solution+method

SUBJECT AREA: Architecture and building, Electricity, Land transport, Railways and locomotives

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Graduating from the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, in 1878, Sprague served at sea and with various shore establishments. In 1883 he resigned from the Navy and obtained employment with the Edison Company; but being convinced that the use of electricity for motive power was as important as that for illumination, in 1884 he founded the Sprague Electric Railway and Motor Company. Sprague began to develop reliable and efficient motors in large sizes, marketing 15 hp (11 kW) examples by 1885. He devised the method of collecting current by using a wooden, spring-loaded rod to press a roller against the underside of an overhead wire. The installation by Sprague in 1888 of a street tramway on a large scale in Richmond, Virginia, was to become the prototype of the universally adopted trolley system with overhead conductor and the beginning of commercial electric traction. Following the success of the Richmond tramway the company equipped sixty-seven other railways before its merger with Edison General Electric in 1890. The Sprague traction motor supported on the axle of electric streetcars and flexibly mounted to the bogie set a pattern that was widely adopted for many years.

Encouraged by successful experiments with multiple-sheave electric elevators, the Sprague Elevator Company was formed and installed the first set of high-speed passenger cars in 1893–4. These effectively displaced hydraulic elevators in larger buildings. From experience with control systems for these, he developed his system of multiple-unit control for electric trains, which other engineers had considered impracticable. In Sprague's system, a master controller situated in the driver's cab operated electrically at a distance the contactors and reversers which controlled the motors distributed down the train. After years of experiment, Sprague's multiple-unit control was put into use for the first time in 1898 by the Chicago South Side Elevated Railway: within fifteen years multiple-unit operation was used worldwide.

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GW / PJGR

SUBJECT AREA: Photography, film and optics

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Educated at Harrow, where he first showed an interest in science, and at Cambridge, Talbot was an outstanding scholar and a formidable mathematician. He published over fifty scientific papers and took out twelve English patents. His interests outside the field of science were also wide and included Assyriology, etymology and the classics. He was briefly a Member of Parliament, but did not pursue a parliamentary career.

Talbot's invention of photography arose out of his frustrating attempts to produce acceptable pencil sketches using popular artist's aids, the camera discura and camera lucida. From his experiments with the former he conceived the idea of placing on the screen a paper coated with silver salts so that the image would be captured chemically. During the spring of 1834 he made outline images of subjects such as leaves and flowers by placing them on sheets of sensitized paper and exposing them to sunlight. No camera was involved and the first images produced using an optical system were made with a solar microscope. It was only when he had devised a more sensitive paper that Talbot was able to make camera pictures; the earliest surviving camera negative dates from August 1835. From the beginning, Talbot noticed that the lights and shades of his images were reversed. During 1834 or 1835 he discovered that by placing this reversed image on another sheet of sensitized paper and again exposing it to sunlight, a picture was produced with lights and shades in the correct disposition. Talbot had discovered the basis of modern photography, the photographic negative, from which could be produced an unlimited number of positives. He did little further work until the announcement of Daguerre's process in 1839 prompted him to publish an account of his negative-positive process. Aware that his photogenic drawing process had many imperfections, Talbot plunged into further experiments and in September 1840, using a mixture incorporating a solution of gallic acid, discovered an invisible latent image that could be made visible by development. This improved calotype process dramatically shortened exposure times and allowed Talbot to take portraits. In 1841 he patented the process, an exercise that was later to cause controversy, and between 1844 and 1846 produced The Pencil of Nature, the world's first commercial photographically illustrated book.

Concerned that some of his photographs were prone to fading, Talbot later began experiments to combine photography with printing and engraving. Using bichromated gelatine, he devised the first practicable method of photo engraving, which was patented as Photoglyphic engraving in October 1852. He later went on to use screens of gauze, muslin and finely powdered gum to break up the image into lines and dots, thus anticipating modern photomechanical processes.

Talbot was described by contemporaries as the "Father of Photography" primarily in recognition of his discovery of the negative-positive process, but he also produced the first photomicrographs, took the first high-speed photographs with the aid of a spark from a Leyden jar, and is credited with proposing infra-red photography. He was a shy man and his misguided attempts to enforce his calotype patent made him many enemies. It was perhaps for this reason that he never received the formal recognition from the British nation that his family felt he deserved.

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SUBJECT AREA: Textiles, Weapons and armour

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The son of a prosperous farmer, Eli Whitney as a teenager showed more interest in mechanics than school work. At the age of 15 he began an enterprise business manufacturing nails in his father's workshop, even having to hire help to fulfil his orders. He later determined to acquire a university education and, his father having declined to provide funds, he taught at local schools to obtain the means to attend Leicester Academy, Massachusetts, in preparation for his entry to Yale in 1789. He graduated in 1792 and then decided to study law. He accepted a position in Georgia as a tutor that would have given him time for study; this post did not materialize, but on his journey south he met General Nathanael Greene's widow and the manager of her plantations, Phineas Miller (1764–1803). A feature of agriculture in the southern states was that the land was unsuitable for long-staple cotton but could yield large crops of green-seed cotton. Green-seed cotton was difficult to separate from its seed, and when Whitney learned of the problem in 1793 he quickly devised a machine known as the cotton gin, which provided an effective solution. He formed a partnership with Miller to manufacture the gin and in 1794 obtained a patent. This invention made possible the extraordinary growth of the cotton industry in the United States, but the patent was widely infringed and it was not until 1807, after amendment of the patent laws, that Whitney was able to obtain a favourable decision in the courts and some financial return.

In 1798 Whitney was in financial difficulties following the failure of the initial legal action against infringement of the cotton gin patent, but in that year he obtained a government contract to supply 10,000 muskets within two years with generous advance payments. He built a factory at New Haven, Connecticut, and proposed to use a new method of manufacture, perhaps the first application of the system of interchangeable parts. He failed to supply the firearms in the specified time, and in fact the first 500 guns were not delivered until 1801 and the full contract was not completed until 1809.

In 1812 Whitney made application for a renewal of his cotton gin patent, but this was refused. In the same year, however, he obtained a second contract from the Government for 15,000 firearms and a similar one from New York State which ensured the success of his business.

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"1. road; path; way; passage; course; route; channel; conduit. 2. rate of speed, speed (of a ship). 3. style; manner. 4. way of behaving. 5. method, system. 6. means, way; solution. 7. purpose, end (used in either the locative or the dative): Bu yolda çok emek harcadık. We´ve expended a lot of effort on this. Vatan yoluna savaştılar. They fought for the sake of the fatherland. 8. stripe (in cloth). 9. time: Bir yol bize geldi. He came to see us once. -unda 1. for the sake of. 2. in good order, going as it should, going well, fine. 3. in the style of, in the manner of. -uyla 1. by way of, via. 2. by means of, by, through. 3. in a suitable manner. - açmak /a/ to pave the way for. -unuz açık olsun! Have a good trip!/Bon voyage! - ağzı mouth of a road, junction. - almak to proceed, move forward. -u almak to reach the end of one´s journey. - aramak to look for a way (to solve a problem). - ayrımı fork in a road. - azığı food for a journey. -una bakmak/-unu beklemek /ın/ to await the arrival of, expect (someone who´s traveling a long way). - boyunca 1. throughout the journey; all the way: Yol boyunca durmadan konuştu. He talked incessantly all the way. 2. beside the road, along the road. -unu bulmak /ın/ to find the way to do (something), find the way to get (something) done. -a çıkarmak /ı/ to see (someone) off (on a journey). -a çıkmak to set off (on a journey). (aynı, bir) -a çıkmak (for one thing) to lead to the same result (as another). -dan çıkmak 1. (for a train) to be derailed; (for a car, etc.) to go off the road. 2. (for someone) to go astray, depart from the straight and narrow. -una çıkmak /ın/ 1. to meet (someone, something) by chance. 2. to go to meet (a traveler). -a düşmek to set off (on a journey). -lara düşmek to go out and wander far and near/wide (in search of someone, something). -u düşmek 1. /a/ to happen on, chance on, happen to pass (a place). 2. /ın/ (for the right moment for something) to be at hand. (...) -una düşmek to set out for (a place). -a düzülmek to set off (on a journey). - erkân the right way to do (something). - erkân bilmek to know how to behave properly. - etmek /ı/ to go to (a place) very often. -a gelmek to come round (to another´s point of view); to see reason; to straighten up and do as one is supposed to do. -a getirmek /ı/ to bring (someone) round (to another´s point of view); to make (someone) see reason; to make (someone) straighten up and do as he is supposed to do. -una girmek (for something) to begin to go well. -a gitmek to set off (on a journey). - görünmek /a/ to sense that the time has come for (one) to pack up one´s traps and leave. - göstermek /a/ 1. to show (someone) how to get to a place. 2. to show (someone) how to solve something. 3. to guide (someone). - halısı runner (rug used to carpet a hall or staircase). - harcı travel allowance. - iz bilmek to know how to behave oneself properly. -dan/-undan kalmak to be prevented from setting out on a journey. -larda kalmak to be delayed on the road. -u kapamak to block the road. -unu kaybetmek to lose one´s way. - kesmek naut. to slow down, reduce speed. -unu kesmek /ın/ 1. to stop, waylay (someone). 2. to waylay (someone) (in order to rob him). -una koymak /ı/ to set/put (a matter) to rights. -a koyulmak to set off (on a journey). - parası 1. travel allowance. 2. road tax, tax which goes towards the upkeep of roads. -a revan olmak to set off (on a journey). -unu sapıtmak (for someone) to go astray, depart from the straight and narrow. - sormakla bulunur. proverb You learn how to do something properly by asking those who know how to do it. -unu şaşırmak 1. to take a/the wrong turning, be on the wrong road. 2. not to know which road to take. 3. to go astray, depart from the straight and narrow. - tepmek to walk a long way. (...) - tutmak to begin to live in (a certain) way; to live in (a certain) way. -u tutmak (for police, etc.) to take control of a road; to blockade a ro

slang way, method, solution.