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1 Abhidharmakosha (Encyclopaedic compendium of scholasticism, the position of which within Buddhism has been likened to that of St. Thomas Aquinas' Summa theologiae for Roman Catholicism)
Религия: "Абхидхармакоша"Универсальный англо-русский словарь > Abhidharmakosha (Encyclopaedic compendium of scholasticism, the position of which within Buddhism has been likened to that of St. Thomas Aquinas' Summa theologiae for Roman Catholicism)
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2 that
ce ⇒ 1 (a), 2 (a) cela ⇒ 1 (a) ça ⇒ 1 (a) celui-là ⇒ 1 (b) celui ⇒ 1 (c) ce…-là ⇒ 2 (b) si ⇒ 3 (a), 3 (b) qui ⇒ 4 (a) que ⇒ 4 (b), 5 (a) lequel ⇒ 4 (c) où ⇒ 4 (d)(pl those [ðəʊz])∎ give me that donnez-moi ça;∎ after/before that après/avant cela;∎ what's that? qu'est-ce que c'est que ça?;∎ what's that (that) you're holding? qu'est-ce que tu as dans la main?;∎ that's Mr Thomas c'est M. Thomas;∎ is that you, Susan? c'est toi, Susan?;∎ is that all you've got to eat? c'est tout ce que vous avez à manger?;∎ what did she mean by that? qu'est-ce qu'elle voulait dire par là?;∎ those are my things ce sont mes affaires;∎ those are my orders voilà mes ordres;∎ those are my parents voilà mes parents;∎ that is what he told me c'est ou voilà ce qu'il m'a dit;∎ that is where I live c'est là que j'habite;∎ that was three months ago il y a trois mois de cela;∎ that's strange c'est bizarre;∎ I've only got one coat and that's old je n'ai qu'un manteau et encore, il est vieux;∎ so THAT'S how it works! c'est donc comme ça que ça marche!;∎ so THAT'S settled bon, ça c'est réglé ou voilà qui est réglé;∎ that's as may be peut-être bien;∎ familiar it's not as hot as (all) that! il ne fait pas si chaud que ça!;∎ so it's come to that voilà donc où nous en sommes (arrivés);∎ if it comes to that, you can always leave si ça en arrive là, vous pouvez toujours partir;∎ that's a good boy! en voilà un gentil petit garçon!;∎ that's all c'est tout, voilà tout;∎ that's all we need! il ne manquait plus que ça!;∎ that's enough (of that)! ça suffit!;∎ that's it for today! ce sera tout pour aujourd'hui!;∎ that's it! you've got it! c'est ça! tu as trouvé!;∎ that's life! c'est la vie!;∎ that's more like it! voilà qui est déjà mieux!;∎ well, that's that! eh bien voilà!;∎ I said "no" and that's that! j'ai dit "non", un point c'est tout!;∎ that's the government all over or for you! c'est bien l'administration ça!;∎ is she intelligent? - that she is! elle est intelligente? - ça oui ou pour sûr!;∎ familiar good stuff, that! ah c'est bon ça!(b) (in contrast to "this") celui-là (celle-là) m,f;∎ those ceux-là (celles-là) mpl, fpl;∎ this is an ash, that is an oak ceci est un frêne et ça, c'est un chêne;∎ which book do you prefer, this or that? quel livre préférez-vous, celui-ci ou celui-là?;∎ I'd like some flowers, but not those! j'aimerais des fleurs, mais pas celles-là!(c) (used when giving further information) celui (celle) m,f;∎ those ceux (celles) mpl, fpl;∎ there are those who believe that… il y a des gens qui croient que…;∎ I'm not one of those who… je ne suis pas du genre à ou de ceux qui…;∎ a sound like that of a baby crying un bruit comme celui que fait un bébé qui pleure;∎ the symptoms sound like those of malaria les symptômes ressemblent à ceux du paludisme;∎ he spoke with those concerned il a parlé à ceux qui sont concernés;∎ all those interested should contact the club secretary tous ceux qui sont intéressés doivent contacter le secrétaire du club(a) (the one indicated) ce (cette);∎ those ces;∎ that man cet homme;∎ those questions ces questions;∎ at that moment à ce moment-là;∎ it was raining that day il pleuvait ce jour-là;∎ in those days en ce temps-là, à cette époque;∎ we all agree on that point nous sommes tous d'accord là-dessus;∎ did you hear about that terrible accident on the motorway? as-tu entendu parler de ce terrible accident sur l'autoroute?;∎ do you remember that play we saw last year? tu te rappelles cette pièce que nous avons vue l'année dernière?;∎ how about that drink you offered me? et ce verre que vous m'avez proposé?;∎ I like that idea of his j'aime son idée;∎ how's that son of yours? comment va ton fils?;∎ pejorative if I get hold of that son of yours! si je mets la main sur ton sacré fils!;∎ that fool of a gardener cet imbécile de jardinier;∎ they rode off into the sunset, it was that kind of film ils se sont éloignés vers le soleil couchant, c'était ce genre de film, tu vois?(b) (in contrast to "this") ce…-là (cette…-là);∎ those ces…-là;∎ that house over there is for sale cette ou la maison là-bas est à vendre;∎ that one celui-là (celle-là) m,f;∎ choose between this restaurant and that one choisissez entre ce restaurant et l'autre;∎ familiar that there table cette table-là□∎ can you run that fast? pouvez-vous courir aussi vite que ça?;∎ he's not (all) that good-looking il n'est pas si beau que ça;∎ there's a pile of papers on my desk that high! il y a une pile de papiers haute comme ça sur mon bureau!;∎ I don't go there that often (not much) je n'y vais pas très souvent;∎ I don't go there THAT often je n'y vais pas aussi souvent que ça∎ he was that weak he couldn't stand il était tellement affaibli qu'il ne tenait plus debout;∎ I could have cried, I was that angry j'en aurais pleuré tellement j'étais en colèreⓘ GRAM On peut omettre le pronom relatif that sauf s'il est en position sujet.(a) (subject of verb) qui;∎ the conclusions that emerge from this les conclusions qui en ressortent;∎ nothing that matters rien d'important∎ the house that Miles built la maison que Miles a construite;∎ is this the best that you can do? est-ce que c'est ce que vous pouvez faire de mieux?;∎ fool that I am, I agreed imbécile que je suis, j'ai accepté;∎ pessimist/optimist that he is pessimiste/optimiste comme il est(c) (object of preposition) lequel (laquelle) m,f;∎ the box that I put it in/on le carton dans lequel/sur lequel je l'ai mis;∎ the songs that I was thinking of or about les chansons auxquelles je pensais;∎ the woman/the film that we're talking about la femme/le film dont nous parlons;∎ not that I know of pas que je sache∎ the week that he was sick la semaine où il était malade;∎ during the months that we were in Chicago pendant les mois que nous avons passés ou où nous étions à Chicagoⓘ GRAM Sauf dans la langue soutenue, la conjonction that est souvent omise.∎ I said that I had read it j'ai dit que je l'avais lu;∎ it's natural that you should be nervous c'est normal que vous soyez nerveux;∎ it's not that she isn't friendly ce n'est pas qu'elle ne soit pas amicale;∎ I'll see to it that everything is ready je veillerai à ce que tout soit prêt;∎ it was so dark that I could barely see il faisait si noir que je voyais à peine;∎ formal that he is capable has already been proven il a déjà prouvé qu'il était capable;∎ formal that I should live to see the day when… (expressing incredulity) je n'aurais jamais cru qu'un jour…;∎ formal oh, that it were possible! si seulement c'était possible!∎ he died that we might live il est mort pour que nous puissions vivrefamiliar (and so on) et tout le bastringue;∎ it was a very posh do, waiters in white gloves and (all) that c'était très classe, avec des serveurs en gants blancs et tout le bastringue;∎ she went on about friendship and (all) that elle parlait d'amitié et tout ce qui s'ensuit(a) (what's more) en plus;∎ it's a forgery and a pretty poor one at that c'est une copie et une mauvaise en plus∎ perhaps we're not so badly off at that en fait, on n'est peut-être pas tellement à plaindre;∎ it might be worth trying at that ça vaudrait peut-être le coup∎ at that, he paused à ce moment-là, il a marqué un temps d'arrêt(a) (indicating character or attitude) comme ça;∎ she's like that, she never says thank you elle est comme ça, elle ne dit jamais merci;∎ don't be like that ne soyez pas comme ça(b) (close, intimate) comme les deux doigts de la main;∎ the two of them are like that ils sont comme les deux doigts de la main;∎ he's like that with the boss il est au mieux avec le patron2 adverb(in that way) comme ça;∎ stop looking at me like that! arrête de me regarder comme ça!∎ if he refuses, not that he will, is there an alternative? s'il refuse, même si cela est peu probable, est-ce qu'il y a une autre solution?;∎ he's already left, not that it matters il est déjà parti, encore que ce soit sans importanceenfin;∎ I'll do anything, that's to say anything legal je ferais n'importe quoi, enfin du moment que c'est légal;∎ I work at the hospital, as a receptionist that is, not as a nurse je travaille à l'hôpital, enfin à la réception, pas comme infirmière;∎ I'd like to ask you something, that is, if you've got a minute j'aimerais vous poser une question, enfin, si vous avez un instant(a) (in that manner) de cette façon;∎ what makes him act that way? qu'est-ce qui le pousse à agir comme ça?;∎ that way you'll only make things worse de cette façon, tu ne feras qu'empirer les choses∎ she's funny that way c'est son côté bizarre;∎ I didn't know he was that way inclined je ne connaissais pas ce côté-là de luilà-dessus;∎ with that, she left sur ce ou là-dessus, elle est partie -
3 Thomas, Sidney Gilchrist
SUBJECT AREA: Metallurgy[br]b. 16 April 1850 London, Englandd. 1 February 1885 Paris, France[br]English inventor of basic steelmaking.[br]Thomas was educated at Dulwich College and from the age of 17, for the next twelve years, he made his living as a police-court clerk, although he studied chemistry in his spare time as an evening student at Birkbeck College, London. While there, he heard of the difficulties encountered by the Bessemer steelmaking process, which at that time was limited to using phosphorus-free iron. Any of this element present in the iron was oxidized to phosphoric acid, which would not react with the acidic lining in the converter, with the result that it would remain in the iron and render it too brittle to use. Unfortunately, phosphoric iron ores are more common than those free of this harmful element. Thomas was attracted by the view that a fortune awaited anyone who could solve this problem, and was not discouraged by the failure of several august figures in the industry, including Siemens and Lowthian Bell.Thomas's knowledge of chemistry taught him that whereas an acidic lining allowed the phosphorus to remain in the iron, a basic lining would react with it to form part of the slag, which could then be tapped off. His experiments to find a suitable material were conducted in difficult conditions, in his spare time with meagre apparatus. Finally he found that a converter lined with dolomite, a form of limestone, would succeed, and he appealed to his cousin Percy Carlyle Gilchrist, Chemist at the Blaenavon Ironworks in Monmouthshire, for help in carrying out pilot-scale trials. In 1879 he gave up his police-court job to devote himself to the work, and in the same year they patented the Thomas- Gilchrist process. The first licence to use it was granted to Bolckow, Vaughan \& Co. of Middlesborough, and there the first steel was made in a basic Bessemer converter on 4 April 1879. The process was rapidly taken up and spread widely in Europe and beyond and was applied to other furnaces. Thomas made a fortune, but his health did not long allow him to enjoy it, for he died at the early age of 34.[br]BibliographyL.G.Thompson, 1940, Sidney Gilchrist Thomas, an Invention and Its Consequences, London: Faber.T.G.Davies, 1978, Blaenavon and Sidney Gilchrist Thomas, Sheffield: Historical Metallurgy Society.LRDBiographical history of technology > Thomas, Sidney Gilchrist
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4 Newcomen, Thomas
SUBJECT AREA: Steam and internal combustion engines[br]b. January or February 1663 Dartmouth, Devon, Englandd. 5 August 1729 London, England[br]English inventor and builder of the world's first successful stationary steam-engine.[br]Newcomen was probably born at a house on the quay at Dartmouth, Devon, England, the son of Elias Newcomen and Sarah Trenhale. Nothing is known of his education, and there is only dubious evidence of his apprenticeship to an ironmonger in Exeter. He returned to Dartmouth and established himself there as an "ironmonger". The term "ironmonger" at that time meant more than a dealer in ironmongery: a skilled craftsman working in iron, nearer to today's "blacksmith". In this venture he had a partner, John Calley or Caley, who was a plumber and glazier. Besides running his business in Dartmouth, it is evident that Newcomen spent a good deal of time travelling round the mines of Devon and Cornwall in search of business.Eighteenth-century writers and others found it impossible to believe that a provincial ironmonger could have invented the steam-engine, the concept of which had occupied the best scientific brains in Europe, and postulated a connection between Newcomen and Savery or Papin, but scholars in recent years have failed to find any evidence of this. Certainly Savery was in Dartmouth at the same time as Newcomen but there is nothing to indicate that they met, although it is possible. The most recent biographer of Thomas Newcomen is of the opinion that he was aware of Savery and his work, that the two men had met by 1705 and that, although Newcomen could have taken out his own patent, he could not have operated his own engines without infringing Savery's patent. In the event, they came to an agreement by which Newcomen was enabled to sell his engines under Savery's patent.The first recorded Newcomen engine is dated 1712, although this may have been preceded by a good number of test engines built at Dartmouth, possibly following a number of models. Over one hundred engines were built to Newcomen's design during his lifetime, with the first engine being installed at the Griff Colliery near Dudley Castle in Staffordshire.On the death of Thomas Savery, on 15 May 1715, a new company, the Proprietors of the Engine Patent, was formed to carry on the business. The Company was represented by Edward Elliot, "who attended the Sword Blade Coffee House in Birchin Lane, London, between 3 and 5 o'clock to receive enquiries and to act as a contact for the committee". Newcomen was, of course, a member of the Proprietors.A staunch Baptist, Newcomen married Hannah Waymouth, who bore him two sons and a daughter. He died, it is said of a fever, in London on 5 August 1729 and was buried at Bunhill Fields.[br]Further ReadingL.T.C.Rolt and J.S.Allen, 1977, The Steam Engine of Thomas Newcomen, Hartington: Moorland Publishing Company (the definitive account of his life and work).IMcN -
5 Cotchett, Thomas
SUBJECT AREA: Textiles[br]fl. 1700s[br]English engineer who set up the first water-powered textile mill in Britain at Derby.[br]At the beginning of the eighteenth century, silk weaving was one of the most prosperous trades in Britain, but it depended upon raw silk worked up on hand twisting or throwing machines. In 1702 Thomas Cotchett set up a mill for twisting silk by water-power at the northern end of an island in the river Derwent at Derby; this would probably have been to produce organzine, the hard twisted thread used for the warp when weaving silk fabrics. Such mills had been established in Italy beginning with the earliest in Bologna in 1272, but it would appear that Cotchett used Dutch silk-throwing machinery that was driven by a water wheel that was 13½ ft (4.1 m) in diameter and built by the local engineer, George Sorocold. The enterprise soon failed, but it was quickly revived and extended by Thomas and John Lombe with machinery based on that being used successfully in Italy.[br]Further ReadingD.M.Smith, 1965, Industrial Archaeology of the East Midlands, Newton Abbot (provides an account of Cotchett's mill).W.H.Chaloner, 1963, "Sir Thomas Lombe (1685–1739) and the British silk industry", History Today (Nov.).R.L.Hills, 1970, Power in the Industrial Revolution, Manchester (a brief coverage of the development of early silk throwing mills).D.Kuhn, 1988, Science and Civilisation in China, Vol. V: Chemistry and ChemicalTechnology, Part 9, Textile Technology: spinning and reeling, Cambridge (covers the diffusion of the techniques of the mechanization of the silk-throwing industry from China to the West).RLH -
6 Johnson, Thomas
SUBJECT AREA: Textiles[br]fl. 1800s Englandd. after 1846[br]English developer of the sizing and beaming machine, and improver of the hand loom.[br]Thomas Johnson was an assistant to William Radcliffe c.1802 in his developments of the sizing machine and hand looms. Johnson is described by Edward Baines (1835) as "an ingenious but dissipated young man to whom he [Radcliffe] explained what he wanted, and whose fertile invention suggested a great variety of expedients, so that he obtained the name of the “conjuror” among his fellow-workmen". Johnson's genius, and Radcliffe's judgement and perseverance, at length produced the dressing-machine that was soon applied to power looms and made their use economic. Cotton warps had to be dressed with a starch paste to prevent them from fraying as they were being woven. Up to this time, the paste had had to be applied as the warp was unwound from the back of the loom, which meant that only short lengths could be treated and then left to dry, holding up the weaver. Radcliffe carried out the dressing and beaming in a separate machine so that weaving could proceed without interruption. Work on the dressing-machine was carried out in 1802 and patents were taken out in 1803 and 1804. These were made out in Johnson's name because Radcliffe was afraid that if his own name were used other people, particularly foreigners, would discover his secrets. Two more patents were taken out for improvements to hand looms. The first of these was a take-up motion for the woven cloth that automatically wound the cloth onto a roller as the weaver operated the loom. This was later incorporated by H.Horrocks into his own power loom design.Radcliffe and Johnson also developed the "dandy-loom", which was a more compact form of hand loom and later became adapted for weaving by power. Johnson was the inventor of the first circular or revolving temples, which kept the woven cloth at the right width. In the patent specifications there is a patent in 1805 by Thomas Johnson and James Kay for an improved power loom and another in 1807 for a vertical type of power loom. Johnson could have been involved with further patents in the 1830s and 1840s for vertical power looms and dressing-machines, which would put his death after 1846.[br]Bibliography1802, British patent no. 2,684 (dressing-machine).1803, British patent no. 2,771 (dressing-machine).1805, with James Kay, British patent no. 2,876 (power-loom). 1807, British patent no. 6,570 (vertical powerloom).Further ReadingThere is no general account of Johnson's life, but references to his work with Radcliffe may be found in A.Barlow, 1878, The History and Principles of Weaving by Hand and by Power, London; and in E.Baines, 1835, History of the Cotton Manufacture in Great Britain, London.D.J.Jeremy, 1981, Transatlantic Industrial Revolution. The Diffusion of Textile Technologies Between Britain and America, 1790–1830s, Oxford (for the impact of the dressing-machine in America).RLH -
7 Savery, Thomas
SUBJECT AREA: Mechanical, pneumatic and hydraulic engineering[br]b. c. 1650 probably Shilston, near Modbury, Devonshire, Englandd. c. 15 May 1715 London, England[br]English inventor of a partially successful steam-driven pump for raising water.[br]Little is known of the early years of Savery's life and no trace has been found that he served in the Army, so the title "Captain" is thought to refer to some mining appointment, probably in the West of England. He may have been involved in the Glorious Revolution of 1688, for later he was well known to William of Orange. From 1705 to 1714 he was Treasurer for Sick and Wounded Seamen, and in 1714 he was appointed Surveyor of the Water Works at Hampton Court, a post he held until his death the following year. He was interested in mechanical devices; amongst his early contrivances was a clock.He was the most prolific inventor of his day, applying for seven patents, including one in 1649, for polishing plate glass which may have been used. His idea for 1697 for propelling ships with paddle-wheels driven by a capstan was a failure, although regarded highly by the King, and was published in his first book, Navigation Improved (1698). He tried to patent a new type of floating mill in 1707, and an idea in 1710 for baking sea coal or other fuel in an oven to make it clean and pure.His most famous invention, however, was the one patented in 1698 "for raising water by the impellent force of fire" that Savery said would drain mines or low-lying land, raise water to supply towns or houses, and provide a source of water for turning mills through a water-wheel. Basically it consisted of a receiver which was first filled with steam and then cooled to create a vacuum by having water poured over the outside. The water to be pumped was drawn into the receiver from a lower sump, and then high-pressure steam was readmitted to force the water up a pipe to a higher level. It was demonstrated to the King and the Royal Society and achieved some success, for a few were installed in the London area and a manufactory set up at Salisbury Court in London. He published a book, The Miner's Friend, about his engine in 1702, but although he made considerable improvements, due to excessive fuel consumption and materials which could not withstand the steam pressures involved, no engines were installed in mines as Savery had hoped. His patent was extended in 1699 until 1733 so that it covered the atmospheric engine of Thomas Newcomen who was forced to join Savery and his other partners to construct this much more practical engine.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsFRS 1706.Bibliography1698, Navigation Improved.1702, The Miner's Friend.Further ReadingThe entry in the Dictionary of National Biography (1897, Vol. L, London: Smith Elder \& Co.) has been partially superseded by more recent research. The Transactions of the Newcomen Society contain various papers; for example, Rhys Jenkins, 1922–3, "Savery, Newcomen and the early history of the steam engine", Vol. 3; A.Stowers, 1961–2, "Thomas Newcomen's first steam engine 250 years ago and the initial development of steam power", Vol. 34; A.Smith, 1977–8, "Steam and the city: the committee of proprietors of the invention for raising water by fire", 1715–1735, Vol. 49; and J.S.P.Buckland, 1977–8, "Thomas Savery, his steam engine workshop of 1702", Vol. 49. Brief accounts may be found in H.W. Dickinson, 1938, A Short History of the Steam Engine, Cambridge University Press, and R.L. Hills, 1989, Power from Steam. A History of the Stationary Steam Engine, Cambridge University Press. There is another biography in T.I. Williams (ed.), 1969, A Biographical Dictionary of Scientists, London: A. \& C.Black.RLH -
8 Chippendale, Thomas
SUBJECT AREA: Domestic appliances and interiors[br]baptized 5 June 1718 Otley, Yorkshire, Englandd. 13 November 1779 London, England[br]English cabinet-maker who published the first comprehensive book of furniture.[br]Thomas Chippendale was the son of a carpenter. The business that he set up in London was so well established by 1753 that he was able to move to larger premises—a workshop, timberyard and shop—in the furniture-making centre of London, at 60–62 St Martin's Lane. In 1754 he published his folio work The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker's Director, which contained illustrations of every conceivable type of furniture. No previously published book was as comprehensive. The Director, as it came to be called, made Chippendale famous and he became the best known of all such English craftsmen and designers. Further editions of the book followed in 1755 and 1762.Stylistically most of the furniture designs in the Director followed the contemporary rococo fashion, but a number followed other popular themes such as the so-called "literary Gothic" and chinoiserie. Indeed, the Chinese versions became so well known that such furniture became known as "Chinese Chippendale". Chippendale's later work was more neo-classical, much of it produced at the request of Robert Adam for the many great houses whose interiors he was re-designing in the 1760s and 1770s.From a technical viewpoint, Chippendale's furniture was made from a variety of woods and incorporated diverse decoration. Mahogany was the fashionable wood of the age, particularly during the middle years of the eighteenth century, and lent itself especially to the fine and elaborate carving that characterized Chippendale's intricate chair and settee backs. By the later 1760s other woods were also often in use, sometimes gilded and turned, sometimes inlaid with materials such as ivory or ceramic plaques and fine ormolu mounts. Later still, painted designs were applied to panel surfaces. Alternatively, a delicate form of marquetry had been fashionably revived.[br]Further ReadingC.Gilbert, 1972, The Life and Work of Thomas Chippendale: Studio Vista.1986, Dictionary of English Furniture-Makers, The Furniture History Society and W.F. Maney.DY -
9 Edison, Thomas Alva
SUBJECT AREA: Architecture and building, Automotive engineering, Electricity, Electronics and information technology, Metallurgy, Photography, film and optics, Public utilities, Recording, Telecommunications[br]b. 11 February 1847 Milan, Ohio, USAd. 18 October 1931 Glenmont[br]American inventor and pioneer electrical developer.[br]He was the son of Samuel Edison, who was in the timber business. His schooling was delayed due to scarlet fever until 1855, when he was 8½ years old, but he was an avid reader. By the age of 14 he had a job as a newsboy on the railway from Port Huron to Detroit, a distance of sixty-three miles (101 km). He worked a fourteen-hour day with a stopover of five hours, which he spent in the Detroit Free Library. He also sold sweets on the train and, later, fruit and vegetables, and was soon making a profit of $20 a week. He then started two stores in Port Huron and used a spare freight car as a laboratory. He added a hand-printing press to produce 400 copies weekly of The Grand Trunk Herald, most of which he compiled and edited himself. He set himself to learn telegraphy from the station agent at Mount Clements, whose son he had saved from being run over by a freight car.At the age of 16 he became a telegraphist at Port Huron. In 1863 he became railway telegraphist at the busy Stratford Junction of the Grand Trunk Railroad, arranging a clock with a notched wheel to give the hourly signal which was to prove that he was awake and at his post! He left hurriedly after failing to hold a train which was nearly involved in a head-on collision. He usually worked the night shift, allowing himself time for experiments during the day. His first invention was an arrangement of two Morse registers so that a high-speed input could be decoded at a slower speed. Moving from place to place he held many positions as a telegraphist. In Boston he invented an automatic vote recorder for Congress and patented it, but the idea was rejected. This was the first of a total of 1180 patents that he was to take out during his lifetime. After six years he resigned from the Western Union Company to devote all his time to invention, his next idea being an improved ticker-tape machine for stockbrokers. He developed a duplex telegraphy system, but this was turned down by the Western Union Company. He then moved to New York.Edison found accommodation in the battery room of Law's Gold Reporting Company, sleeping in the cellar, and there his repair of a broken transmitter marked him as someone of special talents. His superior soon resigned, and he was promoted with a salary of $300 a month. Western Union paid him $40,000 for the sole rights on future improvements on the duplex telegraph, and he moved to Ward Street, Newark, New Jersey, where he employed a gathering of specialist engineers. Within a year, he married one of his employees, Mary Stilwell, when she was only 16: a daughter, Marion, was born in 1872, and two sons, Thomas and William, in 1876 and 1879, respectively.He continued to work on the automatic telegraph, a device to send out messages faster than they could be tapped out by hand: that is, over fifty words per minute or so. An earlier machine by Alexander Bain worked at up to 400 words per minute, but was not good over long distances. Edison agreed to work on improving this feature of Bain's machine for the Automatic Telegraph Company (ATC) for $40,000. He improved it to a working speed of 500 words per minute and ran a test between Washington and New York. Hoping to sell their equipment to the Post Office in Britain, ATC sent Edison to England in 1873 to negotiate. A 500-word message was to be sent from Liverpool to London every half-hour for six hours, followed by tests on 2,200 miles (3,540 km) of cable at Greenwich. Only confused results were obtained due to induction in the cable, which lay coiled in a water tank. Edison returned to New York, where he worked on his quadruplex telegraph system, tests of which proved a success between New York and Albany in December 1874. Unfortunately, simultaneous negotiation with Western Union and ATC resulted in a lawsuit.Alexander Graham Bell was granted a patent for a telephone in March 1876 while Edison was still working on the same idea. His improvements allowed the device to operate over a distance of hundreds of miles instead of only a few miles. Tests were carried out over the 106 miles (170 km) between New York and Philadelphia. Edison applied for a patent on the carbon-button transmitter in April 1877, Western Union agreeing to pay him $6,000 a year for the seventeen-year duration of the patent. In these years he was also working on the development of the electric lamp and on a duplicating machine which would make up to 3,000 copies from a stencil. In 1876–7 he moved from Newark to Menlo Park, twenty-four miles (39 km) from New York on the Pennsylvania Railway, near Elizabeth. He had bought a house there around which he built the premises that would become his "inventions factory". It was there that he began the use of his 200- page pocket notebooks, each of which lasted him about two weeks, so prolific were his ideas. When he died he left 3,400 of them filled with notes and sketches.Late in 1877 he applied for a patent for a phonograph which was granted on 19 February 1878, and by the end of the year he had formed a company to manufacture this totally new product. At the time, Edison saw the device primarily as a business aid rather than for entertainment, rather as a dictating machine. In August 1878 he was granted a British patent. In July 1878 he tried to measure the heat from the solar corona at a solar eclipse viewed from Rawlins, Wyoming, but his "tasimeter" was too sensitive.Probably his greatest achievement was "The Subdivision of the Electric Light" or the "glow bulb". He tried many materials for the filament before settling on carbon. He gave a demonstration of electric light by lighting up Menlo Park and inviting the public. Edison was, of course, faced with the problem of inventing and producing all the ancillaries which go to make up the electrical system of generation and distribution-meters, fuses, insulation, switches, cabling—even generators had to be designed and built; everything was new. He started a number of manufacturing companies to produce the various components needed.In 1881 he built the world's largest generator, which weighed 27 tons, to light 1,200 lamps at the Paris Exhibition. It was later moved to England to be used in the world's first central power station with steam engine drive at Holborn Viaduct, London. In September 1882 he started up his Pearl Street Generating Station in New York, which led to a worldwide increase in the application of electric power, particularly for lighting. At the same time as these developments, he built a 1,300yd (1,190m) electric railway at Menlo Park.On 9 August 1884 his wife died of typhoid. Using his telegraphic skills, he proposed to 19-year-old Mina Miller in Morse code while in the company of others on a train. He married her in February 1885 before buying a new house and estate at West Orange, New Jersey, building a new laboratory not far away in the Orange Valley.Edison used direct current which was limited to around 250 volts. Alternating current was largely developed by George Westinghouse and Nicola Tesla, using transformers to step up the current to a higher voltage for long-distance transmission. The use of AC gradually overtook the Edison DC system.In autumn 1888 he patented a form of cinephotography, the kinetoscope, obtaining film-stock from George Eastman. In 1893 he set up the first film studio, which was pivoted so as to catch the sun, with a hinged roof which could be raised. In 1894 kinetoscope parlours with "peep shows" were starting up in cities all over America. Competition came from the Latham Brothers with a screen-projection machine, which Edison answered with his "Vitascope", shown in New York in 1896. This showed pictures with accompanying sound, but there was some difficulty with synchronization. Edison also experimented with captions at this early date.In 1880 he filed a patent for a magnetic ore separator, the first of nearly sixty. He bought up deposits of low-grade iron ore which had been developed in the north of New Jersey. The process was a commercial success until the discovery of iron-rich ore in Minnesota rendered it uneconomic and uncompetitive. In 1898 cement rock was discovered in New Village, west of West Orange. Edison bought the land and started cement manufacture, using kilns twice the normal length and using half as much fuel to heat them as the normal type of kiln. In 1893 he met Henry Ford, who was building his second car, at an Edison convention. This started him on the development of a battery for an electric car on which he made over 9,000 experiments. In 1903 he sold his patent for wireless telegraphy "for a song" to Guglielmo Marconi.In 1910 Edison designed a prefabricated concrete house. In December 1914 fire destroyed three-quarters of the West Orange plant, but it was at once rebuilt, and with the threat of war Edison started to set up his own plants for making all the chemicals that he had previously been buying from Europe, such as carbolic acid, phenol, benzol, aniline dyes, etc. He was appointed President of the Navy Consulting Board, for whom, he said, he made some forty-five inventions, "but they were pigeonholed, every one of them". Thus did Edison find that the Navy did not take kindly to civilian interference.In 1927 he started the Edison Botanic Research Company, founded with similar investment from Ford and Firestone with the object of finding a substitute for overseas-produced rubber. In the first year he tested no fewer than 3,327 possible plants, in the second year, over 1,400, eventually developing a variety of Golden Rod which grew to 14 ft (4.3 m) in height. However, all this effort and money was wasted, due to the discovery of synthetic rubber.In October 1929 he was present at Henry Ford's opening of his Dearborn Museum to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the incandescent lamp, including a replica of the Menlo Park laboratory. He was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal and was elected to the American Academy of Sciences. He died in 1931 at his home, Glenmont; throughout the USA, lights were dimmed temporarily on the day of his funeral.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsMember of the American Academy of Sciences. Congressional Gold Medal.Further ReadingM.Josephson, 1951, Edison, Eyre \& Spottiswode.R.W.Clark, 1977, Edison, the Man who Made the Future, Macdonald \& Jane.IMcN -
10 Highs, Thomas
SUBJECT AREA: Textiles[br]fl. 1760s England[br]English reedmaker who claimed to have invented both the spinning jenny and the waterframe.[br]The claims of Highs to have invented both the spinning jenny and the waterframe have been dismissed by most historians. Thomas Highs was a reedmaker of Leigh, Lancashire. In about 1763 he had as a neighbour John Kay, the clockmaker from Warrington, whom he employed to help him construct his machines. During this period they were engaged in making a spinning jenny, but after several months of toil, in a fit of despondency, they threw the machine through the attic window. Highs persevered, however, and made a jenny that could spin six threads. The comparatively sophisticated arrangements for drawing and twisting at the same time, as depicted by Guest (1823), suggest that this machine came after the one invented by James Hargreaves. Guest claims that Highs made this machine between 1764 and 1766 and in the following two years constructed another, in which the spindles were placed in a circle. In 1771 Highs moved to Manchester, where he constructed a double jenny that was displayed at the Manchester Exchange, and received a subscription of £200 from the cotton manufacturers. However, all this occurred after Hargreaves had constructed his jenny. In the trial of Arkwright's patent during 1781, Highs gave evidence. He was recalled from Ireland, where he had been superintending the building of cotton-spinning machinery for Baron Hamilton's newly erected mill at Balbriggan, north of Dublin. Then in 1785, during the next trial of Arkwright's patent, Highs claimed that in 1767 he had made rollers for drawing out the cotton before spinning. This would have been for a different type of spinning machine, similar to the one later constructed by Arkwright. Highs was helped by John Kay and it was these rollers that Kay subsequently built for Arkwright. If the drawing shown by Guest is correct, then Highs was working on the wrong principles because his rollers were spaced too far apart and were not held together by weights, with the result that the twist would have passed into the drafting zone, producing uneven drawing.[br]Further ReadingR.Guest, 1823, A Compendious History of the Cotton-Manufacture: With a Disproval of the Claim of Sir Richard Arkwright to the Invention of its Ingenious Machinery, Manchester (Highs's claim for the invention of his spinning machines).R.S.Fitton, 1989, The Arkwrights, Spinners of Fortune, Manchester (an examination of Highs's claims).R.L.Hills, 1970, Power in the Industrial Revolution, Manchester (discusses the technical problems of the invention).RLH -
11 Gilpin, Thomas
SUBJECT AREA: Canals[br]b. 18 March 1728 Chester County, Pennsylvania, USAd. 30 April 1778 Winchester, Virginia, USA[br]American manufacturer.[br]Thomas Gilpin belonged to a wealthy Quaker family descended from Joseph Gilpin, who had emigrated from England in 1696. He received little formal education and was mainly self-educated in mathematics, surveying and science, in which subjects he was particularly interested. With estates in Delaware and Maryland, he was involved in farming and manufacturing. He moved to Philadelphia in 1769, which further extended his activities. With his fortune he was able to indulge his interest in science, and he was one of the original members of the American Philosophical Society in 1769. He wrote papers on the wheat fly, the seventeen-year locust and the migration of herrings. It was through this Society that he became friendly with Benjamin Franklin, to whom he wrote on 10 October 1769 setting out his proposals for and advocacy of a canal linking the Elk River on Chesapeake Bay with the Delaware River and Bay, thereby cutting off a long haul of several hundred miles for vessels around Cape Charles with a dangerous passage unto the Atlantic Ocean. Gilpin also invented a hydraulic pump that delighted Franklin very much. Gilpin had visited England in 1768 during the formation of his ideas for the Chesapeake \& Delaware Canal, and probably visited the Bridgewater Canal while there. Despite his pressing advocacy the canal had to wait until after his death, but later his son Joshua, a director from 1803 to 1824, saw the canal through many difficulties although he had resigned before the official opening in 1829. At the outbreak of the American War of Independence, in 1777, Gilpin, together with other Quakers, was arrested in Philadelphia owing to suspicions of his loyalty on the grounds that as a Quaker he refused to sign the Oath of Allegiance. He was later exiled to Winchester, Virginia, where he died in April 1778.[br]Further Reading1925, "Memoir of Thomas Gilpin", Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography.R.D.Gray, 1967, The National Waterway: A History of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, 1769–1985, Urbana: Illinois University Press.JHB -
12 Mudge, Thomas
SUBJECT AREA: Horology[br]b. 1715 Exeter, Englandd. 14 November 1794 Walworth, England[br]English clock-and watchmaker who invented the lever escapement that was ultimately used in all mechanical watches.[br]Thomas Mudge was the son of a clergyman and schoolmaster who, recognizing his son's mechanical aptitude, apprenticed him to the eminent London clock-and watchmaker George Graham. Mudge became free of the Clockmakers' Company in 1738 and set up on his own account after Graham's death in 1751. Around 1755 he formed a partnership with William Dutton, another apprentice of Graham. The firm produced conventional clocks and watches of excellent quality, but Mudge had also established a reputation for making highly innovative individual pieces. The most significant of these was the watch with a detached-lever escapement that he completed in 1770, although the idea had occurred to him as early as 1754. This watch was purchased by George III for Queen Charlotte and is still in the Royal Collection. Shortly afterwards Mudge moved to Plymouth, to devote his time to the perfection of the marine chronometer, leaving the London business in the hands of Dutton. The chronometers he produced were comparable in performance to those of John Harrison, but like them they were too complicated and expensive to be produced in quantity.Mudge's patron, Count Bruhl, recognized the potential of the detached-lever escapement, but Mudge was too involved with his marine chronometers to make a watch for him. He did, however, provide Bruhl with a large-scale model of his escapement, from which the Swiss expatriate Josiah Emery was able to make a watch in 1782. Over the next decade Emery made a limited number of similar watches for wealthy clients, and it was the performance of these watches that demonstrated the worth of the escapement. The detached-lever escapement took some time to be adopted universally, but this was facilitated in the nineteenth century by the development of a cheaper form, the pin lever.By the end of the century the detached-lever escapement was used in one form or another in practically all mechanical watches and portable clocks. If a watch is to be a good timekeeper the balance must be free to swing with as little interference as possible from the escapement. In this respect the cylinder escapement is an improvement on the verge, although it still exerts a frictional force on the balance. The lever escapement is a further improvement because it detaches itself from the balance after delivering the impulse which keeps it oscillating.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsClockmaker to George III 1776.Further ReadingT.Mudge, Jr, 1799, A Description with Plates of the Time-Keeper Invented by the Late Mr. Thomas Mudge, London (contains a tract written by his father and the text of his letters to Count Bruhl).C.Clutton and G.Daniels, 1986, Watches, 4th edn, London (provides further biographical information and a good account of the history of the lever watch).R.Good, 1978, Britten's Watch \& Clock Maker's Handbook Dictionary and Guide, 16th edn, London, pp. 190–200 (provides a good technical description of Mudge's lever escapement and its later development).DV -
13 Telford, Thomas
[br]b. 9 August 1757 Glendinning, Dumfriesshire, Scotlandd. 2 September 1834 London, England.[br]Scottish civil engineer.[br]Telford was the son of a shepherd, who died when the boy was in his first year. Brought up by his mother, Janet Jackson, he attended the parish school at Westerkirk. He was apprenticed to a stonemason in Lochmaben and to another in Langholm. In 1780 he walked from Eskdale to Edinburgh and in 1872 rode to London on a horse that he was to deliver there. He worked for Sir William Chambers as a mason on Somerset House, then on the Eskdale house of Sir James Johnstone. In 1783–4 he worked on the new Commissioner's House and other buildings at Portsmouth dockyard.In late 1786 Telford was appointed County Surveyor for Shropshire and moved to Shrewsbury Castle, with work initially on the new infirmary and County Gaol. He designed the church of St Mary Magdalene, Bridgnorth, and also the church at Madley. Telford built his first bridge in 1790–2 at Montford; between 1790 and 1796 he built forty-five road bridges in Shropshire, including Buildwas Bridge. In September 1793 he was appointed general agent, engineer and architect to the Ellesmere Canal, which was to connect the Mersey and Dee rivers with the Severn at Shrewsbury; William Jessop was Principal Engineer. This work included the Pont Cysyllte aqueduct, a 1,000 ft (305 m) long cast-iron trough 127 ft (39 m) above ground level, which entailed an on-site ironworks and took ten years to complete; the aqueduct is still in use today. In 1800 Telford put forward a plan for a new London Bridge with a single cast-iron arch with a span of 600 ft (183 m) but this was not built.In 1801 Telford was appointed engineer to the British Fisheries Society "to report on Highland Communications" in Scotland where, over the following eighteen years, 920 miles (1,480 km) of new roads were built, 280 miles (450 km) of the old military roads were realigned and rebuilt, over 1,000 bridges were constructed and much harbour work done, all under Telford's direction. A further 180 miles (290 km) of new roads were also constructed in the Lowlands of Scotland. From 1804 to 1822 he was also engaged on the construction of the Caledonian Canal: 119 miles (191 km) in all, 58 miles (93 km) being sea loch, 38 miles (61 km) being Lochs Lochy, Oich and Ness, 23 miles (37 km) having to be cut.In 1808 he was invited by King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden to assist Count Baltzar von Platen in the survey and construction of a canal between the North Sea and the Baltic. Telford surveyed the 114 mile (183 km) route in six weeks; 53 miles (85 km) of new canal were to be cut. Soon after the plans for the canal were completed, the King of Sweden created him a Knight of the Order of Vasa, an honour that he would have liked to have declined. At one time some 60,000 soldiers and seamen were engaged on the work, Telford supplying supervisors, machinery—including an 8 hp steam dredger from the Donkin works and machinery for two small paddle boats—and ironwork for some of the locks. Under his direction an ironworks was set up at Motala, the foundation of an important Swedish industrial concern which is still flourishing today. The Gotha Canal was opened in September 1832.In 1811 Telford was asked to make recommendations for the improvement of the Shrewsbury to Holyhead section of the London-Holyhead road, and in 1815 he was asked to survey the whole route from London for a Parliamentary Committee. Construction of his new road took fifteen years, apart from the bridges at Conway and over the Menai Straits, both suspension bridges by Telford and opened in 1826. The Menai bridge had a span of 579 ft (176 m), the roadway being 153 ft (47 m) above the water level.In 1817 Telford was appointed Engineer to the Exchequer Loan Commission, a body set up to make capital loans for deserving projects in the hard times that followed after the peace of Waterloo. In 1820 he became the first President of the Engineers Institute, which gained its Royal Charter in 1828 to become the Institution of Civil Engineers. He was appointed Engineer to the St Katharine's Dock Company during its construction from 1825 to 1828, and was consulted on several early railway projects including the Liverpool and Manchester as well as a number of canal works in the Midlands including the new Harecastle tunnel, 3,000 ft (914 m) long.Telford led a largely itinerant life, living in hotels and lodgings, acquiring his own house for the first time in 1821, 24 Abingdon Street, Westminster, which was partly used as a school for young civil engineers. He died there in 1834, after suffering in his later years from the isolation of deafness. He was buried in Westminster Abbey.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsFRSE 1803. Knight of the Order of Vasa, Sweden 1808. FRS 1827. First President, Engineers Insitute 1820.Further ReadingL.T.C.Rolt, 1979, Thomas Telford, London: Penguin.C.Hadfield, 1993, Thomas Telford's Temptation, London: M. \& M.Baldwin.IMcN -
14 Tompion, Thomas
SUBJECT AREA: Horology[br]baptized 25 July 1639 Ickwell Green, Englandd. 20 November 1713 London, England[br]English clock-and watchmaker of great skill and ingenuity who laid the foundations of his country's pre-eminence in that field.[br]Little is known about Tompion's early life except that he was born into a family of blacksmiths. When he was admitted into the Clockmakers' Company in 1671 he was described as a "Great Clockmaker", which meant a maker of turret clocks, and as these clocks were made of wrought iron they would have required blacksmithing skills. Despite this background, he also rapidly established his reputation as a watchmaker. In 1674 he moved to premises in Water Lane at the sign of "The Dial and Three Crowns", where his business prospered and he remained for the rest of his life. Assisted by journeymen and up to eleven apprentices at any one time, the output from his workshop was prodigious, amounting to over 5,000 watches and 600 clocks. In his lifetime he was famous for his watches, as these figures suggest, but although they are of high quality they do not differ markedly from those produced by other London watchmakers of that period. He is now known more for the limited number of elaborate clocks that he produced, such as the equation clock and the spring-driven clock of a year's duration, which he made for William III. Around 1711 he took into partnership his nephew by marriage, George Graham, who carried on the business after his death.Although Tompion does not seem to have been particularly innovative, he lived at a time when great advances were being made in horology, which his consummate skill as a craftsman enabled him to exploit. In this he was greatly assisted by his association with Robert Hooke, for whom Tompion constructed a watch with a balance spring in 1675; at that time Hooke was trying to establish his priority over Huygens for this invention. Although this particular watch was not successful, it made Tompion aware of the potential of the balance spring and he became the first person in England to apply Huygens's spiral spring to the balance of a watch. Although Thuret had constructed such a watch somewhat earlier in France, the superior quality of Tompion's wheel work, assisted by Hooke's wheel-cutting engine, enabled him to dominate the market. The anchor escapement (which reduced the amplitude of the pendulum's swing) was first applied to clocks around this time and produced further improvements in accuracy which Tompion and other makers were able to utilize. However, the anchor escapement, like the verge escapement, produced recoil (the clock was momentarily driven in reverse). Tompion was involved in attempts to overcome this defect with the introduction of the dead-beat escapement for clocks and the horizontal escapement for watches. Neither was successful, but they were both perfected later by George Graham.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsMaster of the Clockmakers' Company 1703.Bibliography1695, with William Houghton and Edward Barlow, British patent no. 344 (for a horizontal escapement).Further ReadingR.W.Symonds, 1951, Thomas Tompion, His Life and Work, London (a comprehensive but now slightly dated account).H.W.Robinson and W.Adams (eds), 1935, The Diary of Robert Hooke (contains many references to Tompion).D.Howse, 1970, The Tompion clocks at Greenwich and the dead-beat escapement', Antiquarian Horology 7:18–34, 114–33.DV -
15 Sutton, Thomas
SUBJECT AREA: Photography, film and optics[br]b. 1819 Englandd. 1875 Jersey, Channel Islands[br]English photographer and writer on photography.[br]In 1841, while studying at Cambridge, Sutton became interested in photography and tried out the current processes, daguerreotype, calotype and cyanotype among them. He subsequently settled in Jersey, where he continued his photographic studies. In 1855 he opened a photographic printing works in Jersey, in partnership with L.-D. Blanquart- Evrard, exploiting the latter's process for producing developed positive prints. He started and edited one of the first photographic periodicals, Photographic Notes, in 1856; until its cessation in 1867, his journal presented a fresher view of the world of photography than that given by its London-based rivals. He also drew up the first dictionary of photography in 1858.In 1859 Sutton designed and patented a wideangle lens in which the space between two meniscus lenses, forming parts of a sphere and sealed in a metal rim, was filled with water; the lens so formed could cover an angle of up to 120 degrees at an aperture of f12. Sutton's design was inspired by observing the images produced by the water-filled sphere of a "snowstorm" souvenir brought home from Paris! Sutton commissioned the London camera-maker Frederick Cox to make the Panoramic camera, demonstrating the first model in January 1860; it took panoramic pictures on curved glass plates 152×381 mm in size. Cox later advertised other models in a total of four sizes. In January 1861 Sutton handed over manufacture to Andrew Ross's son Thomas Ross, who produced much-improved lenses and also cameras in three sizes. Sutton then developed the first single-lens reflex camera design, patenting it on 20 August 1961: a pivoted mirror, placed at 45 degrees inside the camera, reflected the image from the lens onto a ground glass-screen set in the top of the camera for framing and focusing. When ready, the mirror was swung up out of the way to allow light to reach the plate at the back of the camera. The design was manufactured for a few years by Thomas Ross and J.H. Dallmeyer.In 1861 James Clerk Maxwell asked Sutton to prepare a series of photographs for use in his lecture "On the theory of three primary colours", to be presented at the Royal Institution in London on 17 May 1861. Maxwell required three photographs to be taken through red, green and blue filters, which were to be printed as lantern slides and projected in superimposition through three projectors. If his theory was correct, a colour reproduction of the original subject would be produced. Sutton used liquid filters: ammoniacal copper sulphate for blue, copper chloride for the green and iron sulphocyanide for the red. A fourth exposure was made through lemon-yellow glass, but was not used in the final demonstration. A tartan ribbon in a bow was used as the subject; the wet-collodion process in current use required six seconds for the blue exposure, about twice what would have been needed without the filter. After twelve minutes no trace of image was produced through the green filter, which had to be diluted to a pale green: a twelve-minute exposure then produced a serviceable negative. Eight minutes was enough to record an image through the red filter, although since the process was sensitive only to blue light, nothing at all should have been recorded. In 1961, R.M.Evans of the Kodak Research Laboratory showed that the red liquid transmitted ultraviolet radiation, and by an extraordinary coincidence many natural red dye-stuffs reflect ultraviolet. Thus the red separation was made on the basis of non-visible radiation rather than red, but the net result was correct and the projected images did give an identifiable reproduction of the original. Sutton's photographs enabled Maxwell to establish the validity of his theory and to provide the basis upon which all subsequent methods of colour photography have been founded.JW / BC -
16 Cubitt, Thomas
SUBJECT AREA: Architecture and building[br]b. 25 February 1788 Buxton, Norfolk, Englandd. 20 December 1855 Dorking, Surrey, England[br]English master builder and founder of the first building firm of modern type.[br]He started his working life as a carpenter at a time when work in different trades such as bricklaying, masonry, carpentry and plumbing was subcontracted. The system had worked well enough until about 1800, but when large-scale development was required, as in the nineteenth century, it showed itself to be inefficient and slow. To avoid long delays in building, Cubitt bought land and established workshops, founding a firm that employed all the craftsmen necessary to the building trade on a permanent-wage basis. To keep his firm financially solvent he had to provide continuous work for his staff, which he achieved by large-scale, speculative building even while maintaining high architectural standards.Cubitt performed a major service to London, with many of his houses, squares and terraces still surviving as sound and elegant as they were over 150 years ago in the large estates he laid out. His most ambitious enterprise was Belgravia, where he built 200 imposing houses for the aristocracy upon an area of previously swampy land that he leased from Lord Grosvenor. His houses expose as inferior much of the later phases of development which surround them. All his life Cubitt used his influence to combat the abuses of architecture, building and living standards to which speculative building is heir. He was especially interested in drainage, smoke control and London's sewage arrangement, and constantly worked to improve these. He supplied first-class amenities in the way of land drainage, sewage disposal, street lighting and roads, and his own houses were soundly built, pleasant to live in and created to last.[br]Further ReadingHermione Hobhouse, 1971, Thomas Cubitt: Master Builder, Macmillan.Henry Russell-Hitchcock, 1976, Early Victorian Architecture, 2 vols, New York: Da Capo.DY -
17 Sopwith, Sir Thomas (Tommy) Octave Murdoch
SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace[br]b. 18 January 1888 London, Englandd. 27 January 1989 Stockbridge, Hampshire, England[br]English aeronautical engineer and industrialist.[br]Son of a successful mining engineer, Sopwith did not shine at school and, having been turned down by the Royal Navy as a result, attended an engineering college. His first interest was motor cars and, while still in his teens, he set up a business in London with a friend in order to sell them; he also took part in races and rallies.Sopwith's interest in aviation came initially through ballooning, and in 1906 he purchased his own balloon. Four years later, inspired by the recent flights across the Channel to France and after a joy-ride at Brooklands, he bought an Avis monoplane, followed by a larger biplane, and taught himself to fly. He was awarded the Royal Aero Society's Aviator Certificate No. 31 on 21 November 1910, and he quickly distinguished himself in flying competitions on both sides of the Atlantic and started his own flying school. In his races he was ably supported by his friend Fred Sigrist, a former motor engineer. Among the people Sopwith taught to fly were an Australian, Harry Hawker, and Major Hugh Trenchard, who later became the "father" of the RAF.In 1912, depressed by the poor quality of the aircraft on trial for the British Army, Sopwith, in conjunction with Hawker and Sigrist, bought a skating rink in Kingston-upon-Thames and, assisted by Fred Sigrist, started to design and build his first aircraft, the Sopwith Hybrid. He sold this to the Royal Navy in 1913, and the following year his aviation manufacturing company became the Sopwith Aviation Company Ltd. That year a seaplane version of his Sopwith Tabloid won the Schneider Trophy in the second running of this speed competition. During 1914–18, Sopwith concentrated on producing fighters (or "scouts" as they were then called), with the Pup, the Camel, the 1½ Strutter, the Snipe and the Sopwith Triplane proving among the best in the war. He also pioneered several ideas to make flying easier for the pilot, and in 1915 he patented his adjustable tailplane and his 1 ½ Strutter was the first aircraft to be fitted with air brakes. During the four years of the First World War, Sopwith Aviation designed thirty-two different aircraft types and produced over 16,000 aircraft.The end of the First World War brought recession to the aircraft industry and in 1920 Sopwith, like many others, put his company into receivership; none the less, he immediately launched a new, smaller company with Hawker, Sigrist and V.W.Eyre, which they called the H.G. Hawker Engineering Company Ltd to avoid any confusion with the former company. He began by producing cars and motor cycles under licence, but was determined to resume aircraft production. He suffered an early blow with the death of Hawker in an air crash in 1921, but soon began supplying aircraft to the Royal Air Force again. In this he was much helped by taking on a new designer, Sydney Camm, in 1923, and during the next decade they produced a number of military aircraft types, of which the Hart light bomber and the Fury fighter, the first to exceed 200 mph (322 km/h), were the best known. In the mid-1930s Sopwith began to build a large aviation empire, acquiring first the Gloster Aircraft Company and then, in quick succession, Armstrong-Whitworth, Armstrong-Siddeley Motors Ltd and its aero-engine counterpart, and A.V.Roe, which produced Avro aircraft. Under the umbrella of the Hawker Siddeley Aircraft Company (set up in 1935) these companies produced a series of outstanding aircraft, ranging from the Hawker Hurricane, through the Avro Lancaster to the Gloster Meteor, Britain's first in-service jet aircraft, and the Hawker Typhoon, Tempest and Hunter. When Sopwith retired as Chairman of the Hawker Siddeley Group in 1963 at the age of 75, a prototype jump-jet (the P-1127) was being tested, later to become the Harrier, a for cry from the fragile biplanes of 1910.Sopwith also had a passion for yachting and came close to wresting the America's Cup from the USA in 1934 when sailing his yacht Endeavour, which incorporated a number of features years ahead of their time; his greatest regret was that he failed in his attempts to win this famous yachting trophy for Britain. After his retirement as Chairman of the Hawker Siddeley Group, he remained on the Board until 1978. The British aviation industry had been nationalized in April 1977, and Hawker Siddeley's aircraft interests merged with the British Aircraft Corporation to become British Aerospace (BAe). Nevertheless, by then the Group had built up a wide range of companies in the field of mechanical and electrical engineering, and its board conferred on Sopwith the title Founder and Life President.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsKnighted 1953. CBE 1918.Bibliography1961, "My first ten years in aviation", Journal of the Royal Aeronautical Society (April) (a very informative and amusing paper).Further ReadingA.Bramson, 1990, Pure Luck: The Authorized Biography of Sir Thomas Sopwith, 1888– 1989, Wellingborough: Patrick Stephens.B.Robertson, 1970, Sopwith. The Man and His Aircraft, London (a detailed publication giving plans of all the Sopwith aircraft).CM / JDSBiographical history of technology > Sopwith, Sir Thomas (Tommy) Octave Murdoch
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18 doubting thomas
Фома неверующий; человек, который никому не веритMary won’t believe that I have a dog until she sees him. She’s such a doubting Thomas.English-Russian small dictionary of idioms > doubting thomas
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19 Bewick, Thomas
SUBJECT AREA: Paper and printing[br]b. August 1753 Cherryburn House, Ovingham, Northumberland, Englandd. 8 November 1828 Gateshead, England[br]English perfecter of wood-engraving.[br]The son of a farmer, Bewick was educated locally, but his progress was unremarkable save for demonstrating an intense love of nature and of drawing. In 1767 he was apprenticed to Ralph Beilby, an engraver in Newcastle. Wood-engraving at that time was at a low ebb, restricted largely to crude decorative devices, and Hogarth, commenting on a recent book on the art, doubted whether it would ever recover. Beilby's business was of a miscellaneous character, but Bewick's interest in wood-engraving was noticed and encouraged: Beilby submitted several of his engravings to the Royal Society of Arts, which awarded a premium of £80 for them. His apprenticeship ended in 1774 and he went to London, where he readily found employment with several printers. The call of the north was too strong, however, and two years later he returned to Newcastle, entering into partnership with Beilby. With the publication of Select Fables in 1784, Bewick really showed both his expertise in the art of wood-engraving as a medium for book illustration and his talents as an artist. His engravings for the History of British Birds mark the high point of his achievement. The second volume of this work appeared in 1804, the year in which his partnership with Beilby was dissolved.The essential feature of Bewick's wood-engravings involved cutting across the grain of the wood instead of along it, as in the old woodcut technique. The wood surface thus obtained offered a much more sensitive medium for engraving than before. It paved the way for the flowering of engraving on wood, and then on steel, for the production of illustrated material for an ever wider public through the Victorian age.[br]Bibliography1864, Memoir of Thomas Bewick (autobiography, completed by his daughter). 1784, Select Fables.Further ReadingM.Weekley, 1963, Thomas Bewick, Oxford: Oxford University Press.LRD -
20 Bacon, Francis Thomas
SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace[br]b. 21 December 1904 Billericay, Englandd. 24 May 1992 Little Shelford, Cambridge, England[br]English mechanical engineer, a pioneer in the modern phase of fuel-cell development.[br]After receiving his education at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, Bacon served with C.A. Parsons at Newcastle upon Tyne from 1925 to 1940. From 1946 to 1956 he carried out research on Hydrox fuel cells at Cambridge University and was a consultant on fuel-cell design to a number of organizations throughout the rest of his life.Sir William Grove was the first to observe that when oxygen and hydrogen were supplied to platinum electrodes immersed in sulphuric acid a current was produced in an external circuit, but he did not envisage this as a practical source of electrical energy. In the 1930s Bacon started work to develop a hydrogen-oxygen fuel cell that operated at moderate temperatures and pressures using an alkaline electrolyte. In 1940 he was appointed to a post at King's College, London, and there, with the support of the Admiralty, he started full-time experimental work on fuel cells. His brief was to produce a power source for the propulsion of submarines. The following year he was posted as a temporary experimental officer to the Anti-Submarine Experimental Establishment at Fairlie, Ayrshire, and he remained there until the end of the Second World War.In 1946 he joined the Department of Chemical Engineering at Cambridge, receiving a small amount of money from the Electrical Research Association. Backing came six years later from the National Research and Development Corporation (NRDC), the development of the fuel cell being transferred to Marshalls of Cambridge, where Bacon was appointed Consultant.By 1959, after almost twenty years of individual effort, he was able to demonstrate a 6 kW (8 hp) power unit capable of driving a small truck. Bacon appreciated that when substantial power was required over long periods the hydrogen-oxygen fuel cell associated with high-pressure gas storage would be more compact than conventional secondary batteries.The development of the fuel-cell system pioneered by Bacon was stimulated by a particular need for a compact, lightweight source of power in the United States space programme. Electro-chemical generators using hydrogen-oxygen cells were chosen to provide the main supplies on the Apollo spacecraft for landing on the surface of the moon in 1969. An added advantage of the cells was that they simultaneously provided water. NRDC was largely responsible for the forma-tion of Energy Conversion Ltd, a company that was set up to exploit Bacon's patents and to manufacture fuel cells, and which was supported by British Ropes Ltd, British Petroleum and Guest, Keen \& Nettlefold Ltd at Basingstoke. Bacon was their full-time consultant. In 1971 Energy Conversion's operation was moved to the UK Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell, as Fuel Cells Ltd. Bacon remained with them until he retired in 1973.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsOBE 1967. FRS 1972. Royal Society S.G. Brown Medal 1965. Royal Aeronautical Society British Silver Medal 1969.Bibliography27 February 1952, British patent no. 667,298 (hydrogen-oxygen fuel cell). 1963, contribution in W.Mitchell (ed.), Fuel Cells, New York, pp. 130–92.1965, contribution in B.S.Baker (ed.), Hydrocarbon Fuel Cell Technology, New York, pp. 1–7.Further ReadingObituary, 1992, Daily Telegraph (8 June).A.McDougal, 1976, Fuel Cells, London (makes an acknowledgement of Bacon's contribution to the design and application of fuel cells).D.P.Gregory, 1972, Fuel Cells, London (a concise introduction to fuel-cell technology).GW
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