the+firm+that+moved+us

SUBJECT AREA: Metallurgy

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Paul Héroult, the son of a tanner, at the age of 16, while still at school in Caen, read Deville's book on aluminium and became obsessed with the idea of developing a cheap way of producing this metal. After his family moved to Gentillysur-Bièvre he studied at the Ecole Sainte-Barbe in Paris and then returned to Caen to work in the laboratory of his father's tannery. His first patent, filed in February and granted on 23 April 1886, described an invention almost identical to that of C.M. Hall: "the electrolysis of alumina dissolved in molten cryolite into which the current is introduced through suitable electrodes. The cryolite is not consumed." Early in 1887 Héroult attempted to obtain the support of Alfred Rangod Pechiney, the proprietor of the works at Salindres where Deville's process for making sodium-reduced aluminium was still being operated. Pechiney persuaded Héroult to modify his electrolytic process by using a cathode of molten copper, thus making it possible produce aluminium bronze rather than pure aluminium. Héroult then approached the Swiss firm J.G.Nehe Söhne, ironmasters, whose works at the Falls of Schaffhausen obtained power from the Rhine. They were looking for a new metallurgical process requiring large quantities of cheap hydroelectric power and Héroult's process seemed suitable. In 1887 they established the Société Metallurgique Suisse to test Héroult's process. Héroult became Technical Director and went to the USA to defend his patents against those of Hall. During his absence the Schaffhausen trials were successfully completed, and on 18 November 1888 the Société Metallurgique combined with the German AEG group, Oerlikon and Escher Wyss, to establish the Aluminium Industrie Aktiengesellschaft Neuhausen. In the early electrolytic baths it was occasionally found that arcs between the bath surface and electrode could develop if the electrodes were inadvertently raised. From this observation, Héroult and M.Killiani developed the electric arc furnace. In this, arcs were intentionally formed between the surface of the charge and several electrodes, each connected to a different pole of the AC supply. This furnace, the prototype of the modern electric steel furnace, was first used for the direct reduction of iron ore at La Praz in 1903. This work was undertaken for the Canadian Government, for whom Héroult subsequently designed a 5,000-amp single-phase furnace which was installed and tested at Sault-Sainte-Marie in Ontario and successfully used for smelting magnetite ore.

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SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace, Electronics and information technology, Weapons and armour

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Following education at Brechin High School, Watson-Watt entered University College, Dundee (then a part of the University of St Andrews), obtaining a BSc in engineering in 1912. From 1912 until 1921 he was Assistant to the Professor of Natural Philosophy at St Andrews, but during the First World War he also held various posts in the Meteorological Office. During. this time, in 1916 he proposed the use of cathode ray oscillographs for radio-direction-finding displays. He joined the newly formed Radio Research Station at Slough when it was opened in 1924, and 3 years later, when it amalgamated with the Radio Section of the National Physical Laboratory, he became Superintendent at Slough. At this time he proposed the name "ionosphere" for the ionized layer in the upper atmosphere. With E.V. Appleton and J.F.Herd he developed the "squegger" hard-valve transformer-coupled timebase and with the latter devised a direction-finding radio-goniometer.

In 1933 he was asked to investigate possible aircraft counter-measures. He soon showed that it was impossible to make the wished-for radio "death-ray", but had the idea of using the detection of reflected radio-waves as a means of monitoring the approach of enemy aircraft. With six assistants he developed this idea and constructed an experimental system of radar (RAdio Detection And Ranging) in which arrays of aerials were used to detect the reflected signals and deduce the bearing and height. To realize a practical system, in September 1936 he was appointed Director of the Bawdsey Research Station near Felixstowe and carried out operational studies of radar. The result was that within two years the East Coast of the British Isles was equipped with a network of radar transmitters and receivers working in the 7–14 metre band—the so-called "chain-home" system—which did so much to assist the efficient deployment of RAF Fighter Command against German bombing raids on Britain in the early years of the Second World War.

In 1938 he moved to the Air Ministry as Director of Communications Development, becoming Scientific Adviser to the Air Ministry and Ministry of Aircraft Production in 1940, then Deputy Chairman of the War Cabinet Radio Board in 1943. After the war he set up Sir Robert Watson-Watt \& Partners, an industrial consultant firm. He then spent some years in relative retirement in Canada, but returned to Scotland before his death.

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•• Momentum impetus gained by movement (Oxford American Dictionary).

SUBJECT AREA: Agricultural and food technology

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The son of a schoolmaster. Mouriés became a chemist's assistant in his home town at the age of 16. He then spent a period of training in Aix-enProvence, and in 1838 he moved to Paris, where he became Assistant to the Resident Pharmacist at the Hotel Dieu Hospital. He stayed there until 1846 but never sat his final exams. His main success during this period was with the drug Copahin, which was used against syphilis; he invented an oral formulation of the drug by treating it with nitric acid. In the 1840s he took out various patents relating to tanning and to sugar extraction, and in the 1850s he turned his attention to food research. He developed a health chocolate with his calcium phosphate protein, and also developed a method that made it possible to gain 14 per cent more white bread from a given quantity of wheat. He lectured on this process in Berlin and Brussels and was awarded two gold medals. After 1862 he concentrated his research on fats. His margarine process was based on the cold saponification of milk in fat emulsions and was patented in both France and Britain in 1869. These experiments were carried out at the Ferme Impériale de La Faisanderie in Vincennes, the personal property of the Emperor, and it is therefore likely that they were State-funded. He sold his knowledge to the Dutch firm Jurgens in 1871, and between 1873 and 1874 he also sold his British, American and Prussian rights. His final patent, in 1875, was for canned meat.

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SUBJECT AREA: Mechanical, pneumatic and hydraulic engineering

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James Stuart established the teaching of engineering as a university discipline at Cambridge. He was born at Balgonie in Fife, where his father managed a linen mill. He attended the University of St Andrews and then studied mathematics at Cambridge University. In 1867 he took up a post as Assistant Tutor at Trinity College, Cambridge, where his skills as a teacher were quickly recognized. The University was at that time adapting itself to the new systems of instruction recommended by the Royal Commission on university reform in the 1850s, and Stuart took an active part in the organization of a new structure of inter-collegiate lecture courses. He made an even more significant contribution to the establishment of extramural courses from which the Cambridge University extension lecture programme developed. This began in 1867, when Stuart took adult classes in Manchester and Crewe. The latter, in particular, brought him into close contact with those involved in practical mechanics and stimulated his interest in the applied sciences. In 1875 he was elected to the newly created Chair of Mechanism and Engineering in Cambridge, and he set out energetically to recruit students and to build up a flourishing unit with its own workshop and foundry, training a new generation of engineers in the applied sciences.

In November 1884 Stuart was elected to Parliament and embarked on an active but somewhat undistinguished career in politics as a radical Liberal, becoming amongst other things a keen supporter of the women's suffrage movement. This did not endear him to his academic colleagues, and the Engineering School suffered from neglect by Stuart until he resigned the Chair in 1890. By the time he left, however, the University was ready to recognize Engineering as a Tripos subject and to accept properly equipped teaching laboratories, so that his successor J.A. Ewing was able to benefit from Stuart's pioneering work. Stuart continued his political activities and was appointed a Privy Councillor in 1909. He married Elizabeth Colman after resigning the Chair, and on the death of his father-in-law in 1898 he moved to Norwich to take on the direction of the family mustard firm, J. \& J.Colman Ltd.

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SUBJECT AREA: Textiles

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William Cockerill began his career in Lancashire by making "roving billies" and flying shuttles. He was reputed to have an extraordinary mechanical genius and it is said that he could make models of almost any machine. He followed in the footsteps of many other enterprising British engineers when in 1794 he went to St Petersburg in Russia, having been recommended as a skilful artisan to the Empress Catherine II. After her death two years later, her successor Paul sent Cockerill to prison because he failed to finish a model within a certain time. Cockerill, however, escaped to Sweden where he was commissioned to construct the locks on a public canal. He attempted to introduce textile machinery of his own invention but was unsuccessful and so in 1799 he removed to Verviers, Belgium, where he established himself as a manufacturer of textile machinery. In 1802 he was joined by James Holden, who before long set up his own machine-building business. In 1807 Cockerill moved to Liège where, with his three sons (William Jnr, Charles James and John), he set up factories for the construction of carding machines, spinning frames and looms for the woollen industry. He secured for Verviers supremacy in the woollen trade and introduced at Liège an industry of which England had so far possessed the monopoly. His products were noted for their fine craftsmanship, and in the heyday of the Napoleonic regime about half of his output was sold in France. In 1813 he imported a model of a Watt steam-engine from England and so added another range of products to his firm. Cockerill became a naturalized Belgian subject c. 1810, and a few years later he retired from the business in favour of his two younger sons, Charles James and John (b. 30 April 1790 Haslingden, Lancashire, England; d. 19 June 1840 Warsaw, Poland), but in 1830 at Andenne he converted a vast factory formerly used for calico printing into a paper mill. Little is known of his eldest son William, but the other two sons expanded the enterprise, setting up a woollen factory at Berlin after 1815 and establishing at Seraing-on-the-Meuse in 1817 blast furnaces, an iron foundry and a machine workshop which became the largest on the European continent. William Cockerill senior died in 1832 at the Château du Behrensberg, the residence of his son Charles James, near Aix-la-Chapelle.

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SUBJECT AREA: Architecture and building

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In the last decade of the nineteenth century and in the first of the twentieth, Poelzig did not, like most of his colleagues in Germany and Austria, follow the Jugendstil theme or the eclectic or fundamentalist lines: he set a path to individualism. In 1898 he began a teaching career at the Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poland) Academy of Arts and Crafts, remaining there until 1916. He early introduced workshop practice into the curriculum, presaging Gropius's Bauhaus ideas by many years; the school's workshop produced much of the artisan needs for a number of his buildings. From Breslau Poelzig moved to Dresden, where he was appointed City Architect. It was there that he launched his Expressionist line: which was particularly evident in the town hall and concert hall in the city. The structure for which Poelzig is best known and with which his name will always be associated is the Großes Schauspielhaus in Berlin; he had returned to his native city after the First World War and this great theatre was his first commission there. Using modern materials, he created a fabulous interior to seat 5,000 spectators. It was in the form of a vast amphitheatre with projecting stage and with the curving area roofed by a cavernous, stalactited dome, the Arabic-style stalactites of which were utilized by Poelzig for acoustic purposes. In the 1920s Poelzig went on to design cinemas, a field for which Expressionism was especially suited; these included the Capitol Cinema in Berlin and the Deli in Breslau. For his later industrial commissions—for example, the administrative building for the chemical firm I.G.Far ben in Frankfurt—he had perforce to design in more traditional modern manner.

Poelzig died in 1936, which spared him, unlike many of his contemporaries, the choice of emigrating or working for National Socialism.

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1) (rigid or firm, and not easily bent, folded etc: He has walked with a stiff leg since he injured his knee; stiff cardboard.) stiv

2) (moving, or moved, with difficulty, pain etc: I can't turn the key - the lock is stiff; I woke up with a stiff neck; I felt stiff the day after the climb.) stiv; støl

3) ((of a cooking mixture etc) thick, and not flowing: a stiff dough.) stiv, tykk

4) (difficult to do: a stiff examination.) vanskelig, streng

5) (strong: a stiff breeze.) sterk, stiv (kuling)

6) ((of a person or his manner etc) formal and unfriendly: I received a stiff note from the bank manager.) stiv, formell

•

- stiffly

lik

stiv

stri

vrien

subst. \/stɪf\/ ( hverdagslig)

1) lik, kadaver

2) (amer.) tørrpinn, kjedelig person

3) kløne, klosset person

• you big stiff!

4) fyllik, fyllesvin

5) landstryker, boms, lasaron

6) (austr.) forklaring: brev smuglet ut av fengsel

7) sjanseløs veddeløpshest

• that horse is a stiff

8) gnier, gjerrigknark, kunde som ikke gir drikkepenger, gjest som ikke gir drikkepenger

verb \/stɪf\/ ( hverdagslig)

1) (amer.) lure, svindle, ikke betale (f.eks. drikkepenger)

2) drepe

adj. \/stɪf\/

1) stiv, støl, lemster

• my legs are stiff

• my mother has a stiff neck

2) treg

• the lock is stiff

3) stiv, kjølig, formell, tvungen, unaturlig

• the style was rather stiff

• he got a stiff reception

4) ( om vind) stiv, sterk, kraftig

5) ( om alkohol og medisin) stiv, sterk

• he drank a stiff whisky

• this was a stiff dose of medisine

6) streng, hard

• she received a stiff sentence

• we face stiff competition

7) skarp, krass

• a stiff protest

8) ( om pris) drøy, stiv

9) vanskelig, vrien

• it was a stiff task

10) ( slang) full, børsten, beruset

keep a stiff upper lip late som ingenting, ikke klage, ikke fortrekke en mine

put up a stiff fight kjempe hardt, gjøre kraftig motstand

stiff denial blankt avslag

adv. \/stɪf\/

bare i uttrykk

be frosen stiff være stivfrossen

be scared stiff være vettskremt, være lamslått av redsel

bore someone stiff kjede livet av noen

1) (rigid) steif; hart [Bürste, Stock]

2) (intense, severe) hartnäckig; schroff [Absage]; kräftig [Standpauke]

3) (formal) steif; förmlich [Brief, Stil]

4) (difficult) hart [Test]; schwer [Frage, Prüfung]; steil [Abstieg, Anstieg]

5) stark, (Seemannsspr.) steif [Wind, Brise]

6) (not bending, not working freely, aching) steif [Gelenk, Gliedmaßen, Nacken, Person]; schwergängig [Angel, Kolben, Gelenk]

7) (coll.): (excessive) saftig (ugs.) [Preis, Strafe]

8) (strong) steif (ugs.) [Drink]; stark [Dosis, Medizin]

9) (thick) zäh[flüssig]

10) (coll.)

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1) (rigid or firm, and not easily bent, folded etc: He has walked with a stiff leg since he injured his knee; stiff cardboard.) steif

2) (moving, or moved, with difficulty, pain etc: I can't turn the key - the lock is stiff; I woke up with a stiff neck; I felt stiff the day after the climb.) steif

3) ((of a cooking mixture etc) thick, and not flowing: a stiff dough.) zäh

4) (difficult to do: a stiff examination.) schwierig

5) (strong: a stiff breeze.) steif

6) ((of a person or his manner etc) formal and unfriendly: I received a stiff note from the bank manager.) steif

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- academic.ru/92115/stiffly">stiffly

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I. n

1. ( fam: corpse) Leiche f

2. AM ( fig: conventional person) Langweiler(in) m(f)

working \stiff Prolet m pej

3. AM ( fam: person)

you lucky \stiff! du Glückspilz! fam

II. adj

1. (rigid) steif ( with vor + dat); paper, lid fest

his clothes were \stiff with dried mud seine Kleidung starrte vor angetrocknetem Schmutz

the handle on this door is rather \stiff der Türgriff lässt sich schlecht bewegen

to be [as] \stiff as a board [or poker] steif wie ein Brett sein

\stiff brush harte Bürste

\stiff cardboard fester Karton

\stiff collar steifer Kragen

2. (sore) neck, joints steif; muscles hart

3. (dense) paste dick; batter, mixture, dough fest

4. (formal, reserved) manner steif; letter unpersönlich, förmlich; (forced) smile gezwungen

to keep a \stiff upper lip Haltung bewahren

come on Richard, keep a \stiff upper lip komm, Richard, lass dir nichts anmerken

5. (strong) opposition stark; penalty, punishment hart, schwer; wind stark, heftig

\stiff brandy starker Weinbrand

\stiff breeze steife Brise

\stiff challenge große Herausforderung

\stiff criticism herbe Kritik

\stiff competition harter Wettbewerb

\stiff drink harter Drink

\stiff resistance erbitterter Widerstand

a \stiff right/left BOXING eine harte Rechte/Linke

6. (high) [extrem] hoch

\stiff cuts einschneidende Kürzungen

\stiff fee/tax überzogene Gebühr/Steuer

\stiff price Wucherpreis m pej, gesalzener Preis fam

7. (difficult) question schwer, schwierig

\stiff climb/work-out anstrengende Klettertour/anstrengendes Fitnesstraining

\stiff test SCH schwere Prüfung; TECH harter Test

III. adv inv zu Tode fam

I got frozen \stiff waiting at the bus stop ich wäre fast erfroren, als ich an der Bushaltestelle wartete

I've been worried \stiff ich habe mir wahnsinnige Sorgen gemacht

to be scared \stiff zu Tode erschrocken sein

IV. vt AM ( fam)

1. (cheat)

▪ to be \stiffed betrogen werden

2. (not tip)

to \stiff a porter/taxi driver/waiter einem Gepäckträger/Taxifahrer/Kellner kein Trinkgeld geben

3. (snub)

▪ to \stiff sb jdn schneiden fam

4. (kill)

▪ to \stiff sb jdn kaltmachen sl

V. vi film, TV programme ein Misserfolg m sein, floppen

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1. adj (+er)

1) steif; corpse starr, steif; brush, bristles hart; dough, paste fest

2) resistance, drink, dose stark; fight zäh, hart; sentence, challenge, competition hart; opposition stark, heftig; breeze steif; climb, test schwierig; examination, task schwer, schwierig; penalty, punishment schwer; price, demand hoch

3) door, lock, drawer klemmend

4)

5) smile kühl; bow, person, manner, atmosphere steif

2. adv

3. n (inf)

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stiff [stıf]

A adj (adv stiffly)

1. a) allg steif (Hals, Kragen etc), starr (Gesicht etc): → lip A 1

b) TECH schwer gängig (Gang, Schraube)

2. zäh, dick, steif (Teig etc):

a stiffly whipped egg white ein steif geschlagenes Eiweiß; → whisk B 4

3. steif (Brise), stark (Wind, Strömung)

4. a) stark (alkoholische Getränke), besonders steif (Grog)

b) stark (Medizin)

5. fig starr(köpfig) (Person)

6. fig

a) hart (Gegner etc)

b) scharf (Konkurrenz etc)

c) hartnäckig, verbissen (Kampf, Widerstand etc)

7. schwierig, hart (Aufgabe etc)

8. hart (Strafe)

9. WIRTSCH

a) stabil, fest:

a stiff market eine stabile Marktlage

b) überhöht (Preise)

10. steif, förmlich (Atmosphäre etc)

11. a) steif, linkisch (Person)

b) starr, schematisch (Stil etc)

12. umg unglaublich:

a bit stiff ziemlich stark, allerhand

13. umg zu Tode (gelangweilt, erschrocken): → bore² B 1, scare A 1

14. sl blau, besoffen

B s sl

1. Leiche f

2. chancenloses Pferd

3. a) allg Kerl m:

poor stiff armes Schwein umg

b) steifer oder linkischer Kerl

c) Besoffene(r) m/f(m)

d) Tippelbruder m oft hum

4. a) gefälschter Scheck

b) Wechsel m

c) ( besonders heimlicher oder geschmuggelter) Brief, (im Gefängnis) Kassiber m

C v/t sl

1. einem Kellner etc kein Trinkgeld geben

2. jemanden bescheißen umg ( out of um)

* * *

1) (rigid) steif; hart [Bürste, Stock]

2) (intense, severe) hartnäckig; schroff [Absage]; kräftig [Standpauke]

3) (formal) steif; förmlich [Brief, Stil]

4) (difficult) hart [Test]; schwer [Frage, Prüfung]; steil [Abstieg, Anstieg]

5) stark, (Seemannsspr.) steif [Wind, Brise]

6) (not bending, not working freely, aching) steif [Gelenk, Gliedmaßen, Nacken, Person]; schwergängig [Angel, Kolben, Gelenk]

7) (coll.): (excessive) saftig (ugs.) [Preis, Strafe]

8) (strong) steif (ugs.) [Drink]; stark [Dosis, Medizin]

9) (thick) zäh[flüssig]

10) (coll.)

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steif adj.