-
41 Европейский координационный центр в Европейской южной обсерватории
Универсальный русско-английский словарь > Европейский координационный центр в Европейской южной обсерватории
-
42 guerra civil
f.civil war.* * *civil war* * *(n.) = civil warEx. In UDC under 361 SOCIAL RELIEF we find.9 Relief or aid in emergencies, disasters;.91 Earthquakes, storms, hurricanes;.92 Floods;.93 War, civil war;.94 Epidemics;.95 Famine; and.96 Fires, conflagrations.* * *(n.) = civil warEx: In UDC under 361 SOCIAL RELIEF we find.9 Relief or aid in emergencies, disasters;.91 Earthquakes, storms, hurricanes;.92 Floods;.93 War, civil war;.94 Epidemics;.95 Famine; and.96 Fires, conflagrations.
* * *The Spanish Civil War of 1936-39 began when right-wing army officers led by General Francisco Franco rebelled against the elected republican government. Southern and northwest Spain soon fell to Franco's nacionalistas, but in cities such as Madrid, Bilbao and Barcelona resistance was fierce. Franco's revolt was aided by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, while Britain and France declared a policy of non-intervention and blockaded Spanish ports. The Soviet Union aided the Republican government and volunteers from around the world joined the Brigadas Internacionales to fight against fascism. Resistance collapsed in the spring of 1939 and Franco established a dictatorship which ended with his death in 1975. A period of great economic hardship followed the Civil War and the persecution of Republicans continued for many years.* * *civil war -
43 apaldr
(gen. -rs or -s, pl. -rar or -ar), m. apple-tree.* * *rs, m. pl. rar, [O. H. G. aphaltrâ; A. S. apuldre; Dan. abild; Swed. apel], doubtless a southern word, the inflective syllable dr being a mutilation of ‘tré,’ arbor, a word now almost extinct in Germany, (for a homely, common word such as ‘tré’ could not have been corrupted in the native tongue);—apaldr thus, etymologically as well as properly, means an apple-tree; fruits and fruit-trees were doubtless imported into Scandinavia from abroad; the word appears only in the later heroic poems, such as the Hkv. Hjörv. 6; the verses in Sdm. 5 are in a different metre from the rest of the poem, and probably interpolated, Fas. i. 120; epli á apaldri, Sks. 106; tveir apaldar (with the radical r dropped), Fas. iii. 60; apaldrs flúr, Karl. 200, 311: as the etymological sense in the transmuted word soon got lost, a fresh pleonastic compound was made, viz. apaldrs-tré.COMPDS: apaldrsgarðr, apaldrsklubba, apaldrstré. -
44 suðr-land
n. a southern county, the south shore of a fjord, Fms. viii. 220: plur. suðrlönd, the south-lands, Saxony, Germany, Fb. i. 502.II. a local name = Sutherland in Scotland, Orkn., Landn. -
45 Fleawort Seed
Seeds from a plant found in Southern Europe, also in Germany and Austria. Used as a finishing mucilage for fabrics, especially silk. -
46 Introduction
Portugal is a small Western European nation with a large, distinctive past replete with both triumph and tragedy. One of the continent's oldest nation-states, Portugal has frontiers that are essentially unchanged since the late 14th century. The country's unique character and 850-year history as an independent state present several curious paradoxes. As of 1974, when much of the remainder of the Portuguese overseas empire was decolonized, Portuguese society appeared to be the most ethnically homogeneous of the two Iberian states and of much of Europe. Yet, Portuguese society had received, over the course of 2,000 years, infusions of other ethnic groups in invasions and immigration: Phoenicians, Greeks, Celts, Romans, Suevi, Visigoths, Muslims (Arab and Berber), Jews, Italians, Flemings, Burgundian French, black Africans, and Asians. Indeed, Portugal has been a crossroads, despite its relative isolation in the western corner of the Iberian Peninsula, between the West and North Africa, Tropical Africa, and Asia and America. Since 1974, Portugal's society has become less homogeneous, as there has been significant immigration of former subjects from its erstwhile overseas empire.Other paradoxes should be noted as well. Although Portugal is sometimes confused with Spain or things Spanish, its very national independence and national culture depend on being different from Spain and Spaniards. Today, Portugal's independence may be taken for granted. Since 1140, except for 1580-1640 when it was ruled by Philippine Spain, Portugal has been a sovereign state. Nevertheless, a recurring theme of the nation's history is cycles of anxiety and despair that its freedom as a nation is at risk. There is a paradox, too, about Portugal's overseas empire(s), which lasted half a millennium (1415-1975): after 1822, when Brazil achieved independence from Portugal, most of the Portuguese who emigrated overseas never set foot in their overseas empire, but preferred to immigrate to Brazil or to other countries in North or South America or Europe, where established Portuguese overseas communities existed.Portugal was a world power during the period 1415-1550, the era of the Discoveries, expansion, and early empire, and since then the Portuguese have experienced periods of decline, decadence, and rejuvenation. Despite the fact that Portugal slipped to the rank of a third- or fourth-rate power after 1580, it and its people can claim rightfully an unusual number of "firsts" or distinctions that assure their place both in world and Western history. These distinctions should be kept in mind while acknowledging that, for more than 400 years, Portugal has generally lagged behind the rest of Western Europe, although not Southern Europe, in social and economic developments and has remained behind even its only neighbor and sometime nemesis, Spain.Portugal's pioneering role in the Discoveries and exploration era of the 15th and 16th centuries is well known. Often noted, too, is the Portuguese role in the art and science of maritime navigation through the efforts of early navigators, mapmakers, seamen, and fishermen. What are often forgotten are the country's slender base of resources, its small population largely of rural peasants, and, until recently, its occupation of only 16 percent of the Iberian Peninsula. As of 1139—10, when Portugal emerged first as an independent monarchy, and eventually a sovereign nation-state, England and France had not achieved this status. The Portuguese were the first in the Iberian Peninsula to expel the Muslim invaders from their portion of the peninsula, achieving this by 1250, more than 200 years before Castile managed to do the same (1492).Other distinctions may be noted. Portugal conquered the first overseas empire beyond the Mediterranean in the early modern era and established the first plantation system based on slave labor. Portugal's empire was the first to be colonized and the last to be decolonized in the 20th century. With so much of its scattered, seaborne empire dependent upon the safety and seaworthiness of shipping, Portugal was a pioneer in initiating marine insurance, a practice that is taken for granted today. During the time of Pombaline Portugal (1750-77), Portugal was the first state to organize and hold an industrial trade fair. In distinctive political and governmental developments, Portugal's record is more mixed, and this fact suggests that maintaining a government with a functioning rule of law and a pluralist, representative democracy has not been an easy matter in a country that for so long has been one of the poorest and least educated in the West. Portugal's First Republic (1910-26), only the third republic in a largely monarchist Europe (after France and Switzerland), was Western Europe's most unstable parliamentary system in the 20th century. Finally, the authoritarian Estado Novo or "New State" (1926-74) was the longest surviving authoritarian system in modern Western Europe. When Portugal departed from its overseas empire in 1974-75, the descendants, in effect, of Prince Henry the Navigator were leaving the West's oldest empire.Portugal's individuality is based mainly on its long history of distinc-tiveness, its intense determination to use any means — alliance, diplomacy, defense, trade, or empire—to be a sovereign state, independent of Spain, and on its national pride in the Portuguese language. Another master factor in Portuguese affairs deserves mention. The country's politics and government have been influenced not only by intellectual currents from the Atlantic but also through Spain from Europe, which brought new political ideas and institutions and novel technologies. Given the weight of empire in Portugal's past, it is not surprising that public affairs have been hostage to a degree to what happened in her overseas empire. Most important have been domestic responses to imperial affairs during both imperial and internal crises since 1415, which have continued to the mid-1970s and beyond. One of the most important themes of Portuguese history, and one oddly neglected by not a few histories, is that every major political crisis and fundamental change in the system—in other words, revolution—since 1415 has been intimately connected with a related imperial crisis. The respective dates of these historical crises are: 1437, 1495, 1578-80, 1640, 1820-22, 1890, 1910, 1926-30, 1961, and 1974. The reader will find greater detail on each crisis in historical context in the history section of this introduction and in relevant entries.LAND AND PEOPLEThe Republic of Portugal is located on the western edge of the Iberian Peninsula. A major geographical dividing line is the Tagus River: Portugal north of it has an Atlantic orientation; the country to the south of it has a Mediterranean orientation. There is little physical evidence that Portugal is clearly geographically distinct from Spain, and there is no major natural barrier between the two countries along more than 1,214 kilometers (755 miles) of the Luso-Spanish frontier. In climate, Portugal has a number of microclimates similar to the microclimates of Galicia, Estremadura, and Andalusia in neighboring Spain. North of the Tagus, in general, there is an Atlantic-type climate with higher rainfall, cold winters, and some snow in the mountainous areas. South of the Tagus is a more Mediterranean climate, with hot, dry, often rainless summers and cool, wet winters. Lisbon, the capital, which has a fifth of the country's population living in its region, has an average annual mean temperature about 16° C (60° F).For a small country with an area of 92,345 square kilometers (35,580 square miles, including the Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and the Madeiras), which is about the size of the state of Indiana in the United States, Portugal has a remarkable diversity of regional topography and scenery. In some respects, Portugal resembles an island within the peninsula, embodying a unique fusion of European and non-European cultures, akin to Spain yet apart. Its geography is a study in contrasts, from the flat, sandy coastal plain, in some places unusually wide for Europe, to the mountainous Beira districts or provinces north of the Tagus, to the snow-capped mountain range of the Estrela, with its unique ski area, to the rocky, barren, remote Trás-os-Montes district bordering Spain. There are extensive forests in central and northern Portugal that contrast with the flat, almost Kansas-like plains of the wheat belt in the Alentejo district. There is also the unique Algarve district, isolated somewhat from the Alentejo district by a mountain range, with a microclimate, topography, and vegetation that resemble closely those of North Africa.Although Portugal is small, just 563 kilometers (337 miles) long and from 129 to 209 kilometers (80 to 125 miles) wide, it is strategically located on transportation and communication routes between Europe and North Africa, and the Americas and Europe. Geographical location is one key to the long history of Portugal's three overseas empires, which stretched once from Morocco to the Moluccas and from lonely Sagres at Cape St. Vincent to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is essential to emphasize the identity of its neighbors: on the north and east Portugal is bounded by Spain, its only neighbor, and by the Atlantic Ocean on the south and west. Portugal is the westernmost country of Western Europe, and its shape resembles a face, with Lisbon below the nose, staring into theAtlantic. No part of Portugal touches the Mediterranean, and its Atlantic orientation has been a response in part to turning its back on Castile and Léon (later Spain) and exploring, traveling, and trading or working in lands beyond the peninsula. Portugal was the pioneering nation in the Atlantic-born European discoveries during the Renaissance, and its diplomatic and trade relations have been dominated by countries that have been Atlantic powers as well: Spain; England (Britain since 1707); France; Brazil, once its greatest colony; and the United States.Today Portugal and its Atlantic islands have a population of roughly 10 million people. While ethnic homogeneity has been characteristic of it in recent history, Portugal's population over the centuries has seen an infusion of non-Portuguese ethnic groups from various parts of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Between 1500 and 1800, a significant population of black Africans, brought in as slaves, was absorbed in the population. And since 1950, a population of Cape Verdeans, who worked in menial labor, has resided in Portugal. With the influx of African, Goan, and Timorese refugees and exiles from the empire—as many as three quarters of a million retornados ("returned ones" or immigrants from the former empire) entered Portugal in 1974 and 1975—there has been greater ethnic diversity in the Portuguese population. In 2002, there were 239,113 immigrants legally residing in Portugal: 108,132 from Africa; 24,806 from Brazil; 15,906 from Britain; 14,617 from Spain; and 11,877 from Germany. In addition, about 200,000 immigrants are living in Portugal from eastern Europe, mainly from Ukraine. The growth of Portugal's population is reflected in the following statistics:1527 1,200,000 (estimate only)1768 2,400,000 (estimate only)1864 4,287,000 first census1890 5,049,7001900 5,423,0001911 5,960,0001930 6,826,0001940 7,185,1431950 8,510,0001960 8,889,0001970 8,668,000* note decrease1980 9,833,0001991 9,862,5401996 9,934,1002006 10,642,8362010 10,710,000 (estimated) -
47 Armed forces
Although armed force has been a major factor in the development of the Portuguese nation-state, a standing army did not exist until after the War of Restoration (1641-48). During the 18th century, Portugal's small army was drawn into many European wars. In 1811, a combined Anglo-Portuguese army drove the French army of Napoleon out of the country. After Germany declared war on Portugal in March 1916, two Portuguese divisions were conscripted and sent to France, where they sustained heavy casualties at the Battle of Lys in April 1918. As Portugal and Spain were neutral in World War II, the Portuguese Army cooperated with the Spanish army to defend Iberian neutrality. In 1949, Portugal became a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). When the nationalist quest for independence began in Portugal's colonies in Africa ( Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea- Bissau) in the 1960s, the military effort (1961-74) to suppress the nationalists resulted in an expansion of the Portuguese armed forces to about 250,000.Since the Revolution of 25 April 1974, the number of personnel on active duty in the army, navy, and air force has been greatly reduced (43,200 in 2007) and given a more direct role in NATO. New NATO commitments led to the organization of the Brigada Mista Independente (Independent Composite Brigade), later converted into the Brigada Aero-Transportada. (Air-Transported Brigade) to be used in the defense of Europe's southern flank. The Portuguese air force and navy are responsible for the defense of the Azores-Madeira-Portugal strategic triangle.Chronic military intervention in Portuguese political life began in the 19th century. These interventions usually began with revolts of the military ( pronunciamentos) in order to get rid of what were considered by the armed forces corrupt or incompetent civilian governments. The army overthrew the monarchy on the 5 October 1910 and established Portugal's First Republic. It overthrew the First Republic on 28 May 1926 and established a military dictatorship. The army returned to the barracks during the Estado Novo of Antônio de Oliveira Salazar. The armed forces once again returned to politics when the Armed Forces Movement (MFA) overthrew the Estado Novo on 25 April 1974. After the Revolution of 25 April 1974, the armed forces again played a major role in Portuguese politics through the Council of the Revolution, which was composed of the president of the Republic, Chiefs of the general staff, three service chiefs, and 14 MFA officers. The Council of the Revolution advised the president on the selection of the prime minister and could veto legislation.The subordination of the Portuguese armed forces to civilian authority began in 1982, when revisions to the Constitution abolished the Council of the Revolution and redefined the mission of the armed forces to that of safeguarding and defending the national territory. By the early 1990s, the political influence of Portugal armed force had waned and civilian control was reinforced with the National Defense Laws of 1991, which made the chief of the general staff of the armed forces directly responsible to the minister of defense, not the president of the republic, as had been the case previously. As the end of the Cold War had eliminated the threat of a Soviet invasion of western Europe, Portuguese armed forces continues to be scaled back and reorganized. Currently, the focus is on modernization to achieve high operational efficiency in certain areas such as air defense, naval patrols, and rapid-response capability in case of terrorist attack. Compulsory military service was ended in 2004. The Portuguese armed forces have been employed as United Nations peacekeepers in East Timor, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Lebanon. -
48 Empire, Portuguese overseas
(1415-1975)Portugal was the first Western European state to establish an early modern overseas empire beyond the Mediterranean and perhaps the last colonial power to decolonize. A vast subject of complexity that is full of myth as well as debatable theories, the history of the Portuguese overseas empire involves the story of more than one empire, the question of imperial motives, the nature of Portuguese rule, and the results and consequences of empire, including the impact on subject peoples as well as on the mother country and its society, Here, only the briefest account of a few such issues can be attempted.There were various empires or phases of empire after the capture of the Moroccan city of Ceuta in 1415. There were at least three Portuguese empires in history: the First empire (1415-1580), the Second empire (1580-1640 and 1640-1822), and the Third empire (1822-1975).With regard to the second empire, the so-called Phillipine period (1580-1640), when Portugal's empire was under Spanish domination, could almost be counted as a separate era. During that period, Portugal lost important parts of its Asian holdings to England and also sections of its colonies of Brazil, Angola, and West Africa to Holland's conquests. These various empires could be characterized by the geography of where Lisbon invested its greatest efforts and resources to develop territories and ward off enemies.The first empire (1415-1580) had two phases. First came the African coastal phase (1415-97), when the Portuguese sought a foothold in various Moroccan cities but then explored the African coast from Morocco to past the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. While colonization and sugar farming were pursued in the Atlantic islands, as well as in the islands in the Gulf of Guinea like São Tomé and Príncipe, for the most part the Portuguese strategy was to avoid commitments to defending or peopling lands on the African continent. Rather, Lisbon sought a seaborne trade empire, in which the Portuguese could profit from exploiting trade and resources (such as gold) along the coasts and continue exploring southward to seek a sea route to Portuguese India. The second phase of the first empire (1498-1580) began with the discovery of the sea route to Asia, thanks to Vasco da Gama's first voyage in 1497-99, and the capture of strong points, ports, and trading posts in order to enforce a trade monopoly between Asia and Europe. This Asian phase produced the greatest revenues of empire Portugal had garnered, yet ended when Spain conquered Portugal and commanded her empire as of 1580.Portugal's second overseas empire began with Spanish domination and ran to 1822, when Brazil won her independence from Portugal. This phase was characterized largely by Brazilian dominance of imperial commitment, wealth in minerals and other raw materials from Brazil, and the loss of a significant portion of her African and Asian coastal empire to Holland and Great Britain. A sketch of Portugal's imperial losses either to native rebellions or to imperial rivals like Britain and Holland follows:• Morocco (North Africa) (sample only)Arzila—Taken in 1471; evacuated in 1550s; lost to Spain in 1580, which returned city to a sultan.Ceuta—Taken in 1415; lost to Spain in 1640 (loss confirmed in 1668 treaty with Spain).• Tangiers—Taken in 15th century; handed over to England in 1661 as part of Catherine of Braganza's dowry to King Charles II.• West Africa• Fort/Castle of São Jorge da Mina, Gold Coast (in what is now Ghana)—Taken in 1480s; lost to Holland in 1630s.• Middle EastSocotra-isle—Conquered in 1507; fort abandoned in 1511; used as water resupply stop for India fleet.Muscat—Conquered in 1501; lost to Persians in 1650.Ormuz—Taken, 1505-15 under Albuquerque; lost to England, which gave it to Persia in the 17th century.Aden (entry to Red Sea) — Unsuccessfully attacked by Portugal (1513-30); taken by Turks in 1538.• India• Ceylon (Sri Lanka)—Taken by 1516; lost to Dutch after 1600.• Bombay—Taken in 16th century; given to England in 1661 treaty as part of Catherine of Braganza's dowry for Charles II.• East Indies• Moluccas—Taken by 1520; possession confirmed in 1529 Saragossa treaty with Spain; lost to Dutch after 1600; only East Timor remaining.After the restoration of Portuguese independence from Spain in 1640, Portugal proceeded to revive and strengthen the Anglo- Portuguese Alliance, with international aid to fight off further Spanish threats to Portugal and drive the Dutch invaders out of Brazil and Angola. While Portugal lost its foothold in West Africa at Mina to the Dutch, dominion in Angola was consolidated. The most vital part of the imperial economy was a triangular trade: slaves from West Africa and from the coasts of Congo and Angola were shipped to plantations in Brazil; raw materials (sugar, tobacco, gold, diamonds, dyes) were sent to Lisbon; Lisbon shipped Brazil colonists and hardware. Part of Portugal's War of Restoration against Spain (1640-68) and its reclaiming of Brazil and Angola from Dutch intrusions was financed by the New Christians (Jews converted to Christianity after the 1496 Manueline order of expulsion of Jews) who lived in Portugal, Holland and other low countries, France, and Brazil. If the first empire was mainly an African coastal and Asian empire, the second empire was primarily a Brazilian empire.Portugal's third overseas empire began upon the traumatic independence of Brazil, the keystone of the Lusitanian enterprise, in 1822. The loss of Brazil greatly weakened Portugal both as a European power and as an imperial state, for the scattered remainder of largely coastal, poor, and uncolonized territories that stretched from the bulge of West Africa to East Timor in the East Indies and Macau in south China were more of a financial liability than an asset. Only two small territories balanced their budgets occasionally or made profits: the cocoa islands of São Tomé and Príncipe in the Gulf of Guinea and tiny Macau, which lost much of its advantage as an entrepot between the West and the East when the British annexed neighboring Hong Kong in 1842. The others were largely burdens on the treasury. The African colonies were strapped by a chronic economic problem: at a time when the slave trade and then slavery were being abolished under pressures from Britain and other Western powers, the economies of Guinea- Bissau, São Tomé/Príncipe, Angola, and Mozambique were totally dependent on revenues from the slave trade and slavery. During the course of the 19th century, Lisbon began a program to reform colonial administration in a newly rejuvenated African empire, where most of the imperial efforts were expended, by means of replacing the slave trade and slavery, with legitimate economic activities.Portugal participated in its own early version of the "Scramble" for Africa's interior during 1850-69, but discovered that the costs of imperial expansion were too high to allow effective occupation of the hinterlands. After 1875, Portugal participated in the international "Scramble for Africa" and consolidated its holdings in west and southern Africa, despite the failure of the contra-costa (to the opposite coast) plan, which sought to link up the interiors of Angola and Mozambique with a corridor in central Africa. Portugal's expansion into what is now Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe (eastern section) in 1885-90 was thwarted by its oldest ally, Britain, under pressure from interest groups in South Africa, Scotland, and England. All things considered, Portugal's colonizing resources and energies were overwhelmed by the African empire it possessed after the frontier-marking treaties of 1891-1906. Lisbon could barely administer the massive area of five African colonies, whose total area comprised about 8 percent of the area of the colossal continent. The African territories alone were many times the size of tiny Portugal and, as of 1914, Portugal was the third colonial power in terms of size of area possessed in the world.The politics of Portugal's empire were deceptive. Lisbon remained obsessed with the fear that rival colonial powers, especially Germany and Britain, would undermine and then dismantle her African empire. This fear endured well into World War II. In developing and keeping her potentially rich African territories (especially mineral-rich Angola and strategically located Mozambique), however, the race against time was with herself and her subject peoples. Two major problems, both chronic, prevented Portugal from effective colonization (i.e., settling) and development of her African empire: the economic weakness and underdevelopment of the mother country and the fact that the bulk of Portuguese emigration after 1822 went to Brazil, Venezuela, the United States, and France, not to the colonies. These factors made it difficult to consolidate imperial control until it was too late; that is, until local African nationalist movements had organized and taken the field in insurgency wars that began in three of the colonies during the years 1961-64.Portugal's belated effort to revitalize control and to develop, in the truest sense of the word, Angola and Mozambique after 1961 had to be set against contemporary events in Europe, Africa, and Asia. While Portugal held on to a backward empire, other European countries like Britain, France, and Belgium were rapidly decolonizing their empires. Portugal's failure or unwillingness to divert the large streams of emigrants to her empire after 1850 remained a constant factor in this question. Prophetic were the words of the 19th-century economist Joaquim Oliveira Martins, who wrote in 1880 that Brazil was a better colony for Portugal than Africa and that the best colony of all would have been Portugal itself. As of the day of the Revolution of 25 April 1974, which sparked the final process of decolonization of the remainder of Portugal's third overseas empire, the results of the colonization program could be seen to be modest compared to the numbers of Portuguese emigrants outside the empire. Moreover, within a year, of some 600,000 Portuguese residing permanently in Angola and Mozambique, all but a few thousand had fled to South Africa or returned to Portugal.In 1974 and 1975, most of the Portuguese empire was decolonized or, in the case of East Timor, invaded and annexed by a foreign power before it could consolidate its independence. Only historic Macau, scheduled for transfer to the People's Republic of China in 1999, remained nominally under Portuguese control as a kind of footnote to imperial history. If Portugal now lacked a conventional overseas empire and was occupied with the challenges of integration in the European Union (EU), Lisbon retained another sort of informal dependency that was a new kind of empire: the empire of her scattered overseas Portuguese communities from North America to South America. Their numbers were at least six times greater than that of the last settlers of the third empire.Historical dictionary of Portugal > Empire, Portuguese overseas
-
49 Polhem, Christopher
SUBJECT AREA: Mining and extraction technology[br]b. 18 December 1661 Tingstade, Gotland, Sweden d. 1751[br]Swedish engineer and inventor.[br]He was the eldest son of Wolf Christopher Polhamma, a merchant. The father died in 1669 and the son was sent by his stepfather to an uncle in Stockholm who found him a place in the Deutsche Rechenschule. After the death of his uncle, he was forced to find employment, which he did with the Biorenklou family near Uppsala where he eventually became a kind of estate bailiff. It was during this period that he started to work with a lathe, a forge and at carpentry, displaying great technical ability. He realized that without further education he had little chance of making anything of his life, and accordingly, in 1687, he registered at the University of Uppsala where he studied astronomy and mathematics, remaining there for three years. He also repaired two astronomical pendulum clocks as well as the decrepit medieval clock in the cathedral. After a year's work he had this clock running properly: this was his breakthrough. He was summoned to Stockholm where the King awarded him a salary of 500 dalers a year as an encouragement to further efforts. Around this time, one of increasing mechanization and when mining was Sweden's principal industry, Pohlem made a model of a hoist frame for mines and the Mines Authority encouraged him to develop his ideas. In 1693 Polhem completed the Blankstot hoist at the Stora Kopparberg mine, which attracted great interest on the European continent.From 1694 to 1696 Polhem toured factories, mills and mines abroad in Germany, Holland, England and France, studying machinery of all kinds and meeting many foreign engineers. In 1698 he was appointed Director of Mining Engineering in Sweden, and in 1700 he became Master of Construction in the Falu Mine. He installed the Karl XII hoist there, powered by moving beams from a distant water-wheel. His plan of 1697 for all the machinery at the Falu mine to be driven by three large and remote water-wheels was never completed.In 1707 he was invited by the Elector of Hanover to visit the mines in the Harz district, where he successfully explained many of his ideas which were adopted by the local engineers. In 1700, in conjunction with Gabriel Stierncrona, he founded the Stiersunds Bruk at Husby in Southern Dalarna, a factory for the mass production of metal goods in iron, steel and bronze. Simple articles such as pans, trays, bowls, knives, scissors and mirrors were made there, together with the more sophisticated Polhem lock and the Stiersunds clock. Production was based on water power. Gear cutting for the clocks, shaping hammers for plates, file cutting and many other operations were all water powered, as was a roller mill for the sheet metal used in the factory. He also designed textile machinery such as stocking looms and spinning frames and machines for the manufacture of ribbons and other things.In many of his ideas Polhem was in advance of his time and Swedish country society was unable to absorb them. This was largely the reason for the Stiersund project being only a partial success. Polhem, too, was of a disputatious nature, self-opinionated almost to the point of conceit. He was a prolific writer, leaving over 20,000 pages of manuscript notes, drafts, essays on a wide range of subjects, which included building, brick-making, barrels, wheel-making, bell-casting, organ-building, methods of stopping a horse from bolting and a curious tap "to prevent serving maids from sneaking wine from the cask", the construction of ploughs and threshing machines. His major work, Kort Berattelse om de Fornamsta Mechaniska Inventioner (A Brief Account of the Most Famous Inventions), was printed in 1729 and is the main source of knowledge about his technological work. He is also known for his "mechanical alphabet", a collection of some eighty wooden models of mechanisms for educational purposes. It is in the National Museum of Science and Technology in Stockholm.[br]Bibliography1729, Kort Berattelse om de Fornamsta Mechaniska Inventioner (A Brief Account of the Most Famous Inventions).Further Reading1985, Christopher Polhem, 1661–1751, TheSwedish Daedalus' (catalogue of a travelling exhibition from the Swedish Institute in association with the National Museum of Science and Technology), Stockholm.IMcN
Страницы
См. также в других словарях:
Southern Germany — The term Southern Germany (German: Süddeutschland ) is used to describe a region in the south of Germany. There is no specific boundary to the region, but it usually includes Bavaria, Baden Württemberg, and the southern part of Hesse. The… … Wikipedia
Germany — • History divided by time periods, beginning with before 1556 Catholic Encyclopedia. Kevin Knight. 2006. Germany Germany † … Catholic encyclopedia
Germany — /jerr meuh nee/, n. a republic in central Europe: after World War II divided into four zones, British, French, U.S., and Soviet, and in 1949 into East Germany and West Germany; East and West Germany were reunited in 1990. 84,068,216; 137,852 sq.… … Universalium
Germany — This article is about the country. For other uses of terms redirecting here, see Germany (disambiguation) and Deutschland (disambiguation) … Wikipedia
Germany–United States relations — German American relations are the transatlantic relations between Germany and the United States and between the German and American people in particular.Today, the United States is regarded as one of Germany’s closest allies and partners outside… … Wikipedia
Southern Netherlands — History of the Low Countriesv · d · e … Wikipedia
GERMANY — GERMANY, country in north central Europe. The Talmud and the Midrash use Germania (or Germamia ) as a designation for northern European countries, and also refer to the military prowess of these peoples and to the threat they posed to the Roman… … Encyclopedia of Judaism
Southern Schleswig — is a name for the geographical area covering the thirty or forty northernmost kilometers of Germany, where Germany borders upon Denmark. Together with Northern Schleswig, the southernmost part of Denmark, it constitutes the region of Schleswig.… … Wikipedia
Southern Victory Series — The Southern Victory Series or Timeline 191 are both fan names given to a series of Harry Turtledove alternate history novels, including How Few Remain as well as the Great War, American Empire, and Settling Accounts series. The name is derived… … Wikipedia
Southern Africa — Introduction southernmost region of the African continent, comprising the countries of Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The island nation of Madagascar is excluded… … Universalium
Southern German football championship — * The SpVgg Fürth won the German championship in 1929, qualifying as the third Southern German team.1945 to 1963: Oberliga SüdAfter the Second World War, the Southern German Cup was revitalised in 1952 and functioned as a qualifying tournament… … Wikipedia
