Перевод: с английского на все языки

со всех языков на английский

year+of+construction

  • 21 Stephenson, George

    [br]
    b. 9 June 1781 Wylam, Northumberland, England
    d. 12 August 1848 Tapton House, Chesterfield, England
    [br]
    English engineer, "the father of railways".
    [br]
    George Stephenson was the son of the fireman of the pumping engine at Wylam colliery, and horses drew wagons of coal along the wooden rails of the Wylam wagonway past the house in which he was born and spent his earliest childhood. While still a child he worked as a cowherd, but soon moved to working at coal pits. At 17 years of age he showed sufficient mechanical talent to be placed in charge of a new pumping engine, and had already achieved a job more responsible than that of his father. Despite his position he was still illiterate, although he subsequently learned to read and write. He was largely self-educated.
    In 1801 he was appointed Brakesman of the winding engine at Black Callerton pit, with responsibility for lowering the miners safely to their work. Then, about two years later, he became Brakesman of a new winding engine erected by Robert Hawthorn at Willington Quay on the Tyne. Returning collier brigs discharged ballast into wagons and the engine drew the wagons up an inclined plane to the top of "Ballast Hill" for their contents to be tipped; this was one of the earliest applications of steam power to transport, other than experimentally.
    In 1804 Stephenson moved to West Moor pit, Killingworth, again as Brakesman. In 1811 he demonstrated his mechanical skill by successfully modifying a new and unsatisfactory atmospheric engine, a task that had defeated the efforts of others, to enable it to pump a drowned pit clear of water. The following year he was appointed Enginewright at Killingworth, in charge of the machinery in all the collieries of the "Grand Allies", the prominent coal-owning families of Wortley, Liddell and Bowes, with authorization also to work for others. He built many stationary engines and he closely examined locomotives of John Blenkinsop's type on the Kenton \& Coxlodge wagonway, as well as those of William Hedley at Wylam.
    It was in 1813 that Sir Thomas Liddell requested George Stephenson to build a steam locomotive for the Killingworth wagonway: Blucher made its first trial run on 25 July 1814 and was based on Blenkinsop's locomotives, although it lacked their rack-and-pinion drive. George Stephenson is credited with building the first locomotive both to run on edge rails and be driven by adhesion, an arrangement that has been the conventional one ever since. Yet Blucher was far from perfect and over the next few years, while other engineers ignored the steam locomotive, Stephenson built a succession of them, each an improvement on the last.
    During this period many lives were lost in coalmines from explosions of gas ignited by miners' lamps. By observation and experiment (sometimes at great personal risk) Stephenson invented a satisfactory safety lamp, working independently of the noted scientist Sir Humphry Davy who also invented such a lamp around the same time.
    In 1817 George Stephenson designed his first locomotive for an outside customer, the Kilmarnock \& Troon Railway, and in 1819 he laid out the Hetton Colliery Railway in County Durham, for which his brother Robert was Resident Engineer. This was the first railway to be worked entirely without animal traction: it used inclined planes with stationary engines, self-acting inclined planes powered by gravity, and locomotives.
    On 19 April 1821 Stephenson was introduced to Edward Pease, one of the main promoters of the Stockton \& Darlington Railway (S \& DR), which by coincidence received its Act of Parliament the same day. George Stephenson carried out a further survey, to improve the proposed line, and in this he was assisted by his 18-year-old son, Robert Stephenson, whom he had ensured received the theoretical education which he himself lacked. It is doubtful whether either could have succeeded without the other; together they were to make the steam railway practicable.
    At George Stephenson's instance, much of the S \& DR was laid with wrought-iron rails recently developed by John Birkinshaw at Bedlington Ironworks, Morpeth. These were longer than cast-iron rails and were not brittle: they made a track well suited for locomotives. In June 1823 George and Robert Stephenson, with other partners, founded a firm in Newcastle upon Tyne to build locomotives and rolling stock and to do general engineering work: after its Managing Partner, the firm was called Robert Stephenson \& Co.
    In 1824 the promoters of the Liverpool \& Manchester Railway (L \& MR) invited George Stephenson to resurvey their proposed line in order to reduce opposition to it. William James, a wealthy land agent who had become a visionary protagonist of a national railway network and had seen Stephenson's locomotives at Killingworth, had promoted the L \& MR with some merchants of Liverpool and had carried out the first survey; however, he overreached himself in business and, shortly after the invitation to Stephenson, became bankrupt. In his own survey, however, George Stephenson lacked the assistance of his son Robert, who had left for South America, and he delegated much of the detailed work to incompetent assistants. During a devastating Parliamentary examination in the spring of 1825, much of his survey was shown to be seriously inaccurate and the L \& MR's application for an Act of Parliament was refused. The railway's promoters discharged Stephenson and had their line surveyed yet again, by C.B. Vignoles.
    The Stockton \& Darlington Railway was, however, triumphantly opened in the presence of vast crowds in September 1825, with Stephenson himself driving the locomotive Locomotion, which had been built at Robert Stephenson \& Co.'s Newcastle works. Once the railway was at work, horse-drawn and gravity-powered traffic shared the line with locomotives: in 1828 Stephenson invented the horse dandy, a wagon at the back of a train in which a horse could travel over the gravity-operated stretches, instead of trotting behind.
    Meanwhile, in May 1826, the Liverpool \& Manchester Railway had successfully obtained its Act of Parliament. Stephenson was appointed Engineer in June, and since he and Vignoles proved incompatible the latter left early in 1827. The railway was built by Stephenson and his staff, using direct labour. A considerable controversy arose c. 1828 over the motive power to be used: the traffic anticipated was too great for horses, but the performance of the reciprocal system of cable haulage developed by Benjamin Thompson appeared in many respects superior to that of contemporary locomotives. The company instituted a prize competition for a better locomotive and the Rainhill Trials were held in October 1829.
    Robert Stephenson had been working on improved locomotive designs since his return from America in 1827, but it was the L \& MR's Treasurer, Henry Booth, who suggested the multi-tubular boiler to George Stephenson. This was incorporated into a locomotive built by Robert Stephenson for the trials: Rocket was entered by the three men in partnership. The other principal entrants were Novelty, entered by John Braithwaite and John Ericsson, and Sans Pareil, entered by Timothy Hackworth, but only Rocket, driven by George Stephenson, met all the organizers' demands; indeed, it far surpassed them and demonstrated the practicability of the long-distance steam railway. With the opening of the Liverpool \& Manchester Railway in 1830, the age of railways began.
    Stephenson was active in many aspects. He advised on the construction of the Belgian State Railway, of which the Brussels-Malines section, opened in 1835, was the first all-steam railway on the European continent. In England, proposals to link the L \& MR with the Midlands had culminated in an Act of Parliament for the Grand Junction Railway in 1833: this was to run from Warrington, which was already linked to the L \& MR, to Birmingham. George Stephenson had been in charge of the surveys, and for the railway's construction he and J.U. Rastrick were initially Principal Engineers, with Stephenson's former pupil Joseph Locke under them; by 1835 both Stephenson and Rastrick had withdrawn and Locke was Engineer-in-Chief. Stephenson remained much in demand elsewhere: he was particularly associated with the construction of the North Midland Railway (Derby to Leeds) and related lines. He was active in many other places and carried out, for instance, preliminary surveys for the Chester \& Holyhead and Newcastle \& Berwick Railways, which were important links in the lines of communication between London and, respectively, Dublin and Edinburgh.
    He eventually retired to Tapton House, Chesterfield, overlooking the North Midland. A man who was self-made (with great success) against colossal odds, he was ever reluctant, regrettably, to give others their due credit, although in retirement, immensely wealthy and full of honour, he was still able to mingle with people of all ranks.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    President, Institution of Mechanical Engineers, on its formation in 1847. Order of Leopold (Belgium) 1835. Stephenson refused both a knighthood and Fellowship of the Royal Society.
    Bibliography
    1815, jointly with Ralph Dodd, British patent no. 3,887 (locomotive drive by connecting rods directly to the wheels).
    1817, jointly with William Losh, British patent no. 4,067 (steam springs for locomotives, and improvements to track).
    Further Reading
    L.T.C.Rolt, 1960, George and Robert Stephenson, Longman (the best modern biography; includes a bibliography).
    S.Smiles, 1874, The Lives of George and Robert Stephenson, rev. edn, London (although sycophantic, this is probably the best nineteenthcentury biography).
    PJGR

    Biographical history of technology > Stephenson, George

  • 22 Stephenson, Robert

    [br]
    b. 16 October 1803 Willington Quay, Northumberland, England
    d. 12 October 1859 London, England
    [br]
    English engineer who built the locomotive Rocket and constructed many important early trunk railways.
    [br]
    Robert Stephenson's father was George Stephenson, who ensured that his son was educated to obtain the theoretical knowledge he lacked himself. In 1821 Robert Stephenson assisted his father in his survey of the Stockton \& Darlington Railway and in 1822 he assisted William James in the first survey of the Liverpool \& Manchester Railway. He then went to Edinburgh University for six months, and the following year Robert Stephenson \& Co. was named after him as Managing Partner when it was formed by himself, his father and others. The firm was to build stationary engines, locomotives and railway rolling stock; in its early years it also built paper-making machinery and did general engineering.
    In 1824, however, Robert Stephenson accepted, perhaps in reaction to an excess of parental control, an invitation by a group of London speculators called the Colombian Mining Association to lead an expedition to South America to use steam power to reopen gold and silver mines. He subsequently visited North America before returning to England in 1827 to rejoin his father as an equal and again take charge of Robert Stephenson \& Co. There he set about altering the design of steam locomotives to improve both their riding and their steam-generating capacity. Lancashire Witch, completed in July 1828, was the first locomotive mounted on steel springs and had twin furnace tubes through the boiler to produce a large heating surface. Later that year Robert Stephenson \& Co. supplied the Stockton \& Darlington Railway with a wagon, mounted for the first time on springs and with outside bearings. It was to be the prototype of the standard British railway wagon. Between April and September 1829 Robert Stephenson built, not without difficulty, a multi-tubular boiler, as suggested by Henry Booth to George Stephenson, and incorporated it into the locomotive Rocket which the three men entered in the Liverpool \& Manchester Railway's Rainhill Trials in October. Rocket, was outstandingly successful and demonstrated that the long-distance steam railway was practicable.
    Robert Stephenson continued to develop the locomotive. Northumbrian, built in 1830, had for the first time, a smokebox at the front of the boiler and also the firebox built integrally with the rear of the boiler. Then in Planet, built later the same year, he adopted a layout for the working parts used earlier by steam road-coach pioneer Goldsworthy Gurney, placing the cylinders, for the first time, in a nearly horizontal position beneath the smokebox, with the connecting rods driving a cranked axle. He had evolved the definitive form for the steam locomotive.
    Also in 1830, Robert Stephenson surveyed the London \& Birmingham Railway, which was authorized by Act of Parliament in 1833. Stephenson became Engineer for construction of the 112-mile (180 km) railway, probably at that date the greatest task ever undertaken in of civil engineering. In this he was greatly assisted by G.P.Bidder, who as a child prodigy had been known as "The Calculating Boy", and the two men were to be associated in many subsequent projects. On the London \& Birmingham Railway there were long and deep cuttings to be excavated and difficult tunnels to be bored, notoriously at Kilsby. The line was opened in 1838.
    In 1837 Stephenson provided facilities for W.F. Cooke to make an experimental electrictelegraph installation at London Euston. The directors of the London \& Birmingham Railway company, however, did not accept his recommendation that they should adopt the electric telegraph and it was left to I.K. Brunel to instigate the first permanent installation, alongside the Great Western Railway. After Cooke formed the Electric Telegraph Company, Stephenson became a shareholder and was Chairman during 1857–8.
    Earlier, in the 1830s, Robert Stephenson assisted his father in advising on railways in Belgium and came to be increasingly in demand as a consultant. In 1840, however, he was almost ruined financially as a result of the collapse of the Stanhope \& Tyne Rail Road; in return for acting as Engineer-in-Chief he had unwisely accepted shares, with unlimited liability, instead of a fee.
    During the late 1840s Stephenson's greatest achievements were the design and construction of four great bridges, as part of railways for which he was responsible. The High Level Bridge over the Tyne at Newcastle and the Royal Border Bridge over the Tweed at Berwick were the links needed to complete the East Coast Route from London to Scotland. For the Chester \& Holyhead Railway to cross the Menai Strait, a bridge with spans as long-as 460 ft (140 m) was needed: Stephenson designed them as wrought-iron tubes of rectangular cross-section, through which the trains would pass, and eventually joined the spans together into a tube 1,511 ft (460 m) long from shore to shore. Extensive testing was done beforehand by shipbuilder William Fairbairn to prove the method, and as a preliminary it was first used for a 400 ft (122 m) span bridge at Conway.
    In 1847 Robert Stephenson was elected MP for Whitby, a position he held until his death, and he was one of the exhibition commissioners for the Great Exhibition of 1851. In the early 1850s he was Engineer-in-Chief for the Norwegian Trunk Railway, the first railway in Norway, and he also built the Alexandria \& Cairo Railway, the first railway in Africa. This included two tubular bridges with the railway running on top of the tubes. The railway was extended to Suez in 1858 and for several years provided a link in the route from Britain to India, until superseded by the Suez Canal, which Stephenson had opposed in Parliament. The greatest of all his tubular bridges was the Victoria Bridge across the River St Lawrence at Montreal: after inspecting the site in 1852 he was appointed Engineer-in-Chief for the bridge, which was 1 1/2 miles (2 km) long and was designed in his London offices. Sadly he, like Brunel, died young from self-imposed overwork, before the bridge was completed in 1859.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    FRS 1849. President, Institution of Mechanical Engineers 1849. President, Institution of Civil Engineers 1856. Order of St Olaf (Norway). Order of Leopold (Belgium). Like his father, Robert Stephenson refused a knighthood.
    Further Reading
    L.T.C.Rolt, 1960, George and Robert Stephenson, London: Longman (a good modern biography).
    J.C.Jeaffreson, 1864, The Life of Robert Stephenson, London: Longman (the standard nine-teenth-century biography).
    M.R.Bailey, 1979, "Robert Stephenson \& Co. 1823–1829", Transactions of the Newcomen Society 50 (provides details of the early products of that company).
    J.Kieve, 1973, The Electric Telegraph, Newton Abbot: David \& Charles.
    PJGR

    Biographical history of technology > Stephenson, Robert

  • 23 Historical Portugal

       Before Romans described western Iberia or Hispania as "Lusitania," ancient Iberians inhabited the land. Phoenician and Greek trading settlements grew up in the Tagus estuary area and nearby coasts. Beginning around 202 BCE, Romans invaded what is today southern Portugal. With Rome's defeat of Carthage, Romans proceeded to conquer and rule the western region north of the Tagus, which they named Roman "Lusitania." In the fourth century CE, as Rome's rule weakened, the area experienced yet another invasion—Germanic tribes, principally the Suevi, who eventually were Christianized. During the sixth century CE, the Suevi kingdom was superseded by yet another Germanic tribe—the Christian Visigoths.
       A major turning point in Portugal's history came in 711, as Muslim armies from North Africa, consisting of both Arab and Berber elements, invaded the Iberian Peninsula from across the Straits of Gibraltar. They entered what is now Portugal in 714, and proceeded to conquer most of the country except for the far north. For the next half a millennium, Islam and Muslim presence in Portugal left a significant mark upon the politics, government, language, and culture of the country.
       Islam, Reconquest, and Portugal Created, 714-1140
       The long frontier struggle between Muslim invaders and Christian communities in the north of the Iberian peninsula was called the Reconquista (Reconquest). It was during this struggle that the first dynasty of Portuguese kings (Burgundian) emerged and the independent monarchy of Portugal was established. Christian forces moved south from what is now the extreme north of Portugal and gradually defeated Muslim forces, besieging and capturing towns under Muslim sway. In the ninth century, as Christian forces slowly made their way southward, Christian elements were dominant only in the area between Minho province and the Douro River; this region became known as "territorium Portu-calense."
       In the 11th century, the advance of the Reconquest quickened as local Christian armies were reinforced by crusading knights from what is now France and England. Christian forces took Montemor (1034), at the Mondego River; Lamego (1058); Viseu (1058); and Coimbra (1064). In 1095, the king of Castile and Léon granted the country of "Portu-cale," what became northern Portugal, to a Burgundian count who had emigrated from France. This was the foundation of Portugal. In 1139, a descendant of this count, Afonso Henriques, proclaimed himself "King of Portugal." He was Portugal's first monarch, the "Founder," and the first of the Burgundian dynasty, which ruled until 1385.
       The emergence of Portugal in the 12th century as a separate monarchy in Iberia occurred before the Christian Reconquest of the peninsula. In the 1140s, the pope in Rome recognized Afonso Henriques as king of Portugal. In 1147, after a long, bloody siege, Muslim-occupied Lisbon fell to Afonso Henriques's army. Lisbon was the greatest prize of the 500-year war. Assisting this effort were English crusaders on their way to the Holy Land; the first bishop of Lisbon was an Englishman. When the Portuguese captured Faro and Silves in the Algarve province in 1248-50, the Reconquest of the extreme western portion of the Iberian peninsula was complete—significantly, more than two centuries before the Spanish crown completed the Reconquest of the eastern portion by capturing Granada in 1492.
       Consolidation and Independence of Burgundian Portugal, 1140-1385
       Two main themes of Portugal's early existence as a monarchy are the consolidation of control over the realm and the defeat of a Castil-ian threat from the east to its independence. At the end of this period came the birth of a new royal dynasty (Aviz), which prepared to carry the Christian Reconquest beyond continental Portugal across the straits of Gibraltar to North Africa. There was a variety of motives behind these developments. Portugal's independent existence was imperiled by threats from neighboring Iberian kingdoms to the north and east. Politics were dominated not only by efforts against the Muslims in
       Portugal (until 1250) and in nearby southern Spain (until 1492), but also by internecine warfare among the kingdoms of Castile, Léon, Aragon, and Portugal. A final comeback of Muslim forces was defeated at the battle of Salado (1340) by allied Castilian and Portuguese forces. In the emerging Kingdom of Portugal, the monarch gradually gained power over and neutralized the nobility and the Church.
       The historic and commonplace Portuguese saying "From Spain, neither a good wind nor a good marriage" was literally played out in diplomacy and war in the late 14th-century struggles for mastery in the peninsula. Larger, more populous Castile was pitted against smaller Portugal. Castile's Juan I intended to force a union between Castile and Portugal during this era of confusion and conflict. In late 1383, Portugal's King Fernando, the last king of the Burgundian dynasty, suddenly died prematurely at age 38, and the Master of Aviz, Portugal's most powerful nobleman, took up the cause of independence and resistance against Castile's invasion. The Master of Aviz, who became King João I of Portugal, was able to obtain foreign assistance. With the aid of English archers, Joao's armies defeated the Castilians in the crucial battle of Aljubarrota, on 14 August 1385, a victory that assured the independence of the Portuguese monarchy from its Castilian nemesis for several centuries.
       Aviz Dynasty and Portugal's First Overseas Empire, 1385-1580
       The results of the victory at Aljubarrota, much celebrated in Portugal's art and monuments, and the rise of the Aviz dynasty also helped to establish a new merchant class in Lisbon and Oporto, Portugal's second city. This group supported King João I's program of carrying the Reconquest to North Africa, since it was interested in expanding Portugal's foreign commerce and tapping into Muslim trade routes and resources in Africa. With the Reconquest against the Muslims completed in Portugal and the threat from Castile thwarted for the moment, the Aviz dynasty launched an era of overseas conquest, exploration, and trade. These efforts dominated Portugal's 15th and 16th centuries.
       The overseas empire and age of Discoveries began with Portugal's bold conquest in 1415 of the Moroccan city of Ceuta. One royal member of the 1415 expedition was young, 21-year-old Prince Henry, later known in history as "Prince Henry the Navigator." His part in the capture of Ceuta won Henry his knighthood and began Portugal's "Marvelous Century," during which the small kingdom was counted as a European and world power of consequence. Henry was the son of King João I and his English queen, Philippa of Lancaster, but he did not inherit the throne. Instead, he spent most of his life and his fortune, and that of the wealthy military Order of Christ, on various imperial ventures and on voyages of exploration down the African coast and into the Atlantic. While mythology has surrounded Henry's controversial role in the Discoveries, and this role has been exaggerated, there is no doubt that he played a vital part in the initiation of Portugal's first overseas empire and in encouraging exploration. He was naturally curious, had a sense of mission for Portugal, and was a strong leader. He also had wealth to expend; at least a third of the African voyages of the time were under his sponsorship. If Prince Henry himself knew little science, significant scientific advances in navigation were made in his day.
       What were Portugal's motives for this new imperial effort? The well-worn historical cliche of "God, Glory, and Gold" can only partly explain the motivation of a small kingdom with few natural resources and barely 1 million people, which was greatly outnumbered by the other powers it confronted. Among Portuguese objectives were the desire to exploit known North African trade routes and resources (gold, wheat, leather, weaponry, and other goods that were scarce in Iberia); the need to outflank the Muslim world in the Mediterranean by sailing around Africa, attacking Muslims en route; and the wish to ally with Christian kingdoms beyond Africa. This enterprise also involved a strategy of breaking the Venetian spice monopoly by trading directly with the East by means of discovering and exploiting a sea route around Africa to Asia. Besides the commercial motives, Portugal nurtured a strong crusading sense of Christian mission, and various classes in the kingdom saw an opportunity for fame and gain.
       By the time of Prince Henry's death in 1460, Portugal had gained control of the Atlantic archipelagos of the Azores and Madeiras, begun to colonize the Cape Verde Islands, failed to conquer the Canary Islands from Castile, captured various cities on Morocco's coast, and explored as far as Senegal, West Africa, down the African coast. By 1488, Bar-tolomeu Dias had rounded the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa and thereby discovered the way to the Indian Ocean.
       Portugal's largely coastal African empire and later its fragile Asian empire brought unexpected wealth but were purchased at a high price. Costs included wars of conquest and defense against rival powers, manning the far-flung navel and trade fleets and scattered castle-fortresses, and staffing its small but fierce armies, all of which entailed a loss of skills and population to maintain a scattered empire. Always short of capital, the monarchy became indebted to bankers. There were many defeats beginning in the 16th century at the hands of the larger imperial European monarchies (Spain, France, England, and Holland) and many attacks on Portugal and its strung-out empire. Typically, there was also the conflict that arose when a tenuously held world empire that rarely if ever paid its way demanded finance and manpower Portugal itself lacked.
       The first 80 years of the glorious imperial era, the golden age of Portugal's imperial power and world influence, was an African phase. During 1415-88, Portuguese navigators and explorers in small ships, some of them caravelas (caravels), explored the treacherous, disease-ridden coasts of Africa from Morocco to South Africa beyond the Cape of Good Hope. By the 1470s, the Portuguese had reached the Gulf of Guinea and, in the early 1480s, what is now Angola. Bartolomeu Dias's extraordinary voyage of 1487-88 to South Africa's coast and the edge of the Indian Ocean convinced Portugal that the best route to Asia's spices and Christians lay south, around the tip of southern Africa. Between 1488 and 1495, there was a hiatus caused in part by domestic conflict in Portugal, discussion of resources available for further conquests beyond Africa in Asia, and serious questions as to Portugal's capacity to reach beyond Africa. In 1495, King Manuel and his council decided to strike for Asia, whatever the consequences. In 1497-99, Vasco da Gama, under royal orders, made the epic two-year voyage that discovered the sea route to western India (Asia), outflanked Islam and Venice, and began Portugal's Asian empire. Within 50 years, Portugal had discovered and begun the exploitation of its largest colony, Brazil, and set up forts and trading posts from the Middle East (Aden and Ormuz), India (Calicut, Goa, etc.), Malacca, and Indonesia to Macau in China.
       By the 1550s, parts of its largely coastal, maritime trading post empire from Morocco to the Moluccas were under siege from various hostile forces, including Muslims, Christians, and Hindi. Although Moroccan forces expelled the Portuguese from the major coastal cities by 1550, the rival European monarchies of Castile (Spain), England, France, and later Holland began to seize portions of her undermanned, outgunned maritime empire.
       In 1580, Phillip II of Spain, whose mother was a Portuguese princess and who had a strong claim to the Portuguese throne, invaded Portugal, claimed the throne, and assumed control over the realm and, by extension, its African, Asian, and American empires. Phillip II filled the power vacuum that appeared in Portugal following the loss of most of Portugal's army and its young, headstrong King Sebastião in a disastrous war in Morocco. Sebastiao's death in battle (1578) and the lack of a natural heir to succeed him, as well as the weak leadership of the cardinal who briefly assumed control in Lisbon, led to a crisis that Spain's strong monarch exploited. As a result, Portugal lost its independence to Spain for a period of 60 years.
       Portugal under Spanish Rule, 1580-1640
       Despite the disastrous nature of Portugal's experience under Spanish rule, "The Babylonian Captivity" gave birth to modern Portuguese nationalism, its second overseas empire, and its modern alliance system with England. Although Spain allowed Portugal's weakened empire some autonomy, Spanish rule in Portugal became increasingly burdensome and unacceptable. Spain's ambitious imperial efforts in Europe and overseas had an impact on the Portuguese as Spain made greater and greater demands on its smaller neighbor for manpower and money. Portugal's culture underwent a controversial Castilianization, while its empire became hostage to Spain's fortunes. New rival powers England, France, and Holland attacked and took parts of Spain's empire and at the same time attacked Portugal's empire, as well as the mother country.
       Portugal's empire bore the consequences of being attacked by Spain's bitter enemies in what was a form of world war. Portuguese losses were heavy. By 1640, Portugal had lost most of its Moroccan cities as well as Ceylon, the Moluccas, and sections of India. With this, Portugal's Asian empire was gravely weakened. Only Goa, Damão, Diu, Bombay, Timor, and Macau remained and, in Brazil, Dutch forces occupied the northeast.
       On 1 December 1640, long commemorated as a national holiday, Portuguese rebels led by the duke of Braganza overthrew Spanish domination and took advantage of Spanish weakness following a more serious rebellion in Catalonia. Portugal regained independence from Spain, but at a price: dependence on foreign assistance to maintain its independence in the form of the renewal of the alliance with England.
       Restoration and Second Empire, 1640-1822
       Foreign affairs and empire dominated the restoration era and aftermath, and Portugal again briefly enjoyed greater European power and prestige. The Anglo-Portuguese Alliance was renewed and strengthened in treaties of 1642, 1654, and 1661, and Portugal's independence from Spain was underwritten by English pledges and armed assistance. In a Luso-Spanish treaty of 1668, Spain recognized Portugal's independence. Portugal's alliance with England was a marriage of convenience and necessity between two monarchies with important religious, cultural, and social differences. In return for legal, diplomatic, and trade privileges, as well as the use during war and peace of Portugal's great Lisbon harbor and colonial ports for England's navy, England pledged to protect Portugal and its scattered empire from any attack. The previously cited 17th-century alliance treaties were renewed later in the Treaty of Windsor, signed in London in 1899. On at least 10 different occasions after 1640, and during the next two centuries, England was central in helping prevent or repel foreign invasions of its ally, Portugal.
       Portugal's second empire (1640-1822) was largely Brazil-oriented. Portuguese colonization, exploitation of wealth, and emigration focused on Portuguese America, and imperial revenues came chiefly from Brazil. Between 1670 and 1740, Portugal's royalty and nobility grew wealthier on funds derived from Brazilian gold, diamonds, sugar, tobacco, and other crops, an enterprise supported by the Atlantic slave trade and the supply of African slave labor from West Africa and Angola. Visitors today can see where much of that wealth was invested: Portugal's rich legacy of monumental architecture. Meanwhile, the African slave trade took a toll in Angola and West Africa.
       In continental Portugal, absolutist monarchy dominated politics and government, and there was a struggle for position and power between the monarchy and other institutions, such as the Church and nobility. King José I's chief minister, usually known in history as the marquis of Pombal (ruled 1750-77), sharply suppressed the nobility and the
       Church (including the Inquisition, now a weak institution) and expelled the Jesuits. Pombal also made an effort to reduce economic dependence on England, Portugal's oldest ally. But his successes did not last much beyond his disputed time in office.
       Beginning in the late 18th century, the European-wide impact of the French Revolution and the rise of Napoleon placed Portugal in a vulnerable position. With the monarchy ineffectively led by an insane queen (Maria I) and her indecisive regent son (João VI), Portugal again became the focus of foreign ambition and aggression. With England unable to provide decisive assistance in time, France—with Spain's consent—invaded Portugal in 1807. As Napoleon's army under General Junot entered Lisbon meeting no resistance, Portugal's royal family fled on a British fleet to Brazil, where it remained in exile until 1821. In the meantime, Portugal's overseas empire was again under threat. There was a power vacuum as the monarch was absent, foreign armies were present, and new political notions of liberalism and constitutional monarchy were exciting various groups of citizens.
       Again England came to the rescue, this time in the form of the armies of the duke of Wellington. Three successive French invasions of Portugal were defeated and expelled, and Wellington succeeded in carrying the war against Napoleon across the Portuguese frontier into Spain. The presence of the English army, the new French-born liberal ideas, and the political vacuum combined to create revolutionary conditions. The French invasions and the peninsular wars, where Portuguese armed forces played a key role, marked the beginning of a new era in politics.
       Liberalism and Constitutional Monarchy, 1822-1910
       During 1807-22, foreign invasions, war, and civil strife over conflicting political ideas gravely damaged Portugal's commerce, economy, and novice industry. The next terrible blow was the loss of Brazil in 1822, the jewel in the imperial crown. Portugal's very independence seemed to be at risk. In vain, Portugal sought to resist Brazilian independence by force, but in 1825 it formally acknowledged Brazilian independence by treaty.
       Portugal's slow recovery from the destructive French invasions and the "war of independence" was complicated by civil strife over the form of constitutional monarchy that best suited Portugal. After struggles over these issues between 1820 and 1834, Portugal settled somewhat uncertainly into a moderate constitutional monarchy whose constitution (Charter of 1826) lent it strong political powers to exert a moderating influence between the executive and legislative branches of the government. It also featured a new upper middle class based on land ownership and commerce; a Catholic Church that, although still important, lived with reduced privileges and property; a largely African (third) empire to which Lisbon and Oporto devoted increasing spiritual and material resources, starting with the liberal imperial plans of 1836 and 1851, and continuing with the work of institutions like the Lisbon Society of Geography (established 1875); and a mass of rural peasants whose bonds to the land weakened after 1850 and who began to immigrate in increasing numbers to Brazil and North America.
       Chronic military intervention in national politics began in 19th-century Portugal. Such intervention, usually commencing with coups or pronunciamentos (military revolts), was a shortcut to the spoils of political office and could reflect popular discontent as well as the power of personalities. An early example of this was the 1817 golpe (coup) attempt of General Gomes Freire against British military rule in Portugal before the return of King João VI from Brazil. Except for a more stable period from 1851 to 1880, military intervention in politics, or the threat thereof, became a feature of the constitutional monarchy's political life, and it continued into the First Republic and the subsequent Estado Novo.
       Beginning with the Regeneration period (1851-80), Portugal experienced greater political stability and economic progress. Military intervention in politics virtually ceased; industrialization and construction of railroads, roads, and bridges proceeded; two political parties (Regenerators and Historicals) worked out a system of rotation in power; and leading intellectuals sparked a cultural revival in several fields. In 19th-century literature, there was a new golden age led by such figures as Alexandre Herculano (historian), Eça de Queirós (novelist), Almeida Garrett (playwright and essayist), Antero de Quental (poet), and Joaquim Oliveira Martins (historian and social scientist). In its third overseas empire, Portugal attempted to replace the slave trade and slavery with legitimate economic activities; to reform the administration; and to expand Portuguese holdings beyond coastal footholds deep into the African hinterlands in West, West Central, and East Africa. After 1841, to some extent, and especially after 1870, colonial affairs, combined with intense nationalism, pressures for economic profit in Africa, sentiment for national revival, and the drift of European affairs would make or break Lisbon governments.
       Beginning with the political crisis that arose out of the "English Ultimatum" affair of January 1890, the monarchy became discredtted and identified with the poorly functioning government, political parties splintered, and republicanism found more supporters. Portugal participated in the "Scramble for Africa," expanding its African holdings, but failed to annex territory connecting Angola and Mozambique. A growing foreign debt and state bankruptcy as of the early 1890s damaged the constitutional monarchy's reputation, despite the efforts of King Carlos in diplomacy, the renewal of the alliance in the Windsor Treaty of 1899, and the successful if bloody colonial wars in the empire (1880-97). Republicanism proclaimed that Portugal's weak economy and poor society were due to two historic institutions: the monarchy and the Catholic Church. A republic, its stalwarts claimed, would bring greater individual liberty; efficient, if more decentralized government; and a stronger colonial program while stripping the Church of its role in both society and education.
       As the monarchy lost support and republicans became more aggressive, violence increased in politics. King Carlos I and his heir Luís were murdered in Lisbon by anarchist-republicans on 1 February 1908. Following a military and civil insurrection and fighting between monarchist and republican forces, on 5 October 1910, King Manuel II fled Portugal and a republic was proclaimed.
       First Parliamentary Republic, 1910-26
       Portugal's first attempt at republican government was the most unstable, turbulent parliamentary republic in the history of 20th-century Western Europe. During a little under 16 years of the republic, there were 45 governments, a number of legislatures that did not complete normal terms, military coups, and only one president who completed his four-year term in office. Portuguese society was poorly prepared for this political experiment. Among the deadly legacies of the monarchy were a huge public debt; a largely rural, apolitical, and illiterate peasant population; conflict over the causes of the country's misfortunes; and lack of experience with a pluralist, democratic system.
       The republic had some talented leadership but lacked popular, institutional, and economic support. The 1911 republican constitution established only a limited democracy, as only a small portion of the adult male citizenry was eligible to vote. In a country where the majority was Catholic, the republic passed harshly anticlerical laws, and its institutions and supporters persecuted both the Church and its adherents. During its brief disjointed life, the First Republic drafted important reform plans in economic, social, and educational affairs; actively promoted development in the empire; and pursued a liberal, generous foreign policy. Following British requests for Portugal's assistance in World War I, Portugal entered the war on the Allied side in March 1916 and sent armies to Flanders and Portuguese Africa. Portugal's intervention in that conflict, however, was too costly in many respects, and the ultimate failure of the republic in part may be ascribed to Portugal's World War I activities.
       Unfortunately for the republic, its time coincided with new threats to Portugal's African possessions: World War I, social and political demands from various classes that could not be reconciled, excessive military intervention in politics, and, in particular, the worst economic and financial crisis Portugal had experienced since the 16th and 17th centuries. After the original Portuguese Republican Party (PRP, also known as the "Democrats") splintered into three warring groups in 1912, no true multiparty system emerged. The Democrats, except for only one or two elections, held an iron monopoly of electoral power, and political corruption became a major issue. As extreme right-wing dictatorships elsewhere in Europe began to take power in Italy (1922), neighboring Spain (1923), and Greece (1925), what scant popular support remained for the republic collapsed. Backed by a right-wing coalition of landowners from Alentejo, clergy, Coimbra University faculty and students, Catholic organizations, and big business, career military officers led by General Gomes da Costa executed a coup on 28 May 1926, turned out the last republican government, and established a military government.
       The Estado Novo (New State), 1926-74
       During the military phase (1926-32) of the Estado Novo, professional military officers, largely from the army, governed and administered Portugal and held key cabinet posts, but soon discovered that the military possessed no magic formula that could readily solve the problems inherited from the First Republic. Especially during the years 1926-31, the military dictatorship, even with its political repression of republican activities and institutions (military censorship of the press, political police action, and closure of the republic's rowdy parliament), was characterized by similar weaknesses: personalism and factionalism; military coups and political instability, including civil strife and loss of life; state debt and bankruptcy; and a weak economy. "Barracks parliamentarism" was not an acceptable alternative even to the "Nightmare Republic."
       Led by General Óscar Carmona, who had replaced and sent into exile General Gomes da Costa, the military dictatorship turned to a civilian expert in finance and economics to break the budget impasse and bring coherence to the disorganized system. Appointed minister of finance on 27 April 1928, the Coimbra University Law School professor of economics Antônio de Oliveira Salazar (1889-1970) first reformed finance, helped balance the budget, and then turned to other concerns as he garnered extraordinary governing powers. In 1930, he was appointed interim head of another key ministry (Colonies) and within a few years had become, in effect, a civilian dictator who, with the military hierarchy's support, provided the government with coherence, a program, and a set of policies.
       For nearly 40 years after he was appointed the first civilian prime minister in 1932, Salazar's personality dominated the government. Unlike extreme right-wing dictators elsewhere in Europe, Salazar was directly appointed by the army but was never endorsed by a popular political party, street militia, or voter base. The scholarly, reclusive former Coimbra University professor built up what became known after 1932 as the Estado Novo ("New State"), which at the time of its overthrow by another military coup in 1974, was the longest surviving authoritarian regime in Western Europe. The system of Salazar and the largely academic and technocratic ruling group he gathered in his cabinets was based on the central bureaucracy of the state, which was supported by the president of the republic—always a senior career military officer, General Óscar Carmona (1928-51), General Craveiro Lopes (1951-58), and Admiral Américo Tómaz (1958-74)—and the complicity of various institutions. These included a rubber-stamp legislature called the National Assembly (1935-74) and a political police known under various names: PVDE (1932-45), PIDE (1945-69),
       and DGS (1969-74). Other defenders of the Estado Novo security were paramilitary organizations such as the National Republican Guard (GNR); the Portuguese Legion (PL); and the Portuguese Youth [Movement]. In addition to censorship of the media, theater, and books, there was political repression and a deliberate policy of depoliticization. All political parties except for the approved movement of regime loyalists, the União Nacional or (National Union), were banned.
       The most vigorous and more popular period of the New State was 1932-44, when the basic structures were established. Never monolithic or entirely the work of one person (Salazar), the New State was constructed with the assistance of several dozen top associates who were mainly academics from law schools, some technocrats with specialized skills, and a handful of trusted career military officers. The 1933 Constitution declared Portugal to be a "unitary, corporative Republic," and pressures to restore the monarchy were resisted. Although some of the regime's followers were fascists and pseudofascists, many more were conservative Catholics, integralists, nationalists, and monarchists of different varieties, and even some reactionary republicans. If the New State was authoritarian, it was not totalitarian and, unlike fascism in Benito Mussolini's Italy or Adolf Hitler's Germany, it usually employed the minimum of violence necessary to defeat what remained a largely fractious, incoherent opposition.
       With the tumultuous Second Republic and the subsequent civil war in nearby Spain, the regime felt threatened and reinforced its defenses. During what Salazar rightly perceived as a time of foreign policy crisis for Portugal (1936-45), he assumed control of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From there, he pursued four basic foreign policy objectives: supporting the Nationalist rebels of General Francisco Franco in the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) and concluding defense treaties with a triumphant Franco; ensuring that General Franco in an exhausted Spain did not enter World War II on the Axis side; maintaining Portuguese neutrality in World War II with a post-1942 tilt toward the Allies, including granting Britain and the United States use of bases in the Azores Islands; and preserving and protecting Portugal's Atlantic Islands and its extensive, if poor, overseas empire in Africa and Asia.
       During the middle years of the New State (1944-58), many key Salazar associates in government either died or resigned, and there was greater social unrest in the form of unprecedented strikes and clandestine Communist activities, intensified opposition, and new threatening international pressures on Portugal's overseas empire. During the earlier phase of the Cold War (1947-60), Portugal became a steadfast, if weak, member of the US-dominated North Atlantic Treaty Organization alliance and, in 1955, with American support, Portugal joined the United Nations (UN). Colonial affairs remained a central concern of the regime. As of 1939, Portugal was the third largest colonial power in the world and possessed territories in tropical Africa (Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, and São Tomé and Príncipe Islands) and the remnants of its 16th-century empire in Asia (Goa, Damão, Diu, East Timor, and Macau). Beginning in the early 1950s, following the independence of India in 1947, Portugal resisted Indian pressures to decolonize Portuguese India and used police forces to discourage internal opposition in its Asian and African colonies.
       The later years of the New State (1958-68) witnessed the aging of the increasingly isolated but feared Salazar and new threats both at home and overseas. Although the regime easily overcame the brief oppositionist threat from rival presidential candidate General Humberto Delgado in the spring of 1958, new developments in the African and Asian empires imperiled the authoritarian system. In February 1961, oppositionists hijacked the Portuguese ocean liner Santa Maria and, in following weeks, African insurgents in northern Angola, although they failed to expel the Portuguese, gained worldwide media attention, discredited the New State, and began the 13-year colonial war. After thwarting a dissident military coup against his continued leadership, Salazar and his ruling group mobilized military repression in Angola and attempted to develop the African colonies at a faster pace in order to ensure Portuguese control. Meanwhile, the other European colonial powers (Britain, France, Belgium, and Spain) rapidly granted political independence to their African territories.
       At the time of Salazar's removal from power in September 1968, following a stroke, Portugal's efforts to maintain control over its colonies appeared to be successful. President Americo Tomás appointed Dr. Marcello Caetano as Salazar's successor as prime minister. While maintaining the New State's basic structures, and continuing the regime's essential colonial policy, Caetano attempted wider reforms in colonial administration and some devolution of power from Lisbon, as well as more freedom of expression in Lisbon. Still, a great deal of the budget was devoted to supporting the wars against the insurgencies in Africa. Meanwhile in Asia, Portuguese India had fallen when the Indian army invaded in December 1961. The loss of Goa was a psychological blow to the leadership of the New State, and of the Asian empire only East Timor and Macau remained.
       The Caetano years (1968-74) were but a hiatus between the waning Salazar era and a new regime. There was greater political freedom and rapid economic growth (5-6 percent annually to late 1973), but Caetano's government was unable to reform the old system thoroughly and refused to consider new methods either at home or in the empire. In the end, regime change came from junior officers of the professional military who organized the Armed Forces Movement (MFA) against the Caetano government. It was this group of several hundred officers, mainly in the army and navy, which engineered a largely bloodless coup in Lisbon on 25 April 1974. Their unexpected action brought down the 48-year-old New State and made possible the eventual establishment and consolidation of democratic governance in Portugal, as well as a reorientation of the country away from the Atlantic toward Europe.
       Revolution of Carnations, 1974-76
       Following successful military operations of the Armed Forces Movement against the Caetano government, Portugal experienced what became known as the "Revolution of Carnations." It so happened that during the rainy week of the military golpe, Lisbon flower shops were featuring carnations, and the revolutionaries and their supporters adopted the red carnation as the common symbol of the event, as well as of the new freedom from dictatorship. The MFA, whose leaders at first were mostly little-known majors and captains, proclaimed a three-fold program of change for the new Portugal: democracy; decolonization of the overseas empire, after ending the colonial wars; and developing a backward economy in the spirit of opportunity and equality. During the first 24 months after the coup, there was civil strife, some anarchy, and a power struggle. With the passing of the Estado Novo, public euphoria burst forth as the new provisional military government proclaimed the freedoms of speech, press, and assembly, and abolished censorship, the political police, the Portuguese Legion, Portuguese Youth, and other New State organizations, including the National Union. Scores of political parties were born and joined the senior political party, the Portuguese Community Party (PCP), and the Socialist Party (PS), founded shortly before the coup.
       Portugal's Revolution of Carnations went through several phases. There was an attempt to take control by radical leftists, including the PCP and its allies. This was thwarted by moderate officers in the army, as well as by the efforts of two political parties: the PS and the Social Democrats (PPD, later PSD). The first phase was from April to September 1974. Provisional president General Antonio Spínola, whose 1974 book Portugal and the Future had helped prepare public opinion for the coup, met irresistible leftist pressures. After Spinola's efforts to avoid rapid decolonization of the African empire failed, he resigned in September 1974. During the second phase, from September 1974 to March 1975, radical military officers gained control, but a coup attempt by General Spínola and his supporters in Lisbon in March 1975 failed and Spínola fled to Spain.
       In the third phase of the Revolution, March-November 1975, a strong leftist reaction followed. Farm workers occupied and "nationalized" 1.1 million hectares of farmland in the Alentejo province, and radical military officers in the provisional government ordered the nationalization of Portuguese banks (foreign banks were exempted), utilities, and major industries, or about 60 percent of the economic system. There were power struggles among various political parties — a total of 50 emerged—and in the streets there was civil strife among labor, military, and law enforcement groups. A constituent assembly, elected on 25 April 1975, in Portugal's first free elections since 1926, drafted a democratic constitution. The Council of the Revolution (CR), briefly a revolutionary military watchdog committee, was entrenched as part of the government under the constitution, until a later revision. During the chaotic year of 1975, about 30 persons were killed in political frays while unstable provisional governments came and went. On 25 November 1975, moderate military forces led by Colonel Ramalho Eanes, who later was twice elected president of the republic (1976 and 1981), defeated radical, leftist military groups' revolutionary conspiracies.
       In the meantime, Portugal's scattered overseas empire experienced a precipitous and unprepared decolonization. One by one, the former colonies were granted and accepted independence—Guinea-Bissau (September 1974), Cape Verde Islands (July 1975), and Mozambique (July 1975). Portugal offered to turn over Macau to the People's Republic of China, but the offer was refused then and later negotiations led to the establishment of a formal decolonization or hand-over date of 1999. But in two former colonies, the process of decolonization had tragic results.
       In Angola, decolonization negotiations were greatly complicated by the fact that there were three rival nationalist movements in a struggle for power. The January 1975 Alvor Agreement signed by Portugal and these three parties was not effectively implemented. A bloody civil war broke out in Angola in the spring of 1975 and, when Portuguese armed forces withdrew and declared that Angola was independent on 11 November 1975, the bloodshed only increased. Meanwhile, most of the white Portuguese settlers from Angola and Mozambique fled during the course of 1975. Together with African refugees, more than 600,000 of these retornados ("returned ones") went by ship and air to Portugal and thousands more to Namibia, South Africa, Brazil, Canada, and the United States.
       The second major decolonization disaster was in Portugal's colony of East Timor in the Indonesian archipelago. Portugal's capacity to supervise and control a peaceful transition to independence in this isolated, neglected colony was limited by the strength of giant Indonesia, distance from Lisbon, and Portugal's revolutionary disorder and inability to defend Timor. In early December 1975, before Portugal granted formal independence and as one party, FRETILIN, unilaterally declared East Timor's independence, Indonesia's armed forces invaded, conquered, and annexed East Timor. Indonesian occupation encountered East Timorese resistance, and a heavy loss of life followed. The East Timor question remained a contentious international issue in the UN, as well as in Lisbon and Jakarta, for more than 20 years following Indonesia's invasion and annexation of the former colony of Portugal. Major changes occurred, beginning in 1998, after Indonesia underwent a political revolution and allowed a referendum in East Timor to decide that territory's political future in August 1999. Most East Timorese chose independence, but Indonesian forces resisted that verdict until
       UN intervention in September 1999. Following UN rule for several years, East Timor attained full independence on 20 May 2002.
       Consolidation of Democracy, 1976-2000
       After several free elections and record voter turnouts between 25 April 1975 and June 1976, civil war was averted and Portugal's second democratic republic began to stabilize. The MFA was dissolved, the military were returned to the barracks, and increasingly elected civilians took over the government of the country. The 1976 Constitution was revised several times beginning in 1982 and 1989, in order to reempha-size the principle of free enterprise in the economy while much of the large, nationalized sector was privatized. In June 1976, General Ram-alho Eanes was elected the first constitutional president of the republic (five-year term), and he appointed socialist leader Dr. Mário Soares as prime minister of the first constitutional government.
       From 1976 to 1985, Portugal's new system featured a weak economy and finances, labor unrest, and administrative and political instability. The difficult consolidation of democratic governance was eased in part by the strong currency and gold reserves inherited from the Estado Novo, but Lisbon seemed unable to cope with high unemployment, new debt, the complex impact of the refugees from Africa, world recession, and the agitation of political parties. Four major parties emerged from the maelstrom of 1974-75, except for the Communist Party, all newly founded. They were, from left to right, the Communists (PCP); the Socialists (PS), who managed to dominate governments and the legislature but not win a majority in the Assembly of the Republic; the Social Democrats (PSD); and the Christian Democrats (CDS). During this period, the annual growth rate was low (l-2 percent), and the nationalized sector of the economy stagnated.
       Enhanced economic growth, greater political stability, and more effective central government as of 1985, and especially 1987, were due to several developments. In 1977, Portugal applied for membership in the European Economic Community (EEC), now the European Union (EU) since 1993. In January 1986, with Spain, Portugal was granted membership, and economic and financial progress in the intervening years has been significantly influenced by the comparatively large investment, loans, technology, advice, and other assistance from the EEC. Low unemployment, high annual growth rates (5 percent), and moderate inflation have also been induced by the new political and administrative stability in Lisbon. Led by Prime Minister Cavaco Silva, an economist who was trained abroad, the PSD's strong organization, management, and electoral support since 1985 have assisted in encouraging economic recovery and development. In 1985, the PSD turned the PS out of office and won the general election, although they did not have an absolute majority of assembly seats. In 1986, Mário Soares was elected president of the republic, the first civilian to hold that office since the First Republic. In the elections of 1987 and 1991, however, the PSD was returned to power with clear majorities of over 50 percent of the vote.
       Although the PSD received 50.4 percent of the vote in the 1991 parliamentary elections and held a 42-seat majority in the Assembly of the Republic, the party began to lose public support following media revelations regarding corruption and complaints about Prime Minister Cavaco Silva's perceived arrogant leadership style. President Mário Soares voiced criticism of the PSD's seemingly untouchable majority and described a "tyranny of the majority." Economic growth slowed down. In the parliamentary elections of 1995 and the presidential election of 1996, the PSD's dominance ended for the time being. Prime Minister Antônio Guterres came to office when the PS won the October 1995 elections, and in the subsequent presidential contest, in January 1996, socialist Jorge Sampaio, the former mayor of Lisbon, was elected president of the republic, thus defeating Cavaco Silva's bid. Young and popular, Guterres moved the PS toward the center of the political spectrum. Under Guterres, the PS won the October 1999 parliamentary elections. The PS defeated the PSD but did not manage to win a clear, working majority of seats, and this made the PS dependent upon alliances with smaller parties, including the PCP.
       In the local elections in December 2001, the PSD's criticism of PS's heavy public spending allowed the PSD to take control of the key cities of Lisbon, Oporto, and Coimbra. Guterres resigned, and parliamentary elections were brought forward from 2004 to March 2002. The PSD won a narrow victory with 40 percent of the votes, and Jose Durão Barroso became prime minister. Having failed to win a majority of the seats in parliament forced the PSD to govern in coalition with the right-wing Popular Party (PP) led by Paulo Portas. Durão Barroso set about reducing government spending by cutting the budgets of local authorities, freezing civil service hiring, and reviving the economy by accelerating privatization of state-owned enterprises. These measures provoked a 24-hour strike by public-sector workers. Durão Barroso reacted with vows to press ahead with budget-cutting measures and imposed a wage freeze on all employees earning more than €1,000, which affected more than one-half of Portugal's work force.
       In June 2004, Durão Barroso was invited by Romano Prodi to succeed him as president of the European Commission. Durão Barroso accepted and resigned the prime ministership in July. Pedro Santana Lopes, the leader of the PSD, became prime minister. Already unpopular at the time of Durão Barroso's resignation, the PSD-led government became increasingly unpopular under Santana Lopes. A month-long delay in the start of the school year and confusion over his plan to cut taxes and raise public-sector salaries, eroded confidence even more. By November, Santana Lopes's government was so unpopular that President Jorge Sampaio was obliged to dissolve parliament and hold new elections, two years ahead of schedule.
       Parliamentary elections were held on 20 February 2005. The PS, which had promised the electorate disciplined and transparent governance, educational reform, the alleviation of poverty, and a boost in employment, won 45 percent of the vote and the majority of the seats in parliament. The leader of the PS, José Sôcrates became prime minister on 12 March 2005. In the regularly scheduled presidential elections held on 6 January 2006, the former leader of the PSD and prime minister, Aníbal Cavaco Silva, won a narrow victory and became president on 9 March 2006. With a mass protest, public teachers' strike, and street demonstrations in March 2008, Portugal's media, educational, and social systems experienced more severe pressures. With the spreading global recession beginning in September 2008, Portugal's economic and financial systems became more troubled.
       Owing to its geographic location on the southwestern most edge of continental Europe, Portugal has been historically in but not of Europe. Almost from the beginning of its existence in the 12th century as an independent monarchy, Portugal turned its back on Europe and oriented itself toward the Atlantic Ocean. After carving out a Christian kingdom on the western portion of the Iberian peninsula, Portuguese kings gradually built and maintained a vast seaborne global empire that became central to the way Portugal understood its individuality as a nation-state. While the creation of this empire allows Portugal to claim an unusual number of "firsts" or distinctions in world and Western history, it also retarded Portugal's economic, social, and political development. It can be reasonably argued that the Revolution of 25 April 1974 was the most decisive event in Portugal's long history because it finally ended Portugal's oceanic mission and view of itself as an imperial power. After the 1974 Revolution, Portugal turned away from its global mission and vigorously reoriented itself toward Europe. Contemporary Portugal is now both in and of Europe.
       The turn toward Europe began immediately after 25 April 1974. Portugal granted independence to its African colonies in 1975. It was admitted to the European Council and took the first steps toward accession to the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1976. On 28 March 1977, the Portuguese government officially applied for EEC membership. Because of Portugal's economic and social backwardness, which would require vast sums of EEC money to overcome, negotiations for membership were long and difficult. Finally, a treaty of accession was signed on 12 June 1985. Portugal officially joined the EEC (the European Union [EU] since 1993) on 1 January 1986. Since becoming a full-fledged member of the EU, Portugal has been steadily overcoming the economic and social underdevelopment caused by its imperial past and is becoming more like the rest of Europe.
       Membership in the EU has speeded up the structural transformation of Portugal's economy, which actually began during the Estado Novo. Investments made by the Estado Novo in Portugal's economy began to shift employment out of the agricultural sector, which, in 1950, accounted for 50 percent of Portugal's economically active population. Today, only 10 percent of the economically active population is employed in the agricultural sector (the highest among EU member states); 30 percent in the industrial sector (also the highest among EU member states); and 60 percent in the service sector (the lowest among EU member states). The economically active population numbers about 5,000,000 employed, 56 percent of whom are women. Women workers are the majority of the workforce in the agricultural and service sectors (the highest among the EU member states). The expansion of the service sector has been primarily in health care and education. Portugal has had the lowest unemployment rates among EU member states, with the overall rate never being more than 10 percent of the active population. Since joining the EU, the number of employers increased from 2.6 percent to 5.8 percent of the active population; self-employed from 16 to 19 percent; and employees from 65 to 70 percent. Twenty-six percent of the employers are women. Unemployment tends to hit younger workers in industry and transportation, women employed in domestic service, workers on short-term contracts, and poorly educated workers. Salaried workers earn only 63 percent of the EU average, and hourly workers only one-third to one-half of that earned by their EU counterparts. Despite having had the second highest growth of gross national product (GNP) per inhabitant (after Ireland) among EU member states, the above data suggest that while much has been accomplished in terms of modernizing the Portuguese economy, much remains to be done to bring Portugal's economy up to the level of the "average" EU member state.
       Membership in the EU has also speeded up changes in Portuguese society. Over the last 30 years, coastalization and urbanization have intensified. Fully 50 percent of Portuguese live in the coastal urban conurbations of Lisbon, Oporto, Braga, Aveiro, Coimbra, Viseu, Évora, and Faro. The Portuguese population is one of the oldest among EU member states (17.3 percent are 65 years of age or older) thanks to a considerable increase in life expectancy at birth (77.87 years for the total population, 74.6 years for men, 81.36 years for women) and one of the lowest birthrates (10.59 births/1,000) in Europe. Family size averages 2.8 persons per household, with the strict nuclear family (one or two generations) in which both parents work being typical. Common law marriages, cohabitating couples, and single-parent households are more and more common. The divorce rate has also increased. "Youth Culture" has developed. The young have their own meeting places, leisure-time activities, and nightlife (bars, clubs, and discos).
       All Portuguese citizens, whether they have contributed or not, have a right to an old-age pension, invalidity benefits, widowed persons' pension, as well as payments for disabilities, children, unemployment, and large families. There is a national minimum wage (€385 per month), which is low by EU standards. The rapid aging of Portugal's population has changed the ratio of contributors to pensioners to 1.7, the lowest in the EU. This has created deficits in Portugal's social security fund.
       The adult literacy rate is about 92 percent. Illiteracy is still found among the elderly. Although universal compulsory education up to grade 9 was achieved in 1980, only 21.2 percent of the population aged 25-64 had undergone secondary education, compared to an EU average of 65.7 percent. Portugal's higher education system currently consists of 14 state universities and 14 private universities, 15 state polytechnic institutions, one Catholic university, and one military academy. All in all, Portugal spends a greater percentage of its state budget on education than most EU member states. Despite this high level of expenditure, the troubled Portuguese education system does not perform well. Early leaving and repetition rates are among the highest among EU member states.
       After the Revolution of 25 April 1974, Portugal created a National Health Service, which today consists of 221 hospitals and 512 medical centers employing 33,751 doctors and 41,799 nurses. Like its education system, Portugal's medical system is inefficient. There are long waiting lists for appointments with specialists and for surgical procedures.
       Structural changes in Portugal's economy and society mean that social life in Portugal is not too different from that in other EU member states. A mass consumption society has been created. Televisions, telephones, refrigerators, cars, music equipment, mobile phones, and personal computers are commonplace. Sixty percent of Portuguese households possess at least one automobile, and 65 percent of Portuguese own their own home. Portuguese citizens are more aware of their legal rights than ever before. This has resulted in a trebling of the number of legal proceeding since 1960 and an eight-fold increase in the number of lawyers. In general, Portuguese society has become more permissive and secular; the Catholic Church and the armed forces are much less influential than in the past. Portugal's population is also much more culturally, religiously, and ethnically diverse, a consequence of the coming to Portugal of hundreds of thousands of immigrants, mainly from former African colonies.
       Portuguese are becoming more cosmopolitan and sophisticated through the impact of world media, the Internet, and the World Wide Web. A prime case in point came in the summer and early fall of 1999, with the extraordinary events in East Timor and the massive Portuguese popular responses. An internationally monitored referendum in East Timor, Portugal's former colony in the Indonesian archipelago and under Indonesian occupation from late 1975 to summer 1999, resulted in a vote of 78.5 percent for rejecting integration with Indonesia and for independence. When Indonesian prointegration gangs, aided by the Indonesian military, responded to the referendum with widespread brutality and threatened to reverse the verdict of the referendum, there was a spontaneous popular outpouring of protest in the cities and towns of Portugal. An avalanche of Portuguese e-mail fell on leaders and groups in the UN and in certain countries around the world as Portugal's diplomats, perhaps to compensate for the weak initial response to Indonesian armed aggression in 1975, called for the protection of East Timor as an independent state and for UN intervention to thwart Indonesian action. Using global communications networks, the Portuguese were able to mobilize UN and world public opinion against Indonesian actions and aided the eventual independence of East Timor on 20 May 2002.
       From the Revolution of 25 April 1974 until the 1990s, Portugal had a large number of political parties, one of the largest Communist parties in western Europe, frequent elections, and endemic cabinet instability. Since the 1990s, the number of political parties has been dramatically reduced and cabinet stability increased. Gradually, the Portuguese electorate has concentrated around two larger parties, the right-of-center Social Democrats (PSD) and the left-of-center Socialist (PS). In the 1980s, these two parties together garnered 65 percent of the vote and 70 percent of the seats in parliament. In 2005, these percentages had risen to 74 percent and 85 percent, respectively. In effect, Portugal is currently a two-party dominant system in which the two largest parties — PS and PSD—alternate in and out of power, not unlike the rotation of the two main political parties (the Regenerators and the Historicals) during the last decades (1850s to 1880s) of the liberal constitutional monarchy. As Portugal's democracy has consolidated, turnout rates for the eligible electorate have declined. In the 1970s, turnout was 85 percent. In Portugal's most recent parliamentary election (2005), turnout had fallen to 65 percent of the eligible electorate.
       Portugal has benefited greatly from membership in the EU, and whatever doubts remain about the price paid for membership, no Portuguese government in the near future can afford to sever this connection. The vast majority of Portuguese citizens see membership in the EU as a "good thing" and strongly believe that Portugal has benefited from membership. Only the Communist Party opposed membership because it reduces national sovereignty, serves the interests of capitalists not workers, and suffers from a democratic deficit. Despite the high level of support for the EU, Portuguese voters are increasingly not voting in elections for the European Parliament, however. Turnout for European Parliament elections fell from 40 percent of the eligible electorate in the 1999 elections to 38 percent in the 2004 elections.
       In sum, Portugal's turn toward Europe has done much to overcome its backwardness. However, despite the economic, social, and political progress made since 1986, Portugal has a long way to go before it can claim to be on a par with the level found even in Spain, much less the rest of western Europe. As Portugal struggles to move from underde-velopment, especially in the rural areas away from the coast, it must keep in mind the perils of too rapid modern development, which could damage two of its most precious assets: its scenery and environment. The growth and future prosperity of the economy will depend on the degree to which the government and the private sector will remain stewards of clean air, soil, water, and other finite resources on which the tourism industry depends and on which Portugal's world image as a unique place to visit rests. Currently, Portugal is investing heavily in renewable energy from solar, wind, and wave power in order to account for about 50 percent of its electricity needs by 2010. Portugal opened the world's largest solar power plant and the world's first commercial wave power farm in 2006.
       An American documentary film on Portugal produced in the 1970s described this little country as having "a Past in Search of a Future." In the years after the Revolution of 25 April 1974, it could be said that Portugal is now living in "a Present in Search of a Future." Increasingly, that future lies in Europe as an active and productive member of the EU.

    Historical dictionary of Portugal > Historical Portugal

  • 24 allowance

    1. сущ.
    1)
    а) эк. тр. содержание (денежное на определенный срок, напр., суточные); денежное пособие, денежная помощь; прибавка*, надбавка* (сумма, выплачиваемая в дополнение к обычному вознаграждению в качестве компенсации или поощрения; напр., надбавка к заработной плате за знание иностранных языков, надбавка к заработной плате за работу в неблагоприятных условиях и т. д.; также любые выплаты, призванные компенсировать расходы, понесенные данным лицом, напр., выплаты в счет покрытия транспортных расходов коммивояжера, выплаты работникам на приобретение спецодежды, командировочные и т. п.)

    He had a comfortable allowance from his father and would not have had to worry at all about money. — Он получал от отца достаточное денежное содержание и мог вовсе не беспокоится о деньгах.

    See:
    attendance allowance, away from home allowance, Basic Allowance for Housing, Basic Allowance for Quarters, bereavement allowance, board allowance, burial allowance, carer allowance, carer's allowance, child care allowance, child disability allowance, children's allowance, clothing allowance, cost-of-living allowance, dearness allowance, decorating allowance, disability allowance, disability living allowance, Disability Working Allowance, dismissal allowance, education maintenance allowance, Emergency Maintenance Allowance, enterprise allowance, entertainment allowance 2), family allowance, family separation allowance, finish-out allowance, funeral allowance, guardian's allowance, hardship allowance, higher duties allowance, Hill Livestock Compensatory Allowance, hospitality allowance, housing allowance, injury allowance, installation allowance, Independent Circumstances Allowance, job search allowance, jobseeker's allowance, language allowance, living allowance, living away from home allowance, lodging allowance, maternity allowance, mature age allowance, mileage allowance 2), mobility allowance, newstart allowance, night duty allowance, northern allowance, on-call allowance, overtime allowance, paternity allowance, per diem allowance, pharmaceutical allowance, qualification allowance, reduced earnings allowance, relocation allowance, rent allowance, responsibility allowance, retention allowance, seniors concession allowance, severance allowance, severe disability allowance, severe disablement allowance, shift allowance, sickness allowance, special responsibility allowance, subsistence allowance, telephone allowance, temporary duty travel allowance, temporary lodging allowance, tenant improvement allowance, Trade Readjustment Allowance, training allowance, Training Incentive Allowance, travel allowance, uniform allowance, Variable Housing Allowance, weekend allowance, widowed mother's allowance, widowed parent's allowance, widow's allowance, youth allowance, basic pay
    б) эк. карманные деньги; деньги на мелкие расходы (напр., школьника)
    в) мн., эк., воен. довольствие (продовольственное, вещевое и денежное снабжение военнослужащего)
    2)
    а) общ. рацион, порция; паек; норма отпуска, норма выдачи; квота

    to put on short allowance — перевести на ограниченную норму, урезать норму

    See:
    б) общ. норма времени
    See:
    3) торг. скидка (вычет из фактурной стоимости товара, предоставляемый продавцом покупателю в случае быстрой оплаты товара, особых условий сделки (напр., обещание покупателя рекламировать товар) либо в случае, если товар был поставлен позже оговоренного срока или прибыл в поврежденном состоянии; термин обычно не распространяется на скидки с прейскурантной цены товара)

    tariff allowance — скидка с тарифа, тарифная скидка

    Syn:
    deduction 2) б)
    See:
    4) гос. фин. налоговая скидка
    Syn:
    See:
    5) общ. учет; допущение; поправка (напр., на погрешность измерительного прибора при измерении), принятие в расчет, во внимание
    See:
    6)
    а) общ., редк. разрешение, допущение, позволение; легальность
    б) эк., юр., пат. признание (обоснованным, законным и т. п., напр., решение предварительной экспертизы о патентоспособности)
    7) учет, фин. резерв (средства, зарезервированные для будущего покрытия запланированных расходов и компенсирования возможных убытков, напр., резерв под обесценение финансовых вложений, по сомнительным долгам и т. п.; также часть названия бухгалтерских счетов, предназначенных для отражения таких резервов)
    See:
    8)
    а) эк., тех. допуск, допустимое отклонение (напр., размера детали от нормы)
    See:
    б) учет допустимая потеря* (потеря количества или качества, рассматриваемая как нормальная для данного производства)
    2. гл.
    1) общ. ограничивать (кого-л.) строго определенным количеством; рационировать потребление

    I am allowanced two glasses three hours before dinner. — Мне разрешают выпить два бокала за три часа до ужина.

    2) эк. назначать [выдавать\] паек, содержание и т. п.

    * * *
    1) налоговая скидка; 2) денежное содержание, командировочные, карманные деньги; 3) допущение; 4) резерв против плохих долгов; 5) резерв для корректировки стоимости актива, амортизации в бухгалтерском учете; 6) скидка с цены; 7) скидка со стоимости счета-фактуры, разрешенная продавцом-производителем товара для покрытия порчи или недостачи, а также расходов на маркетинг товара; см. brokerage allowance;
    * * *
    . . Словарь экономических терминов .
    * * *
    см. discount
    -----
    освобождаемая от налога сумма, которая вычитывается из налогооблагаемого дохода перед калькуляцией суммы налога

    Англо-русский экономический словарь > allowance

  • 25 statistics

    [stə'tistiks] 1. noun plural
    (figures giving information about something: There were 900 deaths and 20,000 injuries on the roads last year, but the statistics for the previous year were worse.) statistika
    2. noun singular
    (the study of such figures.) statistika
    - statistically
    - statistician
    * * *
    [stətístiks]
    noun
    plural (singular construction) statistika (kot veda); (plural construction), statistika ( about o)

    English-Slovenian dictionary > statistics

  • 26 get

    get [get]
    ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
    ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
    ► vb: pret, ptp got, ptp (US) gotten
    ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
    ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
    ► When get is part of a set combination, eg get the sack, get hold of, look up the other word.
    ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
       a. ( = have, receive, obtain) avoir
    ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
    ► avoir covers a wide range of meanings, and like get is unspecific.
    ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
    ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
    ► Some get + noun combinations may take a more specific French verb.
    ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
    ► have/has got
    • how many have you got? combien en avez-vous ?
    • I've got it! ( = have safely) (ça y est) je l'ai !
    • you're okay, I've got you! ne t'en fais pas, je te tiens !
       b. ( = find) trouver
    • you get different kinds of... on trouve plusieurs sortes de...
       c. ( = buy) acheter
    • where do they get their raw materials? où est-ce qu'ils achètent leurs matières premières ?
       d. ( = fetch, pick up) aller chercher
    • can you get my coat from the cleaners? est-ce que tu peux aller chercher mon manteau au pressing ?
       e. ( = take) prendre
       f. ( = call in) appeler
       g. ( = prepare) préparer
       h. ( = catch) [+ disease, fugitive] attraper ; [+ name, details] comprendre
    • we'll get them yet! on leur revaudra ça !
    • he'll get you for that! qu'est-ce que tu vas prendre ! (inf)
       i. ( = understand) get it? (inf) t'as pigé ? (inf)
    • you've got it in one! (inf) tu as tout compris !
    • let me get this right, you're saying that... alors, si je comprends bien, tu dis que...
       j. ( = answer) can you get the phone? est-ce que tu peux répondre ?
    • I'll get it! j'y vais !
       k. ( = annoy) (inf) agacer
    ► to get + adjective
    ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
    ► This construction is often translated by a verb alone. Look up the relevant adjective.
    ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
    • when do you think you'll get it finished? ( = when will you finish it) quand penses-tu avoir fini ?
    • you can't get anything done round here ( = do anything) il est impossible de travailler ici► to get sb/sth to do sth
    ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
    ► réussir or pouvoir may be used when speaking of achieving a result.
    ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
    ► to get sb/sth somewhere
    • to get sth upstairs monter qch► to get sb/sth + preposition
    • to get o.s. into a difficult position se mettre dans une situation délicate
       a. ( = go) aller( to à, ( from de ) ;) ( = arrive) arriver ; ( = be) être
    • how do you get there? comment fait-on pour y aller ?
    • can you get there from London by bus? est-ce qu'on peut y aller de Londres en bus ?
    • what time do you get to Sheffield? à quelle heure arrivez-vous à Sheffield ?
    ► to get + adverb/preposition
    • how did that box get here? comment cette boîte est-elle arrivée ici ?
    • what's got into him? qu'est-ce qui lui prend ?
    • now we're getting somewhere! (inf) enfin du progrès !
    • how's your thesis going? -- I'm getting there où en es-tu avec ta thèse ? -- ça avance
    • where did you get to? où étais-tu donc passé ?
    • where can he have got to? où est-il passé ?
    • where have you got to? (in book, work) où en êtes-vous ?
    ► to get + adjective
    ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
    ► This construction is often translated by a verb alone.
    ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
    • how stupid can you get? il faut vraiment être stupide !
    • to get used to sth/to doing s'habituer à qch/à faire
    ► to get + past participle (passive)
    ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
    ► Reflexive verbs are used when the sense is not passive.
    ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
    ► to get to + infinitive
    • students only get to use the library between 2pm and 8pm les étudiants ne peuvent utiliser la bibliothèque qu'entre 14 heures et 20 heures► have got to + infinitive ( = must)
    • have you got to go and see her? est-ce que vous êtes obligé d'aller la voir ?
    • you've got to be joking! tu plaisantes !► to get + -ing ( = begin)
    • I got to thinking that... (inf) je me suis dit que...
       a. ( = move about) se déplacer
    • he gets about with a stick/on crutches il marche avec une canne/des béquilles
       b. ( = travel) voyager
       c. [news] circuler
    • the story had got about that... des rumeurs circulaient selon lesquelles...
    • it has got about that... le bruit court que...
    • to get above o.s. avoir la grosse tête (inf)
    • you're getting above yourself! pour qui te prends-tu ?► get across
    [person crossing] traverser ; [meaning, message] passer
    • the message is getting across that people must... les gens commencent à comprendre qu'il faut...
    [+ person crossing] faire traverser ; [+ ideas, intentions, desires] communiquer ( to sb à qn)
    (in race) prendre de l'avance ; (in career) monter en grade
       a. ( = go) aller (to à ) ; ( = leave) s'en aller
       b. ( = manage) se débrouiller
    • to get along without sth/sb se débrouiller sans qch/qn
       c. ( = progress) [work] avancer ; [student, invalid] faire des progrès
       d. ( = be on good terms) (bien) s'entendre
     → get about
     → get round
       a. [+ object, person, place] atteindre
       b. [+ facts, truth] découvrir
       c. ( = suggest) what are you getting at? où voulez-vous en venir ?
       d. (British) ( = attack) s'en prendre à
       e. ( = influence) (inf) suborner
       a. ( = leave) partir
    • get away (with you)! (inf) à d'autres !
       b. ( = escape) s'échapper
    • to get away from [+ people, situation] échapper à ; [+ idea] renoncer à
    • she moved here to get away from the stress of city life elle est venue s'installer ici pour échapper au stress de la vie citadine
       a. ( = take) emmener ; ( = move away) éloigner ; ( = send off) expédier
    ( = suffer no consequences)
    • you'll never get away with that! on ne te laissera pas passer ça ! (inf)
       a. ( = return) revenir
    • can I get back to you on that? (inf) puis-je vous recontacter à ce sujet ? ; (on phone) puis-je vous rappeler à ce sujet ?
       b. ( = move backwards) reculer
    • get back! reculez !
       a. ( = recover) [+ sth lent, sth lost, stolen] récupérer ; [+ strength] reprendre ; [+ one's husband, partner] faire revenir
       b. ( = return) rendre
    ( = retaliate against) prendre sa revanche sur
       a. ( = pass) passer
       b. ( = manage) arriver à s'en sortir (inf)
    • he'll get by! il s'en sortira ! (inf)► get down
    descendre (from, off de)
    • get down! ( = climb down) descends ! ; ( = lie down) couche-toi !
       a. (from upstairs, attic) descendre ; (from shelf) prendre
       b. ( = swallow) [+ food, pill] (inf) avaler
       c. ( = make note of) noter
       d. ( = depress) déprimer
       a. [person] ( = enter) entrer ; ( = be admitted to university, school) être admis
    • do you think we'll get in? tu crois qu'on réussira à entrer ?
       b. ( = arrive) [train, bus, plane] arriver
       c. ( = be elected) [member] être élu ; [party] accéder au pouvoir
       a. [+ harvest] rentrer
    • did you get your essay in on time? as-tu rendu ta dissertation à temps ?
       b. ( = buy) acheter
       c. ( = fit in) glisser
       a. ( = enter) [+ house, park] entrer dans ; [+ car, train] monter dans
       b. [+ clothes] mettre
       a. ( = gain favour of) (réussir à) se faire bien voir de
       b. ( = become friendly with) se mettre à fréquenter
       b. ( = depart) [person] partir ; [car] démarrer ; [plane] décoller
    • to get off to a good start [project, discussion] bien partir
       c. ( = escape) s'en tirer
       d. ( = leave work) finir ; ( = take time off) se libérer
       a. [+ bus, train] descendre de
       b. [+ clothes, shoes] enlever
       d. ( = save from punishment) faire acquitter
       a. to get off a bus/a bike descendre d'un bus/de vélo
    • get off the floor! levez-vous !
    • I wish he would get off my back! (inf) si seulement il pouvait me ficher la paix (inf) !
    (British) lever (inf !)
    ► get on
       a. (on to bus, bike) monter ; (on to ship) monter à bord
       b. ( = advance, make progress) avancer
    • how are you getting on? comment ça marche ? (inf)
    • how did you get on? comment ça s'est passé ?
       c. ( = succeed) réussir
    • if you want to get on, you must... si tu veux réussir, tu dois...
       d. ( = agree) s'entendre
    ( = put on) [+ clothes, shoes] mettre
       a. ( = get in touch with) se mettre en rapport avec ; ( = speak to) parler à ; ( = ring up) téléphoner à
       b. ( = start talking about) aborder
       a. ( = continue) continuer
    • while they talked she got on with her work pendant qu'ils parlaient, elle a continué à travailler
    • get on with it! (working) allez, au travail ! ; (telling sth) accouche ! (inf)
       b. ( = start on) se mettre à
    • I'd better get on with the job! il faut que je m'y mette !► get out
       a. sortir (of de ) ; (from vehicle) descendre (of de)
    • get out! sortez !
    • let's get out of here! sortons d'ici !
       b. ( = escape) s'échapper (of de)
    • to get out of [+ task, obligation] échapper à ; [+ difficulty] surmonter
    • you'll have to do it, you can't get out of it il faut que tu le fasses, tu ne peux pas y échapper
    • some people will do anything to get out of paying taxes certaines personnes feraient n'importe quoi pour éviter de payer des impôts
       c. [news] se répandre ; [secret] être éventé
    • wait till the news gets out! attends que la nouvelle soit ébruitée !
       a. ( = bring out) [+ object] sortir
       b. ( = remove) [+ nail, tooth] arracher ; [+ stain] enlever
       c. ( = free) [+ person] faire sortir
    ( = cross) traverser ; [message, meaning] passer (inf) ; [speaker] se faire entendre
       a. [+ road] traverser ; [+ obstacle, difficulty] surmonter ; [+ problem] résoudre
    • I can't get over the fact that... je n'en reviens pas que... + subj
       a. [+ person, animal, vehicle] faire passer
       b. ( = communicate) faire comprendre ; [+ ideas] communiquer► get over with separable transitive verb
    ( = have done with) en finir
    = get about
       a. [+ obstacle, difficulty, law] contourner
    • I don't think I'll get round to it before next week je ne pense pas trouver le temps de m'en occuper avant la semaine prochaine► get through
       a. [news] parvenir (to à ) ; [signal] être reçu
       b. ( = be accepted, pass) [candidate] être reçu ; [motion, bill] passer
       d. ( = communicate with) to get through to sb communiquer avec qn
       a. [+ hole, window] passer par ; [+ hedge] passer à travers ; [+ crowd] se frayer un chemin à travers
       b. ( = do) [+ work] faire ; [+ book] lire (en entier)
       c. ( = use) [+ supplies] utiliser ; [+ money] dépenser ; [+ food] manger ; [+ drink] boire
    • we get through £150 per week nous dépensons 150 livres par semaine
       d. ( = survive) how are they going to get through the winter? comment vont-ils passer l'hiver ?
       a. [+ person, object] faire passer
    • to get the message through to sb that... faire comprendre à qn que...
    [+ people, ideas, money] rassembler ; [+ group] former
    ( = pass underneath) passer par-dessous
    • to get under a fence/a rope passer sous une barrière/une corde
    ► get up
       a. ( = rise) [person] se lever ( from de ) ; [wind] se lever
    • what time did you get up? à quelle heure t'es-tu levé ?
       b. (on a chair, on stage) monter
       b. (from bed) [+ person] faire lever ; ( = wake) réveiller► get up to inseparable transitive verb
       a. ( = catch up with) rattraper
       b. ( = reach) arriver à
    • where did we get up to last week? où en sommes-nous arrivés la semaine dernière ?
       c. ( = be involved in) (inf) to get up to mischief faire des bêtises
    • do you realize what they've been getting up to? tu sais ce qu'ils ont trouvé le moyen de faire ?
    • what have you been getting up to lately? qu'est-ce que tu deviens ?
    * * *
    Note: This much-used verb has no multi-purpose equivalent in French and therefore is very often translated by choosing a synonym: to get lunch = to prepare lunch = préparer le déjeuner
    get is used in many idiomatic expressions ( to get something off one's chest etc) and translations will be found in the appropriate entry (chest etc). This is also true of offensive comments ( get lost etc) where the appropriate entry would be lost
    Remember that when get is used to express the idea that a job is done not by you but by somebody else ( to get a room painted etc) faire is used in French followed by an infinitive ( faire repeindre une pièce etc)
    When get has the meaning of become and is followed by an adjective (to get rich/drunk etc) devenir is sometimes useful but check the appropriate entry (rich, drunk etc) as a single verb often suffices ( s'enrichir, s'enivrer etc)
     [get] 1.
    transitive verb (p prés - tt-; prét got; pp got, gotten US)
    1) ( receive) recevoir [letter, grant]; recevoir, percevoir [salary, pension]; Television, Radio capter [channel]
    2) ( inherit)

    to get something from somebody — lit hériter quelque chose de quelqu'un [article, money]; fig tenir quelque chose de quelqu'un [trait, feature]

    3) ( obtain) ( by applying) obtenir [permission, divorce, licence]; trouver [job]; ( by contacting) trouver [plumber]; appeler [taxi]; ( by buying) acheter [item] ( from chez); avoir [ticket]

    to get something for nothing/at a discount — avoir quelque chose gratuitement/avec une réduction

    to get somebody something —

    to get something for somebody — ( by buying) acheter quelque chose à quelqu'un

    4) ( subscribe to) acheter [newspaper]
    5) ( acquire) se faire [reputation]
    6) ( achieve) obtenir [grade, mark, answer]

    he got it right — ( of calculation) il a obtenu le bon résultat; ( of answer) il a répondu juste

    7) ( fetch) chercher [object, person, help]

    to get somebody something —

    8) (manoeuvre, move)

    to get somebody/something upstairs/downstairs — faire monter/descendre quelqu'un/quelque chose

    10) ( contact)
    11) ( deal with)

    I'll get it — ( of phone) je réponds; ( of doorbell) j'y vais

    12) ( prepare) préparer [breakfast, lunch etc]
    13) ( take hold of) attraper [person] (by par)

    I've got you, don't worry — je te tiens, ne t'inquiète pas

    to get something from ou off — prendre quelque chose sur [shelf, table]

    to get something from ou out of — prendre quelque chose dans [drawer, cupboard]

    14) (colloq) ( oblige to give)

    to get something from ou out of somebody — faire sortir quelque chose à quelqu'un [money]; fig obtenir quelque chose de quelqu'un [truth]

    15) (colloq) ( catch) gen arrêter [escapee]

    got you! — gen je t'ai eu!; ( caught in act) vu!

    16) Medicine attraper [disease]
    17) ( use as transport) prendre [bus, train]
    18) ( have)

    to have got — avoir [object, money, friend etc]

    to get (hold of) the idea ou impression that — se mettre dans la tête que

    20) ( suffer)
    21) ( be given as punishment) prendre [five years etc]; avoir [fine]
    22) ( hit)

    to get somebody/something with — toucher quelqu'un/quelque chose avec [stone, arrow]

    got it! — ( of target) touché!

    23) (understand, hear) comprendre

    now let me get this right... — alors si je comprends bien...

    ‘where did you hear that?’ - ‘I got it from Paul’ — ‘où est-ce que tu as entendu ça?’ - ‘c'est Paul qui me l'a dit’

    24) (colloq) (annoy, affect)

    what gets me is... — ce qui m'agace c'est que...

    25) (learn, learn of)

    to get to do — (colloq) finir par faire

    how did you get to know ou hear of our organization? — comment avez-vous entendu parler de notre organisation?

    to get to do — avoir l'occasion de faire, pouvoir faire

    27) ( start)

    to get to doing — (colloq) commencer à faire

    then I got to thinking that... — puis je me suis dit que...

    28) ( must)

    to have got to do — devoir faire [homework, chore]

    you've got to realize that... — il faut que tu te rendes compte que...

    29) ( persuade)
    31) ( cause)
    2.
    intransitive verb (p prés - tt-; prét got; pp got, gotten US)
    1) ( become) devenir [suspicious, old]

    how lucky/stupid can you get! — il y en a qui ont de la chance/qui sont vraiment stupides!

    to get into — (colloq) ( as hobby) se mettre à; ( as job) commencer dans; fig

    4) ( arrive)

    how did you get here? — ( by what miracle) comment est-ce que tu es arrivé là?; ( by what means) comment est-ce que tu es venu?

    5) ( progress)
    6) (colloq) ( put on)

    to get into — mettre, enfiler (colloq) [pyjamas, overalls]

    •
    Phrasal Verbs:
    ••

    get along with you! — (colloq) ne sois pas ridicule!

    get away with you! — (colloq) arrête de raconter n'importe quoi! (colloq)

    I'll get you (colloq) for that — je vais te le faire payer (colloq)

    he's got it bad — (colloq) il est vraiment mordu

    to get it together — (colloq) se ressaisir

    to get with it — (colloq) se mettre dans le coup (colloq)

    English-French dictionary > get

  • 27 Bright, Sir Charles Tilston

    SUBJECT AREA: Telecommunications
    [br]
    b. 8 June 1832 Wanstead, Essex, England
    d. 3 May 1888 Abbey Wood, London, England
    [br]
    English telegraph engineer responsible for laying the first transatlantic cable.
    [br]
    At the age of 15 years Bright left the London Merchant Taylors' School to join the two-year-old Electric Telegraph Company. By 1851 he was in charge of the Birmingham telegraph station. After a short time as Assistant Engineer with the newly formed British Telegraph Company, he joined his brother (who was Manager) as Engineer-in-Chief of the English and Irish Magnetic Telegraph Company in Liverpool, for which he laid thousands of miles of underground cable and developed a number of innovations in telegraphy including a resistance box for locating cable faults and a two-tone bell system for signalling. In 1853 he was responsible for the first successful underwater cable between Scotland and Ireland. Three years later, with the American financier Cyrus Field and John Brett, he founded and was Engineer-in-chief of the Atlantic Telegraph Company, which aimed at laying a cable between Ireland and Newfoundland. After several unsuccessful attempts this was finally completed on 5 August 1858, Bright was knighted a month later, but the cable then failed! In 1860 Bright resigned from the Magnetic Telegraph Company to set up an independent consultancy with another engineer, Joseph Latimer Clark, with whom he invented an improved bituminous cable insulation. Two years later he supervised construction of a telegraph cable to India, and in 1865 a further attempt to lay an Atlantic cable using Brunel's new ship, the Great Eastern. This cable broke during laying, but in 1866 a new cable was at last successfully laid and the 1865 cable recovered and repaired. The year 1878 saw extension of the Atlantic cable system to the West Indies and the invention with his brother of a system of neighbourhood fire alarms and even an automatic fire alarm.
    In 1861 Bright presented a paper to the British Association for the Advancement of Science on the need for electrical standards, leading to the creation of an organization that still exists in the 1990s. From 1865 until 1868 he was Liberal MP for Greenwich, and he later assisted with preparations for the 1881 Paris Exhibition.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    Knighted 1858. Légion d'honneur. First President, Société Internationale des Electriciens. President, Society of Telegraph Engineers \& Electricians (later the Institution of Electrical Engineers) 1887.
    Bibliography
    1852, British patent (resistance box).
    1855, British patent no. 2,103 (two-tone bell system). 1878, British patent no. 3,801 (area fire alarms).
    1878, British patent no. 596 (automatic fire alarm).
    "The physical \& electrical effects of pressure \& temperature on submarine cable cores", Journal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers XVII (describes some of his investigations of cable characteristics).
    Further Reading
    C.Bright, 1898, Submarine Cables, Their History, Construction \& Working.
    —1910, The Life Story of Sir Charles Tilston Bright, London: Constable \& Co.
    KF

    Biographical history of technology > Bright, Sir Charles Tilston

  • 28 Brunel, Isambard Kingdom

    [br]
    b. 9 April 1806 Portsea, Hampshire, England
    d. 15 September 1859 18 Duke Street, St James's, London, England
    [br]
    English civil and mechanical engineer.
    [br]
    The son of Marc Isambard Brunel and Sophia Kingdom, he was educated at a private boarding-school in Hove. At the age of 14 he went to the College of Caen and then to the Lycée Henri-Quatre in Paris, after which he was apprenticed to Louis Breguet. In 1822 he returned from France and started working in his father's office, while spending much of his time at the works of Maudslay, Sons \& Field.
    From 1825 to 1828 he worked under his father on the construction of the latter's Thames Tunnel, occupying the position of Engineer-in-Charge, exhibiting great courage and presence of mind in the emergencies which occurred not infrequently. These culminated in January 1828 in the flooding of the tunnel and work was suspended for seven years. For the next five years the young engineer made abortive attempts to find a suitable outlet for his talents, but to little avail. Eventually, in 1831, his design for a suspension bridge over the River Avon at Clifton Gorge was accepted and he was appointed Engineer. (The bridge was eventually finished five years after Brunel's death, as a memorial to him, the delay being due to inadequate financing.) He next planned and supervised improvements to the Bristol docks. In March 1833 he was appointed Engineer of the Bristol Railway, later called the Great Western Railway. He immediately started to survey the route between London and Bristol that was completed by late August that year. On 5 July 1836 he married Mary Horsley and settled into 18 Duke Street, Westminster, London, where he also had his office. Work on the Bristol Railway started in 1836. The foundation stone of the Clifton Suspension Bridge was laid the same year. Whereas George Stephenson had based his standard railway gauge as 4 ft 8½ in (1.44 m), that or a similar gauge being usual for colliery wagonways in the Newcastle area, Brunel adopted the broader gauge of 7 ft (2.13 m). The first stretch of the line, from Paddington to Maidenhead, was opened to traffic on 4 June 1838, and the whole line from London to Bristol was opened in June 1841. The continuation of the line through to Exeter was completed and opened on 1 May 1844. The normal time for the 194-mile (312 km) run from Paddington to Exeter was 5 hours, at an average speed of 38.8 mph (62.4 km/h) including stops. The Great Western line included the Box Tunnel, the longest tunnel to that date at nearly two miles (3.2 km).
    Brunel was the engineer of most of the railways in the West Country, in South Wales and much of Southern Ireland. As railway networks developed, the frequent break of gauge became more of a problem and on 9 July 1845 a Royal Commission was appointed to look into it. In spite of comparative tests, run between Paddington-Didcot and Darlington-York, which showed in favour of Brunel's arrangement, the enquiry ruled in favour of the narrow gauge, 274 miles (441 km) of the former having been built against 1,901 miles (3,059 km) of the latter to that date. The Gauge Act of 1846 forbade the building of any further railways in Britain to any gauge other than 4 ft 8 1/2 in (1.44 m).
    The existence of long and severe gradients on the South Devon Railway led to Brunel's adoption of the atmospheric railway developed by Samuel Clegg and later by the Samuda brothers. In this a pipe of 9 in. (23 cm) or more in diameter was laid between the rails, along the top of which ran a continuous hinged flap of leather backed with iron. At intervals of about 3 miles (4.8 km) were pumping stations to exhaust the pipe. Much trouble was experienced with the flap valve and its lubrication—freezing of the leather in winter, the lubricant being sucked into the pipe or eaten by rats at other times—and the experiment was abandoned at considerable cost.
    Brunel is to be remembered for his two great West Country tubular bridges, the Chepstow and the Tamar Bridge at Saltash, with the latter opened in May 1859, having two main spans of 465 ft (142 m) and a central pier extending 80 ft (24 m) below high water mark and allowing 100 ft (30 m) of headroom above the same. His timber viaducts throughout Devon and Cornwall became a feature of the landscape. The line was extended ultimately to Penzance.
    As early as 1835 Brunel had the idea of extending the line westwards across the Atlantic from Bristol to New York by means of a steamship. In 1836 building commenced and the hull left Bristol in July 1837 for fitting out at Wapping. On 31 March 1838 the ship left again for Bristol but the boiler lagging caught fire and Brunel was injured in the subsequent confusion. On 8 April the ship set sail for New York (under steam), its rival, the 703-ton Sirius, having left four days earlier. The 1,340-ton Great Western arrived only a few hours after the Sirius. The hull was of wood, and was copper-sheathed. In 1838 Brunel planned a larger ship, some 3,000 tons, the Great Britain, which was to have an iron hull.
    The Great Britain was screwdriven and was launched on 19 July 1843,289 ft (88 m) long by 51 ft (15.5 m) at its widest. The ship's first voyage, from Liverpool to New York, began on 26 August 1845. In 1846 it ran aground in Dundrum Bay, County Down, and was later sold for use on the Australian run, on which it sailed no fewer than thirty-two times in twenty-three years, also serving as a troop-ship in the Crimean War. During this war, Brunel designed a 1,000-bed hospital which was shipped out to Renkioi ready for assembly and complete with shower-baths and vapour-baths with printed instructions on how to use them, beds and bedding and water closets with a supply of toilet paper! Brunel's last, largest and most extravagantly conceived ship was the Great Leviathan, eventually named The Great Eastern, which had a double-skinned iron hull, together with both paddles and screw propeller. Brunel designed the ship to carry sufficient coal for the round trip to Australia without refuelling, thus saving the need for and the cost of bunkering, as there were then few bunkering ports throughout the world. The ship's construction was started by John Scott Russell in his yard at Millwall on the Thames, but the building was completed by Brunel due to Russell's bankruptcy in 1856. The hull of the huge vessel was laid down so as to be launched sideways into the river and then to be floated on the tide. Brunel's plan for hydraulic launching gear had been turned down by the directors on the grounds of cost, an economy that proved false in the event. The sideways launch with over 4,000 tons of hydraulic power together with steam winches and floating tugs on the river took over two months, from 3 November 1857 until 13 January 1858. The ship was 680 ft (207 m) long, 83 ft (25 m) beam and 58 ft (18 m) deep; the screw was 24 ft (7.3 m) in diameter and paddles 60 ft (18.3 m) in diameter. Its displacement was 32,000 tons (32,500 tonnes).
    The strain of overwork and the huge responsibilities that lay on Brunel began to tell. He was diagnosed as suffering from Bright's disease, or nephritis, and spent the winter travelling in the Mediterranean and Egypt, returning to England in May 1859. On 5 September he suffered a stroke which left him partially paralysed, and he died ten days later at his Duke Street home.
    [br]
    Further Reading
    L.T.C.Rolt, 1957, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, London: Longmans Green. J.Dugan, 1953, The Great Iron Ship, Hamish Hamilton.
    IMcN

    Biographical history of technology > Brunel, Isambard Kingdom

  • 29 Pihl, Carl Abraham

    [br]
    b. 16 January 1825 Stavanger, Norway
    d. 14 September 1897 Kristiania (now Oslo), Norway
    [br]
    Norwegian railway engineer, protagonist of narrow-gauge railways.
    [br]
    Pihl trained as an engineer at Göteborg, Sweden, and then moved to London, where he worked under Robert Stephenson during 1845 and 1846. In 1850 he returned to Norway and worked with the English contractors building the first railway in Norway, the Norwegian Trunk Railway from Kristiania to Eidsvold, for which the English standard gauge was used. Subsequently he worked in England for a year, but in 1856 joined the Norwegian government's Road Department, which was to have responsibility for railways. In 1865 a distinct Railway Department was set up, and Pihl became Director for State Railway Construction. Because of the difficulties of the terrain and limited traffic, Pihl recommended that in the case of two isolated lines to be built the outlay involved in ordinary railways would not be justified, and that they should be built to the narrow gauge of 3 ft 6 in. (1.07 m). His recommendation was accepted by the Government in 1857 and the two lines were built to this gauge and opened during 1861–4. Six of their seven locomotives, and all their rolling stock, were imported from Britain. The lines cost £3,000 and £5,000 per mile, respectively; a standard-gauge line built in the same period cost £6,400 per mile.
    Subsequently, many hundreds of miles of Norwegian railways were built to 3 ft 6 in. (1.07 m) gauge under Pihl's direction. They influenced construction of railways to this gauge in Australia, Southern Africa, New Zealand, Japan and elsewhere. However, in the late 1870s controversy arose in Norway over the economies that could in fact be gained from the 3 ft 6 in. (1,07 m) gauge. This controversy in the press, in discussion and in the Norwegian parliament became increasingly acrimonious during the next two decades; the standard-gauge party may be said to have won with the decision in 1898, the year after Pihl's death, to build the Bergen-Oslo line to standard gauge.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    Knight of the Order of St Olaf 1862; Commander of the Order of St Olaf 1877. Commander of the Royal Order of Vasa 1867. Royal Order of the Northern Star 1882.
    Further Reading
    P.Allen and P.B.Whitehouse, 1959, Narrow Gauge Railways of Europe, Ian Allan (describes the Norwegian Battle of the Gauges).
    PJGR

    Biographical history of technology > Pihl, Carl Abraham

  • 30 Polhem, Christopher

    [br]
    b. 18 December 1661 Tingstade, Gotland, Sweden d. 1751
    [br]
    Swedish engineer and inventor.
    [br]
    He was the eldest son of Wolf Christopher Polhamma, a merchant. The father died in 1669 and the son was sent by his stepfather to an uncle in Stockholm who found him a place in the Deutsche Rechenschule. After the death of his uncle, he was forced to find employment, which he did with the Biorenklou family near Uppsala where he eventually became a kind of estate bailiff. It was during this period that he started to work with a lathe, a forge and at carpentry, displaying great technical ability. He realized that without further education he had little chance of making anything of his life, and accordingly, in 1687, he registered at the University of Uppsala where he studied astronomy and mathematics, remaining there for three years. He also repaired two astronomical pendulum clocks as well as the decrepit medieval clock in the cathedral. After a year's work he had this clock running properly: this was his breakthrough. He was summoned to Stockholm where the King awarded him a salary of 500 dalers a year as an encouragement to further efforts. Around this time, one of increasing mechanization and when mining was Sweden's principal industry, Pohlem made a model of a hoist frame for mines and the Mines Authority encouraged him to develop his ideas. In 1693 Polhem completed the Blankstot hoist at the Stora Kopparberg mine, which attracted great interest on the European continent.
    From 1694 to 1696 Polhem toured factories, mills and mines abroad in Germany, Holland, England and France, studying machinery of all kinds and meeting many foreign engineers. In 1698 he was appointed Director of Mining Engineering in Sweden, and in 1700 he became Master of Construction in the Falu Mine. He installed the Karl XII hoist there, powered by moving beams from a distant water-wheel. His plan of 1697 for all the machinery at the Falu mine to be driven by three large and remote water-wheels was never completed.
    In 1707 he was invited by the Elector of Hanover to visit the mines in the Harz district, where he successfully explained many of his ideas which were adopted by the local engineers. In 1700, in conjunction with Gabriel Stierncrona, he founded the Stiersunds Bruk at Husby in Southern Dalarna, a factory for the mass production of metal goods in iron, steel and bronze. Simple articles such as pans, trays, bowls, knives, scissors and mirrors were made there, together with the more sophisticated Polhem lock and the Stiersunds clock. Production was based on water power. Gear cutting for the clocks, shaping hammers for plates, file cutting and many other operations were all water powered, as was a roller mill for the sheet metal used in the factory. He also designed textile machinery such as stocking looms and spinning frames and machines for the manufacture of ribbons and other things.
    In many of his ideas Polhem was in advance of his time and Swedish country society was unable to absorb them. This was largely the reason for the Stiersund project being only a partial success. Polhem, too, was of a disputatious nature, self-opinionated almost to the point of conceit. He was a prolific writer, leaving over 20,000 pages of manuscript notes, drafts, essays on a wide range of subjects, which included building, brick-making, barrels, wheel-making, bell-casting, organ-building, methods of stopping a horse from bolting and a curious tap "to prevent serving maids from sneaking wine from the cask", the construction of ploughs and threshing machines. His major work, Kort Berattelse om de Fornamsta Mechaniska Inventioner (A Brief Account of the Most Famous Inventions), was printed in 1729 and is the main source of knowledge about his technological work. He is also known for his "mechanical alphabet", a collection of some eighty wooden models of mechanisms for educational purposes. It is in the National Museum of Science and Technology in Stockholm.
    [br]
    Bibliography
    1729, Kort Berattelse om de Fornamsta Mechaniska Inventioner (A Brief Account of the Most Famous Inventions).
    Further Reading
    1985, Christopher Polhem, 1661–1751, TheSwedish Daedalus' (catalogue of a travelling exhibition from the Swedish Institute in association with the National Museum of Science and Technology), Stockholm.
    IMcN

    Biographical history of technology > Polhem, Christopher

  • 31 Stevenson, Robert

    [br]
    b. 8 June 1772 Glasgow, Scotland
    d. 12 July 1850 Edinburgh, Scotland
    [br]
    Scottish lighthouse designer and builder.
    [br]
    After his father's death when he was only 2 years old, Robert Stevenson was educated at a school for children from families in reduced circumstances. However, c. 1788 his mother married again, to Thomas Smith, Engineer to the Northern Lighthouse Board. Stevenson then served an apprenticeship under his new stepfather. The Board, which is still an active force in the 1990s, was founded in 1786 to oversee the lights and buoyage in some of the wildest waters in Western Europe, the seas around the coasts of Scotland and the Isle of Man.
    After studies at Andersen's College (now the University of Strathclyde) and later at Edinburgh University, Stevenson assumed responsibility in the field for much of the construction work sanctioned by the Board. After some years he succeeded Smith as Engineer to the Board and thereby the long connection between the Northern Lights and the Stevenson family commenced.
    Stevenson became Engineer to the Board when he was about 30 years old, remaining in that office for the best part of half a century. During these years he improved catoptric lighting, adopted the central lamp refracting system and invented the intermittent flashing light. While these developments were sufficient to form a just memorial to the man, he was involved in greater endeavours in the construction of around twenty lighthouses, most of which had ingenious forms of construction. The finest piece was the Bell Rock Lighthouse, built on a reef off the Scottish East Coast. This enterprise took five years to complete and can be regarded as the most important construction of his life.
    His interests fitted in with those of the other great men living in and around Edinburgh at the time, and included oceanography, astronomy, architecture and antiquarian studies. He designed several notable bridges, proposed a design for the rails for railways and also made a notable study of marine timber borers. He contributed to Encyclopaedia Britannica and to many journals.
    His grandson, born in the year of his death, was the famous author Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94).
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    FRS Edinburgh.
    Further Reading
    Sir Walter Scott, 1982, Northern Lights, Hawick.
    FMW

    Biographical history of technology > Stevenson, Robert

  • 32 Telford, Thomas

    SUBJECT AREA: Canals, Civil engineering
    [br]
    b. 9 August 1757 Glendinning, Dumfriesshire, Scotland
    d. 2 September 1834 London, England.
    [br]
    Scottish civil engineer.
    [br]
    Telford was the son of a shepherd, who died when the boy was in his first year. Brought up by his mother, Janet Jackson, he attended the parish school at Westerkirk. He was apprenticed to a stonemason in Lochmaben and to another in Langholm. In 1780 he walked from Eskdale to Edinburgh and in 1872 rode to London on a horse that he was to deliver there. He worked for Sir William Chambers as a mason on Somerset House, then on the Eskdale house of Sir James Johnstone. In 1783–4 he worked on the new Commissioner's House and other buildings at Portsmouth dockyard.
    In late 1786 Telford was appointed County Surveyor for Shropshire and moved to Shrewsbury Castle, with work initially on the new infirmary and County Gaol. He designed the church of St Mary Magdalene, Bridgnorth, and also the church at Madley. Telford built his first bridge in 1790–2 at Montford; between 1790 and 1796 he built forty-five road bridges in Shropshire, including Buildwas Bridge. In September 1793 he was appointed general agent, engineer and architect to the Ellesmere Canal, which was to connect the Mersey and Dee rivers with the Severn at Shrewsbury; William Jessop was Principal Engineer. This work included the Pont Cysyllte aqueduct, a 1,000 ft (305 m) long cast-iron trough 127 ft (39 m) above ground level, which entailed an on-site ironworks and took ten years to complete; the aqueduct is still in use today. In 1800 Telford put forward a plan for a new London Bridge with a single cast-iron arch with a span of 600 ft (183 m) but this was not built.
    In 1801 Telford was appointed engineer to the British Fisheries Society "to report on Highland Communications" in Scotland where, over the following eighteen years, 920 miles (1,480 km) of new roads were built, 280 miles (450 km) of the old military roads were realigned and rebuilt, over 1,000 bridges were constructed and much harbour work done, all under Telford's direction. A further 180 miles (290 km) of new roads were also constructed in the Lowlands of Scotland. From 1804 to 1822 he was also engaged on the construction of the Caledonian Canal: 119 miles (191 km) in all, 58 miles (93 km) being sea loch, 38 miles (61 km) being Lochs Lochy, Oich and Ness, 23 miles (37 km) having to be cut.
    In 1808 he was invited by King Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden to assist Count Baltzar von Platen in the survey and construction of a canal between the North Sea and the Baltic. Telford surveyed the 114 mile (183 km) route in six weeks; 53 miles (85 km) of new canal were to be cut. Soon after the plans for the canal were completed, the King of Sweden created him a Knight of the Order of Vasa, an honour that he would have liked to have declined. At one time some 60,000 soldiers and seamen were engaged on the work, Telford supplying supervisors, machinery—including an 8 hp steam dredger from the Donkin works and machinery for two small paddle boats—and ironwork for some of the locks. Under his direction an ironworks was set up at Motala, the foundation of an important Swedish industrial concern which is still flourishing today. The Gotha Canal was opened in September 1832.
    In 1811 Telford was asked to make recommendations for the improvement of the Shrewsbury to Holyhead section of the London-Holyhead road, and in 1815 he was asked to survey the whole route from London for a Parliamentary Committee. Construction of his new road took fifteen years, apart from the bridges at Conway and over the Menai Straits, both suspension bridges by Telford and opened in 1826. The Menai bridge had a span of 579 ft (176 m), the roadway being 153 ft (47 m) above the water level.
    In 1817 Telford was appointed Engineer to the Exchequer Loan Commission, a body set up to make capital loans for deserving projects in the hard times that followed after the peace of Waterloo. In 1820 he became the first President of the Engineers Institute, which gained its Royal Charter in 1828 to become the Institution of Civil Engineers. He was appointed Engineer to the St Katharine's Dock Company during its construction from 1825 to 1828, and was consulted on several early railway projects including the Liverpool and Manchester as well as a number of canal works in the Midlands including the new Harecastle tunnel, 3,000 ft (914 m) long.
    Telford led a largely itinerant life, living in hotels and lodgings, acquiring his own house for the first time in 1821, 24 Abingdon Street, Westminster, which was partly used as a school for young civil engineers. He died there in 1834, after suffering in his later years from the isolation of deafness. He was buried in Westminster Abbey.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    FRSE 1803. Knight of the Order of Vasa, Sweden 1808. FRS 1827. First President, Engineers Insitute 1820.
    Further Reading
    L.T.C.Rolt, 1979, Thomas Telford, London: Penguin.
    C.Hadfield, 1993, Thomas Telford's Temptation, London: M. \& M.Baldwin.
    IMcN

    Biographical history of technology > Telford, Thomas

  • 33 course

    kɔ:s
    1. сущ.
    1) курс, направление( самолета, парохода и т. п.) ;
    течение( реки) The ship was 200 miles off course. ≈ Судно на 200 миль отклонилось от курса. Syn: route
    1., direction, path, channel
    1., passage I
    1., road, track, way
    1. ;
    orbit
    1., trajectory
    2) ход, течение In the course of the discussion many views were heard. ≈ В ходе дискуссии было выслушано много разных точек зрения. course of events ≈ ход событий in the course of a year ≈ в течение года the course of nature ≈ естественный, нормальный порядок вещей in course in due course Syn: progression, development, sequence, onward movement, flow
    1.
    3) линия поведения, образ действия Your best course would be to accept his offer. ≈ Самая лучшая линия поведения, которую ты можешь выбрать, - это принять его предложение. Syn: procedure, action, conduct
    1., method, mode, policy I, behaviour
    4) курс (лекций, обучения, лечения) The college offers courses in science and in the humanities. ≈ Колледж предлагает курсы по естественным и гуманитарным наукам. remedial course ≈ курс коррекции, коррективный курс (дополнительная подготовка по какому-либо предмету) undergraduate course ≈ базовый университетский курс upper division course ≈ предмет для студентов старших курсов Syn: classes, lessons, lectures;
    curriculum, course of study, study program, subject
    1.
    5) блюдо a dinner of three courses ≈ обед из трех блюд
    6) фин. курс (валюты) course of exchange ≈ валютный курс
    7) скаковой круг( на ипподроме) ;
    площадка для гольфа The country club has a golf course. ≈ Деревенский клуб имеет площадку для гольфа. The race was run on the turf course. ≈ Гонки проводились на беговой дорожке. Syn: circuit
    1., run;
    racecourse, track
    1.
    8) пролет лестницы
    9) строит. горизонтальный ряд кладки
    10) мор. нижний прямой парус
    11) геол. простирание залежи;
    пласт (угля), жила
    12) с.-х. порядковая культура в севообороте
    13) мн.;
    физиол. менструация ∙ - matter of course - of course
    2. гл.
    1) охот. охотиться с гончими;
    преследовать, видя дичь( а не по запаху)
    2) бежать, следовать за( кем-л., чем-л.) ;
    преследовать, гнаться по пятам Banks of clouds coursed each other rapidly across the stormy heavens. ≈ Группы облаков быстро неслись друг за другом по грозовому небу. Syn: chase I
    2., pursue, run after
    3) струиться, бежать, течь I could feel the warm blood coursing through my veins. ≈ Я чувствовал, как кровь бежит у меня по жилам. Wild ideas came coursing through my brain as I read the letter. ≈ Странные мысли проносились у меня в голове, пока я читал письмо. the tears that were coursing down her cheeks ≈ слезы, струившиеся по ее щекам Syn: run
    2., flow
    2., pour
    1., gush
    2., stream
    2.
    4) направляться (вдоль, по, через и т. д.) ;
    придерживаться( какого-л.) курса;
    прокладывать курс We then coursed down a considerable stream. ≈ Затем мы направились вниз по большой реке.
    5) горн. проветривать курс, направление - * light( морское) курсовой маяк - on * (морское) на курсе - off * (морское) в сторону от принятого курса - to hold a * for взять курс на, направляться к - to stay the * (морское) устойчиво держаться курса;
    не сбиваться с правильного пути - the ship is on her right * корабль держит правильный курс - our * was due north мы направлялись на север течение, направление;
    путь - the * of a river течение реки ход, течение - the * of business ход дела - the * of a disease течение болезни - the * of events ход событий - the * of nature закон природы, естественный ход развития - the * of the game (спортивное) ход игры - the * of action (военное) ход боя - in the * of в ходе, в процессе;
    в течение - the new railway is in the * of construction новая железная дорога сейчас строится - in the * of a month в течение месяца - in due * в свое время;
    должным образом - to let things take their * предоставить события их естественному ходу( спортивное) дорожка;
    скаковой круг - indoor * дорожка в закрытом помещении - inner * внутренняя дорожка - to keep on the * бежать по кругу дистанция;
    трасса - downhill * дистация скоростного спуска - training * учебная дистанция линия поведения - the * of action образ действия - to steep a middle * проводить средний курс, избегать крайностей - they discussed several possible *s and decided to follow the middle * они обсудили несколько возможных вариантов и решили держаться средней линии - he took to evil *s он пошел по плохой дорожке курс (лекций, лечения и т. п.) - * in the history of the language курс истории языка - * in marksmanship( военное) курс стрельбы - * of training курс подготовки - * of treatment курс лечения - * of mud baths курс грязевых ванн pl курсы - short-time *s краткосрочные курсы блюдо - dinner of five *s обед из пяти блюд (финансовое) курс (валюты) - of exchange валютный курс (строительство) горизонтальный ряд кладки (геология) простирание залежи;
    пласт;
    жила (сельскохозяйственное) порядковая культура в севообороте pl (физиологическое) менструации (морское) нижний прямой парус (охота) охотиться с гончими;
    гнать зайца, имея его на глазах, "вести по зрячему" (о гончих) быстро бежать, нестись;
    течь - tears *d down her cheeks слезы текли по ее щекам пересекать прокладывать курс (горное) проветривать adaptation training ~ курс адаптационной подготовки (проводится для инвалидов или пострадавших при несчастных случаях) adjustment training ~ курс профессиональной реадаптации;
    курс переподготовки collision ~ острые разногласия correspondence ~ заочное обучение correspondence ~ курсы заочного обучения course бежать, течь ~ блюдо;
    a dinner of three courses обед из трех блюд ~ гнаться за дичью (о гончих) ;
    охотиться с гончими ~ стр. горизонтальный ряд кладки ~ курс (лекций, обучения, лечения) ~ курс, направление ~ курс ~ линия поведения, действия ~ линия поведения ~ pl физиол. менструация;
    a matter of course нечто само собой разумеющееся;
    of course конечно ~ направление ~ мор. нижний прямой парус ~ порядок;
    очередь, постепенность;
    in course по очереди по порядку ~ преследовать, гнаться по пятам ~ горн. проветривать ~ геол. простирание залежи;
    пласт (угля), жила ~ скаковой круг ~ течение (реки) ~ течение ~ ход, течение ~ ход;
    течение;
    course of events ход событий;
    in the course of a year в течение года;
    the course of nature естественный, нормальный порядок вещей ~ ход ~ of action образ действия ~ ход;
    течение;
    course of events ход событий;
    in the course of a year в течение года;
    the course of nature естественный, нормальный порядок вещей ~ of events ход событий event: ~ событие;
    the course of events ход событий;
    quite an event целое, настоящее событие ~ of exchange валютный курс ~ of justice отправление правосудия ~ ход;
    течение;
    course of events ход событий;
    in the course of a year в течение года;
    the course of nature естественный, нормальный порядок вещей ~ of the proceedings исполнение процессуального действия damp ~ стр. изолирующий от сырости слой в стене;
    гидроизоляция ~ блюдо;
    a dinner of three courses обед из трех блюд extra-mural ~s курсы заочного обучения extra-mural: extra-mural заочный или вечерний;
    extra-mural courses курсы заочного обучения;
    циклы университетских лекций и занятий для лиц, не являющихся студентами ~ порядок;
    очередь, постепенность;
    in course по очереди по порядку in due ~ в надлежащее время in due ~ в свое время in due ~ должным образом in due ~ своевременно in due ~ своим чередом ~ ход;
    течение;
    course of events ход событий;
    in the course of a year в течение года;
    the course of nature естественный, нормальный порядок вещей ~ pl физиол. менструация;
    a matter of course нечто само собой разумеющееся;
    of course конечно matter: ~ of course дело естественное, само собой разумеющееся;
    ясное дело ~ pl физиол. менструация;
    a matter of course нечто само собой разумеющееся;
    of course конечно refresher ~ курсы повышения квалификации refresher ~ курсы усовершенствования refresher: ~ attr. повторный;
    refresher course курсы повышения квалификации rehabilitation ~ курс реабилитации retraining ~ курс переподготовки specialization ~ курс обучения по специальности specialization ~ специализированный курс training ~ курс подготовки;
    учебный курс

    Большой англо-русский и русско-английский словарь > course

  • 34 Porsche, Ferdinand

    [br]
    b. 3 September 1875 Maffersdorf, Austria
    d. 30 January 1952 Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
    [br]
    Austrian automobile engineer, designer of the Volkswagen car.
    [br]
    At the age of fifteen, Porsche built a complete electrical installation for his home. In 1894 he went to technical school in Vienna. Four years later he became Manager of the test department of the Bela Egger concern, which later became part of the Brown Boveri organization where he became the first Assistant in the calculating section. In 1899 he joined the long-established coachbuilders Jacob Lohner, and in 1902 a car of his design with mixed drive won the 1,000 kg (2,200 lb) class in the Exelberg races. In 1905 he joined the Austro-Daimler Company as Technical Director; his subsequent designs included an 85 hp mixed-drive racing car in 1907 and in 1912 an air-cooled aircraft engine which came to be known in later years as the "great-grandfather" of the Volkswagen engine. In 1916, he became Managing Director of Austro-Daimler.
    In 1921 he designed his first small car, which, appearing under the name of Sasch, won its class in the 1922 Targa Florio, a gruelling road-race in Italy. In 1923 Porsche left Austro-Daimler and joined the Daimler Company in Untertürk-heim, near Stuttgart, Germany. In 1929 he joined the firm of Steyr in Austria as a director and chief engineer, and in 1930 he set up his own independent design office in Stuttgart. In 1932 he visited Russia, and in the same year completed the design calculations for the Auto-Union racing car.
    In 1934, with his son Ferry (b. 1909), he prepared a plan for the construction of the German "people's car", a project initiated by Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime; in June of that year he signed a contract for the design work on the Volkswagen. Racing cars of his design were also successful in 1934: the rear-engined Auto-Union won the German Grand Prix, and another Au to-Union car took the Flying Kilometre speed record at 327 km/h (203.2 mph). In 1935 Daimler-Benz started preproduction on the Volkswagen. The first trials of the cars took place in the autumn of 1936, and the following year thirty experimental cars were built by Daimler-Benz. In that year, Porsche visited the United States, where he met Henry Ford; in October an Auto-Union took the Flying Five Kilometre record at 404.3 km/h (251.2 mph). On 26 May 1938, the foundation stone of the Volkswagen factory was laid in Wolfsburg, near Braunschweig, Germany.
    In October 1945 Ferdinand Porsche was arrested by a unit of the United States Army and taken to Hessen; the French army removed him to Baden-Baden, then to Paris and later to Dijon. During this time he was consulted by Renault engineers regarding the design of their 4CV and designed a diesel-engined tractor. He was finally released on 5 August 1947. His last major work before his death was the approval of the design for the Cisitalia Grand Prix car.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    Poetting Medal 1905. Officer's Cross of Franz Josef 1916. Honorary PhD, Vienna Technical University 1916. Honorary PhD, University of Stuttgart 1924.
    Further Reading
    K.Ludvigsen, 1983, Porsche: Excellence Was Expected: The Complete History of the Sports and Racing Cars, London: Frederick Muller.
    T.Shuler and G.Borgeson, 1985, "Origin and Evolution of the VW Beetle", Automobile
    Quarterly (May).
    M.Toogood, 1991, Porsche—Germany's Legend, London: Apple Press.
    IMcN

    Biographical history of technology > Porsche, Ferdinand

  • 35 Eiffel, Alexandre Gustave

    SUBJECT AREA: Civil engineering
    [br]
    b. 15 December 1832 Dijon, France
    d. 27 December 1923 Paris, France
    [br]
    French engineer, best known for the famous tower in Paris that bears his name.
    [br]
    During his long life Eiffel, together with a number of architects, was responsible for the design and construction of a wide variety of bridges, viaducts, harbour installations, exhibition halls, galleries and department stores; he set up his own firm in 1867 to handle such construction. Of particular note were his great arched bridges, such as the 530 ft (162 m) span arch over the River Douro at Oporto in Portugal (1877–9) and the 550 ft (168 m) span of the Pont de Garabit over the Truyère in France (1880–4). He was responsible in 1884 for the protective iron-work for the Statue of Liberty in New York and, a year later, for the great dome over the Nice Observatory. In 1876 he had collaborated with Boileau to build the Bon Marché department store in Paris. The predominant material for all these structures was iron, and, in some cases glass was important. The famous Eiffel Tower in Paris is entirely of wrought iron, and the legs are supported on masonry piers that are each set into concrete beneath the ground. The idea of the tower was first conceived in 1884 by Maurice Koechlin and Emile Nougier, and Eiffel won a competition for the commission to built the structure. His imaginative and practical scheme was for a strong lightweight construction 984 ft (300 m) high, with its 12,000 sections to be prefabricated and riveted together largely before erection; the open, perforated design reduced the problems of wind resistance. The tower was constructed on schedule by 1889 to commemorate the centenary of the outbreak of the French Revolution and was the tallest structure in the world until the erection of the Empire State Building in New York in 1930–2.
    [br]
    Further Reading
    J.Harriss, 1975, The Tallest Tower: Eiffel and the Belle Epoque, Boston: Hough ton Mifflin.
    F.Poncetton, 1939, Eiffel: Le Magicien du Fer, Paris: Tournelle.
    DY

    Biographical history of technology > Eiffel, Alexandre Gustave

  • 36 Kaplan, Viktor

    [br]
    b. 27 November 1876 Mutz, Austria
    d. 23 August 1834 Unterach, Austria
    [br]
    Austrian engineer, inventor of the Kaplan turbine.
    [br]
    Kaplan was educated at the Realschule in Vienna and went on to the Technische Hochschule to study machine construction, gaining his engineer's diploma in 1900. He spent a year in voluntary service in the Navy before entering Ganz \& Co. at Lebersdorf, where he was engaged in the manufacture of diesel engines. In 1903 he turned to an academic career, first with a professorship in kinematics, theoretical machine studies and machine construction at the Technische Hochschule in Brunn (now Brno). In 1918 he became Professor of Water Turbine Construction, remaining as such until his early retirement for health reasons in 1931.
    Kaplan's first publication on turbines, in 1908, was an extension of work carried out for his doctorate at the Technische Hochschule in Vienna and concerned the Francis-type turbine. Kaplan went on to develop and patent the form of water turbine that came to bear his name. It is a reaction turbine which uses a large flow on a low head and which is made like a ship's propeller with variable-pitch vanes running in a close-fitting casing. Its application was neglected at first, but since the 1920s it has become the basic turbine for most high-powered hydroelectric plant: the turbines have been capable of around 85 per cent efficiency and modern developments have raised this figure still further. Perhaps the most impressive application of the Kaplan turbine and its derivatives is the great tidal-power scheme in the estuary of the Rance by St-Malo in France, completed in 1966. The turbines probably have to meet a greater demand for flexibility than any others, for they must operate at constant speed with variable head, as the tide ebbs and flows.
    LRD

    Biographical history of technology > Kaplan, Viktor

  • 37 Laird, John

    SUBJECT AREA: Ports and shipping
    [br]
    b. 1805 (?) Greenock, Scotland
    d. 26 October 1874 Birkenhead, England
    [br]
    Scottish pioneer of large-scale iron shipbuilding.
    [br]
    When only 5 years old, Laird travelled with his family to Merseyside, where his father William Laird was setting up a ship-repair yard. Fourteen years later his father established the Birkenhead Ironworks for ship and engine repairs, which in later years was to achieve great things with John Laird at the helm. John Laird trained as a solicitor, but instead of going into practice he joined the family business. Between 1829 and 1832 they built three iron barges for inland use in Ireland; this form of construction had become less of a novelty and followed the example set by Thomas Wilson in 1819, but Laird was fired with enthusiasm for this mode of construction. New iron ships followed in rapid succession, with two of especial note: the paddle steamer Lady Lansdown of 1833, which was dismantled and later re-erected on the river Shannon, becoming one of Britain's first "knock-down" contracts; and the early steamer Robert F.Stockton, which had a double Ericsson screw propeller and the first iron transverse watertight bulkheads. With the good name of the shipyard secure, they received orders from MacGregor Laird (John Laird's younger brother) for iron ships for the West African trade. This African connection was to grow and the yard's products were to include the Ma Roberts for Dr David Livingstone. Being of steel and with constant groundings on African rivers, this craft only lasted 18 months in steady operation. In 1858 a new yard dedicated to iron construction was opened at Monk's Ferry. In 1861 John Laird was returned as the first Member of Parliament for Birkenhead and his sons took over the day-to-day affairs of the business. Laird was to suffer acute embarrassment by questions at Westminster over the building in the Birkenhead Works of the United States Confederate raider Alabama in 1862. In 1874 he suffered serious injuries in a riding accident; his health declined and he died later that year.
    [br]
    Bibliography
    1858, with Fairbairn, Forrester, Lang and Sea-ward, Steam Navigation, Vessels of Iron and Wood, the Steam Engine, etc. 2 vols, London: Weale.
    FMW

    Biographical history of technology > Laird, John

  • 38 Paxton, Sir Joseph

    [br]
    b. 3 August 1801 Milton Bryant, Bedfordshire, England
    d. 8 June 1865 Sydenham, London, England
    [br]
    English designer of the Crystal Palace, the first large-scale prefabricated ferrovitreous structure.
    [br]
    The son of a farmer, he had worked in gardens since boyhood and at the age of 21 was employed as Undergardener at the Horticultural Society Gardens in Chiswick, from where he went on to become Head Gardener for the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth. It was there that he developed his methods of glasshouse construction, culminating in the Great Conservatory of 1836–40, an immense structure some 277 ft (84.4 m) long, 123 ft (37.5 m) wide and 67 ft (20.4 m) high. Its framework was of iron and its roof of glass, with wood to contain the glass panels; it is now demolished. Paxton went on to landscape garden design, fountain and waterway engineering, the laying out of the model village of Edensor, and to play a part in railway and country house projects.
    The structure that made Paxton a household name was erected in Hyde Park, London, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851 and was aptly dubbed, by Punch, the Crystal Palace. The idea of holding an international exhibition for industry had been mooted in 1849 and was backed by Prince Albert and Henry Cole. The money for this was to be raised by public subscription and 245 designs were entered into a competition held in 1850; however, most of the concepts, received from many notable architects and engineers, were very costly and unsuitable, and none were accepted. That same year, Paxton published his scheme in the Illustrated London News and it was approved after it received over-whelming public support.
    Paxton's Crystal Palace, designed and erected in association with the engineers Fox and Henderson, was a prefabricated glasshouse of vast dimensions: it was 1,848 ft (563.3 m) long, 408 ft (124.4 m) wide and over 100 ft (30.5 m) high. It contained 3,300 iron columns, 2,150 girders. 24 miles (39 km) of guttering, 600,000 ft3 (17,000 m3) of timber and 900,000 ft2 (84,000 m) of sheet glass made by Chance Bros, of Birmingham. One of the chief reasons why it was accepted by the Royal Commission Committee was that it fulfilled the competition proviso that it should be capable of being erected quickly and subsequently dismantled and re-erected elsewhere. The Crystal Palace was to be erected at a cost of £79,800, much less than the other designs. Building began on 30 July 1850, with a labour force of some 2,000, and was completed on 31 March 1851. It was a landmark in construction at the time, for its size, speed of construction and its non-eclectic design, and, most of all, as the first great prefabricated building: parts were standardized and made in quantity, and were assembled on site. The exhibition was opened by Queen Victoria on 1 May 1851 and had received six million visitors when it closed on 11 October. The building was dismantled in 1852 and reassembled, with variations in design, at Sydenham in south London, where it remained until its spectacular conflagration in 1936.
    [br]
    Principal Honours and Distinctions
    Knighted 1851. MP for Coventry 1854–65. Fellow Linnaean Society 1853; Horticultural Society 1826. Order of St Vladimir, Russia, 1844.
    Further Reading
    P.Beaver, 1986, The Crystal Palace: A Portrait of Victorian Enterprise, Phillimore. George F.Chadwick, 1961, Works of Sir Joseph Paxton 1803–1865, Architectural Press.
    DY

    Biographical history of technology > Paxton, Sir Joseph

  • 39 Steers, Thomas

    [br]
    b. c. 1672 Kent, England
    d. buried November 1750 Liverpool, England
    [br]
    English dock and canal engineer.
    [br]
    An Army officer serving at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 and later in the Low Countries, Steers thus gained experience in water control and development, canals and drainage. After his return to England he was associated with George Sorocold in the construction of Howland Great Dock, Rotherhithe, London, opened in 1699 and the first wet dock built in England. He was again associated with Sorocold in planning the first of Liverpool's wet docks and subsequently was responsible for its construction. On its completion, he became Dockmaster in 1717.
    In 1712 he surveyed the River Douglas for navigation, and received authorization to make it navigable from the Ribble estuary to Wigan in 1720. Although work was started by Steers, the undertaking was hit by the collapse of the South Sea Bubble and Steers was no longer associated with it when it was restarted in 1738. In 1721 he proposed making the Mersey and Irwell navigable.
    In 1736 he surveyed and engineered the first summit-level canal in the British Isles, between Portadown and Newry in Ulster, thus providing through-water communication between Lough Neagh and the Irish Sea. The canal was completed in 1741. He also carried out a survey of the river Boyne. Also in 1736, he surveyed the Worsley Brook in South Lancashire to provide navigation from Worsley to the Mersey. This was done on behalf of Scroop, 1st Duke of Bridgewater; an Act was obtained in 1737, but no work was started on the scheme at that time. It was left to Francis Egerton, the 3rd Duke, to initiate the Bridgewater Canal to provide water transport for coal from the Worsley pits direct to Manchester. In 1739 Steers was elected Mayor of Liverpool. The following year, jointly with John Eyes of Liverpool, he surveyed a possible navigation along the Calder from its junction with the Aire \& Calder at Wakefield to the Hebble and so through to Halifax, but, owing to opposition at the time, the construction of the Calder \& Hebble Navigation had to wait until after Steers's death. In the opinion of Professor A.W. Skempton, Steers was the most distinguished civil engineer before Smeaton's time.
    [br]
    Further Reading
    Henry Peet, 1932, Thomas Steers. The Engineer of Liverpool's First Dock; reprinted with App. from Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire 82:163– 242.
    JHB

    Biographical history of technology > Steers, Thomas

  • 40 Parker, George Safford

    SUBJECT AREA: Paper and printing
    [br]
    b. 1 November 1863 Shullsberg, Wisconsin, USA
    d. 19 July 1937 USA
    [br]
    American perfector of the fountain pen and founder of the Parker Pen Company.
    [br]
    Parker was born of English immigrant stock and grew up on his parents' farm in Iowa. He matriculated at Upper Iowa University and then joined the Valentine School of Telegraphy at Jamesville, Wisconsin: within a year he was on the staff. He supplemented his meagre school-master's pay by selling fountain pens to his students. He found that the pens needed constant attention, and his students were continually bringing them back to him for repair. The more he sold, the more he repaired. The work furnished him, first, with a detailed knowledge of the design and construction of the fountain pen and then with the thought that he could make a better pen himself. He gave up his teaching career and in 1888 began experimenting. He established his own company and in the following year he registered his first patent. The Parker Pen Company was formally incorporated on 8 March 1892.
    In the following years he patented many improvements, including the Lucky Curve pen and ink-feed system, patented in 1894. That was the real breakthrough for Parker and the pen was an immediate success. It solved the problem that had bedevilled the fountain pen before and since, by incorporating an ink-feed system that ensured a free and uniform flow of ink to where it was wanted, the nib, and not to other undesirable places.
    Parker established a reputation for manufacturing high-quality pens that looked good and worked well and reliably. The pens were in demand worldwide and the company grew.
    During the First World War, Parker introduced the Trench Pen for use on the Western Front. A tablet of pigment was inserted in a blind cap at the end of the pen. When this tablet was placed in the barrel and the barrel was filled with water, the pen was ready for use.
    Later developments included the Duofold pen, designed and launched in 1920. It had an enlarged ink capacity, a red barrel and a twentyfive-year guarantee on the nib. It became immensely popular with the public and was the flagship product throughout the 1920s and early 1930s, until the Vacumatic was launched in 1933.
    Parker handed over control of the company to this two sons, Kenneth and Russell, during the 1920s, remaining President until his retirement in 1933.
    [br]
    Further Reading
    Obituary, 1937, Jamesville Gazette 19 July (an appreciation by the architect Frank Lloyd Wright was published simultaneously). No biography has appeared, but Parker gave details of his career in an article in Systems
    Review, October 1926.
    LRD

    Biographical history of technology > Parker, George Safford

Страницы

См. также в других словарях:

  • construction — con‧struc‧tion [kənˈstrʌkʆn] noun 1. [uncountable] PROPERTY the activity of building houses, apartments, offices, factories, roads etc: • Share prices of construction, building materials and property investment companies were particularly hard… …   Financial and business terms

  • Construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System — The construction of the Trans Alaska Pipeline System was a massive undertaking involving tens of thousands of people often in extreme temperatures and conditions. Specialized construction techniques were pioneered to build the pipeline, most of… …   Wikipedia

  • Construction site safety — A site safety sign at a highway overpass construction site describing the mandatory safety procedures and equipment. Construction is the most dangerous land based work sector in Europe, after the fishing industry. In the European Union, the fatal …   Wikipedia

  • Construction (Cage) — Construction is the title of several pieces by American composer John Cage, all scored for unorthodox percussion instruments. The pieces were composed in 1939–42 while Cage was working at the Cornish School of the Arts in Seattle, Washington and… …   Wikipedia

  • Construction Products Association — Abbreviation CPA Formation 2000 Type Trade association Legal status Non profit company Purpose/focus Construction products industry in the UK …   Wikipedia

  • Construction Law Journal — Type Ten Times Per Year Format Journal Owner LexisNexis Editor Nicholas Barrett …   Wikipedia

  • Construction Equipment — Type business magazine Format Paper and online magazine Owner MB Media Founded 1949 …   Wikipedia

  • Year Zero — Album par Nine Inch Nails Sortie 16 avril 2007 (Royaume Uni, Europe) 17 avril 2007 (USA) Enregistrement Septembre 13 décembre  …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Year Zero (album) — Year Zero Year Zero Album par Nine Inch Nails Sortie 16 avril 2007 (Royaume Uni, Europe) 17 avril 2007 (USA) Enregistrement Septembre 13 décembre  …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Year zero (album) — Year Zero Year Zero Album par Nine Inch Nails Sortie 16 avril 2007 (Royaume Uni, Europe) 17 avril 2007 (USA) Enregistrement Septembre 13 décembre  …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Construction Du Nombre Chez L'enfant — La construction du nombre chez l enfant est une voie de recherche de la psychologie du développement. Les premières recherches scientifiques à ce sujet, ont été réalisées par Jean Piaget. Sommaire 1 Historique 1.1 La théorie de Piaget 2 …   Wikipédia en Français

Поделиться ссылкой на выделенное

Прямая ссылка:
… Нажмите правой клавишей мыши и выберите «Копировать ссылку»