (Aitchison, 1987, p. 31)
       Looking at ourselves from the computer viewpoint, we cannot avoid seeing that natural language is our most important "programming language." This means that a vast portion of our knowledge and activity is, for us, best communicated and understood in our natural language.... One could say that natural language was our first great original artifact and, since, as we increasingly realize, languages are machines, so natural language, with our brains to run it, was our primal invention of the universal computer. One could say this except for the sneaking suspicion that language isn't something we invented but something we became, not something we constructed but something in which we created, and recreated, ourselves. (Leiber, 1991, p. 8)

    Historical dictionary of quotations in cognitive science > Language

  • 11 llegar

    v.
    1 to arrive (to a place).
    llegar a un hotel/una ciudad to arrive at a hotel/in a city
    llegar a casa to get home
    ¿falta mucho para llegar o para que lleguemos? is there far to go?
    llegaré pronto I'll be there soon
    Ellos llegan tarde They arrive late.
    2 to come (time).
    cuando llegue el momento te enterarás you'll find out when the time comes
    ha llegado el invierno winter has arrived
    La oportunidad llegó The opportunity came.
    3 to be enough.
    4 to receive, to get, to be handed.
    Te llegó un carta You received a letter.
    5 to be the host for.
    Nos llegó mucha gente We were the host for a lot of people.
    6 to come to, to filter through to.
    Nos llegó la noticia The news filtered through to us.
    * * *
    (g changes to gu before e)
    Past Indicative
    llegué, llegaste, llegó, llegamos, llegasteis, llegaron.
    Present Subjunctive
    Imperative
    llega (tú), llegue (él/Vd.), lleguemos (nos.), llegad (vos.), lleguen (ellos/Vds.).
    * * *
    verb
    3) come
    •
    * * *
    Para las expresiones llegar al alma, llegar lejos, llegar a las manos, ver la otra entrada.
    1. VERBO INTRANSITIVO
    1) [movimiento, destino, procedencia] to arrive

    avíseme cuando llegue — tell me when he arrives {o} comes

    el vuelo llegará a las 14:15 — the flight gets in at 14:15

    llegará en tren/autobús — he will come by train/bus

    • llegar [a], cuando llegamos a Bilbao estaba lloviendo — when we got to {o} arrived in Bilbao it was raining

    ¿a qué hora llegaste a casa? — what time did you get home?

    • llegarle [a alguien], ¿te ha llegado ya el paquete? — have you got the parcel yet?

    •[estar] al llegar, Carlos debe de estar al llegar — Carlos should be arriving any minute now

    •[hacer] llegar algo a algn, hacer llegar una carta a algn — to send sb a letter

    ¿le puedes hacer llegar este recado? — could you give her this message?

    ¿le has hecho llegar el dinero? — did you get the money to her?

    santo
    2) (=alcanzar)
    a) [con las manos] to reach

    ¿me puedes quitar la cortina? yo no llego — could you take the curtain down for me? I can't reach

    b) [indicando distancia, nivel]

    esta cuerda no llega — this rope isn't long enough, this rope won't reach

    el tema de la película no me llega — the subject of the film does nothing for me {o} leaves me cold

    • llegar [a] {o} [hasta] — to come up to

    el vestido le llega hasta los pies — the dress comes {o} goes down to her feet

    la cola llegaba hasta la puerta — the queue went {o} reached back as far as the door

    • me llega al [corazón] ver tanto sufrimiento — seeing so much suffering touches me to the heart

    a tanto no llego —

    soy bastante inteligente pero a tanto no llego — I'm reasonably clever, but not enough to do that

    podría dejarle un millón, pero dos no, a tanto no llego — I might let her have a million, but not two, I'm not prepared to go as far as that

    camisa 1), suela 1)
    c) [indicando duración] to last

    el pobrecito no llegará a las Navidades — the poor thing won't make it to {o} last till Christmas

    le falta un año para llegar a la jubilación — he has a year to go till {o} before he retires

    3) llegar a ({+ sustantivo})
    a) (=conseguir) [+ acuerdo, conclusión] to reach, come to

    ¿cómo has conseguido llegar a la fama? — how did you manage to achieve fame {o} become famous?

    le costó pero llegó a arquitecto — it wasn't easy, but he eventually managed to become an architect

    b) [con cantidades] to come to

    los gastos totales llegaron a 1.000 euros — the total expenditure came to 1,000 euros

    la audiencia de este programa ha llegado a cinco millones — (Radio) as many as five million people have listened to this programme; (TV) the viewing figures for this programme have been as high as five million

    4) llegar a ({+ infin})
    a) (=conseguir)

    llegó a conocer a varios directores de cine — she met {o} got to know several film directors

    • si lo llego a [saber] — if I had known

    • llegar a [ser] famoso/el jefe — to become famous/the boss

    • llegar a [ver], no llegó a ver la película terminada — he never saw the film finished

    temí no llegar a ver el año nuevo — I feared I wouldn't live to see the new year, I feared I wouldn't make it to the new year

    b) [como algo extremo]

    llegué a estar tan mal, que casi no podía moverme — I got so bad, I could hardly move

    • puede llegar a [alcanzar] los 300km/h — it can reach speeds of up to 300km/h

    la popularidad que un actor puede llegar a alcanzar a través de la televisión — the popularity an actor can come to attain from being on television

    • ¿llegó a [creer] que sería campeón del mundo? — did you ever believe you'd be world champion?

    yo había llegado a creer que estábamos en el camino de superar ese problema — I had really started to believe that we were on the way to overcoming that problem

    • llegó al [punto] de robarle — he even went so far as to rob her

    5) (=bastar) to be enough

    •[hacer] llegar el sueldo a fin de mes — to make ends meet

    6) [momento, acontecimiento] to come
    2.
    VERBO TRANSITIVO (=acercar) to bring up, bring over
    3.
    See:
    LLEGAR Llegar a A la hora de traducir llegar a al inglés, tenemos que diferenciar entre arrive in y arrive at. ► Empleamos arrive in con países, ciudades, pueblos {etc}: Esperamos llegar a Italia el día 11 de junio We expect to arrive in Italy on 11 June Llegaremos a Córdoba dentro de dos horas We'll be arriving in Cordoba in two hours' time ► En cambio, se traduce por arrive at cuando nos referimos a lugares más pequeños, como aeropuertos, estaciones, {etc}. La expresión llegar a casa es una excepción, ya que se traduce por arrive/ get home, es decir, sin preposición: Llegamos al aeropuerto con cuatro horas de retraso We arrived at the airport four hours late Llegué a casa completamente agotada I arrived home completely exhausted Para otros usos y ejemplos ver la entrada
    * * *
    1.
    verbo intransitivo
    1) persona/tren/carta to arrive

    tienen que estar por or al llegar — they'll be arriving any minute now

    ¿falta mucho para llegar? — is it much further (to go)?

    llegar a — a país/ciudad to arrive in; a edificio to arrive at

    llegar a casa — to arrive o get home

    ¿adónde quieres llegar? — what do you mean?

    2)
    a) camino/ruta ( extenderse)

    llegar hasta — to go all the way to, go as far as

    b) (ir)

    llegar a or hasta: este tren no llega hasta or a Lima this train doesn't go as far as o all the way to Lima; sólo llega al tercer piso — it only goes (up) to the third floor

    3) día/invierno to come, arrive

    ha llegado el momento de... — the time has come to...

    4)
    a) ( alcanzar) to reach

    llegar a algo — a acuerdo to reach something

    llegué a la conclusión de que... — I reached o came to the conclusion that...

    b) (Esp) dinero/materiales ( ser suficiente) to be enough
    c) (alcanzar a medir, costar, etc)

    llegará lejos — she'll go far o a long way

    ¿llegó a saberlo? — did she ever find out?

    5) llegar a + inf

    llegué a pensar que... — I even began to think that...

    las cosas han llegado a tal punto que... — things have reached such a point that...

    si lo llego a saber, no vengo — if I'd known, I wouldn't have come

    si llego a enterarme de algo, te aviso — if I happen to hear anything, I'll let you know

    6) estilo/música (ser entendido, aceptado)
    2.
    llegarse v pron (fam)
    * * *
    = arrive, drop, turn up, come in, come, come to + Posesivo + attention, come with, roll in.
    Ex. The time has arrived when it is more appropriate to ask why cataloguing is still conducted on a manual basis, rather than to seek to justify the use of computers in cataloguing.
    Ex. The search profile will only be modified periodically as the quality of the set of notifications output from the search drops to unacceptable levels.
    Ex. Results showed that many users turn up at the library with only a sketcky idea of what they would like and spend much time browsing.
    Ex. Their duty is to come in before school each morning and check that the book checking system is in order and that the library is tidy and presentable.
    Ex. This article urges children's librarians to attack 'aliteracy' (lack of a desire to read) as well as illiteracy by taking programmes, e.g. story hours, to children who do not come to libraries.
    Ex. Information vital to certain people might not come to their attention if such people must rely only upon regular scanning of large numbers of periodicals.
    Ex. The problem comes with ideographic languages.
    Ex. With the summer rolling in, many of you might be looking for instructions on how to make fresh iced tea.
    ----
    * al llegar = on arrival.
    * cortar llegando al hueso = cut to + the bone.
    * cuando llegue la hora = when the time comes.
    * día + estar por llegar = day + be + yet to come.
    * estar aún por llegar = be yet to come.
    * haber llegado = be upon us.
    * hacer + Nombre + llegar hasta aquí = get + Nombre + this far.
    * hasta donde llegue = to the limits of.
    * llegar a = come to, reach, reach out to, find + Posesivo + way to, get through to, come up to, pull into, strike + a chord with.
    * llegar a acuerdo = make + arrangements.
    * llegar a casa = get + home.
    * llegar a esperar = come to + expect.
    * llegar a final de mes = make + ends meet.
    * llegar a formar parte de = find + Posesivo + way into/onto.
    * llegar a + Infinitivo = come to + Infinitivo.
    * llegar a + Infinitivo + se = come to be + Participio Pasado.
    * llegar a la conclusión = conclude, form + impression.
    * llegar a la conclusión de que = come to + the conclusion that, come up with + the conclusion that, get + the idea that.
    * llegar al corazón de = go to + the heart of.
    * llegar al extremo de = get to + the point of, go to + the extreme of.
    * llegar al extremo de + Infinitivo = go + (as/so) far as + Infinitivo.
    * llegar al final de = come to + the end of, get through.
    * llegar al final de su vida útil = come to + the end of + Posesivo + useful life, reach + the end of + Posesivo + useful life.
    * llegar al fondo de la cuestión = see to the + bottom of things.
    * llegar al fondo de una Cuestión = get to + the bottom of.
    * llegar al fondo de una Cuestión = get to + the root of.
    * llegar al límite = reach + the breaking point.
    * llegar al límite de + Posesivo + capacidad = stretch + Nombre + beyond the breaking point, stretch + Nombre + to breaking point, stretch + Nombre + to the limit.
    * llegar al meollo de la cuestión = arrive at + the heart of the matter.
    * llegar al punto álgido = reach + a head.
    * llegar al punto crítico = come to + a head.
    * llegar al punto de = be at the point of.
    * llegar al punto de + Infinitivo = go + (as/so) far as + Infinitivo.
    * llegar al quid de la cuestión = arrive at + the heart of the matter.
    * llegar a + Lugar = make + it + to + Lugar.
    * llegar andando pausadamente = stroll into + view.
    * llegar a ser = become, develop into.
    * llegar a ser conocido como = become + known as.
    * llegar a su fin = wind down, draw to + a close, draw to + an end.
    * llegar a tiempo = arrive + in time, arrive + on time.
    * llegar a todas partes = reach + far and wide, extend + far and wide, stretch + far and wide.
    * llegar a todos lados = extend + far and wide, reach + far and wide, stretch + far and wide.
    * llegar a una conclusión = draw + conclusion, make + deduction, reach + conclusion, arrive at + conclusion.
    * llegar a un acuerdo = conclude + agreement, reach + agreement, make + an undertaking, make + bargain, come to + consensus, reach + understanding, have + meeting of the minds, reach + consensus, hammer out + agreement, develop + compromise, work out + agreement, strike + deal, conclude + deal.
    * llegar a una decisión = arrive at + decision.
    * llegar a una definición = hammer out + definition.
    * llegar a una etapa = reach + point.
    * llegar a una solución = arrive at + a solution.
    * llegar a una solución intermedia = meet + Nombre + halfway.
    * llegar a un compromiso = reach + agreement, meet + Nombre + halfway.
    * llegar a un consenso = come to + consensus, reach + consensus.
    * llegar a un consenso sobre = get + a consensus on.
    * llegar a un extremo = reach + epic proportions.
    * llegar a un momento importante en su historia = reach + milestone.
    * llegar a un punto crítico = reach + turning point.
    * llegar a un veredicto = reach + verdict.
    * llegar demasiado lejos = go + too far.
    * llegar el momento en el que = reach + the point where.
    * llegar la hora de = time + come.
    * llegar lejos = get + far.
    * llegar más lejos = stretch + further.
    * llegar muy lejos = go + a long way, come + a long way.
    * llegar noticias = come to + Posesivo + notice.
    * llegar poco a poco = dribble in.
    * llegar tarde = arrive + late, run + late.
    * llegar tarde (a) = be late (for).
    * llegar tarde a casa = stay out + late.
    * llegar tarde al trabajo = be late for work.
    * lo mejor está aún por llegar = the best is yet to come.
    * momento + llegar = time + approach.
    * no haber llegado todavía = be yet to come.
    * no llegar a = stop + short of, fall + short of.
    * no llegar a entender = miss + the mark, miss + the point.
    * no llegar a + Infinitivo (con mucho) = fall (far) short of + Gerundio.
    * no llegar a un ideal = fall + short of ideal.
    * por fin llegó la hora (de) = it's about time (that).
    * recesión + llegar = recession + set in.
    * ser un medio para llegar a un fin = be the means to an end.
    * si se llega a un acuerdo = subject to + agreement.
    * un medio para llegar a fin = a means to an end.
    * * *
    1.
    verbo intransitivo
    1) persona/tren/carta to arrive

    tienen que estar por or al llegar — they'll be arriving any minute now

    ¿falta mucho para llegar? — is it much further (to go)?

    llegar a — a país/ciudad to arrive in; a edificio to arrive at

    llegar a casa — to arrive o get home

    ¿adónde quieres llegar? — what do you mean?

    2)
    a) camino/ruta ( extenderse)

    llegar hasta — to go all the way to, go as far as

    b) (ir)

    llegar a or hasta: este tren no llega hasta or a Lima this train doesn't go as far as o all the way to Lima; sólo llega al tercer piso — it only goes (up) to the third floor

    3) día/invierno to come, arrive

    ha llegado el momento de... — the time has come to...

    4)
    a) ( alcanzar) to reach

    llegar a algo — a acuerdo to reach something

    llegué a la conclusión de que... — I reached o came to the conclusion that...

    b) (Esp) dinero/materiales ( ser suficiente) to be enough
    c) (alcanzar a medir, costar, etc)

    llegará lejos — she'll go far o a long way

    ¿llegó a saberlo? — did she ever find out?

    5) llegar a + inf

    llegué a pensar que... — I even began to think that...

    las cosas han llegado a tal punto que... — things have reached such a point that...

    si lo llego a saber, no vengo — if I'd known, I wouldn't have come

    si llego a enterarme de algo, te aviso — if I happen to hear anything, I'll let you know

    6) estilo/música (ser entendido, aceptado)
    2.
    llegarse v pron (fam)
    * * *
    = arrive, drop, turn up, come in, come, come to + Posesivo + attention, come with, roll in.

    Ex: The time has arrived when it is more appropriate to ask why cataloguing is still conducted on a manual basis, rather than to seek to justify the use of computers in cataloguing.

    Ex: The search profile will only be modified periodically as the quality of the set of notifications output from the search drops to unacceptable levels.
    Ex: Results showed that many users turn up at the library with only a sketcky idea of what they would like and spend much time browsing.
    Ex: Their duty is to come in before school each morning and check that the book checking system is in order and that the library is tidy and presentable.
    Ex: This article urges children's librarians to attack 'aliteracy' (lack of a desire to read) as well as illiteracy by taking programmes, e.g. story hours, to children who do not come to libraries.
    Ex: Information vital to certain people might not come to their attention if such people must rely only upon regular scanning of large numbers of periodicals.
    Ex: The problem comes with ideographic languages.
    Ex: With the summer rolling in, many of you might be looking for instructions on how to make fresh iced tea.
    * al llegar = on arrival.
    * cortar llegando al hueso = cut to + the bone.
    * cuando llegue la hora = when the time comes.
    * día + estar por llegar = day + be + yet to come.
    * estar aún por llegar = be yet to come.
    * haber llegado = be upon us.
    * hacer + Nombre + llegar hasta aquí = get + Nombre + this far.
    * hasta donde llegue = to the limits of.
    * llegar a = come to, reach, reach out to, find + Posesivo + way to, get through to, come up to, pull into, strike + a chord with.
    * llegar a acuerdo = make + arrangements.
    * llegar a casa = get + home.
    * llegar a esperar = come to + expect.
    * llegar a final de mes = make + ends meet.
    * llegar a formar parte de = find + Posesivo + way into/onto.
    * llegar a + Infinitivo = come to + Infinitivo.
    * llegar a + Infinitivo + se = come to be + Participio Pasado.
    * llegar a la conclusión = conclude, form + impression.
    * llegar a la conclusión de que = come to + the conclusion that, come up with + the conclusion that, get + the idea that.
    * llegar al corazón de = go to + the heart of.
    * llegar al extremo de = get to + the point of, go to + the extreme of.
    * llegar al extremo de + Infinitivo = go + (as/so) far as + Infinitivo.
    * llegar al final de = come to + the end of, get through.
    * llegar al final de su vida útil = come to + the end of + Posesivo + useful life, reach + the end of + Posesivo + useful life.
    * llegar al fondo de la cuestión = see to the + bottom of things.
    * llegar al fondo de una Cuestión = get to + the bottom of.
    * llegar al fondo de una Cuestión = get to + the root of.
    * llegar al límite = reach + the breaking point.
    * llegar al límite de + Posesivo + capacidad = stretch + Nombre + beyond the breaking point, stretch + Nombre + to breaking point, stretch + Nombre + to the limit.
    * llegar al meollo de la cuestión = arrive at + the heart of the matter.
    * llegar al punto álgido = reach + a head.
    * llegar al punto crítico = come to + a head.
    * llegar al punto de = be at the point of.
    * llegar al punto de + Infinitivo = go + (as/so) far as + Infinitivo.
    * llegar al quid de la cuestión = arrive at + the heart of the matter.
    * llegar a + Lugar = make + it + to + Lugar.
    * llegar andando pausadamente = stroll into + view.
    * llegar a ser = become, develop into.
    * llegar a ser conocido como = become + known as.
    * llegar a su fin = wind down, draw to + a close, draw to + an end.
    * llegar a tiempo = arrive + in time, arrive + on time.
    * llegar a todas partes = reach + far and wide, extend + far and wide, stretch + far and wide.
    * llegar a todos lados = extend + far and wide, reach + far and wide, stretch + far and wide.
    * llegar a una conclusión = draw + conclusion, make + deduction, reach + conclusion, arrive at + conclusion.
    * llegar a un acuerdo = conclude + agreement, reach + agreement, make + an undertaking, make + bargain, come to + consensus, reach + understanding, have + meeting of the minds, reach + consensus, hammer out + agreement, develop + compromise, work out + agreement, strike + deal, conclude + deal.
    * llegar a una decisión = arrive at + decision.
    * llegar a una definición = hammer out + definition.
    * llegar a una etapa = reach + point.
    * llegar a una solución = arrive at + a solution.
    * llegar a una solución intermedia = meet + Nombre + halfway.
    * llegar a un compromiso = reach + agreement, meet + Nombre + halfway.
    * llegar a un consenso = come to + consensus, reach + consensus.
    * llegar a un consenso sobre = get + a consensus on.
    * llegar a un extremo = reach + epic proportions.
    * llegar a un momento importante en su historia = reach + milestone.
    * llegar a un punto crítico = reach + turning point.
    * llegar a un veredicto = reach + verdict.
    * llegar demasiado lejos = go + too far.
    * llegar el momento en el que = reach + the point where.
    * llegar la hora de = time + come.
    * llegar lejos = get + far.
    * llegar más lejos = stretch + further.
    * llegar muy lejos = go + a long way, come + a long way.
    * llegar noticias = come to + Posesivo + notice.
    * llegar poco a poco = dribble in.
    * llegar tarde = arrive + late, run + late.
    * llegar tarde (a) = be late (for).
    * llegar tarde a casa = stay out + late.
    * llegar tarde al trabajo = be late for work.
    * lo mejor está aún por llegar = the best is yet to come.
    * momento + llegar = time + approach.
    * no haber llegado todavía = be yet to come.
    * no llegar a = stop + short of, fall + short of.
    * no llegar a entender = miss + the mark, miss + the point.
    * no llegar a + Infinitivo (con mucho) = fall (far) short of + Gerundio.
    * no llegar a un ideal = fall + short of ideal.
    * por fin llegó la hora (de) = it's about time (that).
    * recesión + llegar = recession + set in.
    * ser un medio para llegar a un fin = be the means to an end.
    * si se llega a un acuerdo = subject to + agreement.
    * un medio para llegar a fin = a means to an end.

    * * *
    llegar [A3 ]
    vi
    A «persona/tren/carta» to arrive
    tienen que estar al llegar they'll be arriving any minute now
    ¿cuándo llegan tus primos? when are your cousins arriving?, when do your cousins arrive?
    ¿falta mucho para llegar? is it much further (to go)?
    ¿a qué hora llega el avión? what time does the plane arrive o get in?
    siempre llega tarde he's always late
    llegó (el) primero/(el) último he was the first/the last to arrive, he arrived first/last
    llegaron cansadísimos they were exhausted when they arrived
    no me llegó el telegrama I didn't get the telegram, the telegram didn't get to me o didn't reach me
    nos llega una noticia de última hora we have a late news item
    me hizo llegar un mensaje he got a message to me
    sus palabras me llegaban con mucho ruido de fondo there was a lot of background noise when I was talking to him
    llegar A (a un país, una ciudad) to arrive in; (a un edificio) to arrive at
    llegó a Bogotá en un vuelo de Avianca he arrived in Bogotá on an Avianca flight
    llegó al aeropuerto a las dos she arrived at o got to the airport at two o'clock
    el primer corredor que llegó a la meta the first runner to cross o reach the finishing line
    llegamos a casa a las dos we got o arrived home at two o'clock
    llegué a su casa de noche I got to o reached his house at night
    la carta nunca llegó a mis manos the letter never reached me
    el rumor llegó a oídos del alcalde the rumor reached the mayor
    ¿adónde quieres llegar con tantas preguntas? what are you getting at o driving at with all these questions?
    llegar DE to arrive from
    acaba de llegar de Hamburgo he's just arrived from o got(ten) ( o flown etc) in from Hamburg
    B
    1 «camino/ruta» (extenderse) llegar HASTA; to go all the way to, go as far as
    ahora la carretera llega hasta San Pedro the road goes all the way to o goes as far as San Pedro now
    2 (ir) llegar A/ HASTA:
    este autobús no llega hasta or a Las Torres this bus doesn't go as far as o all the way to Las Torres
    sólo llega al tercer piso it only goes (up) to the third floor
    C «día/invierno» to come, arrive
    el invierno llegó temprano winter came early
    cuando llegue la estación de las lluvias when the rainy season starts
    ha llegado el momento de tomar una decisión the time has come to make a decision
    pensé que nunca llegaría este momento I thought this moment would never come o arrive
    llegará el día en que se dé cuenta de su error the day will come when he'll realize his mistake
    cuando llegó la noche todavía estaban lejos when night fell o at nightfall they were still a long way away
    D
    1 (alcanzar) to reach
    no llego ni con la escalera I can't even reach with the ladder
    llegar A algo to reach sth
    tiene que subirse a una silla para llegar al estante he has to stand on a chair to reach the shelf
    las cosas han llegado a tal punto, que … things have got to o have reached such a point that …
    los pies no le llegan al suelo her feet don't touch the floor
    esa cuerda no llega al otro lado that rope won't reach to the other side
    la falda le llegaba a los tobillos her skirt came down to o reached her ankles
    su voz llegaba al fondo del teatro her voice carried to the back of the theater
    el agua le llegaba al cuello the water came up to her neck
    por ambos métodos llegamos al mismo resultado both methods lead us to the same result, we arrive at o reach the same result by both methods
    llegué a la conclusión de que me habías mentido I reached o came to the conclusion that you had been lying to me
    no se llegó a ningún acuerdo no agreement was reached
    sé algo de electrónica, pero a tanto no llego I know something about electronics but not that much o but my knowledge doesn't extend that far
    2 «dinero/materiales» (ser suficiente) to be enough
    con un kilo llega para todos a kilo's enough o a kilo will do for all of us
    no me llega el dinero I don't have enough money
    3
    (alcanzar a medir, costar, etc): este trozo de tela no llega a los dos metros this piece of material is less than two meters
    me sorprendería si llegara a tanto I'd be surprised if it came to that much o if it was as much as that
    no llegaban a 500 personas there weren't even 500 people there
    4
    (expresando logro): llegará lejos she'll go far o a long way
    como sigas así no vas a llegar a ningún lado if you carry on like this, you'll never get anywhere
    no creo que llegues a convencerme I don't think you'll manage to convince me
    quiero que llegues a ser alguien I want you to be someone o to make something of yourself
    nunca llegó a (ser) director he never became director, he never made it to director ( colloq)
    5
    (en el tiempo): este gobierno no llegará a las próximas elecciones this government won't survive till the next elections
    como sigas fumando así no llegarás a viejo if you go on smoking like that you won't live to old age
    con los años llegué a conocerlo mejor I got to know him better over the years
    ¿llegaste a verlo? did you manage o did you get to see it?
    ¿llegó a saber quién era su padre? did she ever find out who her father was?
    el invento puede llegar a ser de gran utilidad the invention could prove to be very useful
    E
    1 (como intensificador) llegar A + INF:
    llegó a amenazarme con el despido she even threatened to fire me, she went so far as to threaten to fire me
    llegué a pensar que me engañaba I even began to think he was deceiving me
    no llegó a pegarme, pero … he didn't actually hit me, but …
    llegó a aburrirme con sus constantes quejas I grew tired of o I got bored with his constant complaining
    puede incluso llegar a ganarle he might even beat him
    2
    (en oraciones condicionales): si lo llego a saber, no vengo if I'd known, I wouldn't have come
    si llego a enterarme de algo, te aviso if I happen to hear anything, I'll let you know
    si lo llegas a perder, te mato if you lose it, I'll kill you, if you go and lose it o if you manage to lose it, I'll kill you ( colloq)
    F
    «estilo/música» (ser entendido, aceptado): tiene un estilo que no llega a la gente people can't relate to o understand his style
    emplea un lenguaje que llega a la juventud he uses language that gets through to o means something to young people
    ( fam):
    llégate hasta su casa y dale este paquete run over to her house and give her this parcel ( colloq)
    llégate a la tienda y trae algo de beber run out o over to the store and get something to drink, nip o pop out to the shop and get something to drink ( BrE colloq)
    * * *

     

    llegar ( conjugate llegar) verbo intransitivo
    1 [persona/tren/carta] to arrive;
    tienen que estar por or al llegar they'll be arriving any minute now;

    ¿falta mucho para llegar? is it much further (to go)?;
    siempre llega tarde he's always late;
    no me llegó el telegrama I didn't get the telegram;
    llegar a algo ‹a país/ciudad› to arrive in sth;

    ‹ a edificio› to arrive at sth;
    ◊ llegar a casa to arrive o get home;

    el rumor llegó a oídos del alcalde the rumor reached the mayor
    2 [camino/ruta/tren] (ir) llegar a or hasta to go all the way to, go as far as;

    3 [día/invierno] to come, arrive;
    ◊ ha llegado el momento de … the time has come to …

    4

    llegar a algo ‹a acuerdo/conclusión› to reach sth, come to sth;
    ‹a estante/techo› to reach;
    ◊ llegué a la conclusión de que… I reached o came to the conclusion that …;

    los pies no le llegan al suelo her feet don't touch the floor;
    la falda le llegaba a los tobillos her skirt came down to her ankles;
    el agua le llegaba al cuello the water came up to her neck;
    las cosas llegaron a tal punto que … things reached such a point that …

    ◊ llegará lejos she'll go far o a long way;

    así no vas a llegar a ningún lado you'll never get anywhere like that;
    llegó a (ser) director he became director;
    llegar a viejo to live to old age;
    llegué a conocerlo mejor I got to know him better
    5 llegar a + inf


    no llegó a pegarme he didn't actually hit me

    ◊ si lo llego a saber, no vengo if I'd known, I wouldn't have come;

    si llego a enterarme de algo, te aviso if I happen to hear anything, I'll let you know
    llegar verbo intransitivo
    1 to arrive: llegué la última, I arrived last
    está al llegar, she's about to arrive
    llegar a la ciudad, to arrive at the town
    2 (momento, acontecimiento) llegó la hora de..., the time has come to...
    llegaron las heladas, the frosts came
    3 (alcanzar) to reach: no llego al último estante, I can't reach the top shelf
    (una meta) llegar a la cumbre, he reached the peak
    4 (ser suficiente) to be enough
    5 ( llegar a + infinitivo) to go so far as to: llegué a creerlo, I even believed it
    llegaron a insultarnos, they went so far as to abuse us
    figurado llegar a las manos, to come to blows
    llegar a ser, to become
    ♦ Locuciones: estar al llegar, to be about to arrive
    llegar a buen puerto, to reach a satisfactory conclusion o to arrive safely
    no llegar la sangre al río, to not have serious consequences
    no llegar a la suela del zapato, not to be able to hold a candle to
    ' llegar' also found in these entries:
    Spanish:
    acabar
    - achantarse
    - alcanzar
    - anticiparse
    - apercibirse
    - atrasarse
    - aviar
    - caer
    - concesión
    - dialogar
    - dirigir
    - excusa
    - lejos
    - moderar
    - odisea
    - oído
    - plantarse
    - puerto
    - retrasar
    - retrasarse
    - sangre
    - santa
    - santo
    - seguir
    - sentir
    - suela
    - última
    - último
    - vadear
    - venir
    - acuerdo
    - ánimo
    - antes
    - aparecer
    - atrasar
    - bueno
    - cuánto
    - cuestión
    - culminar
    - demorar
    - erigir
    - improviso
    - indicación
    - indicar
    - instrucción
    - junto
    - lujo
    - mano
    - mayoría
    - novedad
    English:
    accessible
    - age
    - agree
    - agreement
    - amount to
    - arrive
    - bear
    - bottom
    - call
    - check in
    - close
    - come
    - come in
    - come through
    - come to
    - come up to
    - compromise
    - deal
    - decide
    - decision
    - draw in
    - end
    - fail
    - filter out
    - filter through
    - first
    - fog
    - gallop up
    - get
    - get in
    - get into
    - get up to
    - grip
    - half-way
    - head
    - home
    - hope
    - in
    - just
    - late
    - leak out I
    - make
    - master
    - only
    - place
    - power
    - pull in
    - reach
    - roll in
    - roll up
    * * *
    ♦ vi
    1. [persona, vehículo, medio de transporte] to arrive (de from);
    llegar a un hotel/al aeropuerto to arrive at a hotel/at the airport;
    llegar a una ciudad/a un país to arrive in a city/in a country;
    llegar a casa to get home;
    llegar a la meta to cross the finishing line;
    cuando llegué a esta empresa… when I arrived at o first came to this company…;
    llegaremos a la estación de Caracas a las dos we will be arriving at Caracas station at two o'clock;
    nosotros llegamos primero o [m5] los primeros we arrived first;
    el atleta cubano llegó primero the Cuban athlete came first;
    llegaban muy contentos they were very happy when they arrived, they arrived very happy;
    llegaré pronto I'll be there early;
    este avión llega tarde this plane is late;
    estar al llegar: deben de estar al llegar they must be about to arrive, they're bound to arrive any minute now;
    los Juegos Olímpicos están al llegar the Olympics are coming up soon;
    ¿falta mucho para llegar o [m5] para que lleguemos? is there far to go?;
    así no llegarás a ninguna parte you'll never get anywhere like that;
    Fig
    llegará lejos she'll go far
    2. [carta, recado, mensaje] to arrive;
    llegarle a alguien: no me ha llegado aún el paquete the parcel still hasn't arrived, I still haven't received the parcel;
    ayer me llegó un mensaje suyo por correo electrónico I got o received an e-mail from him yesterday;
    hacer llegar un mensaje o [m5] recado a alguien to pass a message on to sb;
    si llega a oídos de ella… if she gets to hear about this…
    3. [tiempo, noche, momento] to come;
    cuando llegue el momento te enterarás you'll find out when the time comes;
    ha llegado el invierno winter has come o arrived
    4. [alcanzar]
    llegar a to reach;
    no llego al techo I can't reach the ceiling;
    el barro me llegaba a las rodillas the mud came up to my knees, I was up to my knees in mud;
    quiero una chaqueta que me llegue por debajo de la cintura I want a jacket that comes down to below my waist;
    llegar a un acuerdo to come to o reach an agreement;
    llegamos a la conclusión de que era inútil seguir we came to o reached the conclusion that it wasn't worth continuing;
    llegar hasta to reach up to;
    esta carretera sólo llega hasta Veracruz this road only goes as far as Veracruz;
    el ascensor no llega a o [m5] hasta la última planta the Br lift o US elevator doesn't go up to the top floor
    5. [ascender]
    el importe total de la reparación no llega a 5.000 pesos the total cost of the repairs is less than o below 5,000 pesos;
    los espectadores no llegaban ni siquiera a mil there weren't even as many as a thousand spectators there
    6. [ser suficiente] to be enough ( para for);
    el dinero no me llega para comprarme una casa the money isn't enough for me to buy a house
    7. [lograr]
    llegar a (ser) algo to get to be sth, to become sth;
    llegó a ser campeón de Europa he became European champion;
    llegar a hacer algo to manage to do sth;
    pesaba mucho, pero al final llegué a levantarlo it was very heavy, but I managed to lift it up in the end;
    nunca llegó a (entrar en) las listas de éxitos she never made it into the charts;
    nunca llegué a conocerlo I never actually met him;
    si llego a saberlo… [en el futuro] if I happen to find out…;
    [en el pasado] if I had known…
    8. [al extremo de]
    llegó a decirme… he went as far as to say to me…;
    hemos llegado a pagar 4.000 euros at times we've had to pay as much as 4,000 euros;
    cuesta llegar a creerlo it's very hard to believe it;
    ¡hasta aquí o [m5] ahí podíamos llegar! this is beyond a joke o absolutely outrageous!
    9. [causar impresión, interesar]
    tiene una imagen que no llega al electorado she fails to project a strong image to the electorate;
    son canciones sencillas que llegan a la gente they are simple songs that mean something to people;
    lo que dijo me llegó al alma her words really struck home
    10. [durar]
    llegar a o [m5] hasta to last until;
    este año las rebajas llegarán hasta bien entrado febrero the sales this year will last until well into February;
    está muy enferma, no creo que llegue a las Navidades she's very ill, I doubt whether she'll make it to Christmas
    11. Méx Fam
    voy a llegarle [ya me voy] I'm off home;
    ¡llégale! [no hay problema] no problem!, don't worry!
    12. Méx Fam
    llegarle a alguien [pedirle salir] to ask sb out
    * * *
    v/i
    1 arrive;
    ha llegado la primavera spring is here, spring has arrived;
    está al llegar he’ll arrive momentarily, he’s about to arrive
    2 ( alcanzar) reach;
    me llega hasta las rodillas it comes down to my knees;
    el agua me llegaba a la cintura the water came up to my waist;
    no llego a comprender por qué … I don’t understand why …;
    la comida no llegó para todos there wasn’t enough food for everyone;
    ¡hasta ahí podíamos llegar! fam that’s going too far!, that’s a bit much! fam ;
    llegar a saber find out;
    llegar a ser get to be;
    llegar a viejo live to a ripe old age;
    llegar a presidente get to be president, become president
    * * *
    llegar {52} vi
    1) : to arrive, to come
    2)
    llegar a : to arrive at, to reach, to amount to
    3)
    llegar a : to manage to
    llegó a terminar la novela: she managed to finish the novel
    4)
    llegar a ser : to become
    llegó a ser un miembro permanente: he became a permanent member
    * * *
    llegar vb
    1. (en general) to arrive / to get
    acabo de llegar I've just arrived / I've just got here
    ¿a qué hora llegaréis a Londres? what time will you arrive in London?
    cuando lleguemos a Tudela, cenaremos we'll have dinner when we get to Tudela
    2. (alcanzar) to reach
    ¿llegas? can you reach?
    3. (tiempo) to come [pt. came; pp. come]
    ¡ha llegado la primavera! spring is here!
    4. (altura) to come
    6. (ser suficiente) to be enough
    llegar a ser to become [pt. became; pp. become]

    Spanish-English dictionary > llegar

  • 12 одна из особенностей

    Одна из особенностей (патенты)
     Another (or A further, or Still another, or Yet farther) object of the invention is to provide a coal-fired boiler wherein ash may be removed in a simple and inexpensive manner.

    Русско-английский научно-технический словарь переводчика > одна из особенностей

  • 13 Martine Designs

    Textile designs of French invention consisting of crude forms of small or large motifs repeated at wide intervals on a plain ground. The drawing is purposely childlike. There is no shading and the colours are simple.

    Dictionary of the English textile terms > Martine Designs

  • 14 Clerk, Sir Dugald

    [br]
    b. 31 March 1854 Glasgow, Scotland
    d. 12 November 1932 Ewhurst, Surrey, England
    [br]
    Scottish mechanical engineer, inventor of the two-stroke internal combustion engine.
    [br]
    Clerk began his engineering training at about the age of 15 in the drawing office of H.O.Robinson \& Company, Glasgow, and in his father's works. Meanwhile, he studied at the West of Scotland Technical College and then, from 1871 to 1876, at Anderson's College, Glasgow, and at the Yorkshire College of Science, Leeds. Here he worked under and then became assistant to the distinguished chemist T.E.Thorpe, who set him to work on the fractional distillation of petroleum, which was to be useful to him in his later work. At that time he had intended to become a chemical engineer, but seeing a Lenoir gas engine at work, after his return to Glasgow, turned his main interest to gas and other internal combustion engines. He pursued his investigations first at Thomson, Sterne \& Company (1877–85) and then at Tangyes of Birmingham (1886–88. In 1888 he began a lifelong partnership in Marks and Clerk, consulting engineers and patent agents, in London.
    Beginning his work on gas engines in 1876, he achieved two patents in the two following years. In 1878 he made his principal invention, patented in 1881, of an engine working on the two-stroke cycle, in which the piston is powered during each revolution of the crankshaft, instead of alternate revolutions as in the Otto four-stroke cycle. In this engine, Clerk introduced supercharging, or increasing the pressure of the air intake. Many engines of the Clerk type were made but their popularity waned after the patent for the Otto engine expired in 1890. Interest was later revived, particularly for application to large gas engines, but Clerk's engine eventually came into its own where simple, low-power motors are needed, such as in motor cycles or motor mowers.
    Clerk's work on the theory and design of gas engines bore fruit in the book The Gas Engine (1886), republished with an extended text in 1909 as The Gas, Petrol and Oil Engine; these and a number of papers in scientific journals won him international renown. During and after the First World War, Clerk widened the scope of his interests and served, often as chairman, on many bodies in the field of science and industry.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    Knighted 1917; FRS 1908; Royal Society Royal Medal 1924; Royal Society of Arts Alber Medal 1922.
    Further Reading
    Obituary Notices of Fellows of the Royal Society, no. 2, 1933.
    LRD

    Biographical history of technology > Clerk, Sir Dugald

  • 15 Daniell, John Frederick

    SUBJECT AREA: Electricity
    [br]
    b. 12 March 1790 London, England
    d. 13 March 1845 London, England
    [br]
    English chemist, inventor of the Daniell primary electric cell.
    [br]
    With an early bias towards science, Daniell's interest in chemistry was formed when he joined a relative's sugar-refining business. He formed a lifelong friendship with W.T.Brande, Professor of Chemistry at the Royal Institution, and together they revived the journal of the Royal Institution, to which Daniell submitted many of his early papers on chemical subjects. He made many contributions to the science of meteorology and in 1820 invented a hydrometer, which became widely used and gave precision to the measurement of atmospheric moisture. As one of the originators of the Society for Promoting Useful Knowledge, Daniell edited several of its early publications. His work on crystallization established his reputation as a chemist and in 1831 he was appointed the first Professor of Chemistry at King's College, London, where he was largely responsible for establishing its department of applied science. He was also involved in the Chemical Society of London and served as its Vice-President. At King's College he began the research into current electricity with which his name is particularly associated. His investigations into the zinc-copper cell revealed that the rapid decline in power was due to hydrogen gas being liberated at the positive electrode. Daniell's cell, invented in 1836, employed a zinc electrode in dilute sulphuric acid and a copper electrode in a solution of copper sulphate, the electrodes being separated by a porous membrane, typically an unglazed earthenware pot. He was awarded the Copley Medal of the Royal Society for his invention which avoided the "polarization" of the simple cell and provided a further source of current for electrical research and for commercial applications such as electroplating. Although the high internal resistance of the Daniell cell limited the current and the potential was only 1.1 volts, the voltage was so unchanging that it was used as a reference standard until the 1870s, when J. Lattimer Clark devised an even more stable cell.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    FRS 1814. Royal Society Rumford Medal 1832, Copley Medal 1837, Royal Medal 1842.
    Bibliography
    1836, "On voltaic combinations", Phil. Transactions of the Royal Society 126:107–24, 125–9 (the first report of his experiments).
    Further Reading
    Obituary, 1845, Proceedings of the Royal Society, 5:577–80.
    J.R.Partington, 1964, History of Chemistry, Vol. IV, London (describes the Daniell cell and his electrical researches).
    B.Bowers, 1982, History of Electric Light and Power, London.
    GW

    Biographical history of technology > Daniell, John Frederick

  • 16 Flügge-Lotz, Irmgard

    SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace
    [br]
    b. 1903 Germany
    d. 1974 USA
    [br]
    German/American aeronautical engineer, specializing inflight control.
    [br]
    Both her father, a mathematician, and her mother encouraged Flügge-Lotz in her desire, unusual for a woman at that time, for a technical education. Her interest in aeronautics was awakened when she was a child, by seeing zeppelins (see Zeppelin, Ferdinand, Count von) being tested. In 1923 she entered the Technische Hochschule in Hannover to study engineering, specializing in aeronautics; she was often the only woman in the class. She obtained her doctorate in 1929 and began working in aeronautics. Two years later she derived the Lotz Method for calculating the distribution in aircraft wings of different shapes, which became widely used. Later, Flügge-Lotz took up an interest in automatic flight control of aircraft, notably of the discontinuous or "on-off" type. These were simple in design, inexpensive to manufacture and reliable in operation. By 1928 she had risen to the position of head of the Department of Theoretical Aerodynamics at Göttingen University, but she and her husband, Wilhelm Flügge, an engineering academic known for his anti-Nazi views, felt themselves increasingly discriminated against by the Hitler regime. In 1948 they emigrated to the USA, where Flügge was soon offered a professorship in engineering, while his wife had at first to make do with a lectureship. But her distinguished work eventually earned her appointment as the first woman full professor in the Engineering Department at Stanford University.
    She later extended her work on automatic flight control to the guidance of rockets and missiles, earning herself the description "a female Werner von Braun ".
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    Society of Women Engineers Achievement Award 1970. Fellow, Institution of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
    Bibliography
    Flügge-Lotz was the author of two books on automatic control and over fifty scientific papers.
    Further Reading
    A.Stanley, 1993, Mothers and Daughters of Invention, Meruchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, pp. 899–901.
    LRD

    Biographical history of technology > Flügge-Lotz, Irmgard

  • 17 Fuller, Richard Buckminster

    [br]
    b. 12 July 1895 Milton, Massachusetts, USA
    d. 1 July 1983 Los Angeles, California, USA
    [br]
    American engineer, designer and inventor noted particularly for his creation of the geodesic dome.
    [br]
    After naval service during the First World War, Fuller worked for some time in the building industry with his father, who was an architect. In 1927 he became interested in trying to solve social problems by providing good, low-cost housing for an expanding population. Utilizing modern techniques applicable in other industries, such as the design of aircraft and ships, he produced his "Dymaxion House", which was transportable and cheap. This was followed in 1946 by his aluminium, stressed-skin, prefabricated house. The geodesic dome is the structural concept for which Fuller is particularly known. It was patented in 1954 and 300,000 were built over a thirty-year period. He had envisaged the dome being utilized on smaller or larger, simple or complex patterns for a wide variety of needs such as enclosing a covered area for a house, a botanical garden, an exhibition pavilion, a factory, a weather station or, indeed, an entire city. A famous example that he designed was that for the US pavilion at Expo '67 in Montreal. A geodesic dome is generally spherical in form, the chief structural elements of which are interconnected in a geodesic pattern, i.e. one in which the lines connecting two points are the shortest possible. The structure is composed of slender, lightweight struts (usually of aluminium) arranged in geometrical patterns, with the metal skeleton covered by a light, plastic material. Inside the dome, all the space is usable and the climate is controllable. Fuller wrote and lectured widely on his patented invention, explaining the importance of structural research particularly in relation to world needs.
    [br]
    Bibliography
    1975, Synergetics: Exploration on the Geometry of Thinking, Macmillan.
    1973, with R.W.Marks, The Dymaxion World of Buckminster Fuller, New York: Reprint Anchor.
    Further Reading
    M.Pawley, 1990, Buckminster Fuller, Trefoil Books.
    DY

    Biographical history of technology > Fuller, Richard Buckminster

  • 18 Maxim, Sir Hiram Stevens

    [br]
    b. 5 February 1840 Brockway's Mills, Maine, USA
    d. 24 November 1916 Streatham, London, England
    [br]
    American (naturalized British) inventor; designer of the first fully automatic machine gun and of an experimental steam-powered aircraft.
    [br]
    Maxim was born the son of a pioneer farmer who later became a wood turner. Young Maxim was first apprenticed to a carriage maker and then embarked on a succession of jobs before joining his uncle in his engineering firm in Massachusetts in 1864. As a young man he gained a reputation as a boxer, but it was his uncle who first identified and encouraged Hiram's latent talent for invention.
    It was not, however, until 1878, when Maxim joined the first electric-light company to be established in the USA, as its Chief Engineer, that he began to make a name for himself. He developed an improved light filament and his electric pressure regulator not only won a prize at the first International Electrical Exhibition, held in Paris in 1881, but also resulted in his being made a Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur. While in Europe he was advised that weapons development was a more lucrative field than electricity; consequently, he moved to England and established a small laboratory at Hatton Garden, London. He began by investigating improvements to the Gatling gun in order to produce a weapon with a faster rate of fire and which was more accurate. In 1883, by adapting a Winchester carbine, he successfully produced a semi-automatic weapon, which used the recoil to cock the gun automatically after firing. The following year he took this concept a stage further and produced a fully automatic belt-fed weapon. The recoil drove barrel and breechblock to the vent. The barrel then halted, while the breechblock, now unlocked from the former, continued rearwards, extracting the spent case and recocking the firing mechanism. The return spring, which it had been compressing, then drove the breechblock forward again, chambering the next round, which had been fed from the belt, as it did so. Keeping the trigger pressed enabled the gun to continue firing until the belt was expended. The Maxim gun, as it became known, was adopted by almost every army within the decade, and was to remain in service for nearly fifty years. Maxim himself joined forces with the large British armaments firm of Vickers, and the Vickers machine gun, which served the British Army during two world wars, was merely a refined version of the Maxim gun.
    Maxim's interests continued to occupy several fields of technology, including flight. In 1891 he took out a patent for a steam-powered aeroplane fitted with a pendulous gyroscopic stabilizer which would maintain the pitch of the aeroplane at any desired inclination (basically, a simple autopilot). Maxim decided to test the relationship between power, thrust and lift before moving on to stability and control. He designed a lightweight steam-engine which developed 180 hp (135 kW) and drove a propeller measuring 17 ft 10 in. (5.44 m) in diameter. He fitted two of these engines into his huge flying machine testrig, which needed a wing span of 104 ft (31.7 m) to generate enough lift to overcome a total weight of 4 tons. The machine was not designed for free flight, but ran on one set of rails with a second set to prevent it rising more than about 2 ft (61 cm). At Baldwyn's Park in Kent on 31 July 1894 the huge machine, carrying Maxim and his crew, reached a speed of 42 mph (67.6 km/h) and lifted off its rails. Unfortunately, one of the restraining axles broke and the machine was extensively damaged. Although it was subsequently repaired and further trials carried out, these experiments were very expensive. Maxim eventually abandoned the flying machine and did not develop his idea for a stabilizer, turning instead to other projects. At the age of almost 70 he returned to the problems of flight and designed a biplane with a petrol engine: it was built in 1910 but never left the ground.
    In all, Maxim registered 122 US and 149 British patents on objects ranging from mousetraps to automatic spindles. Included among them was a 1901 patent for a foot-operated suction cleaner. In 1900 he became a British subject and he was knighted the following year. He remained a larger-than-life figure, both physically and in character, until the end of his life.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur 1881. Knighted 1901.
    Bibliography
    1908, Natural and Artificial Flight, London. 1915, My Life, London: Methuen (autobiography).
    Further Reading
    Obituary, 1916, Engineer (1 December).
    Obituary, 1916, Engineering (1 December).
    P.F.Mottelay, 1920, The Life and Work of Sir Hiram Maxim, London and New York: John Lane.
    Dictionary of National Biography, 1912–1921, 1927, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    CM / JDS

    Biographical history of technology > Maxim, Sir Hiram Stevens

  • 19 Reichenbach, Georg Friedrich von

    [br]
    b. 24 August 1772 Durlach, Baden, Germany
    d. 21 May 1826 Munich, Germany
    [br]
    German engineer.
    [br]
    While he was attending the Military School at Mannheim, Reichenbach drew attention to himself due to the mathematical instruments that he had designed. On the recommendation of Count Rumford in Munich, the Bavarian government financed a two-year stay in Britain so that Reichenbach could become acquainted with modern mechanical engineering. He returned to Mannheim in 1793, and during the Napoleonic Wars he was involved in the manufacture of arms. In Munich, where he was in the service of the Bavarian state from 1796, he started producing precision instruments in his own time. His basic invention was the design of a dividing machine for circles, produced at the end of the eighteenth century. The astronomic and geodetic instruments he produced excelled all the others for their precision. His telescopes in particular, being perfect in use and of solid construction, soon brought him an international reputation. They were manufactured at the MathematicMechanical Institute, which he had jointly founded with Joseph Utzschneider and Joseph Liebherr in 1804 and which became a renowned training establishment. The glasses and lenses were produced by Joseph Fraunhofer who joined the company in 1807.
    In the same year he was put in charge of the technical reorganization of the salt-works at Reichenhall. After he had finished the brine-transport line from Reichenhall to Traunstein in 1810, he started on the one from Berchtesgaden to Reichenhall which was an extremely difficult task because of the mountainous area that had to be crossed. As water was the only source of energy available he decided to use water-column engines for pumping the brine in the pipes of both lines. Such devices had been in use for pumping purposes in different mining areas since the middle of the eighteenth century. Reichenbach knew about the one constructed by Joseph Karl Hell in Slovakia, which in principle had just been a simple piston-pump driven by water which did not work satisfactorily. Instead he constructed a really effective double-action water-column engine; this was a short time after Richard Trevithick had constructed a similar machine in England. For the second line he improved the system and built a single-action pump. All the parts of it were made of metal, which made them easy to produce, and the pumps proved to be extremely reliable, working for over 100 years.
    At the official opening of the line in 1817 the Bavarian king rewarded him generously. He remained in the state's service, becoming head of the department for roads and waterways in 1820, and he contributed to the development of Bavarian industry as well as the public infrastructure in many ways as a result of his mechanical skill and his innovative engineering mind.
    [br]
    Further Reading
    Bauernfeind, "Georg von Reichenbach" Allgemeine deutsche Biographie 27:656–67 (a reliable nineteenth-century account).
    W.Dyck, 1912, Georg v. Reichenbach, Munich.
    K.Matschoss, 1941, Grosse Ingenieure, Munich and Berlin, 3rd edn. 121–32 (a concise description of his achievements in the development of optical instruments and engineering).
    WK

    Biographical history of technology > Reichenbach, Georg Friedrich von

  • 20 Torricelli, Evangelista

    [br]
    b. 15 October 1608 Faenza, Italy
    d. 25 October 1647 Florence, Italy
    [br]
    Italian physicist, inventor of the mercury barometer and discoverer of atmospheric pressure.
    [br]
    Torricelli was the eldest child of a textile artisan. Between 1625 and 1626 he attended the Jesuit school at Faenza, where he showed such outstanding aptitude in mathematics and philosophy that his uncle was persuaded to send him to Rome to a school run by Benedetto Castelli, a mathematician and engineer and a former pupil of Galileo Galilei. Between 1630 and 1641, Torricelli was possibly Secretary to Giovanni Ciampoli, Galileo's friend and protector. In 1641 Torricelli wrote a treatise, De motugravium, amplifying Galileo's doctrine on the motion of projectiles, and Galileo accepted him as a pupil. On Galileo's death in 1642, he was appointed as mathematician and philosopher to the court of Grand Duke Ferdinando II of Tuscany. He remained in Florence until his early death in 1647, possibly from typhoid fever. He wrote a great number of mathematical papers on conic sections, the cycloid, the logarithmic curve and other subjects, which made him well known.
    By 1642 Torricelli was producing good lenses for telescopes; he subsequently improved them, and attained near optical perfection. He also constructed a simple microscope with a small glass sphere as a lens. Galileo had looked at problems of raising water with suction pumps, and also with a siphon in 1630. Torricelli brought up the subject again in 1640 and later produced his most important invention, the barometer. He used mercury to fill a glass tube that was sealed at one end and inverted it. He found that the height of mercury in the tube adjusted itself to a well-defined level of about 76 cm (30 in.), higher than the free surface outside. He realized that this must be due to the pressure of the air on the outside surface and predicted that it would fall with increasing altitude. He thus demonstrated the pressure of the atmosphere and the existence of a vacuum on top of the mercury, publishing his findings in 1644. He later noticed that changes in the height of the mercury were related to changes in the weather.
    [br]
    Bibliography
    1641, De motu gravium.
    Further Reading
    T.I.Williams (ed.), 1969, A Biographical Dictionary of Scientists, London: A. \& C.Black.
    Chambers Concise Dictionary of Scientists, 1989, Cambridge.
    A Dictionary of Scientific Biography, 1976, Vol. XIII, New York: C.Scribner's Sons.
    A.Stowers, 1961–2, "Thomas Newcomen's first steam engine 250 years ago and the initial development of steam power", Transactions of the Newcomen Society 34 (provides an account of his mercury barometer).
    W.E.Knowles Middleton, 1964, The History of the Barometer, Baltimore.
    RLH

    Biographical history of technology > Torricelli, Evangelista

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