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1 Strowger, Almon Brown
SUBJECT AREA: Telecommunications[br]b. 19 October 1839 Penfield, New York, USAd. 26 May 1902 St Petersburg, Florida, USA[br]American soldier, teacher and undertaker who developed the first commercially successful automatic telephone-switching system.[br]Enlisting in the 8th New York Cavalry on his twenty-second birthday at the beginning of the American Civil War, Strowger reached the rank of Second Lieutenant. After the war he taught in a number of schools, including that where he had been a pupil, then bought an undertaking business in North Topeka, Kansas. After the death of his wife, he remarried and moved the business to Kansas City.In 1887, suspecting that the local telephone operator was diverting his potential clients to a rival, he devised a cardboard mock-up of an automatic switching mechanism comprising ten layers of ten contacts, in which electromagnets would be used to lift and rotate the contact wiper arm and thus connect the caller to any one of 100 telephone destinations. Two years later he filed a patent for a 1,000-line automatic exchange.With the help of his nephew he made a 100line working demonstration and eventually, with the aid of financial backers, the Strowger Automatic Exchange Company was established on 30 October 1891; its first exchange was installed in La Porte, Indiana, in 1892. By the end of 1896 Strowger exchanges had been established in a number of other towns. That year the Strowger engineers introduced the dial system to replace the confusing push-button mechanism, an innovation that was to survive until relatively recently, and the following year saw development of a "trunking" system. In failing health, Strowger retired to Florida, but the company flourished and eventually became part of General Telephones and Electronics (GTE).[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsStrowger's pioneering development was commemorated in 1949 by the telephone industry placing a bronze plaque on his grave in St Petersburg, Florida.Bibliography12 March 1889, US patent no. 447, 918.Further ReadingR.J.Chaphuis, 1982, 100 Years of Telephone Switching 1878–1978. Part I: Manual and Electromechanical Switching 1878–1960.KF -
2 late
late [leɪt]1. adjectivea. ( = after scheduled time) to be late [person] être en retard• we apologize for the late arrival of flight XY 709 nous vous prions d'excuser le retard du vol XY 709c. ( = after usual time) [crop, flowers] tardif ; [booking] de dernière minuted. ( = at advanced time of day) tard• to have a late meal/lunch manger/déjeuner tard• the late film tonight is... (on TV) le film diffusé en fin de soirée est...• there's a late show on Saturdays (at theatre) il y a une seconde représentation en soirée le samedie. ( = near end of period or series) the latest edition of the catalogue la toute dernière édition du catalogue• in late June/September fin juin/septembre2. adverba. ( = after scheduled time) [arrive] en retard ; [start, finish, deliver] avec du retard• to arrive late for sth (meeting, dinner, film) arriver en retard à qchb. ( = after usual time) tard• she had started learning German quite late in life elle avait commencé à apprendre l'allemand assez tardc. ( = at advanced time of day) [work, get up, sleep, start, finish] tardd. ( = near end of period) late in 1992 fin 1992• it wasn't until relatively late in his career that... ce n'est que vers la fin de sa carrière que...e. ( = recently) as late as last week pas plus tard que la semaine dernière► of late ( = lately) ces derniers temps3. compounds• there's late-night shopping on Thursdays le magasin ouvre en nocturne le jeudi ► late riser noun lève-tard (inf) mf* * *[leɪt] 1.1) ( after expected time) [arrival, rains, publication, implementation] tardif/-ive2) (towards end of day, season etc) [hour, supper, date, pregnancy] tardif/-iveto take a late holiday GB ou vacation US — prendre des vacances en fin de saison
3) ( deceased)2.1) ( after expected time) [arrive, start, finish] en retardto be running late — [person] être en retard; [train, bus] avoir du retard
2) ( towards end of time period) [get up, open, close] tardlate last night/in the evening — tard hier soir/dans la soirée
it's a bit late (in the day) to do — fig c'est un peu tard pour faire
3) Administration ( formerly)3.Miss Stewart, late of 48 Temple Rd — Mlle Stewart, autrefois domiciliée au 48 Temple Rd
of late adverbial phrase dernièrement, ces jours-ci -
3 Coimbra, University of
Portugal's oldest and once its most prestigious university. As one of Europe's oldest seats of learning, the University of Coimbra and its various roles have a historic importance that supersedes merely the educational. For centuries, the university formed and trained the principal elites and professions that dominated Portugal. For more than a century, certain members of its faculty entered the central government in Lisbon. A few, such as law professor Afonso Costa, mathematics instructor Sidônio Pais, anthropology professor Bernardino Machado, and economics professor Antônio de Oliveira Salazar, became prime ministers and presidents of the republic. In such a small country, with relatively few universities until recently, Portugal counted Coimbra's university as the educational cradle of its leaders and knew its academic traditions as an intimate part of national life.Established in 1290 by King Dinis, the university first opened in Lisbon but was moved to Coimbra in 1308, and there it remained. University buildings were placed high on a hill, in a position thatphysically dominates Portugal's third city. While sections of the medieval university buildings are present, much of what today remains of the old University of Coimbra dates from the Manueline era (1495-1521) and the 17th and 18th centuries. The main administration building along the so-called Via Latina is baroque, in the style of the 17th and 18th centuries. Most prominent among buildings adjacent to the central core structures are the Chapel of São Miguel, built in the 17th century, and the magnificent University Library, of the era of wealthy King João V, built between 1717 and 1723. Created entirely by Portuguese artists and architects, the library is unique among historic monuments in Portugal. Its rare book collection, a monument in itself, is complemented by exquisite gilt wood decorations and beautiful doors, windows, and furniture. Among visitors and tourists, the chapel and library are the prime attractions to this day.The University underwent important reforms under the Pombaline administration (1750-77). Efforts to strengthen Coimbra's position in advanced learning and teaching by means of a new curriculum, including new courses in new fields and new degrees and colleges (in Portugal, major university divisions are usually called "faculties") often met strong resistance. In the Age of the Discoveries, efforts were made to introduce the useful study of mathematics, which was part of astronomy in that day, and to move beyond traditional medieval study only of theology, canon law, civil law, and medicine. Regarding even the advanced work of the Portuguese astronomer and mathematician Pedro Nunes, however, Coimbra University was lamentably slow in introducing mathematics or a school of arts and general studies. After some earlier efforts, the 1772 Pombaline Statutes, the core of the Pombaline reforms at Coimbra, had an impact that lasted more than a century. These reforms remained in effect to the end of the monarchy, when, in 1911, the First Republic instituted changes that stressed the secularization of learning. This included the abolition of the Faculty of Theology.Elaborate, ancient traditions and customs inform the faculty and student body of Coimbra University. Tradition flourishes, although some customs are more popular than others. Instead of residing in common residences or dormitories as in other countries, in Coimbra until recently students lived in the city in "Republics," private houses with domestic help hired by the students. Students wore typical black academic gowns. Efforts during the Revolution of 25 April 1974 and aftermath to abolish the wearing of the gowns, a powerful student image symbol, met resistance and generated controversy. In romantic Coimbra tradition, students with guitars sang characteristic songs, including Coimbra fado, a more cheerful song than Lisbon fado, and serenaded other students at special locations. Tradition also decreed that at graduation graduates wore their gowns but burned their school (or college or subject) ribbons ( fitas), an important ceremonial rite of passage.The University of Coimbra, while it underwent a revival in the 1980s and 1990s, no longer has a virtual monopoly over higher education in Portugal. By 1970, for example, the country had only four public and one private university, and the University of Lisbon had become more significant than ancient Coimbra. At present, diversity in higher education is even more pronounced: 12 private universities and 14 autonomous public universities are listed, not only in Lisbon and Oporto, but at provincial locations. Still, Coimbra retains an influence as the senior university, some of whose graduates still enter national government and distinguished themselves in various professions.An important student concern at all institutions of higher learning, and one that marked the last half of the 1990s and continued into the next century, was the question of increased student fees and tuition payments (in Portuguese, propinas). Due to the expansion of the national universities in function as well as in the size of student bodies, national budget constraints, and the rising cost of education, the central government began to increase student fees. The student movement protested this change by means of various tactics, including student strikes, boycotts, and demonstrations. At the same time, a growing number of private universities began to attract larger numbers of students who could afford the higher fees in private institutions, but who had been denied places in the increasingly competitive and pressured public universities. -
4 Language
By 2009, the Portuguese language was spoken by more than 210 million people and the number of Portuguese-speakers exceeded the number of French-speakers in the world. Seven countries have Portuguese as the official language, Portugal, Brazil, Cape Verde Islands, Guinea- Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe Islands, Angola, and Mozambique. Overseas Portuguese, who number 4 million, reside in another two dozen countries and continue to speak Portuguese. There are distinct differences between Brazilian and Continental (Portugal) Portuguese in spelling, pronunciation, syntax, and grammar, but both versions comprise the same language.Next to Rumanian, Portuguese is the closest of the Romance languages to old Latin. Like Gallician, to which it is intimately linked as a colanguage, Portuguese is an outgrowth of Latin as spoken in ancient Hispanica. It began to appear as a distinct language separate from Latin and Castilian in the ninth century, and historic Portuguese made its full appearance during the 12th and 13th centuries. Major changes in the language came under the influence of Castilian in the ninth and 16th centuries, and there was a Castilianization of Portuguese culture during the 1580-1640 era of Spanish rule of Portugal and its empire.The cultural aspects of Portugal reasserting her sovereignty and restoring national independence was a reaction against Castile and Castilianization. In language, this meant that Portugal opened itself to foreign, but non-Hispanic influences. In the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, French culture and French language became major influences enriching the Portuguese language. In international politics, there continued the impact of the Anglo- Portuguese Alliance, a connection that has been less cultural than political and economic. For all the centuries of English influence in Portugal since the late 14th century, it is interesting how little cultural influence occurred, at least until recently, and how relatively few words from English have entered the language. With the globalization of English, this began to change in the late 20th century, but there remain many more loan words from Arabic, French, and Italian. -
5 Hunter, John
SUBJECT AREA: Medical technology[br]b. 14 (registered 13) February 1728 East Kilbride, Lanarkshire, Scotlandd. 16 October 1793 London, England[br]Scottish surgeon and anatomist, pioneer of experimental methods in medicine and surgery.[br]The younger brother of William Hunter (1718–83), who was of great distinction but perhaps of slightly less achievement in similar fields, he owed much of his early experience to his brother; William, after a period at Glasgow University, moved to St George's Hospital, London. In his later teens, John assisted a brother-in-law with cabinet-making. This appears to have contributed to the lifelong mechanical skill which he displayed as a dissector and surgeon. This skill was particularly obvious when, after following William to London in 1748, he held post at a number of London teaching hospitals before moving to St George's in 1756. A short sojourn at Oxford in 1755 appears to have been unfruitful.Despite his deepening involvement in the study of comparative anatomy, facilitated by the purchase of animals from the Tower menagerie and travelling show people, he accepted an appointment as a staff surgeon in the Army in 1760, participating in the expedition to Belle Isle and also serving in Portugal. He returned home with over 300 specimens in 1763 and, until his appointment as Surgeon to St George's in 1768, was heavily involved in the examination of this and other material, as well as in studies of foetal testicular descent, placental circulation, the nature of pus and lymphatic circulation. In 1772 he commenced lecturing on the theory and practice of surgery, and in 1776 he was appointed Surgeon-Extraordinary to George III.He is rightly regarded as the founder of scientific surgery, but his knowledge was derived almost entirely from his own experiments and observations. His contemporaries did not always accept or understand the concepts which led to such aphorisms as, "to perform an operation is to mutilate a patient we cannot cure", and his written comment to his pupil Jenner: "Why think. Why not trie the experiment". His desire to establish the aetiology of gonorrhoea led to him infecting himself, as a result of which he also contracted syphilis. His ensuing account of the characteristics of the disease remains a classic of medicine, although it is likely that the sequelae of the condition brought about his death at a relatively early age. From 1773 he suffered recurrent anginal attacks of such a character that his life "was in the hands of any rascal who chose to annoy and tease him". Indeed, it was following a contradiction at a board meeting at St George's that he died.By 1788, with the death of Percival Pott, he had become unquestionably the leading surgeon in Britain, if not Europe. Elected to the Royal Society in 1767, the extraordinary variety of his collections, investigations and publications, as well as works such as the "Treatise on the natural history of the human teeth" (1771–8), gives testimony to his original approach involving the fundamental and inescapable relation of structure and function in both normal and disease states. The massive growth of his collections led to his acquiring two houses in Golden Square to contain them. It was his desire that after his death his collection be purchased and preserved for the nation. It contained 13,600 specimens and had cost him £70,000. After considerable delay, Par-liament voted inadequate sums for this purpose and the collection was entrusted to the recently rechartered Royal College of Surgeons of England, in whose premises this remarkable monument to the omnivorous and eclectic activities of this outstanding figure in the evolution of medicine and surgery may still be seen. Sadly, some of the collection was lost to bombing during the Second World War. His surviving papers were also extensive, but it is probable that many were destroyed in the early nineteenth century.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsFRS 1767. Copley Medal 1787.Bibliography1835–7, Works, ed. J.F.Palmer, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, London.MG
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