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  • 81 all right

    I adj

    It's all right, don't worry — Все в порядке, не беспокойся

    You'll be all right while I'm away? — С тобой будет все в порядке, пока я буду отсутствовать?

    It's all right, I've managed to get a seat on the afternoon flight — Все в полном порядке. Мне удалось достать билет на рейс после обеда

    We've given your car the works, mister. I think everything should be all right now — Мы основательно подремонтировали вашу машину, так что все должно быть в порядке

    I can't hear anything wrong with this record. It sounds all right to me — По-моему, эта пластинка нормальная. И звук хороший

    He looked at my passport, then up at my face. "That's all right," he said — Он взглянул на мой паспорт, а потом на мое лицо. "Все в порядке," - сказал он

    Miracles are all right. The only difficulty about them is that they don't happen nowadays — Чудеса - вещь неплохая. Беда лишь в том, что в наши дни их не бывает

    I don't like it particularly but I suppose it's all right — Мне не особенно нравится, но я думаю, что это сойдет

    Having his girl taken away from him was all right — То, что у него уводили девушку, было в порядке вещей

    He's not all that intelligent but he's all right — Он не слишком умен, но парень он неплохой

    The doctor said I'd be all right again in a couple of weeks — Врач сказал, что через пару недель я буду снова на ногах

    She looked all right when I saw her in hospital two days ago — Она хорошо выглядела, когда я был у нее в больнице два дня назад

    I had a headache but now I'm all right — У меня болела голова, но сейчас все прошло

    The bomb damaged half the street but our house was all right — От бомбы пострадала половина домов на улице, но наш оказался невредимым

    The safe appeared to be all right but the thieves had ransacked the rest of the room — С сейфом, по-видимому, ничего не случилось, но воры разворотили все остальное в комнате

    It's all right now. Mummy is here — Мама приехала, значит мы спасены

    Will it be all right if I have a little longer for lunch and make it up later? — Можно мне задержаться после обеда, а потом отработать?

    The cathedral doors were open so they thought it would be all right to go in — Двери собора были открыты, и они решили, что можно войти

    "How do you like the picture?" "It's all right" — "Тебе нравится картина?" - "Да ничего"

    "How are you?" "I'm all right" — "Как ты себя чувствуешь?" - "Так себе"

    "Sorry!" "That's all right" — "Извините" - "Ничего страшного"

    "Thank you very much indeed!" "That's all right" — "Большое спасибо" - "Не за что"

    10) attr sl
    II adv infml
    1)
    2)

    She pretended to be busy looking at the shop windows, but she saw me all right — Она сделала вид, что увлечена рассматриванием витрин, но она, без сомнения, увидела меня

    He'll come all right — Он придет, можете не сомневаться

    Oh yes, we heard you all right — Мы вас прекрасно слышим

    I thought I was dead all right — Я уже думал, что мне крышка

    He finished the job all right but he didn't do it well — Работу он, конечно, сделал, но как?

    3)

    I hope this parcel will reach you all right — Надеюсь, что эта посылка не потеряется в дороге

    I hope everything goes all right — Надеюсь, что все будет как надо

    III interj infml
    1)

    All right, I'll do it — Хорошо, я сделаю это

    All right, you don't have to — Ладно, не надо

    "May I leave early?" "All right" — "Можно мне уйти пораньше?" - "Давай"

    All right, that's enough — Все, хватит

    "Ring me tomorrow" "All right, tomorrow" — "Позвони мне завтра" - "Завтра, так завтра"

    2)

    "I'll be home rather late tonight" "All right. Have you got your key with you as I'll probably be in bed?" — "Я сегодня приду домой поздно" - "Понял. У тебя есть ключ, а то я буду, наверное, в постели?"

    "Don't you think we'd better leave?" "Oh, all right, but I am not sure how" — "Ты не думаешь, что нам лучше уйти?" - "Ты прав, но я не знаю, как"

    3)

    "But you were wrong, weren't you?" "All right, all right, so I was wrong. Can't you change the subject?" — "Но ты ведь был не прав, не так ли?" - "Ну виноват, виноват, только хватит на эту тему"

    All right, all right, I'm coming — Да иду я!

    All right! I'll have to show who's boss — Ну что ж, ладно. Я покажу, кто здесь хозяин

    4) AmE

    The entire audience exploded into a roaring "All right!" — Зал буквально взорвался среди оглушительных криков "Браво!"

    The announcement about the pay increase was greeted by a noisy "All right!" — Сообщение о повышении зарплаты было встречено криком "клево!"

    The new dictionary of modern spoken language > all right

  • 82 Religion

       As of 2008, over 90 percent of the Portuguese people professed to be Catholic, but a growing number of Portuguese, along with larger numbers of resident migrants from the former Portuguese colonies in Africa and from North Africa, adhered to other religious creeds. While only a relatively small number were Muslims, and mainly from North Africa or from north Mozambique or Guinea- Bissau, the number of Muslims was increasing. In the 1980s, a prominent mosque was erected in Lisbon, not far, ironically, from the embassy of Spain. The number of Jews remained small, under 1,000, although public interest in the history of the Jews and Crypto-Jews in post-1496 Portugal has increased recently through the appearance of new books, articles, plays, and films on the subject.
       In Portuguese history, religious homogeneity was long the rule, as church and state remained united. Following the First Republic (1910-26), when church and state were first separated, and the 1976 Constitution, when this separation was reinforced, greater religious heterogeneity was possible, despite the traditionally close identity between being Portuguese and being Catholic. For centuries, non-Catholic religious groups were persecuted or could not practice their religions freely.
       Changes in the religious picture followed the Revolution of 25 April 1974. The new migrants from the former colonial empire, as well as from North Africa, brought in non-Catholic religious beliefs. The 1976 Constitution guarantees all religious faiths the right to practice, those who are both Protestant and conscientious objectors can apply for alternative military service, Protestant missionaries have more freedom to serve abroad, and Protestant groups can build churches that look like churches, a right denied Protestants before 1974. Protestant sects comprise the most rapidly growing religious groups in Portugal, although the proportion of Portuguese Protestants in the population is smaller than that of Brazilian Protestants. Among such groups are Pentecostals, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Evangelicals.

    Historical dictionary of Portugal > Religion

  • 83 Sintra, Town of

       Located some 32 kilometers (20 miles) northwest of Lisbon, the charming town of Sintra possesses historic importance of an unusual type. The enduring beauty of Sintra's unique scenery, its microclimate, its private and national palaces and houses, and the views from its mountain range comprise a special, diverse attraction. The town is dominated by the mountain range above it, as well as by the semitropical forests and plants surrounding it. While little of importance in politics occurred in this favorite summering place of royalty and nobility, of greater interest is the place itself and what did not happen here!
       After 1780, starting with the writings of the British romantics Robert Southey and Lord Byron, as well as the protoromantic writer and collector William Beckford, generations of British and other foreign writers and visitors placed Sintra and its surroundings on the map of romantic places to visit. Sintra has a special place in British travel literature. Perhaps the most famous single line is from Byron's long poem Childe Harolde where Sintra, in which Byron resided briefly, is depicted as a "Glorious Eden." With the exception of Lisbon, no other place in the country has been the subject of such an abundance of drawings, etchings, engravings, paintings, and photographs. In Portuguese 19th-century literature, too, including the writings of Almeida Garrett and Eça de Queirós, Sintra is justly described and praised.

    Historical dictionary of Portugal > Sintra, Town of

  • 84 about

    about [ə'baʊt]
    (a) (concerning, on the subject of) à propos de, au sujet de, concernant;
    she's had a letter about the loan elle a reçu une lettre concernant le prêt;
    I'm worried about her je suis inquiet à son sujet;
    what are they talking about? de quoi parlent-ils?;
    what are you talking about? of course I remembered! qu'est-ce que tu racontes? bien sûr que j'y ai pensé!;
    I don't know about you, but I fancy a drink toi, je ne sais pas, mais moi je boirais bien un verre;
    I'm not happy about her going ça ne me plaît pas qu'elle y aille;
    there's no doubt about it cela ne fait aucun doute, il n'y a aucun doute là-dessus;
    now, about your request for a salary increase... bon, en ce qui concerne votre demande d'augmentation...;
    OK, what's this all about? bon, qu'est-ce qui se passe?;
    what's the book about? c'est un livre sur quoi?;
    it's a book about the life of Mozart c'est un livre sur la vie de Mozart;
    I don't know what all the fuss is about je ne vois pas pourquoi tout le monde se met dans cet état;
    what do you want to see me about? vous voulez me voir à quel sujet?;
    that's what life's all about c'est ça la vie;
    he asked us about the war il nous a posé des questions sur la guerre;
    she asked me about my mother elle m'a demandé des nouvelles de ma mère;
    you should do something about your headaches vous devriez faire quelque chose pour vos maux de tête;
    I can't do anything about it je n'y peux rien;
    what do YOU know about it? qu'est-ce que vous en savez, vous?;
    I don't know much about Egyptian art je ne m'y connais pas beaucoup en art égyptien;
    I didn't know about your accident je ne savais pas que vous aviez eu un accident;
    she talked to them about her holidays elle leur a parlé de ses vacances;
    tell me about your holidays parle-moi de tes vacances;
    what do you think about modern art? que pensez-vous de l'art moderne?;
    I was thinking about my mother je pensais à ma mère;
    I'd like you to think about my offer j'aimerais que vous réfléchissiez à ma proposition;
    I warned them about the political situation je les ai mis en garde en ce qui concerne la situation politique;
    how or what about a game of bridge/going to Paris? si on faisait un bridge/allait à Paris?
    what I like about her is her generosity ce que j'aime en ou chez elle, c'est sa générosité;
    what I don't like about the house is all the stairs ce qui me déplaît dans cette maison, ce sont tous les escaliers;
    she found something amusing about the situation elle a trouvé que la situation avait quelque chose d'amusant;
    there's something about the house that I don't like il y a quelque chose que je n'aime pas dans cette maison;
    there's something about the place that reminds me of Rome il y a quelque chose ici qui me fait penser à Rome;
    there's something strange about her il y a quelque chose de bizarre chez elle
    while I'm about it pendant que j'y suis;
    be quick about it! faites vite!, dépêchez-vous!
    there were clothes lying all about the room il y avait des vêtements qui traînaient partout;
    you mustn't leave money lying about the house il ne faut pas laisser de l'argent traîner dans la maison;
    the children were running about the garden les enfants couraient dans le jardin
    (e) (surrounding) autour de;
    the people about us les gens auprès de nous, les gens qui nous entourent;
    it's good to have a few new faces about the place c'est bien de voir de nouvelles têtes par ici;
    there is a high wall about the castle un rempart entoure le château
    to have sth about one's person avoir qch sur soi;
    he had a dangerous weapon about his person il portait une arme dangereuse
    (a) (more or less) environ, à peu près;
    about a year environ ou à peu près un an;
    about £50 50 livres environ;
    about five o'clock vers cinq heures;
    she's about my age elle a à peu près mon âge;
    that looks about right ça a l'air d'être à peu près ça;
    he's about as tall as you il est à peu près de ta taille;
    you've got about as much intelligence as a two-year-old! tu es à peu près aussi futé qu'un gamin de deux ans!;
    I've just about finished j'ai presque fini;
    I've had just about enough! j'en ai vraiment assez!;
    it's about time il serait ou est temps;
    it's about time you started il serait grand temps que vous vous y mettiez;
    that's about it for now c'est à peu près tout pour l'instant
    (b) (somewhere near) dans les parages, par ici;
    is there anyone about? il y a quelqu'un?;
    is Jack about? est-ce que Jack est là?;
    there was no one about when I left the building il n'y avait personne dans les parages quand j'ai quitté l'immeuble;
    my keys must be about somewhere mes clés doivent être quelque part par ici;
    there's never a policeman about when you need one il n'y a jamais un seul agent de police dans les parages quand on en a besoin;
    there weren't many people about il n'y avait pas grand monde
    (c) (in all directions, places)
    there's a lot of flu about il y a beaucoup de grippe en ce moment;
    watch out, there are pickpockets about méfie-toi, il y a beaucoup de pickpockets qui traînent;
    have you seen many of the new coins about? tu en as vu beaucoup de ces nouvelles pièces?;
    there are some terrible rumours going about il court des rumeurs terribles;
    to run about courir dans tous les sens;
    to follow sb about suivre qn partout;
    don't leave your money lying about ne laissez pas traîner votre argent;
    they've been sitting about all day ils ont passé toute la journée assis à ne rien faire;
    she was waving her arms about elle agitait les bras dans tous les sens
    to turn about se retourner;
    the other way about en sens inverse, dans le sens contraire
    to be about to do sth être sur le point de faire qch;
    what were you about to say? qu'est-ce que vous alliez dire?;
    I was just about to leave j'allais partir, j'étais sur le point de partir
    I'm not about to answer that kind of question je ne suis pas prêt à répondre à ce genre de question;
    he's not about to change his ways just because of that il n'y a pas de risque qu'il change ses manières de faire rien que pour ça

    Un panorama unique de l'anglais et du français > about

  • 85 work–life balance

    HR
    the equilibrium between the amount of time and effort somebody devotes to work and that given to other aspects of life. Work–life balance is the subject of widespread public debate on how to allow employees more control over their working arrangements in order to better accommodate other aspects of their lives, while still benefiting their organizations. The agenda consists primarily of flexible working practices and family friendly policies, although good practice demonstrates that flexibility should be open to all, including those without caring responsibilities. The work-life balance debate has arisen through social and economic changes, such as greater numbers of women in the workforce, the expectations of the younger Generation X, a growing reluctance to accept the longer hours culture, the rise of the 24/7 society, and technological advancements. It has been supported by government and by organizations which see it as a means of aiding recruitment and employee retention.

    The ultimate business dictionary > work–life balance

  • 86 keep off

    фраз. гл.
    1) держать в отдалении; не подпускать

    Keep your mind off this. — Не думайте об этом, выкиньте это из головы.

    I suggest that you keep off religion while the priest is here. — Не говори о религии, пока у нас в гостях священник.

    A piece of cheese will keep off hunger for a time. — Кусочек сыра притупит голод на некоторое время.

    Англо-русский современный словарь > keep off

  • 87 a

    a2 [ə, stressed eɪ]
    ⓘ GRAM a devient an [ən, stressed æn] devant voyelle ou h muet
    a book un livre;
    a car une voiture;
    a hotel [ə‚həʊ'tel], old-fashioned an hotel [ən‚əʊ'tel] un hôtel;
    an hour [ən'aʊə(r)] une heure;
    a unit [ə'ju:nɪt] une unité;
    an uncle [ən'ʌŋkəl] un oncle;
    an MP [ən'em'pi:] un député;
    a man and (a) woman un homme et une femme;
    a cup and saucer une tasse et sa soucoupe;
    a wife and mother (same person) une épouse et mère;
    I can't see a thing je ne vois rien;
    he has a broken leg il a une jambe cassée;
    would you like a coffee? voulez-vous un café?;
    an expensive German wine un vin allemand cher
    (b) (before professions, nationalities)
    she's a doctor elle est médecin;
    he is an Englishman/a father il est anglais/père;
    have you seen a doctor? as-tu vu un médecin?
    a thousand dollars mille dollars;
    a dozen eggs une douzaine d'œufs;
    a third/fifth un tiers/cinquième;
    a twentieth of a second un vingtième de seconde;
    an hour and a half une heure et demie
    £2 a dozen/a hundred grammes deux livres la douzaine/les cent grammes;
    five francs a head cinq francs par tête;
    three times a year trois fois par an;
    fifty kilometres an hour cinquante kilomètres à l'heure
    (e) (before terms of quantity, amount)
    a few weeks/months quelques semaines/mois;
    a lot of money beaucoup d'argent;
    a great many visitors de très nombreux visiteurs;
    have a little more wine reprenez donc un peu de vin;
    he raised a number of interesting points il a soulevé un certain nombre de questions intéressantes
    I'm going for a week/month/year je pars (pour) une semaine/un mois/un an;
    we talked for a while nous avons parlé un moment
    (g) (before days, months, festivals) un (une);
    the meeting was on a Tuesday la réunion a eu lieu un mardi;
    it was an exceptionally cold March ce fut un mois de mars particulièrement froid;
    we had an unforgettable Christmas nous avons passé un Noël inoubliable
    Caen, a large town in Normandy Caen, ville importante de Normandie;
    forty years a sailor and he still gets seasick! il a beau être marin depuis quarante ans, il lui arrive toujours d'avoir le mal de mer
    a triangle has three sides le triangle a trois côtés;
    a cheetah can outrun a lion le guépard court plus vite que le lion;
    a computer is a useful machine les ordinateurs sont des machines bien utiles
    a wide knowledge of the subject une connaissance approfondie du sujet;
    he felt a joy he could not conceal il éprouvait une joie qu'il ne pouvait dissimuler
    there's been a general falling off in sales il y a eu une chute des ventes
    to have a red nose avoir le nez rouge;
    I have a sore throat/back/knee j'ai mal à la gorge/au dos/au genou;
    to have a taste for sth avoir le goût de qch
    a Miss Jones was asking for you une certaine Miss Jones vous a demandé;
    he's been described as a new James Dean on le donne pour le nouveau James Dean;
    her mother was a Sinclair sa mère était une Sinclair
    it's a genuine Matisse c'est un Matisse authentique;
    there's a new Stephen King/Spielberg out next month il y a un nouveau Stephen King/Spielberg qui sort le mois prochain
    (o) (after half, rather, such, what)
    half a glass of wine un demi-verre de vin;
    she's rather an interesting person c'est quelqu'un d'assez intéressant;
    you're such an idiot! tu es tellement bête!;
    what a lovely dress! quelle jolie robe!
    (p) (after as, how, so, too + adj)
    that's too big a slice for me cette tranche est trop grosse pour moi;
    how big a bit do you want? combien en veux-tu?;
    she's as nice a girl as you could wish to meet c'est la fille la plus gentille du monde

    Un panorama unique de l'anglais et du français > a

  • 88 Cody, Colonel Samuel Franklin

    SUBJECT AREA: Aerospace
    [br]
    b. probably 6 March 1861 Texas, USA
    d. 7 August 1913 Farnborough, England
    [br]
    American (naturalised British) aviation pioneer who made the first sustained aeroplane flight in Britain.
    [br]
    "Colonel" Cody was one of the most colourful and controversial characters in aviation history. He dressed as a cowboy, frequently rode a horse, and appeared on the music-hall stage as a sharpshooter. Cody lived in England from 1896 and became a British subject in 1909. He wrote a melodrama, The Klondyke Nugget, which was first performed in 1898, with Cody as the villain and his wife as the heroine. It was a great success and Cody made enough money to indulge in his hobby of flying large kites. Several man-lifting kites were being developed in the mid-1890s, primarily for military observation purposes. Captain B.S.F. Baden-Powell built multiple hexagonal kites in England, while Lawrence Hargrave, in Australia, developed a very successful boxkite. Cody's man-lifting kites were so good that the British Government engaged him to supply kites, and act as an instructor with the Royal Engineers at the Balloon Factory, Farnborough. Cody's kites were rather like a box-kite with wings and, indeed, some were virtually tethered gliders. In 1905 a Royal Engineer reached a record height of 2,600 ft (790 m) in one of Cody's kites. While at Farnborough, Cody assisted with the construction of the experimental airship "British Army Dirigible No. 1", later known as Nulli Secundus. Cody was on board for the first flight in 1907. In the same year, Cody fitted an engine to one of his kites and it flew with no one on board; he also built a free-flying glider version. He went on to build a powered aeroplane with an Antoinette engine and on 16 October 1908 made a flight of 1,390 ft (424 m) at Farnborough; this was the first real flight in Britain. During the following years, Cody's large "Flying Cathedral" became a popular sight at aviation meetings, and in 1911 his "Cathedral" was the only British aeroplane to complete the course in the Circuit of Britain Contest. In 1912 Cody won the first British Military Aeroplane competition (a similar aeroplane is preserved by the Science Museum, London). Unfortunately, Cody and a passenger were killed when his latest aeroplane crashed at Farnborough in 1913; because Cody was such a popular figure at Farnborough, the tree to which he sometimes tethered his aeroplane was preserved as a memorial.
    Later, there was a great controversy over who the first person to make an aeroplane flight in Britain was, as A.V. Roe, Horatio Phillips and Cody had all made hops before October 1908; most historians, however, now accept that it was Cody. Cody's title of'Colonel' was unofficial, although it was used by King George V on one of several visits to see Cody's work.
    [br]
    Bibliography
    Cody gave a lecture to the (Royal) Aeronautical Society which was published in their
    Aeronautical Journal, London, January 1909.
    Further Reading
    P.B.Walker, 1971, Early Aviation at Farnborough, 2 vols, London (an authoritative source).
    A.Gould Lee, 1965, The Flying Cathedral, London (biography). G.A.Broomfield, 1953, Pioneer of the Air, Aldershot (a less-reliable biography).
    JDS

    Biographical history of technology > Cody, Colonel Samuel Franklin

  • 89 Hooke, Robert

    [br]
    b. 18 July 1635 Freshwater, Isle of Wight, England
    d. 3 March 1703 London, England
    [br]
    English physicist, astronomer and mechanician.
    [br]
    Son of Revd John Hooke, minister of the parish, he was a sickly child who was subject to headaches which prevented protracted study. He devoted his time while alone to making mechanical models including a wooden clock. On the death of his father in October 1648 he was left £100 and went to London, where he became a pupil of Sir Peter Lely and then went to Westminster School under Dr Busby. There he learned the classical languages, some Hebrew and oriental languages while mastering six books of Euclid in one week. In 1653 he entered Christ Church College, Oxford, where he graduated MA in 1663, after studying chemistry and astronomy. In 1662 he was appointed Curator of Experiments to the Royal Society and was elected a Fellow in 1663. In 1665 his appointment was made permanent and he was given apartments in Gresham College, where he lived until his death in 1703. He was an indefatigable experimenter, perhaps best known for the invention of the universal joint named after him. The properties of the atmosphere greatly engaged him and he devised many forms of the barometer. He was the first to apply the spiral spring to the regulation of the balance wheel of the watch in an attempt to measure longitude at sea, but he did not publish his results until after Huygens's reinvention of the device in 1675. Several of his "new watches" were made by Thomas Tompion, one of which was presented to King Charles II. He is said to have invented, among other devices, thirty different ways of flying, the first practical system of telegraphy, an odometer, a hearing aid, an arithmetical machine and a marine barometer. Hooke was a small man, somewhat deformed, with long, lank hair, who went about stooped and moved very quickly. He was of a melancholy and mistrustful disposition, ill-tempered and sharp-tongued. He slept little, often working all night and taking a nap during the day. John Aubrey, his near-contemporary, wrote of Hooke, "He is certainly the greatest Mechanick this day in the World." He is said to have been the first to establish the true principle of the arch. His eyesight failed and he was blind for the last year of his life. He is best known for his Micrographia, or some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies, first published in 1665. After the Great Fire of London, he exhibited a model for the rebuilding of the City. This was not accepted, but it did result in Hooke's appointment as one of two City Surveyors. This proved a lucrative post and through it Hooke amassed a fortune of some thousands of pounds, which was found intact after his death some thirty years later. It had never been opened in the interim period. Among the buildings he designed were the new Bethlehem (Bedlam) Hospital, the College of Physicians and Montague House.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    FRS 1663; Secretary 1677–82.
    IMcN

    Biographical history of technology > Hooke, Robert

  • 90 Maxim, Sir Hiram Stevens

    [br]
    b. 5 February 1840 Brockway's Mills, Maine, USA
    d. 24 November 1916 Streatham, London, England
    [br]
    American (naturalized British) inventor; designer of the first fully automatic machine gun and of an experimental steam-powered aircraft.
    [br]
    Maxim was born the son of a pioneer farmer who later became a wood turner. Young Maxim was first apprenticed to a carriage maker and then embarked on a succession of jobs before joining his uncle in his engineering firm in Massachusetts in 1864. As a young man he gained a reputation as a boxer, but it was his uncle who first identified and encouraged Hiram's latent talent for invention.
    It was not, however, until 1878, when Maxim joined the first electric-light company to be established in the USA, as its Chief Engineer, that he began to make a name for himself. He developed an improved light filament and his electric pressure regulator not only won a prize at the first International Electrical Exhibition, held in Paris in 1881, but also resulted in his being made a Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur. While in Europe he was advised that weapons development was a more lucrative field than electricity; consequently, he moved to England and established a small laboratory at Hatton Garden, London. He began by investigating improvements to the Gatling gun in order to produce a weapon with a faster rate of fire and which was more accurate. In 1883, by adapting a Winchester carbine, he successfully produced a semi-automatic weapon, which used the recoil to cock the gun automatically after firing. The following year he took this concept a stage further and produced a fully automatic belt-fed weapon. The recoil drove barrel and breechblock to the vent. The barrel then halted, while the breechblock, now unlocked from the former, continued rearwards, extracting the spent case and recocking the firing mechanism. The return spring, which it had been compressing, then drove the breechblock forward again, chambering the next round, which had been fed from the belt, as it did so. Keeping the trigger pressed enabled the gun to continue firing until the belt was expended. The Maxim gun, as it became known, was adopted by almost every army within the decade, and was to remain in service for nearly fifty years. Maxim himself joined forces with the large British armaments firm of Vickers, and the Vickers machine gun, which served the British Army during two world wars, was merely a refined version of the Maxim gun.
    Maxim's interests continued to occupy several fields of technology, including flight. In 1891 he took out a patent for a steam-powered aeroplane fitted with a pendulous gyroscopic stabilizer which would maintain the pitch of the aeroplane at any desired inclination (basically, a simple autopilot). Maxim decided to test the relationship between power, thrust and lift before moving on to stability and control. He designed a lightweight steam-engine which developed 180 hp (135 kW) and drove a propeller measuring 17 ft 10 in. (5.44 m) in diameter. He fitted two of these engines into his huge flying machine testrig, which needed a wing span of 104 ft (31.7 m) to generate enough lift to overcome a total weight of 4 tons. The machine was not designed for free flight, but ran on one set of rails with a second set to prevent it rising more than about 2 ft (61 cm). At Baldwyn's Park in Kent on 31 July 1894 the huge machine, carrying Maxim and his crew, reached a speed of 42 mph (67.6 km/h) and lifted off its rails. Unfortunately, one of the restraining axles broke and the machine was extensively damaged. Although it was subsequently repaired and further trials carried out, these experiments were very expensive. Maxim eventually abandoned the flying machine and did not develop his idea for a stabilizer, turning instead to other projects. At the age of almost 70 he returned to the problems of flight and designed a biplane with a petrol engine: it was built in 1910 but never left the ground.
    In all, Maxim registered 122 US and 149 British patents on objects ranging from mousetraps to automatic spindles. Included among them was a 1901 patent for a foot-operated suction cleaner. In 1900 he became a British subject and he was knighted the following year. He remained a larger-than-life figure, both physically and in character, until the end of his life.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur 1881. Knighted 1901.
    Bibliography
    1908, Natural and Artificial Flight, London. 1915, My Life, London: Methuen (autobiography).
    Further Reading
    Obituary, 1916, Engineer (1 December).
    Obituary, 1916, Engineering (1 December).
    P.F.Mottelay, 1920, The Life and Work of Sir Hiram Maxim, London and New York: John Lane.
    Dictionary of National Biography, 1912–1921, 1927, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
    CM / JDS

    Biographical history of technology > Maxim, Sir Hiram Stevens

  • 91 Herreshoff, Nathaniel Greene

    SUBJECT AREA: Ports and shipping
    [br]
    b. 18 March 1848 Bristol, Rhode Island, USA
    d. 2 June 1938 Bristol, Rhode Island, USA
    [br]
    American naval architect and designer of six successful America's Cup defenders.
    [br]
    Herreshoff, or, as he was known, Captain Nat, was seventh in a family of nine, four of whom became blind in childhood. Association with such problems may have sharpened his appreciation of shape and form; indeed, he made a lengthy European small-boat trip with a blind brother. While working on yacht designs, he used three-dimensional models in conjunction with the sheer draught on the drawing-board. With many of the family being boatbuilders, he started designing at the age of 16 and then decided to make this his career. As naval architecture was not then a graduating subject, he studied mechanical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. While still studying, c.1867, he broke new ground by preparing direct reading time handicapping tables for yachts up to 110 ft (33.5 m) long. After working with the Corliss Company, he set up the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company, in partnership with J.B.Herreshoff, as shipbuilders and engineers. Over the years their output included steam machinery, fishing vessels, pleasure craft and racing yachts. They built the first torpedo boat for the US Navy and another for the Royal Navy, the only such acquisition in the late nineteenth century. Herreshoff designed six of the world's greatest yachts, of the America's Cup, between 1890 and 1920. His accomplishments included new types of lightweight wood fasteners, new systems of framing, hollow spars and better methods of cutting sails. He continued to work full-time until 1935 and his work was internationally acclaimed. He maintained cordial relations with his British rivals Fife, Nicholson and G.L. Watson, and enjoyed friendship with his compatriot Edward Burgess. Few will ever match Herreshoff as an all-round engineer and designer.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    Herreshoff was one of the very few, other than heads of state, to become an Honorary Member of the New York Yacht Club.
    Further Reading
    L.F.Herreshoff, 1953, Capt. Nat Herreshoff. The Wizard of Bristol, White Plains, NY: Sheridan House; 2nd edn 1981.
    FMW

    Biographical history of technology > Herreshoff, Nathaniel Greene

  • 92 Fourdrinier, Henry

    SUBJECT AREA: Paper and printing
    [br]
    b. 11 February 1766 London, England
    d. 3 September 1854 Mavesyn Ridware, near Rugeley, Staffordshire, England
    [br]
    English pioneer of the papermaking machine.
    [br]
    Fourdrinier's father was a paper manufacturer and stationer of London, from a family of French Protestant origin. Henry took up the same trade and, with his brother Sealy (d. 1847), devoted many years to developing the papermaking machine. Their first patent was taken out in 1801, but success was still far off. A machine for making paper had been invented a few years previously by Nicolas Robert at the Didot's mill at Essonnes, south of Paris. Robert quarrelled with the Didots, who then contacted their brother-in-law in England, John Gamble, in an attempt to raise capital for a larger machine. Gamble and the Fourdriniers called in the engineer Bryan Donkin, and between them they patented a much improved machine in 1807. In the new machine, the paper pulp flowed on to a moving continuous woven wire screen and was then squeezed between rollers to remove much of the water. The paper thus formed was transferred to a felt blanket and passed through a second press to remove more water, before being wound while still wet on to a drum. For the first time, a continuous sheet of paper could be made. Other inventors soon made further improvements: in 1817 John Dickinson obtained a patent for sizing baths to improve the surface of the paper; while in 1820 Thomas Crompton patented a steam-heated drum round which the paper was passed to speed up the drying process. The development cost of £60,000 bankrupted the brothers. Although Parliament extended the patent for fourteen years, and the machine was widely adopted, they never reaped much profit from it. Tsar Alexander of Russia became interested in the papermaking machine while on a visit to England in 1814 and promised Henry Fourdrinier £700 per year for ten years for super-intending the erection of two machines in Russia; Henry carried out the work, but he received no payment. At the age of 72 he travelled to St Petersburg to seek recompense from the Tsar's successor Nicholas I, but to no avail. Eventually, on a motion in the House of Commons, the British Government awarded Fourdrinier a payment of £7,000. The paper trade, sensing the inadequacy of this sum, augmented it with a further sum which they subscribed so that an annuity could be purchased for Henry, then the only surviving brother, and his two daughters, to enable them to live in modest comfort. From its invention in ancient China (see Cai Lun), its appearance in the Middle Ages in Europe and through the first three and a half centuries of printing, every sheet of paper had to made by hand. The daily output of a hand-made paper mill was only 60–100 lb (27–45 kg), whereas the new machine increased that tenfold. Even higher speeds were achieved, with corresponding reductions in cost; the old mills could not possibly have kept pace with the new mechanical printing presses. The Fourdrinier machine was thus an essential element in the technological developments that brought about the revolution in the production of reading matter of all kinds during the nineteenth century. The high-speed, giant paper-making machines of the late twentieth century work on the same principle as the Fourdrinier of 1807.
    [br]
    Further Reading
    R.H.Clapperton, 1967, The Paper-making Machine, Oxford: Pergamon Press. D.Hunter, 1947, Papermaking. The History and Technique of an Ancient Craft, London.
    LRD

    Biographical history of technology > Fourdrinier, Henry

  • 93 Curr, John

    [br]
    b. 1756 Kyo, near Lanchester, or in Greenside, near Ryton-on-Tyne, Durham, England
    d. 27 January 1823 Sheffield, England
    [br]
    English coal-mine manager and engineer, inventor of flanged, cast-iron plate rails.
    [br]
    The son of a "coal viewer", Curr was brought up in the West Durham colliery district. In 1777 he went to the Duke of Norfolk's collieries at Sheffield, where in 1880 he was appointed Superintendent. There coal was conveyed underground in baskets on sledges: Curr replaced the wicker sledges with wheeled corves, i.e. small four-wheeled wooden wagons, running on "rail-roads" with cast-iron rails and hauled from the coal-face to the shaft bottom by horses. The rails employed hitherto had usually consisted of plates of iron, the flange being on the wheels of the wagon. Curr's new design involved flanges on the rails which guided the vehicles, the wheels of which were unflanged and could run on any hard surface. He appears to have left no precise record of the date that he did this, and surviving records have been interpreted as implying various dates between 1776 and 1787. In 1787 John Buddle paid tribute to the efficiency of the rails of Curr's type, which were first used for surface transport by Joseph Butler in 1788 at his iron furnace at Wingerworth near Chesterfield: their use was then promoted widely by Benjamin Outram, and they were adopted in many other English mines. They proved serviceable until the advent of locomotives demanded different rails.
    In 1788 Curr also developed a system for drawing a full corve up a mine shaft while lowering an empty one, with guides to separate them. At the surface the corves were automatically emptied by tipplers. Four years later he was awarded a patent for using double ropes for lifting heavier loads. As the weight of the rope itself became a considerable problem with the increasing depth of the shafts, Curr invented the flat hemp rope, patented in 1798, which consisted of several small round ropes stitched together and lapped upon itself in winding. It acted as a counterbalance and led to a reduction in the time and cost of hoisting: at the beginning of a run the loaded rope began to coil upon a small diameter, gradually increasing, while the unloaded rope began to coil off a large diameter, gradually decreasing.
    Curr's book The Coal Viewer (1797) is the earliest-known engineering work on railway track and it also contains the most elaborate description of a Newcomen pumping engine, at the highest state of its development. He became an acknowledged expert on construction of Newcomen-type atmospheric engines, and in 1792 he established a foundry to make parts for railways and engines.
    Because of the poor financial results of the Duke of Norfolk's collieries at the end of the century, Curr was dismissed in 1801 despite numerous inventions and improvements which he had introduced. After his dismissal, six more of his patents were concerned with rope-making: the one he gained in 1813 referred to the application of flat ropes to horse-gins and perpendicular drum-shafts of steam engines. Curr also introduced the use of inclined planes, where a descending train of full corves pulled up an empty one, and he was one of the pioneers employing fixed steam engines for hauling. He may have resided in France for some time before his death.
    [br]
    Bibliography
    1788. British patent no. 1,660 (guides in mine shafts).
    1789. An Account of tin Improved Method of Drawing Coals and Extracting Ores, etc., from Mines, Newcastle upon Tyne.
    1797. The Coal Viewer and Engine Builder's Practical Companion; reprinted with five plates and an introduction by Charles E.Lee, 1970, London: Frank Cass, and New York: Augustus M.Kelley.
    1798. British patent no. 2,270 (flat hemp ropes).
    Further Reading
    F.Bland, 1930–1, "John Curr, originator of iron tram roads", Transactions of the Newcomen Society 11:121–30.
    R.A.Mott, 1969, Tramroads of the eighteenth century and their originator: John Curr', Transactions of the Newcomen Society 42:1–23 (includes corrections to Fred Bland's earlier paper).
    Charles E.Lee, 1970, introduction to John Curr, The Coal Viewer and Engine Builder's Practical Companion, London: Frank Cass, pp. 1–4; orig. pub. 1797, Sheffield (contains the most comprehensive biographical information).
    R.Galloway, 1898, Annals of Coalmining, Vol. I, London; reprinted 1971, London (provides a detailed account of Curr's technological alterations).
    WK / PJGR

    Biographical history of technology > Curr, John

  • 94 Edison, Thomas Alva

    [br]
    b. 11 February 1847 Milan, Ohio, USA
    d. 18 October 1931 Glenmont
    [br]
    American inventor and pioneer electrical developer.
    [br]
    He was the son of Samuel Edison, who was in the timber business. His schooling was delayed due to scarlet fever until 1855, when he was 8½ years old, but he was an avid reader. By the age of 14 he had a job as a newsboy on the railway from Port Huron to Detroit, a distance of sixty-three miles (101 km). He worked a fourteen-hour day with a stopover of five hours, which he spent in the Detroit Free Library. He also sold sweets on the train and, later, fruit and vegetables, and was soon making a profit of $20 a week. He then started two stores in Port Huron and used a spare freight car as a laboratory. He added a hand-printing press to produce 400 copies weekly of The Grand Trunk Herald, most of which he compiled and edited himself. He set himself to learn telegraphy from the station agent at Mount Clements, whose son he had saved from being run over by a freight car.
    At the age of 16 he became a telegraphist at Port Huron. In 1863 he became railway telegraphist at the busy Stratford Junction of the Grand Trunk Railroad, arranging a clock with a notched wheel to give the hourly signal which was to prove that he was awake and at his post! He left hurriedly after failing to hold a train which was nearly involved in a head-on collision. He usually worked the night shift, allowing himself time for experiments during the day. His first invention was an arrangement of two Morse registers so that a high-speed input could be decoded at a slower speed. Moving from place to place he held many positions as a telegraphist. In Boston he invented an automatic vote recorder for Congress and patented it, but the idea was rejected. This was the first of a total of 1180 patents that he was to take out during his lifetime. After six years he resigned from the Western Union Company to devote all his time to invention, his next idea being an improved ticker-tape machine for stockbrokers. He developed a duplex telegraphy system, but this was turned down by the Western Union Company. He then moved to New York.
    Edison found accommodation in the battery room of Law's Gold Reporting Company, sleeping in the cellar, and there his repair of a broken transmitter marked him as someone of special talents. His superior soon resigned, and he was promoted with a salary of $300 a month. Western Union paid him $40,000 for the sole rights on future improvements on the duplex telegraph, and he moved to Ward Street, Newark, New Jersey, where he employed a gathering of specialist engineers. Within a year, he married one of his employees, Mary Stilwell, when she was only 16: a daughter, Marion, was born in 1872, and two sons, Thomas and William, in 1876 and 1879, respectively.
    He continued to work on the automatic telegraph, a device to send out messages faster than they could be tapped out by hand: that is, over fifty words per minute or so. An earlier machine by Alexander Bain worked at up to 400 words per minute, but was not good over long distances. Edison agreed to work on improving this feature of Bain's machine for the Automatic Telegraph Company (ATC) for $40,000. He improved it to a working speed of 500 words per minute and ran a test between Washington and New York. Hoping to sell their equipment to the Post Office in Britain, ATC sent Edison to England in 1873 to negotiate. A 500-word message was to be sent from Liverpool to London every half-hour for six hours, followed by tests on 2,200 miles (3,540 km) of cable at Greenwich. Only confused results were obtained due to induction in the cable, which lay coiled in a water tank. Edison returned to New York, where he worked on his quadruplex telegraph system, tests of which proved a success between New York and Albany in December 1874. Unfortunately, simultaneous negotiation with Western Union and ATC resulted in a lawsuit.
    Alexander Graham Bell was granted a patent for a telephone in March 1876 while Edison was still working on the same idea. His improvements allowed the device to operate over a distance of hundreds of miles instead of only a few miles. Tests were carried out over the 106 miles (170 km) between New York and Philadelphia. Edison applied for a patent on the carbon-button transmitter in April 1877, Western Union agreeing to pay him $6,000 a year for the seventeen-year duration of the patent. In these years he was also working on the development of the electric lamp and on a duplicating machine which would make up to 3,000 copies from a stencil. In 1876–7 he moved from Newark to Menlo Park, twenty-four miles (39 km) from New York on the Pennsylvania Railway, near Elizabeth. He had bought a house there around which he built the premises that would become his "inventions factory". It was there that he began the use of his 200- page pocket notebooks, each of which lasted him about two weeks, so prolific were his ideas. When he died he left 3,400 of them filled with notes and sketches.
    Late in 1877 he applied for a patent for a phonograph which was granted on 19 February 1878, and by the end of the year he had formed a company to manufacture this totally new product. At the time, Edison saw the device primarily as a business aid rather than for entertainment, rather as a dictating machine. In August 1878 he was granted a British patent. In July 1878 he tried to measure the heat from the solar corona at a solar eclipse viewed from Rawlins, Wyoming, but his "tasimeter" was too sensitive.
    Probably his greatest achievement was "The Subdivision of the Electric Light" or the "glow bulb". He tried many materials for the filament before settling on carbon. He gave a demonstration of electric light by lighting up Menlo Park and inviting the public. Edison was, of course, faced with the problem of inventing and producing all the ancillaries which go to make up the electrical system of generation and distribution-meters, fuses, insulation, switches, cabling—even generators had to be designed and built; everything was new. He started a number of manufacturing companies to produce the various components needed.
    In 1881 he built the world's largest generator, which weighed 27 tons, to light 1,200 lamps at the Paris Exhibition. It was later moved to England to be used in the world's first central power station with steam engine drive at Holborn Viaduct, London. In September 1882 he started up his Pearl Street Generating Station in New York, which led to a worldwide increase in the application of electric power, particularly for lighting. At the same time as these developments, he built a 1,300yd (1,190m) electric railway at Menlo Park.
    On 9 August 1884 his wife died of typhoid. Using his telegraphic skills, he proposed to 19-year-old Mina Miller in Morse code while in the company of others on a train. He married her in February 1885 before buying a new house and estate at West Orange, New Jersey, building a new laboratory not far away in the Orange Valley.
    Edison used direct current which was limited to around 250 volts. Alternating current was largely developed by George Westinghouse and Nicola Tesla, using transformers to step up the current to a higher voltage for long-distance transmission. The use of AC gradually overtook the Edison DC system.
    In autumn 1888 he patented a form of cinephotography, the kinetoscope, obtaining film-stock from George Eastman. In 1893 he set up the first film studio, which was pivoted so as to catch the sun, with a hinged roof which could be raised. In 1894 kinetoscope parlours with "peep shows" were starting up in cities all over America. Competition came from the Latham Brothers with a screen-projection machine, which Edison answered with his "Vitascope", shown in New York in 1896. This showed pictures with accompanying sound, but there was some difficulty with synchronization. Edison also experimented with captions at this early date.
    In 1880 he filed a patent for a magnetic ore separator, the first of nearly sixty. He bought up deposits of low-grade iron ore which had been developed in the north of New Jersey. The process was a commercial success until the discovery of iron-rich ore in Minnesota rendered it uneconomic and uncompetitive. In 1898 cement rock was discovered in New Village, west of West Orange. Edison bought the land and started cement manufacture, using kilns twice the normal length and using half as much fuel to heat them as the normal type of kiln. In 1893 he met Henry Ford, who was building his second car, at an Edison convention. This started him on the development of a battery for an electric car on which he made over 9,000 experiments. In 1903 he sold his patent for wireless telegraphy "for a song" to Guglielmo Marconi.
    In 1910 Edison designed a prefabricated concrete house. In December 1914 fire destroyed three-quarters of the West Orange plant, but it was at once rebuilt, and with the threat of war Edison started to set up his own plants for making all the chemicals that he had previously been buying from Europe, such as carbolic acid, phenol, benzol, aniline dyes, etc. He was appointed President of the Navy Consulting Board, for whom, he said, he made some forty-five inventions, "but they were pigeonholed, every one of them". Thus did Edison find that the Navy did not take kindly to civilian interference.
    In 1927 he started the Edison Botanic Research Company, founded with similar investment from Ford and Firestone with the object of finding a substitute for overseas-produced rubber. In the first year he tested no fewer than 3,327 possible plants, in the second year, over 1,400, eventually developing a variety of Golden Rod which grew to 14 ft (4.3 m) in height. However, all this effort and money was wasted, due to the discovery of synthetic rubber.
    In October 1929 he was present at Henry Ford's opening of his Dearborn Museum to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the incandescent lamp, including a replica of the Menlo Park laboratory. He was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal and was elected to the American Academy of Sciences. He died in 1931 at his home, Glenmont; throughout the USA, lights were dimmed temporarily on the day of his funeral.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    Member of the American Academy of Sciences. Congressional Gold Medal.
    Further Reading
    M.Josephson, 1951, Edison, Eyre \& Spottiswode.
    R.W.Clark, 1977, Edison, the Man who Made the Future, Macdonald \& Jane.
    IMcN

    Biographical history of technology > Edison, Thomas Alva

  • 95 Elder, John

    [br]
    b. 9 March 1824 Glasgow, Scotland
    d. 17 September 1869 London, England
    [br]
    Scottish engineer who introduced the compound steam engine to ships and established an important shipbuilding company in Glasgow.
    [br]
    John was the third son of David Elder. The father came from a family of millwrights and moved to Glasgow where he worked for the well-known shipbuilding firm of Napier's and was involved with improving marine engines. John was educated at Glasgow High School and then for a while at the Department of Civil Engineering at Glasgow University, where he showed great aptitude for mathematics and drawing. He spent five years as an apprentice under Robert Napier followed by two short periods of activity as a pattern-maker first and then a draughtsman in England. He returned to Scotland in 1849 to become Chief Draughtsman to Napier, but in 1852 he left to become a partner with the Glasgow general engineering company of Randolph Elliott \& Co. Shortly after his induction (at the age of 28), the engineering firm was renamed Randolph Elder \& Co.; in 1868, when the partnership expired, it became known as John Elder \& Co. From the outset Elder, with his partner, Charles Randolph, approached mechanical (especially heat) engineering in a rigorous manner. Their knowledge and understanding of entropy ensured that engine design was not a hit-and-miss affair, but one governed by recognition of the importance of the new kinetic theory of heat and with it a proper understanding of thermodynamic principles, and by systematic development. In this Elder was joined by W.J.M. Rankine, Professor of Civil Engineering and Mechanics at Glasgow University, who helped him develop the compound marine engine. Elder and Randolph built up a series of patents, which guaranteed their company's commercial success and enabled them for a while to be the sole suppliers of compound steam reciprocating machinery. Their first such engine at sea was fitted in 1854 on the SS Brandon for the Limerick Steamship Company; the ship showed an improved performance by using a third less coal, which he was able to reduce still further on later designs.
    Elder developed steam jacketing and recognized that, with higher pressures, triple-expansion types would be even more economical. In 1862 he patented a design of quadruple-expansion engine with reheat between cylinders and advocated the importance of balancing reciprocating parts. The effect of his improvements was to greatly reduce fuel consumption so that long sea voyages became an economic reality.
    His yard soon reached dimensions then unequalled on the Clyde where he employed over 4,000 workers; Elder also was always interested in the social welfare of his labour force. In 1860 the engine shops were moved to the Govan Old Shipyard, and again in 1864 to the Fairfield Shipyard, about 1 mile (1.6 km) west on the south bank of the Clyde. At Fairfield, shipbuilding was commenced, and with the patents for compounding secure, much business was placed for many years by shipowners serving long-distance trades such as South America; the Pacific Steam Navigation Company took up his ideas for their ships. In later years the yard became known as the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company Ltd, but it remains today as one of Britain's most efficient shipyards and is known now as Kvaerner Govan Ltd.
    In 1869, at the age of only 45, John Elder was unanimously elected President of the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland; however, before taking office and giving his eagerly awaited presidential address, he died in London from liver disease. A large multitude attended his funeral and all the engineering shops were silent as his body, which had been brought back from London to Glasgow, was carried to its resting place. In 1857 Elder had married Isabella Ure, and on his death he left her a considerable fortune, which she used generously for Govan, for Glasgow and especially the University. In 1883 she endowed the world's first Chair of Naval Architecture at the University of Glasgow, an act which was reciprocated in 1901 when the University awarded her an LLD on the occasion of its 450th anniversary.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    President, Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland 1869.
    Further Reading
    Obituary, 1869, Engineer 28.
    1889, The Dictionary of National Biography, London: Smith Elder \& Co. W.J.Macquorn Rankine, 1871, "Sketch of the life of John Elder" Transactions of the
    Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland.
    Maclehose, 1886, Memoirs and Portraits of a Hundred Glasgow Men.
    The Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Works, 1909, London: Offices of Engineering.
    P.M.Walker, 1984, Song of the Clyde, A History of Clyde Shipbuilding, Cambridge: PSL.
    R.L.Hills, 1989, Power from Steam. A History of the Stationary Steam Engine, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (covers Elder's contribution to the development of steam engines).
    RLH / FMW

    Biographical history of technology > Elder, John

  • 96 Galilei, Galileo

    [br]
    b. 15 February 1564 Pisa, Italy
    d. 8 January 1642 Arcetri, near Florence, Italy
    [br]
    Italian mathematician, astronomer and physicist who established the principle of the pendulum and was first to exploit the telescope.
    [br]
    Galileo began studying medicine at the University of Pisa but soon turned to his real interests, mathematics, mechanics and astronomy. He became Professor of Mathematics at Pisa at the age of 25 and three years later moved to Padua. In 1610 he transferred to Florence. While still a student he discovered the isochronous property of the pendulum, probably by timing with his pulse the swings of a hanging lamp during a religious ceremony in Pisa Cathedral. He later designed a pendulum-controlled clock, but it was not constructed until after his death, and then not successfully; the first successful pendulum clock was made by the Dutch scientist Christiaan Huygens in 1656. Around 1590 Galileo established the laws of motion of falling bodies, by timing rolling balls down inclined planes and not, as was once widely believed, by dropping different weights from the Leaning Tower of Pisa. These and other observations received definitive treatment in his Discorsi e dimostrazioni matematiche intorno a due nuove scienzi attenenti alla, meccanica (Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences…) which was completed in 1634 and first printed in 1638. This work also included Galileo's proof that the path of a projectile was a parabola and, most importantly, the development of the concept of inertia.
    In astronomy Galileo adopted the Copernican heliocentric theory of the universe while still in his twenties, but he lacked the evidence to promote it publicly. That evidence came with the invention of the telescope by the Dutch brothers Lippershey. Galileo heard of its invention in 1609 and had his own instrument constructed, with a convex object lens and concave eyepiece, a form which came to be known as the Galilean telescope. Galileo was the first to exploit the telescope successfully with a series of striking astronomical discoveries. He was also the first to publish the results of observations with the telescope, in his Sidereus nuncius (Starry Messenger) of 1610. All the discoveries told against the traditional view of the universe inherited from the ancient Greeks, and one in particular, that of the four satellites in orbit around Jupiter, supported the Copernican theory in that it showed that there could be another centre of motion in the universe besides the Earth: if Jupiter, why not the Sun? Galileo now felt confident enough to advocate the theory, but the advance of new ideas was opposed, not for the first or last time, by established opinion, personified in Galileo's time by the ecclesiastical authorities in Rome. Eventually he was forced to renounce the Copernican theory, at least in public, and turn to less contentious subjects such as the "two new sciences" of his last and most important work.
    [br]
    Bibliography
    1610, Sidereus nuncius (Starry Messenger); translation by A.Van Helden, 1989, Sidereus Nuncius, or the Sidereal Messenger; Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
    1623, Il Saggiatore (The Assayer).
    1632, Dialogo sopre i due massimi sistemi del mondo, tolemaico e copernicano (Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, Ptolemaic and Copernican); translation, 1967, Berkeley: University of California Press.
    1638, Discorsi e dimostrazioni matematiche intorno a due nuove scienzi attenenti alla
    meccanica (Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences…); translation, 1991, Buffalo, New York: Prometheus Books (reprint).
    Further Reading
    G.de Santillana, 1955, The Crime of Galileo, Chicago: University of Chicago Press; also 1958, London: Heinemann.
    H.Stillman Drake, 1980, Galileo, Oxford: Oxford Paperbacks. M.Sharratt, 1994, Galileo: Decisive Innovator, Oxford: Blackwell.
    J.Reston, 1994, Galileo: A Life, New York: HarperCollins; also 1994, London: Cassell.
    A.Fantoli, 1994, Galileo: For Copemicanism and for the Church, trans. G.V.Coyne, South Bend, Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press.
    LRD

    Biographical history of technology > Galilei, Galileo

  • 97 Gresley, Sir Herbert Nigel

    [br]
    b. 19 June 1876 Edinburgh, Scotland
    d. 5 April 1941 Hertford, England
    [br]
    English mechanical engineer, designer of the A4-class 4–6–2 locomotive holding the world speed record for steam traction.
    [br]
    Gresley was the son of the Rector of Netherseale, Derbyshire; he was educated at Marlborough and by the age of 13 was skilled at making sketches of locomotives. In 1893 he became a pupil of F.W. Webb at Crewe works, London \& North Western Railway, and in 1898 he moved to Horwich works, Lancashire \& Yorkshire Railway, to gain drawing-office experience under J.A.F.Aspinall, subsequently becoming Foreman of the locomotive running sheds at Blackpool. In 1900 he transferred to the carriage and wagon department, and in 1904 he had risen to become its Assistant Superintendent. In 1905 he moved to the Great Northern Railway, becoming Superintendent of its carriage and wagon department at Doncaster under H.A. Ivatt. In 1906 he designed and produced a bogie luggage van with steel underframe, teak body, elliptical roof, bowed ends and buckeye couplings: this became the prototype for East Coast main-line coaches built over the next thirty-five years. In 1911 Gresley succeeded Ivatt as Locomotive, Carriage \& Wagon Superintendent. His first locomotive was a mixed-traffic 2–6–0, his next a 2–8–0 for freight. From 1915 he worked on the design of a 4–6–2 locomotive for express passenger traffic: as with Ivatt's 4 4 2s, the trailing axle would allow the wide firebox needed for Yorkshire coal. He also devised a means by which two sets of valve gear could operate the valves on a three-cylinder locomotive and applied it for the first time on a 2–8–0 built in 1918. The system was complex, but a later simplified form was used on all subsequent Gresley three-cylinder locomotives, including his first 4–6–2 which appeared in 1922. In 1921, Gresley introduced the first British restaurant car with electric cooking facilities.
    With the grouping of 1923, the Great Northern Railway was absorbed into the London \& North Eastern Railway and Gresley was appointed Chief Mechanical Engineer. More 4–6– 2s were built, the first British class of such wheel arrangement. Modifications to their valve gear, along lines developed by G.J. Churchward, reduced their coal consumption sufficiently to enable them to run non-stop between London and Edinburgh. So that enginemen might change over en route, some of the locomotives were equipped with corridor tenders from 1928. The design was steadily improved in detail, and by comparison an experimental 4–6–4 with a watertube boiler that Gresley produced in 1929 showed no overall benefit. A successful high-powered 2–8–2 was built in 1934, following the introduction of third-class sleeping cars, to haul 500-ton passenger trains between Edinburgh and Aberdeen.
    In 1932 the need to meet increasing road competition had resulted in the end of a long-standing agreement between East Coast and West Coast railways, that train journeys between London and Edinburgh by either route should be scheduled to take 8 1/4 hours. Seeking to accelerate train services, Gresley studied high-speed, diesel-electric railcars in Germany and petrol-electric railcars in France. He considered them for the London \& North Eastern Railway, but a test run by a train hauled by one of his 4–6–2s in 1934, which reached 108 mph (174 km/h), suggested that a steam train could better the railcar proposals while its accommodation would be more comfortable. To celebrate the Silver Jubilee of King George V, a high-speed, streamlined train between London and Newcastle upon Tyne was proposed, the first such train in Britain. An improved 4–6–2, the A4 class, was designed with modifications to ensure free running and an ample reserve of power up hill. Its streamlined outline included a wedge-shaped front which reduced wind resistance and helped to lift the exhaust dear of the cab windows at speed. The first locomotive of the class, named Silver Link, ran at an average speed of 100 mph (161 km/h) for 43 miles (69 km), with a maximum speed of 112 1/2 mph (181 km/h), on a seven-coach test train on 27 September 1935: the locomotive went into service hauling the Silver Jubilee express single-handed (since others of the class had still to be completed) for the first three weeks, a round trip of 536 miles (863 km) daily, much of it at 90 mph (145 km/h), without any mechanical troubles at all. Coaches for the Silver Jubilee had teak-framed, steel-panelled bodies on all-steel, welded underframes; windows were double glazed; and there was a pressure ventilation/heating system. Comparable trains were introduced between London Kings Cross and Edinburgh in 1937 and to Leeds in 1938.
    Gresley did not hesitate to incorporate outstanding features from elsewhere into his locomotive designs and was well aware of the work of André Chapelon in France. Four A4s built in 1938 were equipped with Kylchap twin blast-pipes and double chimneys to improve performance still further. The first of these to be completed, no. 4468, Mallard, on 3 July 1938 ran a test train at over 120 mph (193 km/h) for 2 miles (3.2 km) and momentarily achieved 126 mph (203 km/h), the world speed record for steam traction. J.Duddington was the driver and T.Bray the fireman. The use of high-speed trains came to an end with the Second World War. The A4s were then demonstrated to be powerful as well as fast: one was noted hauling a 730-ton, 22-coach train at an average speed exceeding 75 mph (120 km/h) over 30 miles (48 km). The war also halted electrification of the Manchester-Sheffield line, on the 1,500 volt DC overhead system; however, anticipating eventual resumption, Gresley had a prototype main-line Bo-Bo electric locomotive built in 1941. Sadly, Gresley died from a heart attack while still in office.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    Knighted 1936. President, Institution of Locomotive Engineers 1927 and 1934. President, Institution of Mechanical Engineers 1936.
    Further Reading
    F.A.S.Brown, 1961, Nigel Gresley, Locomotive Engineer, Ian Allan (full-length biography).
    John Bellwood and David Jenkinson, Gresley and Stanier. A Centenary Tribute (a good comparative account).
    PJGR

    Biographical history of technology > Gresley, Sir Herbert Nigel

  • 98 Lister, Samuel Cunliffe, 1st Baron Masham

    SUBJECT AREA: Textiles
    [br]
    b. 1 January 1815 Calverly Hall, Bradford, England
    d. 2 February 1906 Swinton Park, near Bradford, England
    [br]
    English inventor of successful wool-combing and waste-silk spinning machines.
    [br]
    Lister was descended from one of the old Yorkshire families, the Cunliffe Listers of Manningham, and was the fourth son of his father Ellis. After attending a school on Clapham Common, Lister would not go to university; his family hoped he would enter the Church, but instead he started work with the Liverpool merchants Sands, Turner \& Co., who frequently sent him to America. In 1837 his father built for him and his brother a worsted mill at Manningham, where Samuel invented a swivel shuttle and a machine for making fringes on shawls. It was here that he first became aware of the unhealthy occupation of combing wool by hand. Four years later, after seeing the machine that G.E. Donisthorpe was trying to work out, he turned his attention to mechanizing wool-combing. Lister took Donisthorpe into partnership after paying him £12,000 for his patent, and developed the Lister-Cartwright "square nip" comber. Until this time, combing machines were little different from Cartwright's original, but Lister was able to improve on this with continuous operation and by 1843 was combing the first fine botany wool that had ever been combed by machinery. In the following year he received an order for fifty machines to comb all qualities of wool. Further combing patents were taken out with Donisthorpe in 1849, 1850, 1851 and 1852, the last two being in Lister's name only. One of the important features of these patents was the provision of a gripping device or "nip" which held the wool fibres at one end while the rest of the tuft was being combed. Lister was soon running nine combing mills. In the 1850s Lister had become involved in disputes with others who held combing patents, such as his associate Isaac Holden and the Frenchman Josué Heilmann. Lister bought up the Heilmann machine patents and afterwards other types until he obtained a complete monopoly of combing machines before the patents expired. His invention stimulated demand for wool by cheapening the product and gave a vital boost to the Australian wool trade. By 1856 he was at the head of a wool-combing business such as had never been seen before, with mills at Manningham, Bradford, Halifax, Keighley and other places in the West Riding, as well as abroad.
    His inventive genius also extended to other fields. In 1848 he patented automatic compressed air brakes for railways, and in 1853 alone he took out twelve patents for various textile machines. He then tried to spin waste silk and made a second commercial career, turning what was called "chassum" and hitherto regarded as refuse into beautiful velvets, silks, plush and other fine materials. Waste silk consisted of cocoon remnants from the reeling process, damaged cocoons and fibres rejected from other processes. There was also wild silk obtained from uncultivated worms. This is what Lister saw in a London warehouse as a mass of knotty, dirty, impure stuff, full of bits of stick and dead mulberry leaves, which he bought for a halfpenny a pound. He spent ten years trying to solve the problems, but after a loss of £250,000 and desertion by his partner his machine caught on in 1865 and brought Lister another fortune. Having failed to comb this waste silk, Lister turned his attention to the idea of "dressing" it and separating the qualities automatically. He patented a machine in 1877 that gave a graduated combing. To weave his new silk, he imported from Spain to Bradford, together with its inventor Jose Reixach, a velvet loom that was still giving trouble. It wove two fabrics face to face, but the problem lay in separating the layers so that the pile remained regular in length. Eventually Lister was inspired by watching a scissors grinder in the street to use small emery wheels to sharpen the cutters that divided the layers of fabric. Lister took out several patents for this loom in his own name in 1868 and 1869, while in 1871 he took out one jointly with Reixach. It is said that he spent £29,000 over an eleven-year period on this loom, but this was more than recouped from the sale of reasonably priced high-quality velvets and plushes once success was achieved. Manningham mills were greatly enlarged to accommodate this new manufacture.
    In later years Lister had an annual profit from his mills of £250,000, much of which was presented to Bradford city in gifts such as Lister Park, the original home of the Listers. He was connected with the Bradford Chamber of Commerce for many years and held the position of President of the Fair Trade League for some time. In 1887 he became High Sheriff of Yorkshire, and in 1891 he was made 1st Baron Masham. He was also Deputy Lieutenant in North and West Riding.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    Created 1st Baron Masham 1891.
    Bibliography
    1849, with G.E.Donisthorpe, British patent no. 12,712. 1850, with G.E. Donisthorpe, British patent no. 13,009. 1851, British patent no. 13,532.
    1852, British patent no. 14,135.
    1877, British patent no. 3,600 (combing machine). 1868, British patent no. 470.
    1868, British patent no. 2,386.
    1868, British patent no. 2,429.
    1868, British patent no. 3,669.
    1868, British patent no. 1,549.
    1871, with J.Reixach, British patent no. 1,117. 1905, Lord Masham's Inventions (autobiography).
    Further Reading
    J.Hogg (ed.), c. 1888, Fortunes Made in Business, London (biography).
    W.English, 1969, The Textile Industry, London; and C.Singer (ed.), 1958, A History of Technology, Vol. IV, Oxford: Clarendon Press (both cover the technical details of Lister's invention).
    RLH

    Biographical history of technology > Lister, Samuel Cunliffe, 1st Baron Masham

  • 99 Lombe, John

    SUBJECT AREA: Textiles
    [br]
    b. c. 1693 probably Norwich, England
    d. 20 November 1722 Derby, England
    [br]
    English creator of the first successful powered textile mill in Britain.
    [br]
    John Lombe's father, Henry Lombe, was a worsted weaver who married twice. John was the second son of the second marriage and was still a baby when his father died in 1695. John, a native of the Eastern Counties, was apprenticed to a trade and employed by Thomas Cotchett in the erection of Cotchett's silk mill at Derby, which soon failed however. Lombe went to Italy, or was sent there by his elder half-brother, Thomas, to discover the secrets of their throwing machinery while employed in a silk mill in Piedmont. He returned to England in 1716 or 1717, bringing with him two expert Italian workmen.
    Thomas Lombe was a prosperous London merchant who financed the construction of a new water-powered silk mill at Derby which is said to have cost over £30,000. John arranged with the town Corporation for the lease of the island in the River Derwent, where Cotchett had erected his mill. During the four years of its construction, John first set up the throwing machines in other parts of the town. The machines were driven manually there, and their product helped to defray the costs of the mill. The silk-throwing machine was very complex. The water wheel powered a horizontal shaft that was under the floor and on which were placed gearwheels to drive vertical shafts upwards through the different floors. The throwing machines were circular, with the vertical shafts running through the middle. The doubled silk threads had previously been wound on bobbins which were placed on spindles with wire flyers at intervals around the outer circumference of the machine. The bobbins were free to rotate on the spindles while the spindles and flyers were driven by the periphery of a horizontal wheel fixed to the vertical shaft. Another horizontal wheel set a little above the first turned the starwheels, to which were attached reels for winding the silk off the bobbins below. Three or four sets of these spindles and reels were placed above each other on the same driving shaft. The machine was very complicated for the time and must have been expensive to build and maintain.
    John lived just long enough to see the mill in operation, for he died in 1722 after a painful illness said to have been the result of poison administered by an Italian woman in revenge for his having stolen the invention and for the injury he was causing the Italian trade. The funeral was said to have been the most superb ever known in Derby.
    [br]
    Further Reading
    Samuel Smiles, 1890, Men of Invention and Industry, London (probably the only biography of John Lombe).
    Rhys Jenkins, 1933–4, "Historical notes on some Derbyshire industries", Transactions of the Newcomen Society 14 (provides an acount of John Lombe and his part in the enterprise at Derby).
    R.L.Hills, 1970, Power in the Industrial Revolution, Manchester (briefly covers the development of early silk-throwing mills).
    W.English, 1969, The Textile Industry, London (includes a chapter on "Lombe's Silk Machine").
    P.Barlow, 1836, Treatise of Manufactures and Machinery of Great Britain, London (describes Lombe's mill and machinery, but it is not known how accurate the account may be).
    RLH

    Biographical history of technology > Lombe, John

  • 100 Muybridge, Eadweard

    [br]
    b. 9 April 1830 Kingston upon Thames, England
    d. 8 May 1904 Kingston upon Thames, England
    [br]
    English photographer and pioneer of sequence photography of movement.
    [br]
    He was born Edward Muggeridge, but later changed his name, taking the Saxon spelling of his first name and altering his surname, first to Muygridge and then to Muybridge. He emigrated to America in 1851, working in New York in bookbinding and selling as a commission agent for the London Printing and Publishing Company. Through contact with a New York daguerreotypist, Silas T.Selleck, he acquired an interest in photography that developed after his move to California in 1855. On a visit to England in 1860 he learned the wet-collodion process from a friend, Arthur Brown, and acquired the best photographic equipment available in London before returning to America. In 1867, under his trade pseudonym "Helios", he set out to record the scenery of the Far West with his mobile dark-room, christened "The Flying Studio".
    His reputation as a photographer of the first rank spread, and he was commissioned to record the survey visit of Major-General Henry W.Halleck to Alaska and also to record the territory through which the Central Pacific Railroad was being constructed. Perhaps because of this latter project, he was approached by the President of the Central Pacific, Leland Stanford, to attempt to photograph a horse trotting at speed. There was a long-standing controversy among racing men as to whether a trotting horse had all four hooves off the ground at any point; Stanford felt that it did, and hoped than an "instantaneous" photograph would settle the matter once and for all. In May 1872 Muybridge photographed the horse "Occident", but without any great success because the current wet-collodion process normally required many seconds, even in a good light, for a good result. In April 1873 he managed to produce some better negatives, in which a recognizable silhouette of the horse showed all four feet above the ground at the same time.
    Soon after, Muybridge left his young wife, Flora, in San Francisco to go with the army sent to put down the revolt of the Modoc Indians. While he was busy photographing the scenery and the combatants, his wife had an affair with a Major Harry Larkyns. On his return, finding his wife pregnant, he had several confrontations with Larkyns, which culminated in his shooting him dead. At his trial for murder, in February 1875, Muybridge was acquitted by the jury on the grounds of justifiable homicide; he left soon after on a long trip to South America.
    He again took up his photographic work when he returned to North America and Stanford asked him to take up the action-photography project once more. Using a new shutter design he had developed while on his trip south, and which would operate in as little as 1/1,000 of a second, he obtained more detailed pictures of "Occident" in July 1877. He then devised a new scheme, which Stanford sponsored at his farm at Palo Alto. A 50 ft (15 m) long shed was constructed, containing twelve cameras side by side, and a white background marked off with vertical, numbered lines was set up. Each camera was fitted with Muybridge's highspeed shutter, which was released by an electromagnetic catch. Thin threads stretched across the track were broken by the horse as it moved along, closing spring electrical contacts which released each shutter in turn. Thus, in about half a second, twelve photographs were obtained that showed all the phases of the movement.
    Although the pictures were still little more than silhouettes, they were very sharp, and sequences published in scientific and photographic journals throughout the world excited considerable attention. By replacing the threads with an electrical commutator device, which allowed the release of the shutters at precise intervals, Muybridge was able to take series of actions by other animals and humans. From 1880 he lectured in America and Europe, projecting his results in motion on the screen with his Zoopraxiscope projector. In August 1883 he received a grant of $40,000 from the University of Pennsylvania to carry on his work there. Using the vastly improved gelatine dry-plate process and new, improved multiple-camera apparatus, during 1884 and 1885 he produced over 100,000 photographs, of which 20,000 were reproduced in Animal Locomotion in 1887. The subjects were animals of all kinds, and human figures, mostly nude, in a wide range of activities. The quality of the photographs was extremely good, and the publication attracted considerable attention and praise.
    Muybridge returned to England in 1894; his last publications were Animals in Motion (1899) and The Human Figure in Motion (1901). His influence on the world of art was enormous, over-turning the conventional representations of action hitherto used by artists. His work in pioneering the use of sequence photography led to the science of chronophotography developed by Marey and others, and stimulated many inventors, notably Thomas Edison to work which led to the introduction of cinematography in the 1890s.
    [br]
    Bibliography
    1887, Animal Locomotion, Philadelphia.
    1893, Descriptive Zoopraxography, Pennsylvania. 1899, Animals in Motion, London.
    Further Reading
    1973, Eadweard Muybridge: The Stanford Years, Stanford.
    G.Hendricks, 1975, Muybridge: The Father of the Motion Picture, New York. R.Haas, 1976, Muybridge: Man in Motion, California.
    BC

    Biographical history of technology > Muybridge, Eadweard

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