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21 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 -
22 Smalley, John
SUBJECT AREA: Textiles[br]b. c. 1729 Englandd. 28 January 1782 Holywell, Wales.[br]English helped Arkwright to build and finance the waterframe.[br]John Smalley of Preston was the second son of John, a chapman of Blackburn. He was a distant relative of Richard Arkwright through marrying, in 1751, Elizabeth Baxter, whose mother Ellen was the widow of Arkwright's uncle, Richard. In the Preston Guild Rolls of 1762 he was described as a grocer and painter, and he was also Landlord of the Bull Inn. The following year he became a bailiff of Preston and in 1765 he became a Corporation steward. On 14 May 1768 Arkwright, Smalley and David Thornley became partners in a cotton-spinning venture in Nottingham. They agreed to apply for a patent for Arkwright's invention of spinning by rollers, and Smalley signed as a witness. It is said that Smalley provided much of the capital for this new venture as he sold his business at Preston for about £1,600, but this was soon found to be insufficient and the partnership had to be enlarged to include Samuel Need and Jedediah Strutt.Smalley may have helped to establish the spinning mill at Nottingham, but by 28 February 1771 he was back in Preston, for on that day he was chosen a "Councilman in the room of Mr. Thomas Jackson deceased" (Fitton 1989:38). He attended meetings for over a year, but either in 1772 or the following year he sold the Bull Inn, and certainly by August 1774 the Smalleys were living in Cromford, where he became Manager of the mill. He soon found himself at logger-heads with Arkwright; however, Strutt was able to smooth the dispute over for a while. Things came to a head in January 1777 when Arkwright was determined to get rid of Smalley, and the three remaining partners agreed to buy out Smalley's share for the sum of £10,751.Although he had agreed not to set up any textile machinery, Smalley moved to Holywell in North Wales, where in the spring of 1777 he built a cotton-spinning mill in the Greenfield valley. He prospered there and his son was later to build two more mills in the same valley. Smalley used to go to Wrexham to sell his yarn, and there met John Peers, a leather merchant, who was able to provide a better quality leather for covering the drawing rollers which came to be used in Lancashire. Smalley died in 1782, shortly before Arkwright could sue him for infringement of his patents.[br]Further ReadingR.S.Fitton, 1989, The Arkwrights, Spinners of Fortune, Manchester (draws together the fullest details of John Smalley).R.L.Hills, 1969, Power in the Industrial Revolution, Manchester (includes details of the agreement with Arkwright).A.H.Dodd, 1971, The Industrial Revolution in North Wales, Cardiff; E.J.Foulkes, 1964, "The cotton spinning factories of Flintshire, 1777–1866", Flintshire Historical SocietyJournal 21 (provide more information about his cotton mill at Holywell).RLH -
23 Smeaton, John
SUBJECT AREA: Civil engineering, Mechanical, pneumatic and hydraulic engineering, Steam and internal combustion engines[br]b. 8 June 1724 Austhorpe, near Leeds, Yorkshire, Englandd. 28 October 1792 Austhorpe, near Leeds, Yorkshire, England[br]English mechanical and civil engineer.[br]As a boy, Smeaton showed mechanical ability, making for himself a number of tools and models. This practical skill was backed by a sound education, probably at Leeds Grammar School. At the age of 16 he entered his father's office; he seemed set to follow his father's profession in the law. In 1742 he went to London to continue his legal studies, but he preferred instead, with his father's reluctant permission, to set up as a scientific instrument maker and dealer and opened a shop of his own in 1748. About this time he began attending meetings of the Royal Society and presented several papers on instruments and mechanical subjects, being elected a Fellow in 1753. His interests were turning towards engineering but were informed by scientific principles grounded in careful and accurate observation.In 1755 the second Eddystone lighthouse, on a reef some 14 miles (23 km) off the English coast at Plymouth, was destroyed by fire. The President of the Royal Society was consulted as to a suitable engineer to undertake the task of constructing a new one, and he unhesitatingly suggested Smeaton. Work began in 1756 and was completed in three years to produce the first great wave-swept stone lighthouse. It was constructed of Portland stone blocks, shaped and pegged both together and to the base rock, and bonded by hydraulic cement, scientifically developed by Smeaton. It withstood the storms of the English Channel for over a century, but by 1876 erosion of the rock had weakened the structure and a replacement had to be built. The upper portion of Smeaton's lighthouse was re-erected on a suitable base on Plymouth Hoe, leaving the original base portion on the reef as a memorial to the engineer.The Eddystone lighthouse made Smeaton's reputation and from then on he was constantly in demand as a consultant in all kinds of engineering projects. He carried out a number himself, notably the 38 mile (61 km) long Forth and Clyde canal with thirty-nine locks, begun in 1768 but for financial reasons not completed until 1790. In 1774 he took charge of the Ramsgate Harbour works.On the mechanical side, Smeaton undertook a systematic study of water-and windmills, to determine the design and construction to achieve the greatest power output. This work issued forth as the paper "An experimental enquiry concerning the natural powers of water and wind to turn mills" and exerted a considerable influence on mill design during the early part of the Industrial Revolution. Between 1753 and 1790 Smeaton constructed no fewer than forty-four mills.Meanwhile, in 1756 he had returned to Austhorpe, which continued to be his home base for the rest of his life. In 1767, as a result of the disappointing performance of an engine he had been involved with at New River Head, Islington, London, Smeaton began his important study of the steam-engine. Smeaton was the first to apply scientific principles to the steam-engine and achieved the most notable improvements in its efficiency since its invention by Newcomen, until its radical overhaul by James Watt. To compare the performance of engines quantitatively, he introduced the concept of "duty", i.e. the weight of water that could be raised 1 ft (30 cm) while burning one bushel (84 lb or 38 kg) of coal. The first engine to embody his improvements was erected at Long Benton colliery in Northumberland in 1772, with a duty of 9.45 million pounds, compared to the best figure obtained previously of 7.44 million pounds. One source of heat loss he attributed to inaccurate boring of the cylinder, which he was able to improve through his close association with Carron Ironworks near Falkirk, Scotland.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsFRS 1753.Bibliography1759, "An experimental enquiry concerning the natural powers of water and wind to turn mills", Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.Towards the end of his life, Smeaton intended to write accounts of his many works but only completed A Narrative of the Eddystone Lighthouse, 1791, London.Further ReadingS.Smiles, 1874, Lives of the Engineers: Smeaton and Rennie, London. A.W.Skempton, (ed.), 1981, John Smeaton FRS, London: Thomas Telford. L.T.C.Rolt and J.S.Allen, 1977, The Steam Engine of Thomas Newcomen, 2nd edn, Hartington: Moorland Publishing, esp. pp. 108–18 (gives a good description of his work on the steam-engine).LRD -
24 Randall, Sir John Turton
SUBJECT AREA: Medical technology[br]b. 23 March 1905 Newton-le-Willows, Lancashire, Englandd. 16 June 1984 Edinburgh, Scotland[br]English physicist and biophysicist, primarily known for the development, with Boot of the cavity magnetron.[br]Following secondary education at Ashton-inMakerfield Grammar School, Randall entered Manchester University to read physics, gaining a first class BSc in 1925 and his MSc in 1926. From 1926 to 1937 he was a research physicist at the General Electric Company (GEC) laboratories, where he worked on luminescent powders, following which he became Warren Research Fellow of the Royal Society at Birmingham University, studying electronic processes in luminescent solids. With the outbreak of the Second World War he became an honorary member of the university staff and transferred to a group working on the development of centrimetric radar. With Boot he was responsible for the development of the cavity magnetron, which had a major impact on the development of radar.When Birmingham resumed its atomic research programme in 1943, Randall became a temporary lecturer at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge. The following year he was appointed Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of St Andrews, but in 1946 he moved again to the Wheatstone Chair of Physics at King's College, London. There his developing interest in biophysical research led to the setting up of a multi-disciplinary group in 1951 to study connective tissues and other biological components, and in 1950– 5 he was joint Editor of Progress in Biophysics. From 1961 until his retirement in 1970 he was Professor of Biophysics at King's College and for most of that time he was also Chairman of the School of Biological Sciences. In addition, for many years he was honorary Director of the Medical Research Council Biophysics Research Unit.After he retired he returned to Edinburgh and continued to study biological problems in the university zoology laboratory.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsKnighted 1962. FRS 1946. FRS Edinburgh 1972. DSc Manchester 1938. Royal Society of Arts Thomas Gray Memorial Prize 1943. Royal Society Hughes Medal 1946. Franklin Institute John Price Wetherill Medal 1958. City of Pennsylvania John Scott Award 1959. (All jointly with Boot for the cavity magnetron.)Bibliography1934, Diffraction of X-Rays by Amorphous Solids, Liquids \& Gases (describes his early work).1953, editor, Nature \& Structure of Collagen.1976, with H.Boot, "Historical notes on the cavity magnetron", Transactions of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers ED-23: 724 (gives an account of the cavity-magnetron development at Birmingham).Further ReadingM.H.F.Wilkins, "John Turton Randall"—Bio-graphical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, London: Royal Society.KFBiographical history of technology > Randall, Sir John Turton
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25 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 -
26 Percy, John
SUBJECT AREA: Metallurgy[br]b. 23 March 1817 Nottingham, Englandd. 19 June 1889 London, England[br]English metallurgist, first Professor of Metallurgy at the School of Mines, London.[br]After a private education, Percy went to Paris in 1834 to study medicine and to attend lectures on chemistry by Gay-Lussac and Thenard. After 1838 he studied medicine at Edinburgh, obtaining his MD in 1839. In that year he was appointed Professor of Chemistry at Queen's College, Birmingham, moving to Queen's Hospital at Birmingham in 1843. During his time at Birmingham, Percy became well known for his analysis of blast furnace slags, and was involved in the manufacture of optical glass. On 7 June 1851 Percy was appointed Metallurgical Professor and Teacher at the Museum of Practical Geology established in Jermyn Street, London, and opened in May 1851. In November of 1851, when the Museum became the Government (later Royal) School of Mines, Percy was appointed Lecturer in Metallurgy. In addition to his work at Jermyn Street, Percy lectured on metallurgy to the Advanced Class of Artillery at Woolwich from 1864 until his death, and from 1866 he was Superintendent of Ventilation at the Houses of Parliament. He served from 1861 to 1864 on the Special Committee on Iron set up to examine the performance of armour-plate in relation to its purity, composition and structure.Percy is best known for his metallurgical text books, published by John Murray. Volume I of Metallurgy, published in 1861, dealt with fuels, fireclays, copper, zinc and brass; Volume II, in 1864, dealt with iron and steel; a volume on lead appeared in 1870, followed by one on fuels and refractories in 1875, and the first volume on gold and silver in 1880. Further projected volumes on iron and steel, noble metals, and on copper, did not materialize. In 1879 Percy resigned from his School of Mines appointment in protest at the proposed move from Jermyn Street to South Kensington. The rapid growth of Percy's metallurgical collection, started in 1839, eventually forced him to move to a larger house. After his death, the collection was bought by the South Kensington (later Science) Museum. Now comprising 3,709 items, it provides a comprehensive if unselective record of nineteenth-century metallurgy, the most interesting specimens being those of the first sodium-reduced aluminium made in Britain and some of the first steel produced by Bessemer in Baxter House. Metallurgy for Percy was a technique of chemical extraction, and he has been criticized for basing his system of metallurgical instruction on this assumption. He stood strangely aloof from new processes of steel making such as that of Gilchrist and Thomas, and tended to neglect early developments in physical metallurgy, but he was the first in Britain to teach metallurgy as a discipline in its own right.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsFRS 1847. President, Iron and Steel Institute 1885, 1886.Bibliography1861–80, Metallurgy, 5 vols, London: John Murray.Further ReadingS.J.Cackett, 1989, "Dr Percy and his metallurgical collection", Journal of the Hist. Met. Society 23(2):92–8.RLH -
27 Enders, John Franklin
(1897-1985) Эндерс, Джон ФранклинБактериолог. Профессор Гарвардского университета [ Harvard University], также занимался исследованиями на базе Детской больниц [Children's Hospital] в г. Бостоне. В 1949 совместно с Ф. Роббинсом [ Robbins, Frederick Chapman] и Т. Уэллером [ Weller, Thomas Huckle] разработал метод получения большого количества вируса полиомиелита для исследовательских целей. На этой основе была создана вакцина Солка [ Salk, Jonas Edward] против полиомиелита и ряд других вакцин. В 1954 ему была присуждена Нобелевская премия по физиологии и медицине (совместно с Т. Уэллером [ Weller, Thomas Huckle] и Ф. Роббинсом [ Robbins, Frederick Chapman])English-Russian dictionary of regional studies > Enders, John Franklin
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28 Paine, Thomas
(1737-1809) Пейн, ТомасВидный участник борьбы американских колоний за независимость от Англии, активный участник Великой французской революции, публицист, представитель революционного крыла идеологов Просвещения XVIII в. Сын бедного ремесленника. В разные периоды жизни пользовался покровительством Б. Франклина [ Franklin, Benjamin], Т. Джефферсона [ Jefferson, Thomas] и Дж. Мэдисона [ Madison, James]. Его памфлеты "Здравый смысл" ["Common Sense"] (1776) (в защиту идеи независимости американских колоний) и серия памфлетов "Американский кризис" ["The American Crisis"] (1776-83) оказали огромное вдохновляющее и революционизирующее влияние на американцев; многие идеи, изложенные в них, вскоре вошли в Декларацию независимости [ Declaration of Independence]. С 1787 по 1802 Пейн жил в Англии и Франции, где принял участие во Французской революции и опубликовал свой знаменитый трактат "Права человека" ["The Rights of Man"] (1791-92) о принципах демократии. Его взгляды на многие вопросы политики, морали и особенно религии (трактат "Век разума" ["The Age of Reason"] (1794-95)) намного опередили свое время. Во Франции он едва не был казнен по приказу Робеспьера, от него отвернулись американские друзья Дж. Адамс [ Adams, John] и Т. Джефферсон. Вернувшись в Америку, он умер в нищете и презрении, заклейменный как "мерзкий безбожник" [filthy little atheist]. Только в XX веке постепенно утвердилось мнение о Т. Пейне как о выдающемся прогрессивном мыслителе и деятеле. Его лозунгом было: "Весь мир - моя страна, все люди - мои братья, делать добро - моя религия" ["The world is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion"]. В 1945 избран в национальную Галерею славы [ Hall of Fame]English-Russian dictionary of regional studies > Paine, Thomas
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29 a doubting Thomas
Фома неверный, человек, которого трудно заставить поверить чему-л., скептик [этим. библ. John XX, 24-29]He was neither very happy not very unhappy - a doubting Thomas without faith or hope in humanity, and without any particular affection for anybody. (Th. Dreiser, ‘The Titan’, ch. VIII) — Генерал Ван-Синкл не был ни очень счастлив, ни очень несчастлив - Фома неверный, без веры в человечество и без всякой привязанности к кому-либо.
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30 Bell, Thomas
SUBJECT AREA: Paper and printing[br]fl. 1770–1785 Scotland[br]Scottish inventor of a calico printing machine with the design engraved on rollers.[br]In November 1770, John Mackenzie, owner of a bleaching mill, took his millwright Thomas Bell to Glasgow to consult with James Watt about problems they were having with the calico printing machine invented by Bell some years previously. Bell rolled sheets of copper one eighth of an inch (3 mm) thick into cyliders, and filled them with cement which was held in place by cast iron ends. After being turned true and polished, the cylinders were engraved; they cost about £10 each. The printing machines were driven by a water-wheel, but Bell and Mackenzie appeared to have had problems with the doctor blades which scraped off excess colour, and this may have been why they visited Watt.They had, presumably, solved the technical problems when Bell took out a patent in 1783 which describes him as "the Elder", but there are no further details about the man himself. The machine is described as having six printing rollers arranged around the top of the circumference of a large central bowl. In later machines, the printing rollers were placed all round a smaller cylinder. All of the printing rollers, each printing a different colour, were driven by gearing to keep them in register. The patent includes steel doctor blades which would have scraped excess colour off the printing rollers. Another patent, taken out in 1784, shows a smaller three-colour machine. The printing rollers had an iron core covered with copper, which could be taken off at pleasure so that fresh patterns could be cut as desired. Bell's machine was used at Masney, near Preston, England, by Messrs Livesey, Hargreaves, Hall \& Co in 1786. Although copper cylinders were difficult to make and engrave, and the soldered seams often burst, these machines were able to increase the output of the cheaper types of printed cloth.[br]Bibliography1783, patent no. 1,378 (calico printing machine with engraved copper rollers). 1784, patent no. 1,443 (three-colour calico printing machine).Further ReadingW.E.A.Axon, 1886, Annals of Manchester, Manchester (provides an account of the invention).R.L.Hills, 1970, Power in the Industrial Revolution, Manchester (provides a brief description of the development of calico printing).RLH -
31 Crampton, Thomas Russell
[br]b. 6 August 1816 Broadstairs, Kent, Englandd. 19 April 1888 London, England[br]English engineer, pioneer of submarine electric telegraphy and inventor of the Crampton locomotive.[br]After private education and an engineering apprenticeship, Crampton worked under Marc Brunel, Daniel Gooch and the Rennie brothers before setting up as a civil engineer in 1848. His developing ideas on locomotive design were expressed through a series of five patents taken out between 1842 and 1849, each making a multiplicity of claims. The most typical feature of the Crampton locomotive, however, was a single pair of driving wheels set to the rear of the firebox. This meant they could be of large diameter, while the centre of gravity of the locomotive remained low, for the boiler barrel, though large, had only small carrying-wheels beneath it. The cylinders were approximately midway along the boiler and were outside the frames, as was the valve gear. The result was a steady-riding locomotive which neither pitched about a central driving axle nor hunted from side to side, as did other contemporary locomotives, and its working parts were unusually accessible for maintenance. However, adhesive weight was limited and the long wheelbase tended to damage track. Locomotives of this type were soon superseded on British railways, although they lasted much longer in Germany and France. Locomotives built to the later patents incorporated a long, coupled wheelbase with drive through an intermediate crankshaft, but they mostly had only short lives. In 1851 Crampton, with associates, laid the first successful submarine electric telegraph cable. The previous year the brothers Jacob and John Brett had laid a cable, comprising a copper wire insulated with gutta-percha, beneath the English Channel from Dover to Cap Gris Nez: signals were passed but within a few hours the cable failed. Crampton joined the Bretts' company, put up half the capital needed for another attempt, and designed a much stronger cable. Four gutta-percha-insulated copper wires were twisted together, surrounded by tarred hemp and armoured by galvanized iron wires; this cable was successful.Crampton was also active in railway civil engineering and in water and gas engineering, and c. 1882 he invented a hydraulic tunnel-boring machine intended for a Channel tunnel.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsVice-President, Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Officier de la Légion d'Honneur (France).Bibliography1842, British patent no. 9,261.1845. British patent no. 10,854.1846. British patent no. 11,349.1847. British patent no. 11,760.1849, British patent no. 12,627.1885, British patent no. 14,021.Further ReadingM.Sharman, 1933, The Crampton Locomotive, Swindon: M.Sharman; P.C.Dewhurst, 1956–7, "The Crampton locomotive", Parts I and II, Transactions of the Newcomen Society 30:99 (the most important recent publications on Crampton's locomotives).C.Hamilton Ellis, 1958, Twenty Locomotive Men, Shepperton: Ian Allen. J.Kieve, 1973, The Electric Telegraph, Newton Abbot: David \& Charles, 102–4.R.B.Matkin, 1979, "Thomas Crampton: Man of Kent", Industrial Past 6 (2).PJGRBiographical history of technology > Crampton, Thomas Russell
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32 Kemeny, John G.
SUBJECT AREA: Electronics and information technology[br]b. before 1939[br]American mathematician and systems programmer, jointly responsible with Thomas Kurtz for the development of the high-level computer language BASIC.[br]Kemeny entered the USA as an immigrant in 1939. He subsequently became a mathematics lecturer at Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, and later became a professor and then Chairman of the Mathematics Department; finally, in 1971, he became President of the College. In 1964, with Thomas Kurtz, he developed the high-level computer language known as BASIC (Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code). It was initially designed for use by students with a time-sharing minicomputer, but it soon became the standard language for microcomputers, frequently being embedded in the computer as "firmware" loaded into a read-only-memory (ROM) integrated circuit.[br]Bibliography1963. Programming for a Digital Computer.1964. with T.E.Kurtz, BASIC Instruction Manual.1968, with T.E.Kurtz, "Dartmouth time-sharing", Science 223.Further ReadingR.L.Wexelblat (ed.), 1981, History of Programming Languages, New York: Academic Press.KF -
33 Rickman, Thomas
SUBJECT AREA: Architecture and building[br]b. 8 June 1776 Maidenhead, Englandd. 4 January 1841 Birmingham, England[br]English architect who published the first serious study of the development of the styles of medieval architecture.[br]Thomas Rickman trained first in medicine and then, after practising for a short while, became an insurance clerk. During his thirties, having taught himself draughtsmanship, he travelled the country drawing, and recording some 3,000 medieval churches. He became deeply interested in and knowledgeable about ecclesiastical medieval architecture and in 1817 he began architectural practice. Rickman was responsible for a great deal of collegiate and ecclesiastical building. His understanding of true medieval materials and construction was much greater than that of his contemporaries, but like them he saw nothing incongruous about using modern materials such as plaster and cast iron for vault supports and tracery, so changing the structural proportions from medieval precepts. Characteristic of his work was St George Edgbaston (1819–22; demolished 1960) and Hartlebury Church (1836–7). Rickman is known primarily for his book An Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of English Architecture from the Conquest to the Reformation, in which he suggested classifying periods of architecture as Norman, Early English, Decorated and Perpendicular. These terms are still largely accepted even today.[br]Further ReadingH.Colvin, 1978, A Biographical Dictionary of English Architects 1600–1840, John Murray.DY -
34 Rowland, Thomas Fitch
SUBJECT AREA: Mining and extraction technology[br]b. 15 March 1831 New Haven, Connecticut, USAd. 13 December 1907 New York City, USA[br]American engineer and manufacturer, inventor of off-shore drilling.[br]The son of a grist miller, Rowland worked in various jobs until 1859 when he established his own business for the construction of wooden and iron steamships and for structural iron works, in Greenpoint, Long Island, New York. In 1860 he founded the Continental Works and during the American Civil War he started manufacturing gun carriages and mortar beds. He fitted out many vessels for the navy, and as a contractor for John Ericsson he built heavily armoured war vessels.He continued shipbuilding, but later diversified his business. He devoted great attention to the design of gas-works, constructing innovative storage facilities all over the United States, and he was concerned with the improvement of welding iron and steel plates and other processes in the steel industry. In the late 1860s he also began the manufacture of steam-engines and boilers for use in the new but expanding oil industry. In 1869 he took out a patent for a fixed platform for drilling for oil off-shore up to a depth of 15 m (49 ft). With this idea, just ten years after Edwin Drake's success in on-shore oil drilling in Titusville, Pennsylvania, Rowland pioneered the technology of off-shore drilling for petroleum in which the United States later became the leading nation.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsAmerican Society of Civil Engineers: Director 1871–3, Vice-President 1886–7, Honorary Member 1899.Further Reading"Thomas Fitch Rowland", Dictionary of American Biography.1909, "Memoir", Transactions of the American Society of Civil Engineers 62:547–9.WK -
35 Steers, Thomas
[br]b. c. 1672 Kent, Englandd. buried November 1750 Liverpool, England[br]English dock and canal engineer.[br]An Army officer serving at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 and later in the Low Countries, Steers thus gained experience in water control and development, canals and drainage. After his return to England he was associated with George Sorocold in the construction of Howland Great Dock, Rotherhithe, London, opened in 1699 and the first wet dock built in England. He was again associated with Sorocold in planning the first of Liverpool's wet docks and subsequently was responsible for its construction. On its completion, he became Dockmaster in 1717.In 1712 he surveyed the River Douglas for navigation, and received authorization to make it navigable from the Ribble estuary to Wigan in 1720. Although work was started by Steers, the undertaking was hit by the collapse of the South Sea Bubble and Steers was no longer associated with it when it was restarted in 1738. In 1721 he proposed making the Mersey and Irwell navigable.In 1736 he surveyed and engineered the first summit-level canal in the British Isles, between Portadown and Newry in Ulster, thus providing through-water communication between Lough Neagh and the Irish Sea. The canal was completed in 1741. He also carried out a survey of the river Boyne. Also in 1736, he surveyed the Worsley Brook in South Lancashire to provide navigation from Worsley to the Mersey. This was done on behalf of Scroop, 1st Duke of Bridgewater; an Act was obtained in 1737, but no work was started on the scheme at that time. It was left to Francis Egerton, the 3rd Duke, to initiate the Bridgewater Canal to provide water transport for coal from the Worsley pits direct to Manchester. In 1739 Steers was elected Mayor of Liverpool. The following year, jointly with John Eyes of Liverpool, he surveyed a possible navigation along the Calder from its junction with the Aire \& Calder at Wakefield to the Hebble and so through to Halifax, but, owing to opposition at the time, the construction of the Calder \& Hebble Navigation had to wait until after Steers's death. In the opinion of Professor A.W. Skempton, Steers was the most distinguished civil engineer before Smeaton's time.[br]Further ReadingHenry Peet, 1932, Thomas Steers. The Engineer of Liverpool's First Dock; reprinted with App. from Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire 82:163– 242.JHB -
36 Adams, John
(1735-1826) Адамс, ДжонВторой президент США [ President, U.S.] (1797-1801), вместе с супругой А. Адамс [ Adams, Abigail] основатель видной династии политиков, отец шестого президента США Джона Куинси Адамса [ Adams, John Quincy]. Юрист; начал политическую карьеру как критик Закона о гербовом сборе [ Stamp Act]. Участвовал в Первом и Втором Континентальных конгрессах [ Continental Congresses]. Его подпись стоит под текстом Декларации независимости [ Declaration of Independence], в составлении которой он принял непосредственное участие. Предложил назначить Дж. Вашингтона [ Washington, George] командующим Континентальной армии [ Continental Army]. Сыграл важнейшую роль в создании конституции штата Массачусетс (1779). В 1777-79 - посланник во Франции, первоначально достиг немногого на дипломатическом поприще, но в 1783 участвовал в составлении Парижского мирного договора [ Treaty of Paris]. В 1785-88 - посланник в Великобритании. В 1789-97 - вице-президент США [ Vice-President, U.S.], проявил себя как консервативный политик, однако был посредником в конфликте между А. Гамильтоном [ Hamilton, Alexander] и Т. Джефферсоном [ Jefferson, Thomas]. В 1796 избран президентом США. Период президентского правления Адамса отмечен кризисами и конфликтами, такими как дело "Икс-игрек-зет" [ XYZ Affair], принятие законов об иностранцах и подстрекательстве к мятежу [ Alien and Sedition Acts] (Адамс не поддерживал эти меры), противостояние со сторонниками Джефферсона [ Jeffersonian Republicans]. После ухода из политики вел активную переписку, в том числе со своим главным оппонентом Джефферсоном (скончался в тот же день, что и Джефферсон, 4 июля [ Fourth of July, the]).English-Russian dictionary of regional studies > Adams, John
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37 Davis, John William
(1873-1955) Дэвис, Джон УильямЮрист и дипломат. Член Палаты представителей [ House of Representatives] от Западной Вирджинии в 1911-13. Заместитель министра юстиции США [ Solicitor General of the United States] в 1913-18. Советник президента В. Вильсона [ Wilson, (Thomas) Woodrow] на Парижской мирной конференции 1919-20. В 1918 был назначен послом США в Великобритании. Кандидат от Демократической партии [ Democratic Party] на пост президента, проиграл на выборах 1924 К. Кулиджу [ Coolidge, (John) Calvin]. Как юрист выступал на слушаниях многих дел в Верховном суде [ Supreme Court, U.S.]English-Russian dictionary of regional studies > Davis, John William
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38 Higginson, Thomas Wentworth (Storrow)
(1823-1911) Хиггинсон, Томас Вентуорт (Сторроу)Пастор, аболиционист [ abolitionists], писатель. Соратник Дж. Брауна [ Brown, John]. За свои взгляды был лишен духовного сана; после принятия Закона о беглых рабах [ Fugitive Slave Act of 1850] помогал беглецам. В годы Гражданской войны [ Civil War] командовал первым негритянским полком [ Negro regiments]. После ранения в 1864 вернулся к карьере писателя, выступал за права женщин, написал несколько биографий, в том числе биографию С. Фуллер [ Fuller, (Sarah) Margaret], Г. Лонгфелло [ Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth], Дж. Уиттиера [ Whittier, John Greenleaf]. В последние годы состоял в переписке с Э. Дикинсон [ Dickinson, Emily], поддерживал ее поэтические начинания, редактировал стихиEnglish-Russian dictionary of regional studies > Higginson, Thomas Wentworth (Storrow)
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39 Kay (of Warrington), John
SUBJECT AREA: Textiles[br]fl. c.1770 England[br]English clockmaker who helped Richard Arkwright to construct his spinning machine.[br]John Kay was a clockmaker of Warrington. He moved to Leigh, where he helped Thomas Highs to construct his spinning machine, but lack of success made them abandon their attempts. Kay first met Richard Arkwright in March 1767 and six months later was persuaded by Arkwright to make one or more models of the roller spinning machine he had built under Highs's supervision. Kay went with Arkwright to Preston, where they continued working on the machine. Kay also went with Arkwright when he moved to Nottingham. It was around this time that he entered into an agreement with Arkwright to serve him for twenty-one years and was bound not to disclose any details of the machines. Presumably Kay helped to set up the first spinning machines at Arkwright's Nottingham mill as well as at Cromford. Despite their agreement, he seems to have left after about five years and may have disclosed the secret of Arkwright's crank and comb on the carding engine to others. Kay was later to give evidence against Arkwright during the trial of his patent in 1785.[br]Further ReadingR.S.Fitton, 1989, The Arkwrights, Spinners of Fortune, Manchester (the most detailed account of Kay's connections with Arkwright and his evidence during the later patent trials).A.P.Wadsworth and J. de L.Mann, 1931, The Cotton Trade and Industrial Lancashire, Manchester (mentions Kay's association with Arkwright).RLHBiographical history of technology > Kay (of Warrington), John
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40 MacNeill, Sir John Benjamin
[br]b. 1793 (?) Mount Pleasant, near Dundalk, Louth, Irelandd. 2 March 1880[br]Irish railway engineer and educator.[br]Sir John MacNeill became a pupil of Thomas Telford and served under him as Superintendent of the Southern Division of the Holyhead Road from London to Shrewsbury. In this capacity he invented a "Road Indicator" or dynamometer. Like other Telford followers, he viewed the advent of railways with some antipathy, but after the death of Telford in 1834 he quickly became involved in railway construction and in 1837 he was retained by the Irish Railway Commissioners to build railways in the north of Ireland (Vignoles received the commission for the south). Much of his subsequent career was devoted to schemes for Irish railways, both those envisaged by the Commissioners and other private lines with more immediately commercial objectives. He was knighted in 1844 on the completion of the Dublin \& Drogheda Railway along the east coast of Ireland. In 1845 MacNeill lodged plans for over 800 miles (1,300 km) of Irish railways. Not all of these were built, many falling victim to Irish poverty in the years after the Famine, but he maintained a large staff and became financially embarrassed. His other schemes included the Grangemouth Docks in Scotland, the Liverpool \& Bury Railway, and the Belfast Waterworks, the latter completed in 1843 and subsequently extended by Bateman.MacNeill was an engineer of originality, being the person who introduced iron-lattice bridges into Britain, employing the theoretical and experimental work of Fairbairn and Eaton Hodgkinson (the Boyne Bridge at Drogheda had two such spans of 250ft (76m) each). He also devised the Irish railway gauge of 5 ft 2 in. (1.57 m). Consulted by the Board of Trinity College, Dublin, regarding a School of Engineering in 1842, he was made an Honorary LLD of the University and appointed the first Professor of Civil Engineering, but he relinquished the chair to his assistant, Samuel Downing, in 1846. MacNeill was a large and genial man, but not, we are told, "of methodical and business habit": he relied heavily on his subordinates. Blindness obliged him to retire from practice several years before his death. He was an early member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, joining in 1827, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1838.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsFRS 1838.Further ReadingDictionary of National Biography. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers73:361–71.ABBiographical history of technology > MacNeill, Sir John Benjamin
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