the+subject+is+closed

SUBJECT AREA: Agricultural and food technology

[br]

[br]

[br]

He was the fifth child of Charles and Ann Stalcrop Evans, and by the age of 15 he had four sisters and seven brothers. Nothing is known of his schooling, but at the age of 17 he was apprenticed to a Newport wheelwright and wagon-maker. At 19 he was enrolled in a Delaware Militia Company in the Revolutionary War but did not see active service. About this time he invented a machine for bending and cutting off the wires in textile carding combs. In July 1782, with his younger brother, Joseph, he moved to Tuckahoe on the eastern shore of the Delaware River, where he had the basic idea of the automatic flour mill. In July 1782, with his elder brothers John and Theophilus, he bought part of his father's Newport farm, on Red Clay Creek, and planned to build a mill there. In 1793 he married Sarah Tomlinson, daughter of a Delaware farmer, and joined his brothers at Red Clay Creek. He worked there for some seven years on his automatic mill, from about 1783 to 1790.

His system for the automatic flour mill consisted of bucket elevators to raise the grain, a horizontal screw conveyor, other conveying devices and a "hopper boy" to cool and dry the meal before gathering it into a hopper feeding the bolting cylinder. Together these components formed the automatic process, from incoming wheat to outgoing flour packed in barrels. At that time the idea of such automation had not been applied to any manufacturing process in America. The mill opened, on a non-automatic cycle, in 1785. In January 1786 Evans applied to the Delaware legislature for a twenty-five-year patent, which was granted on 30 January 1787 although there was much opposition from the Quaker millers of Wilmington and elsewhere. He also applied for patents in Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Hampshire. In May 1789 he went to see the mill of the four Ellicot brothers, near Baltimore, where he was impressed by the design of a horizontal screw conveyor by Jonathan Ellicot and exchanged the rights to his own elevator for those of this machine. After six years' work on his automatic mill, it was completed in 1790. In the autumn of that year a miller in Brandywine ordered a set of Evans's machinery, which set the trend toward its general adoption. A model of it was shown in the Market Street shop window of Robert Leslie, a watch-and clockmaker in Philadelphia, who also took it to England but was unsuccessful in selling the idea there.

In 1790 the Federal Plant Laws were passed; Evans's patent was the third to come within the new legislation. A detailed description with a plate was published in a Philadelphia newspaper in January 1791, the first of a proposed series, but the paper closed and the series came to nothing. His brother Joseph went on a series of sales trips, with the result that some machinery of Evans's design was adopted. By 1792 over one hundred mills had been equipped with Evans's machinery, the millers paying a royalty of $40 for each pair of millstones in use. The series of articles that had been cut short formed the basis of Evans's The Young Millwright and Miller's Guide, published first in 1795 after Evans had moved to Philadelphia to set up a store selling milling supplies; it was 440 pages long and ran to fifteen editions between 1795 and 1860.

Evans was fairly successful as a merchant. He patented a method of making millstones as well as a means of packing flour in barrels, the latter having a disc pressed down by a toggle-joint arrangement. In 1801 he started to build a steam carriage. He rejected the idea of a steam wheel and of a low-pressure or atmospheric engine. By 1803 his first engine was running at his store, driving a screw-mill working on plaster of Paris for making millstones. The engine had a 6 in. (15 cm) diameter cylinder with a stroke of 18 in. (45 cm) and also drove twelve saws mounted in a frame and cutting marble slabs at a rate of 100 ft (30 m) in twelve hours. He was granted a patent in the spring of 1804. He became involved in a number of lawsuits following the extension of his patent, particularly as he increased the licence fee, sometimes as much as sixfold. The case of Evans v. Samuel Robinson, which Evans won, became famous and was one of these. Patent Right Oppression Exposed, or Knavery Detected, a 200-page book with poems and prose included, was published soon after this case and was probably written by Oliver Evans. The steam engine patent was also extended for a further seven years, but in this case the licence fee was to remain at a fixed level. Evans anticipated Edison in his proposal for an "Experimental Company" or "Mechanical Bureau" with a capital of thirty shares of $100 each. It came to nothing, however, as there were no takers. His first wife, Sarah, died in 1816 and he remarried, to Hetty Ward, the daughter of a New York innkeeper. He was buried in the Bowery, on Lower Manhattan; the church was sold in 1854 and again in 1890, and when no relative claimed his body he was reburied in an unmarked grave in Trinity Cemetery, 57th Street, Broadway.

[br]

SUBJECT AREA: Metallurgy

[br]

[br]

[br]

Clerke, from Launde Abbey in Leicestershire, was involved in early experiments to smelt lead using coal fuel, which was believed to have been located on the Leicestershire-Derbyshire border. Concurrently, Lord Grandison was financing experiments at Bristol for similar purposes, causing the downfall of an earlier unsuccessful patented method before securing his own patent in 1678. In that same year Clerke took over management of the Bristol works, claiming the ability to secure financial return from Grandison's methods. Financial success proved elusive, although the technical problems of adapting the reverberatory furnace to coal fuel appear to have been solved when Clerke was found to have established another lead works nearby on his own account. He was forced to cease work on lead in 1684 in respect of Grandison's patent rights. Clerke then turned to investigations into the coal-fired smelting of other metals and started to smelt copper in coal-fired reverberatory furnaces. By 1688–9 small supplied of merchantable copper were offered for sale in London in order to pay his workers, possibly because of further financial troubles. The practical success of his smelting innovation is widely acknowledged to have been the responsibility of John Coster and, to a smaller extent, Gabriel Wayne, both of whom left Clerke and set up separate works elsewhere. Clerke's son Talbot took over administration of his father's works, which declined still further and closed c. 1693, at about the time of Sir Clement's death. Both Coster and Wayne continued to develop smelting techniques, establishing a new British industry in the smelting of copper with coal.

[br]

SUBJECT AREA: Metallurgy

[br]

[br]

[br]

He was apprenticed to his uncles, makers of metalware, in 1815 and showed such aptitude for business that he was taken into partnership. On their deaths, Elkington assumed sole ownership of the business. In conjunction with his cousin Henry (1810–52), by unrelenting enterprise, he established an industry for electroplating and electrogilding. Up until c.1840, silver-plated goods were produced by rolling or soldering thin sheets of silver to a base metal, such as copper. Back in 1801, the English chemist William Wollaston had deposited one metal upon another by means of an electric current generated from a voltaic pile or battery. In the 1830s, certain inventors, such as Bessemer used this result to produce plated articles and these efforts in turn induced the Elkingtons to apply the method in their trade. In 1836 and 1837 they took out patents for "mercurial gilding", and one patent of 1838 refers to a separate electric current. In 1840 they bought from John Wright, a Birmingham surgeon, his discovery of what proved to be the best electroplating solution: namely, solutions of cyanides of gold and silver in potassium cyanide. They also purchased rights to use the electric machine invented by J.S. Woolrich. Armed with these techniques, the Elkingtons produced in their large new works in Newhall Street a wide range of gold-and silver-plated decorative and artistic ware. Henry was particularly active on the artistic side of the business, as was their employee Alexander Parkes. For some twenty-five years, Britain enjoyed a virtual monopoly of this kind of ware, due largely to the enterprise of the Elkingtons, although by the end of the century rising tariffs had closed many foreign markets and the lead had passed to Germany. George spent all his working life in Birmingham, taking some part in the public life of the city. He was a governor of King Edward's Grammar School and a borough magistrate. He was also a caring employer, setting up houses and schools for his workers.

[br]

SUBJECT AREA: Architecture and building, Mechanical, pneumatic and hydraulic engineering, Photography, film and optics, Steam and internal combustion engines

[br]

[br]

[br]

Nothing is known of Hero, or Heron, apart from what can be gleaned from the books he wrote. Their scope and style suggest that he was a teacher at the museum or the university of Alexandria, writing textbooks for his students. The longest book, and the one with the greatest technological interest, is Pneumatics. Some of its material is derived from the works of the earlier writers Ctesibius of Alexandria and Philo of Byzantium, but many of the devices described were invented by Hero himself. The introduction recognizes that the air is a body and demonstrates the effects of air pressure, as when air must be allowed to escape from a closed vessel before water can enter. There follow clear descriptions of a variety of mechanical contrivances depending on the effects of either air pressure or heated gases. Most of the devices seem trivial, but such toys or gadgets were popular at the time and Hero is concerned to show how they work. Inventions with a more serious purpose are a fire pump and a water organ. One celebrated gadget is a sphere that is set spinning by jets of steam—an early illustration of the reaction principle on which modern jet propulsion depends.

M echanics, known only in an Arabic version, is a textbook expounding the theory and practical skills required by the architect. It deals with a variety of questions of mechanics, such as the statics of a horizontal beam resting on vertical posts, the theory of the centre of gravity and equilibrium, largely derived from Archimedes, and the five ways of applying a relatively small force to exert a much larger one: the lever, winch, pulley, wedge and screw. Practical devices described include sledges for transporting heavy loads, cranes and a screw cutter.

Hero's Dioptra describes instruments used in surveying, together with an odometer or device to indicate the distance travelled by a wheeled vehicle. Catoptrics, known only in Latin, deals with the principles of mirrors, plane and curved, enunciating that the angle of incidence is equal to that of reflection. Automata describes two forms of puppet theatre, operated by strings and drums driven by a falling lead weight attached to a rope wound round an axle. Hero's mathematical work lies in the tradition of practical mathematics stretching from the Babylonians through Islam to Renaissance Europe. It is seen most clearly in his Metrica, a treatise on mensuration.

Of all his works, Pneumatics was the best known and most influential. It was one of the works of Greek science and technology assimilated by the Arabs, notably Banu Musa ibn Shakir, and was transmitted to medieval Western Europe.

[br]

SUBJECT AREA: Paper and printing

[br]

[br]

[br]

Koenig became a printer and bookseller. Around 1800 he was among those who conceived the idea of mechanizing the hand printing press, which apart from minor details had survived virtually unchanged through the first three and a half centuries of printing. In 1803, in Sühl, Saxony, he designed a press in which the flat forme, carrying the type, was mechanically inked and passed to and from the platen. Whether this ma-chine was ever constructed is not known, but Koenig found little support for his ideas because of lack of technical and financial resources. So, in 1806, he went to England and was introduced to Thomas Bensley, a book printer off Fleet Street in London. Bensley agreed to support Koenig and brought in two other printers to help finance Koenig's experiments. Another German, Andreas Bauer, an engineer, assisted Koenig and became largely responsible for the practical execution of Koenig's plans.

In 1810 they patented a press which was steam-driven but still used a platen. It was set to work in Bensley's office the following year but did not prove to be satisfactory. Koenig redesigned it, and in October 1811 he obtained a patent for a steam-driven press on an entirely new principle. In place of the platen, the paper was fixed around a hollow rotating cylinder, which impressed the paper on to the inked forme. In Bensley's office it was used for book printing, but its increased speed over the hand press appealed to newspaper proprietors and John Walter II of The Times asked Koenig to make a double-cylinder machine, so that the return stroke of the forme would be productive. A further patent was taken out in 1813 and the new machine was made ready to print the 29 November 1814 issue—in secrecy, behind closed doors, to forestall opposition from the pressmen working the hand presses. An important feature of the machine was that the inking rollers were not of the traditional leather or skin but a composite material made from glue, molasses and some soda. The inking could not have been achieved satisfactorily with the old materials. The editorial of that historic issue proclaimed, 'Our Journal of this day presents to the public the practical result of the greatest improvement connected with printing, since the discovery of the art itself Koenig's machine press could make 1,200 impressions an hour compared to 200 with the hand press; further improvements raised this figure to 1,500–2,000. Koenig's last English patent was in 1814 for an improved cylinder machine and a perfecting machine, which printed both sides of the paper. The steam-driven perfecting press was printing books in Bensley's office in February 1816. Koenig and Bauer wanted by that time to manufacture machine presses for other customers, but Bensley, now the principal shareholder, insisted that they should make machines for his benefit only. Finding this restriction intolerable, Koenig and Bauer returned to Germany: they became partners in a factory at Oberzell, near Würzburg, in 1817 and the firm of Koenig and Bauer flourishes there to this day.

[br]

SUBJECT AREA: Ports and shipping

[br]

[br]

[br]

Of Scottish stock, McKay was the son of a farmer and the grandson of a loyalist officer who had left the United States after the War of Independence. After some elementary shipwright training in Nova Scotia, McKay travelled to New York to apprentice to the great American shipbuilder Isaac Webb, then building some of the outstanding ships of the nineteenth century. At the age of 21 and a fully fledged journeyman, McKay again set out and worked in various shipyards before joining William Currier in 1841 to establish a yard in Newburyport, Massachusetts. He moved on again in 1843 to form another venture, the yard of McKay and Pickett in the same locality.

In 1844 McKay came to know Enoch Train of Boston, then proprietor of a fleet of fast clipper ships on the US A-to-Liverpool run. He persuaded McKay to set out on his own and promised to support him with orders for ships. The partnership with Pickett was dissolved amicably and Donald McKay opened the yard in East Boston, from which some of the world's fastest ships were to be launched. McKay's natural ability as a shipwright had been enhanced by the study of mathematics and engineering drawing, something he had learned from his wife Albenia Boole, the daughter of another shipbuilder. He was not too proud to learn from other masters on the East Coast such as William H.Webb and John Willis Griffiths. The first ships from East Boston included the Washington Irvine of 1845 and the Anglo Saxon of 1846; they were well built and had especially comfortable emigrant accommodation. However, faster ships were to follow, almost all three-masted, fully rigged ships with very fine or "extreme" lines, including the Flying Cloud for the Californian gold rush of 1851, the four-masted barque Great Republic; then, c. 1854, the Lightning was ordered by James Baines of Liverpool for his Black Ball Line. The Lightning holds to this day the speed record for a square-rigged ship's daily run. As the years passed the shipbuilding scene changed, and while McKay's did build some iron ships for the US Navy, they became much less profitable and in 1875 the yard closed down, with McKay retiring to take up farming.

[br]

SUBJECT AREA: Architecture and building

[br]

[br]

[br]

Mies van der Rohe was the son of a stonemason and his early constructional training came from his father. As a young man he gained experience of the modern school from study of the architecture of the earlier leaders, notably Peter Behrens, Hendrik Berlage and Frank Lloyd Wright. He commenced architectural practice in 1913 and soon after the First World War was establishing his own version of modern architecture. His building materials were always of the highest quality, of marble, stone, glass and, especially, steel. He stripped his designs of all extraneous decoration: more than any of his contemporaries he followed the theme of elegance, functionalism and an ascetic concentration on essentials. He believed that architectural design should not look backwards but should reflect the contemporary achievement of advanced technology in both its construction and the materials used, and he began early in his career to act upon these beliefs. Typical was his early concrete and glass office building of 1922, after which, more importantly, came his designs for the German Pavilion at the Barcelona Exposition of 1929. These designs included his famous Barcelona chair, made from chrome steel and leather in a geometrical design, one which has survived as a classic and is still in production. Another milestone was his Tugendhat House in Brno (1930), a long, low, rectilinear structure in glass and steel that set a pattern for many later buildings of this type. In 1930 Mies followed his colleagues as third Director of the Bauhaus, but due to the rise of National Socialism in Germany it was closed in 1933. He finally left Germany for the USA in 1937, and the following year he took up his post as Director of Architecture in Chicago at what is now known as the Illinois Institute of Technology and where he remained for twenty years. In America Mies van der Rohe continued to develop his work upon his original thesis. His buildings are always recognizable for their elegance, fine proportions, high-quality materials and clean, geometrical forms; nearly all are of glass and steel in rectangular shapes. The structure and design evolved according to the individual needs of each commission, and there were three fundamental types of design. One type was the single or grouped high-rise tower, built for apartments for the wealthy, as in his Lake Shore Drive Apartments in Chicago (1948–51), or for city-centre offices, as in his Seagram Building in New York (1954–8, with Philip Johnson) or his Chicago Federal Centre (1964). Another form was the long, low rectangle based upon the earlier Tugendhat House and seen again in the New National Gallery in Berlin (1965–8). Third, there were the grouped schemes when the commission called for buildings of varied purpose on a single, large site. Here Mies van der Rohe achieved a variety and interest in the different shapes and heights of buildings set out in spatial harmony of landscape. Some examples of this type of scheme were housing estates (Lafayette Park Housing Development in Detroit, 1955–6), while others were for educational, commercial or shopping requirements, as at the Toronto Dominion Centre (1963–9).

[br]

SUBJECT AREA: Electronics and information technology, Recording

[br]

[br]

[br]

Nyquist (original family name Nykvist) emigrated from Sweden to the USA when he was 18 years old and settled in Minnesota. After teaching for a time, he studied electrical engineering at the University of North Dakota, gaining his first and Master's degrees in 1915 and 1916, and his PhD from Yale in 1917. He then joined the American Telegraph \& Telephone Company, moving to its Bell Laboratories in 1934 and remaining there until his retirement in 1954. A prolific inventor, he made many contributions to communication engineering, including the invention of vestigial-side band transmission. In the late 1920s he analysed the behaviour of analogue and digital signals in communication circuits, and in 1928 he showed that the thermal noise per unit bandwidth is given by 4 kT, where k is Boltzmann's constant and T the absolute temperature. However, he is best known for the Nyquist Criterion, which defines the conditions necessary for the stable, oscillation-free operation of amplifiers with a closed feedback loop. The problem of how to realize these conditions was investigated by his colleague Hendrik Bode.

[br]

See also: Shannon, Claude Elwood

SUBJECT AREA: Architecture and building, Civil engineering

[br]

[br]

[br]

The son of a farmer, he had worked in gardens since boyhood and at the age of 21 was employed as Undergardener at the Horticultural Society Gardens in Chiswick, from where he went on to become Head Gardener for the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth. It was there that he developed his methods of glasshouse construction, culminating in the Great Conservatory of 1836–40, an immense structure some 277 ft (84.4 m) long, 123 ft (37.5 m) wide and 67 ft (20.4 m) high. Its framework was of iron and its roof of glass, with wood to contain the glass panels; it is now demolished. Paxton went on to landscape garden design, fountain and waterway engineering, the laying out of the model village of Edensor, and to play a part in railway and country house projects.

The structure that made Paxton a household name was erected in Hyde Park, London, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851 and was aptly dubbed, by Punch, the Crystal Palace. The idea of holding an international exhibition for industry had been mooted in 1849 and was backed by Prince Albert and Henry Cole. The money for this was to be raised by public subscription and 245 designs were entered into a competition held in 1850; however, most of the concepts, received from many notable architects and engineers, were very costly and unsuitable, and none were accepted. That same year, Paxton published his scheme in the Illustrated London News and it was approved after it received over-whelming public support.

Paxton's Crystal Palace, designed and erected in association with the engineers Fox and Henderson, was a prefabricated glasshouse of vast dimensions: it was 1,848 ft (563.3 m) long, 408 ft (124.4 m) wide and over 100 ft (30.5 m) high. It contained 3,300 iron columns, 2,150 girders. 24 miles (39 km) of guttering, 600,000 ft3 (17,000 m³) of timber and 900,000 ft2 (84,000 m) of sheet glass made by Chance Bros, of Birmingham. One of the chief reasons why it was accepted by the Royal Commission Committee was that it fulfilled the competition proviso that it should be capable of being erected quickly and subsequently dismantled and re-erected elsewhere. The Crystal Palace was to be erected at a cost of £79,800, much less than the other designs. Building began on 30 July 1850, with a labour force of some 2,000, and was completed on 31 March 1851. It was a landmark in construction at the time, for its size, speed of construction and its non-eclectic design, and, most of all, as the first great prefabricated building: parts were standardized and made in quantity, and were assembled on site. The exhibition was opened by Queen Victoria on 1 May 1851 and had received six million visitors when it closed on 11 October. The building was dismantled in 1852 and reassembled, with variations in design, at Sydenham in south London, where it remained until its spectacular conflagration in 1936.

[br]

SUBJECT AREA: Electronics and information technology, Horology, Land transport

[br]

[br]

[br]

The son of G.W.C.Sinclair, a machine tool engineer, the young Sinclair's education was disrupted by the failure of his father's business. Aged 12 he left Boxgrove preparatory school and went through twelve more schools before leaving St George's School, Weybridge, at the age of 17. His first job was as an editorial assistant on a hobbyist's magazine, Practical Wireless, and his next as an editor at Bernard Books, writing a series of technical manuals. In 1961 he registered Sinclair Radionics and in the following year announced its first product, a micro-amplifier. This was the first of a series of miniaturized radio products that he put on the market while retaining his editorial job. In 1972 he launched the Sinclair Executive calculator, selling originally at £79.95 but later at £24.95. In 1976, the Black Watch, an electronic watch with digital light-emitting diode (LED) display, was marketed, to be followed by the TV1A, a miniature television with a 2 in. (5 cm) monochrome screen. During the latter part of this period, Sinclair Radionics was supported by investment from the UK National Enterprise Board, who appointed an outside managing director; after making a considerable loss, they closed the company in 1979. However, Sinclair Electronics had already been set up and started to market the UK's first cheap computer kit, the MK 14, which was followed by the ZX 80 and later the ZX 81. Price was kept at a minimum by the extensive use of existing components, though this was a restriction on performance. The small memory was enhanced from one kilobyte to seventeen kilobytes with the addition of a separate memory unit. In January 1985 Sinclair produced the Sinclair C5, a small three-wheeled vehicle driven by a washing-machine engine, intended as a revolutionary new form of personal transport; perceived as unsafe and impractical, it did not prove popular, and the failure of this venture resulted in a contraction of Sinclair's business activities. Later in 1985, a rival electronics company, Amstrad, paid £35,000,000 for all rights to existing Sinclair computer products.

In March 1992, the irrepressible Sinclair launched his latest brainchild, the Zike electric bicycle; a price of £499 was forecast. This machine, powered by an electric motor but with pedal assistance, had a top speed of 19 km/h (12 mph) and, on full power, would run for up to one hour. Its lightweight nickel-cadmium battery could be recharged either by a generator or by free-wheeling. Although more practical than the C5, it did not bring Sinclair success on the scale of his earlier micro-electronic products.

[br]

SUBJECT AREA: Medical technology

[br]

[br]

[br]

Trueta studied medicine at Barcelona University and graduated in 1921. He held successive surgical appointments until in 1929 he was appointed to the Caja de Provision y Socorro, an organization handling 40,000 cases of injury per year. In 1935, soon after becoming Chief Surgeon in Catalonia, he was confronted by the special problems presented by the casualties of the Spanish Civil War.

With a Nationalist victory imminent in 1939, he moved to England where his special skills were recognized, and at the outbreak of the Second World War he was appointed to the Wing-field Hospital and the Radcliffe Infirmary at Oxford. After an interregnum at the end of the war, in 1949 he was appointed Nuffield Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at Oxford, and held this post until his retirement in 1965, when he was able to return to Spain.

His technique of wound management stressed the importance of wound cleansing, excision of non-viable tissue, drainage and immobilization, and was particularly timely in that the advent of penicillin permitted the practical pursuit of new concepts in the treatment not only of the soft tissues, but also of bone infection. He was engaged in many other research projects, in particular those concerned with "crush syndrome" and its renal implications.

[br]

SUBJECT AREA: Civil engineering, Electricity, Mechanical, pneumatic and hydraulic engineering

[br]

[br]

[br]

Unwin made an important contribution to the establishment of engineering at the University of London. His family were of Huguenot stock, and his father was a Congregational minister. Unwin was educated at the City of London Corporation School and at New College, St John's Wood. At a time when the older universities were still effectively closed to Dissenters, he matriculated with Honours in Chemistry in the London University Matriculation Examination in 1858, and he subsequently graduated BSc from London in 1861. He served as Scientific Assistant to William Fairbairn in Manchester from 1856 to 1862, going on to manage engineering work of various sorts. He was appointed Instructor at the Royal School of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering (1869–72), and then he became Professor of Hydraulics and Mechanical Engineering at the Royal Indian Engineering College (1872–84). From 1884 to 1904 he was Professor of Civil and Mechanical Engineering at the Central Institution of the City \& Guilds of London, which was incorporated into the University of London in 1900. Unwin's research interests included hydraulics and water power, which led to him taking a leading part in the Niagara Falls hydroelectric scheme; the strength of materials, involving the stability of masonry dams; and the development of the internal combustion engine.

[br]

SUBJECT AREA: Electronics and information technology, Telecommunications

[br]

[br]

[br]

After attending schools in Palo Alto and Halcyon, Russell Varian went to Stanford University, gaining his BA in 1925 and his MA in 1927 despite illness and being dyslexic. His family being in need of financial help, he first worked for six months for Bush Electric in San Francisco and then for an oil company in Texas, returning to San Francisco in 1930 to join Farnsworth's Television Laboratory. After a move to Philadelphia, in 1933 the laboratory closed and Russell tried to take up a PhD course at Stanford but was rejected, so he trained as a teacher. However, although he did some teaching at Stanford it was not to be his career, for in 1935 he joined his brothers Sigurd and Eric in the setting up of a home laboratory.

There, with William Hansen, a former colleague of Russell's at Stanford, they worked on the development of microwave oscillators, based on some of the latter's ideas. By 1937 they had made sufficient progress on an electron velocity-bunching tube, which they called the klystron, to obtain an agreement with the university to provide laboratory facilities in return for a share of any proceeds. By August that year they were able to produce continuous power at a wavelength of 13 cm. Clearly needing greater resources to develop and manufacture the tube, and with a possible war looming, a deal was struck with the Sperry Gyroscope Company to finance the work, which was transferred to the East Coast.

In 1946, after the death of his first wife, Russell returned to Palo Alto, and in 1948 the brothers and Hansen founded Varian Associates to make microwave tubes for transmitters and linear accelerators and nuclear magnetic-resonance detectors. Subsequent research also resulted in the development of a satellite-borne magnetometer for measuring the earth's magnetic field.

[br]

See also: Varian, Sigurd Fergus

SUBJECT AREA: Photography, film and optics

[br]

[br]

[br]

Educated at the Polytechnic Institute in Vienna, Voigtländer travelled widely before taking over the family business in 1837. The business had been founded by Voigtländer's grandfather in 1756, and was continued by his father, Johann Friedrich, the inventor of the opera glass, and by the 1830s enjoyed one of the highest reputations in Europe. When Petzval made the calculations for the first purpose-designed photographic objective in 1840, it was inevitable that he should go to Peter Voigtländer for advice. The business went on to manufacture Petzval's lens, which was also fitted to an all-metal camera of totally original design by Voigtländer.

The Petzval lens was an extraordinary commercial success and Voigtländer sold specimens all over the world. Unfortunately Petzval had no formal agreement with Voigtländer and made little financial gain from his design, a fact which was to lead to dispute and separation; the Voigtländer concern continued to prosper, however. To meet the increasing demand for his products, Peter Voigtländer built a new factory in Brunswick and closed the business in Vienna. The closure is seen by at least one commentator as the death blow to Vienna's optical industry, a field in which it was once preeminent. The Voigtländer dynasty continued long after Peter's death and the name enjoyed a reputation for high-quality photographic equipment well into the twentieth century.

[br]

SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace

[br]

[br]

[br]

Gabriel Voisin was one of a group of aviation pioneers working in France c. 1905. One of the leaders of this group was a rich lawyer-sportsman, Ernest Archdeacon. For a number of years they had been building gliders based on those of the Wright brothers. Archdeacon's glider of 1904 was flown by Voisin, who went on to assist in the design and manufacture of gliders for Archdeacon and Louis Blériot, including successful float-gliders. Gabriel Voisin was joined by his brother Charles in 1905 and they set up the first commercial aircraft factory. As the Voisins had limited funds, they had to seek customers who could afford to indulge in the fashionable hobby of flying. One was Santos- Dumont, who commissioned Voisin to build his "14 bis" aeroplane in 1906.

Early in 1907 the Voisins built their first powered aeroplane, but it was not a success.

Later that year they completed a biplane for a Paris sculptor, Léon Delagrange, and another for Henri Farman. The basic Voisin was a biplane with the engine behind the pilot and a "pusher" propeller. Pitching was controlled by biplane elevators forward of the pilot and rudders were fitted to the box kite tail, but there was no control of roll.

Improvements were gradually introduced by the Voisins and their customers, such as Farman. Incidentally, to flatter their clients the Voisins often named the aircraft after them, thus causing some confusion to historians. Many Voisins were built up until 1910, when the company's fortunes sank. Competition was growing, the factory was flooded, and Charles left. Gabriel started again, building robust biplanes of steel construction. Voisin bombers were widely used during the First World War, and a subsidiary factory was built in Russia.

In August 1917, Voisin sold his business when the French Air Ministry decided that Voisin aeroplanes were obsolete and that the factory should be turned over to the building of engines. After the war he started another business making prefabricated houses, and then turned to manufacturing motor cars. From 1919 to 1939 his company produced various models, mainly for the luxury end of the market but also including a few sports and racing cars. In the early 1950s he designed a small two-seater, which was built by the Biscuter company in Spain. The Voisin company finally closed in 1958.

[br]

SUBJECT AREA: Steam and internal combustion engines

[br]

[br]

[br]

Between the years 1823 and 1833, Brown achieved a number of a firsts as a pioneer of internal-combustion engines. In 1824 he built a full-scale working model of a pumping engine; in 1826, a vehicle fitted with a gas vacuum engine ascended Shooters Hill in Kent; and in 1827 he conducted trials of a motor-driven boat on the Thames that were witnessed by Lords of the Admiralty. The principle of Brown's engine had been demonstrated by Cecil in 1820. A burning gas flame was extinguished within a closed cylinder, creating a partial vacuum; atmospheric pressure was then utilized to produce the working stroke. By 1832 a number of Brown's engines in use for pumping water were reported, the most notable being at Croydon Canal. However, high fuel consumption and running costs prevented a wide acceptance of Brown's engines, and a company formed in 1825 was dissolved only two years later. Brown continued alone with his work until his death.

[br]

SUBJECT AREA: Steam and internal combustion engines

[br]

[br]

[br]

Admitted to Magdalene College, Cambridge, in 1810, Cecil was elected a Fellow in 1814. The son of an Anglican priest, he was himself ordained in 1820; he devoted his life to the Church of England, but he also showed a commendable aptitude for technical matters. His paper on a means of motive power, presented to the Cambridge Philosophical Society in 1820, created immense interest. A working model of his engine, using hydrogen as fuel, was demonstrated during the presentation. The operating principle required that a vacuum be produced in a closed cylinder by quenching a burning flame, the pressure difference between the vacuum and atmosphere then being used to produce the working stroke. Cecil's engine was never manufactured in any number, but the working principle was adapted by other pioneers, namely Samuel Brown, in 1824, and, more successfully, Otto- Langen in 1867.

[br]

SUBJECT AREA: Steam and internal combustion engines

[br]

[br]

[br]

A distinguished hydraulic engineer, Matteucci is more widely known for his work on early internal-combustion engines. In 1851, during a landreclamation project in Florence, he became acquainted with Eugenio Barsanti. Together they succeeded in designing and producing a number of the first type of gas engines to produce a vacuum within a closed cylinder, atmospheric pressure then being utilized to produce the power stroke. The principle was demonstrated by Cecil in 1820 and was used by Samuel Brown in 1827 and by N.A. Otto in 1867. The company Società Promotrice del Nuovo Motore Barsanti e Matteucci was formed in 1860, but ill health forced Matteucci to resign in 1862, and in 1864 Barsanti, whilst negotiating mass production of engines with Cockerill of Seraing, Belgium, contracted typhoid and later died. Efforts to continue the business in Italy subsequently failed and Matteucci returned to his engineering practice.

[br]

1 entrance (entrada).

2 access (paso).

3 approach road (road).

4 fit (ataque).

un acceso de tos a fit of coughing

5 outburst, seizure, onrush, outbreak.

6 attack, bout.

7 gateway.

8 aditus.

1^st person singular (yo) present indicative of spanish verb: accesar.

* * *

► nombre masculino

1 (entrada) access, entry; (a una ciudad) approach

2 (de tos) fit; (de fiebre) attack, bout

3 figurado (ataque) fit, outburst

4 INFORMÁTICA access

■ acceso directo random access

\

'Prohibido el acceso' "No admittance"

* * *

1) access, entry

2) admittance, entrance

* * *

1) (=posibilidad de entrar) [a edificio, institución, mercado, documentos] access; [a competición] entry

2) (=llegada)

a) [en coche] access

b) [de avión] approach

3) (=entrada) entrance

4) (Univ) (=ingreso) entrance

5) (Inform) access

6) (=ataque)

a) (Med) [de asma, fiebre] attack; [de tos] fit

b) [de celos, cólera] fit; [de generosidad] display

* * *

1)

a) ( a un lugar) access

b) (a persona, documento) access

c) (Inf) access

2)

a) (a puesto, cargo) accession (frml)

b) ( a curso) entrance

- acceso directo

3) (Med) attack

* * *

= access, admittance, login, entry, approach path.

Ex. Access to the contents of data bases is via some computer-searching technique, often using an online terminal.

Ex. New rules have made it possible to show films publicly with free admittance.

Ex. Internet access for electronic messaging, file transfer, and remote login to computer was originally only available to individuals in education and research institutions.

Ex. The entry, change, and extraction of word and phrases from abstracts is described in detail in Chapter 9.

Ex. Approach paths to site should be wide and non-slippery with liberal use being made of ramps.

----

* acceso abierto = open access (OA).

* acceso a distancia = remote access.

* acceso a la información por el autor = author approach.

* acceso a la información por el título = title approach.

* acceso a la información por la materia = subject approach to information, subject approach.

* acceso aleatorio = random access.

* acceso a los artículos de las publicaciones periódicas = article-level access.

* acceso a los documentos = document delivery.

* acceso concurrente = concurrent access.

* acceso dedicado = dedicated access.

* acceso de sólo lectura = read-only access.

* acceso directo = direct access.

* acceso en línea = online access.

* acceso identificado = password access.

* acceso libre = self-help, free access.

* acceso mediante contraseña = password access.

* acceso mediante línea telefónica = dial-access.

* acceso mediante llamada telefónica = dial-in access, dial-up access, dial up phone line.

* acceso múltiple = multiple access.

* acceso para todos = access for all.

* acceso por CD-ROM = CD-ROM access.

* acceso por materias = subject access.

* acceso público = public access.

* acceso remoto = remote access.

* acceso restringido = restricted access.

* accesos = demand load.

* acceso selectivo = selective access.

* acceso simultáneo = concurrent access.

* acceso sólo electrónico = e-only access.

* acceso violento = paroxysm.

* base de datos de acceso mediante suscripción = subscription database.

* biblioteca de acceso restringido = closed-stack library.

* biblioteca de libre acceso = open access library.

* camino de acceso = approach path.

* clave de acceso = password.

* Comisión Europea para la Preservación y el Acceso (ECPA) = European Commission on Preservation and Access (ECPA).

* conseguir acceso = gain + access, gain + admittance.

* control de acceso = access control.

* dar acceso = provide + access.

* dar acceso a = give + access to.

* de acceso público = publicly accessible.

* de acceso rápido = fast-access.

* de acceso restringido = closed access.

* de fácil acceso = easily available, over the counter, handy.

* derecho de acceso = access right.

* derecho de acceso a la información = right of access to information.

* estanterías de libre acceso = open shelves.

* facilidad de acceso = reachability.

* falta de acceso = unavailability.

* fichero de acceso aleatorio = random access file.

* fichero de punto de acceso = access-point file.

* filtrar el acceso = filter + access.

* fondo de acceso restringido = reserve collection.

* fondo de recursos electrónicos de acceso restringido = electronic reserve.

* fondos de acceso libre = open stacks.

* fondos de acceso restringido = closed access collection, closed stacks, closed access stacks.

* fondos de libre acceso = open access stacks.

* igualdad de acceso = equity of access.

* libertad de acceso a la lectura = freedom to read.

* licencia de acceso = subscription license.

* licencia de acceso a información electrónica = license [licence, -USA], licensing.

* memoria de acceso aleatorio (RAM) = random access memory (RAM).

* módulo de aceso de un portal = portlet.

* módulo de catálogo de acceso público en línea = online public access catalogue module.

* nombre de acceso = login.

* nombre de acceso al sistema = system logon name.

* obtener acceso = gain + access, gain + admittance.

* ofrecer acceso = provide + access.

* posibilidades de acceso = access capabilities.

* programa de acceso a Internet = browser software.

* programas de acceso = access software.

* puerta de acceso = gateway.

* punto de acceso = access point, entry point, entry term, index entry, retrieval access, search key, access point, service point, point of access, entrance point.

* puntos de acceso = entry vocabulary.

* rampa de acceso = ramp, access ramp.

* servicio de acceso público = public delivery service.

* sistema de acceso mediante tarjeta = card access system.

* tarjeta de acceso = swipecard.

* tener acceso a información confidencial = be on the inside.

* tiempo de acceso = access time, seek time, access speed.

* todo el mundo debe tener acceso a la información = access for all.

* vía de acceso rápido = fast track.

* * *

1)

a) ( a un lugar) access

b) (a persona, documento) access

c) (Inf) access

2)

a) (a puesto, cargo) accession (frml)

b) ( a curso) entrance

- acceso directo

3) (Med) attack

* * *

* * *

1 (a un lugar) access

el acceso al edificio no presenta ningún problema there is no problem gaining access to o getting into the building

rutas de acceso approach roads

los accesos a la ciudad están bloqueados roads into o approaches to the city are blocked

esta puerta es el único acceso al jardín this door is the only way into o the only means of access to the garden

rampa para acceso con silla de ruedas ramp for wheelchair access

2 (a una persona) access

3 (a un documento) access

4 ( Inf) access

random access

sequential access

1 (a un puesto, cargo) accession ( frml)

desde su acceso al poder since coming to o assuming power

2 (a un curso) entrance

pruebas de acceso entrance examinations

curso de acceso preparatory course

direct entry

C ( Med) attack

acceso de tos coughing fit

acceso de fiebre attack of fever

en un acceso de ira in a fit of rage

acceso de celos fit of jealousy

* * *

a) ( a un lugar) access;

◊ rutas de acceso approach roads

b) (a persona, información) access

c) (Inf) access

◊ pruebas de acceso entrance examinations;

* * *

acceso nm

1. [entrada] entrance (a to);

2. [paso] access (a to);

esta escalera da acceso a los pisos superiores this staircase gives access to the upper floors;

tener acceso a algo to have access to sth;

tiene acceso a información confidencial she has access to confidential information;

quieren facilitar el acceso de los jóvenes a la vivienda they want to make it easier for young people to find a place of their own (to live)

3. [a persona] access;

es un profesor de fácil acceso he's a very accessible teacher

4. [ataque] fit;

un acceso de celos/de locura a fit of jealousy/madness

5. Formal acceso carnal [acto sexual] sexual act

6. Informát access;

acceso a Internet Internet access

acceso directo direct access;

acceso remoto remote access;

acceso secuencial sequential access

* * *

1 a un lugar access;

de difícil acceso inaccessible, difficult to get to

2 INFOR access;

acceso a Internet Internet access

3 de fiebre attack, bout; de tos fit;

acceso de rabia fit of anger

* * *

acceso nm

1) : access

2) : admittance, entrance

* * *

acceso n

1. (en general) access

2. (carretera) road / approach [pl. approaches]

1 to cut.

cortar una rebanada de pan to cut a slice of bread

corta la tarta en cinco partes divide the cake in five, cut the cake into five slices

cortarle el pelo a alguien to cut somebody's hair

cortar y pegar (computing) cut and paste

Ella corta las ramas del rosal She cuts the rosebush branches.

2 to cut out (recortar) (tela, figura de papel).

3 to crack, to chap (labios, piel).

4 to slice through (hender) (aire, olas).

El carnicero cortó los filetes The butcher sliced the fillets.

5 to cut (baraja).

6 to curdle (leche).

7 to cut off (interrumpir) (retirada, luz, teléfono).

cortar el tráfico to close the road to traffic

8 to cut (poner fin a) (beca).

cortar un problema de raíz to nip a problem in the bud; (impedirlo) to root a problem out (erradicarlo)

9 to cut (producir un corte).

estas tijeras no cortan these scissors don't cut (properly)

cortar por lo sano (figurative) to resort to drastic measures; (aplicar una solución drástica) to cut one's losses (para evitar más pérdidas)

10 to take a short cut.

11 to split up.

corté con mi novio I've split up with my boyfriend

12 to cut short, to cut, to cut off.

Ella cortó a Ricardo rápidamente She cut Richard short quickly.

13 to chop, to cut up, to cut out, to cut.

Ella corta madera para el fuego She chops wood for the fire.

14 to ablate, to amputate, to curtail.

* * *

► verbo transitivo

1 (gen) to cut

■ cortar una cinta to cut a ribbon

■ cortar una película to cut a film

2 (pelo) to cut, trim

3 (árbol) to cut down

4 (carne) to carve

5 (pastel) to cut up

6 (cabeza, teléfono, gas) to cut off

7 (mayonesa, leche) to curdle

8 (piel) to chap, crack

9 (viento, frío) to chill, bite

10 COSTURA to cut out

11 (interrumpir) to cut off, interrupt

12 (bloquear) to block

■ cortaron la carretera the road was blocked

13 (suprimir) to cut out

14 figurado (separar) to divide, split, cut

► verbo intransitivo

1 to cut

► verbo pronominal cortarse

1 to cut

■ este metal se corta fácilmente this metal cuts easily

2 (herirse) to cut, cut oneself

■ me he cortado I've cut myself

■ se cortó el dedo he cut his finger

3 (el pelo - por otro) to have one's hair cut; (- uno mismo) to cut one's hair

■ ¿te has cortado el pelo? have you had your hair cut?

4 (piel) to become chapped

5 (leche) to go off, curdle; (mayonesa) to curdle

6 (comunicación) to be cut off

7 familiar (aturdirse) to get embarrassed, get tongue-tied, go all shy

■ no te cortes don't be shy

\

¡corta el rollo! knock it off!

cortar con alguien familiar to split up with somebody

cortar el apetito to ruin one's appetite

cortar el bacalao familiar to be the boss

cortar en seco figurado to cut short

cortar la digestión to give one indigestion, upset one's stomach

cortar la palabra to interrupt

cortar por la mitad to split down the middle

cortar por lo sano familiar to take drastic measures

* * *

1) to cut

2) slice

3) chop

4) trim

5) interrupt

6) block

•

- cortarse

* * *

1. VT

1) [con algo afilado] [gen] to cut; [en trozos] to chop; [en rebanadas] to slice

2) (=partir) [+ árbol] to cut down; [+ madera] to saw

3) (=dividir) to cut

4) (=interrumpir)

a) [+ comunicaciones, agua, corriente] to cut off; [+ carretera, puente] (=cerrar) to close; (=bloquear) to block

b) [+ relaciones] to break off; [+ discurso, conversación] to cut short

5) (=suprimir) to cut

6) [frío] to chap, crack

7) (Dep) [+ balón] to slice

8) [+ baraja] to cut

9) * [+ droga] to cut *

2. VI

1) (=estar afilado) to cut

2) (Inform)

3) (Meteo)

4) (=acortar)

5)

6)

7) (Naipes) to cut

8) (Radio)

9) LAm (Telec) to hang up

cortarse

* * *

verbo transitivo

1) ( dividir) <cuerda/pastel> to cut, chop; < asado> to carve; <leña/madera> to chop; < baraja> to cut; <aire/agua> (liter) to slice o cut through

2) (quitar, separar) <rama/punta/pierna> to cut off; < árbol> to cut down, chop down; < flores> (CS) to pick

3) ( hacer más corto) <pelo/uñas> to cut; <césped/pasto> to mow; < seto> to cut; < rosal> to cut back; < texto> to cut down

4)

a) ( en costura) <falda/vestido> to cut out

b) ( recortar) <anuncio/receta/muñeca de papel> to cut out

5) ( interrumpir)

a) <agua/gas/luz/comunicación> to cut off; <película/programa> to interrupt

b) < retirada> to cut off

c) < calle> policía/obreros to close, block off; manifestantes to block

d) < relaciones diplomáticas> to break off; <subvenciones/ayuda> to cut off

6) < fiebre> to bring down; < hemorragia> to stop, stem

7) < persona> ( en conversación) to interrupt

8) (censurar, editar) < película> to cut; <escena/diálogo> to cut, to cut out

9) <recta/plano> to cross

10)

a) <heroína/cocaína> to adulterate, cut (colloq)

b) < leche> to curdle

11) frío

12) (RPl) < dientes> to cut

1) cuchillo/tijeras to cut

2)

a) ( por radio)

b) (Cin)

c) (CS) ( por teléfono) to hang up

3) ( terminar)

a) novios to break up, split up

b)

4) ( en naipes) to cut

5) ( en costura) to cut out

6) ( acortar camino)

7) (Chi fam) (ir, dirigirse)

cortarse v pron

1) ( interrumpirse) proyección/película to stop; llamada/gas to get cut off

2) (refl)

a) ( hacerse un corte) to cut oneself; <dedo/brazo/cara> to cut

b) piel/labios (+ me/te/le etc) to crack, become chapped

3)

a) (refl) <uñas/pelo> to cut

b) (caus) < pelo> to have... cut

4) (recípr) líneas/calles to cross

5) leche/mayonesa to curdle

6) (Chi, Esp) persona (turbarse, aturdirse) to get embarrassed

7) (Chi fam) animal to collapse from exhaustion

* * *

= cut off, crop, trim, slash, chop off, clip, dam (up), sever, intersect, chop down, shut off, chop up, cut down, fell, shear, trim off, cut + Nombre + up, split, shear off, snip, hew, cut up into + strips.

Ex. The spine folds of the assembled sheets were simply cut off, separating all the leaves, which were then attached to each other and to a backing strip by a coating of rubber solution, and cased in the ordinary way.

Ex. In addition, many of photographs are badly cropped, with the tops of heads, towers, and artworks lopped off.

Ex. The edges of the leaves may have been trimmed smooth by the binder, or left rough (uncut).

Ex. Finally, a few copies of an edition seem generally to have slipped through with their cancellanda uncancelled, so that examples of the original settings may sometimes be found (occasionally slashed by the warehouse keeper's shears, deliberate defacement which escaped notice).

Ex. Others chop off old records to remain within the limits of 680 MB.

Ex. Some libraries frequently subscribe to specific newspapers in duplicate in order to clip articles and illustrations of interest for particular subject files.

Ex. But to prevent any meandering at all, or to dam the flow of talk too soon and too often by intruding, generally only frustrates spontaneity = Aunque evitar cualquier divagación o cortar el flujo de la conversación demasiado pronto y con demasiada frecuencia con interrupciones generalmente sólo coarta la espontaneidad.

Ex. This art is is mass produced, often mechanically, and thus severed from tradition.

Ex. Contingency plans can be devised to intersect at several points on this time continuum.

Ex. Microform catalogs take up less room and are more sound ecologically since you don't have to chop down half of Canada everytime you make a large catalog = Los catálogos de microformas ocupan menos espacio y son más acertados desde un punto de vista ecológico ya que no tienes que talar la mitad de Canadá cada vez que hagas un catálogo grande.

Ex. Advanced design sprinklers shut off water when the fire is out, reducing the risk of water damage.

Ex. The writer bemoans record studios' tendency to chop up and fiddle with opera performances.

Ex. A subsequent owner cut down most of the surrounding woodland and the garden was largely lost.

Ex. In this study, thirty-four-year-old chestnut trees were felled, measured and weighed to evaluate their aboveground biomass.

Ex. All the activity on a sheep station was directed to one end: shearing the sheep and sending the wool away to the city.

Ex. If you repeatedly deadhead - trim off the spent flowers - the plant goes into overdrive.

Ex. They tortured her into revealing her Pin number and safe code before cutting her up and disposing of her in bin liners.

Ex. In the mechanised paper fibre process individual pages are soaked and split so that acid-free paper can be put between the two layers.

Ex. Working at the lumberyard pushing a tree through the buzz saw he accidentally sheared off all ten of his fingers.

Ex. It's perfect for dead heading dense flowering plant without accidentally snipping the neighboring blooms.

Ex. Oak was shaped by splitting with wooden wedges, and by hewing with axes or adzes.

Ex. Cut up the leftovers into strips, stick on skewers and finish quickly on the grill.

----

* abrir cortando = lance.

* ¡corta el rollo! = put a sock in it!.

* cortar Algo = snip + Nombre + off.

* cortar Algo como si fuera mantequilla = cut through + Nombre + like a (hot) knife through butter.

* cortar Algo de raíz = nip + Nombre + in the bud.

* cortar a tajos = hack.

* cortar con barricadas = barricade.

* cortar con motoguadaña = strim.

* cortar con una sierra = saw.

* cortar, cortar con tijeras = snip.

* cortar el agua = cut off + the water.

* cortar el bacalao = call + the shots, be the boss, call + the tune, rule + the roost.

* cortar el césped = mow + the lawn, mow.

* cortar el cuello = decapitate.

* cortar el rollo = cut to + the chase.

* cortar en lonchas = slice.

* cortar en pedacitos = cut up into + small pieces.

* cortar en pedazos = cut + Nombre + up.

* cortar en rebanadas = slice.

* cortar en rodajas = slice.

* cortar en tajos = hack.

* cortar en tiras = shred, cut up into + strips.

* cortar en trocitos = dice.

* cortar en trozos = cut + Nombre + up.

* cortar la cabeza = behead.

* cortar la hierba = mow.

* cortar las flores marchitas = deadhead.

* cortarle las alas a Alguien = clip + Posesivo + wings.

* cortarle los vuelos a Alguien = clip + Posesivo + wings.

* cortar llegando al hueso = cut to + the bone.

* cortar metal = shear.

* cortar perpendicularmente a la veta de crecimiento = cut + across the grain.

* cortar por = cut across.

* cortar por lo sano = cut + Gordian knot, cut + Posesivo + losses.

* cortar radicalmente con = make + a clean break with.

* cortarse = nick + Reflexivo.

* cortar un nudo gordiano = cut + Gordian knot.

* cortar y pegar = cut-and-paste.

* cortar y secar = cut and dry.

* máquina de cortar en rebanadas = slicer.

* sin cortar = uncut.

* utensilio para cortar = cutting tool.

* * *

verbo transitivo

1) ( dividir) <cuerda/pastel> to cut, chop; < asado> to carve; <leña/madera> to chop; < baraja> to cut; <aire/agua> (liter) to slice o cut through

2) (quitar, separar) <rama/punta/pierna> to cut off; < árbol> to cut down, chop down; < flores> (CS) to pick

3) ( hacer más corto) <pelo/uñas> to cut; <césped/pasto> to mow; < seto> to cut; < rosal> to cut back; < texto> to cut down

4)

a) ( en costura) <falda/vestido> to cut out

b) ( recortar) <anuncio/receta/muñeca de papel> to cut out

5) ( interrumpir)

a) <agua/gas/luz/comunicación> to cut off; <película/programa> to interrupt

b) < retirada> to cut off

c) < calle> policía/obreros to close, block off; manifestantes to block

d) < relaciones diplomáticas> to break off; <subvenciones/ayuda> to cut off

6) < fiebre> to bring down; < hemorragia> to stop, stem

7) < persona> ( en conversación) to interrupt

8) (censurar, editar) < película> to cut; <escena/diálogo> to cut, to cut out

9) <recta/plano> to cross

10)

a) <heroína/cocaína> to adulterate, cut (colloq)

b) < leche> to curdle

11) frío

12) (RPl) < dientes> to cut

1) cuchillo/tijeras to cut

2)

a) ( por radio)

b) (Cin)

c) (CS) ( por teléfono) to hang up

3) ( terminar)

a) novios to break up, split up

b)

4) ( en naipes) to cut

5) ( en costura) to cut out

6) ( acortar camino)

7) (Chi fam) (ir, dirigirse)

cortarse v pron

1) ( interrumpirse) proyección/película to stop; llamada/gas to get cut off

2) (refl)

a) ( hacerse un corte) to cut oneself; <dedo/brazo/cara> to cut

b) piel/labios (+ me/te/le etc) to crack, become chapped

3)

a) (refl) <uñas/pelo> to cut

b) (caus) < pelo> to have... cut

4) (recípr) líneas/calles to cross

5) leche/mayonesa to curdle

6) (Chi, Esp) persona (turbarse, aturdirse) to get embarrassed

7) (Chi fam) animal to collapse from exhaustion

* * *

* * *

cortar [A1 ]

A (dividir)

1 ‹cuerda/tarta› to cut

corta el cable aquí cut the wire here

cortar por la línea de puntos cut along the dotted line

se pasa horas cortando papeles he spends hours cutting up pieces of paper

cortó el pastel por la mitad he cut the cake in half o in two

¿en cuántas partes lo corto? how many slices ( o pieces etc) shall I cut it into?

puedes ir cortando las zanahorias you could start chopping the carrots

se cortan los pimientos por la mitad cut o slice the peppers into halves

cortar algo en trozos to cut sth into pieces

cortar algo en rodajas/en cuadritos to slice/dice sth

este queso se corta muy bien this cheese cuts very easily

cortar la carne en trozos pequeños chop o cut the meat (up) into small chunks

2 ‹asado› to carve

3 ‹leña/madera› to chop

4 ‹baraja› to cut

5 ( liter); ‹aire/agua› to slice o cut through

B (quitar, separar)

1 ‹rama/punta› to cut off; ‹pierna/brazo› to cut off; ‹árbol› to cut down, chop down; ‹flores› ( AmL) to pick

córtame una puntita de pan cut me off a bit of bread, will you?

me cortó un trozo de melón she cut me a piece of melon

cortarles los tallos y poner a hervir cut off o remove the stalks and boil

la máquina le cortó un dedo the machine took off his finger, his finger got cut off in the machine

cortarle la cabeza a algn to chop off o cut off sb's head

sano

2 ‹anuncio/receta› to cut out

C (hacer más corto) to cut

le cortó el pelo/las uñas he cut her hair/nails

cortar el césped to mow the lawn, cut the grass

hay que cortar los rosales the rose bushes need cutting back o pruning

«viento»: hacía un viento que me cortaba la cara there was a biting wind blowing in my face o ( liter) lashing my face

E (en costura) ‹falda/vestido› to cut out

1 ‹agua/gas/luz› to cut off; ‹comunicación› to cut off

le cortaron el teléfono his phone was cut off

corta la electricidad antes de tocarlo switch off the electricity before you touch it

siempre cortan la película en lo más interesante they always interrupt the movie at the most exciting moment

cortarla ( Chi fam): córtala con eso OK, cut it out, now ( colloq)

córtenla de hacer ruido cut out the noise, will you? ( colloq)

2 ‹calle› (por obras) to close

los manifestantes cortaron la carretera the demonstrators blocked the road

la policía cortó la calle the police blocked off o closed the street

3 ‹retirada› to cut off

han cortado el tráfico en la zona they've closed the area to traffic

la policía nos cortó el paso the police cut us off

4 ‹relaciones diplomáticas› to break off; ‹subvenciones/ayuda› to cut off

G ‹fiebre› to bring down; ‹resfriado› to cure, get rid of; ‹hemorragia› to stop, stem

H ‹persona› (en una conversación) to interrupt

me cortó en seco he cut me short, he cut me off sharply

I ‹película› to cut, edit; ‹escena/diálogo› to cut out, edit out

J ‹recta/plano› to cross

la Avenida Santa Fe corta el Paseo de Gracia the Avenida Santa Fe crosses the Paseo de Gracia

1 ‹heroína/cocaína› to adulterate, cut ( colloq)

2 ‹vermut› to add water ( o lemon etc) to

3 ‹leche› to curdle

L ( RPl) ‹dientes› to cut

está cortando los dientes he's cutting his teeth, he's teething

( Chi) ‹animal› cortó al caballo de tanto galopar he rode the horse so hard that it collapsed

A «cuchillo/tijeras» to cut

este cuchillo no corta this knife doesn't cut o is blunt

(por radio): corto y cambio over

corto y fuera or corto y cierro over and out

2 ( Cin):

¡corten! cut!

3 (CS) (por teléfono) to hang up

no me cortes don't hang up on me, don't put the phone down on me

C (terminar)

1 «novios» to break up, split up

ha cortado con el novio she's broken o split up with her boyfriend

2 cortar CON algo to break WITH sth

decidió cortar con el pasado she decided to break with o make a break with the past

D (en naipes) to cut

E (en costura) to cut out

F (acortar camino) cortar POR algo:

cortemos por el bosque/la plaza let's cut through the woods/across the square, let's take a short cut through the woods/across the square

cortaron por el atajo they took the shortcut

( Chi fam) (ir, dirigirse): cortaron para la ciudad they headed for o made for the city

no sabía para dónde cortar ( Chi fam); I/he didn't know which way to turn ( colloq)

A (interrumpirse) «proyección/película» to stop; «llamada/gas» to get cut off

se cortó la línea or comunicación I got cut off

se ha cortado la luz there's been a power cut

no te metas en el agua ahora, que se te va a cortar la digestión don't go in the water yet, it's bad for the digestion/you'll get stomach cramp

casi se me corta la respiración del susto I was so frightened I could hardly breathe

B ( refl) (hacerse un corte) to cut oneself; ‹dedo/brazo/cara› to cut

iba descalza y me corté el pie I was barefoot shoes and I cut my foot

se cortó afeitándose he cut himself shaving

1 ( refl) ‹uñas/pelo› to cut

se corta el pelo ella misma she cuts her own hair

se cortó una oreja he cut off his ear

se cortó las venas he slashed his wrists

2 ( caus) ‹pelo› to have … cut

¿cuándo vas a cortarte el pelo? when are you going to have a haircut o get your hair cut?

D ( recípr) «líneas/calles» to cross

E «leche» to go off, curdle; «mayonesa» to curdle

( Esp) «persona» (turbarse, aturdirse): no le digas eso que se corta don't say that to her, she'll get all embarrassed

se corta cuando se ve entre mucha gente he comes over o goes all shy when there are too many people around ( colloq)

G ( Chi fam) «animal» to collapse from exhaustion

me corto de hambre/sed I'm dying of hunger/thirst

* * *

◊ cortar algo por la mitad to cut sth in half o in two;

◊ me cortó un trozo de melón she cut me a piece of melon

a) ‹agua/gas/luz/teléfono› to cut off;

b) ‹ calle› [policía/obreros] to close, block off;

◊ me cortó el paso he stood in my way

◊ el frío me cortó los labios my lips were chapped o cracked from the cold weather

a) (Cin):

◊ ¡corten! cut!

b) (CS) ( por teléfono) to hang up;

◊ no me cortes don't hang up on me

c) ( en naipes) to cut

◊ se cortó la luz there was a power cut;

a) ( refl) ( hacerse un corte) to cut oneself;

◊ me corté un dedo I cut my finger

b) ( refl) ‹uñas/pelo› to cut;

◊ se corta el pelo ella misma she cuts her own hair

c) ( caus) ‹ pelo› to have … cut;

◊ tengo que cortarme el pelo I have to have my hair cut

d) [piel/labios] to crack, become chapped

* * *

♦ vt

1. [seccionar] to cut;

cortar el césped to mow the lawn, to cut the grass;

hay que cortar leña para el hogar we have to chop some firewood for the hearth;

siempre corta el pavo he always carves the turkey;

cortar una rebanada de pan to cut a slice of bread;

cortar el pan a rodajas to slice the bread, to cut the bread into slices;

cortar algo en pedazos to cut sth into pieces;

corta la tarta en cinco partes divide the cake in five, cut the cake into five slices;

corta esta cuerda por la mitad cut this string in half;

corta la cebolla muy fina chop the onion very finely;

le cortaron la cabeza they chopped her head off;

le cortaron dos dedos porque se le habían gangrenado they amputated o removed two of his fingers that had gone gangrenous;

cortarle el pelo a alguien to cut sb's hair

2. [recortar] [tela, figura de papel] to cut out;

3. [interrumpir] [retirada, luz, teléfono] to cut off;

cortar la luz to cut off the electricity supply;

nos han cortado el teléfono our telephone has been cut off o disconnected;

la nieve nos cortó el paso we were cut off by the snow;

cortaron el tráfico para que pasara el desfile they closed the road to traffic so the procession could pass by;

la falta cortó el ataque del equipo visitante the foul stopped the away team's attack;

cortada por obras [en letrero] road closed for repairs;

en esta cadena de televisión no cortan las películas con anuncios on this television channel they don't interrupt the films with adverts;

¡cortála! shut it!, shut up!

4. [atravesar] [recta] to cross, to intersect;

el río corta la región de este a oeste the river runs right across o bisects the region from east to west

5. [labios, piel] to crack, to chap

6. Fam [droga] to cut

7. [baraja] to cut

8. [leche] to curdle;

el calor corta la mayonesa heat makes mayonnaise spoil o Br go off

9. [película] [escena] to cut;

10. [poner fin a] [beca] to cut;

cortar un problema de raíz [impedirlo] to nip a problem in the bud;

cortar algo por lo sano: tenemos que cortar este comportamiento por lo sano we must take drastic measures to put an end to this behaviour

11. Fam [avergonzar]

12. RP [comunicación]

me cortó en mitad de la frase she hung up on me when I was in mid-sentence

13. Informát to cut;

cortar y pegar cut and paste

♦ vi

1. [producir un corte] to cut;

estas tijeras no cortan these scissors don't cut (properly);

corte por la línea de puntos cut along the dotted line;

cortar por lo sano [aplicar una solución drástica] to resort to drastic measures;

decidió cortar por lo sano con su pasado she decided to make a clean break with her past

2. [atajar] to take a short cut ( por through);

3. [terminar una relación] to split up ( con with);

4. [terminar una acción] Cine

¡corto y cambio! over!;

¡corto y cierro! over and out!

5. [en juego de cartas] to cut

6. [ser muy intenso]

7. RP [hablando por teléfono] to hang up, to put the phone down;

no corte, por favor hold the line, please

♦ See also the pronominal verb cortarse

* * *

I v/t

1 cut; electricidad cut off

2 calle close

cortar la respiración fig take one’s breath away

II v/i cut;

cortar con alguien split up with s.o.

* * *

cortar vt

1) : to cut, to slice, to trim

2) : to cut out, to omit

3) : to cut off, to interrupt

4) : to block, to close off

5) : to curdle (milk)

cortar vi

1) : to cut

2) : to break up

3) : to hang up (the telephone)

♦ See also the reflexive verb cortarse

* * *

cortar vb

1. (en general) to cut [pt. & pp. cut]

2. (agua, luz, teléfono) to cut off

3. (calle, carretera) to close