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3 Menzies, Michael
[br]b. end of the seventeenth century Lanarkshire, Scotland (?)d. 13 December 1766 Edinburgh, Scotland[br]Scottish inventor and lawyer.[br]Menzies was admitted as a member of the Faculty of Advocates on 31 January 1719. It is evident from his applications for patents that he was more concerned with inventions than the law, however. He took out his first patent in 1734 for a threshing machine in which a number of flails were attached to a horizontal axis, which was moved rapidly forwards and backwards through half a revolution, essentially imitating the action of an ordinary flail. The grain to be threshed was placed on either side.Though not a practical success, Menzies's invention seems to have been the first for the mechanical threshing of grain. His idea of imitating non-mechanized action also influenced his invention of a coal cutter, for which he took out a patent in 1761 and which copied miners' tools for obtaining coal. He proposed to carry heavy chains down the pit so that they could be used to give motion to iron picks, saws or other chains with cutting implements. The chains could be set into motion by a steam-engine, by water-or windmills, or by horses gins. Although it is quite obvious that this apparatus could not work, Menzies was the first to have thought of mechanizing coal production in the style that was in use in the late twentieth century. Subsequent to Menzies's proposal, many inventors at varying intervals followed this direction until the problem was finally solved one century later by, among others, W.E. Garforth.Menzies had successfully used the power of a steam-engine on the Wear eight years beforehand, when he obtained a patent for raising coal. According to his device a descending bucket filled with water raised a basket of coals, while a steam-engine pumped the water back to the surface; the balance-tub system, in various forms, quickly spread to other coalfields. Menzies's patent from 1750 for improved methods of carrying the coals from the coalface to the pit-shaft had also been of considerable influence: this device employed self-acting inclined planes, whereon the descending loaded wagons hauled up the empty ones.[br]Further ReadingThe article entitled "Michael Menzies" in the Dictionary of National Biography neglects Menzies's inventions for mining. A comprehensive evaluation of his influence on coal cutting is given in the introductory chapter of S.F.Walker, 1902, Coal-Cutting byMachinery, London.WK -
4 Wilson, Percy
[br]b. 8 March 1893 Halifax, Yorkshire, Englandd. May 1977[br]English engineer and technical writer who developed geometries for pick-arms and reproducing horns.[br]He graduated from The Queen's College with a BA in 1915 and an MA in 1918. He was an instructor and lecturer in the Royal Navy in 1915–19. He became an administrative officer with the Board of Education until 1938, and continued his work in the British Civil Service in the Ministry of Transport until 1949. From 1924 to 1938 he was Technical Adviser, and from 1953 Technical Editor, with Gramophone, a publication catering for the record-and equipment-buying public. He brought a mathematical mind to the problems of gramophone reproduction and solved the geometrical problem of obtaining a reasonable approximation to tangential tracking across the surface of a record even though the soundbox (or pick-up) is carried by a pivoted arm. Later he tackled the problem of horns, determining that a modified exponential horn, even with a bent axis, would give optimal reproduction by a purely acoustic system. This development was used commercially during the 1930s. Wilson was for a time a member of the School Broadcasting Council and developed methods for improving subjective listening tests for evaluation of audio equipment. He was also deeply involved in the long-playing record system used for Talking Books for the Blind. He had a life-long interest in spiritualist matters and was President of the Spiritualist National Union from 1950 to 1953 and Chairman of the Psychic Press from 1951.[br]Bibliography1929, with G.W.Webb, Modern Gramophones and Electrical Reproducers, London: Cassell (the first book to draw the consequences of the recent development of electronic filter theory for the interpretation of record wear).Further ReadingG.A.Briggs (ed.), 1961, Audio Biographies, Wharfedale Wireless Works, pp. 326–34.GB-N
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