worked-out+area

SUBJECT AREA: Textiles

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Townsend, who described himself in his first patent as a framework knitter and afterwards as a hosier of Leicester, took out a patent in 1847 for the application of a "machine like that of a point net frame to an ordinary stocking-frame". He described needles and hooks of a peculiar shape which were able to take the work off the knitting machine, reverse the loops and return them again so that ribbed knitting could be made on circular machines. These became popular for knitting stockings which, although not fully fashioned, had sufficient strength to fit the leg. In 1854 he took out a patent for making round hose with heels and toes fashioned on other machines. In yet another patent, in 1856, he described a method of raising looped pile on knitted fabrics for making "terry" towelling fabrics. He could use different coloured yarns in the fabric that were controlled by a Jacquard mechanism. It was in the same year, 1856, in a further patent that he described his tumbler or latch needles as well as the making of figured patterns in knitting on both sides of the fabric with a Jacquard mechanism. The latch needles were self-acting, being made to move up and down or backwards and forwards by the action of cams set in the cylindrical body of the machine. Normally the needle worked in a vertical or inclined position with the previous loop on the shank below the latch. Weft yarn was placed in the hook of the needle. The needle was drawn down between fixed plates which formed a new loop with the weft. At the same time, the original loop already on the shank of the needle moved along the shank and closed the latch so that it could pass over the newly formed loop in the needle hook and fall over the end of the needle incorporating the new loop on its way to make the next row of stitches. The latch needle obviated the need for loop wheels and pressers and thus simplified the knitting mechanism. Townsend's invention was the forerunner of an entirely new generation of knitting machines, but it was many years before its full potential was realized, the bearded needle of William Lee being preferred because the hinge of the latch could not be made as fine as the bearded needle.

Townsend was in the first rank of skilful manufacturers of fancy Leicester hosiery and had a good practical knowledge of the machinery used in his trade. Having patented his needles, he seems not to have succeeded in getting them into very profitable or extensive use, possibly because he fixed the royalty too high. His invention proved to be most useful and profitable in the hands of others, for it gave great impetus to the trade in seamless hose. For various reasons he discontinued his business in Leicester. He emigrated to the USA, where, after some initial setbacks, he began to reap the rewards of his skill.

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1) Heim, das; (flat) Wohnung, die; (house) Haus, das; (household) [Eltern]haus, das

2) (fig.)

3) (native country) die Heimat

4) (institution) Heim, das; (coll.): (mental home) Anstalt, die (salopp)

1) (connected with home) Haus-; Haushalts[gerät usw.]

2) (done at home) häuslich; Selbst[backen, homebrauen usw.]

3) (in the neighbourhood of home) nahe gelegen

4) (Sport) Heim[spiel, -sieg, -mannschaft]; [Anhänger, Spieler] der Heimmannschaft

5) (not foreign) [ein]heimisch; inländisch

1) (to home) nach Hause

2) (arrived at home) zu Hause

3) (as far as possible)

4)

1) [Vogel usw.:] zurückkehren

2) (be guided)

3)

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1) (the house, town, country etc where a person etc usually lives: I work in London but my home is in Bournemouth; When I retire, I'll make my home in Bournemouth; Africa is the home of the lion; We'll have to find a home for the kitten.) die Heimat

2) (the place from which a person, thing etc comes originally: America is the home of jazz.) die Heimat

3) (a place where children without parents, old people, people who are ill etc live and are looked after: an old folk's home; a nursing home.) das Heim

4) (a place where people stay while they are working: a nurses' home.) das Heim

5) (a house: Crumpy Construction build fine homes for fine people; He invited me round to his home.) die Wohnung

1) (of a person's home or family: home comforts.) häuslich

2) (of the country etc where a person lives: home produce.) einheimisch

3) ((in football) playing or played on a team's own ground: the home team; a home game.) Heim-...

1) (to a person's home: I'm going home now; Hallo - I'm home!) nach, zu Hause

2) (completely; to the place, position etc a thing is intended to be: He drove the nail home; Few of his punches went home; These photographs of the war brought home to me the suffering of the soldiers.) bis ans Ziel, jemandem etwas klarmachen

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- homeless

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[həʊm, AM hoʊm]

I. n

1. (abode) Zuhause nt

haven't you got a \home to go to? ( iron) hast du [denn] kein Zuhause? iron

away from \home auswärts

to be away from \home von zu Hause weg sein

to come straight from \home direkt von zu Hause kommen

to be a \home from [or AM, AUS away from] \home ein zweites Zuhause sein

to be \home to sb/sth:

the city is \home to about 700 refugees in der Stadt wohnen ca. 700 Flüchtlinge

the museum is \home to a large collection of manuscripts das Museum besitzt eine große Manuskriptensammlung

to be not at \home to sb für jdn nicht zu sprechen sein

to give sb/an animal a \home jdm/einem Tier ein Zuhause geben

to leave \home ausziehen; child das Elternhaus verlassen, von zu Hause ausziehen

to make a country/town one's \home sich in einer Stadt/einem Land niederlassen

to make oneself at \home es sich dat gemütlich machen

to set up \home sich akk häuslich niederlassen

to work from \home zu Hause [o von zu Hause aus] arbeiten

at \home, in one's [own] \home, in the \home zu Hause, zuhause ÖSTERR, SCHWEIZ

2. (house) Haus nt; (flat) Wohnung f

luxury \home Luxusheim nt

starter \home erstes eigenes Heim

to move \home umziehen

3. (family) Zuhause nt kein pl

to come from a broken \home aus zerrütteten Familienverhältnissen stammen, aus einem kaputten Zuhause kommen fam

to come from a good \home aus gutem Hause kommen geh

happy \home glückliches Zuhause

4. (institute) Heim nt

old people's \home Altersheim nt

5. (place of origin) Heimat f; (of people also) Zuhause nt kein pl

England feels like \home to me now ich fühle mich inzwischen in England zu Hause

at \home in der Heimat, zu Hause

at \home and abroad im In- und Ausland

6. SPORT (home ground)

to loose/win away from \home auswärts verlieren/gewinnen

to play at \home zu Hause spielen

7. (finish) Ziel nt

8. (win) Heimsieg m

9. no pl COMPUT (for the cursor) Ausgangsstellung f; (on the key)

“\home” „Pos. 1“

▶ who's he/she when he's/she's at \home? ( fam) wer, bitteschön, ist er/sie [denn] überhaupt?

▶ charity begins at \home ( prov) man muss zuerst an die eigene Familie denken

▶ to be close [or near] to \home:

that remark was close to \home das hat richtig gesessen fam

▶ to eat sb out of house and \home ( fam) jdm die Haare vom Kopf fressen fam

▶ an Englishman's \home is his castle ( prov) dem Engländer bedeutet sein Zuhause sehr viel

▶ to be [or feel] at \home with sb sich akk bei jdm wohl fühlen

▶ \home is where the heart is ( prov) Zuhause ist, wo das Herz zu Hause ist

▶ there's no place like \home ( prov) daheim ist's doch am schönsten

▶ \home sweet \home ( saying) trautes Heim, Glück allein

II. adv inv

1. (at one's abode) zu Hause, zuhause ÖSTERR, SCHWEIZ, daheim bes SÜDD, ÖSTERR, SCHWEIZ; (to one's abode) nach Hause, nachhause ÖSTERR, SCHWEIZ

are you \home this afternoon? bist du heute Nachmittag zu Hause?

hello! I'm \home! hallo! ich bin wieder da!

on my way \home auf dem Nachhauseweg

to come/go \home nach Hause kommen/gehen

2. (to one's origin)

to go/return \home in seine Heimat zurückgehen/zurückkehren

to send sb \home jdn zurück in die [o seine] Heimat schicken

3. (to sb's understanding)

the danger really came \home to me when I... die Gefahr wurde mir erst richtig bewusst, als ich...

to bring sth \home [to sb] [jdm] etw klarmachen

to drive [or hammer] [or ram] it \home that... unmissverständlich klarmachen, dass...

she really drove \home the message that we need to economize sie machte uns unmissverständlich klar, dass wir sparen müssen

sth hit [or went] \home etw hat gesessen fam

her remarks really hit \home ihre Bemerkungen haben echt gesessen! fam

to push [or press] \home ⇆ sth etw dat [besonderen] Nachdruck verleihen

4. (to a larger extent)

she pressed \home her attack on his bishop sie verstärkte den Angriff auf seinen Läufer

to push \home an advantage [or an advantage \home] einen Vorteil ausnutzen

5. (to its final position)

to push the bolt \home den Türriegel vorschieben

to hit [or strike] \home missile das Ziel treffen

to press/screw sth \home etw gut festdrücken/festschrauben

6. SPORT (finish)

to get \home das Ziel erreichen

▶ to bring \home the bacon ( fam) die Brötchen verdienen fam

▶ until [or till] the cows come \home ( fam) bis in alle Ewigkeit

I could drink this wine till the cows come \home diesen Wein könnte ich endlos weitertrinken fam

▶ to be \home and dry [or AUS hosed], AM to be \home free seine Schäfchen ins Trockene gebracht haben fig fam

▶ it's nothing to write \home about es ist nicht gerade umwerfend [o haut einen nicht gerade vom Hocker] fam

▶ \home, James[, and don't spare the horses]! ( dated or hum) so schnell wie nur möglich nach Hause!

III. vi ( fam)

1. (find its aim) [selbstständig] sein Ziel finden; (move) sein Ziel ansteuern

▪ to \home in on sth (find its aim) sich [selbstständig] auf etw akk ausrichten; (move) genau auf etw akk zusteuern

2. (focus)

▪ to \home in on sth [sich dat] etw herausgreifen

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1. n

1) (= where one lives) Zuhause nt, Heim nt; (= house) Haus nt; (= country, area etc) Heimat f

2) (= institution) Heim nt; (for orphans) Waisenhaus nt, Heim nt; (for blind) Heim nt, Anstalt f → nursing home

3) (ZOOL, BOT) Heimat f

4) (SPORT) (= base) Mal nt; (RACING) Ziel nt

2. adv

1) (position) zu Hause, zuhause (Aus, Sw), daheim; (with verb of motion) nach Hause, nachhause (Aus, Sw), heim

2)

3. vi

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home [həʊm]

A s

1. Heim n:

a) Haus n, (eigene) Wohnung

b) Zuhause n, Daheim n

c) Elternhaus n:

at home zu Hause, daheim (beide, auch SPORT)( → A 2);

at home in ( oder on, with) zu Hause in (einem Fachgebiet etc), bewandert in (dat), vertraut mit;

be at home in London in London zu Hause sein;

not be at home (to sb) nicht zu sprechen sein (für jemanden);

feel at home sich wie zu Hause fühlen;

make o.s. at home es sich bequem machen; tun, als ob man zu Hause wäre;

he made his home at er ließ sich in (dat) nieder;

leave home von zu Hause fortgehen;

work from home von zu Hause aus arbeiten;

away from home abwesend, verreist, besonders SPORT auswärts;

a home from home, US a home away from home ein Ort, an dem man sich wie zu Hause fühlt;

pleasures of home häusliche Freuden

2. Heimat f ( auch BOT, ZOOL und fig), Geburts-, Vaterland n:

the US is the home of baseball die USA sind die Heimat des Baseball;

a) im Lande, in der Heimat,

b) im Inland, daheim,

c) im (englischen) Mutterland ( → A 1);

at home and abroad im In- und Ausland;

Paris is his second home Paris ist seine zweite Heimat;

a letter from home ein Brief aus der Heimat oder von zu Hause

3. (ständiger oder jetziger) Wohnort, Heimatort m:

he has made London his home er hat sich in London niedergelassen

4. Zufluchtsort m:

last ( oder long) home letzte Ruhestätte

5. Heim n:

home for the aged Alters-, Altenheim;

home for the blind Blindenheim, -anstalt f; → children, orphan A

6. SPORT Ziel n

7. SPORT

a) Heimspiel n

b) Heimsieg m

B adj

1. Heim…:

a) häuslich

b) zu Haus ausgeübt:

home banking COMPUT etc Homebanking n (Abwicklung von Bankgeschäften von zu Hause aus);

home circle Familienkreis m;

home computer Homecomputer m (kleinerer Computer für den häuslichen Anwendungsbereich);

home cooking das Kochen zu Hause;

home difficulties häusliche Schwierigkeiten;

home life häusliches Leben, Familienleben n;

home mechanic Bastler(in), Heimwerker(in);

home remedy Hausmittel n

2. Heimat…:

home city;

home port;

home address Heimat- oder Privatanschrift f;

home fleet SCHIFF Flotte f in Heimatgewässern;

home forces MIL im Heimatland stationierte Streitkräfte;

home waters SCHIFF heimatliche Gewässer

3. einheimisch, inländisch, Inlands…, Binnen…:

home affairs POL innere Angelegenheiten, Innenpolitik f;

home demand WIRTSCH Inlandsbedarf m;

home market WIRTSCH Inlands-, Binnenmarkt m;

home trade WIRTSCH Binnenhandel m

4. SPORT

a) Heim…:

home advantage (defeat, game, team, win, etc);

home record Heimbilanz f;

home strength Heimstärke f;

home weakness Heimschwäche f

b) Ziel…: → home straight

5. TECH Normal…:

6. Rück…:

7. a) gezielt, wirkungsvoll (Schlag etc)

b) fig treffend, beißend (Bemerkung etc):

home question gezielte oder peinliche Frage; → home thrust, home truth

C adv

1. heim, nach Hause:

the way home der Heimweg;

go home heimgehen, nach Hause gehen ( → C 3);

take home netto verdienen oder bekommen;

that’s nothing to write home about umg das ist nichts Besonderes oder nicht so toll oder nicht gerade berauschend, darauf brauchst du dir nichts einzubilden; → come home, get C 1

2. zu Hause, daheim:

welcome home!;

be home and dry Br umg

a) in Sicherheit sein,

b) hundertprozentig sicher sein

3. fig

a) ins Ziel oder Schwarze

b) im Ziel, im Schwarzen

c) bis zum Ausgangspunkt

d) so weit wie möglich, ganz:

bring ( oder drive) sth home to sb jemandem etwas klarmachen oder beibringen oder zum Bewusstsein bringen oder vor Augen führen;

bring a charge home to sb jemanden überführen;

drive a nail home einen Nagel fest einschlagen;

go ( oder get, strike) home sitzen umg, treffen, seine Wirkung tun ( → C 1);

the thrust went home der Hieb saß

D v/i

1. besonders ZOOL zurückkehren

2. FLUG

a) (mittels Leitstrahl) das Ziel anfliegen:

home on ( oder in) a beam einem Leitstrahl folgen

b) automatisch auf ein Ziel zusteuern (Rakete):

home in on ein Ziel automatisch ansteuern, fig sich sofort etwas herausgreifen

E v/t ein Flugzeug (mittels Radar) einweisen, herunterholen umg

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1) Heim, das; (flat) Wohnung, die; (house) Haus, das; (household) [Eltern]haus, das

2) (fig.)

3) (native country) die Heimat

4) (institution) Heim, das; (coll.): (mental home) Anstalt, die (salopp)

1) (connected with home) Haus-; Haushalts[gerät usw.]

2) (done at home) häuslich; Selbst[backen, homebrauen usw.]

3) (in the neighbourhood of home) nahe gelegen

4) (Sport) Heim[spiel, -sieg, -mannschaft]; [Anhänger, Spieler] der Heimmannschaft

5) (not foreign) [ein]heimisch; inländisch

1) (to home) nach Hause

2) (arrived at home) zu Hause

3) (as far as possible)

4)

1) [Vogel usw.:] zurückkehren

2) (be guided)

3)

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heimwärts adj.

nach Hause ausdr. adv.

nach Hause ausdr. n.

Haus Häuser n.

Heim -e n.

Zuhause n.

1) (going by, through, etc.) (of river) Überquerung, die; (of time) [Ab-, Ver]lauf, der; (of seasons) Wechsel, der

2) (transition) Übergang, der

3) (voyage) Überfahrt, die

4) Gang, der; (corridor) Korridor, der; (between houses) Durchgang, der; (in shopping precinct) Passage, die

5) no art., no pl. (liberty or right to pass through) Durchreise, die

6) (right to travel) Passage, die

7) (part of book etc.) Passage, die

8) (Mus.) Passage, die; Stelle, die

9) (of a bill into law) parlamentarische Behandlung; (final) Annahme, die; Verabschiedung, die

10) (Anat.)

* * *

1) (a long narrow way through, eg a corridor through a building: There was a dark passage leading down to the river between tall buildings.) der Durchgang

2) (a part of a piece of writing or music: That is my favourite passage from the Bible.) die Passage

3) ((usually of time) the act of passing: the passage of time.) das Vorübergehen

4) (a journey by boat: He paid for his passage by working as a steward.) die Überfahrt

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1. (narrow corridor) Gang m, Flur m

underground \passage Unterführung f

2. (long path) Durchgang m

3. LIT (excerpt) [Text]passage f; MUS Stück nt

4. (onward journey) Durchfahrt f, Durchreise f

bird of \passage Zugvogel m

5. ( dated: sea voyage) Überfahrt f, [Schiffs]passage f

to take \passage to South Africa eine Schiffsreise nach Südafrika unternehmen

to work one's \passage seine Überfahrt abarbeiten; ( fig)

he's worked his \passage er hat es sich redlich verdient

6. (way of escape) Durchlass m

the hijackers demanded safe \passage out of the country die Entführer verlangten sicheren Abzug aus dem Land

7. no pl (progression) Voranschreiten nt; of troops Durchzug m; of a plane Überfliegen nt; of fire ungehindertes Sichausbreiten

many meteorites explode during their \passage through the atmosphere viele Meteoriten zerbersten auf ihrem Weg durch die Erdatmosphäre

the \passage of time das Verstreichen der Zeit

with the \passage of time im Lauf[e] der Zeit

8. POL (passing) of a law Verabschiedung f; of a resolution Annahme f

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1) (= transition from youth to manhood etc) Übergang m

2) (through country) Durchfahrt f, Durchreise f; (= right of passage) Durchreise f, Transit m, Durchreise- or Transitgenehmigung f

3) (= voyage) Überfahrt f, Schiffsreise f; (= fare) Überfahrt f, Passage f → academic.ru/82936/work">work

4) (PARL: process) parlamentarische Behandlung; (final) Annahme f, Verabschiedung f

5) (= corridor) Gang m

6) (in book) Passage f; (MUS) Stück nt, Passage f

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passage¹ [ˈpæsıdʒ] s

1. Herein-, Heraus-, Vorüber-, Durchgehen n, Durchgang m, -reise f, -fahrt f, -fließen n:

“no passage” „kein Durchgang!“, „keine Durchfahrt!“; → bird of passage

2. Passage f, Durch-, Verbindungsgang m

3. a) Furt f

b) Kanal m

4. besonders Br Gang m, Korridor m

5. (See-, Flug) Reise f, (See-, Über) Fahrt f, Flug m:

book a passage eine Schiffskarte lösen (to nach);

work one’s passage seine Überfahrt abarbeiten; → rough A 5

6. TECH Durchtritt m, -lass m

7. Vergehen n, -streichen n, Ablauf m:

the passage of time;

with the passage of time im Laufe der Zeit

8. PARL Durchgehen n, -kommen n, Annahme f, Inkrafttreten n (eines Gesetzes)

9. WIRTSCH (Waren)Transit m, Durchgang m

10. (Text)Stelle f, Passus m (in einem Buch etc)

11. MUS Passage f, Lauf m

12. Übergang m (from … to, into von … in akk, zu)

13. PHYSIOL (Darm)Entleerung f, Stuhlgang m

14. ANAT (Gehör- etc) Gang m, (Harn- etc) Weg(e) m(pl)

passage² [ˈpæsıdʒ; pæˈsɑːʒ] s Dressurreiten: Passage f (Trab in höchster Versammlung, bei dem die diagonalen Beinpaare schwungvoll gehoben und länger in der Beugung gehalten werden)

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1) (going by, through, etc.) (of river) Überquerung, die; (of time) [Ab-, Ver]lauf, der; (of seasons) Wechsel, der

2) (transition) Übergang, der

3) (voyage) Überfahrt, die

4) Gang, der; (corridor) Korridor, der; (between houses) Durchgang, der; (in shopping precinct) Passage, die

5) no art., no pl. (liberty or right to pass through) Durchreise, die

6) (right to travel) Passage, die

7) (part of book etc.) Passage, die

8) (Mus.) Passage, die; Stelle, die

9) (of a bill into law) parlamentarische Behandlung; (final) Annahme, die; Verabschiedung, die

10) (Anat.)

* * *

Buchstelle -n f.

Durchfahrt f.

Durchgang m.

Durchreise f.

Gang ¨-e m.

Korridor -e m.

Passage -n f.

Stelle -n f.

Übergang -¨e m.

Übertritt m.

SUBJECT AREA: Architecture and building

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Ruins of the ancient Greek city of Perga lie near to the Turkish town of Murtana, just inland from Antalya on the southern coast of Asia Minor. Apollonius, while quite young, went to Alexandria to study under the successors to Euclid. He also worked in Ephesus and Pergamum. He later carried out original studies into the geometrical proportions of conic sections, producing his famous work Conies and naming the ellipse, the parabola and the hyperbola. Conics, which appeared soon after 200 BC, consisted of eight treatises and earned him the name "the great geometer", given to him by his contemporaries. Seven of the eight treatises have survived, four in the original Greek and three in Arabic translation; a Latin translation was edited by Halley in 1710. Apollonius also published works on the cylindrical helix and theories of the epicycles and eccentrics, with reference to the motion of the planets.

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SUBJECT AREA: Agricultural and food technology

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As a young man John Appleby worked as a labourer for a farmer near Whitewater in Wisconsin. He was 18 when the farmer bought a new reaping machine. Appleby believed that the concept had not been progressed far enough and that the machine should be able to bind sheaths as well as to cut the corn. It is claimed that while watching a dog playing with a skipping rope he noticed a particular knot created as the dog removed its head from the loop that had passed over it, and recognized the potential of the way in which this knot had been formed. From a piece of apple wood he carved a device that would produce the knot he had seen. A local school teacher backed Appleby's idea with a $50 loan, but the American Civil War and service in the Union Army prevented any further development until 1869 when he took out a patent on a wire-tying binder. A number of the devices were made for him by a company in Beloit. Trials of wire binders held in 1873 highlighted the danger of small pieces of wire caught up in the hay leading to livestock losses. Appleby looked again at the possibility of twine. In 1875 he successfully operated a machine and the following season four were in operation. A number of other developments, not least Behel's "bill hook" knotting device, were also to have an influence in the final development of Appleby's twine-tying binder. As so often happens, it was the vision of the entrepreneur which ultimately led to the success of Appleby's device. In 1877 Appleby persuaded William Deering to produce and market his binder, and 3,000 twine binders, together with the twine produced for them, were put on the market in 1880, with immediate success. Over the next dozen years all harvesting-machine manufacturers adopted the idea, under licence to Appleby.

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SUBJECT AREA: Horology

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John Arnold was apprenticed to his father, a watchmaker, and then worked as an itinerant journeyman in the Low Countries and, later, in England. He settled in London in 1762 and rapidly established his reputation at Court by presenting George III with a miniature repeating watch mounted in a ring. He later abandoned the security of the Court for a more precarious living developing his chronometers, with some financial assistance from the Board of Longitude. Symbolically, in 1771 he moved from the vicinity of the Court at St James's to John Adam Street, which was close to the premises of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures \& Commerce.

By the time Arnold became interested in chronometry, Harrison had already demonstrated that longitude could be determined by means of a timekeeper, and the need was for a simpler instrument that could be sold at an affordable price for universal use at sea. Le Roy had shown that it was possible to dispense with a remontoire by using a detached escapement with an isochronous balance; Arnold was obviously thinking along the same lines, although he may not have been aware of Le Roy's work. By 1772 Arnold had developed his detached escapement, a pivoted detent which was quite different from that used on the European continent, and three years later he took out a patent for a compensation balance and a helical balance spring (Arnold used the spring in torsion and not in tension as Harrison had done). His compensation balance was similar in principle to that described by Le Roy and used riveted bimetallic strips to alter the radius of gyration of the balance by moving small weights radially. Although the helical balance spring was not completely isochronous it was a great improvement on the spiral spring, and in a later patent (1782) he showed how it could be made more truly isochronous by shaping the ends. In this form it was used universally in marine chronometers.

Although Arnold's chronometers performed well, their long-term stability was less satisfactory because of the deterioration of the oil on the pivot of the detent. In his patent of 1782 he eliminated this defect by replacing the pivot with a spring, producing the spring detent escapement. This was also done independendy at about the same time by Berthoud and Earnshaw, although Earnshaw claimed vehemently that Arnold had plagiarized his work. Ironically it was Earnshaw's design that was finally adopted, although he had merely replaced Arnold's pivoted detent with a spring, while Arnold had completely redesigned the escapement. Earnshaw also improved the compensation balance by fusing the steel to the brass to form the bimetallic element, and it was in this form that it began to be used universally for chronometers and high-grade watches.

As a result of the efforts of Arnold and Earnshaw, the marine chronometer emerged in what was essentially its final form by the end of the eighteenth century. The standardization of the design in England enabled it to be produced economically; whereas Larcum Kendall was paid £500 to copy Harrison's fourth timekeeper, Arnold was able to sell his chronometers for less than one-fifth of that amount. This combination of price and quality led to Britain's domination of the chronometer market during the nineteenth century.

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See also: Phillips, Edouard

SUBJECT AREA: Ports and shipping

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At the conclusion of his apprenticeship at the Royal Dockyard, Portsmouth, Biles entered the Royal School of Naval Architecture, South Kensington, London; as it was absorbed by the Royal Naval College, he graduated from Greenwich to the Naval Construction Branch, first at Pembroke and later at the Admiralty. From the outset of his professional career it was apparent that he had the intellectual qualities that would enable him to oversee the greatest changes in ship design of all time. He was one of the earliest proponents of the revolutionary work of the hydrodynamicist William Froude.

In 1880 Biles turned to the merchant sector, taking the post of Naval Architect to J. \& G. Thomson (later John Brown \& Co.). Using Froude's Law of Comparisons he was able to design the record-breaking City of Paris of 1887, the ship that started the fabled succession of fast and safe Clyde bank-built North Atlantic liners. For a short spell, before returning to Scotland, Biles worked in Southampton. In 1891 Biles accepted the Chair of Naval Architecture at the University of Glasgow. Working from the campus at Gilmorehill, he was to make the University (the oldest school of engineering in the English-speaking world) renowned in naval architecture. His workload was legendary, but despite this he was admired as an excellent lecturer with cheerful ways which inspired devotion to the Department and the University. During the thirty years of his incumbency of the Chair, he served on most of the important government and international shipping committees, including those that recommended the design of HMS Dreadnought, the ordering of the Cunarders Lusitania and Mauretania and the lifesaving improvements following the Titanic disaster. An enquiry into the strength of destroyer hulls followed the loss of HMS Cobra and Viper, and he published the report on advanced experimental work carried out on HMS Wolf by his undergraduates.

In 1906 he became Consultant Naval Architect to the India Office, having already set up his own consultancy organization, which exists today as Sir J.H.Biles and Partners. His writing was prolific, with over twenty-five papers to professional institutions, sundry articles and a two-volume textbook.

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SUBJECT AREA: Agricultural and food technology

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Clarence Birdseye went to high school at Montclair in New Jersey, and from there to Amherst College between 1906 and 1910. He became a field naturalist on the US Department of Agriculture's survey of 1910 to 1912, and during the following five years worked as a fur trader. He was the Purchasing Agent for the US Navy Corps between 1917 and 1919, and acted as Assistant to the President of the US Fisherman's Association between 1920 and 1922.

Birdseye was a keen fisherman, and during his time in Labrador learnt how to fast-freeze his catch in the wind. He formed the Birdseye Seafood Company in 1923 and pioneered the development of quick-freezing methods for the preservation of dressed seafood. His first company went bankrupt, but he quickly formed the General Seafoods Corporation. He filed his first patent in 1924 for the plate freezer, and in the late 1920s developed the double belt freezer. In 1929 Birdseye's company was bought out for $22 million, Birdseye himself receiving $1 million. He was an active member of the American Fisherman's Society, the American Society of Refrigeration Engineers, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Society of Mammalogists and the Institute of Food Technologists.

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SUBJECT AREA: Domestic appliances and interiors

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As with the Renaissance artists and architects of fifteenth-and sixteenth-century Italy, Boulle worked as a young man in varied media, as a painter, engraver and metalworker an in mosaic techniques. It was in the 1660s that he turned more specifically to furniture and in the following decade, under the patronage of Louis XIV, that he became a leading ébéniste or cabinet-maker, In 1672 the King's Controller-General, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, recommended Boulle as an outstanding cabinet-maker and he was appointed ébéniste du roi. From then he spent the rest of his life working in the royal palaces, notably the Louvre and Versailles, and also carried out commissions for the French aristocracy and from abroad, particularly Spain and Germany.

Before the advent of Boulle, the quality furniture made for the French court and aristocracy had come from foreign craftsmen, particularly Domenico Cucci of Italy and Pierre Colle of the Low Countries. Boulle made his name as their equal in his development of new forms of furniture such as his bureaux and commodes, the immense variety of his designs and their architectural quality, the beauty of his sculptural, gilded mounts, and the development of his elaborate marquetry. He was a leading exponent of the contemporary styles, which meant the elaborately rich baroque forms in the time of Louis XIV and the more delicate rococo elegance in that of Louis XV. The technique to which Boulle gave his name (sometimes referred to in its German spelling of Bühl) incorporated a rich variety of veneering materials into his designs: in particular, he used tortoiseshell and brass with ebony. Even greater richness was created with the introduction of an engraved design upon the brass surfaces. Further delicate elaboration derived from the use of paired panels of decoration to be used in reverse form in one piece, or two matching pieces, of furniture. In one panel, designated as première partie, the marquetry took the form of brass upon tortoiseshell, while in the other (contre-partie) the tortoiseshell was set into the brass background.

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SUBJECT AREA: Land transport, Railways and locomotives, Weapons and armour

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The Brennan family, including Louis, emigrated to Australia in 1861. He was an inventive genius from childhood, and while at Melbourne invented his torpedo. Within it were two drums, each with several miles of steel wire coiled upon it and mounted on one of two concentric propeller shafts. The propellers revolved in opposite directions. Wires were led out of the torpedo to winding drums on land, driven by high-speed steam engines: the faster the drums on shore were driven, the quicker the wires were withdrawn from the drums within the torpedo and the quicker the propellers turned. A steering device was operated by altering the speeds of the wires relative to one another. As finally developed, Brennan torpedoes were accurate over a range of 1 1/2 miles (2.4 km), in contrast to contemporary self-propelled torpedoes, which were unreliable at ranges over 400 yards (366 in).

Brennan moved to England in 1880 and sold the rights to his torpedo to the British Government for a total of £110,000, probably the highest payment ever made by it to an individual inventor. Brennan torpedoes became part of the defences of many vital naval ports, but never saw active service: improvement of other means of defence meant they were withdrawn in 1906. By then Brennan was deeply involved in the development of his monorail. The need for a simple and cheap form of railway had been apparent to him when in Australia and he considered it could be met by a ground-level monorail upon which vehicles would be balanced by gyroscopes. After overcoming many manufacturing difficulties, he demonstrated first a one-eighth scale version and then a full-size, electrically driven vehicle, which ran on its single rail throughout the summer of 1910 in London, carrying up to fifty passengers at a time. Development had been supported financially by, successively, the War Office, the India Office and the Government of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, which had no rail access; despite all this, however, no further financial support, government or commercial, was forthcoming.

Brennan made many other inventions, worked on the early development of helicopters and in 1929 built a gyroscopically balanced, two-wheeled motor car which, however, never went into production.

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See also: Behr, Fritz Bernhard; Lartigue, Charles François Marie-Thérèse; Palmer, Henry Robinson( monorails); Whitehead, Robert( torpedoes).

SUBJECT AREA: Domestic appliances and interiors

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Budding was an engineer who described himself as a mechanic on his first patent papers and as a manager in later applications.

A rotary machine had been developed at Brimscombe Mill in Stroud for cutting the pile on certain clothes and Budding saw the potential of this principle for a machine for cutting grass on lawns. It is not clear whether Budding worked for the Lewis family, who owned the mill, or whether he saw the machines during their manufacture at the Phoenix Foundry. At the age of 35 Budding entered into partnership with John Ferrabee, who had taken out a lease on Thrupp Mill. They reached an agreement in which Ferrabee would pay to obtain letter patent on the mower and would cover all the development costs, after which they would have an equal share in the profits. The agreement also allowed Ferrabee to license the manufacture of the machine and in 1832 he negotiated with the agricultural manufacturer Ransomes, allowing them to manufacture the mower.

Budding invented a screw-shifting spanner at a time when he might have been working as a mechanic at Thrupp Mill. He later rented a workshop in which he produced Pepperbox pistols. In the late 1830s he moved to Dursley, where he became Manager for Mr G.Lister, who made clothing machinery. Together they patented an improved method of making cylinders for carding engines, but Budding required police protection from those who saw their jobs threatened by the device. He made no fortune from his inventions and died at the age of 50.

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SUBJECT AREA: Agricultural and food technology, Textiles

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Edmund Cartwright, the fourth son of William Cartwright, was educated at Wakefield Grammar School, and went to University College, Oxford, at the age of 14. By special act of convocation in 1764, he was elected Fellow of Magdalen College. He married Alice Whitaker in 1772 and soon after was given the ecclesiastical living of Brampton in Derbyshire. In 1779 he was presented with the living of Goadby, Marwood, Leicestershire, where he wrote poems, reviewed new works, and began agricultural experiments. A visit to Matlock in the summer of 1784 introduced him to the inventions of Richard Arkwright and he asked why weaving could not be mechanized in a similar manner to spinning. This began a remarkable career of inventions.

Cartwright returned home and built a loom which required two strong men to operate it. This was the first attempt in England to develop a power loom. It had a vertical warp, the reed fell with the weight of at least half a hundredweight and, to quote Gartwright's own words, "the springs which threw the shuttle were strong enough to throw a Congreive [sic] rocket" (Strickland 19.71:8—for background to the "rocket" comparison, see Congreve, Sir William). Nevertheless, it had the same three basics of weaving that still remain today in modern power looms: shedding or dividing the warp; picking or projecting the shuttle with the weft; and beating that pick of weft into place with a reed. This loom he proudly patented in 1785, and then he went to look at hand looms and was surprised to see how simply they operated. Further improvements to his own loom, covered by two more patents in 1786 and 1787, produced a machine with the more conventional horizontal layout that showed promise; however, the Manchester merchants whom he visited were not interested. He patented more improvements in 1788 as a result of the experience gained in 1786 through establishing a factory at Doncaster with power looms worked by a bull that were the ancestors of modern ones. Twenty-four looms driven by steam-power were installed in Manchester in 1791, but the mill was burned down and no one repeated the experiment. The Doncaster mill was sold in 1793, Cartwright having lost £30,000, However, in 1809 Parliament voted him £10,000 because his looms were then coming into general use.

In 1789 he began working on a wool-combing machine which he patented in 1790, with further improvements in 1792. This seems to have been the earliest instance of mechanized combing. It used a circular revolving comb from which the long fibres or "top" were. carried off into a can, and a smaller cylinder-comb for teasing out short fibres or "noils", which were taken off by hand. Its output equalled that of twenty hand combers, but it was only relatively successful. It was employed in various Leicestershire and Yorkshire mills, but infringements were frequent and costly to resist. The patent was prolonged for fourteen years after 1801, but even then Cartwright did not make any profit. His 1792 patent also included a machine to make ropes with the outstanding and basic invention of the "cordelier" which he communicated to his friends, including Robert Fulton, but again it brought little financial benefit. As a result of these problems and the lack of remuneration for his inventions, Cartwright moved to London in 1796 and for a time lived in a house built with geometrical bricks of his own design.

Other inventions followed fast, including a tread-wheel for cranes, metallic packing for pistons in steam-engines, and bread-making and brick-making machines, to mention but a few. He had already returned to agricultural improvements and he put forward suggestions in 1793 for a reaping machine. In 1801 he received a prize from the Board of Agriculture for an essay on husbandry, which was followed in 1803 by a silver medal for the invention of a three-furrow plough and in 1805 by a gold medal for his essay on manures. From 1801 to 1807 he ran an experimental farm on the Duke of Bedford's estates at Woburn.

From 1786 until his death he was a prebendary of Lincoln. In about 1810 he bought a small farm at Hollanden near Sevenoaks, Kent, where he continued his inventions, both agricultural and general. Inventing to the last, he died at Hastings and was buried in Battle church.

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SUBJECT AREA: Ports and shipping

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Chapman was born on the west coast of Sweden and was the son of a British naval officer serving in the Swedish Navy. In 1738 he followed in his father's footsteps by joining the naval dockyards as a shipbuilding apprentice. Subsequent experience was gained in other shipyards and by two years (1741–3) in London. His assiduous note taking and study of British shipbuilding were noticed and he was offered appointments in England, but these were refused and he returned to Sweden in 1744 and for a while operated as a ship repairer in partnership with a man called Bagge. In 1749 he started out on his own. He began with a period of study in Stockholm and in London, where he worked for a while under Thomas Simpson, and then went on to France and the Netherlands. During his time in England he learned the art of copper etching, a skill that later stood him in good stead. After some years he was appointed Deputy Master Shipwright to the Swedish Navy, and in 1760 he became Master Shipwright at Sveaborg (now Suomenlinna), the fortress island of Helsinki. There Chapman excelled by designing the coastal defence or skerry fleet that to this day is accepted as beautiful and fit for purpose. He understood the limitations of ship design and throughout his life strove to improve shipbuilding by using the advances in mathematics and science that were then being made. His contribution to the rationalization of thought in ship theory cannot be overemphasized.

In 1764 he became Chief Shipbuilder to the Swedish Navy, with particular responsibility for Karlskrona and for Stockholm. He assisted in the new rules for the classification of warships and later introduced standardization to the naval dockyards. He continued to rise in rank and reputation until his retirement in 1793, but to the end his judgement was sought on many matters concerning not only ship design but also the administration of the then powerful Swedish Navy.

His most important bequest to his profession is the great book Architectura Navalis Mercatoria, first published in 1768. Later editions were larger and contained additional material. This volume remains one of the most significant works on shipbuilding.

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SUBJECT AREA: Mechanical, pneumatic and hydraulic engineering

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Although known as Clement in his professional life, his baptism at Asby and his death were registered under the name of Joseph Clemmet. He worked as a slater until the age of 23, but his interest in mechanics led him to spend much of his spare time in the local blacksmith's shop. By studying books on mechanics borrowed from his cousin, a watchmaker, he taught himself and with the aid of the village blacksmith made his own lathe. By 1805 he was able to give up the slating trade and find employment as a mechanic in a small factory at Kirkby Stephen. From there he moved to Carlisle for two years, and then to Glasgow where, while working as a turner, he took lessons in drawing; he had a natural talent and soon became an expert draughtsman. From about 1809 he was employed by Leys, Mason \& Co. of Aberdeen designing and making power looms. For this work he built a screw-cutting lathe and continued his self-education. At the end of 1813, having saved about £100, he made his way to London, where he soon found employment as a mechanic and draughtsman. Within a few months he was engaged by Joseph Bramah, and after a trial period a formal agreement dated 1 April 1814 was made by which Clement was to be Chief Draughtsman and Superintendent of Bramah's Pimlico works for five years. However, Bramah died in December 1814 and after his sons took over the business it was agreed that Clement should leave before the expiry of the five-year period. He soon found employment as Chief Draughtsman with Henry Maudslay \& Co. By 1817 Clement had saved about £500, which enabled him to establish his own business at Prospect Place, Newington Butts, as a mechanical draughtsman and manufacturer of high-class machinery. For this purpose he built lathes for his own use and invented various improvements in their detailed design. In 1827 he designed and built a facing lathe which incorporated an ingenious system of infinitely variable belt gearing. He had also built his own planing machine by 1820 and another, much larger one in 1825. In 1828 Clement began making fluted taps and dies and standardized the screw threads, thus anticipating on a small scale the national standards later established by Sir Joseph Whitworth. Because of his reputation for first-class workmanship, Clement was in the 1820s engaged by Charles Babbage to carry out the construction of his first Difference Engine.

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SUBJECT AREA: Ports and shipping

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He was the son of a country lawyer who became legal advisor and travelling companion to certain rich Americans. At an early age Cousteau acquired a love of travel, of the sea and of cinematography: he made his first film at the age of 13. After an interrupted education he nevertheless passed the difficult entrance examination to the Ecole Navale in Brest, but his naval career was cut short in 1936 by injuries received in a serious motor accident. For his long recuperation he was drafted to Toulon. There he met Philippe Tailliez, a fellow naval officer, and Frédéric Dumas, a champion spearfisher, with whom he formed a long association and began to develop his underwater swimming and photography. He apparently took little part in the Second World War, but under cover he applied his photographic skills to espionage, for which he was awarded the Légion d'honneur after the war.

Cousteau sought greater freedom of movement underwater and, with Emile Gagnan, who worked in the laboratory of Air Liquide, he began experimenting to improve portable underwater breathing apparatus. As a result, in 1943 they invented the aqualung. Its simple design and robust construction provided a reliable and low-cost unit and revolutionized scientific and recreational diving. Gagnan shunned publicity, but Cousteau revelled in the new freedom to explore and photograph underwater and exploited the publicity potential to the full.

The Undersea Research Group was set up by the French Navy in 1944 and, based in Toulon, it provided Cousteau with the Opportunity to develop underwater exploration and filming techniques and equipment. Its first aims were minesweeping and exploration, but in 1948 Cousteau pioneered an extension to marine archaeology. In 1950 he raised the funds to acquire a surplus US-built minesweeper, which he fitted out to further his quest for exploration and adventure and named Calypso. Cousteau also sought and achieved public acclaim with the publication in 1953 of The Silent World, an account of his submarine observations, illustrated by his own brilliant photography. The book was an immediate success and was translated into twenty-two languages. In 1955 Calypso sailed through the Red Sea and the western Indian Ocean, and the outcome was a film bearing the same title as the book: it won an Oscar and the Palme d'Or at the Cannes film festival. This was his favoured medium for the expression of his ideas and observations, and a stream of films on the same theme kept his name before the public.

Cousteau's fame earned him appointment by Prince Rainier as Director of the Oceanographie Institute in Monaco in 1957, a post he held until 1988. With its museum and research centre, it offered Cousteau a useful base for his worldwide activities.

In the 1980s Cousteau turned again to technological development. Like others before him, he was concerned to reduce ships' fuel consumption by harnessing wind power. True to form, he raised grants from various sources to fund research and enlisted technical help, namely Lucien Malavard, Professor of Aerodynamics at the Sorbonne. Malavard designed a 44 ft (13.4 m) high non-rotating cylinder, which was fitted onto a catamaran hull, christened Moulin à vent. It was intended that its maiden Atlantic crossing in 1983 should herald a new age in ship propulsion, with large royalties to Cousteau. Unfortunately the vessel was damaged in a storm and limped to the USA under diesel power. A more robust vessel, the Alcyone, was fitted with two "Turbosails" in 1985 and proved successful, with a 40 per cent reduction in fuel consumption. However, oil prices fell, removing the incentive to fit the new device; the lucrative sales did not materialize and Alcyone remained the only vessel with Turbosails, sharing with Calypso Cousteau's voyages of adventure and exploration. In September 1995, Cousteau was among the critics of the decision by the French President Jacques Chirac to resume testing of nuclear explosive devices under the Mururoa atoll in the South Pacific.

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SUBJECT AREA: Mining and extraction technology

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Having completed his studies at the Technological Institute in Stockholm and the Mining School at Falun, Crælius was awarded a grant by the Swedish Jernkontoret and in 1879 he travelled to Germany, France and Belgium in order to study technological aspects of the mining, iron and steel industries. In the same year he went to the United States, where he worked with an iron works in Colorado and a mining company in Nevada. In 1884, having returned to Sweden, he obtained an appointment in the Norberg mines; two years later, he took up employment at the Ängelsberg oilmill.

His mining experience had shown him the demand for a reliable, handy and cheap method of drilling, particularly for prospecting purposes. He had become acquainted with modern drilling methods in America, possibly including Albert Fauck's drilling jar. In 1886, Crælius designed his first small-diameter drill, which was assembled in one unit. Its rotating boring rod, smooth on the outside, was fixed inside a hollow mandrel which could be turned in any direction. This first drill was hand-driven, but the hydraulic version of it became the prototype for all near-surface prospecting drills in use worldwide in the late twentieth century.

Between 1890 and 1900 Crælius was managing director of the Morgårdshammar mechanical workshops, where he was able to continue the development of his drilling apparatus. He successfully applied diesel engines in the 1890s, and in 1895 he added diamond crowns to the drill. The commercial exploitation of the invention was carried out by Svenska Diamantbergborrings AB, of which Crælius was a director from its establishment in 1886.

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See also: Fauvelle, Pierre-Pascal

SUBJECT AREA: Land transport, Railways and locomotives, Telecommunications

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After private education and an engineering apprenticeship, Crampton worked under Marc Brunel, Daniel Gooch and the Rennie brothers before setting up as a civil engineer in 1848. His developing ideas on locomotive design were expressed through a series of five patents taken out between 1842 and 1849, each making a multiplicity of claims. The most typical feature of the Crampton locomotive, however, was a single pair of driving wheels set to the rear of the firebox. This meant they could be of large diameter, while the centre of gravity of the locomotive remained low, for the boiler barrel, though large, had only small carrying-wheels beneath it. The cylinders were approximately midway along the boiler and were outside the frames, as was the valve gear. The result was a steady-riding locomotive which neither pitched about a central driving axle nor hunted from side to side, as did other contemporary locomotives, and its working parts were unusually accessible for maintenance. However, adhesive weight was limited and the long wheelbase tended to damage track. Locomotives of this type were soon superseded on British railways, although they lasted much longer in Germany and France. Locomotives built to the later patents incorporated a long, coupled wheelbase with drive through an intermediate crankshaft, but they mostly had only short lives. In 1851 Crampton, with associates, laid the first successful submarine electric telegraph cable. The previous year the brothers Jacob and John Brett had laid a cable, comprising a copper wire insulated with gutta-percha, beneath the English Channel from Dover to Cap Gris Nez: signals were passed but within a few hours the cable failed. Crampton joined the Bretts' company, put up half the capital needed for another attempt, and designed a much stronger cable. Four gutta-percha-insulated copper wires were twisted together, surrounded by tarred hemp and armoured by galvanized iron wires; this cable was successful.

Crampton was also active in railway civil engineering and in water and gas engineering, and c. 1882 he invented a hydraulic tunnel-boring machine intended for a Channel tunnel.

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SUBJECT AREA: Medical technology

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The youngest of a family of eight of moderate means, Dakin received his early education in Leeds experiencing strict scientific training as a public analyst. He regarded this as having been of the utmost value to him in his lifelong commitment to the emerging discipline of biochemistry.

He was one of the earliest to specialize in the significance of optical activity in organic chemistry, and obtained his BSc from Manchester in 1901. Following this, he worked at the Lister (Jenner) Institute of Preventive Medicine and at Heidelberg. He then received an invitation to join Christian Herter in a private research laboratory that had been established in New York. There, for the rest of his life, he continued his studies into a wide variety of biochemical topics. Christian Herter died in 1910, and six years later his widow and Dakin were married.

Unable to serve in the First World War, he made a major contribution, in collaboration with Carrel, with the technique for the antiseptic irrigation of wounds with a buffered hypochlorite solution (Eusol), a therapy which in the 1990s is still an accepted approach to the treatment of infected wounds. The original trials were carried out on the liner Aquitania, then serving as a hospital ship in the Dardanelles.

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SUBJECT AREA: Chemical technology, Textiles

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Deacon was apprenticed at the age of 14 to the London engineering firm of Galloway \& Sons. Faraday was a friend of the family and gave Deacon tuition, allowing him to use the laboratories at the Royal Institution. When the firm failed in 1839, Deacon transferred his indentures to Nasmyth \& Gaskell on the Bridgewater Canal at Patricroft. Nasmyth was then beginning work on his steam hammer and it is said that Deacon made the first model of it, for patent purposes. Around 1848, Deacon joined Pilkington's, the glassmakers at St Helens, where he learned the alkali industry, which was then growing up in that district on account of the close proximity of the necessary raw materials, coal, lime and salt. Wishing to start out on his own, he worked as Manager at the chemical works of a John Hutchinson. This was followed by a partnership with William Pilkington, a former employer, who was later replaced by Holbrook Gaskell, another former employer. Deacon's main activity was the manufacture of soda by the Leblanc process. He sought improvement by substituting the ammonia-soda process, but this failed and did not succeed until it was perfected by Solvay. Deacon did, however, with his Chief Chemist F.Hurter, introduce improvements in the Leblanc process during the period 1866–70. Hydrochloric acid, which had previously been a waste product and a nuisance, was oxidized catalytically to chlorine; this could be converted with lime to bleaching powder, which was in heavy demand by the textile industry. The process was patented in 1870.

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SUBJECT AREA: Chemical technology, Synthetic materials, Textiles

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The introduction of one type of artificial fibre encouraged chemists to look for more. J.T.Dickson and J.R. Whinfield discovered one such fibre in 1941 when they derived polyester from terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol. Dickson, a 21-year-old Edinburgh graduate, was working under Whinfield at the Calico Printers' Association research laboratory at Broad Oak Print Works in Accrington. He was put onto fibre research: probably in April, but certainly by 5 July 1941, a murky-looking resin had been synthesized, out of which Dickson successfully drew a filament, which was named "Terylene" by its discoverers. Owing to restrictions imposed in Britain during the Second World War, this fibre was developed initially by the DuPont Company in the USA, where it was marketed under the name "Dacron". When Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI) were able to manufacture it in Britain, it acquired the brand name "Terylene" and became very popular. Under the microscope, Terylene appears identical to nylon: longitudinally, it is completely devoid of any structure and the filaments appear as glass rods with a perfectly circular cross-section. The uses of Terylene are similar to those of nylon, but it has two advantages. First, it can be heat-set by exposing the fabric to a temperature about 30°C higher than is likely to be encountered in everyday use, and therefore can be the basis for "easy-care" clothing such as drip-dry shirts. It can be blended with other fibres such as wool, and when pressed at a high temperature the creases are remarkably durable. It is also remarkably resistant to chemicals, which makes it particularly suitable for industrial purposes under conditions where other textile materials would be degraded rapidly. Dickson later worked for ICI.

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