to be of a scientific bent

passato, participio passato bend II

1) [nail, wire] piegato; [ stick] storto; [ old person] curvo

2)

nome (flair) disposizione f., tendenza f. ( for per); (liking) inclinazione f. ( for, towards per)

* * *

* * *

1. pt, pp

bend

2. adj

1) (wire, pipe) piegato (-a), storto (-a), (fam: dishonest) losco (-a), (offensive: homosexual) invertito (-a)

2)

3. n

(aptitude) inclinazione f, disposizione f

* * *

A pass. e p. p. di

to bend

B a.

1 curvo; ricurvo; piegato; storto: a piece of bent wire, un pezzo di fil di ferro piegato

2 chino; curvo; piegato: bent back, schiena curva; bent heads, teste chine

3 intenzionato; deciso, risoluto: My son is bent on becoming an actor ( o on an acting career), mio figlio è deciso a fare l'attore; to be bent on having a good time, essere intenzionato a divertirsi

4 ( slang GB) disonesto; corrotto: a bent copper, uno sbirro corrotto

5 ( slang GB, spreg.) invertito

6 ( slang USA) drogato; fatto; flippato (pop.)

7 ( slang USA) squattrinato; al verde

8 ( slang, di denaro) sporco

● ( slang USA) bent out of shape, furibondo, imbufalito, nero; ( anche) agitatissimo, fuori di testa.

1 inclinazione; disposizione; talento; bernoccolo (fam.): a bent for music (o a musical bent) una disposizione per la musica; to be of a scientific bent, essere portato per le scienze; to have a bent for, avere inclinazione (o disposizione) per; essere portato per; avere il bernoccolo di (fam.); to have a practical bent, essere portato per le attività manuali; to follow one's bent, seguire la propria inclinazione

2 (ind. costr.) struttura trasversale portante a traliccio

● at (o to) the top of one's bent, al massimo; moltissimo.

1 (bot., Agrostis; = bent grass) agrostide

2 (bot., Ammophila arenaria) sparto pungente

3 (bot., Cynosurus cristatus) gramigna canaiola

4 (ingl. sett.) brughiera.

* * *

passato, participio passato bend II

1) [nail, wire] piegato; [ stick] storto; [ old person] curvo

2)

nome (flair) disposizione f., tendenza f. ( for per); (liking) inclinazione f. ( for, towards per)

SUBJECT AREA: Electricity, Public utilities

[br]

[br]

[br]

Jablochkoff studied at the Military Engineering College in St Petersburg. Having a scientific bent, he was sent to the Military Galvano Technical School. At the end of his military service in 1871 he was appointed Director General of the Moscow-Kursk telegraph lines for the Midi Railway Company. At this time he began to develop an interest in electric lighting, and in 1875 he left the Imperial Telegraph Service to devote his time exclusively to scientific pursuits. He found employment at the workshop of M Bréguet in Paris, where Gramme dynamos and Serrin arc lamps were being constructed. After some experimentation he found a means of producing a carbon arc that regulated itself without any mechanism. This lamp, the Jablochkoff candle, with two carbon rods placed parallel to each other and so close that an arc formed at the ends, could continue to burn until the rods were consumed. Plaster of Paris was used to separate the two electrodes and crumbled away as the carbon burned, thus exposing fresh carbon. These lamps were used in May 1878 in Paris to illuminate the avenue de l'Opéra, and later in Rome and London, and in essence were the first practical electric street lighting. Since there was no regulating mechanism, several candles could be placed in a single circuit. Despite inherent defects, such as the inability to restart the lamps after they were extinguished by wind or interruption of supply, they remained in use for some purposes for several years on account of their simplicity and cheapness. In 1877 Jablochkoff obtained the earliest patent to employ transformers to distribute current in an alternating-current circuit.

[br]

SUBJECT AREA: Weapons and armour

[br]

[br]

[br]

Belidor was the son of a French army officer, who died when he was six months old, and was thereafter brought up by a brother officer. He soon demonstrated a scientific bent, and gravitated to Paris, where he became involved in the determination of the Paris meridian. He was then appointed Professor at the artillery school at La Fère, where he began to pursue the science of ballistics in earnest. He was able to disprove the popular theory that range was directly proportional to the powder charge, and also argued that the explosive power of a charge was greatest at the end of the explosion; he advocated spherical chambers in order to take advantage of this. His ideas made him unpopular with the "establishment", especially the Master of the King's artillery, and he was forced to leave France for a time, becoming a consultant to authorities in Bohemia and Bavaria. However, he was reinstated, and in 1758 he was appointed Royal Inspector of Artillery, a post that he held until his death.

Belidor also made a name for himself in hydraulics and influenced design in this field for more than a century after his death. In addition, he was the first to make practical application of integral calculus.

[br]

влечени|е - с. (к дт.) bent (for), inclination (for) ;
чувствовать ~ к кому-л. feel* smb.`s attraction;
feel* attracted to smb. ;
~ к музыке, искусству bent for music, art;
иметь ~ к литературе have* literary leanings;
иметь ~ к науке be* of a scientific turn of mind;
следовать ~ю follow one`s bent.

SUBJECT AREA: Paper and printing

[br]

[br]

[br]

Mergenthaler came from a family of teachers, but following a mechanical bent he was apprenticed to a clockmaker. Having served his time, Mergenthaler emigrated to the USA in 1872 to avoid military service. He immediately secured work in Washington, DC, in the scientific instrument shop of August Hahl, the son of his former master. He steadily acquired a reputation for skill and ingenuity, and in 1876, when Hahl transferred his business to Baltimore, Mergenthaler went too. Soon after, they were commissioned to remedy the defects in a model of a writing machine devised by James O.Clephane of Washington. It produced print by typewriting, which was then multiplied by lithography. Mergenthaler soon corrected the defects and Clephane ordered a full-size version. This was completed in 1877 but did not work satisfactorily. Nevertheless, Mergenthaler was moved to engage in the long battle to mechanize the typesetting stage of the printing process. Clephane suggested substituting stereotyping for lithography in his device, but in spite of their keen efforts Mergenthaler and Hahl were again unsuccessful and they abandoned the project. In spare moments Mergenthaler continued his search for a typesetting machine. Late in 1883 it occurred to him to stamp matrices into type bars and to cast type metal into them in the same machine. From this idea, the Linotype machine developed and was completed by July 1884. It worked well and a patent was granted on 26 August that year, and Clephane and his associates set up the National Typographic Company of West Virginia to manufacture it. The New York Tribune ordered twelve Linotypes, and on 3 July 1886 the first of these set part of that day's issue. During the previous year the company had passed into the hands of a group of newspaper owners; increasing differences with the Board led to Mergenthaler's resignation in 1888, but he nevertheless continued to improve the machine, patenting over fifty modifications. The Linotype, together with the Monotype of Tolbert Lanston, rapidly supplanted earlier typesetting methods, and by the 1920s it reigned supreme, the former being used more for newspapers, the latter for book work.

[br]