pred_label
stringclasses 2
values | pred_label_prob
float64 0.5
1
| wiki_prob
float64 0.25
1
| text
stringlengths 69
1.02M
| source
stringlengths 37
43
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
__label__wiki
| 0.773538
| 0.773538
|
How to Link PayPal to a Nintendo Account
Instructions on linking an existing PayPal account to a Nintendo Account.
This option is currently available to customers who are 18 years or older from the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the U.K.
You can create a PayPal account through www.paypal.com, then link the account through the Nintendo Switch eShop or the Nintendo website.
Once linked, PayPal can be used for the following types of digital purchases:
Nintendo Switch eShop – Add Nintendo eShop funds and purchase Nintendo Switch software.
Nintendo website – Purchase software for Nintendo Switch, Nintendo 3DS, and Wii U.
Select “PayPal” as the payment method when adding funds or purchasing software.
This option is only available to Nintendo Account owners in the available countries mentioned above, aged 18 years or older.
When purchasing a game, this option will only appear if you do not currently have sufficient funds to complete the purchase.
Are you purchasing content through the Nintendo Switch eShop or through the Online Game Store?
Nintendo Switch eShop Nintendo website
Select “Send E-mail,” then select “OK.”
If this option does not appear, then you have already linked a PayPal account to your Nintendo Account.
A confirmation e-mail will be sent to the e-mail address associated to your Nintendo Account. When the e-mail arrives, click the link provided in the e-mail.
The e-mail should arrive within a few minutes.
If it has been over one hour since you requested the e-mail, review these guidelines then click “Send E-mail” again to have a new confirmation e-mail sent.
Sign in to your Nintendo Account.
Click “Link a PayPal account.”
Log in to your PayPal account or create a new PayPal account.
If you need help with this process, or can’t remember your PayPal log in information, please visit www.paypal.com for assistance.
Review the PayPal Policies and click “Agree & Continue” to complete the link.
You can now use the “PayPal” option in the Nintendo Switch eShop and online Game Store to complete your digital purchase.
You can now use the “PayPal” option in the Nintendo Switch eShop and Nintendo website to complete your digital purchase.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1467
|
__label__wiki
| 0.703677
| 0.703677
|
How New York Puts on the World’s Greatest Holiday Show
Photo: Marley White
nycgo.com staff
Washington Heights/Inwood
New York City puts on the greatest holiday show in the world, but our big, festive events don’t happen by themselves. Whether we’re celebrating Christmas, Thanksgiving or the New Year, the City’s signature spectacles are possible only thanks to hardworking, dedicated creative people who do a ton of work behind the scenes so everything looks perfect when the lights turn on. Want the details? Read on.
Radio City Christmas Spectacular. Courtesy, MSG Photos
Radio City Christmas Spectacular Starring the Rockettes
Director and choreographer Julie Branham started leading the Rockettes through rehearsals for this year’s big show on October 3; by the time we got a peek at their routine a week and a half later, they had already covered a lot of ground. “It’s a layering process,” says Branham of the grueling seven-hour-a-day, six-day-a-week routine leading up to the show. “We break it down [and] teach very slowly so they learn every move.”
Katie, a dancer who’s in her 12th year with the Rockettes, points to tape on the floor of the rehearsal space at St. Paul the Apostle Church, with numbered boxes. “It’s set up as a grid,” she says, corresponding to the show’s eventual home on the Radio City stage. “We write everything down, practice a ton. I wake up doing movements in my sleep. It never stops.”
Hailee, who’s making her Christmas Spectacular debut, knows that moving to the theater will bring its own challenges: “They make sure to tell us, ‘This is where you can step onto the bus, this is where the elevators are and you need to start getting this into your body so it’s not a shock to you when you get to the stage for tech rehearsal.” So when you see the Christmas Spectacular and notice the Rockettes nailing every intricate movement—down to the smiles on their faces—remember, it’s not as effortless as it looks. They’ve been dancing 42 hours a week to make it look that way.
Did you know? Rockettes must be between 5'6" and 5'10½. This is so they’ll all appear to be about the same height in the kickline.
George Balanchine's The Nutcracker. Photo: Paul Kolnik
George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker
Unity Phelan, a ballerina with the New York City Ballet, says the rehearsal process for The Nutcracker is demanding and compressed. “We come back [from vacation] for two weeks of rehearsal, and then we open for six weeks.” During the show’s run, dancers in TheNutcracker continue rehearsing six hours per day—“plus add on a performance at the end of the day,” Phelan says. To keep herself in shape, Phelan has a demanding preshow routine. “You get really tired once—you get woozy and kind of get the wind knocked out of you by working really hard,” she says, describing a ritual she calls a “puff.”
Any ballerina will know The Nutcracker, of course, but the scale and intricacy of the New York City production help make it special. Phelan singles out “the sheer size of the tree and the animation of the props,” along with the onstage snow that gets collected and reused after the shows. “They have a ton of it,” she says, “but they always sweep it up, put it in those big barrels and bring it back. I think you don’t see the snow you saw the first night until like the fourth week.”
Did you know? The first version of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker premiered in 1892 in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Photo: Julienne Schaer
Before the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree is the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, it’s just a tree. Head gardener Erik Pauze decides which woody plant gets to take center stage. What’s he looking for? A nicely shaped Norway spruce, at least 75 feet tall and dense enough that you “shouldn’t be able to see the sky through it.” Being from the tristate area generally helps—long distance is a consideration, but it’s not a deal breaker (1998’s edition was flown in from Ohio). The selection process takes a while, during which time the winner generally makes itself known. As Pauze says, “Sometimes I visit a tree several times over the year [to] watch it grow or fill out. But when I see the perfect one, I just know it.”
Did you know? After the holiday season, lumber from the tree goes to Habitat for Humanity.
Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball Drop
Every year, around 175 million Americans and another billion people around the world watch on television as the ball drops in Times Square to mark the New Year. To make sure the gigantic show goes off without a hitch, organizers must attend to all the important details. We got the skinny from Jeff Straus of Countdown Entertainment, who helps produce the show. On December 26, the ball comes down to have new Waterford crystal triangles attached in a themed design (this year’s, “The Gift of Serenity,” features butterflies floating above a meadow). On December 28 and 29 there are technical rehearsals, followed by a dress rehearsal on December 30. One highlight is the confetti test, in which producers dump 3,000 pounds of confetti from Times Square rooftops—they don’t want to take any chances in creating what Straus calls a “colorful confetti blizzard” on the big night. And that’s how the descent of a 6-ton ball before a million in-person spectators goes off without a hitch. “I’m always nervous until the ball drops,” says Straus. “Then I’m celebrating with everyone else.”
Did you know? The first New Year’s Eve ball drop in Times Square took place in 1907.
Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
Savvy visitors know that the night before the big parade, they can hang out near the American Museum of Natural History—entering the designated viewing area, if they like, at Columbus Avenue and 79th Street—to watch as workers inflate those famous balloons. Don’t worry; they use nets and sandbags to make sure Snoopy and Dora the Explorer don’t fly away before their big moment. This Forbes article from a few years back has details about other aspects of the preparations for the parade, which include a practice run the day before at a Meadowlands parking lot in neighboring New Jersey.
Did you know? In the late 1920s and early 1930s, organizers would release balloons after the parade. Those who found and returned them received prizes.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1469
|
__label__wiki
| 0.939248
| 0.939248
|
Bay Ridge woman leads drive for 69th St. ferry service
By Jotham Sederstrom
| DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER |
Oct 16, 2007 | 4:00 AM
A Bay Ridge Woman is waging a campaign to return ferry service to the 69th Street Veterans' Memorial Pier for the first time in more than a decade.
Since September, Heather McCown, 33, has collected more than 1,400 signatures from locals demanding that the ferry service, which carries riders to midtown and lower Manhattan, be extended from the former Brooklyn Army Terminal.
"Our waterways are extremely underutilized and, right now, with PlanNYC and congestion pricing becoming issues, I thought it was time to address this again," said McCown, who lives near the pier and commutes to Manhattan by bus.
The campaign has caught the attention of local Community Board 10, which introduced the idea at its monthly meeting, and state Sen. Marty Golden (R-Bay Ridge), who also wants to see ferry service return to Bay Ridge.
City Councilmen Vincent Gentile (D-Bay Ridge) and David Yassky (D-Brooklyn Heights) have secured $500,000 for the construction of a proposed ferry slip, but city officials have yet to move forward on the proposal, sources said.
"This is another tool that will get us to and from the city without congestion and without impacting commuter times," said Golden.
Ferry service was introduced to the 69th Street Pier during the 1980s, but was discontinued in the early 1990s after it fell into disrepair. The pier was renovated in 1998 and renamed the 69th Street Veterans' Memorial Pier in 2000.
New York Water Taxi President Tom Fox said the company would like to extend its ferry service from the Brooklyn Army Terminal spot, but must wait for the Department of Transportation to build a ferry slip at the site.
"New York Water Taxi would welcome the opportunity to expand its existing South Brooklyn Route ... once docking facilities and ... subsidies to ensure that the route would be financially viable are in place," said Fox.
jsederstrom@nydailynews.com
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1470
|
__label__wiki
| 0.807145
| 0.807145
|
Health|In Treatment for Leukemia, Glimpses of the Future
https://nyti.ms/OGUr4r
Health | Genetic Gamble
In Treatment for Leukemia, Glimpses of the Future
By GINA KOLATA JULY 7, 2012
Lukas Wartman, a leukemia doctor and researcher, developed the disease himself. As he faced death, his colleagues sequenced his cancer genome. The result was a totally unexpected treatment.
By David Frank on Publish Date July 7, 2012. . Watch in Times Video »
ST. LOUIS — Genetics researchers at Washington University, one of the world’s leading centers for work on the human genome, were devastated. Dr. Lukas Wartman, a young, talented and beloved colleague, had the very cancer he had devoted his career to studying. He was deteriorating fast. No known treatment could save him. And no one, to their knowledge, had ever investigated the complete genetic makeup of a cancer like his.
So one day last July, Dr. Timothy Ley, associate director of the university’s genome institute, summoned his team. Why not throw everything we have at seeing if we can find a rogue gene spurring Dr. Wartman’s cancer, adult acute lymphoblastic leukemia, he asked? “It’s now or never,” he recalled telling them. “We will only get one shot.”
Dr. Ley’s team tried a type of analysis that they had never done before. They fully sequenced the genes of both his cancer cells and healthy cells for comparison, and at the same time analyzed his RNA, a close chemical cousin to DNA, for clues to what his genes were doing.
The researchers on the project put other work aside for weeks, running one of the university’s 26 sequencing machines and supercomputer around the clock. And they found a culprit — a normal gene that was in overdrive, churning out huge amounts of a protein that appeared to be spurring the cancer’s growth.
Even better, there was a promising new drug that might shut down the malfunctioning gene — a drug that had been tested and approved only for advanced kidney cancer. Dr. Wartman became the first person ever to take it for leukemia.
And now, against all odds, his cancer is in remission and has been since last fall.
While no one can say that Dr. Wartman is cured, after facing certain death last fall, he is alive and doing well. Dr. Wartman is a pioneer in a new approach to stopping cancer. What is important, medical researchers say, is the genes that drive a cancer, not the tissue or organ — liver or brain, bone marrow, blood or colon — where the cancer originates.
One woman’s breast cancer may have different genetic drivers from another woman’s and, in fact, may have more in common with prostate cancer in a man or another patient’s lung cancer.
Under this new approach, researchers expect that treatment will be tailored to an individual tumor’s mutations, with drugs, eventually, that hit several key aberrant genes at once. The cocktails of medicines would be analogous to H.I.V. treatment, which uses several different drugs at once to strike the virus in a number of critical areas.
Researchers differ about how soon the method, known as whole genome sequencing, will be generally available and paid for by insurance — estimates range from a few years to a decade or so. But they believe that it has enormous promise, though it has not yet cured anyone.
With a steep drop in the costs of sequencing and an explosion of research on genes, medical experts expect that genetic analyses of cancers will become routine. Just as pathologists do blood cultures to decide which antibiotics will stop a patient’s bacterial infection, so will genome sequencing determine which drugs might stop a cancer.
“Until you know what is driving a patient’s cancer, you really don’t have any chance of getting it right,” Dr. Ley said. “For the past 40 years, we have been sending generals into battle without a map of the battlefield. What we are doing now is building the map.”
Large drug companies and small biotechs are jumping in, starting to test drugs that attack a gene rather than a tumor type.
Dr. Lukas Wartman, a leukemia patient in remission, being examined by his doctor, John DiPersio, in January in St. Louis. Credit Dilip Vishwanat for The New York Times
Leading cancer researchers are starting companies to find genes that might be causing an individual’s cancer to grow, to analyze genetic data and to find and test new drugs directed against these genetic targets. Leading venture capital firms are involved.
For now, whole genome sequencing is in its infancy and dauntingly complex. The gene sequences are only the start — they come in billions of small pieces, like a huge jigsaw puzzle. The arduous job is to figure out which mutations are important, a task that requires skill, experience and instincts.
So far, most who have chosen this path are wealthy and well connected. When Steve Jobs had exhausted other options to combat pancreatic cancer, he consulted doctors who coordinated his genetic sequencing and analysis. It cost him $100,000, according to his biographer. The writer Christopher Hitchens went to the head of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Francis Collins, who advised him on where to get a genetic analysis of his esophageal cancer.
Harvard Medical School expects eventually to offer whole genome sequencing to help cancer patients identify treatments, said Heidi L. Rehm, who heads the molecular medicine laboratory at Harvard’s Partners Healthcare Center for Personalized Genetic Medicine. But later this year, Partners will take a more modest step, offering whole genome sequencing to patients with a suspected hereditary disorder in hopes of identifying mutations that might be causing the disease.
Whole genome sequencing of the type that Dr. Wartman had, Dr. Rehm added, “is a whole other level of complexity.”
Dr. Wartman was included by his colleagues in a research study, and his genetic analysis was paid for by the university and research grants. Such opportunities are not available to most patients, but Dr. Ley noted that the group had done such an analysis for another patient the year before and that no patients were being neglected because of the urgent work to figure out Dr. Wartman’s cancer.
“The precedent for moving quickly on a sample to make a key decision was already established,” Dr. Ley said.
Ethicists ask whether those with money and connections should have options far out of reach for most patients before such treatments become a normal part of medicine. And will people of more limited means be tempted to bankrupt their families in pursuit of a cure at the far edges?
“If we say we need research because this is a new idea, then why is it that rich people can even access it?” asked Wylie Burke, professor and chairwoman of the department of bioethics at the University of Washington. The saving grace, she said, is that the method will become available to all if it works.
A Life in Medicine
It was pure happenstance that landed Dr. Wartman in a university at the forefront of cancer research. He grew up in small-town Indiana, aspiring to be a veterinarian like his grandfather. But in college, he worked summers in hospitals and became fascinated by cancer. He enrolled in medical school at Washington University in St. Louis, where he was drawn to research on genetic changes that occur in cancers of the blood. Dr. Wartman knew then what he wanted to do — become a physician researcher.
Those plans fell apart in the winter of 2002, his last year of medical school, when he went to California to be interviewed for a residency program at Stanford. On the morning of his visit, he was nearly paralyzed by an overwhelming fatigue.
“I could not get out of bed for an interview that was the most important of my life,” Dr. Wartman recalled. Somehow, he forced himself to drive to Palo Alto in a drenching rain. He rallied enough to get through the day.
“I was definitely scared. It was so unreal,” said Dr. Wartman on first suspecting that he had leukemia, the very disease he had devoted his medical career to studying. Credit Sid Hastings for The New York Times
When he returned to St. Louis, he gave up running, too exhausted for the sport he loved. He started having night sweats.
“I thought it might be mono,” he said. “And I thought I would ride it out.”
But then the long bones in his legs began to hurt. He was having fevers.
He was so young then — only 25 — and had always been so healthy that his only doctor was a pediatrician. So he went to an urgent care center in February 2003. The doctor there thought his symptoms might come from depression, but noticed that his red and white blood cell counts were low. And Lukas Wartman, who had been fascinated by the biology of leukemia, began to suspect he had it.
“I was definitely scared,” he said. “It was so unreal.”
The next day, Mr. Wartman, who was about to graduate from Washington University’s medical school, went back there for more tests. A doctor slid a long needle into his hip bone and drew out marrow for analysis.
“We looked at the slide together,” Dr. Wartman said, recalling that terrible time. “It was packed with leukemia cells. I was in a state of shock.”
Dr. Wartman remained at the university for his residency and treatment: nine months of intensive chemotherapy, followed by 15 months of maintenance chemotherapy. Five years passed when the cancer seemed to be gone. But then it came back. Next came the most risky remedy — intensive chemotherapy to put the cancer into remission followed by a bone-marrow transplant from his younger brother.
Seven months after the transplant, feeling much stronger, he went to a major cancer meeting and sat in on a session on his type of leukemia. The speaker, a renowned researcher, reported that only 4 or 5 percent of those who relapsed survived.
“My stomach turned,” Dr. Wartman said. “I will never forget the shock of hearing that number.”
But his personal gauge of recovery — how far he could run — was encouraging.
By last spring, three years after his transplant, Dr. Wartman was running six to seven miles every other day and feeling good. “I thought maybe I would run a half marathon in the fall.”
Then the cancer came back. He remembered that number, 4 or 5 percent, for patients with one relapse. He had relapsed a second time.
This time, he said, “There is no number.”
His doctors put him on a clinical trial to try to beat the cancer with chemotherapy and hormones. It did not work.
They infused him with his brother’s healthy marrow cells, to no avail.
A Clue in RNA
Dr. Wartman’s doctors realized then that their last best hope for saving him was to use all the genetic know-how and technology at their disposal.
Vials of Dr. Wartman’s blood that were used to check his white blood cell count. Credit Dilip Vishwanat for The New York Times
After their month of frantic work to beat cancer’s relentless clock, the group, led by Richard Wilson and Elaine Mardis, directors of the university’s genome institute, had the data. It was Aug. 31.
The cancer’s DNA had, as expected, many mutations, but there was nothing to be done about them. There were no drugs to attack them.
But the other analysis, of the cancer’s RNA, was different. There was something there, something unexpected.
The RNA sequencing showed that a normal gene, FLT3, was wildly active in the leukemia cells. Its normal role is to make cells grow and proliferate. An overactive FLT3 gene might be making Dr. Wartman’s cancer cells multiply so quickly.
Even better, there was a drug, sunitinib or Sutent, approved for treating advanced kidney cancer, that inhibits FLT3.
But it costs $330 a day, and Dr. Wartman’s insurance company would not pay for it. He appealed twice to his insurer and lost both times.
He also pleaded with the drug’s maker, Pfizer, to give him the drug under its compassionate use program, explaining that his entire salary was only enough to pay for 7 ½ months of Sutent. But Pfizer turned him down too.
As September went by, Dr. Wartman was getting panicky.
“Every day is a roller coaster,” he said at the time, “and everything is up in the air.”
Desperate to try the drug, he scraped up the money to buy a week’s worth and began taking it on Sept. 16. Within days, his blood counts were looking more normal.
But over dinner at a trendy St. Louis restaurant, he picked at his chicken and said he was afraid to hope.
“Obviously it’s exciting,” he said. “But Sutent could have unanticipated effects on my bone marrow.” Maybe his rising red blood cell counts were just a side effect of the drug. Or maybe they were just a coincidence.
“It’s hard to say if I feel any different,” Dr. Wartman said.
And the cost of the drug nagged at him. If it worked, how long could he afford to keep taking it?
A recovering Dr. Wartman with Dr. DiPersio, in January. Credit Dilip Vishwanat for The New York Times
The next day, a nurse at the hospital pharmacy called with what seemed miraculous news: a month’s supply of Sutent was waiting for Dr. Wartman. He did not know at the time, but the doctors in his division had pitched in to buy the drug.
Two weeks later, his bone marrow, which had been full of leukemia cells, was clean, a biopsy showed.
Still, he was nervous. The test involved taking out just a small amount of marrow. Cancer cells could be lurking unseen.
The next test was flow cytometry, which used antibodies to label cancer cells. Again, there were no cancer cells.
But even flow cytometry could be misleading, Dr. Wartman told himself.
Finally, a yet more sensitive test, called FISH, was done. It labels cancer cells with fluorescent pieces of DNA to identify leukemia cells. Once again, there were none.
“I can’t believe it,” his awe-struck physician, Dr. John DiPersio, told him.
Dr. Wartman, alone in his apartment, waited for his partner, Damon Berardi, to come home from work. That evening, Mr. Berardi, a 31-year-old store manager, opened the door with no idea of Dr. Wartman’s momentous news. To his surprise, Dr. Wartman was home early, waiting in the kitchen with champagne and two flutes he had given Mr. Berardi for Christmas. He told Mr. Berardi he should sit down.
“My leukemia is in remission,” he said. The men embraced exultantly, and Dr. Wartman popped open the champagne.
“I felt an overwhelming sense of relief and a renewed vision of our future together,” Mr. Berardi said. “There were no tears at that moment. We had both had cried plenty. This was a moment of hope.”
Hunches and Decisions
Dr. Wartman and his doctors had fateful decisions to make, with nothing but hunches to guide them. Should he keep taking Sutent or have another bone-marrow transplant now that he was in remission again?
In the end, Dr. DiPersio decided Dr. Wartman should have the transplant because without it the cancer might mutate and escape the Sutent.
Meanwhile, Pfizer had decided to give him the drug. Dr. Wartman has no idea why. Perhaps the company was swayed by an impassioned plea from his nurse practitioner, Stephanie Bauer.
Dr. Wartman’s cancer is still gone, for now, but he has struggled with a common complication of bone-marrow transplants, in which the white blood cells of the transplanted marrow attack his cells as though they were foreign. He has had rashes and felt ill. But these complications are gradually lessening, and he is back at work in Dr. Ley’s lab.
His colleagues want to look for the same mutation in the cancer cells of other patients with his cancer. And they would like to start a clinical trial testing Sutent to discover whether the drug can help others with leukemia, or whether the solution they found was unique to Lukas Wartman.
Dr. Wartman himself is left with nagging uncertainties. He knows how lucky he is, but what does the future hold? Can he plan a life? Is he cured?
“It’s a hard feeling to describe,” he said. “I am in uncharted waters.”
Monday: Promise and heartbreak.
GENETIC GAMBLE: First of three articles
A version of this article appears in print on July 8, 2012, on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: In Leukemia Treatment, Glimpses of the Future. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
Searching for a Cancer’s Vulnerable Target JULY 7, 2012
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1471
|
__label__wiki
| 0.924884
| 0.924884
|
Books|A Poet Remembers Her Impulsive Trip Into a Civil War
Books of The Times
A Poet Remembers Her Impulsive Trip Into a Civil War
By Jennifer Szalai
CreditCreditAlessandra Montalto/The New York Times
Buy Book ▾
Local Booksellers
When you purchase an independently reviewed book through our site, we earn an affiliate commission.
“Who is Gómez? Nobody knows.”
The person who issued this cryptic statement was none other than Gómez himself — Leonel Gómez Vides, a coffee farmer from El Salvador who showed up in Southern California on the doorstep of the poet Carolyn Forché in 1977, with a bundle of papers under his arm and his two young daughters in tow. Within a few days he persuaded Forché to make her first trip to El Salvador, just as the country was on the verge of civil war.
In “What You Have Heard Is True,” Forché traces how this initial encounter with a stranger irrevocably changed the course of her art and her life. Forché was 27 at the time, a Midwesterner living in San Diego, with a budding reputation for her work. She had heard Gómez’s name before, when she traveled to Spain to translate the poems of his cousin Claribel Alegría, though nobody could say for sure whether Claribel’s cousin was working with the Salvadoran guerrillas or with the C.I.A.
Until the publication of this memoir, Forché’s experiences in El Salvador — seven “extended stays” between 1978 and 1980 — have mostly stayed distilled in her poetry. “The Colonel,” collected in “The Country Between Us” (1981), begins with an elegant dinner at a colonel’s home (rack of lamb, green mangoes) and ends with him emptying a grocery sack full of human ears onto the table — ghastly trophies from a dirty war.
Taking its title from the first line of that poem, Forché’s memoir starts off slowly, as she describes in minute detail how she made the fateful and seemingly inexplicable decision to follow a mysterious stranger’s directive to take such a perilous trip. But once Forché’s story gathers momentum, it’s hard to let the narrative go. “What You Have Heard Is True” is billed, per its subtitle, as “a memoir of witness and resistance.” That’s fair enough, but it does this riveting book a mild disservice; the memoir I read was more intricate and surprising than such an earnest descriptor lets on.
For a while, it isn’t at all clear how much Gómez can be trusted. When he first shows up, he draws Forché pictures of Spanish galleons, explains how the conquistadors brutalized the Indians, and uses a toothpick holder and a saltshaker to dramatize the infighting among Salvadoran officers after nearly 50 years of a military dictatorship. He offers grisly disquisitions on the death squads, on the disappeared, on body parts washing up on the beach. Forché tells him that he would be better off enlisting a journalist to document what is happening in his country. “I want a poet,” he insists. “Why do you think I came all this way?”
Carolyn ForchéCreditHarry Mattison
Once Forché arrives in El Salvador, Gómez drives her around in his white Toyota Hiace, constantly glancing in the rearview mirror, a handgun tucked into a copy of Time magazine between them. He takes her to the countryside to meet with peasant farmers, or campesinos, who don’t have enough to eat. He takes her to the United States embassy, where the ambassador warns her against Gómez because “we don’t know who he is.” Gómez even takes her to El Salvador’s military headquarters, where he talks candidly to a lieutenant colonel about how all the disappearances are making the army look bad — before he asks whether he might use the lieutenant colonel’s shower.
The whole thing comes across as baffling — much as it does to Forché herself, at least at first. We gradually become acquainted with Gómez and his country through Forché’s eyes, as she starts off knowing almost nothing, then learns a little bit, and then a little bit more. Gómez is incensed by the abject poverty in most of his country, where campesinos live in huts made of mud and junkyard scraps. “If the Salvadoran campesinos fight,” he says, “they must win. If they do not win, they will suffer for another 200 years.”
But he’s also a landowner. He’s against corruption and in favor of reform, yet he claims “no doctrinal allegiances.” His copy of Machiavelli has been thumbed through so many times that it’s held together with a rubber band. When Forché remarks on the Che Guevara poster in his home, he says: ‘Yes, well, I have posters of Mussolini too, if the need arises.”
She realizes that what Gómez calls his “symphony of illusion” — “He talks to this one. He talks to that one.” — turns out to be the only way for him to help reformist efforts against a murderous regime while trying, as much as he can, to protect himself.
“Terror is the given of the place,” Joan Didion wrote in her 1983 book “Salvador.” Forché describes being chased by death squads — not once, but twice. The killings become so indiscriminate that she grows familiar with the “rotting, sweet, sickening” smell of dead bodies left by the side of the road. An excerpt from the unpunctuated notes she took at the time — scribbled in pencil, “to keep the writing light and erasable” — captures how corpses were mutilated into instruments of intimidation: “When mere death no longer instills fear in the population the stakes must be raised the people must be made to see that not only will they die but die slowly and brutally.”
Behind most of the killings during El Salvador’s 12-year civil war were government forces, which were in turn bolstered by American money and American training. Forché alludes to the political context in the book, but the shape of her memoir hews closely to what she herself saw and heard — and how, out of the horror, she began to discern what she needed to do.
Forché returned to the United States to write what she called “a poetry of witness” (“born to an island of greed / and grace where you have this sense / of yourself as apart from others”), married a war photographer, had a child. “You have to be able to see the world as it is, to see how it is put together, and you have to be able to say what you see,” Gómez said, but he left it up to Forché to figure out the rest for herself. “I do not have your answers,” he told her. “I am just a man.”
Follow Jennifer Szalai on Twitter: @jenszalai.
What You Have Heard Is True: A Memoir of Witness and Resistance
By Carolyn Forché
Illustrated. 390 pages. Penguin Press. $28.
A version of this article appears in print on , Section C, Page 2 of the New York edition with the headline: Called to See War’s Horrors, a Poet Doesn’t Blink. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1472
|
__label__wiki
| 0.989619
| 0.989619
|
Petition to save archery club from council enforcement exceeds 1,100 signatures
David Hannant Local Democracy Reporter
Jon Hancock, founder of Holt Woodland Archery and Air Gun Club. Picture: Archant
A petition calling on North Norfolk District Council to ditch enforcement action against an archery club has received more than 1,000 signatures in less than a week.
Holt Woodland Archery and Air Gun Club, which has been ordered to shut down. Picture: Archant
The council has ordered Holt Archery and Air Gun Club, which is nestled in 11-acres of woodland in High Kelling, to close down in a row over planning permission.
The club, which is based on private land, was formed nine years ago by Jon Hancock, and is known for providing a sanctuary for ex-military personnel - among others.
However, following noise complaints from those living nearby, the council has decided to take action against the club, arguing it requires planning permission to operate.
But in the last week, a petition against the enforcement has been set up and by Tuesday morning had been signed by 1,176 people and counting.
Mr Hancock, who set up the club to help him with his own wellbeing, said: "I'm truly humbled by the level of support I have received in the past week.
"I don't particularly like too much attention myself, but people have said such kind things - it's humbling."
Mr Hancock has lodged an appeal against the enforcement with the Planning Inspectorate, in hope of being able to continue running the club.
He added: "I've never run the place as a business and have spent a lot of time making it what it is, so to be honest it all seems a bit churlish."
Meanwhile, a former Holt councillor has also written to the council urging them to reconsider.
Michael Baker, who represented the ward on North Norfolk District Council, wrote: "Here we have a privately-funded operation which carries out an excellent job on behalf of our ex-servicemen - a job which should be funded by the taxpayer - and which the district council sees fit to destroy.
"When I was a councillor we bent the rules for the greater good."
A spokesman for NNDC said: "As a council, we do not believe we have ever "bent rules" on such issues and it is important the public has faith in the fairness, proportionality and transparency in all our process, including planning.
"On that basis, as an active case, it is not appropriate to add any further information other than to confirm it continues to work with Mr Hancock as the planning enforcement appeal proceeds."
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1475
|
__label__wiki
| 0.996222
| 0.996222
|
Pettitte throws complete game in final start
KRISTIE RIEKEN
Sep 29, 2013 at 12:01 AM Sep 29, 2013 at 12:16 PM
When Andy Pettitte envisioned how his final start would play out, he imagined a lot of scenarios.
Pitching a complete game was definitely not one of them.
But the 41-year-old left-hander did just that, throwing a five-hitter for his first complete game since 2006 to lead the New York Yankees over his hometown Houston Astros 2-1 on Saturday night.
"It couldn't end any better," Pettitte said, trying to hold back tears.
Two days after Mariano Rivera's finale in front of an emotional crowd at Yankee Stadium, Pettitte followed his teammate into retirement and left only Derek Jeter left from the Core Four who earned five World Series rings with the Yankees since 1996.
Pettitte said the last week of this season has been difficult for him.
"It's been terrible because I know it's over," Pettitte said. "It's a shame you get old."
Chris Carter singled with two outs in the ninth, ending a string of 11 straight batters retired by Pettitte. Yankees manager Joe Girardi came to the mound, had a brief conversation with Pettitte, then returned to the dugout.
Girardi said he left it up to Pettitte as to whether he wanted to stay in the game.
With the crowd on its feet and cameras flashing, J.D. Martinez hit a game-ending groundout to third baseman Eduardo Nunez, giving Pettitte his 26th complete game.
Pettitte, who lives in suburban Deer Park, lingered on the field as teammates hugged him — including Jeter, Rivera and Girardi, Pettitte's former catcher.
The Astros stood in front of their dugout, applauding, and fans chanted "An-dy! An-dy!"
"I don't know how to even take you through it, except I just felt like I wasn't even worthy to have that happening to me," Pettitte said.
Houston extended its team-record losing streak to 14 with its 110th loss of the season.
The oldest starting pitcher in the major leagues, Pettitte finished this season 11-11 and never had a losing record in 18 major league seasons. He was 256-153 with a 3.85 ERA and 2,448 strikeouts during the regular season and excelled in October, where he compiled a record 19 postseason wins.
It was a week of nostalgia for the Yankees. Rivera, the 43-year-old career saves leader, was given an emotional home sendoff Thursday night and said Saturday afternoon that he wouldn't pitch during the season-ending series against the Astros.
"I told Mo I might finish the game off if you're not in the bullpen," Pettitte said.
Rivera was ecstatic that Pettitte finished his career with a complete game.
"I was pulling for him, knowing that he was there alone," Rivera said. "This was his game and we just had to cheer for him, and that's what we did — that's what I did."
Girardi compared Rivera's last appearance to Pettitte's night.
"It was a different feel," he said. "Mo's was about honoring a man that had meant so much, but this really felt like a playoff game, because we wanted this for him so bad."
Pettitte struck out five and walked two in a 115-pitch effort, allowing his only run on Carter's RBI groundout in the fourth. With a sharp slider and cutter, he kept the Astros to 0 for 11 with runners on base.
"I couldn't have dreamed this would have worked out the way it did," Pettitte said. "I'm so thankful and fortunate and blessed and I just feel like God worked this out exactly perfect. Just another day that I'll never forget."
Robinson Cano hit an RBI single in the sixth inning, and New York took the lead when Nunez scored on an embarrassing error later in the inning by catcher Matt Pagnozzi, who accidentally spiked the ball while trying to throw to second on an attempted pickoff.
"I didn't have a grip and I was trying to stop my arm and what happened, happened," Pagnozzi said. "It's pretty tough, especially with the kind of skid we're on right now. Having it come down to being the go-ahead run that scored. Yeah, not something that you want to happen."
Numerous friends and family of Pettitte were on hand, including former Houston teammate Jeff Bagwell. The pair exchanged a hearty embrace before Pettitte took the mound. Making his 438th start for the Yankees, he tied Whitey Ford's team record.
"It was fitting," Jeter said. "It's funny how things work out sometimes. I know he's had some good memories here. He's from here. It was special for him to do it in front of Yankee fans, as well as the Houston fans."
NOTES: The Astros' 323 losses over three seasons are tied with the 1940-42 Philadelphia Phillies for fourth-most in big league history according to STATS, ahead of only the 1962-64 New York Mets (340), the 1963-65 Mets (332) and the 1915-17 Philadelphia Athletics (324). ... Houston starter Paul Clemens allowed two runs and five hits in 5 1-3 innings. ... Yankees 3B Alex Rodriguez said Saturday that he didn't expect to play this weekend because of soreness in his legs.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1478
|
__label__wiki
| 0.941979
| 0.941979
|
Dr. James Dobson
Listen Archives Podcast More...
By Date By Series Series By Topics Topics
Back to All Series
Jim & Jill Kelly
Jim & Jill Kelly: A Family Restored - I
Jim & Jill Kelly: A Family Restored - II
Jim & Jill Kelly: A Marriage Restored, Part 1
Contact Devotionals Articles Cancel
Family Talk Episode Reminder Get a sneak-peek into each new show, delivered straight to your inbox!
Devotions for Married Couples Practical advice and inspiration from Family Talk
Daily Devotions for Parents Practical advice and inspiration from Family Talk
Listen to Family Talk
on Amazon Echo and Google Home
About Family Talk
Family Talk is a Christian non-profit organization located in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Founded in 2010 by Dr. James Dobson, the ministry promotes and teaches biblical principles that support marriage, family, and child-development. Since its inception, Family Talk has served millions of families with broadcasts, monthly newsletters, feature articles, videos, blogs, books and other resources available on demand via its website, mobile apps, and social media platforms.
About Dr. James Dobson
Dr. James Dobson is the Founder and President of Family Talk, a nonprofit organization that produces his radio program, "Dr. James Dobson's Family Talk." He is the author of more than 30 books dedicated to the preservation of the family, including The New Dare to Discipline, Love for a Lifetime, Life on the Edge, Love Must Be Tough, The New Strong-Willed Child, When God Doesn't Make Sense, Bringing Up Boys, Marriage Under Fire, Bringing Up Girls, Head Over Heels and, most recently, Your Legacy: The Greatest Gift.
Dr. Dobson served as an associate clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of Southern California School of Medicine for 14 years and on the attending staff of Children's Hospital of Los Angeles for 17 years. He has been active in governmental affairs and has advised five U.S. presidents on family matters. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Southern California (1967) in the field of child development. He holds 17 honorary doctoral degrees, and was inducted in 2008 into The National Radio Hall of Fame. Dr. Dobson recently received the following awards: Winston Churchill Lifetime Achievement Award from the Faith & Freedom Coalition (2017), Daniel Award from AZ Christian University (2016), and the Defender of Life Award from the Justice Foundation (2015).
Dr. Dobson is married to Shirley and they have two grown children, Danae and Ryan, and two grandchildren. The Dobsons reside in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Contact Family Talk with Dr. James Dobson
E-mail: constituentservices@drjamesdobson.org
Website: http://www.drjamesdobson.org/?memo[source]=FOP
540 Elkton Drive
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1484
|
__label__wiki
| 0.868544
| 0.868544
|
Gemstone crystals found in teeth of 11th-century nun shed light on women's role in creating medieval religious texts
The woman, who was about 45 to 60 years old when she died, was likely a painter of some skill and authority, to be entrusted with such valuable materials
Joseph Brean
More from Joseph Brean
Published on: January 9, 2019 | Last Updated: January 11, 2019 1:53 PM EST
The dental calculus on the lower jaw where a medieval woman entrapped lapis lazuli pigment, seen below centre tooth. The find corroborates other findings that suggest female artisans in that time period were not as rare as previously thought. Christina Warinner/Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History via AP)
The accidental discovery of microscopic crystals of a rare and precious Middle Eastern gemstone embedded in the tooth of an 11th-century German nun has cast a new light on the role of women in painting medieval religious texts, a field traditionally thought to have been dominated by male monks.
The most likely explanation, according to a new scientific paper, is that this woman was a painter using an exquisite blue pigment, which got into her mouth as she used her lips to twist her brush into a fine point.
“It almost looked like robin’s eggs,” said Christina Warinner of the department of archeogenetics at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. She was recalling the discovery of the blue flecks in the tooth with a colleague while both were studying other aspects of the remains such as diet and disease. The teeth are part of a set of 150 or so skeletons, male and female, excavated in 1989 during renovations to a medieval monastery in Germany, which was for men most of its history, but was originally a women’s commune between about AD 1000 and 1200, likely populated with wealthy, educated, literate, religious women.
It later suffered two instances of plague and the effects of battles, leading to a catastrophic fire and dispersal, even murder, of the women.
A magnified view of lapis lazuli particles embedded within the dental calculus of a medieval woman. Monica Tromp
After consulting with a physicist, Warinner learned that the flecks contained two minerals that are only present together in lapis lazuli, a gemstone mined only in a part of northern Afghanistan, and a classic example of a luxury good in medieval Europe and Asia. It was prized for its rich blue colour, and would often be processed into a pigment called ultramarine, which was used in lavish gospels and prayer books produced by hand in European monasteries.
The lapis lazuli crystals were preserved in this woman’s dental plaque, a “sticky bacterial biofilm” that builds up on teeth and can trap particles of whatever is in the mouth, from food starch to plant pollen. If it is not removed as in modern dentistry, it will calcify into a plaque, the only part of the human body that literally fossilizes during life, said Warinner.
An alternative theory to painting is that she was not involved in producing the manuscripts, but rather that she “performed emotive devotional osculation of illuminated books produced by others,” according to the new paper by Warinner and colleagues. In other words, she might have kissed the books, although this theory is less well supported, the authors conclude.
Only scribes and painters of exceptional skill would have been entrusted with its use
How lapis lazuli got to a religious community in northwest Europe is a story of commerce and empire, likely involving Near Eastern gemstone traders, pigment-makers in a major centre such as Alexandria in Egypt, and Venetian traders who dispersed ultramarine dye throughout Europe.
This nun, whoever she was, “was plugged into a vast global commercial network stretching from the mines of Afghanistan to her community in medieval Germany through the trading metropolises of Islamic Egypt and Byzantine Constantinople. The growing economy of 11th-century Europe fired demand for the precious and exquisite pigment that travelled thousands of miles via merchant caravan and ships to serve this woman artist’s creative ambition,” said co-author Michael McCormick of Harvard University.
A study of the nun’s skeletal remains shows she was about 45 to 60 years old when she died, with no obvious trauma or signs of disease.
A page from a Beatus Manuscript circa 1180. Metropolitan Museum of Art via AP
Warinner said a study of the social context of medieval German convents suggests the woman was likely at what the anthropologist called the “upper end of the social scale,” from a family that could afford to send her to such a community.
She was also likely a painter of some skill and authority, to be entrusted with such valuable materials, which would typically be provided by whoever had commissioned the religious text that was being painted.
“Within the context of medieval art, the application of highly pure ultramarine in illuminated works was restricted to luxury books of high value and importance, and only scribes and painters of exceptional skill would have been entrusted with its use,” reads the new paper in the journal Science Advances.
• Email: jbrean@nationalpost.com | Twitter: josephbrean
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1488
|
__label__wiki
| 0.97824
| 0.97824
|
Jay-Z, Beyoncé Release “Family Feud” Music Video
By Abdiel Vallejo-Lopez | January 5, 2018 | 11:48am
Image via UMG/YouTube Music News Jay-Z
It’s out! Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s previously Tidal-exclusive “Family Feud” video, teased last week, has been released on YouTube for the whole world to see. The star-studded music video, directed by Ava DuVernay, tells the story of an alternate future shaped by the writing of a new constitution in the year 2050. The scene opens after an insightful quote by the great American novelist James Baldwin. In the year 2444, actor Michael B. Jordan walks up the stairs to confront his sister on what is meant to be an important day for the royal family. He storms into the room to find his sister, played by the incomparable Thandie Newton, in her room sleeping. Jordan says to his sister, “You have no fucking honor” before her lover gets off the bed and strangles him to death. From there we’re transported into the future, where the narrator works his way back chronologically, showing how this future was formed on women’s empowerment and a new world order. The narration keeps working its way back until now we’re in the year 2018, in a church, with Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s daughter, Blue Ivy, as she is seen walking down the aisle holding her father’s hand. At five minutes, 30 seconds, the music starts. It’s at that point where you can’t help but nod your head in agreement, and in synchronicity with the beat.
The themes of this video are seen clearly from the beginning—first and foremost, black and women empowerment. Director DuVernay shows us in the video the best and worst of humanity as she speculates on what it would take to create a better future for the next generation. The title, “Family Feud,” is represented in the initial scene, as brother and sister murder each other for their rightful place to the throne. However, the song and accompanying video send a message of unity—of ending divide. Interestingly enough, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights has condemned the video, calling it slander towards the Catholic Church by its use of Beyoncé as a priestess, with Jay Z confessing his infidelity to her. On Jan. 2, the Catholic League’s president Bill Donohue released a statement calling the music video “gratuitous as well as exploitative, just the kind of thing we would expect from this genius couple.”
With an all-star roster of around 20 actors jam-packed into this eight-minute video (including notable names like Mindy Kaling, Selma star David Oyelowo and Rashida Jones) it might be hard for the Catholic League to get its message across. Produced by the talented Flying Lotus, it’ll be hard for us to keep from listening to this track over and over again for years to come. One thing we can say to Jay-Z, Beyoncé and all those who worked on this video is: keep ‘em coming.
Watch the “Family Feud” music video below, and read our review of Jay-Z’s 4:44 here.
Recently in Music
Watch The Mountain Goats Play "Sicilian Crest" on The Late Show, Sing "This Year" Live with Stephen Colbert By Marissa Matozzo July 17, 2019
Pixies Debut Bizarro Video for "On Graveyard Hill" By Savannah Sicurella July 17, 2019
Disney Film Music Is Now a Genre unto Itself on Spotify By Christine Fernando July 17, 2019
Listen to Sleater-Kinney’s Raucous The Center Won’t Hold Title Track By Molly Schramm July 17, 2019
More from Jay-Z More
Meek Mill Docuseries Free Meek Gets First Trailer By Christine Fernando June 24, 2019 | 12:12pm
Jay-Z Is the First Rapper to Amass $1 Billion By Molly Schramm June 3, 2019 | 12:35pm
Woodstock 50 Lineup Announced: The Killers, Jay-Z, Dead & Company, Miley Cyrus, Many More By Scott Russell March 20, 2019 | 10:15am
Watch the First Full Trailer for Jay-Z's Rest in Power: The Trayvon Martin Story By Noemi Griffin July 3, 2018 | 2:26pm
Tidal Accused of Falsifying Streaming Numbers By Scott Russell May 9, 2018 | 11:41am
Diddy Is Dethroned as World's Richest Rapper By Matthew Oshinsky March 1, 2018 | 6:10pm
Jay-Z, Beyoncé Release “Family Feud” Music Video By Abdiel Vallejo-Lopez January 5, 2018 | 11:48am
Jay-Z and Beyoncé Tease Dramatic "Family Feud" Video By Lisa Nguyen December 28, 2017 | 1:13pm
Watch Jay-Z's Video for Roots-to-Rise Poem "Dream. On." By Hannah Fleming August 30, 2017 | 3:05pm
JAY-Z Announces Expansive North American Tour By Grant Sharples July 10, 2017 | 1:38pm
The Head and The Heart 2011-11-09T00:00:00-06:00
First Aid Kit 2011-09-19T00:00:00-06:00
Dylan LeBlanc 2016-07-18T00:00:00-06:00
Watch Bob Dylan and Neil Young Share the Stage for the First Time in 25 Years By Marissa Matozzo July 15, 2019
The Cure's New Concert Film Proves They're Still in Their Prime By Lizzie Manno July 12, 2019
10 New Albums to Stream Today By Ellen Johnson & Paste Staff July 12, 2019
Wilco Announce New Album Ode to Joy, Share Lead Single "Love Is Everywhere (Beware)" By Harry Todd July 16, 2019
The Flaming Lips: King's Mouth By Zach Schonfeld July 16, 2019
The 15 Best Songs of June 2019 By Paste Staff July 2, 2019
Watch Lou Reed Perform "Walk on the Wild Side" & More in 1986 By Lizzie Manno July 16, 2019
The 10 Best Jazz Albums of 2018 By Bill Milkowski December 5, 2018
The 20 Best New Artists of 2018 By Ellen Johnson & Paste Staff December 10, 2018
The 50 Sexiest Songs of All Time By Bonnie Stiernberg August 29, 2013
The 10 Best Roots & Blues Albums of 2018 By Geoffrey Himes December 11, 2018
The 20 Best Folk Albums of 2018 By Paste Music Staff December 13, 2018
Guilty Non-Pleasures: Pavement's Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain By Loren DiBlasi April 4, 2018
The 50 Best New Wave Albums By Josh Jackson September 8, 2016
The 15 Best Albums of 1968 By Lee Zimmerman January 17, 2018
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1489
|
__label__cc
| 0.663148
| 0.336852
|
The High Cost of Clean Energy Standards without Efficiency
Marilyn Brown
In his 2011 State of the Union address, President Obama proposed a Clean Energy Standard (CES) requiring that 80 percent of the nation’s electricity come from clean energy resources by 2035. Over the past decade, Congress has debated renewable electricity standards, typically allowing energy efficiency to meet a portion of the target. For example, in 2009, an RES was included in the American Clean Energy Leadership Act of 2009, requiring 15% renewables by 2021, and 27% of this target could be met by energy efficiency. What happened to energy efficiency in the President’s proposal?
A well-designed CES policy would enable better decarbonization pathways.
A CES could achieve multiple goals: reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, spur green technology manufacturing, and diversify the electricity supply.
Critics rightly complain that a poorly designed CES could end up picking winners and losers among competing technologies and could cause a transfer of wealth from those regions of the country with less abundant qualifying energy resources.
A more inclusive CES could address these issues while simultaneously achieving its goals: energy efficiency should be an allowable resource and existing nuclear and hydro should receive clean energy credits.
In late 2011, the Energy Information Administration evaluated two versions of a CES, one proposed by Chairman Ralph Hall (R-TX) of the House Committee on Science and Technology and another by Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. The EIA analysis of these standards shows similar impacts – e.g., significantly less coal, more natural gas and at least a doubling of wind generation by 2035 compared to the EIA reference case projections. The Bingaman standard results in less nuclear power because existing nuclear and hydro do not earn clean energy credits; in contrast, nuclear generation grows by 30% in the Hall version of the standard. Thus, the likelihood of a nuclear renaissance in the U.S. could depend on the CES rules for allocating clean energy credits.
What’s missing from these two proposals? In both cases, CO2 emissions decline significantly, but GDP and employment are negatively impacted. Both standards fail to take advantage of the benefits of promoting greater energy efficiency, which can offset electricity price escalation, improve employment figures, and further reduce CO2 emissions. Because of this omission, both standards prescribe a future energy pathway that would expand the bias of existing policy towards new capacity, without the complementary and equally important objective of managing demand.
Why has energy efficiency been left out of these proposals? Should nuclear be given credit under a CES scheme? How would you optimize the benefits and costs of a CES?
Print This Discussion
Matthew Jordan
Program Manager, CLASP
A PowerPoint outlining Dr. Brown’s analysis is available in our Resources section.
Chief Executive Officer, The Greenlink Group
On the last question: Energy efficiency is important to both national energy security and combating climate change. Numerous studies have shown the significant energy and carbon saving potentials of energy efficiency. A recent study in Energy Policy (Link) on energy use in the South pointed out that energy efficiency can work synergistically with many of the approaches proposed in a CES. Contrary to conventional wisdom that energy efficiency and renewable energy policies are not compatible, the study actually suggests that both work hand-in-hand. As a result, the South could meet projected growth in electricity demand, increase renewable energy use, retire coal-fired plants and achieve significant CO2 emission reductions all at the same time and without escalating electricity rates. By leaving out energy efficiency, the CES proposals missed a critical clean energy solution.
Elias Hinckley
Partner, KL Gates
I think part of the problem is perception – energy efficiency causes demand destruction while all of the alternative technologies included in the CES proposals create new production platforms. This is an over-simplification, the impact of EE isn’t really different than any behind the meter production. Regardless of the true economics (effect on GDP, job creation, etc.), it just seems like the perception is often one of negative economic impact.
With that said, solving the tension between tradition real estate relationships and lender expectations might do more to jump-start broad deployment of EE than inclusion in an energy standard.
I see a lot of projects with good economics that run into 2 related problems 1) lenders/mortgage buyers don’t like material changes to their real estate security interest (yes, I agree that there are lots of situations where this doesn’t make sense as more efficient space should be more valuable, but it happens) and 2) financing is hard for EE investments because the integrated nature of the improvements makes it extremely difficult for an investor or lender for an EE project to have a security interest in the installed property (e.g., how much are lighting controls worth if you pull them out of a building when the host defaults?). The other issue is the principle/agent challenge – is it the landlord or the tenant that has an interest in the EE investment and is that the same party that controls decisions regarding building systems.
As each of these issues becomes less of a hurdle there is a natural acceleration in EE adoption that will occur. Policy or platforms that could accelerate the resolution of these challenges might be a good alternative to inclusion in a CES.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1496
|
__label__wiki
| 0.898321
| 0.898321
|
Cemetery Tour
Home/Tours/Cemetery Tour
Saints and Sinners - The Corkscrew City Tour
Salmon Tour
Summer Ghost Walks
Waterfalls Tour
Wiidosendiwag-Walking Together Tour Owen Sound
About Owen Sound
Farmers' Markets and Local Food
Parks Trails and Scenic Lookouts
Greenwood Cemetery, "The People's Cemetery," is home to many of Owen Sound's luminaries, from political leaders, ship captains and Victoria Cross winners to remarkable women, African Americans, athletes, pioneers and religious, business and medical leaders. It was established in 1858.
Three walking tours are outlined below. Guided tours are available during the city's annual Doors Open event in June. More information about Tour 1, Tour 2, and Tour 3 are available on this website.
The following information is provided for Tour 1 - a walking tour of Greenwood Cemetery.
Standing at the flag pole, walk east toward the entrance gate to the water tap.
The Carney monument is the grey stone that has been carved to look like stones. Richard Carney came to Sydenham around 1843. He built a log house on Marsh Street (2nd Ave. East) and was named "Collector" for the port in 1844. He was also appointed Justice of the Peace. As editor of an early newspaper, the Times, he was a prominent figure in the community. Elected in 1857, Carney was the first mayor of Owen Sound.
Head north one row toward the chapel and look for a simple white slab marker on your left at the end of the row next to the grass path, writing on the west side.
One of the oldest recorded burials at Greenwood is Ellen Harrison. She was the first wife of John Harrison who came to the area with his brothers and set up the flour and sawmills at the Milldam. At 20 years old, Ellen died while delivering a baby girl, Helen. Just beside this stone, across the grass path, you'll find Hannah and Robert Harrison. The couple raised Helen until her death at age 6. Robert, the brother of John Harrison, helped to quell the Fenian Raids as a member of the 31st Regiment, the local militia. Unfortunately he was ill when he returned from the assignment and died in 1866.
Looking toward the chapel, there is a large dark grey monument with an urn on top by the tree.
Mary Stephens Doyle was a remarkable woman. A member of the Disciples of Christ Church, that supported Temperance, she formed the Women's Prohibition Society in 1874. Later, this group became the Women's Christian Temperance Union. It was the first group of its kind in Canada and exerted a great deal of influence. Mrs. Doyle was President after a short time. Owen Sound voted to be dry in 1906 and was so until 1973 when the wet vote won. Mary Doyle, considered to be the "Mother of the W.C.T.U. in Canada," died at the age of 63.
Immediately to the south of the Doyle stone is Mary's brother, Alexander M. Stephens who was one of the first Europeans to arrive in this area. In the early 1840s he was a young labourer working on the Garafraxa Road, connecting Guelph to the village of Sydenham (Owen Sound). By 1842 he settled in the little village working for W.C. Boyd, a storekeeper. Stephens was Town Clerk the next year. From labourer to mayor, he was elected to this office in 1865, 1866 and 1872. Stephens wrote an early account of life here entitled The Early Days of Owen Sound. This book is available at the Owen Sound Public Library.
Directly south is William A. Stephens. He was appointed customs collector in 1851 and notary public five years later. Stephens was mayor in 1869. He advocated for Temperance and appeared before council in 1886 asking to limit the number of liquor outlets. Council agreed to consider the proposal. The following delegation were hotel owners asking for their hours to be extended.
Continuing south, next to Stephens is Samuel Oliver. Oliver was the owner of the Oliver- Rogers quarry on the east side of Owen Sound. In 1924, he and two of his employees were killed in an explosion at the quarry. Solomon Earle, a labourer, is also buried in the cemetery. Notice this marker and compare it later to Solomon Earle's.
Look straight ahead, toward the ravine, to the black Bishop stone.
The Victoria Cross is the highest award given to British and Commonwealth forces for gallantry in the face of the enemy. A unique feature of Greenwood Cemetery is that it has three Victoria Cross winners. The Canadian Legion in Owen Sound has replica medals on display.
On the west side of the black stone, marks Victoria Cross winner William Avery Bishop, known by most as Billy Bishop: WW 1 Flying Ace. Look also for the flat marker. Billy Bishop was patrolling in the early morning over France in 1917 when he saw several aircraft about to take off from an airport. He fired at two, hitting one and diverting the other. Another two aircraft approached and he fired, causing one to crash and the other to dive away. Billy Bishop's childhood home is now a museum located on 3rd Ave. West in Owen Sound. It is designated as a National Historic Site. C.B. - Companion of the Most Honourable Order of Bath; D.S.O. - Distinguished Service Order; M.C. - Military Cross; D.F.C. - Distinguished Flying Cross; E.D. - Efficiency Decoration.
The large white monument in front of the Bishop marker is for the Frost family. John Frost (1869) served as mayor of the town in 1868 and was an early magistrate. The west side of 10th Street was originally called Frost Street in his honour. His wife Mary (1903) raised 13 children and participated actively in their mercantile business. One son, John W. Frost (1908), was mayor from 1892 to 1893, served as town solicitor, and assisted with the publication of Mr. Henson's account of his journey to Canada, Broken Shackles. Alfred John Frost (1936) is reputed to have built the first gas powered automobile in Canada. Later, A.J. Frost sold Studebakers from a garage behind his house.
The second monument belongs to the Jones family. The Jones family were early settlers in the township of Derby; Samuel Ayres Jones set up a saw mill on the Pottawatomi River near Jones Falls. Many of the logs sawn there went to build the stores in downtown Owen Sound. Visit Jones Falls at the Pottawatomi Conservation Area.
Following the pathway from the chapel along the ravine, you'll see the large monuments called the Vaults. In 1859, a single lot in the cemetery cost $3, whereas a double lot cost $5. A lot with four plots cost a family $8 while the vaults cost $12 each.
Dr. Edward Horsey was elected MP in 1900 as a Liberal with the Wilfred Laurier government. While MP he introduced the Victoria Day Act which made the 24th of May a permanent public holiday. Dr. Horsey was killed in 1902 at the age of 35. While touring through the Sun Cement Works, of which he was Vice-President, the drive wheel flew off and hit him. His funeral was one of the largest ever in Owen Sound: businesses and factories closed early; the streets were lined with people; there were floral tributes from all over; and a telegram arrived from Laurier.
George Snider was the Crown Lands Agent and Sheriff for the area. The first MP in the new riding of Grey North after Confederation, he was an elected Liberal MP in 1867 sitting as the opposition for two terms. In 1873 he and his party were elected to govern under the leadership of the Hon. Alexander Mackenzie until Snider was defeated in 1878.
William Roy Esq. was one of the wealthiest men in the area. He was born in Scotland and came to Canada at a young age with his brother to start a dry goods business. Eventually he purchased Royston Park, which was a large waterfront estate on Grey Road 1, near what is now VanVugt's Nursery. Owen Sound benefited from his generosity when he donated $2000 to the construction of the General and Marine Hospital.
It is important to note that many of the large, older monuments you see in Greenwood were erected without benefit of machinery. The fact that men manoeuvred the heavy stones into place makes them all the more impressive.
William Soro Middlebro, a lawyer, served as mayor of Owen Sound in 1899 and 1900. He was elected at the age of 29. He was elected MP in 1908 to 1921. Until 1917, he sat in the opposition as a Conservative. During World War I he ran as a Unionist under the leadership of Sir Robert Borden and was named Chief Government Whip. This government also introduced the 'temporary' income tax.
J.P. Coulson arrived in Owen Sound in 1854 and began to work as a hotelkeeper at a small hotel. Business was profitable so he built a much larger hotel in the same location. The British Hotel was on the corner across from city hall. Coulson also ran an extensive stage coach business. He died at the age of 42.
The Eaton family ran a brewing company in Owen Sound. Mrs. Annie Jaffray Eaton, widowed in 1914, followed her son Jaffray to England during the Great War. She organized and financed the "Grey Rooms" in London, an area where young men from Grey County could meet, rest and dine. Mrs. Eaton, with the help of Mrs. Howey and Mrs. Horsey and several other women checked hospital lists daily, wrote letters to the wounded and arranged entertainment. When Annie Eaton died a volley was fired across her open grave and the bugler played the Last Post and Reveille. There is a memorial to her at the St. George's Church parkette at Salvation Corners.
Just beyond the vault lots, next to the ravine, is a grassy area with a few markers. This area has been referred to locally as "Pauper's Field" or the "Indigent area." It was determined in 1858 that Block F of the People's Cemetery was to be used for those who could not pay for their burial, or for "strangers" who died within the limits of the town.
In this grassy area you will find several markers. When the water reservoir on 8th St. E. was undergoing renovation in 1989, four unmarked graves were discovered. Following a brief service, these bodies were re-interred here. Find the flat marker.
The solitary marker on the far side of the field is for Sarah Boardley. Sarah died in November 1890 at the estimated age of 52 years. She had 12 children. Boardley's grandson, Wilson Woodbeck was a baritone singer who sang at Carnegie Hall and on Broadway in the 1940s.
Sarah's husband, Thomas Miller was an early settler in the area. Both of Thomas's parents were sold into slavery from Africa. He and his family were able to escape from the state of Maryland into Canada sometime around 1838. In 1851 he arrived in the Owen Sound area with four other ex-slaves. A well-respected lay preacher for the "Zion Church" and then the British Methodist Episcopal, Thomas helped to build a permanent building for the congregation on 2nd Ave. West. He died October 1911 at around 99 years old.
Also buried here is another escaped slave John 'Daddy' Hall, an early resident in Owen Sound. He lived on a tract of land referred to as the Pleasure Grounds (now Victoria Park). He participated in the War of 1812 as a scout. Daddy Hall was a popular man in the community and served as town crier for many years, announcing sales and important news twice a day. He died in 1900 and is said to have been 117 years old. A plaque with more detail about his life and photos can be found outside of Owen Sound's City Hall in Hero's Square.
Turn up the path running east - from this path you can see the Long headstone, first row and half way in facing the ravine.
Facing the road are two of three brothers who were all Captains. Captain Osburn Stephen Long captained the 'S.S. Norisle' for 21 years. When he retired in 1967 he had 46 years service with the Owen Sound Transportation Co. with time out in 1942-1946 when he was skipper-lieutenant on a minesweeper. Captain Alexander 'Sandy' Long was also a sailor all of his life.
Return to the road heading east.
Straight ahead, beside the path you can see the Fleming stone. Christopher Alexander Fleming began as a teacher but in 1881 founded the Northern Business College; he served as its principal for 56 years. Business textbooks were hard to find so he began to write his own, and purchased a printing press that operated out of the basement of his College. From this small beginning he built Fleming Publishing Co. Ltd which published the Daily Sun Times. He became President of Richardson, Bond & Wright Ltd., which is now RBW Transcontinental, a national printing company. He was also involved in radio as a director of the Grey and Bruce Broadcasting Co., Ltd. - owners of CFOS in Owen Sound.
Walking down the row, look for a low black stone.
You'll find the first female City Alderman: Annette Jean Honsinger. She was first elected in 1938 and then re-elected several times in the 1940s. During her time on council Mrs. Honsinger committed herself to the work of the welfare department and won a commendation for her service as chairperson on that committee. In 1947 she was appointed to the Board of Health. Honsinger also belonged to the Ladies of the Moose and the Women's Institute.
Continue north in this row.
Watch for the Gordon stone on your right. Here is the headstone for Private H.W. Bagnall. You'll see his military number and notice that he was in the Machine Gun Section of the 4th C.M.R. which means the 4th Canadian Mounted Rifles. This Battalion was one of the most heavily decorated during WW I, including a Victoria Cross for Tommy Holmes (on tour).
Across the grass path to the west beside the water tap you'll see the Lediard marker. Miss Grace Lediard worked as a secretary at the Town Hall for successive mayors. In 1919 she was the first woman elected to the local Board of Education. She was an alderman in 1940 and again in 1942, however she resigned so that the City clerk could be released for military duty. Her most passionate work was as a volunteer for the Save the Children Fund. She was involved with the organization before there was a Canadian Chapter, working with the British group. Her house was the local headquarters, receiving clothing and supplies that she in turn shipped to Toronto.
Two rows east, walking down the row, look for the Myers and Skinner headstones on your left. They have interesting carvings showing the "Gates Ajar." As you head to the road, look for the many square pillars with an open bible on top.
In the circle, at the quiet north end of the cemetery, you'll find a large pink monument for the Scarrow family. Sarah and William resided near Keady for 30 years on a bush farm. The labour was hard and so when they retired the couple moved to town.
Captain John Wharry lies beside. He sailed the Great Lakes from the age of 12 and retired in 1920. The Captain had pilot papers from the Lakehead to Sydney Nova Scotia. As the family story goes, he picked himself a spot in the cemetery in the north so that the North Star could guide him.
Walking back along the road you'll come across the Howey stone. Dr. Richard Howey was nick named 'Dry Doc' because of his support of the Temperance movement. During WWI he enlisted in the Medical Corps. Mrs. Howey assisted Annie Eaton with the Grey Rooms in England. The Drys and the Wets were able to work together.
On the left side of the road you'll find James E. Mitchell, a tailor in Owen Sound. Mitchell caught pneumonia and died at the age of 45. The Woodmen of the World Logo that you see on the headstone represents a fraternal society that also offered life and health insurance. The organization ensured a decent burial for all members giving a free voucher for a headstone.
Look for the small black Cameron marker on the right. On the west side of this stone is Mayor Alan S. Stewart who was born in P.E.I. He came to Owen Sound to set up a law practice in 1932. From 1935 to '37 he was an alderman on city council and then was elected mayor in 1938 for two years. During WWII he served with the Grey-Simcoe Foresters and held the rank of Major. After the war, he was appointed Judge of Grey County.
The grey cross marks Dr. Charles E. Barnhart, mayor from 1880 to 1883. In addition he was the Warden for Grey County. A medical doctor from the University of Toronto, Barnhart was a partner in the drugstore 'Barnhart & Wagstaffe' but sold it to 'Parker & Cattle' in 1862. He was also the Medical Officer of Health in Sarawak Township.
Continuing down the road and looking a couple of rows in at the grass path, you'll find the Cruickshank marker, on the west side of which lies Captain William Lance Cruickshank who spent his 50-year career on the Great Lakes. He sailed on the 'S.S. Manitoulin' and then on the ferry 'S.S. Norgoma' before becoming Captain of the 'M.S. Chi-Cheemaun.' During WWII he was with the Merchant Marine.
Two stones to the south of the Cruickshank marker is Captain Peter McKay who worked for the Canada Steamship Lines on the passenger steamers: 'Noronic,' 'Hamonic,' and the 'Huronic.' The 'Noronic' was the flagship of the Canada Steamship Lines, affectionately called the "Queen of the Inland Seas" with curving carved staircases and teak, cherry and oak walls.
On the opposite side of the road is a plain black monument for Captain Peter Telfer. His father was John Telfer, land agent, who worked with Charles Rankin, the surveyor to settle the area around Owen Sound in the 1840s.
Three rows in on the other side of the road is a black headstone marked "Witherspoon." You'll find Matthew R. Duncan written on the west side. Duncan, a merchant on the main street, kept his store open until midnight on Saturdays. He was a popular politician, starting at age 25 and often headed the polls. He was Mayor in 1905 and that year laid the cornerstone for the brick chapel at the cemetery. From 1921 until 1926 he was MP for the area as a Conservative.
Defeating Matthew Duncan in 1926 was Liberal William Pattison Telford. Continuing towards the road, his marker can be found right beside the path on the corner of the section. A lawyer, Telford was an MP with William Lyon Mackenzie King until 1930 when R.B. Bennett's Conservatives defeated the Liberals. Telford was re-elected in 1936 through WWII until 1944.
Continue walking along the road southward.
The 2nd row in from the pathway to your right is the pink Breckenridge family headstone. Robert Breckenridge was a cabinetmaker and undertaker in the early days of Owen Sound. He was a member of the 31st Regiment and helped to quell the Fenian raids. His son, Robert Andrew, was a partner in the funeral business. Their funeral home was on Main Street between 8th and 9th Streets. The Ashcroft family became a partner in the business and eventually sole owner. In 1942 the funeral home was moved to its current location which was the former home of A.J. Frost (on tour).
To the left of the Breckenridge stone, a grassy path extends westward. Walk down the grassy path toward the ravine.
On the south, about the 6th row is a marker for Captain Richard D. Simpson who sailed and survived the ill-fated 'S.S. Algoma' that wrecked on Lake Superior November 7, 1885. He worked at the Simpson Shipyard in Owen Sound and in 1904 worked for John Harrison and Sons. His father, Captain George W. Simpson sailed for 36 years and later became foreman at Simpson's Shipyard.
Right beside, you'll find a grey headstone, with writing on the west side. Laura "Maggie" Moore trained as a nurse and graduated in 1896 winning a gold medal. She nursed in private homes and then operated her own maternity hospital for over 40 years. From 1919 until 1940 the hospital was located at what is now the Highland Manor B & B at the top of West Hill. Over 2000 births are recorded as taking place under Miss Moore's care.
Almost directly in front of this stone is the Eberle monument. Robena Eberle was a member of the Baptist church. She was a prominent member of the Women's Christian Temperance Union and President of the Women's Baptist Foreign Mission Society. Although it was a stormy February day, the attendance at Mrs. Eberle's funeral was large.
In the next row directly west is Private Ben Allen from the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry. On the west side of the marker, is Benjamin Allen. From 1882 until 1887 Allen was MP for the riding of Grey North. He was a merchant and a member of the Liberal Party.
Beside the Allen marker to the north across the path is the stone for David Anderson Creasor, mayor of Owen Sound from 1882 until 1884. He is the only mayor to die in office. During Creasor's tenure as mayor the first telephone service began in Owen Sound in 1884 with the central office being in Parker's Drugstore. At the top of the headstone is the Mason's symbol.
Ahead to the west, look for the Manley marker. On the west side of this grey headstone is Samuel J. Lane. He was mayor in 1875 and '76, but was Reeve of Owen Sound, representing the town at County Council from 1865 until 1872. Lane was a lawyer and served as Queen's Council. In 1878 he was elected to the House of Commons as a Liberal Conservative until 1882. In his later years, Lane was appointed Judge of Grey County.
Return to the pathway and walk south.
Henry Kelso taught at Cape Croker, Stayner, Lion's Head and in Saskatchewan. When he returned he became Principal at Victoria School and then Strathcona School until 1930. He was responsible for organizing and sponsoring many of the playgrounds and skating rinks in town and was a supporter of the Greys Junior hockey team teaching many of the young players. Kelso's death remains a mystery. Although an expert sailor, he carried a guide's licence, his 30 foot cabin cruiser was found drifting off of Hope Bay. Even though the weather had been calm, Kelso was found drowned a few days later. Henry Kelso is in the City's "Sports Hall of Fame" at the Harry Lumley Bayshore Community Centre as a builder of sport. Kelso Beach Park on the west side of the bay is named in his honour.
Down the path, to the south on the Dunn stone is Captain Lauchlan MacIntyre. His early ships were the 'Forestdale,' 'Blanche Hindman,' and the 'Elmdale.' The 'Blanche Hindman' was a bulk carrier built in 1924.
Across from this, on the east is a white obelisk for Dr. Thomas Middlebro. Dr. Middlebro was a distinguished surgeon - training in Toronto, England, Austria. In 1893 he became head of the medical and surgical staff at the General and Marine Hospital and a member of the Ontario Medical Council. He was a charter member of the Kiwanis Club and worked to help underprivileged children.
Stop at the 2nd gravestone south of Dr. Middlebro. Between 1940 and 1957, Ewart John Creeper was cemetery caretaker. Before his appointment to Greenwood, he had a partnership in a hardware business. Creeper was instrumental in organizing the local Air Cadets. He was a member of an indoor baseball club and refereed hockey. He was also chairperson for the Board of Education and the Parks Board.
Turn west onto the grass path.
On the south side is what remains of an elaborate fence, which was erected by two families. There is very little information about this area.
You'll notice the tall red Moore obelisk also to the south. On the south side is Miss Catherine Moore, chief librarian at the Owen Sound Public Library. She was described as "quiet and modest" and in 1916 earned $500 a year.
Continue walking along the grass path to the paved road.
In front of you is a short pink headstone. Catherine Andrew attended the Ontario College of Art after becoming a teacher. For many summers 'Kate' travelled to Mutton Bay, Labrador, a remote-fishing village, to help the women design rugs that were sold throughout North America. She was a very active person - travelling throughout Europe and North America to paint and teach. At the age of 92 Kate had a show at the Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery. She died in her 100th year.
Looking to the north, the simple little cross is the Venerable Archdeacon Mulholland. Born in Ireland, Mulholland came to Canada in the 1850s to enter the missionary field. He was ordained in Toronto by Bishop Strachan. When he asked about the limits of his diocese, he was told "to go on until he met the next man." He established an Anglican church in Derby and St. George's Church in Owen Sound. He worked here until he retired due to a failing voice in 1892. He was also chairman of the Board of Education for 25 years and a member of the horticultural society.
At the Andrew marker, continue walking west toward the ravine along the grass path.
On the right you'll see the only wooden marker at Greenwood. It is a memorial for Captain Edward Wilkes who is buried at the British cemetery of Duisans at Etrun France. He was 26 when he died.
Turn south down the row. Until you come to the grey coloured Christie marker.
David Christie (1902) was one of the old pioneers, arriving in Owen Sound in 1851 from the Orkney Islands. He started Christie's Foundry but after marrying a Corbet, he went into business with her brother George.
Walk to the grass path just one row west. Follow the path southward to the paved road.
The roadway that leads from the black wrought iron gates to the chapel was the original entrance into the cemetery. The entrance was built to accommodate horses and carriages. It was the job of the cemetery caretaker to close the gates at sunset and to open them at sunrise.
Look for the large white monument to the south of the circle.
Matthew Kennedy Sr. was the second son of William Kennedy, an early businessman in Owen Sound (also buried here). Wm. Kennedy & Sons, his father's business, which Matthew took over after his father's death, began as a small planing mill and developed into a steel foundry producing items such as large propellers and turbines on 1st Ave. West. He was an involved member of the community and was elected mayor in the 1890s.
Walking away from the chapel, about 6 rows east of the Kennedy marker, you'll find the Branston marker, 4 markers in from the road. William Branston was born a slave in Virginia but escaped to Canada. He worked on the Great Lakes as a cook and it was the 'Campana' that brought him to Owen Sound around 1855. It is recorded that William was 104 years old when he died. His first wife was Jane Branston, born in Chatham, and his second wife was Frances. They had no children.
Across from the Branston marker you'll find a larger red stone for Frederick W. Harrison. He was the son of John Harrison, the founder of John Harrison & Sons Co.- a large sawmill industry. Harrison served as mayor in 1909 and 1910. He is noted for financially supporting many community projects such as the expansion of the hospital.
West of the Harrisons you will find the McPhee marker for Captain Malcolm and his wife Emma McPhee. Capt. McPhee was on the 'S.S. Keewatin' of the CPR Great Lakes Fleet. The Keewatin, a passenger steamship, sailed from Owen Sound to Port Arthur and Fort William beginning in 1908 until the CPR removed their fleet of ships from Owen Sound to Port McNicoll in 1912. He retired in 1929 from the Keewatin after 22 years of sailing. The Keewatin is now a Maritime Museum in Douglas, Michigan.
S. S. Keewatin
Return to the path and walk east toward the gate.
Look for a pink stone named Winter. Annie Winter was the matron at the Children's Shelter in Owen Sound for many years. The shelter was at 313 2nd Ave. East.
Look to the south for a red obelisk with an urn. George Spencer (1905) and two friends walked to Guelph to get their teacher's certificates. Later, he was appointed assessor of Sydenham (the village) and was placed under arrest for contempt of court by Richard Carney (on tour) during a debate about whether the village should be assessed with Derby or Sydenham Township. Lord Elgin, governor of Canada, settled the dispute during a visit here, having the town incorporated in 1857. In 1876 Spencer was appointed police magistrate.
Two rows over to the west, Richard Notter lies beneath this short white obelisk. He was born in Ireland and came to this area at the age of 25. He ran a grocery and general store. In 1877 and '78, as mayor he oversaw the improvement of the harbour, built an armouries and a firehall. He partnered with S.J. Parker to begin the Owen Sound water works and was the director of the Toronto, Grey and Bruce Railway. He died at the young age of 43.
West of the Notter gravestone are two large, flat markers for Reverend Colin C. Stewart and his wife. Rev. Stewart was born in Nova Scotia in 1841. He wanted to be in the ministry so he taught in order to pay for his education. He was a Hebrew and Greek scholar at McGill University and theological studies at Dalhousie University. In 1870 he was ordained by the request of the congregation at Division Street Church. Shortly after, his health began to fail and in 1874 he passed away at the age of 33.
Look for the red, square Parker gravestone to the south and over a few rows to the west. S.J. Parker was an innovator, responsible for the development of almost all of the public utilities in this City. He took over as county treasurer from his father-in-law in 1873 until he retired, when his nephew took over. Among many endeavours, he was instrumental in the establishment of the Owen Sound Water Works, the Electric Light Company, Owen Sound Telephone Company, and the Owen Sound Steamship Co. For more information see the plaque at the Market Building.
Return to the Notter headstone and then follow the grass path southward until you reach the bench by the paved road.
Near the road, by the bench in an unmarked grave is Jeremiah Cousby, who lived in the city for 71 years. Cousby, an African- American, was voted the most popular merchant in Owen Sound in a contest in 1907. He ran a sweet shop, which was the first shop to sell Coca-Cola. He was also a trustee of the B.M.E. church.
Cross over the paved road. This portion of the cemetery opened in approximately 1893. The maple trees lining the road are over 110 years old. Walk straight, along the fence line.
Near the fence is a square, black headstone, carved to look like a pile of stones. William M. Matthews was an avid cricketer and hotelman. He purchased the Queen's Hotel, which was one of the leading 'commercial houses.' After retiring, he became the land steward of Canadian Pacific Lake Steamship lines. Seeing that the Paterson House was failing, he purchased it and made it one of the most prosperous in the Dominion. When he died, the funeral cortege was 3 blocks long. Almost everybody in the hotel industry was present, and the flags at all of the hotels in town were lowered to half-mast.
Directly to the west and over 3 rows is a short, grey pillar with a rounded top. Here you'll find Thomas Gordon's marker. Gordon, 41 years old, was an engineer who was killed accidentally at the CP roundhouse. A locomotive was entering the yard when an acetylene gas generator used to light the complex exploded.
Look to the north, beside the large tree. Be sure to examine the Vernon gravestone. Alexander Vernon played an active role in the city's business affairs. He was in BC on business with the mining company that he represented when he fell ill. He was 43 when he died. His widow, MaryAnn moved to Detroit to live with her son Hunter but was buried here when she died.
The flat markers beginning just east of the tree and down the length of this section to the cottage are infant burials.
Walk north to the paved road and head toward the cottage.
On the south side, the headstone by the road is for John Harrison who, with his brothers William and Robert, ran a sawmill and gristmill by the Milldam. Upon the death of his brother Robert (on tour), William purchased all of the shares of the Harrison Mills and John purchased land by the mouth of the Pottawatomi River and began John Harrison & Sons Co. 123 carriages were in his funeral procession.
Facing the Harrison stone is Victor Inglis. He was the grandson of the original Inglis (Peter) who started the gristmill in 1845 at Inglis Falls. Victor and his father William carried on the business until 1932 when the property was sold to the city for its water rights. For more information go to the Inglis Falls Conservation Area.
Walk toward the cottage, just past the large Brown monument.
Look for the McDonald headstone to the south. Leslie McDonald spent almost three years overseas during WWI. He returned in 1919 and got a job with the Post Office. He was very active in the sporting life of Owen Sound as both a player and an executive. He belonged to the Crescent Athletic Club and was manager of the Owen Sound Greys for a couple of years. He was also an organizer of the City Hockey League. He was 47 years old when he died.
The Caretaker's Cottage is typical of the "Ontario Cottage" style of building. Portions of the Caretaker's Cottage are thought to be the oldest in the City. Mr. Samuel Flowers owned the house and land when the City purchased the cemetery. One theory is that the McDougalls, who were shipbuilders, built the house around 1848 and sold to Mr. Flowers. Another theory is that Mr. Flowers had the house built as relatives of Mr. Flowers claim.
Through the history of the cemetery until the 1990s, the Caretaker has lived in the cottage. In 1914, Herbert Treleaven was hired as Caretaker and earned $425 a year, plus free rent of the house. By 1925, the salary was $1200 plus free rent of the house and barn. In the 1990s this building was converted to a reception area and office.
Construction began on the mausoleum in 1927 and was completed in 1930. The Canadian Mausoleum Company built similar style mausoleums in Guelph, Hamilton, Stratford and Kitchener. Constructed of Indiana limestone on the outside and Italian marble in the interior, the building is a fine example of the Moderne style of architecture. Inside, the plasterwork has recently been restored to its original paint colours and detailing. The Tiffany-style stained glass windows at each end of the mausoleum are evocative of the beginning and the end - morning and evening. There are two family crypts - the Butcharts and the Harrisons.
In the north wing (to the right) lies Captain George Hindman. At an early age he worked on the steamer 'Canada' between Owen Sound and the Balmy Beach Hotel. He became Captain of the tug 'Keenan' in the 1920s. His c o m p a n y - Hindman Timber Co. purchased its first Laker in 1940- the 'George Hindman.' His business grew - becoming the Hindman Transportation Company and owning seven Lakers. He is inscribed in the Great Lakes Marine Hall of Fame.
Find Robert D. Little in the central room. Little came to Owen Sound to open up a butcher's shop with his brother. While on town council he represented the dry vote, pushing for 'Local Option.' He was mayor in 1916 and '17. Little also managed the Seldon Hotel as a temperance hotel.
Look in the south wing (to the left) for George Marron. Mayor in 1940 and '41, Marron is known as the Father of Christmas Cheer in Owen Sound. He organized the distribution of Christmas baskets and treats during the Depression years. Out of his actions grew the Annual CFOS Christmas Fund.
Exiting the mausoleum, look left. The pathway leading down the ravine out of the Cemetery with the yellow barrier is called the Nine Bends road. The road was closed to vehicular traffic in the 1990s.
Left of the Nine Bends Road, on the hill is the Independent Order of Odd Fellow's Monument for those lost in the Great War. From the late 1890s, the local Odd Fellow group held an annual 'Decoration Day.' In 1904, the 31st Regiment Band accompanied the Odd Fellows from their hall downtown to Greenwood. Also joining them were the Canadian Order of Foresters, the Sons of England and the Orange Lodge. After a short service, member's graves were tidied and flowers were laid in their memory. The three rings that you see represent friendship, love and truth. Look for this symbol throughout the cemetery.
Next to the monument is one of two Legion plots donated by the City. They provide a resting-place for veterans who can not afford to purchase a lot. Many of the veterans here are from World War I. On some of the headstones you may see "147th Grey (Overseas) Battalion." They were formed locally and sent overseas in 1916 to train. The group was disbanded in England and its personnel were used as reinforcements. Look for the "R.N.C.V.R." on one of the slabs. This acronym stands for the "Royal Navy Canadian Volunteer Reserve." During WWI they kept the shipping lanes clear in the North Sea and the English Channel.
Walk behind the Odd Fellows monument, toward the ravine.
Mayor in 1911 - 1913, Elias Lemon was the owner of the Grand Central Hotel on 3rd Ave. E. at 10th St. Elias brought Royal Swans from England, which were a gift from the King, and built a swan house on the west bank of the river opposite his home. The descendants of these royal swans still ply the Sydenham River.
To the north is a large headstone facing the ravine. John Kilbourn returned to Owen Sound in 1885, his hometown, and acted as solicitor for the Merchant's Bank. He began to acquire real estate and set up the Kilbourn Real Estate Co. Kilbourn invested in many local industries, such as the Owen Sound Cement Co., which became the Canada Cement Co. of which he was Vice-President. He was a generous supporter of the YMCA and the General and Marine Hospital. When Former U.S. President Taft came to speak, he stayed with the Kilbourns.
Just beside is Edward John Dedrick who owned one of the first radio sets in Owen Sound. Dedrick was an accountant for John Harrison & Sons Lumber Co. and was on the Board of Education.
Between the Kilbourn and Dedrick gravestones begin to walk west toward the paved path. You'll see a single grey military marker.
Tommy Holmes, Victoria Cross winner, was an original member of the 147th. He won the VC for his decisive action in October 1917 near Passchendaele, France. A pill box and machine gun fire held up his company. He ran up and threw a grenade, which put the guns out of action and then ran back, retrieved another grenade and threw it into the pillbox. 19 occupants surrendered.
If you look carefully you will find many references to Passchendaele in Greenwood Cemetery which refers to a 5-month battle at Ypres France in 1917. A battle to take ground from the German army, the soldiers endured heavy rains, extremely muddy conditions, and mustard gas attacks. Tanks were not able to pass due to the swamp-like conditions. The British and Canadian Infantry finally won the village of Passchendaele in November of that year, only after sustaining large numbers of casualties.
Follow the road north to the intersection and turns east toward the ravine. As the road bends on the left, look for a grey marker, three in from the road.
John and Margaret Thomson are the parents of one of Canada's most famous artists - Tom Thomson. The Thomson's lived in Claremont, Ontario, but after the death of John's parents, the family moved to Rose Hill Farm, outside of Owen Sound. Henrietta, Margaret's sister, joined them and later married Tom's father. The Tom Thomson Art Gallery in Owen Sound has the world's third largest collection of Tom Thomson paintings and sketches. Tom is buried at the Leith Cemetery.
Follow the roadway along the ravine.
Perhaps the most unique headstone in Greenwood is the Williams stone in the bend of the path. Not a great deal is known about the family, except that Miss Florence Williams was born in Illinois and moved to Owen Sound with her parents. As an adult, Florence moved to Ohio and worked for a telephone company. The Woodsmen of the World have similar headstones for their members, however they are usually marked with their emblem. It is unknown if this marker is one of those.
Two rows in from the path, look for the black Orford stone that marks Charles Edgar who was killed in action at the battle of Passchendaele. He was a carriage painter with a Mr. Ferguson before he enlisted with the 147th Battalion. He had been in France for 5 months before he was killed.
Next to the path is Herbert Treleaven, cemetery caretaker from around 1914 until 1940.
Right beside is Edgar M. McQuay, the owner of a large tannery that was located where the Bayshore Community Centre is now standing. He was mayor in 1934 and 1935.
Two rows in, locate the white Harrison monument. Rebecca Pratt Harrison served as liaison officer between the Red Cross POW and their next of kin during the 2nd World War. She was also the past regent of the Earl Grey Chapter of the Imperial Order of the Daughters of the Empire.
Beside the path is Mary Esther McGregor, better known as Marian Keith. Published by McClelland and Stewart Ltd., she wrote many books that are similar in style to Lucy Maud Montgomery's. Born in Orillia, she came to the Owen Sound area with her husband, who was a Presbyterian Minister. She has three books that take place around the former Sydenham township area - As a Watered Garden, Yonder Shining Light and Lilacs in the DoorYard.
Look for a black marker two rows in with two shrubs beside it. John McQuaker was a prosperous downtown merchant, running a general store and housing the office for the Owen Sound Creamery. He was mayor in 1914 and 1915. During his tenure as mayor he founded the Associated Charities to co-ordinate the work of the charitable groups in town. He also began a youth athletic club and was elected to the YMCA Board of Ontario.
The last stone at the corner marks, Thomas Inkermann Thomson who was mayor in 1897 - 98. He was a great businessman, serving as President of the Imperial Cement Company, and the Farrar Transportation Co. (a steamship company). After Dr. Horsey (on tour) died in 1902, he won the federal by-election for the Conservatives, but was defeated in the general election in 1904. When Sheriff Moore passed away, T.I. was named Sheriff of the County of Grey. He was known for his strong public speaking skills and his great love of literature.
On the west side of the same stone is T.W. Thomson, the son of Thomas Inkermann Thomson. T.W. was also mayor of Owen Sound, in 1930, '32, and '33.
Turning west, follow the paved path and look to the north. Notice the cube shaped marker for the Capel family. This is another unique marker in Greenwood Cemetery.
Returning to the road, look on the south side for two large grey markers, side by side for the Christie family.
Like the Thomsons, here are another father and son who were both mayors. Side by side are two Christie grave markers. William James Christie had 23 years experience on council before he was elected mayor in 1924 - 25. He was President of the Temperance Workers of North Grey. He owned a hardware business with his brother but sold his interest in 1903 to start a factory making stoves and furnaces - the Empire Stove Company. William's son, David A. Christie was also mayor. He led the City from 1930 until 1933.
Return to the paved road and continue walking west.
Beside the roadway on the north is the white-coloured McDonald marker. Flight Officer Lorne Albert McDonald was killed during the Second World War. He was 19 when he was flying his Lancaster aircraft over Chemnitz Germany. He didn't return from his night flight.
At the intersection, look at the 5th stone south, marked "Owen" on the west side of the intersection. On the west side of the marker is "Patterson."
Owen Sound became a City in 1920, while Roland Patterson was mayor. Patterson was also an MPP for Grey North for 11 years, being first elected in 1935. He was Deputy Speaker of the Legislature for 6 of those years. He set up a real estate and insurance business after attending one term at the Northern Business College.
Return to the intersection and go north to the last crossroad. Turn west.
The section of the cemetery to your right was formerly King's Nursery. Mr. King had a market garden with a small orchard on this property. At one time there were several market gardens along the top of the hill towards Moore's Hill. This section of the cemetery was opened in 1953. To your right is the newest section of Greenwood, which was opened in 1995.
Walking west to the 6th row, look at the fourth stone in. Here is the third Victoria Cross winner at Greenwood Cemetery: David Vivian Currie. During the Battle of Falaise in Normandy, Major Currie was in command of a small group of tanks, infantry and anti-tank guns. He was ordered to cut off one of the enemy's escape routes. For 36 hours he and his men held off many enemy attacks. In the end, his group endured heavy casualties but was able to close the escape route. After the war, Prime Minister Diefenbaker appointed Currie Sergeant-At-Arms in the House of Commons. He died in 1986 with a full military funeral.
Return to the road and continue west. About halfway into this section, at the Waller stone on the left, turn onto the grass path to the south.
On your right, look for two gravestones that resemble temples. They are in the same row, but not side by side. The first marker is for Yee Sit. He owned the Ritz Café until his brother purchased it from him. Keep walking until you arrive at the second Sit monument.
This unique-looking headstone is the marker for Gim Woo Sit. He was born in China in 1893. He operated a restaurant in Meaford for a while and then moved to Owen Sound to work at the Ritz Café on 10th Street in Owen Sound, owned by his brother Yee. He and his wife along with his son later purchased the restaurant.
At the Gim Woo Sit marker, walk westward past 4 rows of headstones. Look for a red granite marker between two shrubs to the south.
Lloyd Kibbler, on the west side of the marker, was the bandleader of the Lloyd Kibbler Orchestra, a 12-piece orchestra, playing in dance halls to hundreds in the 1930s and 40s. An accomplished saxophonist, he played with the Guy Lombardo band until it moved to the United States. In 1936 he moved to Owen Sound and managed the Imperial Optical Company. Kibbler and his wife rented, ran and played at the Balmy Beach Dance Pavilion during the summers.
Facing Kibbler, is MacKinnon Phillips, one of the few elected officials from this area to have held a cabinet position. When the Conservatives nominated Phillips to run in a provincial election he stated that it was against his better judgement because there was a doctor shortage in the area. But he was persuaded to so, and in 1945 was elected to the Legislature. He was Minister of Health from 1950 until 1958 when he was appointed Provincial Secretary. He had three main concerns - the shortage of nurses and hospital facilities and mental health care. Phillips was the first in Ontario to change mental health institutions from jail-like settings to more home-like settings.
Walk south until you reach the paved road. Then head east toward the ravine. Just before the McGregor stone, turn south and walk in until you find the Lumley headstone on your right.
A member of the Hockey Hall of Fame, Harry Lumley began his career as a professional goaltender at the age of 17. Nicknamed "Apple Cheeks," Lumley was born in Owen Sound and played for the Barrie Colts as a teen. When he was 15, he was signed by the Detroit Red Wings. He helped to win the Stanley Cup for Detroit in 1950 with three shutouts in the playoffs. In 1954 he won the Vezina trophy for the League's Most Outstanding Goalie. Lumley was selected to be on the NHL's first All-Star team. Harry Lumley is also in the Owen Sound Sports Hall of Fame found at the Harry Lumley Bayshore Community Centre.
Turn east toward the ravine and head to the Legion plot. It is in the centre of the section near the 2 trees.
This is the Legion's second plot. Look for these: C.E.F. - which means Canadian Expeditionary Force; C.W.A.C. - Canadian Women's Army Corp; R.C.A.S.C. - Royal Canadian Army Service Corp; C.M.G.C. - Canadian Machine Gun Corp.
Just north of the Legion Plot you will find William Henry Harrison, one of Owen Sound's prominent black businessmen. He was two years old when he moved to Owen Sound with his family, from Washington D.C. He began working at the Oliver-Rogers Co. Stone Quarry as a foreman, and then bought his own quarry. Many of the churches in town used the stone from his quarry as well as many buildings downtown.
Look for a white stone that is in the 2nd row east of the Legion Plot. On the west side of the headstone is marked "Graham." On the east side of the gravestone is Washington Williams, who was a member of the Salvation Army. He worked for John Harrison & Sons and was a member of the Orange Order and the Black Knights. Earl Williams, son of Washington was a charter member of the Crescent Club. He apprenticed at Buzza Brothers for watch making. Sergeant Fred Williams was killed at the age of 50, in action in France with the 20th Battalion (Central Ontario Regiment). He had been in France for 2 years and earned a military medal for his effort.
Many of the trees and plantings that you see in this section of the cemetery were planted in 1942.
Greenwood is known as a traditional cemetery meaning that all are buried with their feet pointing east. Traditionally this means that on judgement day, all will be facing the Promise Land. A story is told that an Anglican Minister buried in Greenwood Cemetery requested that he be buried in the opposite direction so that he could face his congregation.
Walking south along the grassy path, look for a small, white headstone to the east. It is the 7th stone in from the paved road.
This little marker is for Solomon Earll, the labourer who was killed in an explosion at the Oliver-Rogers Stone Quarry on the east side of Owen Sound. His monument is quite a bit smaller than Samuel Oliver's, owner of the quarry.
Walk south directly across the paved road and into the next section about ½ way in and look to your right.
Eddie Sargent was Mayor of Owen Sound several times between 1947 and 1965. He was also elected as a Liberal for 6 terms to the Ontario Legislature starting in 1963 until 1987 when he retired. He was a very outspoken member of the legislature, speaking forcibly on subjects that were close to his or his constituents' hearts. He was ejected several times for his outspokenness from Queen's Park.
Continue to walk south to the flat marker section of the cemetery. Directly behind the Mausoleum, in the 5th row, find Tom Williams.
Tom Williams volunteered for the City of Owen Sound for over 50 years. He was passionate about the City's recreational facilities and waterfront striving to improve them. He is also responsible for the Kelso Park Amphitheatre, which is used for many community events including the Summerfolk Music and Crafts Festival. A City park is named for him.
The Sundial that you see in the distance memorializes all those without a marker at Greenwood. Howard Henderson, cemetery caretaker from 1957 until 1989, arranged for the placement of the Sundial in the Memorial Gardens.
Walk south to the paved path, turn east back toward the Mausoleum.
The Columbarium Garden is the newest part of Greenwood Cemetery. There are plans to expand this area.
The People's Cemetery
In April 1858, Charles Rankin, land surveyor, submitted to town council a plan for the new layout of a public cemetery, which would occupy approximately 5 acres of land. Rankin's plan divided the land into 27 blocks, each containing 64 lots, all being 8 feet square. He provided space for "Vault" lots along the ravine and designed a circular area as well as rectangular areas within the blocks. While walking through this section, the original grassy pathways remain. A picket fence surrounded the graveyard.
The town's first cemetery, Chalmer's Cemetery, at the top of Union Street Hill, (8th Street East) was developed earlier, however it was often waterlogged due to the abundance of clay in the soil. Four acres of the ten were in use as a burying ground prior to 1858. Today the land is used as a water reservoir. The remaining graves were removed to various cemeteries in the area.
The new cemetery needed a name. "Mount Pleasant" was suggested since it overlooked the valley. However, in the end "The People's Cemetery" was chosen because it was purchased using the people's money. The village council was allowed to borrow up to $4000 dollars in order to purchase the cemetery land from Mr. Samuel Flowers.
The red brick Chapel was built in 1905. Up until this time, mourners were required to brave the elements while an outdoor service took place. Calls for a small chapel and a receiving vault at Greenwood were made in the local newspapers. In 1906 services began to take place in the "ornate and comfortable" chapel and in the winter the casket was lowered down into the vault through a hole in the floor until spring interment.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1497
|
__label__cc
| 0.508404
| 0.491596
|
Home / Music Projects
To purchase music, please click on one of the Music Project links under Store. (to the right or below depending on whether you are on mobile device or desktop/laptop)
After all these years you’d think I’d have figured out how to reply to people when they ask me what kind of music I play. I haven’t figured it out; it’s frustrating and it’s time consuming, because I have to ladder through all the styles of music I play in hopes of coming up with something I think this person would like. To save time, and to keep them from walking away in despair, I sometimes reply, "my music? it’s tempestuous, passionate, and mauve," but because I have your attention, I’ll simply say:
Whatever I can get away with ......
My work here spans over forty years, and it's never been formulaic. "Black Kangaroo," "Traveller," "Going Home," and "Beyond Help!," and the soon-to-be "Crazy Quilt" ......here’s a multi-generational compendium that includes — but is not limited to — power trios and heavy metal; blues, fingerpicking, and slide guitar; acoustic guitar, bowed bass, and cello; chamber quartets and tone poems; instrumentals with electric guitars and bass; instrumentals with electric guitars, bouzoukis, and mandolins; compositions for piano, songs with synthesizers and shakuhachis, songs with a kantele and requinta, and social commentaries, editorials, and polemics.
\After way too much time and way too many interruptions—including the onslaught of children and the onset of arthritis—I’m nearing completion of my new album "Crazy Quilt;" having an arthritic fretting hand meant I couldn’t play, but I needed to justify my existence and I had material that I’d recorded, so here’s a collection of songs that were, well ..... lying around. They are now combined with some that I managed to record specifically for the project. And it is a crazy quilt: there are songs I wrote after drift diving in Fiji and Mexico; a version of "All Along The Watchtower" that’s scored for electric and acoustic guitars and viola; songs about age and aging; songs about crossing the border; songs about life and what comes after, and a radiant version of "That’s A Good Question," a song that first appeared on "Black Kangaroo," lo those many years ago.
I know there's something here you'll enjoy. And your enjoyment will be enhanced by your maturity. Sensitivity helps, sophistication is a plus, and so is a sense of humor.
Drinking helps ...... but it's not necessary.
Welcome to my world; I hope you like it.
After all, it’s tempestuous, passionate .....
And mauve.
Beyond Help!
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1500
|
__label__wiki
| 0.658556
| 0.658556
|
Dancers leap on stage during Dance Xchange 2019 held in Roxas City, Capiz
Choreography, convergence
Rene S. Napeñas (The Philippine Star) - May 19, 2019 - 12:00am
Dance is the language of the soul and the recently concluded Dance Xchange: The Philippine International Dance Workshop and Festival bore witness to the communicative power of dance, with local and international performers in a week-long festivity held recently in Roxas City, Capiz.
Dance Xchange (DX) is one of the banner projects of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA). Convening the DX in Capiz was festival director and head of the NCCA National Committee on Dance Shirley Halili-Cruz, together with NCCA deputy executive director Marichu Tellano as co-festival director, all made possible with the support of the local government of Capiz.
Dance workshops were held in communities throughout the province
DX commenced with a parade of delegates from the Capiz Provincial Capitol to the Villareal Stadium where delegates, visitors and partners were welcomed by an array of performances from local and international dance troupes.
With Capiz’s long-standing and strong support of arts and culture programs, as seen in Dayaw International Indigenous Peoples’ Festival held in the province last October 2018 and the National Filipino Food Month Visayas launch in April 2019, Capiz Governor Tony del Rosario expressed the province’s utmost support to the sector through hosting Dance Xchange’s series of workshops and dance concert in various venues within the province.
Dance Xchange delegates celebrate the successful event≠
Among these venues are the Villareal Stadium and Grounds and the Capiz Provincial Park for the dance concerts, Don Ynocencio A. del Rosario National High School Gymnasium for the dance workshops and various communities in select municipalities for its ourtreach programs.
“While notorious as the seafood capital, we are more than just seafood, as Capiz has much to offer especially in the preservation of the cultural and artistic heritage of the province and of the country in general. We are always reminded that this is our spirit and it makes us who we are. It is our breath of identity and having all of you here is an attestation that this spirit can only get stronger through time,” Del Rosario said.
Ballerinas from the Halili Cruz Dance Company take the stage
This year, Dance Xchange carried the theme “Cultural Connectivity through Dance.” The theme underscored the power of dance to bridge and unite communities, nations and inspire one movement across various dance forms and practitioners.
In her message, NCCA’s Tellano highlighted NCCA’s mandated of promoting not only of the traditional dance but dance across the different genres. “We [find] Dance Xchange as a venue where we would be able to present these different forms of dance not only with our local performers but also with our international friends and partners.”
Among the international participants who joined the Dance Xchange were groups from Bangladesh, Belgium, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Russia, Taiwan and Thailand. Apart from the international delegation, there were 21 dance troupes from across the country in the four-day dance extravaganza.
Communities in Capiz and nearby provinces were able to learn basic dance movements in contemporary and traditional dances from international delegations in the two-day outreach workshops and performances hosted by select municipalities. The first day workshops were held in the island brangay of Olotayan in Roxas City and the town of Sapian in Capiz, and in Balete in the neighboring province of Aklan.
On the second day, communities in the towns of Pilar, Panay and Sigma in Capiz received instruction from select dance troupes for the workshops.
The annual Dance Xchange is the Philippine celebration of International Dance Day held every April 29. The International Dance Day (IDD) was created by the Dance Committee of the International Theater Institute-UNESCO which marks the birthdate of Jean-Georges Noverre, the creator of modern ballet. The IDD aims to promote dance in all its forms across the world, to make people aware of the value of dance, share the joy of dance with others and enable the dance community to promote their work on a broad scale, so that governments and opinion leaders are aware of the value and importance of dance and support it. Events and festivals are held all over the world to promote dance, thus this Philippine celebration.
Dance Xchange is also held in accordance with Presidential Proclamation No. 154, declaring the last week of April as National Dance Week. The program aims to enhance knowledge and skills of the dancers, dance teachers and choreographers on dances of the different countries as creative expression of their culture. With the number of international delegates participating, Dance Xchange also sought to provide a venue for exchange of ideas and showcase the unique dances of each participating country.
DANCE XCHANGE PHILIPPINE INTERNATIONAL DANCE WORKSHOP
By Jan Victor R. Mateo | 11 days ago
For Philippine National Police (PNP) chief General Oscar Albayalde, leadership should never be a complicated concept. His...
Starweek Magazine
A thousand voices lifted in song
By Michele T. Logarta | 11 days ago
Like Filipino beauty queens, Filipino choirs are among the winningest in the international arena and, like basketball courts...
All about marinades
By Lydia D. Castillo | July 14, 2019 - 12:00am
We have concocted different mixes that we now share with our home cook readers.
When Down dogs meet the water
By Iris Gonzales | 4 days ago
I am standing on a paddle board – light blue and white – doing a warrior pose and trying my best not to fall....
Good eats Taipei: 1895 and coffee
By Chit U. Juan | 4 days ago
“Let’s eat at 1895,” I tell my friends. 1895 is not the name of the restaurant but its founding year. Its...
Homeless never again
By Dr. Harold J. Sala | July 14, 2019 - 12:00am
Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” Matthew 8:20
Dragon’s riding on the back
By Artemio Dumlao | 11 days ago
From the majestic mountains of the Cordilleras to the remote Welsh mountains, Benguet-born environmentalist Arthur Joseph...
Youth aims for Zero Hunger
Bayer has selected100 participants from 45 countries for the fourth edition of the Youth Ag Summit 2019 that will take place...
The value of patience
By Dr. Harold J. Sala | July 7, 2019 - 12:00am
Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1501
|
__label__wiki
| 0.766833
| 0.766833
|
This small community in Ecuador is fighting poverty through sustainable tourism
Photo by James Kao
Tourists in developing countries are often moved by the great disparity of wealth they’re exposed to during their travels. Many want to do something about it. While it's common to think giving money or gifts to street beggars will help improve their lives, it's an unsustainable solution that may actually do more harm than good. But luckily for those visitors, the mere act of travelling can indeed make a difference.
Pistishi Tolte is a small Andean community located in the province of Chimbaorazo, Ecuador. In 2008, it was considered the third poorest community in Ecuador, with 98 per cent of its inhabitants living in extreme poverty. Locals depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. Many people work long days in the fields, but barely make ends meet. Today, Pistishi is no longer the poorest community in Ecuador, thanks in part to the efforts of the local government and AVANTI, a local NGO that seeks to empower disadvantaged communities through sustainable development projects, including tourism.
Photo by Talia Ricci
The Devil’s Nose train route has long been a popular activity among tourists travelling Ecuador. Train riders take an exciting journey down the steep slopes of the Andes while enjoying some of Ecuador’s most breathtaking scenery. In 2014, the government opened a train station close to the Pistishi Tolte community. The village hoped to take advantage of this opportunity, and reinvent itself as an eco-tourist destination. The goal was to create more jobs for the villagers, and eventually lift themselves out of poverty. AVANTI is helping Pistishi grow and adapt as quickly as possible.
Photographers Without Borders sent three photographers, James Richard Kao, Sandra Laurin and Talia Ricci, to Pistishi to document the work that AVANTI is undertaking in the remote village.
“AVANTI’s goal to help this community was great. The community had a lot to offer but didn't know how to begin making it a tourist destination. It was great to use my photography as a tool to help promote Pistishi as a destination,” said Ricci.
AVANTI has four main areas in which they are helping the community become more self-sustaining: education, health, agribusiness, and community tourism. Apart from setting up primary care health centres, providing education and agriculture training programs, villagers also have the opportunity learn about tourism management. Villagers take part in customer service and food and beverage management training to prepare them for international visitors.
So far, the growth in tourism has helped the community in many ways. The opening of the train station has created jobs in four micro-businesses, including dance groups, handcrafts, community tourism and a train cafeteria. Both AVANTI and the people of Pistishi are happy to see the change.
“I’ll always remember the interview I shot of Jose, one of the chefs in the community. He had such a passion for what he did and sharing what the community had to offer,” Ricci said.
While it's sometimes thought promoting tourism can be harmful to a local community, tourism plays an important role in developing a community’s economy. With the rising popularity of ecotourism, where tourists travel with a socially conscious mind and respect the local culture, the mere act of travelling has immense potential to help in the fight against poverty.
“I would like people to know that they don't have to visit big cities or tourists spots to have a good travelling experience. Get out of your comfort zone. Visit a community that is less fortunate. Meet amazing people and learn new things. I can guarantee you won't regret it,” said Ricci.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1502
|
__label__wiki
| 0.897395
| 0.897395
|
April 04, 2008 News » Whistler
Pemberton Valley golf course back in business
New owner Don Millerd sets sights on May opening
By Andrew Mitchell
The Pemberton Valley Golf and Country Club is under new ownership as of Monday, March 31, with a group led by Dom Millerd completing their purchase of the course from the Royal Bank of Canada.
The club, unable to pay its debts, dissolved in August of 2007 and the course and its assets were seized by Royal Bank. The bank paid the bills until the end of the season, and prepared to place the facility in receivership in January.
More than a dozen bids were made for the public course but it was Millerd’s, under the aegis of Mountain Valley Golf, that was successful.
“It was a long process, but it’s all happening now,” said an enthusiastic Millerd on Monday. “There were some legal matters over the lease that slowed things down through most of the winter, and the receiver wasn’t appointed until January. We hoped that things would have been wrapped up by the middle of February, but they weren’t and here we are.
“There’s no question that it’s later than we would have liked or that we still have a lot of work to do, but it will be ready.”
Millerd, who has run Pemberton Meadows Natural Beef for almost 40 years, is a longtime resident, and has always enjoyed the course. He hasn’t had much time to play recently, dividing his time between the ranch and a second home in Horseshoe Bay, but felt that the once-struggling course was a golden opportunity.
“I’ve always felt that it was a gem of a facility that just needed a little revitalization,” he said. “There’s some work to be done there. The first year we’ll be investing capital in the course itself… which has suffered from a lack of adequate funding over the years. The cart paths need to be redone, and some of the bunkers, green and tee boxes need a bit of work.
“The second year we’ll be figuring out what facilities we want and what it will look like.”
The details of the sale are between Millerd, partner Gord Bell of Hanily Golf Management and the Royal Bank of Canada. However, despite his investment and capital improvements to the course Millerd says the goal is to maintain the club as a community course.
“Put it this way,” he said. “Our aim is for the course to be local, affordable and fun, and not any more expensive than in the past.”
Millerd acknowledges that some previous members of the society that managed the club have lost the money they invested in the property, which he called unfortunate.
“We’re starting with new ownership, new management, and new everything,” he said, including staff.
“We don’t know who the staff is or was coming into the course, but we’re going to be putting up the ‘help wanted’ signs and hopefully a lot of those folks will be back,” he said.
Even starting from scratch, Millerd is confident that the course will have its grand opening on May 9, with a soft opening beforehand. Details of the grand opening are being finalized, but Millerd said he wants to make a splash in the community.
In a statement, Pemberton Mayor Jordan Sturdy welcomed the new management when the lease was signed last week.
“To secure a locally based, well-financed and experienced golf course operator was council’s goal in reassigning the lease, and fortunately I think we have that,” he said. “I am excited about the future of the Pemberton Valley Golf Course under its new management.”
While Millerd has no experience running golf courses, minor partner Gord Bell has managed golf facilities for the District of West Vancouver, consulted for courses in the District of North Vancouver, and helped to manage the Pemberton Valley Golf and Country Club last summer.
The club manages an 18-hold, par 72 course with a yardage of 5,211 to 6,407 yards (red to blue tees). Assets include a newly renovated clubhouse with a restaurant and lounge, a pro shop, and a practice putting green. It’s located on Airport Road, just past Big Sky Golf Club.
More Whistler »
Still time to 'Fill the Bus' for local kids in need
Christmas charity drive will pick up donations at several locations throughout Whistler today
by Brandon Barrett
Remembering the 'gravitational force' of Lisa Korthals
Memorial for ski guide planned for Thursday
Garibaldi at Squamish asks to be included in District boundaries
Squamish Nation representatives repeat support for the project More...
Two Southern resident killer whales missing as experts fear for the population
Village of Pemberton loan for up to $980,000 gains community approval via alternative approval process
Council briefs: BC Transit MOU; top-earning staff; new building regulations More...
Cougar euthanized following reports of missing house cats
Animal had been spotted in Alpine, Rainbow and Emerald over past month, says COS More...
Hidden Burnaby BMX park facing demolition
Kush Woods built under municipality's nose in conservation area More...
'Class 1' e-bikes permitted on Valley Trail More...
Latest in Whistler
Watch your step at Lost Lake Park as tens of thousands of tiny toads journey to the surrounding forest
by Megan Lalonde
New program offered in Whistler, Squamish and Pemberton
by The Chief staff / Squamish Chief
MLA's gas survey shows Whistler pays less on average than Vancouver area
Jordan Sturdy monitored gas prices in SQuamish, Whistler and North Vancouver
by Steven Chua / Squamish Chief
More by Andrew Mitchell
Canada Day thoughts
How now, brown pow
Sorry you're not sorry
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1507
|
__label__cc
| 0.516699
| 0.483301
|
Avinger Enrolls First 50 Patients in INSIGHT Clinical Trial
Positive early outcomes in complex in-stent restenosis cases with few therapeutic options
REDWOOD CITY, CA / ACCESSWIRE / July 10, 2019 / Avinger, Inc. (NASDAQ: AVGR), a commercial-stage medical device company marketing the first-ever image-guided, catheter-based system for diagnosis and treatment of Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD), today announced the 50th patient enrolled in its INSIGHT clinical trial. The INSIGHT trial is a prospective, global, single arm, multi-center study to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of the Pantheris® Lumivascular atherectomy system for treating in-stent restenosis (ISR) in lower extremity arteries.
Dr. Jaafer Golzar, Avinger's Chief Medical Officer and a highly experienced interventionalist, noted, "We are pleased to have the first 50 cases completed as part of our INSIGHT IDE study. Early results are encouraging, and we anticipate that one of the study's physician investigators will present an interim analysis of initial patient outcomes at an upcoming clinical conference. We believe a specific indication for the treatment of ISR, which currently has very limited treatment options, will be an important label expansion for Pantheris. Once the IDE study is completed, we plan on filing a 510(k) application with the FDA to pursue this claim."
Up to 140 patients will be enrolled in the INSIGHT trial at up to 20 U.S. and international centers. Dr. Sean Janzer, of Einstein Medical Center, and Dr. Glen Schwartzberg, of Baton Rouge General Medical Center, serve as co-principal investigators of the study. In-stent restenosis occurs when a blocked artery previously treated with a stent becomes narrowed again, reducing blood flow. Physicians often face challenges when treating in-stent restenosis both in terms of safety and efficacy. From a safety standpoint, limitations in imaging techniques, such as X-ray fluoroscopy, and the inability to control the directionality of certain treatment modalities creates the concern of potentially impacting the integrity of the stent during the intervention. In terms of efficacy, current therapies for in-stent restenosis, such as balloon angioplasty, have high rates of recurrent renarrowing within stents.
Dr. Schwartzberg commented, "In-stent restenosis represents a difficult clinical challenge with limited minimally invasive treatment options that provide durable long-term results. Real-time intravascular imaging combined simultaneously with a targeted mechanism of action in the Pantheris system enables observation of the vessel lumen and stent architecture during an intervention, which I believe will enhance safety and outcomes in these high-risk patients. This addresses the critical problem of either over or under treatment and the subsequent complications associated with these events while treating arterial occlusive disease within a stent."
"Patients experiencing in-stent restenosis may incur the risk of additional harm when other treatment modalities fail to provide the precise imaging and directional control critical to treating the restenosed stents and may even require a referral to a bypass surgery or even amputation," said Dr. Janzer. "The Pantheris Lumivascular atherectomy system provides interventionalists with real-time intravascular imaging and enhanced control to more precisely direct plaque excision while avoiding the stent struts, potentially leading to better patient outcomes in these challenging cases."
Atherectomy is a minimally invasive treatment for PAD in which a catheter-based device is used to remove plaque from a blood vessel. Lumivascular technology allows physicians, for the first time ever, to see from inside the artery during an atherectomy procedure by using an imaging modality called optical coherence tomography, or OCT, that is displayed on Avinger's proprietary Lightbox console. Physicians performing atherectomy with other devices must rely solely on X-ray as well as tactile feedback to guide their interventions while treating complicated arterial disease. With the Lumivascular approach, physicians can more accurately navigate their devices and treat PAD lesions, thanks to the real-time OCT images generated from inside the artery, without exposing healthcare workers and patients to the negative effects of ionizing radiation.
About Avinger, Inc.
Avinger is a commercial-stage medical device company that designs and develops the first-ever image-guided, catheter-based system that diagnoses and treats patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD). PAD is estimated to affect over 12 million people in the U.S. and over 200 million worldwide. Avinger is dedicated to radically changing the way vascular disease is treated through its Lumivascular platform, which currently consists of the Lightbox imaging console, the Ocelot family of chronic total occlusion (CTO) catheters, and the Pantheris® family of atherectomy devices. Avinger is based in Redwood City, California. For more information, please visit www.avinger.com.
This news release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements include statements regarding Avinger's upcoming expected milestones in its business. Such statements are based on current assumptions that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially. These risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, include our dependency on a limited number of products; our ability to demonstrate the benefits of our Lumivascular platform; the resource requirements related to Pantheris; the outcome of clinical trial results; potential exposure to third-party product liability, intellectual property and other litigation; lack of long-term data demonstrating the safety and efficacy of our Lumivascular platform products; experiences of high-volume users of our products may lead to better patient outcomes than those of physicians that are less proficient; reliance on third-party vendors; dependency on physician adoption; reliance on key personnel; and requirements to obtain regulatory approval to commercialize our products; as well as the other risks described in the section entitled 'Risk Factors' and elsewhere in our quarterly report on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 8, 2019. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof and should not be unduly relied upon. Avinger disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.
Mark Weinswig
Avinger, Inc.
ir@avinger.com
Matt Kreps
Darrow Associates Investor Relations
mkreps@darrowir.com
SOURCE: Avinger, Inc.
https://www.accesswire.com/551413/Avinger-Enrolls-First-50-Patients-in-INSIGHT-Clinical-Trial
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1508
|
__label__wiki
| 0.659737
| 0.659737
|
Home > All Producers > Salopian
Salopian
Salopian Brewery was founded as Snowdonia Brewery in 1994 by Brewer Martin Barry at his Pub in North Wales. In 1995 he relocated to Shrewsbury and renamed it Salopian (meaning of Shrewsbury). At that time it was the smallest commercial brewery in the country (not attached to a Pub) with a 2 barrel brewlength.
After two years of trading Wilf Nelson, the current Managing Director joined the brewery. Initially much of the production was contract brewed for bottling – mainly into Oddbins and Safeways – but the advent of progressive beer duty in 2002 allowed the Brewery to concentrate on it’s own cask beer production. Barry left in 2004 and Mark Hill of the Brewers Wholesale became a partner. At that stage the production of the brewery was all into cask, very much in the traditional Midlands style of blonde and lightly hopped. Over this period the brewlength regularly increased, firstly to 10 barrels in 2000, then to 15 barrels in 2005 and on to 20 barrels in 2007.
In 2008 Jake Douglas was recruited as our first salesman, and after a short period he began to influence the production of the brewery as well. A change was made from the traditional to a more modern hop led style. This transition has proved very successful, with sales nearly trebling since 2008 and recognition of the brewery’s prowess at every level of competition. A new 30 barrel brewery was installed in 2010 to cope with demand and when this was overwhelmed the brewery relocated in 2014 to a purpose built 50 barrel plant.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1509
|
__label__cc
| 0.508908
| 0.491092
|
Precedential: PTAB Considers § 314(a) Factors Even When Denying Under § 325(d)
by Gasper LaRosa | May 13, 2019 | 325(d) issues, Trial Institution
By Gasper LaRosa
When exercising its broad discretion on whether to institute review, the PTAB is not limited to consideration of factors associated with the type of denial it ultimately issues. In a recent decision that the PTAB designated as precedential, the PTAB denied institution under 35 U.S.C. § 325(d) after applying the Becton, Dickinson § 325(d) factors and a factor more commonly associated with its discretion under § 314(a).
In NHK Spring Co., Ltd. v. Intri-Plex Techs., Inc., Case IPR2018-00752 (PTAB Sept. 12, 2018) (Paper 8), the PTAB exercised its discretion to deny institution under § 325(d) where the asserted art was a subset of the same prior art that the Examiner applied in rejecting the claims during prosecution. The PTAB found that “simply appl[ying] the same references in the opposite order” could not avoid § 325(d). Specifically, the Petition asserted that certain claims were obvious based on the Braunheim reference in view of the applicant admitted prior art (AAPA) The PTAB found that the Examiner considered both Braunheim and AAPA during prosecution. Specifically the PTAB found that the Examiner started with the AAPA and adjusted certain parameters based on the prior art teachings in Braunheim in order to arrive at the optimized relationship recited in the claims. The PTAB “determine[d] that the findings the Examiner made during prosecution and the arguments Petitioner makes here are substantially the same” (i.e., AAPA in view of Braunheim versus Braunheim in view of AAPA).
In addition to consideration of the traditional § 325(d) factors, the PTAB further considered the advanced stage of the co-pending trial court proceeding in making its decision. The PTAB explained that “simply because we exercise our discretion to deny the Petition under § 325(d) does not mean that we cannot consider and weigh additional factors that favor denying institution under § 314(a).” So the PTAB also determined that instituting review would be an inefficient use of its resources under 35 U.S.C. § 314(a) given that the district court proceeding was nearing its final stages and the PTAB proceeding would involve the same claim construction standard, the same prior art references, and the same arguments as in the district court.
Gasper LaRosa
Gasper LaRosa is co-chair of Jones Day's PTAB Litigation Practice and is a leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology patent lawyer as recognized by clients and his peers. He has more than 15 years of client-focused experience litigating high-profile patent infringement cases involving pharmaceutical products, medical devices, chemical manufacturing processes, and business methods. He has tried patent cases to juries and to the bench in several federal district courts. In addition, Gasper has broad experience representing clients as lead counsel in USPTO post-grant proceedings.
Latest posts by Gasper LaRosa (see all)
Precedential: PTAB Considers § 314(a) Factors Even When Denying Under § 325(d) - May 13, 2019
PTAB Grants Rare Motion for Additional Discovery - August 22, 2018
Chief Judge Ruschke Presents on PTAB Fact v. Myth - July 30, 2018
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1514
|
__label__wiki
| 0.92175
| 0.92175
|
Jeremy Kyle guest gives emotional interview after ex-fiancé's death
A former guest on The Jeremy Kyle Show has given an emotional interview following the tragic death of her ex-fiancé, after their appearance on the show.
Yesterday, it was announced that show had been taken off air, following the tragic death of a guest.
Jane Callaghan appeared on the programme with then-partner Steve Dymond (63), who wanted to take a lie detector test to prove he had not been unfaithful to her.
Unfortunately, Steve failed the test during the episode and he and Jane split soon after.
A devastated Jane told the Sun that Steve had insisted on taking part, despite being diagnosed with depression. She explains "He wanted to go on. He was really excited and confident. But it was all a front and I knew it. He wasn’t well at all."
She said "I know we split up a week ago but we were together for two years. He was still my fiancé. I still loved him. As much as he was a pig to me I still loved him... We got engaged Christmas Day 2017. He was crying, the love was real. He was the most generous and loving person. He was quietly struggling, and we didn’t know at the time. He cheated on me, I know he did. I can’t forgive but I just want him to be alive."
The Jeremy Kyle Show was taken off air yesterday, following the tragic death of a guest. (via ITV)
Following the heartbreaking news, ITV released the following statement:
"Everyone at ITV and The Jeremy Kyle Show is shocked and saddened at the news of the death of a participant in the show a week after the recording of the episode they featured in and our thoughts are with their family and friends.
"ITV will not screen the episode in which they featured.
"Given the seriousness of this event, ITV has also decided to suspend both filming and broadcasting of The Jeremy Kyle Show with immediate effect in order to give it time to conduct a review of this episode of the show."
Our thoughts are with all of those affected.
WATCH: Kit Harrington reacts to final Game of Thrones scenes in doc trailer
Woman tells Holly and Phil she's 'too good looking to find love'
Beyoncé debuts new hair colour and we havn't seen this Bey in YEARS
Fan uses viral new Snapchat filter on Game of Thrones characters
WATCH: Netflix drops trailer for new series What/If
The new average cost to rent in Dublin revealed
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1515
|
__label__cc
| 0.616623
| 0.383377
|
Residential & Mixed-Use
Hospitality & Private Clubs
SOUTH FLORIDA BUSINESS JOURNAL
Mandarin Oriental condo boosts construction loan to $225M for third phase
By Brian Bandell – Senior Reporter, South Florida Business Journal
Penn-Florida Cos. boosted its construction loan for the Residences at Mandarin Oriental Boca Raton to $225 million.
An affiliate of New York-based Madison Realty Capital assumed the mortgage of Via Mizner Owner III LLC, an affiliate of Penn-Florida, and boosted it by $192.5 million. It will fund the 288,000-square-foot condo building at 105 East Camino Real. It is the third and final phase of the Viz Mizner mixed-use project.
The loan was arranged by Anthony Orso of Newmark Capital Market Strategies.
Construction of the 92-unit condo started a few months ago. It will be completed in about two years, along with a 164-room Mandarin Oriental hotel and 60,000 square feet of retail.
“MRC is excited to have been selected as the construction lender for such a dynamic project,” said Josh Zegen, managing principal and co-founder of MRC. “Penn-Florida’s vision for Via Mizner, and the company’s proven track record, aligns perfectly with our investment principals and culture. A construction loan for a project of this scope and size required creativity to accommodate not only the Residences but the extensive amenity package.”
The 366-unit 101 Via Mizner apartments were completed in 2017. The Via Mizner Golf 7 Country Club is also being redesigned by Jack Nicklaus.
Penn-Florida received a $398 million mortgage for the hotel and retail phases of the project in 2017.
“Mandarin Oriental is in a class by itself when it comes to catering to the needs of its residents and guests,” Penn-Florida President and CEO Mark A. Gensheimer said. “Pre-sale velocity for the Residences is tremendous as people have come to understand the investment potential as well as the unique lifestyle which includes a world class private Golf and City Club, Mandarin Oriental luxury and services, and a dynamic shopping and dining experience, all at your fingertips.”
Units range from 1,485 square feet with one bedroom to 4,693 square feet with four bedrooms, plus a penthouse collection of up to 8,942 square feet. Prices range from $2 million to $19.5 million. The average price is $4.6 million.
GLOBE ST
BOCA VOICE
MULTI-HOUSING NEWS
561.750.1030 1515 North Federal Highway Suite 306 | Boca Raton, FL 33432 realestate@pennflorida.com
Copyright © | Penn-Florida Companies | All Rights Reserved
Google Analytics is a Web analytics service that provides statistics and basic analytical tools for search engine optimization (SEO) and marketing purposes.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1518
|
__label__wiki
| 0.784399
| 0.784399
|
May 16, 2003 4:15 AM CDT
No resegregation
On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court outlawed the doctrine of “separate but equal” in public education. In unequivocal language, a unanimous court ruled that separate facilities for Black and white were inherently unequal: “We conclude that, in the field of public education, the doctrine of ‘separate but equal’ has no place.”
The decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka nullified school segregation laws in 21 states. The ruling was a blow to racism. Although few people thought the millennium had come, most hoped that segregated schools were history.
Forty-nine years later, segregation is, in fact, alive and well. Still worse, a new Harvard study shows that public schools are being resegregated at an alarming pace. While minority enrollment now approaches 40 percent nationwide, the average white student attends a public school that is 80 percent white. At the same time, the average African-American student attends a school that is nearly 100 percent nonwhite. These numbers reflect a serious reversal of progress made in the 1960s and 1970s.
Rather than opposing the resegregation of our public schools, the Bush administration has been aiding and abetting it. The administration’s briefs in the University of Michigan affirmative action case now before the Supreme Court praise so-called “race-blind” plans in several states that guarantee college admission to students based on purely academic indicators.
Bush and his allies would have us ignore the huge inequalities between predominantly white schools and predominantly Black and Latino schools in the U.S. today. They would have us acquiesce, in fact, to a new doctrine of “separate but equal,” reinforcing a deep legacy of bias against the racially oppressed under the guise of applying “equal standards.”
The best way to commemorate the anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education is to build the broadest possible movement to defend affirmative action.
Road map to peace
The terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia this week that killed at least 20 people including eight Americans contradict George W. Bush’s claim that his imperial policies of preemptive war, unilateralism, and destruction of civil liberties have “turned the tide” in the war on terrorism.
New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd commented, “Buried in the rubble of Riyadh are some of the Bush administration’s basic assumptions: that Al Qaeda was finished, that invading Iraq would bring regional stability and that a show of American superpower against Saddam would cow terrorists.”
But in fact, as many commentators are noting, the Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld policies promote rather than discourage terrorism.
Taking issue with Bush’s might-makes-right view of the world, former JFK speechwriter Theodore Sorenson warned American University graduates this week, “Our declared doctrine of preemptive strikes, without legal justification or evidence, is music to the ears of terrorist organizations that specialize in such strikes; but, if followed worldwide, it will create a lawless planet in which the law abiding will suffer the most.”
Or take the ongoing Israel-Palestine crisis. While the Bush administration speaks words of peace, it has in fact encouraged Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s aggressive and lawless reign of terror against the legitimate national and democratic aspirations of the Palestinian people. The “road map” to peace touted by Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell imposes a double standard: while the Palestinian Authority is to be held responsible for stopping not only terrorist acts but any and all armed resistance, the Israeli occupation army and armed settler vigilantes are given free reign to commit crimes against humanity.
The peoples of the world want an end to terrorism, a world of peace and international cooperation in which national sovereignty and human rights are respected. The Bush administration is flouting those desires, spouting Hitler-like doublespeak where war means peace, occupation means freedom, and trashing the Bill of Rights means democracy.
Our Road Map to peace and ending terrorism: Send Bush and Co. out the door in 2004.
Immigration enforcement funded far better than labor law enforcement
Pompeo ready to undermine any country he doesn’t like
Is socialism a more emotionally intelligent economy than capitalism?
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1519
|
__label__wiki
| 0.883299
| 0.883299
|
Radio Iowa Poll
Radio Iowa
Iowa's Radio News Network
You are here: Home / Crime / Courts / Grinnell man accused of child’s death released on bail
Grinnell man accused of child’s death released on bail
A judge has cut bail for 20-year-old Shane Dupee, the Grinnell man charged with fatally injuring his three-month old daughter. Magistrate judge James Schwievert said a quarter-million-dollar bond was “more than enough” to make sure that Dupee came to future court appearances, and reduced it to 100-thousand dollars. At the bond review, Dupee’s attorney Brian Early pointed out that the county filed charges of first-degree murder before an autopsy had been performed on Aliyah Stevens. The lawyer also charges Grinnell police officer Randy Hansen may have asked leading questions in getting an incriminating statement from Dupee. His next court appearance hasn’t been set.
Filed Under: Crime / Courts
Sports gambling rules move ahead after regulators hold hearing
Sweet corn season is finally here
More details released of officer-involved shooting in Leon
Historic steam locomotive to tour Iowa
New blackout license plate now available for purchase
Tweets by RadioIowa
Radio Iowa/Baseball Coaches Association High School Poll 7/14/19
Yacinich added to Iowa coaching staff
Iowa adds depth at guard
Radio Iowa/Baseball Coaches Association High School Poll 7/7/19
Iowa’s Gustafson named Big Ten Female Athlete of the Year
Archives Select Month July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 May 2005 April 2005 March 2005 February 2005 January 2005 December 2004 November 2004 October 2004 September 2004 August 2004 July 2004 June 2004 May 2004 April 2004 March 2004 February 2004 January 2004 December 2003 November 2003 October 2003 September 2003 August 2003 July 2003 June 2003 May 2003 April 2003 March 2003 February 2003 January 2003 December 2002 November 2002 October 2002 September 2002 August 2002 July 2002 June 2002 May 2002 April 2002 March 2002 February 2002 January 2002 December 2001 November 2001 October 2001 September 2001 August 2001 July 2001 June 2001 May 2001 April 2001 March 2001 February 2001 January 2001 December 2000 November 2000 October 2000 September 2000 August 2000 July 2000 June 2000 May 2000 April 2000 March 2000 February 2000 January 2000 December 1999 November 1999 October 1999 September 1999 August 1999 July 1999 June 1999 May 1999 April 1999 March 1999 February 1999 January 1999 September 1998 February 1998
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1522
|
__label__wiki
| 0.945054
| 0.945054
|
Curious Them: An Interview with Rogue Wave
Jasper Bruce
With their best, freshest album just out, Zach Rogue talks '80s music, theremins, and fatherhood with PopMatters.
Label: Easy Sound
US Release Date: 2016-04-29
UK Release Date: 2016-04-29
Though their creative union has been an enduring one, and their career a prolific one, Rogue Wave's 2013 album, Nightingale Floors, was met with indecisive reviews. Some heralded the Oakland group's efforts as being as strong as ever, though more often than not, the album was criticised for its morose, apparently uninspired tunes. Whether or not you bought into these appraisals, one thing remained clear: Rogue Wave were ripe for change.
Change is exactly what has come three years later. On paper, the band's makeover is certainly noticeable: while the creative architects remain singer-songwriter Zach Rogue and drummer/engineer Pat Spurgeon, the group have picked up guitarist Jon Monahan and released their record on a new label for good measure. In addition, they've returned to their roots, opting to work without a studio producer for the first time since 2002.
Beyond these structural changes, however, the band have made a conscious effort to change the way they catalyse and think about the creative process: "Don't overthink it, don't try too hard, just make an impression and see what happens," says Rogue, admitting that perhaps they should have taken a more experimental, personal modus operandi on their previous records. Indeed, the band are certainly reaping what they sew from this on-the-run, "honest" approach. In short, Delusions of Grand Fur is the work of a revitalised band finally achieving their full potential. It's career best work for Rogue Wave. Period.
Ironically, other than their obvious structural changes, the changes they've made have been influenced by familiar methods. They've had the gear literally sitting in Rogue's home studio. Spurgeon and Rogue are bouncing ideas off one another as they've always done. Rogue is still inspired by the same '80s colours and still operates under a similar songwriting process. It's just been a matter of small tweaks, a willingness to back themselves to experiment and "look around the room" for creative inspiration. We're left wondering just how much more of this inspired, galactic brand of music Rogue Wave has to offer in the future.
PopMatters sat down with the man who has been at the helm since it all began in 2002, Zach Rogue, to talk '80s music, theremins, and fatherhood.
It's been three years since your last record, which is the longest gap you've taken between albums. Was it a planned decision to take such a big break?
No. I know that it's technically a long break but it doesn't really seem like it. We put out our last record and we were touring for a while. So you kind of factor in that time, and then I had a son that was born so I was bringing him into the world. Pat and I were recording in our studio. We self-produce so we just spent more time. I kind of thought we were making a double album; there was a lot of material and a lot of things we wanted to try. [There is] a lot of stuff that hasn't been released yet. I made a record in Nashville with this country-folk singer so I spent a little time doing that as well. That's not out yet. And then, when it was done, mixing took a little while and we were trying to find the right label. All of those things just collectively have taken three years. Time just kind of went by.
You mentioned that you felt like you were making a double album. Do you think the material that didn't make the cut for Delusions of Grand Fur will end up on a later album?
We're talking about it. But we're so focused right now on touring and rehearsing. [Touring] is coming up really soon, so we kind of want to see how it goes and how we're feeling when the record comes out and if our people are enjoying it and how busy we'll be. I mean, I'd like it to; there's some songs I really love doing that aren't going to be on this record, but right now I'm interested in having good shows and connecting and re-connecting with our audience.
It seems like you've tried to experiment on this album, but you've described your songwriting process as just you "alone in a room". How did you reconcile the songwriting method that you know and trust with trying to move into uncharted waters?
The beginning process, the spark and the meaning of a song and its lyrical content and melodic structure come from me, but it's not really Rogue Wave until it's with Pat. He's a very experimental musician. He likes a lot of scoring music and a lot of experimental, unusual music. He's very open-minded in terms of instrumentation and concept. I'm that way too but I also write structured music. [But] that's the beauty of collaborating. That's the reason why I don't do it by myself. The songs wouldn't be as good if I didn't have that sense of collaboration. It's all about my world colliding with Pat's world.
We had other people as well, Sam [Hopkins] from Caveman played synth on a handful of tracks and we had Mike [Deni] from Geographer who sang some harmonies in a couple of songs. We had guys from our band. John played some guitar and Mark played some bass. We definitely had friends involved but the source of it is kind of my creative partnership with Pat and what happens when the two of us have this really fun, musical argument. The best kind of argument, a good argument.
You mentioned that you worked with Mike Deni from Geographer on the album. What led to that collaboration?
I think initially we were doing this David Bowie song, "Modern Love". I needed a harmony that was high and I knew it was beyond my range and we had just done this benefit show together in San Francisco. I knew him and I really liked the guys in the band. He's a really talented singer and it seemed like his voice would just work really well on that Bowie song. So he came in to do it and I was talking to Pat and there were a couple of other songs that we were working on for the new record. He nailed the Bowie part so quickly that we were like, "Man, what's some other shit that you can do?" So on "Ocean" it seemed like a no-brainer for him to sing that bridge. His voice is so perfect for that. He also sings that counter-point melody on "Take It Slow".
He has a very different style and delivery and it's in a range that's above mine. He's so versatile with his harmonies that he can just kind of do anything. I don't know, he's such a sweet guy and he's local and was interested in doing it with us. I'm always interested, on records, in bringing in a small handful of other people to inform it. John Vanderslice, Matthew Caws, and this other girl, Daniela Gusendheit sang on "Asleep At Heavens Gate". We always have a few people come in that we like just to colour a few things here and there.
Delusion seems to be a theme of the lyrics on the album, but this is pitted against a lot of influence from '80s music. Do you have a certain nostalgia for that time period specifically?
For the '80s?
Yeah. It's kind of like … you know how they say that the first time you fall in love that you will never experience love the same way as you did the first time? Well, when I was a little boy, that was the peak of '80s music. My parents were playing British Invasion stuff but what became my music that I identified with that wasn't my parents' music was the '80s: R.E.M., Depeche Mode, The Cure, and The Smiths. A lot of that music I feel like that was made for me. The frontmen for a lot of those bands … I just identified with so many of the things that they were saying and their reluctance of being out front but knowing they wanted to express themselves and questions about their own identities. I just love the dark melodies of a lot of that music, where it has a little bit of paranoia, but also feelings of sentimentality without being saccharin. I just really responded to that and I think it's a very special period in musical history.
A lot of the songwriters of that era are really underappreciated. Robert Smith is one of the greatest songwriters of all time and he's not really celebrated in the way that some other songwriters are. I think there's a real brilliance to a lot of that music and that experimenting with synthesiser sounds and drum sounds that were kind of discredited at the time and have come full circle to being recognised for what they are and how groundbreaking they were. I love that era and I'll probably always dip into it on some level.
I found the lead single off the album, "What Is Left To Solve" to be quite different in character from a lot of the other tracks. Would you agree with that?
Yeah, I mean, the way the record was made wasn't very conventional. We really did one song at a time. We didn't work on everything at once. We really would start over the instrumentation and everything with each new song. It started off as an acoustic guitar song and it became a synthesiser/drum machine song, simply because the acoustic didn't sound very good. It just sounded kind of stupid. We always have [the synthesiser and drum machine] out. They don't always make it onto the record but we always have synths and drum machines near us and so it seemed kind of natural. Who knows, maybe I was listening to Grimes or Gary Numan that day and it made me want to take the song into darker territory.
I mean, every song is the same when me and Pat are sitting there going, "Is this the song? How do we make it into a song? What would sound really fun right now?" With ["What Is Left To Solve"], I remember I was sitting on the couch in our control room and I was playing the synthesiser, making some noises, and Pat had a drum machine and drumsticks. Next to his chair was this metal cabinet where we have a bunch of stuff. and he was just playing and recording his sticks hitting the metal cabinet. So we had this really weird sound and that's just how we operate. We're just looking at what's in the room and what we should use. When we were doing it, it wasn't really like, "Oh this song feels like a departure from everything else;" it was more immediate. It was more like, "Should we go in this direction? Should we jump off this cliff?" Answer? Yes. It was as simple as that.
Was that freedom to be left to your own devices one of the reasons that you decided not to work with a producer for this album?
Yeah. I don't think a producer would be able to tolerate the process we were using. And nor did I think it was necessary [to have a producer]. There were no demos. Pat had never heard any of the songs before we started recording them and I'd never articulated them to anyone. They were just in my head. I thought it'd be more interesting to do something that felt spontaneous. The only way to really do that without spending hundreds of thousands of dollars is to use your own stuff, so Pat and I could spend weeks on a song if we wanted to. Or one day. There's a song on the record called "Falling" that was probably done in a couple of hours. I was just sitting with my guitar. I think maybe if we'd been working with a producer, maybe we would have felt the need to over-arrange and overdo it. But I was playing the guitar and I said, "Hey Pat do you think this is a song or is this just a fragment?" and he just turned on the reel-to-reel tape machine and set up a couple of mics. I recorded it and did the vocals and a little wurlitzer thing and one little synth thing and it was done. We didn't overthink it, we didn't try to make it a bigger song than it needed to be. I feel like we would have overdone it if we were in some fancy-ass studio and it would have had a different sonic quality. I remember on that one, I think we fed in the sound of the acoustic guitar through an iPhone to give it that kind of compressed sound. And also just other really strange stuff.
Pat would sometimes take a theremin and run it through really weird effects, really strange tape delays. On the song "Ocean", after the first chorus there's this really weird sweeping noise if you listen to it. That is the sound of a theremin if you can believe it. We wouldn't have done that with a producer. We did that because that's a piece of our gear that happens to be sitting there and he just saw it in the room and we tried it. That's really what I think we should've been doing for years, just using our own stuff because that's who we are. We're not some fancy band that uses really, really expensive gear that we can't afford. That's not us. I thought it was a much more honest way of making music. It's more true to when I did our first record, before I'd met Pat. That was the approach on that record too. There were some demos but there were no real arrangements done so the spirit was just kind of to go with your first instinct and see what happens. Don't overthink it, don't try too hard, just make an impression and see what happens.
You mentioned before that you have a young family. Has fatherhood changed your perspective on how you go about making music or thinking about the process?
I think if you're an active, engaged parent, it informs everything. It informs what I eat, it informs my views on sexuality and politics and what time I get up in the morning. Everything in my day is filtered through the lens of "How does this effect my ability to be a father?" There's a certain kind of risk-taking in your mind when you're writing music and you have to turn those filters off a little bit. I don't want to censor what I write. I don't want to make music that's unnecessarily G-rated, so it's a bit of a battle, but it's a good battle.
What I've learnt through being a father is that chapters in life are actually really exciting. It's exciting that things change in your life and you don't know where your life is going to go. I didn't know I'd be living in this house that I'm living in. I didn't know I'd be cleaning my son's ass at three in the morning when he has a dirty diaper or the way that he'd look at me in the eyes and tell me that I'm his best friend. These kinds of moments of being tired and being strung out on not sleeping ... yeah it effects my art, it effects my views on politics especially. So I think this record does revolve around some of those concepts, of finding the sacred in the time I get with my family, the time I get to be a dad. It's the greatest gift I could ever ask for, being lucky enough to be a father to these children.
You've got a new guitarist, Jon Monahan, working with the band. What's it been like to have a fresh face added to such a long-standing collaboration as your partnership with Pat?
Jon is so great. I love playing with Jon. He's actually a real guitar player. I'm a guy who can barely play, I'm just strumming along but he's really skilled. The tones he comes up with and his ability to remember different parts and different concepts -- it's really a thrill. He's so skilled that he has a lot of humility in his playing. He knows how to kind of take it back. He's actually started playing some synth too sometimes. He's so good that he doesn't have this need to just be shredding all the time. He kind of knows that that's not really his core function in the band. There are moments of him kind of exploding and soloing and all that. But it's more about how we can blend our elements and create a multi-layered scenario, so he's great. It's really fun playing with him and he's a really good person.
'The Psychology of Time Travel' Is Anything But Simple
The Psychology of Time Travel balances thrilling mystery, complex characterization, and emotional depth, and is a strong debut for Kate Mascarenhas.
Deborah Krieger
Carmen Villain's 'Both Lines Will Be Blue' Explores Andean Melodies Through Ambient Dub
Carmen Villain's latest album Both Lines Will Be Blue veers hard from her last two albums, trading her psychedelic roots for spacious ambient dub.
Hans Kim
Jazz Saxophonist Jeremy Udden Gets Back to Basics with the Visceral 'Three in Paris'
Highly accomplished jazz saxophonist Jeremy Udden reins in his multitude of musical talents with an intimate trio recording, Three in Paris.
Chris Ingalls
The Joy of Being a Woman: Agnès Varda's One Sings, the Other Doesn't
Varda's One Sings, the Other Doesn't is challenging and multi-voiced act of art by and about women; "happiness" in unconventional arrangements its most radical gesture.
Gauche Blend New Wave and Post-Punk on Their Debut 'A People's History of Gauche'
Evoking best elements from post-punk and new wave, Gauche offers up an impolite and delightful debut album.
Ed Whitelock
Historian Richard Noakes interviews with PopMatters on his work, Physics and Psychics, forthcoming from Cambridge University Press, which offers fascinating insights into the 'heretical' activities of some of the most eminent scientists in Victorian Britain.
Vikram Zutshi
With the music inspired by Roy Orbison and visuals influenced by French cinema, "I Only See You" spotlights Janet LaBelle's abilities as a powerhouse vocalist.
Jedd Beaudoin
Punk and pop energy collide in the new infectious single "Leeches" from New Jersey duo 18th & Addison.
Film/TV score composer Cliff Martinez talks with PopMatters about his work with Steven Soderbergh, Harmony Korine, and Nicolas Winding Refn, whose new series Too Old to Die Young features one of Martinez's most ambitious scores to date.
Thomas Britt
All but One Speak up in Julia Alvarez's ¡Yo!
In a new edition to the sequel to How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, ¡Yo!, Julia Alvarez structures the story of a writer and her voice by allowing everybody but the writer herself to have a voice.
Christopher John Stephens
Erasure's Vince Clarke amplifies the groove of Fujiya & Miyagi's "Fear of Missing Out" and steers it to the heart of the dancefloor.
The Mariachi Ghost announce their new album, Puro Dolor, as dark theater unfurls between living piñatas in their new music video for "Cuerpo Mortal".
Jonathan Frahm
Will Beeley Is Back in Town with 'Highways & Heart Attacks'
Texas singer-songwriter Will Beeley drifted away from making music, but he's back to tell stories on Highways & Heart Attacks, his first album in 40 years.
Rich Wilhelm
David Mamet Lampoons Harvey Weinstein to No Effect in 'Bitter Wheat'
By staging a thinly veiled version of Harvey Weinstein – played by John Malkovich in a fat suit – David Mamet aims for controversy in Bitter Wheat.
Brice Ezell
Slowdive's Rachel Goswell Partners with Her Husband for New Project the Soft Cavalry
Another post-reunion project for Slowdive's Rachel Goswell. In collaborator Steve Clarke she has discovered a talented songwriter and married him, no less.
John Bergstrom
Linda May Han Oh Highlight Her Many Musical Talents on 'Aventurine'
Jazz bassist Linda May Han Oh adds a string quartet to her group to produce something wholly integrated on Aventurine.
Will Layman
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1527
|
__label__wiki
| 0.88239
| 0.88239
|
NASA finds three super-earths in stars’ habitable zones
Published time: 20 Apr, 2013 20:33 Edited time: 21 Apr, 2013 14:29
This artist's concept provided by NASA April 18, 2013, depicts NASA's Kepler misssion's smallest habitable zone planet (AFP Photo / NASA) © AFP
NASA’s Kepler space telescope has discovered three planets that may be able to support life, while one of them is the most earth-like world spotted to date, scientists say.
Two exoplanets have been discovered in their stars’ habitable zones, what is known as just the right range of distance where liquid water can exist on a planet’s surface.
Kepler-62f is a rocky world 1.4 times bigger than earth and circles a star smaller and dimmer than the sun. Its neighbor, Kepler-62e, is just 1.6 times larger than Earth. Both are the smallest exoplanets ever found in their stars’ habitable zones.
Both Kepler-62e and f, “look very good as possibilities for looking for life,” said Bill Borucki, the Kepler science principal investigator, of NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffet Field, California.
The third potential earth-like planet identified by the scientists is Kepler-69c, standing at 1.7 times bigger than Earth and orbits a star similar to our own sun. Boruchi said it represents a big step towards finding the first ever “alien earth”.
“We’re moving very rapidly towards finding an Earth analogue around a star like the sun,” Borucki told SPACE.com.
Kepler-69c lies 2,700 light-years away in the Cyngus constellation.
The Kelper-62 discovery paper, which is being led by Borucki, was published Thursday in the journal Science.
The three potentially habitable worlds are part of a larger find. Scientists unveiled a total of seven new exoplanets, five in the Kepler-62 system and two in Kepler-69.
The Kepler-62e system is located about 1,200 light years away from earth in the Lyra constellation.
The five newfound planets range from 0.54 to1.95 times the size of earth, but only Kepler-62e and f are potentially habitable.
Kepler-62e and f take 122 and 267 days respectively to complete an orbit around their star, which is reported to be only 20% as bright as our Sun. A separate modeling study of the two planets suggests they’re both water worlds totally covered by global oceans.
“There may be life there, but could it be technology-based like ours? Life on these worlds would be under water with no easy access to metals, to electricity, or fire for metallurgy,” the lead author of the study, Lisa Kaltenegger, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics and the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, said in a statement.
Researchers said that Kepler-62e should be warmer than its more distantly orbiting neighbor and may require a greenhouse effect to stop its ocean’s from freezing over.
“Kepler-62e probably has a very cloudy sky and is warm and humid all the way to the polar regions. Kepler-62f would be cooler, but still potentially life-friendly,” co-author Dimitar Sasselov of Harvard said in statement.
The $600 million Kepler observatory was launched in March 2009 to hunt for earth sized exoplanets. Kepler searches for planets by detecting tiny brightness dips when they cross the face of their stars.
Kepler has spotted 2,700 planets since its March 2009 launch, while about 120 of these candidates have been confirmed to date.
Borucki pointed out that Kepler is getting closer and closer to discovering earth’s twin, with Kepler-69c an example of how close.
“I think we’re making excellent progress in that direction. We have a number of candidates that look good,” he said.
While the Kepler cannot actually search for signs of life on the planets like 62e and 62f, the telescope is paving the way for future missions to do just that, he said.
A super-Earth is an extrasolar planet with a mass higher than Earth's, but substantially below the mass of the Solar System's smaller gas giants Uranus and Neptune, which are both more or less 15 Earth masses.
The term super-Earth refers only to the mass of the planet, and does not imply anything about the surface conditions or habitability.
Astronomers at the European Southern Observatory in Chile found out that 40 per cent of red dwarves are orbited by super-Earths. Red Dwarfs are by far the most common type of star in the Milky Way galaxy, so there might be tens of billions of such planets in our galaxy alone.
Earth's sibling located...600 light-years away
Earth not alone: Two more sibling planets orbit Sun-like star
Astronomers find diamond planet twice the size of Earth
New Earth-sized exoplanet found in our own 'backyard'
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1529
|
__label__wiki
| 0.950201
| 0.950201
|
Magdalene laundries' controversy - 20 years on
Updated / Wednesday, 26 Jun 2013 16:12
It is 20 years since the State's Magdalene laundries became a source of public controversy
The Government has unveiled a package of financial and other supports for survivors of Magdalene laundries.
It was based on recommendations of Mr Justice John Quirke who was asked by the cabinet to devise eligibility criteria and other aspects of a non-adversarial scheme.
RTÉ's Religious & Social Affairs Correspondent Joe Little reports
It’s 20 years since the State’s Magdalene laundries became a source of public controversy. In 1993 the exhumation, transfer and cremation of the remains of 155 former residents of a Magdalene laundry in Dublin by an order of nuns clearing its land for sale sparked public outrage.
Eighty of the women had not been identified because death certificates were missing or never existed in the first place.
Earlier this year a committee of civil servants independently chaired by Dr Martin McAleese said “the most likely reason” for the blunder was the absence at that time of catalogued records in the order’s archives.
He noted the concern and distress caused to - potentially thousands of - women who had spent some of their lives in the State’s ten Catholic Magdalen laundries. And he said the women’s pain had been shared by their families and the general public.
But exhumations were not the only focus of criticism. In the landmark 'States of Fear' television documentary series, produced for RTÉ in 1999 by the late Mary Raftery, forced labour and wrongful deprivation of liberty were identified as hallmarks of the laundry life.
Women told of how, as young girls, they were made to work without pay in sweltering laundries with no indication of when, if ever, they would be released by their families, the nuns and the State which together frequently conspired to keep them hidden from wider society behind high walls and locked gates.
Raftery’s work on the plight of institutionalised children here– she also co-authored 'Suffer Little Children' with the Trinity College Dublin academic, Eoin O’Sullivan - forced the State to apologise to thousands of survivors of industrial schools and reformatories.
But the survivors of Magdalene laundries were largely ignored despite the fact that laundries often shared campuses with the other kinds of Catholic-run residential institutions and took referrals from them when girls were nearing graduation age.
While the State paid €1.5bn on a Redress Scheme for the survivors who merited its apology – much of it on lawyers’ fees – “the Magdalenes” as they came to be known, were virtually ignored.
However, movies were made on their plight and the making of Steven O’Riordan’s documentary 'The Forgotten Maggies', (2009, TG4) brought together the nucleus of Magdalene Survivors Together, an organisation that represents about 80 women in their campaign for justice.
Simultaneously, the Justice For Magdalenes Campaign (JFM) lobbied the Government and the Catholic Church for apologies and restorative justice measures for the ageing cohort of survivors and their families.
In 2011, JFM’s a recently-graduated legal academic, Maeve O’Rourke, brought their case to the UN Committee Against Torture in Geneva.
It was moved to strongly criticise the Irish Government for failing to launch a prompt, independent and statutory investigation into the women’s claims and for failing to apologise to them.
The State’s representative testified that, from the limited evidence available, the Government was satisfied that the great majority of the women had been admitted voluntarily to the laundries and, in the case of minors, had been put there with the consent of their families.
Embarrassed by the findings in Geneva, the newly-elected Fine Gael-Labour Government promptly asked Dr Martin McAleese in 2011 to chair a group of civil servants from relevant departments to establish any State involvement with the laundries.
Report details State's responsibility
Last February saw the publication of the 1,000-page McAleese Report. It found that approximately 10,000 women and girls had been put into the laundries between the founding of the State and 1996 when the last one closed.
It also found that the State was responsible for about a quarter of all referrals.
Many of the survivors who Dr McAleese met “experienced the laundries as lonely and frightening places” This was true, he added, particularly in the case of those who were put there as young girls”.
Dr McAleese noted that most girls were not told why they were put away. Possible reasons included poverty, the loss of a mother, disability, the risk of becoming pregnant, being sexually abused, and having had a second child outside marriage.
Girls committed by industrial schools - where they had been detained for some of their earlier years - were not told how long they would have to stay in the laundries. Dr McAleese added that the same open-ended policy was applied to those admitted by families and charities.
“To add to this confusion,” the report continues, “most found themselves quite alone in what was, by today’s standards, a harsh and physically demanding work environment. The psychological impact on these girls was undoubtedly traumatic and lasting.”
The report’s impact was blunted somewhat by the finding that 61% of residents had spent less than one year in the institutions. It was as if some sections of public opinion were disappointed that the picture painted by the report did not live up to the stereotype of laundry life portrayed by film-makers in particular.
But this was based on information concerning only 42% of admissions, those for which duration is known. The report in fact finds that the average duration of stay of those particular admissions was 3.22 years.
While some former residents who met the committee said the laundries were “their only refuge at times of great personal difficulty”, “the majority described the atmosphere in (them) as cold, with a rigid and uncompromising regime of physically demanding work and prayer, with many instances of verbal censure, scoldings or even humiliating put-downs.”
However, the vast majority told the committee that the ill-treatment, physical punishment and abuse that had been prevalent in the industrial school system was not something they experienced in the laundries.
Critically, although the laundries were owned and run by four religious congregations of nuns, the State was directly involved with the institutions. The McAleese Report detailed four cross-overs in addition to the previously mentioned responsibility the State bore for about a quarter of all fully recorded admissions:
State inspections and State funding of the laundries; State involvement in the routes by which women left the institutions; and its role in death registration, burials and exhumations.
Almost immediately after the report’s publication last February, the four Catholic congregations that had run the Laundries expressed their regrets for how they had treated women and girls in their care and apologised with varying degrees of intensity.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny also expressed regret for what had been revealed but stopped short of making an unequivocal apology to the women. But two weeks later, on the 19 February, he apologised unreservedly on behalf of the State to the survivors.
In a well-attended but hushed Dáil, his voice broke with emotion as he apologised for the hurt the women had endured in the laundries and for any stigma they suffered as a result of their time there. Dozens of survivors were moved to tears as they looked on from the visitors' gallery.
Mr Kenny said that he wanted to initiate a process to help and support the women in their remaining years, and announced that the retired High Court Judge John Quirke had agreed to review how the Government could provide support to the women.
Shortly afterwards, the Department of Justice invited survivors of the laundries - and of a Catholic residential training centre for females in Dublin’s Stanhope Street - to register their intent to seek State support. So far more than 750 have done so. Meanwhile, Mr Justice Quirke began devising the eligibility criteria for the general scheme of supports and a payments system.
The Government had already decided all assistance should be given on an an ex gratia basis, that is, out of a sense of its moral obligation rather than because of any legal requirement.
The judge has been asked to estimate how much his proposed payments will come to. He’ll define their “nature” and “amount” and propose a method for deciding on payments “in an effective and timely manner that ensures the.... Fund (is) directed only to the benefit of eligible applicants and not on legal fees and expenses”.
Critically, his terms of reference also oblige him “to take into account relevant criteria including work undertaken by the women”. He has also been asked to examine “other matters as considered appropriate, to contribute to a healing and reconciliation process”
Judge Quirke will advise as well on help-in-kind for former residents who need it. Examples given are medical cards and other public health supports like mental health and counselling services and other welfare needs.
He’ll tackle the complex and thorny question of double-payments: how the government should respond to women who have already received money from the now defunct Residential Institutions Redress Board in recognition of abuse suffered in an Industrial School but where the payment included “a sum specifically due to their direct transfer to a Laundry and time spent there.
He has been asked to propose ways of ensuring that former residents living in the UK won’t lose existing entitlements to benefits and supports if they receive a payment from the Fund.
And finally, he will suggest ways of ensuring that “payments or supports or assistance” provided here are disregarded when Social Welfare entitlements and/or income tax liability are being determined.
The report, and the Government’s response to it, are scheduled to be launched in Dublin at 3.30pm today by Minister for Justice and Equality Alan Shatter and Junior Minister Kathleen Lynch.
Irish Special Reports
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1530
|
__label__wiki
| 0.931616
| 0.931616
|
RunWashington is the Washington, D.C. area’s source for news and thoughtful examination of the distance running scene. Founded in 1984 as the Washington Running Report, the magazine was rebranded in 2012 and is published until 2018. We now publish online regularly and send out a weekly email newsletter to subscribers. Submissions and pitches are welcomed, providing the subject has a direct connection to the Washington, D.C. area and the contributor is a D.C.-area resident.
Contact Charlie Ban with editorial concerns and Denise Farley for advertising inquiries.
Please note that we generally entertain story pitches regarding the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area and prefer contributors to live here.
RunWashington editorial staff
Editor in Chief Charlie Ban spends his days covering county government issues for the National Association of Counties newspaper County News and his evenings and weekends editing RunWashington. He lives in Northwest D.C., runs for the Georgetown Running Club and curses the University of Richmond’s trustees daily for cutting the school’s men’s track program. Reach him at [email protected]. Follow Charlie and RunWashington at facebook.com/runwashington, on Twitter @runwashington and Instagram @runwashington.
RunWashington contributors
Katie Bolton ran her first 5k in high school. She finished 12 minutes behind the star of the cross country team but she beat two of her friends so she kept running. She’s not much faster today but she can run a lot farther. She once wrote a college paper about Dean Karnazes. It was for a gender studies class. She stands by it. Katie lives, works and runs in Washington, D.C.
Andrew Gates is the author and self-publisher of science fiction novels Iris and Rise of the Immortal Warrior. He works at Potomac River Running.
Vanessa Junkin works for the Wicomico County, Md. Recreation, Parks, Tourism & Civic Center and is the secretary of the Eastern Shore Running Club. She previously covered courts and justice for The Daily Times in Salisbury, Md.
Jake Klim is a sub-elite runner with the Georgetown Running Club who lives in North Bethesda, Md. His work as a freelance television producer has appeared on National Geographic Channel, The Weather Channel, History Channel and Military Channel, among others. After graduating from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, Klim has spent the past 12 years exploring the various trails the greater-Washington, D.C. area has to offer and documents his training at www.jakeklim.blogspot.com. He has written a book on a World War I submarine raid on Cape Cod, www.attackonorleans.com.
Maggie Lloyd moved to Washington from Boston, which means she got a lot of strange looks from D.C. residents in the winter whenever she ran in shorts and a t-shirt. She’s a science policy nerd by day and is always on the lookout for the opportunity to practice her steeplechase skills, primarily by jumping over park benches to get around tourist groups.
Jen Maranzano is a former four-time NCAA Division III All-American runner who continues to race with the D.C.-based running group, the Dojo of Pain.
Dickson Mercer works as a speechwriter for Siemens and previously wrote speeches for the U.S. Department of Transportation, wrote arts and entertainment features for newspapers and spent 16 months with the U.S. Peace Corps in Niger,West Africa with his wife Emily. He lives in Takoma Park, competes for Georgetown Running Club and tends to log his miles around Hains Point in the morning and the National Mall in the evening.
David Pittman is a health and medical writer who has covered running for ESPN Rise and Running Times, plus other sports while a student at the University of Georgia. A Washington resident, he serves on the board for the Washington Running Club.
Jenny Paul is a recovering journalist turned lawyer who lives, works, and runs in Washington, D.C. She trains with the D.C.-based running group Dojo of Pain and continues to resent the state of Maryland for taking away the Georgetown Branch Trail and the “big loop” to make way for the mythical Purple Line.
Beth Roessner is an avid runner, writer, home cook and coach living in Washington D.C. She works with newbie runners and wellness seekers to help them achieve all of their goals.
Laura Scaduto she studied journalism and exercise science at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania and employs her skills in both as a writer and an ACSM-certified personal trainer. She competes in triathlons and previously wrote for RunHaven and enjoys writing about science, fitness and pop culture.
Kelyn Soong is the sports editor for the Washington City Paper and previously worked in the sports department at The Washington Post. He can often be found covering running and tennis in the D.C. area. He is still chasing the elusive sub 5:30 mile.
Sophie Tedesco is a junior at George C. Marshall High School in Virginia where she is a captain on the cross country team, managing editor of the school newspaper and an avid writer who has self-published her first novel.
RunWashington-featured photographers
Sara Alepin teaches at the Washington School of Photography, as an audio/visual technician at the Phillips Collection and owns her own photography business, Photos from the Harty.
Niamh Brennan is a senior at Woodrow Wilson High School who specializes in baseball, running and equestrian photography. When she’s not taking pictures she enjoys spending time with her family, riding horses and watching the Nationals. www.niamhbphotography.com.
Brian Knight has worked as a contract photographer for Pacers Events for several years and captures great environmental shots and photos of winners, mid-packers and volunteers at several races a year. His work can be seen at www.swimbikerunphoto.com, and in Washington Post, Shape, Yahoo! News, Backpacker, Competitor Magazine, Blue Ridge Outdoors, Metro Sports DC, and DCist.com.
Ed Lull was a quick mid-distance runner at Lake Braddock and the College of William and Mary. He restarted the Chantilly Youth Association track program nine years ago after a two-year period of dormancy and lives in Fairfax with his wife of 23 years, Lynn, and his three daughters Cali, Samantha and Hannah, who are all involved in the CYA track program. He photographs at many Northern Virginia cross country and track meets.
Dustin Whitlow is an Arlington-based photographer for DWhit Photography. www.dwhitphoto.com.
Rich Woods is a photographer and filmmaker who studied both film and photography at Howard University. www.richwoodsfoto.com.
Cheryl Young has been running for 23 years and works as a mortgage banker. A Reston, Va. resident, she loves the variety that comes with running in Northern Virginia. She is a major organizational force behind the Capital Area Runners. youngrunner.smugmug.com
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1531
|
__label__cc
| 0.732988
| 0.267012
|
Martin Cameron
Tebello Thusini
Martin is the Managing Director of Trade Research Advisory (Pty) Ltd, a spin-out company of the North-West University’s TRADE research entity. A key focus is the application of the TRADE-DSM™ methodology, which was developed by NWU’s TRADE-DSM research team under the leadership of Prof Wilma Viviers in association with Prof Ludo Cuyvers from the University of Antwerp in Belgium.
Martin is a quantitative economist specialising in the field of Quantitative Executive Decision Support modelling, Economic Impact Analysis and Engineering Management Decision Support, in which he has extensive experience, especially related to International Trade and Energy Economics. He authored various papers on the topic of power (electrical) network reliability and international trade. He has been conducting economic impact assessments and other related South African macro-economic, sectoral, provincial and industrial impact studies and policy related analysis since 1994.
He started his non-academic career at the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) in the middle 1990s, after post-graduate studies and lecturing at the North-West University. At the IDC, he was a member of the team that supported the analytics underpinning the SA-EU Free Trade Agreement.
In his capacity as quantitative economist he has been part of the developments of most of the major industrial and policy developments in South Africa, including more recently the King Shaka/Dube Trade Port business case development, Bombella Gautrain bid, various studies for Eskom on potential alternative generation build options, electricity price increase implications for the Department of Public Enterprise and other related energy economic impact studies in the liquid fuels and energy transportation fields (Department of Energy and Transnet, Transnet Pipelines and Sasol).
More recently he was appointed by the South African Independent Power Producers (IPP) Programme Office as an independent advising economist on topics of economic strategy with specific focus on the development of the South African Gas Utilisation Master Plan (GUMP), localisation and economic developmental issues.
During 2015 he was appointed by the Director General of the South African Department of Trade and Industry (the dti) as member of the economic research advisory network (ERAN) comprising of representatives from the national and provincial economic development government departments, government entities, universities and research institutions.
Martin holds a master’s degree (Cum Laude) in computable general equilibrium (CGE) modelling and development economics and is busy with his PhD in International Trade at the NWU.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1533
|
__label__wiki
| 0.618895
| 0.618895
|
A homeless person sleeps in City Hall Park in front of work crews. Photo by Casey Jaywork
‘Trying to Dig a Hole to China’: Officials Grapple With Another Year of Big Homeless Numbers
Despite redoubled efforts, more than 11,000 people were experiencing homelessness in King County during this year’s count.
by Casey Jaywork
Wednesday, May 31, 2017 11:07am
News & CommentHomeless
Authorities have published the annual point-in-time count of King County’s homeless population. As of January 27, there were a minimum of 3,857 people sleeping outside in Seattle. Because of changes in the methodology of counting, that number can’t be directly compared to the 2,942 counted last year.
Countywide, a total of 11,643 people were experiencing homelessness, according to All Home, which conducted the count. This figure includes 6,158 people who were living in shelters or emergency housing and 5,483 people living on the streets.
These high numbers don’t necessarily indicate incompetence on the part of local governments’ attempts to address homelessness, according to All Home director Mark Putnam, who today presented the report to a co-meeting of the city and county councils. He said that last year, 7,500 households moved from homelessness into housing in King County. And according to Seattle Human Services Department Director Catherine Lester, the city and county have added more than 500 new beds in authorized homeless encampments over the past several years.
But despite these countermeasures, local residents keep becoming homeless, typically after losing their job. “Everybody…knows that homelessness is a symptom of many other failures,” said Adrienne Quinn, Director of Seattle/King County Public Health. These include the expensive housing market and a fraying social safety net. To partly address the former, Quinn said, the county is currently working to produce “modular [housing] units which come in at a lower cost” than other housing options.
Real Change and some other homeless advocacy organizations criticized All Home for not releasing the raw count numbers in January, when they were collected. All Home said they needed the time to crunch the numbers. In past years, the one night count has used a blunter formula for inferring the overall homeless population from specific symptoms of homelessness (for example, the number of tents counted). In 2017, the count adopted a new, more fine-grained methodology for inferring population based on symptoms. As a result, comparing this year’s numbers to last years’ is “inevitable, but a little apples and oranges,” said Putnam.
The value of the new methodology is that it gives authorities “a better understanding of who is homeless…and why,” said Lester.
According to the report, 70 percent of King County’s homeless population lives in Seattle. As in previous years, counters found that most resided in the county before becoming homeless, typically either as a renter or with friends or relatives. The report estimates that there are 2,773 “chronically” homeless people in King County—that is, people who have been “sleeping in places not meant for human habitation or staying in emergency shelters for a year or longer, or experiencing at least four such episodes of homelessness in the last three years, and also living with a disabling condition.” Some more estimates from the report:
-Number of homeless veterans: 1,329
-Number of homeless households with children: 905
-Number of unaccompanied youth and young adults: 1,498
-Percentage of local homeless people with a history of experiencing domestic violence or abuse: 40
-Percentage of local homeless queer people with a history of experiencing domestic violence or abuse: 58
-Relative to the general King County population, white and especially Asian people are underrepresented among the homeless, while Latino and especially black people are overrepresented
-Men are about twice as likely as women to be homeless
One of the report’s takeaways is that “housing ends homelessness.” According to the report, 92 percent of local homeless people say they would move into decent housing if they could. According to Putnam, more than 90 percent of homeless people who get housing retain it for at least two years.
“The general public thinks we’re failing miserably” at addressing homelessness, said Seattle City Councilmember Bruce Harrell at the meeting. “No matter how much we try to do, we’re not winning in the court of public opinion.”
County Councilmember Rod Dembowski agreed, comparing the task of ending homelessness to “trying to dig a hole to China.”
One obstacle to creating adequate shelter and housing for homeless people, said Quinn, is resistance from neighbors to having such facilities sited nearby. “Every time we try to site a shelter for single adults,” she said, “we get community pushback” from people who don’t want riffraff in their neighborhood. That resistance had been on display during public comment before Quinn spoke. One commenter—Melody from Belltown—urged the councils to literally “outlaw homelessness…We shouldn’t allow them to live on our streets.”
cjaywork@seattleweekly.com
RV Campers Prep for Eviction, Again
Locking Kids Up Is Evil. But Is It Necessary?
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1534
|
__label__cc
| 0.655878
| 0.344122
|
MJ Galbraith | Thursday, June 27, 2019
Bay area entrepreneurs encouraged to apply for small business competition
More than 40 entrepreneurs competed in last year’s contest. Professional basketball trainer Luke Lloyd won the top prize for his Dribble Stick Training company, taking home a check for $25,000.Pitch a Dream Competition
The Bay Area Pitch A Dream competition is back.
Area entrepreneurs are encouraged to apply for the small business competition, which is awarding more than $25,000 in cash and prizes to local early-stage businesses in this year's contest. Entrants have until Sunday, Aug. 11 to apply.
The 2019 Bay Area Pitch A Dream competition will culminate with the grand prize event on Tuesday, Nov. 12.
But first, a number of steps must be completed in order to qualify and compete for the grand prize.
Applicants must be early stage companies with a principal location in Bay County or willing to relocate to Bay County.
Though not required, applicants are being strongly encouraged to complete a consolidated version of the Central Michigan University Research Corporation’s Right Choice Program. Kick-off meetings are scheduled at the CMURC Uptown Bay City offices on June 27, July 15, Aug. 5, and Aug. 8.
A crowdfunding phase has been added to this year’s competition. The first three contestants to crowdfund $1,000 by Monday, Aug. 19 will receive $500 grants from the competition.
A Top Ten of finalists will be announced by Monday, Nov. 4. The Top Ten then go on to compete in the final competition, pitching their businesses in front of a Shark Tank-like panel of judges.
More than 40 entrepreneurs competed in last year’s contest, with the final 10 presenting their businesses at an event at the Bay City State Theatre. Professional basketball trainer Luke Lloyd won the top prize for his Dribble Stick Training company, taking home a check for $25,000.
"Going through this program gave me the tools I needed to take my business to the next level," says Lloyd.
"CMURC was there to help me every step of the way, which helped bring my product from idea to first sale."
Visit the Bay Area Pitch A Dream competition online to learn more about the application process and to apply.
Got a development news story to share? Email MJ Galbraith here or send him a tweet @mikegalbraith
Bay City, Uptown
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1535
|
__label__cc
| 0.727433
| 0.272567
|
Andrew Stadel, Why I Care Employee Recipient
After Hurricane Sandy ravaged New York City in 2012, SEFCU employee volunteers boarded a bus to help with cleanup efforts. Andy Stadel and other employees spent long hours removing water-logged debris, distributing food to those who were displaced, and packing trucks full of supplies to be given to hurricane victims. While Andy was grateful for the time he was able to give to those impacted by Hurricane Sandy, he wished he could have done more.
After he returned from the bus trip he began researching ways he could gain new skills that would allow him to do more in emergency situations so he started taking FEMA and Search and Rescue classes and a few short years later began his training as a volunteer fireman for Vischer Ferry Fire Department where he has served since 2015.
“It was the bus trip in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy that gave me the drive. I’m very proud to be part of an organization that supports and encourages employees to get involved in this way,” said Stadel.
Andy has moved up the ranks quickly in the fire department, serving in a number of roles including firefighter, Financial Secretary, Sgt. at Arms, and was most recently elected Lieutenant. In addition to his volunteer service in the firehouse, Andy was also a Big Brothers Big Sisters mentor to his “little,” Victor.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1536
|
__label__wiki
| 0.633823
| 0.633823
|
Home › News › A Shared Future
A Shared Future
by Gerry Lynch — last modified 01 Oct, 2015 02:05 PM
Catholic Anglicans discuss their varying perspectives at Salisbury event
Catholic Anglicans from both traditionalist and affirming points of view gathered in Salisbury today to discuss the topic Our Shared Future: Catholic Anglican Perspectives, an event organised as part of the Diocese’s Continuing Ministerial Development programme.
Over 40 people, clergy and lay, met at St Martin’s Church in Salisbury, a parish which is a member of the Society of Saint Hilda and Saint Wilfrid, which brings together parishes that are under the oversight of the Church of England’s traditional catholic bishops.
The meeting was addressed by Dr Colin Podmore, Director of Forward in Faith and the Bishop Bill Ind, convenor of the Diocesan branch of the Society of Catholic Priests, and convened by Canon Jane Charman, the Diocese’s Director for Learning and Ministry. Interestingly, a number of those attending identified themselves as coming from an Evangelical tradition but interested in learning from others.
Both the speakers and contributors from the floor identified the very real tensions that remain between supporters of women’s ordination and those who cannot accept the sacramental ministry of women. There were areas of common interest, however, in areas such as the Seal of the Confessional, not to mention evangelism and catechesis. Both traditionalist and affirming Catholics are relatively small minorities in the Diocese of Salisbury.
Speaking after the event, Dr Colin Podmore said, “The importance of today was that it was the beginning of a conversation, and of the restoration of relationships that may have been broken or strained in the past. To work together we need to recognise and not diminish our differences, but equally not be constrained by them.”
Bishop Bill Ind said, “I think the tone of Colin’s opening speech was important. We need above to be moving towards some sort of way where societies like the Society of Catholic Priests can work together with the traditionalist Catholic societies.”
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1538
|
__label__cc
| 0.662917
| 0.337083
|
A comfortable retirement
At Reza Samii we have helped many individuals in the South West London area to plan for a comfortable retirement. Here we consider some key strategies to help with your retirement planning, but please contact us for advice tailored to your circumstances.
It is essential to ensure that you put aside sufficient funds during your working life to allow for a comfortable retirement in the future. You could spend a third of your life as a retired person, and by taking action now, you can help to make this period as financially secure as possible.
Many options are open to retirees in regard to how they use their savings. It is important to seek appropriate advice on the options available to you. Here we outline some of the key areas to take into consideration when planning for your ‘golden years’.
Initial considerations
Your retirement planning strategy will be determined by a number of factors, including your age and the number of years before retirement. However, there are some other key issues to consider:
Do you have an employer pension scheme?
Are you self-employed?
How much can you invest for your retirement?
How much State Pension will you receive?
Individuals who reached State Pension age after 5 April 2016 receive a flat-rate pension, worth £168.60 per week where they have at least 35 years of national insurance contributions (NICs) or credits.
Those who reached State Pension age before 6 April 2016 will continue to claim their basic State Pension (plus any additional state pension that they may be entitled to). The basic State Pension in 2019/20 is £129.20 a week.
To receive a State Pension forecast you can phone the Future Pension Centre on 0800 731 0175.
Employer pension schemes
There are two kinds of employer pension scheme, into which you and your employer may make contributions. A defined contribution scheme pays a retirement income reflecting the amount invested and the underlying investment fund performance. A defined benefit scheme pays a retirement income related to your earnings: such schemes are very rare. However, in both cases, you will have access to tax-free cash as well as to the actual pension.
The amount of personal contributions that can qualify for tax relief is limited to the greater of £3,600 and total UK relevant earnings, subject to scheme rules.
Pensions auto-enrolment
In order to encourage more people to save for their retirement, the government has introduced compulsory workplace pensions for eligible workers. Under auto-enrolment, all employers must automatically enrol all eligible workers into a qualifying pension scheme. From April 2019 there is generally a minimum overall contribution rate of 8% of each employee’s qualifying earnings, of which at least 3% must come from the employer. The balance is made up of employees’ contributions and associated tax relief.
Personal pension schemes
Relying on the State Pension will not be adequate for a comfortable retirement, so if you are not in a good employer scheme, you are advised to make your own arrangements.
To qualify for income tax relief, investments in personal pensions are limited to the greater of £3,600 and the amount of your UK relevant earnings, but subject also to the annual allowance. The annual allowance is £40,000, but this is tapered for individuals who have both income over £110,000 and adjusted annual income (their income plus their own and employer’s pension contributions) over £150,000. For every £2 of adjusted income over £150,000, an individual’s annual allowance will be reduced by £1, down to a minimum of £10,000.
Where pension savings in any of the last three years’ pension input periods (PIPs) were less than the annual allowance, the ‘unused relief’ is brought forward, but you must have been a pension scheme member during a tax year to bring forward unused relief from that year. The unused relief for any particular year must be used within three years.
Nick has not made any contribution into his pension policy so far in 2019/20.
Nick has unused annual allowances of £30,000 from 2016/17, £5,000 from 2017/18 and £20,000 from 2018/19 (total £55,000). Nick’s income is less than £110,000.
Nick’s maximum pension investment is therefore set at £95,000 (£40,000 plus £55,000) for his 2019/20 PIP. He needs to make a pension contribution of £70,000 (current year allowance £40,000 and £30,000 unused relief from 2016/17) in order to avoid the loss of the relief brought forward from 2016/17.
If contributions are paid in excess of the annual allowance, a charge - the annual allowance charge - is payable. The effect of the annual allowance charge is to claw back all tax relief on premiums in excess of the maximum. Where the charge exceeds £2,000, arrangements can be made for the charge to be paid by the pension trustees and recovered by adjustment to policy benefits.
Tax relief on personal pensions
Premiums on personal pension policies are payable net of basic rate tax relief at source, with any appropriate higher or additional rate relief usually being claimed via the PAYE code or self assessment tax return.
Stephanie will earn £60,000 in 2019/20. She will invest £12,500 into her personal pension policy. She is entitled to the basic personal allowance and has no other income.
Stephanie will pay her pension provider a premium, net of basic rate tax relief of £10,000. She is also entitled to higher rate tax relief on the gross premium, amounting to £2,500.
As Stephanie is an employee, we can ask HMRC to give the relief through her PAYE code. Otherwise, we would claim in Stephanie’s 2020 Tax Return. Thus the net cost to Stephanie of a £12,500 contribution to her pension policy is just £7,500.
Scotland now has income tax rates which are different from those that apply in the rest of the UK. Pension payments by Scottish taxpayers paying at the starter rate of 19% will be treated in the same way as 20% taxpayers in the rest of the UK. Scottish taxpayers who pay tax at 21%, 41% or 46% claim the difference between these rates and the basic rate of 20%. Contact us for specific advice.
The lifetime allowance
Where total pension savings exceed the £1,055,000 lifetime allowance at retirement (and fixed, primary or enhanced protection is not available), a tax charge arises:
Tax charge
(excess paid as annuity)
(excess paid as lump sum)
25% on excess value, then up to 45% on annuity 55% on excess value
The lifetime allowance will increase each year in line with CPI.
Accessing your personal pension fund
Taxpayers have the option of taking a tax-free lump sum of 25% of the fund value and purchasing an annuity with the remaining fund, or opting for income drawdown which offers further flexibility in how the fund is used.
An annuity is taxable income in the year of receipt. Similarly any monies received from the income drawdown fund are taxable income in the year of receipt.
Taxpayers have total freedom to access a pension fund from the age of 55. Access to the fund may be achieved in one of two ways:
allocation of a pension fund (or part of a pension fund) into a 'flexi-access drawdown account' from which any amount can be taken, over whatever period the person decides
taking a single or series of lump sums from a pension fund (known as an 'uncrystallised funds pension lump sum').
When an allocation of funds into a flexi-access account is made the member typically will have the opportunity of taking a tax-free lump sum from the fund.
The person will then decide how much or how little to take from the flexi-access account. Any amounts that are taken will count as taxable income in the year of receipt.
Access to some or all of a pension fund without first allocating to a flexi-access account can be achieved by taking an uncrystallised funds pension lump sum. The tax effect will be:
25% is tax-free
the remainder is taxable as income.
Money Purchase Annual Allowance
The government is alive to the possibility of people taking advantage of the flexibilities by ‘recycling’ their earned income into pensions and then immediately taking out amounts from their pension funds. The Money Purchase Annual Allowance (MPAA) sets the maximum amount of tax-efficient contributions an individual can make in certain scenarios. The allowance is set at £4,000 per annum, with no carry forward of the allowance to a later year if not used in the year.
The main scenarios in which the reduced annual allowance is triggered are if:
any income is taken from a flexi-access drawdown account; or
an uncrystallised funds pension lump sum is received.
However, just taking a tax-free lump sum when funds are transferred into a flexi-access account will not trigger the MPAA rule.
Your next steps: contact us to discuss…
Calculating how much you need to save to ensure you enjoy a comfortable retirement
Tax-advantaged saving for your pension
Saving in parallel to provide more readily accessible funds
Saving in employer and personal pension schemes
Using your business to help fund your retirement
If you are in the South West London area and would like advice on personal tax planning strategies, please contact Reza Samii.
Tax and financial strategies 2019/20 Strategies for your business Exiting your business Tax and employment Planning for yourself and your family Making the most of savings and investments A comfortable retirement Tax-efficient estate planning
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1543
|
__label__wiki
| 0.579565
| 0.579565
|
Photo by NordWood Themes
A Self-Compassion Reminder for the New Year: You're Doing Fine
Resolutions. Commitments. Intentions. Life-changing decisions to change your life!
The end of one year and the beginning of the next have become annual occasions to highlight personal failure and seek out pathways to success. The message is always that we’re not doing enough in some aspects of our lives and we’re doing too much in others. We’ve internalized the false notion that our lives are endlessly out of balance and that January 1 is the day to change all that.
But you know what? You’re doing fine. You are.
You may not be doing well, but you’re doing fine.
You may want to change things about yourself. You may want to accomplish new goals, be more ambitious, be kinder, find love, exercise more, etc. That’s great!
But you’re also doing fine right now. And convincing yourself that you’re not doing fine—that you’re a failure, that everything that’s wrong is your fault, that you’re not as good as other people—just makes everything harder.
I’m not trying to gloss over how difficult life can be and how unequally we experience those difficulties. I’m also not saying that you shouldn’t take responsibility for your actions and choices.
However, I am saying that you don’t need to compound life’s challenges with an overwhelming sense of failure and a doomed-before-you-even-begin resolution to drastically change yourself.
By all means, set goals, make changes. But be realistic. Start small, break big things down into smaller pieces, and make progress each day.
But don’t spend your time convincing yourself that every day between now and the day you reach your goal is a lost cause. It’s not. You’re trying. You’re getting there. You’re living. You’re doing fine.
Tags: self-compassion
December 2018 - This Month in Environmental & Policy News
December 31, 2018 in reading lists
We read Democrats’ 8 plans for universal health care. Here’s how they work. (Vox)
Compare Medicare-for-All and Public Plan Proposals (Kaiser Family Foundation)
We broke down what climate change will do, region by region (Grist)
The Last Stand of the Last Great Wilderness (Sierra)
Greenhouse Gas Emissions Accelerate Like a ‘Speeding Freight Train’ in 2018 (The New York Times)
Tackle climate or face financial crash, say world's biggest investors (The Guardian)
As Seas Warm, Galápagos Islands Face a Giant Evolutionary Test (The New York Times)
This is our reality now. (The New York Times)
Urban Planning/Transit/Walking
Ride-Hailing’s Long Road to Accessibility (CityLab)
Reading List: November 2018 - What to Read This Month
November 29, 2018 in reading lists
Fourth National Climate Assessment (U.S. Global Change Research Program); for insight into the Assessment, see the NY Times’ What’s New in the Latest U.S. Climate Assessment
How Extreme Weather Is Shrinking the Planet (The New Yorker)
More than 90% of the world’s children breathe toxic air every day (World Health Organization)
Clean Energy Is Surging, but Not Fast Enough to Solve Global Warming (The New York Times)
Habitat loss threatens all our futures, world leaders warned (The Guardian)
‘Like a Terror Movie’: How Climate Change Will Cause More Simultaneous Disasters (The New York Times)
Visitors From the Ocean’s Twilight Zone (The New York Times)
The Key to a Long Life Has Little to do with “Good Genes” (Wired)
As If There Is Nothing to Lose (Tricycle)
Reading List: October 2018 - 10 Things to Read and 1 Thing to Do This Month
October 30, 2018 in reading lists
This is not a thing to read, but a thing to do. Get out there next Tuesday (11/6) and vote.
Check your registration, find your polling place, and get voting reminders from vote.org
See what your ballot will look like on voting day and research the candidates and ballot questions at Ballotpedia
The Wisdom of Whores by Elizabeth Pisani — This amazing book chronicles the AIDS epidemic as a public health crisis from an insider’s perspective. H/t to Carissa, who recommended the book to me years ago.
How to Shift Public Attitudes and Win the Global Climate Battle (Yale Environment 360)
Major Climate Report Describes a Strong Risk of Crisis as Early as 2040 (The New York Times)
Orca 'apocalypse': half of killer whales doomed to die from pollution (The Guardian)
International Turtles, National Laws (Hakai Magazine)
Redrawing the Map: How the World’s Climate Zones Are Shifting (Yale Environment 360)
‘They’re Bold and Fresh’: The Millennials Disrupting Boston’s Transit System (Politico)
Art & Debt
“But the Trump era isn’t one of extreme order. Rather, it is hysterically surreal – wildly disorganized and abusively unpredictable, with hirings and firings and public displays of rage and porn stars and, occasionally, the darkest comedy.”
— from Alissa Quart’s essay Hysterical surrealism? A pop culture for our age of economic insecurity (The Guardian)
After you read that, watch Sorry to Bother You and read Dolan Morgan’s Investment Banking in Reverse.
“Sages, too, endure the same mundane circumstances as we—they fall sick, suffer injuries, meet with unwelcome changes—but their wisdom sees past the incidental to the universal, to the certainty of change that is best coped with by equanimity. Wisdom does not alter the world; it lets the sage transcend the world.”
— from Longing for Certainty: Reflections on the Buddhist Life by Bhikkhu Nyanasobhano
Childish Gambino’s “Feels Like Summer” is the climate change anthem of 2018
In July, Childish Gambino (aka musician/actor/writer/force of nature Donald Glover) released a new single called “Feels Like Summer.” The animated video, released last month, features cameos, so to speak, from a wide range of hip-hop artists and—in a loaded moment—Michelle Obama.
There’s so much happening in the video that it’s easy to miss some of what Gambino is doing lyrically. This was true to an even greater extent, of course, for “This is America,” Gambino’s powerful meditation on gun violence, race, and the perception of black entertainers in America. There’s no shortage of complex, historically-informed lyrical and visual messages in “This is America.” So much has been written about the song and video that the New York Times actually published an article that aggregates some of the better analyses.
As a follow-up, “Feels Like Summer” is almost subdued and you could easily mistake it for a simple anthem celebrating the joys of the season (cue Will Smith wiping his car down in the video). But the more you listen to the lyrics, the clearer it is that this is a song about, among other things, climate change and the need to immediately shift our behavior in order to save each other and the planet.
In the first verse, you get a hint of what’s to come: Seven billion souls that move around the sun / Rolling faster, faster and not a chance to slow down / Slow down / Men who made machines that want what they decide
In the second verse, Gambino makes it clear that this song is about the ways in which we’re destroying the world around us. He touches on global warming, the lack of potable water in many parts of the world (see the recent water crisis in Cape Town), the ongoing decline in bee populations, and recent news of an uptick in bird extinctions: Every day gets hotter than the one before / Running out of water, it's about to go down / Go down / Air that kill the bees that we depend upon / Birds were made for singing / Waking up to no sound / No sound
Before the choruses, there’s a repeated set of lyrics that varies each time. It shifts between an acknowledgment that the world is changing no matter what we do and a message that we can have an impact by actively creating positive change:
Oh, I know you know that pain / I'm hopin' that this world will change / But it just seems the same / (It is not the same)
Oh, I hope we change / I really thought this world would change / But it seems like the same
On the third repetition, as the song fades out, the final lyric is simple Oh, I hope we change
Now, I’m not claiming that this is the first or only song to address these issues. That said, to have someone with Donald Glover’s popularity and sheer lyrical intelligence dropping tracks about climate change is huge.
Climate change is already affecting day-to-day life for many people and it could reach catastrophic levels in the next 20 years. Despite all this, it’s often low on the list of issues that matter to people in the United States. It also doesn’t help that climate change has been framed repeatedly as scientifically contested (it’s not) and partisan (again, no).
If we continue to see and hear messages of urgency and hope from artists like Donald Glover, maybe climate change will become an issue that we all agree needs our immediate attention and action. Oh, I hope we change.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1548
|
__label__wiki
| 0.891793
| 0.891793
|
37 LISTS Great AdaptationsRanking the best movies based on books, TV shows based on comics, plays based on cartoons, musicals based on toys, etc.
The Best Shows Based on Books Movies Based on Young Adult Novels Too Dark for the Film Version The Best Book-to-Film Adaptations of 2019 Worst Live-Action Movies Based on Cartoons The Best Movies Based on Plays Movies Based on Stephen King Works Movies Based on Non-Fiction Books Movies Based on Dumb Toys, Etc. Cartoons Based on Live-Action Movies The Greatest Films Based on Books Authors Who Hated the Movies Sci-Fi Stories with Awful Movies Movies Based on Shakespeare The Best TV Series Adapted from Films Movies That Make More Sense If You Read the Books The Worst Movies Adapted from TV Great Movies Based on Memoirs Shows That Would Make Great Anime Books That Became Oscar-Winning Films
Photo: Lionsgate
Entertainment The Best Movies Based on Books
126.3k votes 8.4k voters 344k views 370 items
List Rules Only movies that were adapted from books.
List of the best movies based off books, voted on by cine-bibliophiles everywhere. Many movies are based off of books but whenever a new movie based on a book comes out there is an endless amount of whining about how Hollywood isn't original and why can't they write their own stories? That's simple, it's because these amazing stories are already written and Hollywood has the means to bring them to life, and some times they do it better than even your imagination thought possible. This list looks at the films based on the books - novels, literature, or nonfiction - that made you want to reread the book, started endless "which was better the movie or the book" debates, made you squeal with delight that you pictured it that way in your head, and just blew your frickin' mind.
What are the best movies based on books? Vote on the top movies based on books and share this with your friends to get their opinions, too!
Want to vote on more lists about book adaptations? Check out this list of film franchises based on books.
The Shawshank Redemption Morgan Freeman, Rita Hayworth, Tim Robbins
Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption (1982) by Stephen King The Shawshank Redemption is a 1994 American drama film written and directed by Frank Darabont and starring Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman. Adapted from the Stephen King novella Rita Hayworth and ...more
Forrest Gump Tom Hanks, Kurt Russell, Sally Field
Forrest Gump (1986) by Winston Groom Forrest Gump is a 1994 American epic romantic-comedy-drama film based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Winston Groom. The film was directed by Robert Zemeckis and stars Tom Hanks, Robin ...more
The Godfather Al Pacino, Marlon Brando, Robert Duvall
The Godfather (1969) by Mario Puzo The Godfather is a 1972 American crime film directed by Francis Ford Coppola and produced by Albert S. Ruddy from a screenplay by Mario Puzo and Coppola. Starring Marlon Brando and Al Pacino as ...more
The Silence of the Lambs Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, Chris Isaak
The Silence of the Lambs (1988) by Thomas Harris The Silence of the Lambs is a 1991 American thriller film that blends elements of the crime and horror genres. Directed by Jonathan Demme and starring Jodie Foster, Anthony Hopkins, and Scott ...more
To Kill a Mockingbird Robert Duvall, Gregory Peck, William Windom
To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) by Harper Lee To Kill a Mockingbird is a 1962 American drama film directed by Robert Mulligan. The screenplay by Horton Foote was based on the 1960 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name by Harper Lee. ...more
The Lord of the Rings film trilogy
The Fellowship of the Ring (1954), The Two Towers (1954), The Return of the King (1955) by J. R. R. Tolkien The Lord of the Rings is a film series consisting of three epic fantasy adventure films directed by Peter Jackson. They are based on the novel The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien. The ...more
Harry Potter novels (1997-2007) by J. K. Rowling Harry Potter is a British-American film series based on the Harry Potter novels by author J. K. Rowling. The series is distributed by Warner Bros. and consists of eight fantasy films. A spin-off ...more
Jurassic Park Samuel L. Jackson, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough
Jurassic Park (1990) by Michael Crichton
Jurassic Park is a 1993 American science fiction adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg. It is the first installment of the Jurassic Park franchise. It is based on the 1990 novel of the ...more
The Green Mile Tom Hanks, Gary Sinise, Sam Rockwell
The Green Mile (1996) by Stephen King The Green Mile is a 1999 American fantasy drama film directed by Frank Darabont and adapted from the 1996 Stephen King novel of the same name. The film is told in a flashback format and stars ...more
The Wizard of Oz Judy Garland, Margaret Hamilton, Frank Morgan
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900) by L. Frank Baum The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, and the most well-known and commercially successful adaptation based on the 1900 novel The Wonderful ...more
Schindler's List Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Ben Kingsley
Schindler's Ark (1982) by Thomas Keneally Schindler's List is a 1993 American epic historical period drama, directed and co-produced by Steven Spielberg and scripted by Steven Zaillian. It is based on the novel Schindler's Ark by Thomas ...more
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory Gene Wilder, Jack Albertson, Tim Brooke-Taylor
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964) by Roald Dahl Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory is a 1971 musical fantasy film directed by Mel Stuart, and starring Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka. The film, a film adaptation of the 1964 novel Charlie and ...more
The Shining Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, Scatman Crothers
The Shining (1977) by Stephen King The Shining is a 1980 British-American psychological horror film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, co-written with novelist Diane Johnson, and starring Jack Nicholson, Shelley Duvall, ...more
Gone with the Wind Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Olivia de Havilland
Gone with the Wind (1936) by Margaret Mitchell Gone with the Wind is a 1939 American epic historical romance film adapted from Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer-winning 1936 novel. It was produced by David O. Selznick of Selznick International ...more
Fight Club Brad Pitt, Jared Leto, Helena Bonham Carter
Fight Club (1996) by Chuck Palahniuk Fight Club is a 1999 film based on the 1996 novel of the same name by Chuck Palahniuk. The film was directed by David Fincher, and stars Brad Pitt, Edward Norton and Helena Bonham Carter. Norton ...more
Stand by Me Kiefer Sutherland, Corey Feldman, John Cusack
The Body (1982) by Stephen King Stand by Me is a 1986 American coming of age comedy-drama adventure film directed by Rob Reiner and starring Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman and Jerry O'Connell. Based on the novella ...more
Jaws Steven Spielberg, Richard Dreyfuss, Roy Scheider
Jaws (1974) by Peter Benchley Jaws is a 1975 American thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley's novel of the same name. The prototypical summer blockbuster, its release is regarded as a ...more
The Princess Bride Billy Crystal, Robin Wright, André the Giant
The Princess Bride (1973) by William Goldman The Princess Bride is a 1987 American romantic comedy fantasy adventure film directed and co-produced by Rob Reiner. It was adapted by William Goldman from his 1973 novel of the same name. The ...more
Die Hard Bruce Willis, Alan Rickman, Bonnie Bedelia
Nothing Lasts Forever (1979) by Roderick Thorpe Die Hard is a 1988 American action film directed by John McTiernan and written by Steven E. de Souza and Jeb Stuart. It is based on the 1979 novel Nothing Lasts Forever, by Roderick Thorp. Die ...more
Goodfellas Robert De Niro, Samuel L. Jackson, Joe Pesci
Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family (1986) by Nicholas Pileggi Goodfellas is a 1990 American crime film directed by Martin Scorsese. It is a film adaptation of the 1986 non-fiction book Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi, who co-wrote the screenplay with Scorsese. ...more
Psycho Alfred Hitchcock, Janet Leigh, Anthony Perkins
Psycho (1959) by Robert Bloch Psycho is a 1960 American horror film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The film centers on an encounter between a secretary, Marion Crane, who ends up at a secluded motel after taking money from ...more
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe Liam Neeson, Tilda Swinton, James McAvoy
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950) by C. S. Lewis The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a 2005 fantasy adventure film directed by Andrew Adamson and based on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the first published ...more
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring Cate Blanchett, Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler
The Fellowship of the Ring (1954) by J. R. R. Tolkien The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring is a 2001 epic fantasy film directed by Peter Jackson based on the first volume of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. It is the first ...more
Misery Lauren Bacall, Kathy Bates, James Caan
Misery (1987) by Stephen King Misery is a 1990 American psychological thriller film based on Stephen King's 1987 novel of the same name and starring James Caan, Kathy Bates, Lauren Bacall, Richard Farnsworth, and Frances ...more
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King Cate Blanchett, Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler
The Return of the King (1955) by J. R. R. Tolkien The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is a 2003 epic fantasy drama film directed by Peter Jackson based on the second and third volumes of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. It is ...more
Filed Under: Films FilmBooksEntertainmentpollBest Movies
gina linetti quotes marlon brando children 2006 miami heat roster teen suspense movies jamestown virginia 1607 facts how to trade games steam cold blooded killers tv show best of santana logans rolls recipe ps1 vs games
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1549
|
__label__wiki
| 0.930219
| 0.930219
|
32 LISTS How Bizarre, How BizarreLists of totally weird, absolutely true stories that are too kooky to make up.
Novelty Underwear Cargo Spills You Would Gawk At Cool Artifacts in the Library of Congress Found in the Donation Bin People Who Married Inanimate Objects The Weirdest Ads Ever on Craigslist Insane but Fatal Freak Accidents Weird Creatures Found on the Beach Food Crossovers We Didn't Ask For Bizarre Things You Can Actually Rent Real Sports Played Around the World TV Commercials You Won't Believe The Weirdest Real Food Trucks Nutty Diets That Kind of Work Totally Weird Concept Cafes Actual Scents of Yankee Candles Origins of Unique American Products Weird Things People Have Eaten Spotify Playlists Someone Made What's Going on With Shrunken Heads?
Photo: Business Insider
Weird The Best Movies That Are Super Weird
5.1k votes 998 voters 94.8k views 85 items
List Rules Really great, but really weird movies and films.
List of the best weird movies. This list compiles the greatest films of all time that also happen to be the strangest. Whether surreal or just odd, if off-beat movies are your thing, then peruse this list to catch the ones you have yet to see and vote up the ones you think are the absolute weirdest. Many of these movies have won multiple Academy Awards and/or Golden Globes, although they really would have fared even better if there was a category for "Weirdest Motion Picture." If you thought Being John Malkovich was out there, just wait until you check out the rest of these flicks.
Great movies like Eraserhead, directed by the famously unusual David Lynch, are accompanied on this list by other works of fellow famous directors like Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange. There are also good (but still weird) foreign films, such as Salvador Dali's Un Chien Andalou and Ingmar Bergman's Persona. All of these movies might be weird, off-color, freaky, surrealist, or blend genres you didn't think could be blended (what on earth is I'm Still Here with Joaquin Phoenix?) but they are also undeniably fantastic films.
Eraserhead Jack Nance, Jeanne Bates, Jack Fisk
Eraserhead is a 1977 American surrealist body horror film written and directed by filmmaker David Lynch. Shot in black-and-white, Eraserhead is Lynch's first feature-length film, coming after ...more
A Clockwork Orange Malcolm McDowell, Warren Clarke, Steven Berkoff
A Clockwork Orange is a 1971 dystopian crime film adapted, produced, and directed by Stanley Kubrick, based on Anthony Burgess's 1962 novella A Clockwork Orange. It employs disturbing, violent ...more
Jonathan Jordan added Brazil Robert De Niro, Bob Hoskins, Ian Holm
Brazil is a 1985 British film directed by Terry Gilliam and written by Gilliam, Charles McKeown, and Tom Stoppard. British National Cinema by Sarah Street describes the film as a ...more
The Lobster Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, Jessica Barden
The Lobster is a 2015 science fiction romantic comedy-drama film directed by Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos in his English-language debut. Its script was awarded the ARTE International Prize ...more
Emeraldkat added Donnie Darko Drew Barrymore, Ashley Tisdale, Jake Gyllenhaal
Donnie Darko is a 2001 American supernatural drama film written and directed by Richard Kelly and starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Drew Barrymore, Patrick Swayze, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Noah Wyle, Jena ...more
Being John Malkovich Cameron Diaz, Brad Pitt, Charlie Sheen
Being John Malkovich is a 1999 American fantasy comedy film written by Charlie Kaufman and directed by Spike Jonze. It stars John Cusack, Cameron Diaz and Catherine Keener, with John Malkovich ...more
Emeraldkat added Pan's Labyrinth Doug Jones, Ivana Baquero, Sergi López i Ayats
Pan's Labyrinth, originally known in Spanish as El laberinto del fauno, is a 2006 Spanish-Mexican dark fantasy film written and directed by Mexican Guillermo del Toro. It was produced and ...more
MiguelVeliz added Naked Lunch Ian Holm, Roy Scheider, Julian Sands
Naked Lunch is a 1991 science fiction drama film written and directed by David Cronenberg and starring Peter Weller, Judy Davis, Ian Holm, and Roy Scheider. It is a film adaptation of William S. ...more
maEEaranavaYo added Freaks Wallace Ford, Edward Brophy, Roscoe Ates
Freaks is a 1932 American horror film in which the eponymous characters were played by people who worked as carnival sideshow performers and had real deformities. The original version was ...more
Luke Albright added Spirited Away Miyu Irino, Bunta Sugawara, Ryunosuke Kamiki
Spirited Away is a 2001 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli. The film stars Rumi Hiiragi, Miyu Irino, Mari Natsuki, Takeshi Naito, ...more
Un Chien Andalou Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Luis Buñuel, Simone Mareuil
UN CHIEN ANDALOU consists of sixteen minutes of bizarre and surreal images that may or may not mean anything. In a dream-like sequence, a woman's eye is slit open, juxtaposed with a cloud ...more
PerryNoid added Under the Skin Scarlett Johansson, Kryštof Hádek, Paul Brannigan
Under the Skin is a 2013 science fiction film directed by Jonathan Glazer, loosely based on Michel Faber's 2000 novel. A mysterious young woman (Scarlett Johansson) seduces lonely men in the ...more
LlewynWilkinson added Synecdoche, New York Michelle Williams, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Philip Seymour Hoffman
Synecdoche, New York is a 2008 American postmodern drama film written and directed by Charlie Kaufman, and starring Philip Seymour Hoffman. It is Kaufman's directorial debut. The plot follows an ...more
Emeraldkat added Time Bandits Sean Connery, John Cleese, Ian Holm
Time Bandits is a 1981 British fantasy film co-written, produced, and directed by Terry Gilliam, and starring Sean Connery, John Cleese, Shelley Duvall, Ralph Richardson, Katherine Helmond, Ian ...more
Pi Mark Margolis, Ajay Naidu, Clint Mansell
Pi, also titled π, is a 1998 American surrealist psychological thriller film written and directed by Darren Aronofsky in his directorial debut. The film earned Aronofsky the Directing Award at ...more
Jeepzeke added Pink Floyd – The Wall Bob Hoskins, Bob Geldof, Joanne Whalley
Pink Floyd - The Wall is a fulldome production about Pink Floyd’s album The Wall. It was screened at 2011 Melbourne International Film Festival.
The Seventh Seal Max von Sydow, Bibi Andersson, Gunnar Björnstrand
The Seventh Seal is a 1957 Swedish drama-fantasy film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. Set in Denmark it tells of the journey of a medieval knight and a game of chess, who has come to ...more
The Rocky Horror Picture Show Susan Sarandon, Tim Curry, Meat Loaf
The Rocky Horror Picture Show is a 1975 British-American musical comedy horror film directed by Jim Sharman. The screenplay was written by Sharman and Richard O'Brien based on the 1973 musical ...more
Emeraldkat added Dead Alive Peter Jackson, Jed Brophy, Tim Balme
This film is a 1992 New Zealand Zombie comedy gore film directed by Peter Jackson. Written by Jackson with his partner Fran Walsh and Stephen Sinclair, the film was a commercial failure at the ...more
Emeraldkat added Old Boy Choi Min-sik, Yoo Ji-tae, Kang Hye-jung
Oldboy is a 2003 South Korean mystery thriller neo-noir film directed by Park Chan-wook. It is based on the Japanese manga of the same name written by Nobuaki Minegishi and Garon Tsuchiya. ...more
LlewynWilkinson added Dark City Jennifer Connelly, Kiefer Sutherland, Melissa George
Dark City is a 1998 neo-noir science fiction film directed by Alex Proyas. The screenplay was written by Proyas, Lem Dobbs and David S. Goyer. The film stars Rufus Sewell, Kiefer Sutherland, ...more
bahar-kılıç added Santa Sangre Blanca Guerra, Guy Stockwell, Adan Jodorowsky
Santa Sangre is a 1989 Mexican-Italian avant-garde Horror film directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky and written by Jodorowsky along with Claudio Argento and Roberto Leoni. Divided into both a ...more
Sorry to Bother You Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Jermaine Fowler
Sorry to Bother You is a 2018 American sci-fi fantasy comedy film directed by Boots Riley. In an alternate reality of Oakland, California, a young African-American telemarketer (Lakeith ...more
Emeraldkat added The City of Lost Children Ron Perlman, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Dominique Pinon
The City of Lost Children is a 1995 French-German-Spanish science fantasy drama film directed by Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet and starring Ron Perlman, who does not speak French, and ...more
Persona Liv Ullmann, Bibi Andersson, Gunnar Björnstrand
Persona is a 1966 black and white Swedish film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman and starring Bibi Andersson and Liv Ullmann. Persona’s story revolves around a young nurse named Alma and ...more
List Rules: Really great, but really weird movies and films.
Filed Under: Films FilmEntertainmenttop 50Weirdtop 20top 25
songs with Fog in the title iranian american actress dark movies random household objects list of stars all i need is song Alabama quarterbacks who sings hands IFC films animated movies how old is wolfieraps
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1550
|
__label__wiki
| 0.906027
| 0.906027
|
33 LISTS A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad WorldLists about common mental illnesses and disorders and the many people around the world and throughout history who have lived with them.
Celebrities with Eating Disorders Bizarre Cases That Stumped Scientists Celebs Who Suffer from Anxiety Schizophrenic Celebrities Anorexic Celebrities Real Cases of Dissociative Identity Disorder Figures with Crippling Phobias and Illnesses Famous People with Bipolar Disorder Living with Dissociative Identities These Videos Let You Experience Schizophrenia Famous People with ADHD Movies That Misrepresent Mental Illness Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Celebrities Who Experienced DID Notes from Real Schizophrenics The Very Best Movies About Mental Illness Agoraphobic Celebrities Historical Figures Who Struggled with Depression Celebrity Insomniacs TV Characters with Mental Illness
Entertainment Celebrities Who Self-Harm
Celebrity Lists
List of celebrities who self-harm, loosely ranked by fame and popularity. Self-harm is when an individual inflicts an injury upon themselves without the intention of suicide. Cutting is a common form of self-harm and adolescents are the most likely age group to engage in the destructive activity, and even the biggest stars are not immune. Like other troubled people around the world, many famous actors, actresses, and musicians have struggled with self-harm.
Who is the most famous celebrity who engages or once engaged in self-harm? Megan Fox tops our list. The Transformers actress was asked by Rolling Stone magazine if she was a cutter. To which she replied, "Yeah, but I don't want to elaborate. I would never call myself a cutter. Girls go through different phases when they’re growing up, when they’re miserable and do different things, whether it’s an eating disorder or they dabble in cutting." Other actresses who self-harm include Angelina Jolie, Lindsay Lohan, and Christina Ricci. Several famous men have also engaged in self harm.
Russell Brand has self inflicted scars which he gave to himself when he was young. As does Johnny Depp. Depp has said, "My body is a journal in a way. It's like what sailors used to do, where every tattoo meant something, a specific time in your life when you make a mark on yourself, whether you do it yourself with a knife or with a professional tattoo artist." Other celebs who were self harmers include Princess Diana, Marilyn Manson, and Colin Farrell.
Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Megan Fox was asked by Rolling Stone magazine if she was a cutter, to which she replied, "Yeah, but I don't want to elaborate. I would never call myself a cutter. Girls go through different phases when they’re growing up, when they’re miserable and do different things, whether it’s an eating disorder or they dabble in cutting."
Birthplace: Oak Ridge, Tennessee, United States of America
Profession: Model, Actor
Credits: Transformers, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Jennifer's Body
see more on Megan Fox
Photo: JB Lacroix/Getty Images
Johnny Depp has self inflicted scars which he gave to himself when he was young. He has said, "My body is a journal in a way. It's like what sailors used to do, where every tattoo meant something, a specific time in your life when you make a mark on yourself, whether you do it yourself with a knife or with a professional tattoo artist."
Birthplace: Owensboro, Kentucky, United States of America
Profession: Musician, Film Producer, Screenwriter, Restaurateur, Actor, + more
Credits: Edward Scissorhands, Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street, Alice in Wonderland, Pirates of The Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
see more on Johnny Depp
The Druggiest Rock Stars of All Time
Photo: Anthony Harvey/Getty Images
Angelina Jolie told Parade Magazine, "I used to cut myself or jump out of airplanes, trying to find something new to push up against because sometimes everything else felt too easy."
Birthplace: Los Angeles, California, United States of America
Profession: Film Producer, Model, Screenwriter, Author, Actor, + more
Credits: Maleficent, Changeling, Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Salt
see more on Angelina Jolie
Celebrities Who Have Had Breast Reduction Surgery
Photo: David M. Benett/Getty Images
Russell Brand struggled with bulimia and self harm as a teenager.
Birthplace: Grays, United Kingdom
Profession: Activist, Comedian, Television producer, Screenwriter, Author, + more
Credits: Get Him to the Greek, Arthur, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Hop Hop
see more on Russell Brand
The Biggest Turn Ons in a Person
Filed Under: People PeopleEntertainmentCelebritiestop 10Celebrity Factstop 25
14 Celebrities Who Had Stillborn Babies The Best Doctors of Doctor Who The Best Rock Vocalists 15 Famous People Who Went to Med School 15 Straight Celebrities Who Had Gay Spouses Celebrities Who Prove That Sexuality Is on a Sliding Scale The Hottest Celebrities of Our Time 40 Adorable Throwback Pictures Of Your Favorite Heartthrobs 16 Celebrities Who Have Been Real Life Superheroes The Best New Female Artists The Hottest Men Over 40 The Most Trustworthy Celebrities in the World Celebrities Hollywood Forced on Us
actress and their cars serena williams boyfriend 2017 alice twilight actress hallmark original series reddit 13 reasons why james caan spouse bentley sports car stupid famous people list of assassinations brody jenner shirtless
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1551
|
__label__wiki
| 0.913822
| 0.913822
|
Overrated! History's Greatest Male Actors Greatest Female Actresses Actors Who Deserve to Win Oscars Greatest Actor Performances Just the Coolest The Top Actors of All Time The Best Living American Actors Totally Annoying A-Listers Consistent Great Work Greatest British Actors Working American Actors Ranking Oscar Runner-Ups The Best Actors Working Today The Greatest Actors in TV History Great Actor / Director Teams The Greatest Male Scottish Actors The Top Active Scottish Actors African American Actors in Film Who Is the Next Meryl Streep?
Entertainment The Best Jane Fonda Movies
2.8k votes 556 voters 60k views 53 items
List Rules Vote for your favorite movies, regardless of critic reviews or how big the role was.
List of the best Jane Fonda movies, ranked best to worst with movie trailers when available. Jane Fonda's highest grossing movies have received a lot of accolades over the years, earning millions upon millions around the world. The order of these top Jane Fonda movies is decided by how many votes they receive, so only highly rated Jane Fonda movies will be at the top of the list. Jane Fonda has been in a lot of films, so people often debate each other over what the greatest Jane Fonda movie of all time is. If you and a friend are arguing about this then use this list of the most entertaining Jane Fonda films to end the squabble once and for all.
If you think the best Jane Fonda role isn't at the top, then upvote it so it has the chance to become number one. The greatest Jane Fonda performances didn't necessarily come from the best movies, but in most cases they go hand in hand.
List is made up of many different films, including Searching for Debra Winger and 9 to 5.
"This list answers the questions, "What are the best Jane Fonda movies?" and "What are the greatest Jane Fonda roles of all time?"
Jane Fonda has worked with many famous directors, including big names like Garry Marshall and Sidney Lumet. If you're a fan of Jane Fonda, then check out our lists of the best Whoopi Goldberg and Ellen Burstyn movies as well.
They Shoot Horses, Don't They? Jane Fonda, Bruce Dern, Red Buttons
They Shoot Horses, Don't They? is a 1969 American drama film directed by Sydney Pollack. The screenplay by James Poe and Robert E. Thompson is based on the 1935 novel of the same name by Horace ...more
Julia Meryl Streep, Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave
Julia is a 1977 drama film directed by Fred Zinnemann, from a screenplay by Alvin Sargent. It is based on Lillian Hellman's book Pentimento, a chapter of which purports to tell the story of her ...more
Klute Sylvester Stallone, Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland
Klute is a 1971 thriller film directed and produced by Alan J. Pakula, written by Andy and Dave Lewis, and starring Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland, Charles Cioffi and Roy Scheider. It tells the ...more
On Golden Pond Jane Fonda, Katharine Hepburn, Henry Fonda
On Golden Pond is a 1981 American drama film directed by Mark Rydell. The screenplay by Ernest Thompson was adapted from his 1979 play of the same title. Henry Fonda won the Academy Award for ...more
The China Syndrome Jane Fonda, Michael Douglas, Jack Lemmon
The China Syndrome is a 1979 American thriller film that tells the story of a television reporter and her cameraman who discover safety coverups at a nuclear power plant. It stars Jane Fonda, ...more
Cat Ballou Jane Fonda, Nat King Cole, Lee Marvin
Cat Ballou is a 1965 comedy Western film, the story of a woman who hires a notorious gunman to protect her father's ranch, but finds that the gunman is not what she expected. The movie stars ...more
Barefoot in the Park Jane Fonda, Robert Redford, Doris Roberts
Barefoot in the Park is a 1967 American comedy film. The film stars Jane Fonda as Corie and Robert Redford as Paul. Based on Neil Simon's 1963 play of the same title, it focuses on newlyweds ...more
Agnes of God Jane Fonda, Anne Bancroft, Meg Tilly
Agnes of God is a 1985 American film starring Jane Fonda, Anne Bancroft and Meg Tilly, about a novice nun who gives birth and insists that the dead child was the result of a virgin conception. A ...more
Coming Home Jane Fonda, Jon Voight, Bruce Dern
Coming Home is a 1978 drama film directed by Hal Ashby and starring Jane Fonda, Jon Voight and Bruce Dern. The screenplay by Waldo Salt and Robert C. Jones was from a story by Nancy Dowd. The ...more
9 to 5 Jane Fonda, Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin
9 to 5 is a 1980 American comedy film written by Patricia Resnick and Colin Higgins, directed by Higgins, and starring Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Dolly Parton, and Dabney Coleman. The film ...more
The Electric Horseman Jane Fonda, Robert Redford, Willie Nelson
The Electric Horseman is a 1979 adventure-romance film starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda and directed by Sydney Pollack. The film is about a former rodeo champion who is hired by a cereal ...more
Monster-in-Law Jennifer Lopez, Jane Fonda, Wanda Sykes
Monster-in-Law is a 2005 romantic comedy film directed by Robert Luketic and starring Jennifer Lopez, Jane Fonda, Michael Vartan and Wanda Sykes. It marks a return to cinema for Fonda, being her ...more
The Chase Marlon Brando, Jane Fonda, Robert Redford
The Chase is a 1966 Technicolor American drama film in Panavision directed by Arthur Penn and starring Marlon Brando, Jane Fonda, and Robert Redford, about a series of events set into motion by ...more
The Morning After Jane Fonda, Jeff Bridges, Kathy Bates
The Morning After is a 1986 mystery film directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Jane Fonda, Jeff Bridges and Raul Julia. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Kathy Bates has a ...more
The Dollmaker Jane Fonda, Amanda Plummer, Nikki Creswell
The Dollmaker is an American made-for-TV movie, starring Jane Fonda, who was awarded the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress In A Limited Series Or A Special for her performance. It was ...more
California Suite Jane Fonda, Bill Cosby, Michael Caine
California Suite is a 1978 American comedy film directed by Herbert Ross. The screenplay by Neil Simon is based on his play of the same title. Similar to his earlier Plaza Suite, the film ...more
Walk on the Wild Side Jane Fonda, Barbara Stanwyck, Anne Baxter
Walk on the Wild Side is a1962 drama film directed by Edward Dmytryk.
Comes a Horseman Jane Fonda, James Caan, Mark Harmon
Comes a Horseman is a 1978 film starring James Caan, Jane Fonda, Jason Robards, and Richard Farnsworth, directed by Alan J. Pakula. Set in the American West of the 1940s but not a typical ...more
Fun with Dick and Jane Jane Fonda, George Segal, Ed McMahon
Fun with Dick and Jane is a 1977 American comedy film starring George Segal and Jane Fonda. Directed by Ted Kotcheff, the film is caustically critical of the 'anarchy' of the American way of ...more
Stanley & Iris Robert De Niro, Jane Fonda, Loretta Devine
Stanley & Iris is a romantic drama film directed by Martin Ritt and starring Jane Fonda and Robert De Niro. The screenplay by Harriet Frank, Jr. and Irving Ravetch is loosely based on the ...more
Spirits of the Dead Jane Fonda, Brigitte Bardot, Vincent Price
Histoires extraordinaires, dubbed Spirits of the Dead for English and Tre Passi Nel Delirio for Italian, is an "omnibus" film comprising three segments. In the UK the film was released ...more
Old Gringo Jane Fonda, Gregory Peck, Jimmy Smits
Old Gringo is a 1989 film directed by Luis Puenzo and co-written with Aída Bortnik, based on the novel Gringo Viejo by Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes. The film stars Jane Fonda, Gregory ...more
Book Club Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, Mary Steenburgen
Book Club is a 2018 American comedy film directed by Bill Holderman. Four lifelong friends (Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, Mary Steenburgen and Diane Keaton) have their lives forever changed after ...more
Georgia Rule Lindsay Lohan, Jane Fonda, Felicity Huffman
Georgia Rule is a 2007 American comedy-drama film directed by Garry Marshall and starring Jane Fonda, Lindsay Lohan, Felicity Huffman, Dermot Mulroney, Garrett Hedlund, and Cary Elwes. The ...more
Any Wednesday Jane Fonda, Jason Robards Jr., Dean Jones
Any Wednesday is a 1966 romance/comedy film starring Jane Fonda, Jason Robards, and Dean Jones. It was directed by Robert Ellis Miller from a screenplay by producer Julius J. Epstein based on ...more
Filed Under: Films FilmJane FondaEntertainmenttop 50
The Best Movie Theater Snacks The Best Lifetime Original Movies of 2019 The Best Actors in Film History The Best Scottish Actors Working Today The Best Animated Films Ever The Best Western Movies Ever Made The Greatest British Actors of All Time The Best Psychological Thrillers of All Time The Best, Funniest Comedy Movie Trailers of 2019 The Best Film Adaptations of Young Adult Novels The Most Overrated Movies of All Time The Best Alien Movies Ever Made The Funniest '90s Movies 'Old' Movies Every Young Person Needs To Watch In Their Lifetime List of Black Movies, Ranked Best to Worst The Best Fantasy Authors The Best Movies Based on Books The Greatest Actors Who Have Never Won an Oscar (for Acting) The All-Time Greatest Pixar Characters Movies With 0% On Rotten Tomatoes, Ranked By How Bad They Truly Are The Most Rewatchable Movies The Most Annoying TV and Film Characters Ever The Best Disney Live-Action Movies The Best Marvel Movie Actors Ever
game of thrones characters top 10 superhero deaths redneck pictures best movies on netflix ashley williams singer who is nas dating la football teams kgb training famous people from south dakota how to tell human bones from animal bones
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1552
|
__label__wiki
| 0.664618
| 0.664618
|
Joseph Daniel Votto (born September 10, 1983) is a Canadian professional baseball first baseman for the Cincinnati Reds of Major League Baseball (MLB). He made his MLB debut with the Reds in 2007. Votto is a six-time MLB All-Star, a seven-time Tip O'Neill Award winner, and two-time Lou Marsh Trophy winner as Canada's athlete of the year.[1] In 2010, he won the National League (NL) MVP Award and the NL Hank Aaron Award. At the end of the 2018 season, among all active players he was first in career on-base percentage (.427), second in OPS (.957) and walks (1,104), and fourth in batting average (.311). ... more on Wikipedia
Joey Votto is ranked on...
#124 of 542 The Greatest Baseball Players of All Time 455.7k VOTES This greatest baseball players list represents the combined lists of baseball fans everywhere. Anyone can make their own lis...
#14 of 299 People who voted for Joey Votto... also upvote James Bond Franchise on The Best Spy Movies also upvote Steve Young on The Best Quarterbacks of All Time The Top Current Baseball Players 189k VOTES Who do you think should make the list of the best current players in baseball? Ranked by fans, critics, and sports analysts,...
#47 of 482 The Best Hitters in Baseball History 232.7k VOTES The best hitters in baseball history are those who hold the all-time hitting records in Major League Baseball, change the ga...
#45 of 50 The 50 Most Valuable MLB Players For Fantasy Baseball In 2019 3k VOTES Opening Day 2019 is around the corner, and while MLB managers focus on setting their roster and choosing an opening day...
#25 of 155 The Greatest First Basemen of All Time 52.4k VOTES Who are the greatest first basemen of all time? From the incomparable talents of Lou Gehrig to the stunning abilities of mod...
#47 of 116 The Greatest Left Handed Baseball Players of All Time 21.7k VOTES Who is the best left handed baseball player ever? This list includes players in the Hall of Fame as well as those who have...
#138 of 203 The All-Around Best Athletes of 2018 31.1k VOTES When it comes to being an all-around best athlete, you're not just talking about the leading scorers of all time, or th...
#30 of 41 The Best MLB First Basemen of 2014 817 VOTES Who is the best MLB first baseman of the 2014 season? This list includes starters and backup first basemen teams in both t...
#26 of 58 Who Will Make the 2018 MLB All-Star Game? 7.4k VOTES Once opening day has passed, it's never too early to start making your 2018 MLB All-Star Game predictions. Spring already sp...
#1 of 64 The Best Canadian MLB Players Ever 801 VOTES You might know our neighbors to the north more for ice hockey, but Canada has produced its fair share of MLB players. This l...
#2 of 27 Who Is The Best First Baseman In Major League Baseball Right Now? 871 VOTES Regardless if you're constructing a fantasy roster or simply staying up-to-date on the MLB's finest, thi...
#6 of 42 The Most Likely 2013 MLB All Stars 3.2k VOTES The most likely 2013 MLB All-Stars are those best players in the MLB today from the National League and the American League ...
#3 of 40 The Best Cincinnati Reds Players of 2014 485 VOTES Established in 1881 and based in Cincinnati, Ohio the Cincinnati Reds play out of their home field, Great American Ball Park...
#6 of 28 Who Will Be The 2017 National League MVP? 5.8k VOTES Every year, the MLB names one player as the National League MVP, the one who every team wants seated in their dugout. O...
#30 of 46 Who Will Win the 2019 National League MVP? 1.2k VOTES The race for 2019 National League MVP is stacked. With Bryce Harper and J.T. Realmuto jumping ship to the Philadelphia Phill...
#7 of 138 People who voted for Joey Votto... also upvote David Ortiz on The Best Boston Red Sox of All Time also upvote Pedro Martínez on The Best Boston Red Sox of All Time The Best Cincinnati Reds of All Time 22.7k VOTES This is a list of the greatest Cincinnati Reds in team history. Formed in 1869, the CIncinnati Reds are America's oldest pro...
#21 of 124 The Best Current MLB Hitters 14.3k VOTES Whether you're working on your fantasy baseball roster or simply staying updated with the 2018 MLB rankings, ...
#2 of 62 The Best Canadian MLB Players Of All Time 2.2k VOTES Over 200 Canadian baseball players have played in Major League Baseball. Featuring some of the best MLB players current...
Famous People Named Joe & Joseph 78.1k VIEWS List of famous people named Joe, Joseph, or Joey, along with photos. How many celebrities named Joe can you think of? The fa...
#5 of 41 The Best Current MLB First Basemen 2.9k VOTES Whether you're working on your fantasy baseball roster or simply staying updated with the 2018 MLB rankings, ...
Famous People Who Have Been Through Depression 113.2k VIEWS This is a list of famous people with depression, or who have suffered from depression at some point in their lives. Who are ...
#16 of 27 The Best Sports Illustrated Covers 3.2k VOTES List of the most memorable Sports Illustrated Magazine covers, featuring the coolest photographs, sexiest celebrity shots,...
The Biggest Contracts in Baseball History 10.5k VIEWS Just when Bryce Harper thought he would go down in the record books with the biggest contract in MLB history from the Philad...
#14 of 29 Who Will Win the 2018 NL MVP Award? 210 VOTES As the 2018 MLB season makes its way through the second half, it's time to start making your NL MVP predictions. Each season...
35 Athletes with Depression 67.2k VIEWS Do you know which popular professional athletes have depression? Several famous NFL players, boxers and Olympians struggle w...
Joey Votto is also found on...
Famous People From Ontario List of Famous Baseball First Basemen Famous Baseball Players from Canada Famous Male Athletes from Canada
who is denzel washington kirsten dunst dress bachelorette red sox left fielder british cooking shows famous beauty quotes outlaw star characters Best NBA Coaches what are social issues how real is duck dynasty cleveland indians starting pitchers
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1553
|
__label__cc
| 0.73707
| 0.26293
|
What does EBITDA & EBIT mean?
by Rask Finance
Accounting, Alternative Assets, Financial Math, Stocks
What does EBITDA mean?
EBITDA means Earnings, Before, Interest, Taxes, Depreciation & Amortisation.
EBITDA is just a fancy way of saying profit (which is also called 'earnings') excluding a heap of expenses. The higher EBITDA figure, the better -- because the company is making more money.
If you're comparing two different companies for investment, EBITDA can improve the comparison because depreciation and other charges have been excluded from profit. Meaning, it tells you how much profit the company makes before the company pays interest on debt, the Government takes its taxes and depreciation is deducted. This might help you determine if the company is a good investment.
What's the difference between EBITDA and EBIT?
You've probably guessed it already, but EBITDA is the same thing as EBIT but with 'DA' added on the end. So, if we can find EBIT and 'DA' all we have to do is add them together to find EBITDA!
What is EBITDA used for?
EBITDA is often used by stock market analysts, companies on the stockmarket, bankers and financial journalists. Why?
Analysts like to use EBITDA because it excludes costs like depreciation, interest and taxes. Therefore, they say it provides a 'clearer picture' of the company's earnings.
Companies like to use the EBITDA number because they can get away with it. EBITDA is not an official accounting term under regulation (compared to say 'net profit' or 'net earnings'), so companies will try to mask bad results using 'adjusted EBITDA'. If it was such a good quarter or financial year, why do they need to adjust it?
Like analysts, investment bankers use EBITDA because it excludes things. For example, if you run an American company and you plan to buy a British company, would you need to worry about how much interest or taxes that company pays? The answer is you wouldn't because after you own it, you'll probably pay taxes in America, not Britain. Therefore, most bankers describe acquisitions using EBITDA because it provides a better picture of the company after they buy it. For example, a banker would say, "the value of the deal is worth 5 times the company's EBITDA".
How is EBITDA calculated?
Take a look at this income statement (we made it up):
This year ($m) Next Year ($m)
Revenue 100 120
(Cost of sales) - 20 - 20
Gross profit 80 100
(Expenses) - 10 - 10
EBIT 70 90
(Interest cost) - 10 - 15
EBT 60 75
(Taxes - 10%) - 6 - 7.5
Earnings/Profit 54 67.5
Where's EBITDA?
EBITDA is not found on the Income Statement, but EBIT is ($70m this year). So we have one thing we need.
What's the missing part of the puzzle?
Yep, that's correct! DA, or Depreciation & Amortisation.
The amount for Depreciation and Amortisation comes from another part of the annual report, the 'Cash Flow Statement' (if you're in the United States) or the 'Notes to Financial Statements' (if you're in Australia or overseas).
If you're looking at the notes, you'll usually find a small table like this:
Reconciliation of Profit to Cash Flow
Adjustments to Cash Flows
Depreciation & Amortisation 20 22.5
(hint: try doing a search with the terms "reconciliation", "depreciation" or "adjustments")
EBIT + DA
(Income Statement) 70 90
Depreciation & Amortisation
(Cash Flow Statement or in the Notes) 20 22.5
EBITDA 90 112.5
Using our example company, it has EBITDA of $90m this year and $112.5m next year.
You can repeat this process for any company or share you plan to research.
What's the difference between EBITDA and Gross Profit?
Gross profit is simply revenue minus cost of sales. Both of these are found on a company's Income Statement.
Sometimes, you'll have to calculate EBITDA yourself using the Income Statement and the Cash Flow Statement, or Notes.
Should I trust EBITDA?
The world's greatest investor, Warren Buffett, wrote to shareholders during the Global Financial Crisis, "Beware geeks bearing formulas".
If you plan to invest, be critical of analyst projections and CEO presentations, especially when they use terms that aren't regulated by accounting standards (like EBITDA).
Instead, focus on terms like Free Cash Flow, Operating Cash Flow or Net Profit after Taxes.
What the heck are 'adjusted EBITDA' and 'underlying EBITDA'?
Whenever you read 'adjusted' or 'underlying' it usually means the company's management or analysts have excluded some things. Sometimes these are okay, but often they are used to avoid presenting bad news to shareholders. Compare their 'adjusted' figure to what is written in official audited financial statements and make up your own mind.
EBITDA in ratios
Like all financial terms, EBITDA is often used in ratios like EV/EBITDA (enterprise value to EBITDA). Ratios like this can be used to compare the value of one company to another.
For example, an EV/EBITDA ratio of 5 means the 'value of the entire company' is 5 times the EBITDA.
We cover EBITDA and other valuation ratios in our free valuation course.
Cash Flow Statement EBIT EBITDA financial accounting Income Statement Valuation
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1554
|
__label__wiki
| 0.911033
| 0.911033
|
Home / Covington
Attorney: City Ignoring Residents Near Caroline Underpass
Mon, 12/23/2013 - 17:33 RCN Newsdesk
They watched their front yards slide away when a retaining wall collapsed at the Caroline Underpass ten days ago, and while residents in four homes were evacuated and helped by the Red Cross in the hours immediately after, some of them said Monday that they haven't heard a peep from Covington City Hall since.
Attorney Gailen Bridges, representing one of the property owners, said that he has reached out to city officials to no avail.
The wall collapsed either before or after a water main broke on Caroline Avenue on Friday, December 13. A gas leak followed. Four homes were directly impacted and eight residents were forced to leave the area where the road was being repaired after years of trouble. The road, which had been closed to through traffic for month, was just days away from reopening. It will now be longer before traffic flows again through the underpass, an important artery when railroad traffic stymies commuters on busy Decoursey Avenue.
The inconvenience to motorists aside, Bridges said the residents have not been addressed by City Hall. "There has been no communication, concern expressed, checking on well-bring, providing for out-of-pocket expenses, or alternate lodging offers by any entity associated with this disaster," Bridges said.
Assistant City Manager and City Solicitor Frank Warnock said last week that the issue of who's responsible for the damages could be headed to court, but that the City would be moving forward anyway on repairs, likely sharing the costs with the Northern Kentucky Water District.
City officials also said Monday that the residents have been contacted.
City Engineer Mike Yeager, who has been the public face on the issue of Caroline Avenue, said Warnock has been in regular contact with the residents for the past two weeks and that he doesn't know why Bridges or the residents would say otherwise.
Yeager said work is already underway on repairs and that a geotechnical engineer is analyzing data collected from far beneath the surface of the road. Utility plans are scheduled for Friday in anticipation of those services being ready for when the wall is rebuilt.
"We're trying to get them back in their houses as soon as possible," Yeager said. "We're hoping in January."
"It is time for someone to step up and be the adult in this situation and stop pointing fingers and take control and remedy this situation and sort out the blame at a later time," Bridges said. "Peoples' lives and safety are involved here. People join together into cities and pay taxes so that there can be a safety net if a disaster strikes."
Meanwhile, some emotional residents stood by Bridges, demanding answers. "I'm a very unhappy person," said Margaret "Peggy" Owings, 80, who owns two of the affected properties and has lived in one of them since 1942. "Here we stand out here freezing, asking for help."
She's living with a nephew but would rather be home. "Let me back in this damn place or tear it down and let me rebuild," she said. Neighbors Judy Hite and Mary Turner also asked for help as they are forced to live elsewhere. Turner is off work from Thomas More College due to the holiday but returns in January and is concerned about how to get there from her temporary residence in Independence.
Loretta Burress, whose son lives in a house adjacent to the four affected, said her son's property is also starting to slide.
As of Monday, there were no announced plans of legal action against the City or any other entity, Bridges said.
"We're trying it in the court of public opinion," Bridges said. "If that doesn't work, we'll try it in a court of law."
Story & photos by Michael Monks, editor & publisher of The River City News
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1555
|
__label__wiki
| 0.80798
| 0.80798
|
Mackie scoops March's Player of the Month award
Four goals in six games for striker
Jamie Mackie has scooped Reading’s Player of the Month award for March.
The attacker was in electric form in 2015’s third month, notching four goals in six appearances.
The Nottingham Forest loanee began March by netting an injury-time equaliser in the 1-1 draw with Bolton Wanderers at the Macron Stadium.
Following the powerful strike from the edge of the box, 209 travelling Royals were treated to the first instalment of his velociraptor celebration.
Four days later, Mackie played 80 minutes in the hard-fought FA Cup draw in Bradford and, a week on from his goal in Bolton, he bagged a brace in the 2-1 home win over Brighton.
Both goals came from outside the penalty area and the both strikes were toasted with the second and third outings of the velociraptor.
The FA Cup replay with Bradford on March 16th saw Mackie bag his fourth goal of the month in front of a capacity crowd at Madejski Stadium.
He latched onto a through ball from Nathaniel Chalobah, set himself and thumped into the net from close range to seal the Royals’ place in an FA Cup semi-final for the first time in 88 years.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1556
|
__label__wiki
| 0.929395
| 0.929395
|
2016: The year’s biggest Road Traffic Technology stories
Turkey’s Osman Gazi Bridge has been opened to the public, and Pakistan Government has sanctioned $214m for National Highway Authority. Roadtraffic-technology.com wraps up the key headlines from 2016.
Umesh 2 January 2017
Image: VINCI completes the construction of Ohio River bridge in US. Photo: courtesy of VINCI.
Image: The electricity-powered shuttles. Photo: courtesy of Ford.
Image: Turkey’s Osman Gazi Bridge has been opened to public. Photo: Courtesy of Siemens.
Image: Richmond Road opens to traffic four years ahead of schedule. Photo: courtesy of State of New South Wales Department of Premier and Cabinet.
VINCI announces new motorway opening in US
Global concession and construction company VINCI announced the opening of the new 12km portion of the East End Crossing connecting the US states of Indiana and Kentucky.
The firm explained that with the opening of this new infrastructure would improve commuter safety and ease traffic flow.
The concession consortium led by VINCI Highways will be responsible for the operation and maintenance of a major portion of the East End Crossing for 35 years.
Pakistan releases $214m for road construction projects
The Pakistan Government sanctioned PKR22.78bn ($214m) for National Highway Authority (NHA) road construction projects under the Public Sector Development Sector (PSDP).
Out of the total amount, PKR4bn ($37m) has been allocated for a 230km section of Lahore-Abdul Hakeem Section of Karachi-Lahore Motorway (KLM), reported Associated Press of Pakistan citing sources.
Another PKR1.05bn ($9m) has been issued for the 387km Multan-Sukkur section of the KLM.
Minnesota to invest $1.04bn on road projects this year
The Minnesota Department of Transportation plans to invest $1.04bn on the construction of 246 new and existing road projects.
This year, the department aims to focus primarily on improving existing roads and bridges. It is currently planning to invest a further $50m on the $640m St. Croix Crossing project.
The new bridge between Oak Park Heights and St. Joseph, Wisconsin will begin construction and is slated to be completed by next year.
Ford and MIT partner to measure pedestrian traffic in urban areas
US-based car manufacturer Ford Motor Company joined with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on a new research project to measure pedestrian traffic, in a bid to improve transportation services.
The project aims to introduce electricity powered shuttles that operate on city roads, as well as on the campus walkways.
The vehicles will be equipped with LiDAR sensors and cameras to identify and measure pedestrian flow and predict demand for the shuttles.
Audi’s autonomous car Jack operates like human driver
Audi's latest autonomous research car, called Jack, has been further refined to drive just like a human. The company stated that Jack cannot only autonomously perform all of its driving maneuver on highways, but is also considerate towards other road users.
Jack, which is the internal nickname for the Audi A7 piloted driving concept technology, can now operate more naturally.
While passing trucks, it leaves a slightly wider lateral gap and also signals upcoming lane changes by activating the turn signal, just the way human drivers operate. It accelerates or brakes, based on the selected driving profile.
China develops elevated bus to overcome traffic jam
Chinese engineers developed an elevated bus that can pass over traffic jams. The Transit Explore Bus (TEB) runs along rail lines fixed at the side of the road, just like trams.
Each bus has the capacity to accommodate 1,400 passengers. It can travel at a speed of up to 60mph. Vehicles measuring a height of two metres or less can drive underneath the bus.
The cost of building this elevated bus is 20% of the cost of developing an underground train, reported The Independent.
Turkey opens Osman Gazi Bridge
Turkey’s Osman Gazi Bridge is now open to the public, following completion of 42 months of construction work on the suspension bridge. This brige has the capacity to carry more than 40,000 vehicles every day.
Working on-behalf of Japanese construction company IHI, Siemens was responsible for the development, installation and commissioning of all the bridge structure and traffic control components and systems.
The new six-lane suspension bridge, which connects the cities of Istanbul and Izmir in the western part of Turkey, features separated maintenance lines. It is expected to cut down travel time between the cities from eight to four hours.
Uber to launch self-driving cars in Pittsburgh
Uber, an American multinational online transportation network company, is to deploy self-driving cars in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
The ride-sharing firm stated that it has teamed up with Volvo, a Swedish multinational automobile manufacturing company.
A spokeswoman for the firm told the BBC: “Starting later this month, Uber will allow customers in downtown Pittsburgh to summon self-driving cars from their phones, crossing an important milestone that no automotive or technology company has yet achieved.
Jacobs secures design role for Darlington Upgrade project in Adelaide, Australia
Jacobs Engineering Group became part of a design joint venture sub-contracted by the Gateway South Consortium, which was chosen to construct the Darlington Upgrade project in Adelaide, Australia.
The Gateway South Consortium is a joint venture between Fulton Hogan and Laing O’Rourke. This design joint venture comprises of Jacobs, KBR and SMEC Australia. The Darlington Upgrade project has a budget of around $440m.
This project intends to boost safety and cut down congestion and travel times for motorists and public transport users.
Richmond Road opens to traffic four years ahead of schedule
The New South Wales (NSW) Government in Australia reported that the upgraded Richmond Road in Sydney’s north-west has been opened for traffic four years ahead of schedule.
The upgrade works carried out on the 5km-stretch of road included widening Richmond Road from two lanes to a four-lane divided road with a central median. There is provision for the road to be further widened to six lanes in the future.
Other features of this upgrade works include construction of off-road shared paths to improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists as well as upgraded intersections with new traffic lights, and realignment of the Garfield Road West intersection.
Study finds smog reduction can save Europe €183bn by 2025
Kymco presents electric scooter service for businesses ahead of Paris Motor Show
UK scientists discover new design for longer bridge spans
New Zealand unveils $11.17bn plan to improve transport infrastructure
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1559
|
__label__wiki
| 0.90713
| 0.90713
|
Westward III: Gold Rush Alternatives
Westward III: Gold Rush
Westward III: Gold Rush is a Real-time Strategy, and Single-player Business Simulation developed and published by Sandlot Games. The game takes place in the fantastic land of Northern California and offers the story follows the kind-hearted but struggling family, who welcomes three travelers into their home and provides a space for rest… read more
RTSSimulation
Mac Amazon
All (44) Android (2) iOS (2) PC (39) Linux (5) Mac OS (12) PS2 (1) PS3 (1) Xbox 360 (1) Xbox One (1) Nintendo DS (2) Nintendo Wii (1) Steam (8)
44 Games Like Westward III: Gold Rush
Offworld Trading Company
Offworld Trading Company is another great City-Building, Management, MMO-RTS, Economic and Exploration video game. This wonderful game allows you to leave the Earth out of Curiosity and start exploring planet Mars, build mining facilities on the surface and gather resources as an Offworld Trading Company, process the resources in your other facilities and finally sell them onto Earth and other Planets in the Galaxy.
Tropico 4: Steam Special Edition
Tropico 4: Steam Special Edition is a brilliant New City Building, MMO, Real-Time Strategy and Management video game by Haemimont Games and Feral interactive. Just like the previous games of the series, Tropico 4: Steam Special Edition allows you to be the president of Isla Nublar, choose the best outfit and customize your character, get into the awesome game-play and face some new challenges, govern over your Naysayers and make the decisions that will write the fate of your nation and grow your off-shore bank accounts.
Cities: Skyline
Cities: Skylines is a wonderful City Building, Management and massively Multiplayer online Real-Time Strategy Simulation packed with new and improved gameplay mechanics and elements and it tends to entertain you with all the provided thrill and hardships of creating and managing a whole city.
Spacebase DF-9 is a great City-Building, management and MMO-RTS Simulation that takes you to an amazing space journey. This wonderful Construction, Development, Real-Time Strategy and management game allows you to maintain your own space station with all the resources you have.
Creatures: The Albian Years
Creatures: The Albian Years is another great MMORTS City Building and Management video game, set on a planet named as Albia that is rich in resources and other necessary things for a whole settlement to thrive.
Towns is a great Isometric City-Building and Management MMO-RTS simulation that offers a beautiful sandbox style theme. The game leaves you in a partially build piece of land and allows you to manipulate the land as you like it, explore, gather up resources and build structures you want.
Anno 1404 or also known as Dawn of Discovery is a brilliant video game that blends in City-Building, Real-time Strategy, MMO and Economic elements beautifully. The game features both medieval and renaissance era settings and allows you to build your own settlements, explore islands, construct buildings, get into diplomatic ties with neighboring settlements or wage wars against the enemies in order to conquer their lands or to defend your own.
Populous: The Beginning a wonderful blend of MM, RTS and City-Building elements and provides with a marvelous gameplay similar to Anno series games. In the beginning, Populous: The Beginning allows you to pick up a tribe as you native identity, make alliances with other powerful tribes and figures and embark on epic missions filled with puzzling challenges.
StarTopia is another great Building and Management and RTS Simulation that allows you to control a space station, one among the critically damaged but habitable space stations after the war of the universe.
The Settlers Online, developed by Blue Byte Software is a Free to Play, Online, and Browser Based City-Building and Management and MMORTS video game. The game allows you build a city, defeat your enemy bandits and complete various quests and tasks to earn experience points and resources.
Project Aura
Project Aura is one of the best Simulations that offers MMO-RTS Economic, City Building, and Management elements in order to provide with one of the best experiences ever. Your task in the game is to simply lead a colony of people who recently faced the worst ever climate disaster that left the world in ruins.
Crusader Kings 2
Crusader Kings 2 a direct sequel to the original Crusader Kings, is a Grand Strategy and MMO video game. Developed by Paradox Development Studio the game is set in the Middle Ages and features a lot of historical and popular names such as Charlemagne, Constantine Doukas, Ragner Lodork, Alexios and Harun Al Rashid etc.
Battle World: Kronos
Battle World: kronos is an MMO and Turn-Based Real time Strategy and a war-based video game that lands you into a militaristic setting. The game allows you to engage yourself into campaigns, skirmishes and wars against your enemies from the Yerla Faction.
Act of War: Direct Action
Act of War: Direct Action is a Real-Time Strategy and a War based MMO video game by Eugene Systems. The game provides with a lot of challenging skirmishes, campaigns, an engaging gameplay and core mechanics that greatly resemble Europa Universalis IV.
Command and Conquer: Tiberium Alliances
Command and Conquer: Tiberium Alliances developed by EA Phenomic is a Freemium MMO-RTS (Massively Multiplayer Online – Real Time Strategy) video game based on a militaristic theme. The game sets you up into the character of a general and allows you to build a Base anywhere on the game map.
Cossacks: European Wars
Cossacks: European Wars, developed by GSC Game World is a Real Time Strategy and Tactical War based MMO video game. The game takes place in 17th and 18th centuries in Europe and provides with an isometric view.
Eador: Masters of the Broken World
Eador: Masters of the Broken World is a phenomenal blend of Grand Strategy, RPG (Role Playing Game) and Turn Based MMO elements. This fantasy game is developed and published by Snowbird Game Studios.
Endless Legend
Endless Legend by Amplitude Studios is a Turn Based 4x Fantasy MMO-RTS video game set in the land of Auriga and allows the players to dominate over the land by Exploration, Technology, Conquest, Wars, Diplomacy and Research.
Supreme Commander 2 is a wonderful RTS (Real time Strategy) and tactical War-Based MMO video game developed by Gas Powered Games. Supreme Commander 2 focuses on the character of Dominic Maddox who works for the UEF (United Earth Federation).
Age of Empires 2: The Age of Kings
Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings is a great Real Time Strategy and Tactical War based MMO video game. The game is set in the Middle Ages and allows you to choose between thirteen different playable civilizations such as Britons, Byzantines, Celts, Chinese, Goths, Japanese, Franks, Persians, Mongols, Saracens, Teutons, Turks and Vikings.
Age of Wonders 3 is an Action, RPG and 4X Tactical Strategy video game by Triumph Studios. The game is set in a fictional Fantasy World where you act as the Leader whose tasks are to explore the world, interact with other players, NPCs and races, build diplomatic and trade relations with other nations, wage epic and mighty wars against the foes and eventually expand your Empire.
The settlers, developed by Ubisoft Blue Bite and published by Ubisoft back in 1993, is a Real Time Strategy (RTS) video game series. The series comprises of total eight main games in the series including the remakes and the recent game was made available in the markets in late 2012.
Age of Empires 2: The Forgotten
Age of Empires 2: The Forgotten is wonderful addiction to the series of Age of Empires. This wonderful MMO-RTS game is basically an expansion pack to the famed Age of Empires 2: The Age of Kings and offers 5 new civilization named as Magyars, Indians, Incas, Slavs and Italians, seven new single and multiplayer campaigns, a lot of new troop units, technologies etc.
Age of Empires 3: Complete Collection
Age of Empires 3: Complete Collection is an amazingly unforgettable experience of City Building, Management and MMO-RTS elements. With a big name in the respective genre, Age of Empires 3: Complete Collection offers a collection of Microsoft’s Ground breaking masterpieces and combines them into one amazing package.
Age of Empires Online, is a Massively Multiplayer Online Real Time Strategy (MMORTS) video game developed by Robot Entertainment in collaboration with Gas Powered Games and published by Microsoft Game Studios for PC (Microsoft Windows) only.
Company of Heroes 2 is a popular RTS game that offers an amazingly addictive and quite immersive game-play similar to the popular Supreme Commander video game. This sequel to the original Company of Heroes lacks the allies feature and instead it takes you to the eastern frontiers in order to battle against the enemies and experience an extremely action-packed game-play ever.
Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds is a brilliant RTS game like Supreme Commander that takes the franchise to the amazing RTS genre and offers a seemingly wonderful gaming experience. The game mechanics and visuals are highly inspired by the mighty Age of Empires and offers a similar game-play.
Age of Wonders
Age of Wonders is a Single and Multiplayer Turn-based Strategy video game. The game offers a detailed description of all the mythical Creatures of World of Wonders and allows the players to enjoy Online gameplay on a LAN (local Area Network) and Internet Online.
World in Conflict
World in Conflict combines the elements of Real-time Tactics, Strategy, and supports both Single and Multiplayer modes. The game doesn’t offer resource management or city building elements. It lets you get into the game world by selecting your character and faction.
Age of Wonders II: The Wizard’s Throne
Age of Wonders II: The Wizard’s Throne is an Action, Turn-based Strategy, Role-playing, Single and Multiplayer video game created by Triumph Studios. It is the direct sequel to Age of Wonders game.
Machines at War 3 by Isotope 244 is a great MMO-RTS and War based video game. The game lets you be a commander, command over a great number of military units, Military grade vehicles (Tanks, Humvees, Cruisers, Planes, choppers etc.) and make best strategies to either defend yourself against the enemies or to attack and conquer them.
Cossacks 3
Cossacks 3 combines the elements of Real-time Strategy, Base-Building, and Adventure by GSG Game World. The game has both Single and Multiplayer modes and takes place in the historic-themed world during the 17th and 18th century in Europe.
Lego Battles
Lego Battles is RTS (Real-Time Strategy), Single and Multiplayer video game developed by Hellbent Games and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. The game features three different plots in the game, each with its unique option of playing as the antagonist or the protagonist.
Cossacks II
Cossacks II is a Single and Multiplayer Real-time Strategy video game developed by GSC Game World and published by CDV Software. It is the fourth installment in the series of Cossacks game and focuses on the Napoleonic Era and introduces a massive variety of units to train with many tactical options.
Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic
Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic is a Turn-based Strategy, Single and Multiplayer video game developed by Triumph Studios and published by Gathering of Developers. The game takes place in the fantasy-themed world, and it is the third entry in the series of Age of Wonders.
Army Men: RTS is an Action, Real-time Strategy, Single and Multiplayer video game by Pandemic Studios and published by The 3DO Company. It is the best entry in the series of Army Men and focuses on combat element.
Tzar: The Burden of the Crown
Tzar: The Burden of the Crown developed by Haemimont Games and published by Take-Two Interactive is a Real-time Strategy, Single, and Multiplayer video game. The game takes place in the medieval setting and offers the similar gameplay to Age of Empire.
Westward IV: All Aboard
Westward IV: All Aboard is a superb, City-building, Gather Resources, Strategy and Single-player video game developed and published by Sandlot Games. The game offers an exciting gameplay and puts the player in the role of the leader.
Hugo Troll Wars
Hugo Troll Wars is an Action, Combat and Strategy video game with the mixture of competitive combat and strategic planning. The game offers you an opportunity to establish a village, recruit your army and equip it with a weapon.
Foxhole is an Action-packed Real-time Strategy, and Multiplayer video game developed and published by Clapfoot for Microsoft Windows. The game mixes the MMO, Military, Action-Strategy, and Co-op Sandbox elements to offers the stunning gameplay played from a top-down perspective.
Modern War by Gree
Modern War by Gree is an Action, Real-time Strategy, Multiplayer video game developed and published by Funzio Games, Inc. for Android and iOS. There are multiple factions available from which the player needs to select his favorite to participate in battlefield and show off his tactics to impress his friends.
Celtic Kings: Rage of War
Celtic Kings: Rage of War is a Role-playing, Real-time Strategy, Single-player and Multiplayer video game developed by Haemimont Games and published by Strategy First. The game takes place during the Conquest of Gaul and offers the ancient Roman times, during the years when Julius Caesar was the Roman Empire’s military leader.
Disciples II: Dark Prophecy
Disciples II: Dark Prophecy is a Fantasy-based, Turn-based Strategy, Single-player and Multiplayer video game developed and published by Strategy First for Microsoft Windows. The game acts as the sequel to Disciples: Sacred Lands, released in 1999 and it becomes more successful than its predecessor.
Company of Heroes 2: Ardennes Assault
Company of Heroes 2: Ardennes Assault is a Single-player and Multiplayer Real-time Strategy (RTS), Single-player and Multiplayer video game developed by Relic Entertainment and published by Sega and Feral Interactive. The game acts as the sequel to Company of Heroes, released in 2006 and it takes place during the event of World War II (WWII) but with the focus on the Eastern Front.
More About Westward III: Gold Rush
Westward III: Gold Rush is a Real-time Strategy, and Single-player Business Simulation developed and published by Sandlot Games. The game takes place in the fantastic land of Northern California and offers the story follows the kind-hearted but struggling family, who welcomes three travelers into their home and provides a space for rest. The travelers make a promise to repay for the generosity and kindness of the family when they are settled. A greedy land specular known as Silas McAllister appears and take over the valuable land, and become the governor of California. The game has a similar gameplay to its previous titles and features three different pioneers each has a special bonus. Wood and gold are primary resources in the game, which can be used to grow food to feed the people and build houses to offers the shelters to the people. The game takes place in two different cities, and the player needs experience points to unlock further buildings to expand his city. There are three different modes, which can be played in Sandbox modes such as Bandit Showdown, Disaster Challenge, and Open Range. With prominent features, exciting gameplay, and wonderful graphics, Westward III: Gold Rush is the best game to play.
Business Simulation City Building Crafting Exploration Single-Player Skill
Movie Star Planet
Virtual Villagers
Virtual Families
Habbo
Little Inferno
Jet Li: Rise to Honor
Rally Speedway
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1560
|
__label__wiki
| 0.981628
| 0.981628
|
Sunshine and some clouds. High around 95F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph..
Partly cloudy skies. Low 73F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph.
In this image from file video provided by UK Ministry of Defence, British navy vessel HMS Montrose escorts another ship during a mission to remove chemical weapons from Syria at sea off coast of Cyprus in February 2014. The British Navy said it intercepted an attempt on Thursday, July 11, 2019, by three Iranian paramilitary vessels to impede the passage of a British commercial vessel just days after Iran’s president warned of repercussions for the seizure of its own supertanker. A U.K. government statement said Iranian vessels only turned away after receiving “verbal warnings” from the HMS Montrose accompanying the commercial ship through the narrow Strait of Hormuz. (UK Ministry of Defence via AP)
HOGP
Britain says Iranian vessels tried to block tanker in Gulf
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The British navy said it prevented three Iranian paramilitary vessels from impeding the passage of a British oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz early Thursday, a day after Iran's president warned of repercussions for the seizure of its own supertanker.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard denied the allegations, saying if it had received orders to seize any ships it would have done so immediately.
A U.S. aircraft was in the area at the time and the military has video imagery, a U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss security matters.
The incident came at a time of heightened tensions over Iran's unraveling nuclear agreement with world powers, signed in 2015. Iran recently began breaching uranium enrichment limits in response to the Trump administration's withdrawal from the agreement last year and its imposition of sweeping sanctions.
In recent months, the U.S. has sent thousands of additional troops, an aircraft carrier, B-52 bombers and advanced fighter jets to the region. Washington has blamed Iran for a series of mysterious attacks on oil tankers — charges that have been denied by Tehran — and said it shot down an American military surveillance drone in international airspace. Iran said it downed the drone after it veered into its own airspace.
The U.K. said in a statement that the British naval vessel HMS Montrose had been accompanying the commercial ship, British Heritage, through the narrow Strait of Hormuz, a crucial waterway for energy shipments .
"HMS Montrose was forced to position herself between the Iranian vessels and British Heritage and issue verbal warnings to the Iranian vessels, which then turned away," the statement said.
"We are concerned by this action and continue to urge the Iranian authorities to de-escalate the situation in the region," it added.
The HMS Montrose is on a three-year mission at the British navy's support facility in Bahrain, the hub of its naval operations east of the Suez Canal.
Russia and China, both signatories to the nuclear agreement along with Britain, France and Germany, called for restraint. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said "freedom of navigation should be ensured in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz."
The U.S. 5th Fleet in Bahrain declined to comment on the incident.
U.S. Central Command spokesman Capt. Bill Urban said CENTCOM was aware of reports of "harassment and attempts to interfere with" the passage of the British Heritage near the Strait of Hormuz by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard's naval forces.
Threats to freedom of navigation require an international solution, Urban said.
Maritime security risk firm Dryad Global described the British Heritage as an oil tanker operated by BP and registered in the Isle of Man. Lloyd's List, a publication specializing in maritime affairs, said Shell had chartered the ship from BP.
Lloyd's List said the British Heritage had diverted from its route to load its 140,000-ton cargo of crude at Basra, Iraq, as planned on July 4, the same day an Iranian supertanker was intercepted off Gibraltar, a British overseas territory. It said the vessel instead headed to Saudi waters where it had remained for several days.
Since July 2, at least 20 British-flagged ships have sailed through the Strait of Hormuz, according to Lloyd's List Intelligence data.
BP said the company's "top priority is the safety and security of our crews and vessels" and thanked the Royal Navy for its support. The British multinational oil and gas firm declined to comment further.
Shell stopped short of confirming reports it had chartered the British Heritage tanker, but told The Associated Press in a statement that "safety is our top priority." A spokesman said the company was monitoring the situation closely and expects all vessels it charters to consider relevant Department for Transport guidance on shipping in the area.
The department had already raised its risk assessment to the highest level for maritime security in Iranian waterways, according to Lloyd's List.
About 20% of all oil traded worldwide passes through the Strait of Hormuz from Middle East producers. Iran has periodically threatened to close the shipping lane if it is prevented from exporting its own oil. The U.S. sanctions have largely shut down its oil exports.
Despite the latest incident, the overall threat level for non-British ships using the critical waterway has not changed significantly, said Jakob P. Larsen, head of maritime security for BIMCO, the largest international association representing ship owners.
"With what we've seen now I'm certain trade will continue in the region," he said from Denmark. "Of course ship owners will take their precautions, and for British interests those would probably be a little more comprehensive."
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has asked Mideast allies like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in past weeks to contribute financially and militarily to a Trump administration proposal called the Sentinel Program — a coalition of nations working with the U.S. to preserve maritime security in the Persian Gulf and keep eyes on Iran.
The semi-official Fars news agency carried a statement from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's navy on Thursday denying any incident had occurred.
"In the last 24 hours, there were no clashes with alien floats, especially British boats," the statement said.
Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif dismissed the British allegations as "worthless," saying the claims "are being made to create tension," Fars reported.
President Hassan Rouhani had recently warned that Britain would face "repercussions" over the seizure of the Iranian supertanker last week. Authorities in Gibraltar suspect the vessel was breaching European sanctions on oil shipments to Syria.
Iran had also summoned the British ambassador over what it called the "illegal interception" of the ship.
The operation to seize the Iranian tanker took place one week ago at the request of the U.S. Gibraltar port and law enforcement agencies were assisted by Britain's Royal Marines in the seizure.
The tensions have increased since President Donald Trump's decision last year to withdraw from the landmark nuclear agreement negotiated by the Obama administration. Trump has since re-imposed crippling sanctions on Iran, including on its vital oil exports, exacerbating an economic crisis that has sent its currency plummeting.
Europe has been unable to meet Tehran's demands for economic assistance to offset the American sanctions.
In recent weeks, Iran began breaching the limits of the deal, both on the stockpile of low-enriched uranium and the level of uranium enrichment. It also set an early September deadline for world powers to save the agreement, saying it would otherwise take a third step in going beyond the deal's limits.
Iran maintains it is justified in breaching the limitations because the U.S. already broke the deal with its unilateral withdrawal.
React to this story:
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1562
|
__label__wiki
| 0.880565
| 0.880565
|
Battery and Energy Technologies
Buying Batteries in China
Woodbank does not monitor or record these emails
Heroes and Villains - A little light reading
Here you will find a brief history of technology. Initially inspired by the development of batteries, it covers technology in general and includes some interesting little known, or long forgotten, facts as well as a few myths about the development of technology, the science behind it, the context in which it occurred and the deeds of the many personalities, eccentrics and charlatans involved.
"Either you do the work or you get the credit" Yakov Zel'dovich - Russian Astrophysicist
Fortunately it is not always true.
You may find the Search Engine, the Technology Timeline or the Hall of Fame quicker if you are looking for something or somebody in particular.
See also the timelines of the Discovery of the Elements and Particle Physics and Quantum Theory.
Go Directly
to the Year
Period? Pre 300 B.C. 300-1 B.C. 1-1000 A.D. 1000-1500 1500-1650 1650-1700 1700-1750 1750-1800 1800-1810 1810-1820 1820-1830 1830-1840 1840-1850 1850-1860 1860-1870 1870-1880 1880-1890 1890-1900 1900-1910 1910-1920 1920-1930 1930-1940 1940-1950 1950-1960 1960-1970 1970-1980 1980-1990 1990-2000 2000-2010 2010-2020
The Content - It's not just about batteries. Scroll down and see what treasures you can discover.
We think of a battery today as a source of portable power, but it is no exaggeration to say that the battery is one of the most important inventions in the history of mankind. Volta's pile was at first a technical curiosity but this new electrochemical phenomenon very quickly opened the door to new branches of both physics and chemistry and a myriad of discoveries, inventions and applications. The electronics, computers and communications industries, power engineering and much of the chemical industry of today were founded on discoveries made possible by the battery.
It is often overlooked that throughout the nineteenth century, most of the electrical experimenters, inventors and engineers who made these advances possible had to make their own batteries before they could start their investigations. They did not have the benefit of cheap, off the shelf, mass produced batteries. For many years the telegraph, and later the telephone, industries were the only consumers of batteries in modest volumes and it wasn't until the twentieth century that new applications created the demand that made the battery a commodity item.
In recent years batteries have changed out of all recognition. No longer are they simple electrochemical cells. Today the cells are components in battery systems, incorporating electronics and software, power management and control systems, monitoring and protection circuits, communications interfaces and thermal management.
History of Technology from the Bronze Age to the Present Day
Circa 3000 B.C. At the end of the fourth millennium B.C. the World was starting to emerge from the Stone Age.
Around 2900 B.C., Mesopotamians (from modern day Iraq), who had already been active for hundreds of years in primitive metallurgy extracting metals such as copper from their ores, led the way into the Bronze Age when artisans in the cities of Ur and Babylon discovered the properties of bronze and began to use it in place of copper in the production of tools, weapons and armour. Bronze is a relatively hard alloy of copper and tin, better suited for the purpose than the much softer copper enabling improved durability of the weapons and the ability to hold a cutting edge. The use of bronze for tools and weapons gradually spread to the rest of the World until it was eventually superceded by the much harder iron.
Mesopotamia, incorporating Sumer, Babylonia and Assyria, known in the West as the Cradle of Civilisation was located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers (The name means "land between the rivers") in the so called Fertile Crescent stretching from the current Gulf of Iran up to modern day Turkey. The ancient city of Babylon which served for nearly two millennia as a center of Mesopotamian civilization is located about 60 miles (100 kilometers) south of Baghdad in modern-day Iraq. (See Map of Mesopotamia).
Unfortunately this accolade ignores the contributions of the Chinese people and the Harappans of the Indus Valley, (Modern day Pakistan) who were equally "civilised" during this period practicing metallurgy (copper, bronze, lead, and tin) and urban planning, with civic buildings, baked brick houses, and water supply and drainage systems.
From around 3500 B.C. the Sumerians of ancient Mesopotamia developed the World's first written language. Called Cuneiform Writing from the Latin "cuneus", meaning "wedge", it was developed as a vehicle for commercial accounting transactions and record keeping. The writing was in the form of a series of wedge-shaped signs pressed into soft clay by means of a reed stylus to create simple pictures, or pictograms, each representing an object. The clay subsequently hardened in the Sun or was baked to form permanent tablets. By 2800 B.C. the script progressively evolved to encompass more abstract concepts as well as phonetic functions (representing sounds, just like the modern Western alphabet) enabling the recording of messages and ideas. For the first time news and ideas could be carried to distant places without having to rely on a messenger's memory and integrity.
Hieroglyphic script evolved slightly later in Egypt. Though the script appeared on vases and stone carvings, many important Egyptian historical scripts and records were written in ink, made from carbon black (soot) or red ochre mixed with gelatin and gum, applied with a reed pen onto papyrus. Produced from the freshwater papyrus reed, the papyrus scrolls were fragile and susceptible to decay from both moisture and excessive dryness and many of them have thus been lost, whereas the older, more durable clay cuneiform tablets from Mesopotamia have survived.
Historians seem to agree that the wheel and axle were invented around 3500 B.C. in Mesopotamia. Pictograms on a tablet dating from about 3200 B.C. found in a temple at Erech in Mesopotamia show a chariot with solid wooden wheels. Evidence from Ur indicates that the simpler potter's wheel probably predates the use of the axled wheel for transport because of the difficulty in designing a reliable mechanism for mounting the rotating wheel on a fixed hub or a rotating axle on the fixed load carrying platform.
Sumerian mathematics and science used a base 60 sexagesimal numeral system. 60 is divisible by 1,2,3,4,5,6,10,12,15,20,30 and 60 making it more convenient than using a base 10 decimal system when working with fractions. The Mesopotamians thus introduced the 60-minute hour, the 60-second minute and the 360-degree circle with each angular degree consisting of 60 seconds. The calendar adopted by the Sumerians, Babylonians and Assyrians was based 12 lunar months and seven-day weeks with 24-hour days. Since the average lunar month is 29.5 days, over 12 months this would produce a total of only 354 days as against a solar year of 365.25 days. To keep the calendar aligned to the seasons they added seven extra months in each period of 19 years, equivalent to the way we add an extra day in leap years. Despite decimalisation, we still use these sexagesimal measures today.
The Mesopotamians discovered glass, probably from glass beads in the slag resulting from experiments with refining metallic ores. They were also active in the development of many other technologies such as textile weaving, locks and canals, flood control, water storage and irrigation.
There are also claims that the Archimedes' Screw may have been invented in Mesopotamia and used for the water systems at the Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
2500 B.C. Sometimes known as the "Second oldest profession", soldering has been known since the Bronze Age (Circa 3000 to 1100 B.C.). A form of soldering to join sheets of gold was known to be used by the Mesopotamians in Ur. Fine metal working techniques were also developed in Egypt where filigree jewellery and cloisonné work found in Tutankhamun's tomb dating from 1327 B.C. was made from delicate wires which had been drawn through dies and then soldered in place.
Egypt was also home to Imhotep the first man of science in recorded history. He was the world's first named architect and administrator who around 2725 B.C. built the first pyramid ever constructed, the Stepped Pyramid of Saqqara. Papyri were unearthed in the nineteenth century dating from around 1600 B.C. and 1534 B.C. both of which refer to earlier works attributed to Imhotep. The first outlines surgical treatments for various wounds and diseases and the second contains 877 prescriptions and recipes for treating a variety of medical conditions making Imhotep the world's first recorded physician. Other contemporary papyri described Egyptian mathematics. Egyptian teachings provided the foundation of Greek science and although Imhotep's teachings were known to the Greeks, 2200 years after his death, they assigned the honour of Father of Medicine to Hippocrates.
2300 B.C. The earliest evidence of the art of stencilling used by the Egyptians. Designs were cut into a sheet of papyrus and pigments were applied through the apertures with a brush. The technique was reputed to have been in use in China around the same time but no artifacts remain.
2100-1600 B.C. The Xia dynasty in China perfected the casting of bronze for the production of weapons and ritual wine and food vessels, reaching new heights during the Shang dynasty (1600-1050 B.C.).
Circa 2000 B.C. The process for making wrought iron was discovered by the Hittites, in Northern Mesopotamia and Southern Anatolia (now part of Eastern Turkey), who heated iron ore in a charcoal fire and hammered the results into wrought (worked) iron. See more about wrought iron
1300 B.C. Fine wire also made by the Egyptians by beating gold sheet and cutting it into strips. Recorded in the Bible, Book of Exodus, Chapter 39, Verse 3, - "And they did beat the gold into thin plates, and cut it into wires, to work it. in the fine linen, with cunning work."
The Egyptians also made coarse glass fibres as early as 1600 B.C. and fibers survive as decorations on Egyptian pottery dating back to 1375 B.C.
1280 B.C. Around this date, after his escape from Egypt, Moses ordered the construction of the Ark of the Covenant to house the tablets of stone on which were written the original "Ten Commandments". Its construction is described in great detail in the book of Exodus and according to the Bible and Jewish legend it was endowed with miraculous powers including emitting sparks and fire and striking dead Aaron's sons and others who touched it. It was basically a wooden box of acacia wood lined with gold and also overlaid on the outside with gold. The lid was decorated with two "cherubim" with outstretched wings. In 1915 Nikola Tesla, in an essay entitled "The Fairy Tale of Electricity" promoting the appreciation of electrical developments, proposed what seemed a plausible explanation for some of the magical powers of the Ark. He claimed that the gold sheaths separated by the dry acacia wood effectively formed a large capacitor on which a static electrical charge could be built up by friction from the curtains around the Ark and this accounted for the sparks and the electrocution of Aaron's sons.
Recent calculations have shown however that the capacitance of the box would be in the order of 200 pico farads and such a capacitor would need to be charged to 100,000 volts to store even 1 joule of electrical energy, not nearly enough to cause electrocution. It seems Tesla's explanation was appropriately named.
800 B.C. The magnetic properties of the naturally occurring lodestone were first mentioned in Greek texts. Also called magnetite, lodestone is a magnetic oxide of iron (Fe3O4) which was mined in the province of Magnesia in Thessaly from where the magnet gets its name. Lodestone was also known in China at that time where it was known as "love stone" and is in fact quite common throughout the world.
Surprisingly although they were aware of its magnetic properties, neither the Greeks nor the Romans seem to have discovered its directive property.
Eight hundred years later in 77 A.D., the somewhat unscientific Roman chronicler of science Pliny the Elder, completed his celebrated series of books entitled "Natural History". In it, he attributed the name "magnet" to the supposed discoverer of lodestone, the shepherd Magnes, "the nails of whose shoes and the tip of whose staff stuck fast in a magnetic field while he pastured his flocks". Thus another myth was born. Pliny was killed during the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius near Pompeii in A.D. 79 but his "Natural History" lived on as an authority on scientific matters up to the Middle Ages.
600 B.C. The Greek philosopher and scientist, Thales of Miletus (624-546 B.C.) - one of the Seven Wise Men of Greece (Miletus is now in Turkey) - was the first thinker to attempt to explain natural phenomena by means of some underlying scientific principle rather than by attributing them to the whim of the Gods - a major departure from previous wisdom and the foundation of scientific method, frowned upon by Aristotle but rediscovered during the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution.
He travelled to Egypt and the city state of Babylon in Mesopotamia (now modern day Iraq) and is said to have brought Babylonian mathematics back to Greece. The following rules are attributed to him:
Any angle inscribed in a semicircle is a right angle. Known as the Theorem of Thales it was however known to the Babylonians 1000 years earlier.
A circle is bisected by any diameter.
The base angles of an isosceles triangle are equal.
The opposite angles formed by two intersecting lines are equal.
Two triangles are congruent (equal shape and size) if two angles and a side are equal.
The sides of similar triangles are proportional
Using the concept of similar triangles he was able to calculate the height of pyramids by comparing the size of their shadows with smaller, similar triangles of known dimensions. Similarly he calculated the distance to ships at sea by noting the azimuth angle of the ship from a baseline of two widely spaced observation points a known distance apart on the shore and scaling up the distance to the ship from the dimensions of a smaller similar triangle. In this way he was able to calculate the distance to far off objects without measuring the distance directly, the basis of modern surveying.
Thales also demonstrated the effect of static electricity by picking up small items with an amber rod made of fossilised resin which had been rubbed with a cloth. He also noted that iron was attracted to lodestone.
Thales left no writings and knowledge of him is derived from an account in Aristotle's Metaphysics written nearly 300 years later and itself subject to numerous subsequent copies and translations.
530 B.C. Pythagoras of Samos (580-500 B.C.) an Ionian Greek, is considered by many to be the Father of Mathematics. Like Thales, he had travelled to Egypt and Babylon where he studied astronomy and geometry. His theorem. "In a right-angled triangle the square on the hypotenuse is equal to the sum of the squares on the other two sides" is well known to every schoolchild.
Around 530 BC, he moved to Croton, in Magna Graecia, where he set up a religious sect. His cult-like followers, were enthralled by numbers such as prime numbers and irrational numbers and considered their work to be secret and mystical. Prior to Pythagoras, mathematicians had dealt only in whole numbers and fractions or ratios but Pythagoras brought them into contact with √2 and other square roots which were not rational numbers.
Pythagoreans also discovered the Divine Proportion, also called the Golden Mean or Golden Ratio, an irrational number Φ (Phi) = (√5+1)/2 ≈ 1.618 which has fascinated both scientists and artists ever since.
(See examples of The Divine Proportion).
None of Pythagoras writings have survived and knowledge of his life and works is based on tradition rather than verified facts.
Circa 500 B.C. Cast iron was produced for the first time by the Chinese during the Zhou dynasty (1046-256 B.C.). Prior to that, it had not been possible to raise the temperature of the ore sufficiently to melt the iron and the only available iron was wrought iron created by heating iron ore in a furnace with carbon as the reducing agent and hammering the resulting spongy iron output. Furnaces of the day could reach temperatures of about 1300°C which was enough to melt copper whose melting point is 1083°C but not enough to melt iron whose melting point is 1528°C. By a combination of the addition of phosphorus to the ore which reduced its melting point, the use of a bellows to pump air through the ore to aid the exothermic reduction process and the use of improved high temperature refractory bricks forming the walls of the furnace to withstand the heat, the Chinese were able to melt the iron and cast it into functional shapes ranging from tools and pots and pans to heavy load bearing constructional members as well as fine ornamental pieces.
Cast iron was not produced in Europe till around 1400 A.D.. Gun-barrels and bullets were the first cast iron products to be manufactured but it was not until 1709 when Abraham Darby introduced new production methods that low cost, volume production was achieved.
See more about Chinese Inventions.
460 B.C. Another Greek philosopher Democritus of Abdera developed the idea that matter could be broken down into very small indivisible particles which he called atoms. Subsequently Aristotle dismissed Democritus' atomic theory as worthless and Aristotle's views tended to prevail. It was not until 1803 that Democritus' theory was resurrected by John Dalton.
380 B.C. Greek philosopher Plato (Circa 428-347) composed the Allegory of the Cave as part of his major work, the Republic.
He believed that there were patterns or mathematical relationships, we now would call "science", behind natural phenomena which were often hidden from the observer and difficult to observe directly.
In his allegory he described a community of prisoners permanently chained from birth to the floor of a cave facing a blank wall with no possibility to look elsewhere. See diagram of Plato's Cave. Behind the prisoners was a low wall concealing from them an elevated walkway or stage. People could walk around this stage, out of sight of the prisoners, carrying 3D objects or puppets above their heads. A fire behind the stage next to the back wall of the cave illuminated these moving objects which cast shadows on the blank wall in front of the prisoners. Any sounds of the people talking, or other movements, echoed off the walls so that the prisoners believed these sounds came from the shadows.
For the prisoners, these shadows were the reality. This was their World. They had no way of knowing that a different true reality existed. If the reality were explained to them they would probably not believe it.
The cave allegory illustrated fundamental issues in science such as:
The observer's perception of reality suffers from incomplete information and the difficulty of interpreting the information which is avavailable.
It is dangerous to infer anything about reality based on our experiences.
Plato's observations still hold good today, 2400 years later, particularly with particle physics where all is not what it seems.
350 B.C. The Greek philosopher and scientist Aristotle (384-322 B.C.), student of Plato, provided "scientific" theories based on pure "reason" for everything from the geocentric structure of the cosmos down to the four fundamental elements earth, fire, air and water.
Aristotle believed that knowledge should be gained by pure rational thought and had no time for mathematics which he regarded only as a calculating device. Neither did he support the experimental method of scientific discovery, espoused by Thales, which he considered inferior. In his support it should be mentioned that the range of experiments he could possibly undertake was limited by the lack of suitable accurate measuring instruments in his time and it was only in the seventeenth century during the Scientific Revolution that such instruments started to become available.
Unfortunately Aristotle's "rational" explanations were subsequently taken up by St Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) and espoused by the church which for many years made it difficult, if not dangerous, to propose alternative theories. Aristotle's theories of the cosmos and chemistry thus held sway for 2000 years hampering scientific progress until they were finally debunked by Galileo, Newton and Lavoisier who showed that natural phenomena could be described by mathematical laws.
See also Gilbert (1600), Mersenne (1636), Descartes (1644) and Von Guericke (1663) and the Scientific Revolution.
Aristotle was also a tutor to the young Alexander the Great.
Like many sources from antiquity, Aristotle's original manuscripts have been destroyed or lost and we only know of Aristotle's works via series of copies and translations from the Greek into Arabic, then from Arabic into Latin and finally from Latin into English and other modern languages. There's much that could have been lost, changed or even added in the translations.
332 B.C. Alexander the Great conquered Egypt and ordered the building of a new city on the Egyptian, Nile delta named after himself - Alexandria. When he died in 323 BC his kingdom was divided between three of his generals, with Egypt going to Ptolemy (367–283 B.C.) who later declared himself King Ptolemy I Soter (not to be confused with Claudius Ptolemy (90-168 A.D.)) and founded a new dynasty, replacing the Pharaohs, which lasted until the Roman conquest of 30 B.C.
Ptolemy Soter's grandest building project in the new capital was the Musaeum or "Temple of the Muses" (from which we get the modern word "museum") which he founded around 306 B.C. A most important part of the Musaeum was the famous Library of Alexandria, which he conceived, and which was carried through by his son Ptolemy II Philadelphus, with the object of collecting all the world's knowledge. Most of the staff were occupied with the task of translating works onto papyrus and it is estimated (probably over-estimated) that as many as 700,000 scrolls, the equivalent of more than 100,000 modern printed books, filled the library shelves.
Great thinkers were invited to Alexandria to establish an academy at the library turning it into a major centre of scholarship and research. Euclid was one of the first to teach there. Ultimately the library overshadowed the Musaeum in importance and interest becoming perhaps the oldest university in the world.
It was at the library that:
Euclid developed the rules of geometry based on rigorous proofs. His mathematical text was still in use after 2000 years.
Archimedes invented the a water pump based on a helical screw, versions of which are still in use today. (The actual date of this invention is however disputed).
Eratosthenes measured the diameter of the Earth.
Hero invented the aeolipile, the first reaction turbine.
Claudius Ptolemy wrote the Almagest, the most influential scientific book about the nature of the Universe for 1,400 years.
Hypatia, the first woman scientist and mathematician invented the hydrometer, before she met her untimely end during Christian riots.
Alas the ancient library is no more. Four times it was devastated by fire, accidental or deliberate, during wars and riots and historians disagree about who were the major culprits, their motives and the extent of the damage in each case.
48 B.C. Damage caused during the Roman conquest of Egypt by Julius Caesar
272 A.D. An attack on Queen Zenobia of Palmyra by Roman Emperor Aurelian
391 A.D. An edict of the Emperor Theodosius I made paganism illegal and Patriarch Theophilus of Alexandria ordered demolition of heathen temples. This was followed by Christian riots the same year and 415 A.D..
639 A.D. The Muslim conquest of Alexandria by General Amr ibn al 'Aas leading the army of Caliph Omar of Baghdad.
But even without the wars, the delicate papyrus scrolls were apt to disintegrate with age and what was left of the library eventually succumbed to the ravages of major earthquakes in Crete in A.D. 365 and 1303 A.D. which caused tsunamis which in turn devastated Alexandria.
300 B.C. Fl Greek mathematician Euclid of Alexandria (Circa 325-265 B.C.) a great organiser and logician, taught at the great Library of Alexandria and took the current mathematical knowledge of his day and organised it into a manuscript consisting of thirteen books now known as Euclid's Elements. Considered by many to be the greatest mathematics text book ever written it has been used for over 2000 years. Nine of these books deal with plane and solid geometry, three cover number theory, one (book 10) concerns incommeasurable lengths which we would now call irrational numbers.
Proof, Logic and Deductive Reasoning
The "Elements" were not just about geometry, Euclid's theorems and conclusions were backed up by rigorous proofs based on logic and deductive reasoning and he was one of the first to require that mathematical theories should be justified by such proofs.
An example of the type of deductive reasoning applied by Euclid is the logical step based on the logical principle that if premise A implies B, and A is true, then B is also true, a principle that mediaeval logicians called modus ponens (the way that affirms by affirming). A classical example of this is the conclusion drawn from the following two premises: A: "All men are mortal" and B: "Socrates is a man" then the conclusion C: "Socrates is mortal" is also true.
In this manner Euclid started with a small set of self evident axioms and postulates and used them to produce deductive proofs of many other new propositions and geometric theorems. He wrote about plane, solid and spherical geometry, perspective, conic sections, and number theory applying rigorous formal proofs and showed how these propositions fitted into a logical system. His axioms and proofs have been a useful set of tools for many subsequent generations of mathematicians, demonstrating how powerful and beneficial deductive reasoning can be.
An example of Euclid's logical deduction is the method of exhaustion which was used as a method of finding the area of an irregular shape by inscribing inside it a sequence of n regular polygons of known area whose total area converges to the area of the given containing shape. As n becomes very large, the difference in area between the given shape and the n polygons it contains will become very small. As this difference becomes ever smaller, the possible values for the area of the shape are systematically "exhausted" as the shape and the corresponding area of the series of polygons approaches the given shape. This sets a lower limit to the possible area of the shape.
The method of exhaustion used to find the area of the shape above is a special case of of proof by contradiction, known as reductio ad absurdum which seeks to demonstrate that a statement is true by showing that a false, untenable, or absurd result follows from its denial, or in turn to demonstrate that a statement is false by showing that a false, untenable, or absurd result follows from its acceptance.
In the case above this means finding the area of the shape by first comparing it to the area of a second region inside the shape (which can be "exhausted" so that its area becomes arbitrarily close to the true area). The proof involves assuming that the true area is less than the second area, and then proving that assertion false. This gives a lower limit for the area of the shape under consideration.
Then comparing the shape to the area of a third region outside of the shape and assuming that the true area is more than the third area, and proving that assertion is also false. This gives an upper limit for the area of the shape.
No original records of Euclid's work survive and the oldest surviving version of "The Elements" is a Byzantine manuscript written in A.D. 888. Little is known of his life and the few historical references to Euclid which exist were written centuries after his death, by Greek mathematician Pappus of Alexandria around 320 A.D. and philosopher and historian Proclus around 450 A.D.
According to Proclus, when the ruler Ptolemy I Soter asked Euclid if there was a shorter road to learning geometry than through the Elements, Euclid responded "There is no royal road to geometry".
269 B.C. The greatest mathematician and engineer in antiquity, the Greek Archimedes of Syracuse (287-212 B.C.) began his formal studies at the age of eighteen when he was sent by his father, Phidias, a wealthy astronomer and kinsman of King Hieron II of Syracuse, to Egypt to study at the school founded by Euclid in the great Library of Alexandria. It kept him out of harm's way in the period leading up to the first Punic war (264-241 B.C.) between Carthage and Rome when Sicily was still a colony of Magna Graecia, vulnerably situated in strategic territory between the two adversaries. Syracuse initially supported Carthage, but early in the war Rome forced a treaty of alliance from king Hieron that called for Syracuse to pay tribute to the Romans. Returning to Syracuse in 263 B.C. Archimedes became a tutor to Gelon, the son of King Hieron.
Archimedes' Inventions
Archimedes was known as an inventor, but unlike the empirical designs of his predecessors, his inventions were the first to be based on sound engineering principles.
He was the world's first engineer, the first to be able to design levers, pulleys and gears with a given mechanical advantage thus founding the study of mechanics and the theory of machines.
Archimedes also founded the studies of statics and hydrostatics and was the first to elucidate the principle of buoyancy and to use it in practical applications.
Though he did not invent the lever, he explained its mechanical advantage, or leverage, in his work "On the Equilibrium of Planes" and is noted for his claim "Give me a place to stand and a long enough lever and I can move the Earth".
Archimedes' explanation of the theory of the lever is based on the principle of balancing the input and output torques about the fulcrum of the device so that, the input force multiplied by its distance from the fulcrum, is equal to the weight (or downward force) of the load multiplied by its distance from the fulcrum. In this arrangement, the distance moved by each force is proportional to its distance from the fulcrum. Thus a small force moving a long distance can lift a heavy load over a small distance and the mechanical advantage is equal to the ratio of the distances from the fulcrum of the points of application the input force and the output force. He applied similar reasoning to explain the operation of compound pulleys and gear trains, in the latter case using angular displacement in place of linear displacement.
We would now relate this theory to the concepts of work done, potential energy and the conservation of energy. See also hydraulic, mechanical advantage described by Pascal.
He is credited by the Greek historian Plutarch (46-120 A.D.), with inventing the block and tackle / compound pulley to move ships and other heavy loads. The use of a simple, single-sheaved pulley to change the direction of the pull, for drawing water and lifting loads had been known for many years. This device did not provide any mechanical advantage, but Archimedes showed that a multi-sheaved, compound pulley could provide a mechanical advantage of n where n is the number of parts of the rope in the pulley mechanism which support the moving block. For example, a block and tackle system with three sheaves or pulley wheels in the upper block and two sheaves in the lower (suspended) block will have five sections of the rope supporting the load giving a mechanical advantage of five. Pulling the rope by five feet with a force of one pound will draw the pulley blocks one foot closer together, raising the load by one foot. The tension on the rope will be the same throughout its length, so that the five sections of the rope between the pulleys, together provide a combined lifting force of five pounds on the lower block. Thus the affect on the load is that the mechanism multiplies the force applied by five but divides the distance moved by five.
Similarly, Archimedes was familiar with gearing, which had been mentioned in the writings of Aristotle about wheel drives and windlasses around 330 B.C., and was able to calculate the mechanical advantage provided by the geared mechanisms of simple spur gears. Archimedes is however credited with the invention of the worm gear which not only provided much higher mechanical advantage, it also had the added advantage that the "worm", actually a helical screw, could easily rotate the gear wheel but the gear wheel could not easily, if at all, rotate the worm. This gave the mechanism a ratchet like, or braking, property such that heavy loads would not slip back if the input force was relaxed.
It is said that he invented a screw pump, known after him as the Archimedes' Screw, for raising water by means of a hollow wooden pipe containing a close fitting wooden, helical screw on a long shaft turned by a handle at one end. When the other end was placed in the water to be raised and the handle turned, water was carried up the tube by the screw and out at the top. However such devices probably predated Archimedes and were possibly used in the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The Archimedes' Screw is still used today as a method of irrigation in some developing countries.
He also designed winches, windlasses and military machines including catapults, trebuchets and siege engines.
It is claimed by some that Archimedes invented the odometer but this is more likely to be the work of Vitruvius who described its working details.
Fanciful claims have also been made that he designed gear mechanisms for moving extremely heavy loads, an Iron Claw to lift ships out of the water causing them to break up and a Death Ray to set approaching ships on fire. See more about these claims below.
Archimedes' Mathematics
While Archimedes was famous for his inventions, his mathematical writings were equally important but less well known in antiquity. Mathematicians from Alexandria read and quoted him, but the first comprehensive compilation of his work was not made until Circa. 530 A.D. by Isidore of Miletus.
Archimedes was able to use infinitesimals in a way that is similar to modern integral calculus. Through proof by contradiction (reductio ad absurdum), he could give answers to problems to an arbitrary degree of accuracy, while specifying the limits within which the answer lay.
Though mathematicians had been aware for many years that the ratio π between the circumference and the diameter of a circle was a constant, there were wide variations in the estimations of its magnitude. Archimedes calculated its value to be 3.1418, the first reasonably accurate value of this constant.
He did it by using the method of exhaustion to calculate the circumference of a circle rather than the area and by dividing the circumference by the diameter he obtained the value of π. First he drew a regular hexagon inside a circle and computed the length of its perimeter. Then he improved the accuracy by progressively increasing the number of sides of the polygon and calculating the perimeter of the new polygon with each step. As the number of sides increases, it becomes a more accurate approximation of a circle. At the same time, by circumscribing the circle with a series of polygons outside of the circle, he was able to determine an upper limit for the perimeter of the circle. He found that with a 96 sided polygon the lower and upper limits of π calculated by his method were given by:
223/71 < π < 22/7
In modern decimal notation this converts to:
3.1408 < π < 3.1428
The value of π calculated by Archimedes is given by the average between the two limits and this is 3.1418 which is within 0.0002 of its true value of 3.1416.
More generally, Archimedes calculated the area under a curve by imagining it as a series of very thin rectangles and proving that the sum of the areas of all the rectangles gave a very close approximation to the area under the curve. Using the method of exhaustion he showed that the approximation was neither greater nor smaller than the area of the figure under consideration and therefore it must be equal to the true area. He was thus able to calculate the areas and volumes of different shapes and solids with curved sides. This method anticipated the methods of integral calculus introduced nearly 2000 years later by Gregory, Newton and Leibniz.
He was also able to calculate the sum of a geometric progression.
He proved that the area of a circle was equal to π multiplied by the square of the radius of the circle (πr2) and that the volume and surface area of sphere are 2/3 of a cylinder with the same height and diameter.
Thus he showed that the surface area A of a sphere with radius r is given by: A = 4 π r2 and the volume V of a sphere with radius r is given by: V = 4/3π r3 which he regarded as one of his proudest achievements.
He also developed fundamental theorems concerning the determination of the centre of gravity of plane figures.
In an attempt to calculate how many grains of sand it would take to fill the Universe, Archimedes devised a number system which he called the Sand Reckoner to represent the very large numbers involved. Based on the largest number then in use called the myriad equal to 10,000 he used the concept of a myriad-myriads equal to 108. He called the numbers up to 108 "first numbers" and called 108 itself the "unit of the second numbers". Multiples of this unit then became the second numbers, up to this unit taken a myriad-myriad times, 108·108=1016. This became the "unit of the third numbers", whose multiples were the third numbers, and so on so that the largest number became (108) raised to the power (108) which in turn is raised to the power (108).
Myths and Reality
As with many great men of antiquity, few if any, contemporary records of Archimedes works remain and his reputation has been embellished by historians writing about him many years after his death, or trashed by artists, ignorant of the scientific principles involved, attempting to illustrate his ideas. This is probably the case with four of the oft quoted anecdotes about his work.
It is claimed that Archimedes used a mirror or mirrors on the shore to focus the Sun's rays, the so called Death Rays onto attacking ships to destroy them by setting them on fire. (The Greeks had much more practical incendiary missiles available to them at the time and catapults to throw them long distances)
Similarly it is reported that Archimedes used his compound pulley system connected to an Iron Claw suspended from a beam to lift the prows of attacking ships out of the water causing them to break up or capsize and sink. (The ships would have to be almost on the beach, directly in front of the defensive claw, to be in range of these machines.)
He was also familiar with geared mechanisms and it was claimed by third century historian, Athenaeus, that Archimedes' systems of winches and pulleys would enable a few men to launch a huge boat into the sea or to carry it on land. These mechanisms were illustrated by Gian Maria Mazzucchelli in his 1737 biography of Archimedes. It is quite clear from the drawings that the wooden gear wheels would have been unable to transmit the power required and the tensile strength of the ropes employed is also questionable.
Over the years, in the absence of written records, other artists and illustrators have tried to depict Archimedes devices and mechanisms. Examples of how the artists have imagined these devices are shown in the page about Archimedes' Machines
The most widely known anecdote about Archimedes is the Eureka story told two centuries later by the Roman architect and engineer Vitruvius. According to Vitruvius, King Hieron II had supplied a pure gold ingot to a goldsmith charged with making a new crown. The new crown when delivered weighed the same as the ingot supplied but the King wanted Archimedes to determine whether the goldsmith had adulterated the gold by substituting a portion of silver. Archimedes was aware that silver is less dense than gold so he would be able to to determine whether some of the gold had been replaced by silver by checking the density. He had a balance to check the weight, but how could he determine the volume of an intricately designed crown without melting it down or otherwise damaging it?
While taking a bath, he noticed that the level of the water in the tub rose as he got in, and realised that this effect could be used to determine the volume of the crown. By immersing the crown in water, the volume of water displaced would equal the volume of the crown. If any of the gold had been replaced by silver or any other less dense metal, then the crown would displace more water than a similar weight of pure gold. EUREKA!!!. It was reported that Archimedes then took to the streets naked, so excited by his discovery that he had forgotten to dress, crying "Eureka!" (Greek: meaning "I have found it!").
The test was conducted successfully, proving that silver had indeed been mixed in. There is no record of what happened to the goldsmith. It is claimed today that the change in volume would probably have been so small as to be undetectable by the apparatus available to Archimedes at the time.
There is no question however that he devised a method of measuring the volume of irregularly shaped objects and also understood the principle of buoyancy and its use for comparing the density of the materials used in different objects, but the story of him running naked through the streets is probably apocryphal.
All of these stories probably contain a major element of truth and it would not be surprising that Archimedes was well aware of, and had publicised, the theoretical possibilities involved in these schemes, but whether they could have actually been successfully implemented with the available technology and materials of the day is open to question. The principles were correct but the scale and effectiveness of the devices described in biographies written hundreds of years later was doubtful. There is unfortunately no corroborating evidence to back up these later descriptions of the military exploits. If the naval siege defences had been so successful, why would they not have been subsequently adopted as standard practice and why did they not appear in historical accounts of the battles?
Death of Archimedes
By 215 B.C. Hostilities between Carthage and Rome flared up once more in the second Punic War and in 214 B.C. and Syracuse sided once more with the Carthaginians and so came under siege by the Romans under General Marcus Claudius Marcellus. Archimedes skills in designing military machines and mechanical devices were well known, even to the Romans, and were called upon in the defence of Syracuse during these hostilities.
Greek historian Plutarch (C. 46 – 120 A.D.) gave two accounts of Archimedes' death in 212 B.C. when Roman forces eventually captured the city after a two year siege. The first describes how Archimedes was contemplating a mathematical problem on a diagram he had drawn in the dust on the ground when he was approached by a Roman soldier who commanded him to come and meet General Marcellus who considered the great inventor to be a valuable scientific asset who should not be harmed. But Archimedes declined, saying that he had to finish working on the problem. The soldier was enraged by this, and ran him through with his sword, much to the annoyance of Marcellus.
The second account explains that Archimedes was killed by a soldier while attempting to rob him of his valuable mathematical instruments.
Recent examination of all the accounts by both Carthaginian and Roman historians of the details of Archimedes' death have however reached a different conclusion. As we know, history is often written by the winners. The counter view is that Archimedes' death was the state-sponsored assassination of an enemy of Rome, a key player, whose inventions were vital to the defence of Syracuse. The nations were at war. Why would Archimedes be so oblivious to the danger he was in? Marcellus' feigned sorrow and anger after the event were a cover for his guilt at ordering the death of the World's greatest scientist at the time.
250 B.C. The Baghdad Battery - In 1936 several unusual earthenware jars, dating from about 250 B.C., were unearthed during archeological excavations at Khujut Rabu near Baghdad. A typical jar was 130 mm (5-1/2 inches) high and contained a copper cylinder, the bottom of which was capped by a copper disk and sealed with bitumen or asphalt. An iron rod was suspended from an asphalt stopper at the top of the copper cylinder into the centre of the cylinder. The rod showed evidence of having been corroded with an acidic agent such as wine or vinegar. 250 BC corresponds to the Parthian occupation of Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq) and t jars were held in Iraq's State Museum in Baghdad. (Baghdad was not founded until 762 A.D.) 1938 they were examined by German archeologist Wilhelm König who concluded that they were Galvanic cells or batteries supposedly used for gilding silver by electroplating. A mysterious anachronism. Backing up his claim, König also found copper vases plated with silver dating from earlier periods in the Baghdad Museum and other evidence of (electro?)plated articles from Egypt. Since then, several replica batteries have been made using various electrolytes including copper sulphate and grape juice generating voltages from half a Volt to over one Volt and they have successfully been used to demonstrate the electroplating of silver with gold. One further, more recent, suggestion by Paul T. Keyser a specialist in Neat Eastern Studies from the University of Alberta is that the galvanic cells were used for analgesia. There is evidence that electric eels had been used to numb an area of pain, but quite how that worked with such a low voltage battery is not explained. Apart from that, no other compelling explanation of the purpose of these artifacts has been proposed and the enigma still remains.
Despite warnings about the safety of these priceless articles before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, they were plundered from the museum during the war and their whereabouts is now unknown.
A nice and oft repeated story but there is a counter view about their purpose.
The Parthians were nomadic a nomadic tribe of skilled warriors and not noted for their scientific achievements. The importance of such an unusual electrical phenomenon seems to have gone completely unrecorded within the Parthian and contemporary cultures and then to have been completely forgotten despite extensive historical records from the period.
There are also some features about the artifacts themselves which do not support the battery theory. The asphalt completely covers the copper cylinder, electrically insulating it so that no current could be drawn without modifying the design and no wires, conductors, or any other sort of electrical equipment associated with the artifacts have been found. Furthermore the asphalt seal forms a perfect seal for preventing leakage of the electrolyte but it would be extremely inconvenient for a primary galvanic cell which would require frequent replacement of the electrolyte. As an alternative explanation for these objects, it has been noted that they resemble storage vessels for sacred scrolls. It would not be at all surprising if any papyrus or parchment inside had completely rotted away, perhaps leaving a trace of slightly acidic organic residue.
240 B.C. Greek mathematician Eratosthenes(276-194 B.C.) of Cyrene (now called Shahhat, Libya), the third chief librarian at the Library of Alexandria and contemporary of Archimedes calculated the Circumference of the Earth. Considering the tools and knowledge available at the time, Eratosthenes results are truly brilliant. Equipped with only a stick, he did not even need to leave Alexandria to make this remarkable breakthrough. Not only did he know that the Earth was spherical, 1700 years before Columbus was born, he also knew how big it was to an accuracy within 1.5%. See Eratosthenes Method and Calculation.
He invented the discipline of geography including the terminology still used today and created the first map of the world incorporating parallels and meridians, (latitudes and longitudes) based on the available geographical knowledge of the era. He was also the first to calculate the tilt of the Earth's axis (again with remarkable accuracy) and he deduced that the calendar year was 365 1/4 days long and was first to suggest that every four years there should be a leap year of 366 days.
Eratosthenes also devised a way of finding prime numbers known as the sieve. Instead of using trial division to sequentially test each candidate number for divisibility by each prime which is a very slow process, his system marks as composite (i.e. not prime) the multiples of each prime, starting with the multiples of 2, then 3 and continues this iteratively so that they can be separated out. The multiples of a given prime are generated as a sequence of numbers starting from that prime, with constant difference between them which is equal to that prime.
220-206 B.C. The magnetic compass was invented by the Chinese during the Qin (Chin) Dynasty, named after China's first emperor Qin Shi Huang di, the man who built the wall. It was used by imperial magicians mostly for geomancy (Feng Shui and fortune telling) but the "Mighty Qin's" military commanders were supposed to be the first to use a lodestone as a compass for navigation. Chinese compasses point south.
206 B.C. - 220 A.D. During the Han Dynasty, Chinese historian Ban Gu recorded in his Book of Han the existence of pools of "combustible water", most likely petroleum, in what is now China's Shaanxi province. During the same period, in Szechuan province, natural gas was also recovered from what they called "fire wells" by deep drilling up to several hundred feet using percussion drills with cast iron bits. These fuels were used for domestic heating and for extracting metals from their ores (pyrometallurgy), for breaking up rocks as well as for military incendiary weapons. The heavy oil was also distilled to produce paraffin (kerosene) for use in decorative oil lamps from the period which have been discovered.
Percussion drilling involves punching a hole into the ground by repeatedly raising and dropping a heavy chisel shaped tool bit into the bore hole to shatter the rock into small pieces which can be removed. The drill bit is raised by a cable and pulley system suspended from the top of a wooden tower called a derrick.
The fuels were later named in Chinese as shíyóu rock oil by Shen Kuo just as the word petroleum is derived from the latin petra rock and oleum oil.
It was over 2000 years before the first oil well was drilled by Edwin Drake in the USA and he used the same percussion drilling method as the Chinese.
140 - 87 B.C. Paper was first produced in China in the second century B.C.. Made by pounding and disintegrated hemp fibres, rags and other plant fibres in water followed by drying on a flat mould, the paper was thick and coarse and surprisingly it was not used for writing but for clothing, wrapping, padding and personal hygiene. The oldest surviving piece of paper was found in a tomb near Xian and dates from between 140 B.C. to 87 B.C. and is inscribed with a map.
The first paper found with writing on it was discovered in the ruins of an ancient watch tower and dates from 105 A.D. The development of this finer paper suitable for writing is attributed to Cai Lun, a eunuch in the Imperial court during the Han dynasty (202 B.C. - A.D. 220).
Paper was an inexpensive new medium which provided a simple means of communicating accurately with others who were not present without the danger of "Chinese whispers" corrupting the message, but more importantly, it enabled knowledge to be spread to a wider population or recorded for use by future generations. A simple invention which, like the printing press, brought enormous benefits to society.
27 B.C. - 5th Century A.D. The Roman Empire. The Romans were great plumbers but poor electricians.
The Romans were deservedly renowned for their civil engineering - buildings, roads, bridges, aqueducts, central heating and baths. Surprisingly however, in 500 years, they didn't advance significantly on the legacies of mathematics and scientific theories left to them by the Greeks. Fortunately, the works of the Greek philosophers and mathematicians were preserved by Arab scholars who translated them into Arabic.
Circa 15 B.C. Some time between 27 B.C and 15 B.C. Roman architect and military engineer, Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, completed "De Architectura" or "On Architecture: The Ten Books on Architecture". It is a comprehensive manual for architects covering the principles of architecture, education and training, town planning, environment, structures, building materials and construction methods, design requirements for buildings intended for different purposes, proportions, decorative styles, plans for houses, heating, acoustics, pigments, hydraulics, astronomy and a ranges of machinery and instruments.
His philosophies about architecture are summed up in the Vitruvian Virtues that a structure must exhibit the three qualities of firmitas, utilitas, venustas - meaning that it must be solid, useful and beautiful.
Included in Book 10 of the study are designs for military and hydraulic machines, including pulleys and hoists and designs for trebuchets, water wheels and armoured vehicles which have had an undeniable influence on the inventions of Leonardo da Vinci. See more about Vitruvius water wheels.
Amongst Vitruvius' designs are instructions for the design of an odometer which he called a "hodometer". It consisted of a cart with a separate, large wheel of known circumference mounted in a frame. The large wheel was connected through the intermediate gear wheel of a reduction gear mechanism to a horizontal disk with a series of holes around its rim each containing a small pebble. A single hole in the housing of the horizontal disk allowed a pebble to fall through into a container below when it arrived above the hole. As the cart was pushed along the ground, one pebble would fall into the container for each revolution of the intermediate gear wheel. The distance traveled could be calculated by counting the number of pebbles in the container and multiplying by the circumference of the large wheel and the gear ratio. Vitruvius also proposed a marine version of his device in which the distance was calculated from the rotation of paddles.
There are some who attribute the design of the odometer to Archimedes, but there is no strong evidence to support this.
Unfortunately none of the original illustrations from "De Architectura" have survived. Nevertheless the books have deeply influenced classical architects from the Renaissance through to the twentieth century. He was perhaps a little too influential though, through no fault of his own, since his style was so sublime that it captured public taste, stifling further innovation and generations of architects merely copied his ideas rather than developing alternative styles of their own.
Vitruvius has been called the world's first engineer to be known by name.
1 B.C.
Circa 50 A.D. In the first century A.D. several spectacular aqueducts were built by Roman Engineers and though many of them are still standing and in some cases still in use, there are unfortunately no records of who actually designed and built them. Two which stand out are the Pont du Gard near Nimes in France, the other at Segovia in Spain.
(See pictures of these two Roman Aqueducts)
In the absence of records the design and construction of the Pont du Gard has been attributed to Marcus Agrippa, the adopted son-in-law of Emperor Augustus at around the year 19 B.C. However recent excavations and coins depicting the Emperor Claudius (41-54 A.D.) found at the site suggest that the construction may have taken place between 40 and 60 A.D. The aqueduct supplied Nimes with water and is nearly 30 miles (50 kilometres) long. The section over the river Gard has arches at three levels and is 900 feet (275 metres) long and 160 feet (49 metres) high. The top level contains a channel 6 feet (1.8 metres) high and 4 feet (1.2 metres) wide with a gradient of 0.4 per cent to carry the water. The bottom level carries a roadway. The three levels were built in dressed stone without mortar.
Some researchers have estimated that the Segovia aqueduct was started in the second half of the 1st Century A.D. and completed in the early years of the 2nd Century, during the reign of either Emperor Vespasian (69-79 A.D.) or Nerva (96-98 A.D.). Others have suggested it was started under Emperor Domitian (81-96 A.D.) and probably completed under Trajan (98-117 A.D.). The aqueduct brought water to Segovia from the Frio River 10 miles (16 km) away. Its maximum height is 93 ft 6 in (28.5 metres), including nearly 19 ft 8 in (6 metres) of foundations and it is constructed from 44 double arches, 75 single arches and another four single arches giving a total of 167 arches. The bridge section of the aqueduct is 2240 feet (683 meters) long and changes direction several times. Like the Pont du Gard, it was built from dressed stone without mortar.
Circa 60 A.D. Greek mathematician Hero of Alexandria conceived the idea of a reaction turbine though he didn't call it that. He called it an Aeolipile (Aeolus - Greek God of the Wind) (Pila Latin - Ball) or the Sphere of Aeolus. It was a hollow sphere containing a small amount of water, free to rotate between two pivot points. When heated over a flame the steam from the boiling water escaped through two tangential nozzles in jets which caused the sphere to rotate at high speed. See diagram of Hero's Aeolipile.
Alternative designs show the water boiled in a separate chamber being fed through a hollow pipe into the sphere through one of the pivots.
It has been suggested that this device was used by priests to perform useful work such as opening temple doors and moving statues to impress gullible worshippers but no physical evidence remains and these ideas were never developed and the aeolipile remained as a toy.
Hero is also credited as being the first to propose a formal way of calculating square roots.
See more about Reaction Turbines.
See more about Steam Engines
150 A.D. Some time between 150 A.D. and 160 A.D. Greek astronomer and mathematician Claudius Ptolemaeus, Ptolemy a Roman citizen of Alexandria, (not one of the Ptolomaic Kings) published the Almagest "The Great Book". In it he summarised the all known information about astronomy and the mathematics which supported the theories. For over a thousand years it was the accepted explanation of the workings of the Universe. Unfortunately it was based on a geocentric model with uniform circular motions of the Sun and planets around the Earth. Where this ideal motion did not fit the observed movements, the anomalies were explained by the concept of equants with the planets moving in smaller epicyclic orbits superimposed on the major orbit. It was not until Copernicus came along 1400 years later that Ptolemy's theory was seriously challenged. The Almagest was however a major source of information about Greek trigonometry.
In a similar vein to the Almagest, Ptolemy also published Geographia which summarised all that was known at the time about the World's geography as well as the projections used to create more accurate maps.
200 Greek philosopher Claudius Galen from Pergamum, Asia Minor, physician to five Roman emperors and surgeon to the Roman gladiators, was the first of many to claim therapeutic powers of magnets and to use them in his treatments. Galen carried out controlled experiments to support his theories and was the first to conclude that mental actively occurred in the brain rather than the heart, as Aristotle had suggested. Like many ancient philosophers his authority was virtually undisputed for many years after his death, thus discouraging original investigation and hampering medical progress until the 16th century.
But see Vesalius.
400 Greek scholar Hypatia of Alexandria took up her position as head of the Platonist school at the great Library of Alexandria, (in the period between its third and its fourth and final sacking), where she taught mathematics, astronomy and philosophy. The first recorded woman in science, she is considered to be the inventor of the hydrometer, called the aerometer by the Greeks. Claims that she also invented the planar astrolabe are probably not true since there is evidence that the astrolabe dates from 200 years earlier, but her mathematician father Theon of Alexandria had written a treatise on the device and she no doubt lectured about its use for calculating the positions of the Sun, Moon and stars.
Hypatia still held pagan beliefs at a time when the influence of Christianity was beginning to grow and unfortunately her science teachings were equated with the promotion of paganism. In 415 she was attacked by a Christian mob who stripped her, dragged her through the streets, killed her and cut her to pieces using oyster shells. Judging from her appearance as depicted by Victorian artists, it's no surprise that the local monks were outraged. See Hypatia 1885 by Charles William Mitchell.
426 Electric and magnetic phenomena were investigated by St Augustine who is said to have been "thunderstruck" on witnessing a magnet lift a chain of rings. In his book "City of God" he uses the example of magnetic phenomena to defend the idea of miracles. Magnetism could not be explained but it manifestly existed, so miracles should not be dismissed just because they could not be explained.
619 In 1999, archaeologists at Nendrum on Mahee Island in Ireland investigating what they thought to be a stone tidal pond used for catching fish uncovered two stone built tidal mills with a millstones and paddle blades dating from 619 AD and 787 AD. Several tidal mills were built during the Roman occupation of England for grinding grain and corn. They operated by storing water behind a dam during high tide, and letting it out to power the mill after the tide had receded and were the forerunners of the modern schemes for capturing tidal energy.
645 Xuan Zhuang the great apostle of Chinese Buddhism returned to China from India with Buddhist images and more than 650 Sanskrit Buddhist scriptures which were reproduced in large quantities giving impetus to the refinement of traditional methods of printing using stencils and inked squeezes first used by the Egyptians. A pattern of rows of tiny dots was made in a sheet of paper which was pressed down on top of a blank sheet and ink was forced through the holes. Later stencils developed by the Chinese and Japanese used human hair or silk thread to tie delicate isolated parts into the general pattern but there was no fabric backing to hold the whole image together. The stencil image was printed using a large soft brush, which did not damage the delicate paper pattern or the fine ties. These printing techniques of composite inked squeezes and stencils foreshadowed modern silk screen printing which was not patented until 1907.
700 - 1100 Islamic Science During Roman times, the flame of Greek science was maintained by Arab scholars who translated Greek scientific works into Arabic. From 700 A.D. however, when most of Europe was still in the Dark Ages, scientific developments were carried forward on a broad front by the Muslim world with advances in astronomy, mathematics, physics, chemistry and medicine. Chemistry (Arabic Al Khimiya "pour together", "weld") was indeed the invention of the Muslims who carried out pioneering work over three centuries putting chemistry to practical uses in the refinement of metals, dyeing, glass making and medicine. In those days the notion of alchemy also included what we would today call chemistry. Among the many notable muslim scientists from this period were Jabir Ibn Haiyan, Al-Khawarizmi and Al-Razi.
By the tenth century however, according to historian Toby Huff, the preeminence of Islamic science began to wane. It had flourished in the previous three centuries while Muslims were in the minority in the Islamic regions however, starting in the tenth century, widespread conversion to Islam took place and as the influence of Islam increased, so the tolerance of alternative educational and professional institutions and the radical ideas of freethinkers decreased. They were dealt a further blow in 1485, thirty five years after the invention of the printing press, when the Ottoman Sultan Byazid II issued an order forbidding the printing of Arabic letters by machines. Arabic texts had to be translated into Latin for publication and this no doubt hampered both the spread of Islamic science and ideas as well as the influence of the outside world on the Islamic community. This prohibition of printing was strictly enforced by subsequent Ottoman rulers until 1728 when the first printing press was established in Istanbul but due to objections on religious grounds it closed down in 1742 and the first Koran was not printed in Istanbul until 1875. Meanwhile in 1734 Deacon Abdalla Zakhir of the Greek Catholic Maronite Monastery of Saint John Sabigh in the Lebanon managed to establish the first independent Arabic printing press.
Islam was not alone in banning the dissemination of subversive or inconvenient ideas. Henry VIII in 1529, aware of the power of the press, became the first monarch to publish a list of banned books though he did not go so far as banning printing. He was later joined by others. In 1632 Galileo's book "Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems", in which he asserted that the Earth revolved around the Sun rather than the other way round, was placed by Pope Urban VIII on the index of banned books and Galileo was placed under house arrest. Despite these setbacks, European scientific institutions overcame the challenges by the church, taking over the flame carried by the Arabs and the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries became the age of Scientific Revolution in Europe.
776 Persian chemist Abu Musa Jabir Ibn Haiyan (721-815), also known as Geber, was the first to put chemistry on a scientific footing, laying great emphasis on the importance of formal experimentation. In the period around 776 A.D. he perfected the techniques of crystallisation, distillation, calcination, sublimation and evaporation and developed several instruments including the alembic (Arabic al-ambiq, "still") which simplified the process of distillation, for carrying them out. He isolated or prepared several chemical compounds for the first time, notably nitric, hydrochloric, citric and tartaric acids and published a series of books describing his work which were used as classic works on alchemy until the fourteenth century. Unfortunately the books were added to, under Geber's name, by various translators in the intervening period leading to some confusion about the extent of Geber's original work.
830 Around the year 830, Baghdad born mathematician Mohammad Bin Musa Al-Khawarizmi (770-840) published "The Compendium Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing" in which he introduced the principles of algebra (Arabic Al-jabr "the reduction" i.e. of complicated relationships to a simpler language of symbols) which he developed for solving linear and quadratic equations. He also introduced the decimal system of Hindu-Arabic numerals to Europe as well as the concept of zero, a mathematical device at the time unknown in Europe used to Roman numerals. Al-Khawarizmi also constructed trigonometric tables for calculating the sine functions. The word algorithm (algorizm) is named after him.
850 Historian of Chinese inventions, Joseph Needham, identified 850 as the date of the first appearance of what the Chinese called the "fire chemical" or what we would now call gunpowder. Around that year, a book attributed to Chinese alchemist Cheng Yin warns of the dangerous incendiary nature of mixtures containing saltpetre (potassium nitrate), and sulphur, both essential components of gunpowder. Such chemicals mixed with various other substances including carbonaceous materials and arsenic had been used in various concentrations by alchemists since around 300 A.D. when Ko Hung proposed these mixtures in recipes for transforming lead into gold and mercury into silver while others later used them in attempts to create a potion of immortality.
After Cheng Yin's warning, similar mixtures were soon developed to produce flares and fireworks as well as military ordnance including burning bombs and fuses to ignite flame throwers burning petrol (gasoline). The first example of a primitive gun called a "fire arrow" appeared in 905, and in 994, arrows tipped with burning "fire chemicals" were used to besiege the city of Tzu-t'ung.
Most of these military applications were merely incendiary devices rather than explosives since they did not yet contain enough saltpetre (75%) to detonate. It was not until 1040 that the full power of the saltpetre rich mixture was discovered and the first true formula for gunpowder was published by Tseng Kung-Liang. After that, true explosive devices were developed including cannon and hand grenades and land mines.
Around 1150 it was realised that an arrow could be made to fly without the need for a bow by attaching to the shaft, a bamboo tube packed with a burning gunpowder mix. This led to the development of the rocket which was born when larger projectiles were constructed from the bamboo sticks alone without the arrows. A text from around that time describes how the combustion efficiency and hence the rocket thrust could be improved by creating a cavity in the propellant along the centre line of the rocket tube to maximise the burning surface - a technique still used in solid fuelled rockets today.
In 1221 Chinese chronicler Chao Yu-Jung recorded the first use of bombs which we would recognise today, with cast iron casings packed with explosives, which created deadly flying shrapnel when they exploded. They were used to great effect by a special catapult unit in Genghis Khan's Mongol army and by the Chinese Jin forces to defeat their Song enemies in the 1226 siege of Kaifeng.
See more about Nobel and Explosives.
920 Around the year 920, Persian chemist Mohammad Ibn Zakariya Al-Razi (865-925), known in the West as Rhazes, carried on Geber's work and prepared sulphuric acid, the "work horse" of modern chemistry and a vital component in the world's most common battery. He also prepared ethanol, which was used for medicinal applications, and described how to prepare alkali (Al-Qali, the salt work ashes, potash) from oak ashes. Al-Razi published his work on alchemy in his "Book of Secrets". The precise amounts of the substances he specified in his recipes demonstrates an understanding of what we would now call stoichiometry.
Several more words for chemicals are derived from their Arabic roots including alcohol (Al Kuhl" "essence", usually referring to ethanol) as well as arsenic and borax.
1040 Thermoremanent magnetisation described in the Wu Ching Tsung Yao "Compendium of Military Technology" in China. Compass needles were made by heating a thin piece of iron, often in the shape of a fish, to a temperature above the Curie Point then cooling it in line with the Earth's magnetic field.
1041 Between 1041 and 1048 Chinese craftsman Pi Sheng produced the first printing press to use moveable type. Although his designs achieved widespread use in China, it was another four hundred years before the printing press was "invented" by Johann Gutenberg in Europe.
1086 During the Song Dynasty (960-1127), Chinese astronomer, cartographer and mathematician Shen Kuo, in his Dream Pool Essays, describes the compass and its use for navigation and cartography as well as China's petroleum extraction and Pi Sheng's printing technique.
1190 The magnetic compass "invented" in Europe 1400 years after the Chinese. Described for the first time in the west by a St Albans monk Alexander Neckam in his treatise De Naturis Rerum.
1250's Italian theologian St Thomas Aquinas stands up for the cause of "reason" reconciling the philosophy of Aristotle with Christian doctrine. Challenging Aristotle now became a challenge to the Church.
See also the Scientific Revolution
1269 Petrus Peregrinus de Marincourt, (Peter the Pilgrim) a French Crusader, used a compass to map the magnetic field of a lodestone. He discovered that a magnet had two magnetic poles, North and South and was the first to describe the phenomena of attraction and repulsion. He also speculated that these forces could be harnessed in a machine.
1285 The earliest record of a mechanical clock with an escapement or timing control mechanism is a reference to a payment to a clock keeper at (the original) St. Paul's in London. The invention of the verge and foliot escapement was an important breakthrough in measuring the passage of time allowing the development of mechanical timepieces.
The name verge comes from the Latin virga, meaning stick or rod. (See picture and explanation of the Verge Escapement)
The inventor of the verge escapement is not known but we know that it dates from 13th century Europe, where it was first used in large tower clocks which were built in town squares and cathedrals. The earliest recorded description of an escapement is in Richard of Wallingford's 1327 manuscript Tractatus Horologii Astronomici on the clock he built at the Abbey of St. Albans. It was not a verge, but a more complex variation.
For over 200 years the verge was the only escapement used in mechanical clocks until alternative escapements started to appear in the 16th century and it was 350 years before the more accurate pendulum clock was invented by Huygens.
1350 Around this time the first blast furnaces for smelting iron from its ore begin to appear in Europe, 1800 years after the Chinese were using the technique.
See more about Cast Iron and Steel.
1368-1644 China's Ming dynasty. When the Ming dynasty came into power, China was the most advanced nation on Earth. During the Dark Ages in Europe, China had already developed cast iron, the compass, gunpowder, rockets, paper, paper money, canals and locks, block printing and moveable type, porcelain, pasta and many other inventions centuries before they were "invented" by the Europeans. From the first century B.C. they had also been using deep drilling to extract petroleum from the underlying rocks. They were so far ahead of Europe that when Marco Polo described these wondrous inventions in 1295 on his return to Venice from China he was branded a liar. China's innovation was based on practical inventions founded on empirical studies, but their inventiveness seems to have deserted them during the Ming dynasty and subsequently during the Qing (Ching) dynasty (1644 - 1911). China never developed a theoretical science base and both the Western scientific and industrial revolutions passed China by. Why should this be?
It is said that the answer lies in Chinese culture, to some extent Confucianism but particularly Daoism (Taoism) whose teachings promoted harmony with nature whereas Western aspirations were the control of nature. However these conditions existed before the Ming when China's innovation led the world. A more likely explanation can be found in China's imperial political system in which a massive society was rigidly controlled by all-powerful emperors through a relatively small cadre of professional administrators (Mandarins) whose qualifications were narrowly based on their knowledge of Confucian ideals. If the emperor was interested in something, it happened, if he wasn't, it didn't happen.
The turning point in China's technological dominance came when the Ming emperor Xuande came to power in 1426. Admiral Zheng He, a muslim eunuch, castrated as a boy when the Chinese conquered his tribe, had recently completed an audacious voyage of exploration on behalf of a previous Ming emperor Yongle to assert China's control of all of the known world and to extract tributary from its intended subjects. But his new master considered the benefits did not justify the huge expense of Zheng's fleet of 62 enormous nine masted junks and 225 smaller supply ships with their 27,000 crew. The emperor mothballed the fleet and henceforth forbade the construction of any ships with more than two masts, curbing China's aspirations as a maritime power and putting an end to its expansionist goals, a xenophobic policy which has lasted until modern times.
The result was that during both the Ming and the Qing dynasties a succession of complacent, conservative emperors cocooned in prodigious, obscene wealth, remote even from their own subjects, lived in complete isolation and ignorance of the rest of the world. Foreign influences, new ideas, and an independent merchant class who sponsored them, threatened their power and were consequently suppressed. By contrast the West was populated by smaller, diverse and independent nations competing with each other. Merchant classes were encouraged and innovation flourished as each struggled to gain competitive or military advantage.
Times have changed. Currently China is producing two million graduates per year, sixty percent of which are in science and technology subjects, three times as many as in the USA.
After Japan, China is the second largest battery producer in the world and growing fast.
1450 German goldsmith and calligrapher Johann Genstleisch zum Gutenberg from Mainz invented the printing press, considered to be one of the most important inventions in human history. For the first time knowledge and ideas could be recorded and disseminated to a much wider public than had previously been possible using hand written texts and its use spread rapidly throughout Europe. Intellectual life was no longer the exclusive domain of the church and the court and an era of enlightenment was ushered in with science, literature, religious and political texts becoming available to the masses who in turn had the facility to publish their own views challenging the status quo. It was the ability to publish and spread one's ideas that enabled the Scientific Revolution to happen. Nowadays the Internet is bringing about a similar revolution.
Although it was new to Europe, the Chinese had already invented printing with moveable type four hundred years earlier but, because of China's isolation, these developments never reached Europe.
Gutenberg printed Bibles and supported himself by printing indulgences, slips of paper sold by the Catholic Church to secure remission of the temporal punishments in Purgatory for sins committed in this life. He was a poor businessman and made little money from his printing system and depended on subsidies from the Archbishop of Mainz. Because he spent what little money he had on alcohol, the Archbishop arranged for him to be paid in food and lodging, instead of cash. Gutenberg died penniless in 1468.
1474 The first patent law, a statute issued by the Republic of Venice, provided for the grant of exclusive rights for limited periods to the makers of inventions. It was a law designed more to protect the economy of the state than the rights of the inventor since, as the result of its declining naval power, Venice was changing its focus from trading to manufacturing. The Republic required to be informed of all new and inventive devices, once they had been put into practice, so that they could take action against potential infringers.
1478 After 10 years working as an apprentice and assistant to successful Florentine artist Andrea del Verrocchio at the court of Lorenzo de Medici in Florence, at the age of 26 Leonardo da Vinci left the studio and began to accept commissions on his own.
One of the most brilliant minds of the Italian Renaissance, Leonardo was hugely talented as an artist and sculptor but also immensely creative as an engineer, scientist and inventor. The fame of his surviving paintings has meant that he has been regarded primarily as an artist, but his scientific insights were far ahead of their time. He investigated anatomy, geology, botany, hydraulics, acoustics, optics, mathematics, meteorology, and mechanics and his inventions included military machines, flying machines, and numerous hydraulic and mechanical devices.
He lived in an age of political in-fighting and intrigue between the independent Italian states of Rome, Milan, Florence, Venice and Naples as well as lesser players Genoa, Siena, and Mantua ever threatening to degenerate into all out war, in addition to threats of invasion from France. In those turbulent times da Vinci produced a series of drawings depicting possible weapons of war during his first two years as an independent. Thus began a lifelong fascination with military machines and mechanical devices which became an important part of his expanding portfolio and the basis for many of his offers to potential patrons, the heads of these belligerent, or fearful, independent states.
Despite his continuing interest in war machines, he claimed he was not a war monger and he recorded several times in his notebooks his discomfort with designing killing machines. Nevertheless, he actively solicited such commissions because by then he had his own pupils and needed the money to pay them.
Most of Leonardo's designs were not constructed in his lifetime and we only know about them through the many models he made but mostly from the 13,000 pages of notes and diagrams he made in which he recorded his scientific observations and sketched ideas for future paintings, architecture, and inventions. Unlike academics today who rush into publication, he never published any of his scientific works, fearing that others would steal his ideas. Patent law was still in its infancy and difficult, if not impossible, to enforce. Such was his paranoia about plagiarism that he even wrote all of his notes, back to front, in mirror writing, sometimes also in code, so he could keep his ideas private. He was not however concerned about keeping the notes secret after his death and in his will he left all his manuscripts, drawings, instruments and tools to his loyal pupil, Francesco Melzi with no objection to their publication. Melzi expected to catalogue and publish all of Leonardo's works but he was overwhelmed by the task, even with the help of two full-time scribes, and left only one incomplete volume, "Trattato della Pintura" or "Treatise on Painting", about Leonardo's paintings before he himself died in 1570. On his death the notes were inherited by his son Orazio who had no particular interest in the works and eventually sections of the notes were sold off piecemeal to treasure seekers and private collectors who were interested more in Leonardo's art rather than his science.
Because of his secrecy, his contemporaries knew nothing of his scientific works which consequently had no influence on the scientific revolution which was just beginning to stir. It was about two centuries before the public and the scientific community began gradually to get access to Leonardo's scientific notes when some collectors belatedly allowed them to be published or when they ended up on public display in museums where they became the inspiration for generations of inventors. Unfortunately, only 7000 pages are known to survive and over 6000 pages of these priceless notebooks have been lost forever. Who knows what wisdom they may have contained?
Leonardo da Vinci is now remembered as both "Leonardo the Artist" and "Leonardo the Scientist" but perhaps "Leonardo the Inventor" would be more apt as we shall see below.
Leonardo the Artist
It would not do justice to Leonardo to mention only his scientific achievements without mentioning his talent as a painter. His true genius was not as a scientist or an artist, but as a combination of the two: an "artist-engineer".
He did not sign his paintings and only 24 of his paintings are known to exist plus a further 6 paintings whose authentication is disputed. He did however make hundreds of drawings most of which were contained in his copious notes.
The "Treatise on Painting"
This was the volume of Leonardo's manuscripts transcribed and compiled by Melzi. The engravings needed for reproducing Leonardo's original drawings were made by another famous painter, Nicolas Poussin. As the title suggests it was intended as technical manual for artists however it does contain some scientific notes about light, shade and optics in so far as they affect art and painting. For the same reason it also contains a small section of Leonardo's scientific works about anatomy. The publication of this volume in 1651 was the first time examples of the contents of Leonardo's notebooks were revealed to the world but it was 132 years after his death. The full range of his "known" scientific work was only made public little by little many years later.
Leonardo was one of the world's greatest artists, the few paintings he made were unsurpassed and his draughtsmanship had a photographic quality. Just seven examples of his well known artworks are mentioned here.
The "Adoration of the Magi" painted in 1481.
The "Virgin of the Rocks" painted in 1483.
"The Last Supper" a large mural 29 feet long by 15 feet high (8.8 m x 4.6 m) started in 1495 which took him three years to complete.
The "Mona Lisa" (La Gioconda) painted in 1503.
"John the Baptist" painted in 1515.
The "Vitruvian Man" as described by the Roman architect Vitruvius was drawn in 1490, showing the correlation between the proportions of the ideal human body with geometry, linking art and science in a single work.
Illustrations for mathematician Fra Luca Pacioli's book "De divina proportione" (The Divine Proportion), drawn in 1496. See more about The Divine Proportion.
Leonardo the Scientist
The following are some examples of the extraordinary breadth of da Vinci's scientific works
Military Machines
After serving his apprenticeship with Verrocchio, Leonardo had a continuous flow of military commissions throughout his working life.
In 1481 he wrote to Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan with a detailed C. V. of his military engineering skills, offering his services as military engineer, architect and sculptor and was appointed by him the following year. In 1502 the ruthless and murderous Cesare Borgia, illegitimate son of Pope Alexander VI and seducer of his own younger sister (Lucrezia Borgia), appointed Leonardo as military engineer to his court where he became friends with Niccolo Machiavelli, Borgia's influential advisor. In 1507 some time after France had invaded and occupied Milan he accepted the post of painter and engineer to King Louis XII of France in Milan and finally in 1517 he moved to France at the invitation of King Francoise I to take up the post of First Painter, Engineer and Architect of the King. These commissions gave Leonardo ample scope to develop his interest in military machines.
Leonardo designed war machines for both offensive and defensive use. They were designed to provide mobility and flexibility on the battlefield which he believed was crucial to victory. He also designed machines to use gunpowder which was still in its infancy in the fifteenth century.
His military inventions included:
Mobile bridges including drawbridges and a swing bridge for crossing moats, ditches and rivers. His swing bridge was a cantilever design with a pivot on the river bank a counterweight to facilitate manoeuvring the span over the river. It also had wheels and a rope-and-pulley system which enabled easy transport and quick deployment.
Siege machines for storming walls.
Chariots with scythes mounted on the sides to cut down enemy troops.
A giant crossbow intended to fire large explosive projectiles several hundred yards.
Trebuchets - Very large catapults, based on releasing mechanical counterweights, for flinging heavy projectiles into enemy fortifications.
Bombards - Short barrelled, large-calibre, muzzle-loading, heavy siege cannon or mortars, fired by gunpowder and used for throwing heavy stone balls. The modern replacement for the trebuchet. Leonardo's design had adjustable elevation. He also envisaged exploding cannonballs, made up from several smaller stone cannonballs sewn into spherical leather sacks and designed to injure and kill many enemies at one time. We would now call these cluster bombs.
Springalds - Smaller, more versatile cannon, for throwing stones or Greek fire, with variable azimuth and elevation adjustment so that they could be aimed more precisely.
A series of guns and cannons with multiple barrels. The forerunners of machine guns.
They included a triple barrelled cannon and an eight barrelled gun with eight muskets mounted side by side as well as a 33 barrelled version with three banks of eleven muskets designed to enable one set of eleven guns to be fired while a second set cooled off and a third set was being reloaded. The banks were arranged in the form of a triangle with a shaft passing through the middle so that the banks could be rotated to bring the loaded set to the top where it could be fired again.
A four wheeled armoured tank with a heavy protective cover reinforced with metal plates similar to a turtle or tortoise shell with 36 large fixed cannons protruding from underneath. Inside a crew of eight men operating cranks geared to the wheels would drive the tank into battle. The drawing in Leonardo's notebook contains a curious flaw since the gearing would cause the front wheels to move in the opposite direction from the rear wheels. If the tank was built as drawn, it would have been unable to move. It is possible that this simple error would have escaped Leonardo's inventive mind but it is also suggested that like his coded notes, it was a deliberate fault introduced to confuse potential plagiarists. The idea that this armoured tank loaded with 36 heavy cannons in such a confined space could be both operated and manoeuvred by eight men is questionable.
Automatic igniting device for firearms.
Marine Warfare Machines and Devices
Leonardo also designed machines for naval warfare including:
Designs for a peddle driven paddle boat. The forerunner of the modern pedalo.
Hand flippers and floats for walking on water.
Diving suit to enable enemy vessels to be attacked from beneath the water's surface by divers cutting holes below the boat's water line. It consisted of a leather diving suit equipped with a bag-like helmet fitting over the diver's head. Air was supplied to the diver by means of two cane tubes attached to the headgear which led up to a cork diving bell floating on the surface.
A double hulled ship which could survive the exterior skin being pierced by ramming or underwater attack, a safety feature which was eventually adopted in the nineteenth century.
An armoured battleship similar to the armoured tank which could ram and sink enemy ships.
Barrage cannon - a large floating circular platform with 16 canons mounted around its periphery. It was powered and steered by two operators turning drive wheels geared to a large central drive wheel connected to paddles for propelling it through the water. Others operators fired the cannons.
Leonardo studied the flight of birds and after the legendary Icarus was one of the first to attempt to design human powered flying machines, recording his ideas in numerous drawings. A step up from Chinese kites.
His drawings included:
A design for a parachute. The world's first.
Various gliders
Designs for wings intended to carry a man aloft, similar to scaled up bat wings.
Human powered flying machines known as ornithopters, (from Greek ornithos "bird" and pteron "wing"), based on flapping wings operated by means of levers and cables.
A helical air screw with its central shaft powered by a circular human treadmill intended to lift off and fly like a modern helicopter.
Leonardo designed many civil works for his patrons and also the equipment to carry them out.
These included:
A crane for excavating canals, a dredger and lock gates designed with swinging gates rather than the lifting doors of the "portcullis" or "guillotine" designs which were typically used at the time. Leonardo's gates also contained smaller hatches to control the rate of filling the lock to avoid swamping the boats.
Water lifting devices based on the Archimedes screw and on water wheels
Water wheels for powering mechanical devices and machines.
Architecture: Leonardo made many designs for buildings, particularly cathedrals and military structures, but none of them were ever built.
When Milan, with a population of 200,000 living in crowded conditions, was beset by bubonic plague Leonardo set about designing an a more healthy and pleasant ideal city. It was to be built on two levels with the upper level reserved for the householders with living quarters for servants and facilities for deliveries on the lower level. The lower level would also be served by covered carriageways and canals for drainage and to carry away sewage while the residents of the upper layer would live in more tranquil, airy conditions above all this with pedestrian walkways and gardens connecting their buildings.
Leonardo produced a precision map of Imola, accurate to a few feet (about 1 m) based on measurements made with two variants of an odometer or what we would call today a surveyor's wheel which he designed and which he called a cyclometer. They were wheelbarrow-like carts with geared mechanisms on the axles to count the revolutions of the wheels from which the distance could be determined. He followed up with physical maps of other regions in Italy.
The following are examples of some of the tools and scientific instruments designed by da Vinci which were found in his notes.
Solar Heating - In 1515 when he worked at the Vatican, Leonardo designed a system of harnessing solar energy using a large concave mirror, constructed from several smaller mirrors soldered together, to focus the Sun's rays to heat water.
Improvements to the printing press to simplify its operation so that it could be operated by a single worker.
Anemometer - It consisted of a horizontal bar from which was suspended a rectangular piece of wood by means of a hinge. The horizontal bar was mounted on two curved supports on which a scale to measure the rotation of the suspended wood was marked. When the wind blew, the wood swung on its hinge within the frame and the extent of the rotation was noted on the scale which gave an indication of the force of the wind.
A 13 digit decimal counting machine - Based on a gear train and often incorrectly identified as a mechanical calculator.
Clock - Leonardo was one of the early users of springs rather than weights to drive the clock and to incorporate the fusée mechanism, a cone-shaped pulley with a helical groove around it which compensated for the diminishing force from the spring as it unwound. His design had two separate mechanisms, one for minutes and one for hours as well as an indication of phases of the moon.
He also designed numerous machines to facilitate manufacturing including a water powered mechanical saw, horizontal and vertical drilling machines, spring making machines, machines for grinding convex lenses, machines for grinding concave mirrors, file cutting machines, textile finishing machines, a device for making sequins, rope making machines, lifting hoists, gears, cranks and ball bearings.
Though drawings and models exist, the claim that Leonardo invented the bicycle is thought by many to be a hoax. The rigid frame had no steering mechanism and it is impossible to ride.
Theatrical Designs
Leonardo was often in demand for designing theatrical sets and decorations for carnivals and court weddings.
He also built automata in the form of robots or animated beasts whose lifelike movements were created by a series of springs, wires, cables and pulleys.
His self propelled cart, powered by a spring, was used to amaze theatre audiences.
He designed musical instruments including a lyre, a mechanical drum, and a viola organista with a keyboard. This latter instrument consisted of a series of strings each tuned to a different pitch. A bow in the form of a continuously rotating loop perpendicular to the strings was stretched between two pulleys mounted in front of the strings. The keys on the keyboard were each associated with a particular string and when a key was pressed a mechanism pushed the bow against the corresponding string to play the note.
As part of his training in Veroccio's studio, like any artist, Leonardo studied anatomy as an aid to figure drawing, however starting around 1487 and later with the doctor Marcantonio della Torre he made much more in depth studies of the body, its organs and how they function.
During his studies Leonardo had access to 30 corpses which he dissected, removing their skin, unravelling intestines and making over 200 accurate drawings their organs and body parts.
He made similar studies of other animals, dissecting cows, birds, monkeys, bears, and frogs, and comparing their anatomical structure with that of humans.
He also observed and tried to comprehend the workings of the cardiovascular, respiratory, digestive, reproductive and nervous systems and the brain without much success. He did however witness the killing of a pig during a visit to an abattoir. He noticed that when a skewer was thrust into its heart, that the beat of the heart coincided with the movement of blood into the main arteries. He understood the mechanism of the heart if not the function, predating by over 100 years, the conclusions of Harvey about its function.
Because the bulk of his work was not published for over 200 years, his observations could possibly have prompted an earlier advance in medical science had they been made available during his lifetime. At least his drawings provided a useful resource for future students of anatomy.
Scientific Writings
Leonardo had an insatiable curiosity about both nature and science and made extensive observations which were recorded in his notebooks.
They included:
Anatomy, biology, botany, hydraulics, mechanics, ballistics, optics, acoustics, geology, fossils
He did not however develop any new scientific theories or laws. Instead he used the knowledge gained from his observations to improve his skills as an artist and to invent a constant stream of useful machines and devices.
"Leonardo the Inventor"
Leonardo unquestionably had one of the greatest inventive minds of all time, but very few of his designs were ever constructed at the time. The reason normally given is that the technology didn't exist during his lifetime. With his skilled draughtsmanship, Leonardo's designs looked great on paper but in reality many of them would not actually work in practice, an essential criterion for any successful invention, and this has since been borne out by subsequent attempts to construct the devices as described in his plans. This should not however detract in any way from Leonardo's reputation as an inventor. His innovations were way ahead of their time, unique, wide ranging and based on sound engineering principles. What was missing was the science.
At least he had the benefits of Archimedes' knowledge of levers, pulleys and gears, all of which he used extensively, but that was the limit of available science.
Newton's Laws of Motion were not published until two centuries after Leonardo was working on his designs. The science of strength of materials was also unheard of until Newton's time when Hooke made some initial observations about stress and strain and there was certainly no data available to Leonardo about the engineering properties of materials such as tensile, compressive, bending and impact strength or air pressure and the densities of the air and other materials. Torricelli's studies on air pressure came about fifty years before Newton, and Bernoulli's theory of fluid flow, which describe the science behind aerodynamic lift, did not come till fifty 50 years after Newton. But, even if the science had existed, Leonardo lacked the mathematical skills to make the best of it.
So it's not surprising that Leonardo had to make a lot of assumptions. This did not so much affect the function of his mechanisms nor the operating principle on which they were based, rather it affected the scale and proportions of the components and the force or power needed to operate them. His armoured tank would have been immensely heavy and difficult to manoeuvre, and it's naval version would have sunk unless its buoyancy was improved. The wooden gears used would probably have been unable to transmit the enormous forces required to move these heavy vehicles. The repeated recoil forces on his multiple-barrelled guns may have shattered their mounts, and his flying machines were very flimsy with inadequate area of the wings as well as the level of human power needed to keep them aloft. So there was nothing fundamentally wrong with most of his designs and most of the shortcomings could have been overcome with iterative development and testing programmes to refine the designs. Unfortunately Leonardo never had that opportunity.
"Leonardo the Myths"
Leonardo was indeed a genius but his reputation has also been enhanced or distorted by uncritical praise. Speculation, rather than firm evidence, about the performance of some of the mechanisms mentioned in his notebooks and what may have been in the notebooks which have been lost, has incorrectly credited him with the invention of the telescope, mathematical calculating machines and the odometer to name just three examples.
Though he did experiment with optics and made drawings of lenses, he never mentioned in his notes, a telescope, or what he may have seen with it, so it is highly unlikely that he invented the telescope.
As for his so called calculating machine: It looked very similar to the calculator made by Pascal 150 years later but it was in fact just a counting machine since it did not have an accumulator to facilitate calculations by holding two numbers at a time in the machine as in Pascal's calculator.
Leonardo's "telescope" and "calculating machine" are examples of uninformed speculation from tantalising sketches made, without corresponding explanations, in his notes. Such speculation is based on the reasoning that, if one of his sketches or drawings "looks like" some more recent device or mechanism, then it "must be" or actually "is" an early example of such a device. Leonardo already had a well deserved reputation as a genius without this unnecessary gold plating.
Similarly regarding the odometer: The claim by some, though not by Leonardo himself, that he invented the odometer implies that he was the first to envisage the concept of an odometer. The odometer was in fact invented by Vitruvius 15 centuries earlier. Leonardo invented "an" odometer, not "the" odometer. Many inventions are simply improvements, alternatives or variations, of what went before. Without a knowledge of precedents, it is a mistake to extrapolate a specific case to a general conclusion. Leonardo's design was based on measuring the rotation of gear wheels, whereas Vitruvius' design was based on counting tokens. (Note that Vitruvius also mentions in his "Ten Books on Architecture", designs for trebuchets, water wheels and battering rams protected by mobile siege sheds or armoured vehicles which were called "tortoises".)
It is rare to find an invention which depends completely on a unique new concept and many perfectly good inventions are improvements or alternatives to prior art. This applies to some of Leonardo's inventions just as it does to the majority of inventions today. Nobody would (or should) claim that Leonardo invented the clock when his innovation was to incorporate a new mechanical movement into his own version of a clock, nor should they denigrate his actual invention.
It's a great pity that Leonardo kept his works secret and that they remained unseen for so many years after his death. How might technology have advanced if he had been willing to share his ideas, to explain them to his contemporaries and to benefit from their comments?
1492 Discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus showed that the Earth still held vast unknowns indirectly giving impetus to the scientific revolution.
1499 The first patent for an invention was granted by King Henry VI to Flemish-born John of Utynam for a method of making stained glass, required for the windows of Eton College giving John a 20-year monopoly. The Crown thus started making specific grants of privilege to favoured manufacturers and traders, signified by Letters Patent, open letters marked with the King's Great Seal.
The system was open to corruption and in 1623 the Statute of Monopolies was enacted to curb these abuses. It was a fundamental change to patent law which took away the rights of the Crown to create trading monopolies and guaranteed the inventor the legal right of patents instead of depending on the royal prerogative. So called patent law, or more generally intellectual property law, has undergone many changes since then to encompass new concepts such as copyrights and trademarks and is still evolving as and new technologies such as software and genetics demand new rules.
1500 to 1700 The Scientific Revolution and The Age of Reason
Up to the end of the sixteenth century there had been little change in the accepted scientific wisdom inherited from the Greeks and Romans. Indeed it had even been reinforced in the thirteenth century by St. Thomas Aquinas who proclaimed the unity of Aristotelian philosophy with the teachings of the church. The credibility of new scientific ideas was judged against the ancient authority of Aristotle, Galen, Ptolemy and others whose science was based on rational thought which was considered to be superior to experimentation and empirical methods. Challenging these conventional ideas was considered to be a challenge to the church and scientific progress was hampered accordingly.
In medieval times, the great mass of the population had no access to formal education let alone scientific knowledge. Their view of science could be summed up in the words of Arthur C. Clarke, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic".
Things began to change after 1500 when a few pioneering scientists discovered, and were able to prove, flaws in this ancient wisdom. Once this happened others began to question accepted scientific theories and devised experiments to validate their ideas. In the past, such challenges had been hampered by the lack of accurate measuring instruments which had limited the range of experiments that could be undertaken and it was only in the seventeenth century that instruments such as microscopes, telescopes, clocks with minute hands, accurate weighing equipment, thermometers and manometers started to become available. Experimenters were then able to develop new and more accurate measurement tools to run their experiments and to explore new scientific territories thus accelerating the growth of new scientific knowledge.
The printing press was the great catalyst in this process. Scientists could publish their work, thus reaching a much greater audience, but just as important, it gave others working in the field, access to the latest developments. It gave them the inspiration to explore these new scientific domains from a new perspective without having to go over ground already covered by others.
The increasing use of gunpowder also had its effect. Cannons and hand held weapons swept the aristocratic knight from the field of battle. Military advantage and power went to those with the most effective weapons and heads of state began to sponsor experimentation in order to gain that advantage.
Scientific method thus replaced rational thought as a basis for developing new scientific theories and over the next 200 years scientific theories and scientific institutions were transformed, laying the foundations on which the later Industrial Revolution depended.
Some pioneers are shown below.
(600 B.C.) Thales The original thinker, deprecated by Aristotle.
(300 B.C.) Euclid promoted the disciplines of proof, logic and deductive reasoning in mathematics.
(269 B.C.) Archimedes followed Euclid's disciplines and was the first to base engineering inventions on mathematical principles.
(1450) Johannes Gutenberg did not make any scientific breakthroughs but his printing press was one of the most important developments and essential prerequisites which made the scientific revolution possible. For the first time it became easy to record information and to disseminate knowledge making learning and scholarship available to the masses.
(1492) Christopher Columbus' discovery of the New World showed that the World still held vast unknowns sparking curiosity.
(1514) Nicolaus Copernicus challenged the accepted wisdom of Ptolemy which had reigned supreme for 1400 years, that the Earth was the centre of the Universe, and proposed instead that the Universe was centred on the Sun.
(1543) Andreas Vesalius showed that conventional theories about human anatomy, unquestioned since they were developed over 1300 years earlier by Galen, were incorrect.
(1576) Tycho Brahe made detailed astronomical measurements to enable predictions of planetary motion to be based on observations rather than logical deduction.
(1600) William Gilbert an early advocate of scientific method rather than rational thought.
(1605) Francis Bacon like Gilbert, a proponent of scientific method.
(1608) Hans Lippershey invented the telescope, thus providing the tools for much more accurate observations, and deeper understanding of the cosmos.
(1609) Johannes Kepler developed mathematical relationships, based on Brahe's measurements which enabled planetary movements to be predicted.
(1610) Galileo Galilei demonstrated that the Earth was not the centre of the Universe and in so doing, brought himself into serious conflict with the church.
(1628) William Harvey outlined the true function of the heart correcting misconceptions about the functions and flow of blood as well as classical myths about its purpose.
(1642) Pascal together with Fermat described chance and probability in mathematical terms, rather than fate or the will of the Gods.
(1643) Evangelista Torricelli's invention of the barometer led to an understanding of the properties of air.
(1644) René Descartes challenged Aristotle's logic based on rational thinking with his own mathematical logic and attempted to describe the whole universe in mathematical terms. He was still not convinced of the value of experimental method.
(1656) Christiaan Huygens invented the pendulum clock enabling scientific experiments to be supported by accurate time measurements for the first time.
(1660) The Royal Society was founded in London to encourage scientific discovery and experiment.
(1661) Robert Boyle introduced the concept of chemical elements based on empirical observations rather than Aristotle's logical earth, fire, water and air.
(1663) Otto von Guericke devised an experiment using his Magdeburg Spheres to disprove Aristotle's claim that a vacuum can not exist.
(1665) Robert Hooke invented the microscope which opened a window on the previously unseen microscopic world raising questions about life itself.
(1666) The French Académie des Sciences was founded in Paris.
(1668) Antonie van Leeuwenhoek expanded on Hooke's observations and established microbiology.
(1687) Isaac Newton derived a set of mathematical laws which provided the basis of a comprehensive understanding of the physical world.
(1700) The German Academy of Sciences was founded in Berlin.
The Age of Reason marked the triumph of evidence over dogma. Or did it? There remained one great mystery yet to be unravelled but it was another 200 years before it came up for serious consideration: The Origin of Species.
1514 Polish polymath and Catholic cleric, Nicolaus Copernicus mathematician, economist, physician, linguist, jurist, and accomplished statesman with astronomy as a hobby published and circulated to a small circle of friends, a preliminary draft manuscript in which he described his revolutionary idea of the heliocentric universe in which celestial bodies moved in circular motions around the Sun, challenging the notion of the geocentric universe. Such heresies were unthinkable at the time. They not only contradicted conventional wisdom that the World was the centre of the universe but worse still they undermined the story of creation, one of the fundamental beliefs of the Christian religion. Dangerous stuff!
It was not until around 1532 that Copernicus completed the work which he called De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium "On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres" but he still declined to publish it. Historians do not agree on whether this was because Copernicus was unsure that his observations and his calculations would be sufficiently robust enough to challenge Ptolemy's Almagest which had survived almost 1400 years of scrutiny or whether he feared the wrath of the church. Copernicus' model however was simpler than Ptolemy's geocentric model and matched more closely the observed motions of the planets. He eventually agreed to publish the work at the end of his life and the first printed copy was reportedly delivered to him on his deathbed, at the age of seventy, in 1543.
As it turned out, "De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium" was put on the Catholic church's index of prohibited books in 1616, as a result of Galileo's support for its revolutionary theory, and remained there until 1835.
One of the most important books ever written, De Revolutionibus' ideas ignited the Scientific Revolution (See above), but only about 300 or 400 were printed and it became known (recently) as "the book that nobody read".
1533 Frisian (now Netherlands) mathematician and cartographer Gemma Frisius proposed the idea of triangulation for surveying and producing maps. Because it was often inconvenient or difficult to measure large distances directly, he described how the distance to a distant target location could be determined locally, without actually going there, by using only angle measurements. By forming triangles to the target from reference points on a local baseline, and measuring the angles between the baseline and the lines between the reference points and the target at the vertex of the triangle, the distance to the target could be calculated using simple trigonometry. It was thus easier to survey the countryside and construct maps by dividing the area into triangles rather than squares. This method was first used in 600 B.C. by Greek philosopher Thales but was not yet commonly adopted. Triangulation is still used today in applications from surveying to celestial navigation.
In 1553 Frisius was also the first to describe how longitude could be determined by comparing local solar time with the time at some reference location provided by an accurate clock but no such clocks were available at the time.
1543 Belgian physician and professor at the University of Padua, Andries van Wesel, more commonly known as Vesalius published De Humani Corporis Fabrica (On the Structure of the Human Body), one of the most influential books on human anatomy. He carried out his research on the corpses of executed criminals and discovered that the research and conclusions published by the previous, undisputed authority on this subject, Galen, could not possibly have been based on an actual human body. Versalius was one of the first to rely on direct observations and scientific method rather than rational logic as practiced by the ancient philosophers and in so doing overturned 1300 years of conventional wisdom. Such challenges to long held theories marked the start of the Scientific Revolution.
1551 Damascus born Muslim polymath, Taqi al-Din, working in Egypt, described an impulse turbine used to drive a rotating spit over a fire. It was simply a jet of steam impinging on the blades of a paddle wheel mounted on the end of the spit. Like Hero's reaction turbine it was not developed at the time for use in more useful applications.
See more about Impulse Turbines.
1576 Danish astronomer and alchemist, Tycho Brahe, built an observatory where, with his assistant Johannes Kepler, he gathered data with the aim of constructing a set of tables for calculating the position of the planets for any date in the past or in the future. He lived before the invention of the telescope and his measurements were made with a cross staff, a simple mechanical device similar to a protractor used for measuring angles. Nevertheless, despite his primitive instruments, he set new standards for precise and objective measurements but he still relied on empirical observations rather than mathematics for his predictions.
Brahe accepted Copernicus' heliocentric model for the orbits of planets which explained the apparent anomalies in their orbits exhibited by Ptolemy's geocentric model, however he still clung on to the Ptolemaic model for the orbits of the Sun and Moon revolving around the Earth as this fitted nicely with the notion of Heaven and Earth and did not cause any conflicts with religious beliefs.
However, using the data gathered together with Brahe, Kepler was able to confirm the heliocentric model for the orbits of planets, including the Earth, and to derive mathematical laws for their movements.
A wealthy, hot-headed and extroverted nobleman, said to own one percent of the entire wealth of Denmark, Brahe had a lust for life and food. He wore a gold prosthesis in place of his nose which it was claimed had been cut off by his cousin in a duel over who was the better mathematician.
In 1601, Brahe died in great pain in mysterious circumstances, eleven days after becoming ill during a banquet. Until recently the accepted explanation of the cause of death, provided by Kepler, was that it was an infection arising from a strained bladder, or from rupture of the bladder, resulting from staying too long at the dining table.
By examining Brahe's remains in 1993, Danish toxicologist Bent Kaempe determined that Brahe had died from acute Mercury poisoning which would have exhibited similar symptoms. Among the many suspects, in 2004 the finger was firmly pointed by writers Joshua and Anne-Lee Gilder, at Kepler, the frail, introverted son of a poor German family.
Kepler had the motive, he was consumed by jealousy of Brahe and he wanted his data which could make him famous but it had been denied to him. He also had the means and the opportunity. After Tycho's death when his family were distracted by grief, Kepler simply walked away with the priceless observations which belonged to Tycho's heirs.
With only a few tantalising facts to go on, historians attempt to construct a more complete picture of what happened in the distant past. In Brahe's case there could be another explanation of his demise. From the available facts it could be concluded the Brahe's death was due to an accidental overdose of Mercury, which at the time was the conventional medication prescribed for the treatment for syphilis, or from syphilis itself. This is corroborated by the fact that one of the symptoms of the advanced state of the disease is the loss of the nose due to the collapse of the bridge tissue. Brahe's hedonistic lifestyle could well have made this a possibility. Kepler's actions in purloining of Brahe's data could have been a simple act of opportunism rather than the motivation for murder.
1593 The thermometer invented by Italian astronomer and physicist Galileo Galilei. It has been variously called an air thermometer or a water thermometer but it was called a thermoscope at the time. His "thermometer" consisted of a glass bulb at the end of a long glass tube held vertically with the open end immersed in a vessel of water. As the temperature changed the water would rise or fall in the tube due to the contraction or expansion of the air. It was sensitive to air pressure and could only be used to indicate temperature changes since it had no scale. In 1612 Italian Santorio Santorio added a scale to the apparatus creating the first true thermometer and for the first time, temperatures could be quantified.
There is no evidence that the decorative, so called, Galileo thermometers based on the Archimedes principle were invented by Galileo or that he ever saw one. They are comprised of several sealed glass floats in a sealed liquid filled glass cylinder. The density of the liquid varies with the temperature and the floats are designed with different densities so as to float or sink at different temperatures. There were however thriving glass blowing and thermometer crafts based in Florence (Tuscany) where the Academia del Cimento, which was noted for its instrument making, produced many of these thermometers also known as Florentine thermometers or Infingardi (Lazy-Ones) or Termometros Lentos (Slow) because of the slowness of the motion of the small floating spheres in the alcohol of the vial. It is quite likely that these designs were the work of the Grand Duke of Tuscany Ferdinand II who had a special interest in thermometers and meteorology.
1595 Swiss clockmaker Jost Burgi invented the gravity remontoire - constant force escapement which improved the accuracy of timekeeping mechanisms by over an order of magnitude.
See more about the remontoire
1600 William Gilbert of Colchester, physician to Queen Elizabeth I of England published "De Magnete" (On the Magnet) the first ever work of experimental physics. In it he distinguished for the first time static electric forces from magnetic forces. He discovered that the Earth is a giant magnet just like one of the stones of Peregrinus, explaining how compasses work. He is credited with coining the word "electric" which comes from the Greek word "elektron" meaning amber.
Many wondrous powers have been ascribed to magnets and to this day magnetic bracelets are believed by some to have therapeutic benefits. In Gilbert's time it was believed that an adulteress could be identified by placing a magnet under her pillow. This would cause her to scream or be thrown out of bed as she slept.
Gilbert proved amongst other things that the smell of garlic did not affect a ship's compass. It is not known whether he experimented with adulteresses in his bed.
Gilbert was the English champion of the experimental method of scientific discovery considered inferior to rational thought by the Greek philosopher Aristotle and his followers. He held the Copernican or heliocentric view, dangerous at the time, that the Sun, not the Earth was not the centre of the universe. He was a contemporary of the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) who made a principled stand in defence of the founding of physics on scientific method and precise measurements rather than on metaphysical principles and formal logic. These views brought Galileo into serious confrontation with the church and he was tried and punished for his heresies.
Experimental method rather than rational thought was the principle behind the Scientific Revolution which separated Science (theories which can be proved) from Philosophy (theories which can not be proved).
See also Bertrand Russell's definition of philosophy.
Gilbert died of Bubonic plague in 1603 leaving his books, globes, instruments and minerals to the College of Physicians but they were destroyed in 1666 in the great fire of London which mercifully also brought the plague to an end.
1601 An early method of hardening wrought iron to make hard edged tool steel and swords, known as the cementation process, was first patented by Johann Nussbaum of Magdeburg in Germany though the process was already known in Prague in 1574. It was also patented once more in England by William Ellyot and Mathias Meysey in 1614.
The method employed a solid diffusion process involving the diffusion of carbon into the wrought iron to increase its carbon content to between 0.5% and 1.5%. Wrought iron rods or bars were covered with powdered charcoal (called cement) and sealed in a long airtight stone or clay lined brick box, like a sarcophagus, and heated to 1,000°C in a furnace for between one and two weeks. The nature of the difusion process, resulted in a non-uniform carbon content which was high near the surface of the bar, diminishing towards its centre and the bars could still contain slag inclusions from the original precursor bloom from which the wrought iron was made. The process also caused blistering of the steel, hence the product made this way was called blister steel.
See more about Iron and Steel Making
1603 Italian shoemaker and part-time alchemist from Bologna, Vincenzo Cascariolo, searching for the "Philosopher's Stone" for turning common metals into Gold discovered phosphorescence instead. He heated a mixture of powdered coal and heavy spar (Barium sulphate) and spread it over an iron bar. It did not turn into Gold when it cooled, as expected, but he was astonished to see it glow in the dark. Though the glow faded it could be "reanimated" by exposing it to the sun and so became known as "lapis solaris" or "sun stone", a primitive method of solar energy storage in chemical form.
1605 A five digit encryption code consisting only of the letters "a" and "b" giving 32 combinations to represent the letters of the alphabet was devised by English philosopher and lawyer Francis Bacon. He called it a biliteral code. It is directly equivalent to the five bit binary Baudot code of ones and zeros used for over 100 years for transmitting data in twentieth century telegraphic communications.
More importantly Bacon, together with Gilbert, was an early champion of scientific method although it is not known whether they ever met.
Bacon criticized the notion that scientific advances should be made through rational deduction. He advocated the discovery of new knowledge through scientific experimentation. Phenomena would be observed and hypotheses made based on the observations. Tests would then be conducted to verify the hypotheses. If the tests produced reproducible results then conclusions could be made.
In his 1605 publication "The Advancement of Learning", Bacon coined the dictum "If a man will begin with certainties, he will end up with doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end up in certainties"
Bacon died as a result of one of his experiments. He investigated preserving meat by stuffing a chicken with snow. The experiment was a success but Bacon died of bronchitis contracted either from the cold chicken or from the damp bed, reserved for VIP's and unused for a year, where he was sent to recover from his chill.
There are many "Baconians" who claim today that at least some of Shakespeare's plays were actually written by Bacon. One of the many arguments put forward is that only Bacon possessed the necessary wide range of knowledge and erudition displayed in Shakespeare's plays.
1608 German born spectacle lens maker Hans Lippershey working in Holland, applied for a patent for the telescope for which he envisioned military applications. The patent was not granted on the basis that "too many people already have knowledge of this invention". Nevertheless, Lippershey's patent application was the first documented evidence of such a device. Legend has it that the telescope was discovered by accident when Lippershey, or two children playing with lenses in his shop, noticed that the image of a distant church tower became much clearer when viewed through two lenses, one in front of the other. The discovery revolutionised astronomy. Up to that date the pioneering work of Copernicus, Brahe and Kepler had all been based on many thousands of painstaking observations made with the naked eye without the advantage of a telescope.
1609 On the death of Danish Imperial Mathematician Tycho Brahe in 1601, German Mathematician Johannes Kepler inherited his position along with the astronomical data that Brahe had gathered over many years of pains-taking observations. From this mass of data on planetary movements, collected without the help of a telescope, Kepler derived three Laws of Planetary Motion, the first two published as "Astronomia Nova" in 1609 and the third as "Harmonices Mundi" in 1619. These laws are:
The Law of Orbits: All planets move in elliptical orbits, with the Sun at one focus.
The Law of Areas: A line that connects a planet to the Sun sweeps out equal areas in equal times. See Diagram
The Law of Periods: The square of the period of any planet is proportional to the cube of the semi major axis of its orbit.
Kepler's laws were the first to enable accurate predictions of future planetary orbits and at the same time they effectively disproved the Aristotelian and Ptolemaic model of geocentric planetary motion. Further evidence was provided during the same period by Galileo (See following entry).
Kepler derived these laws empirically from the years of data gathered by Brahe, a monumental task, but he was unable to explain the underlying principles involved. The answer was eventually provided by Newton.
Recently Kepler's brilliance has been tarnished by forensic studies which suggest that he murdered Brahe in order to get his hands on his observations. (See Brahe)
1610 Italian physicist and astronomer Galileo Galilei was the first to observe the heavens through a refracting telescope. Using a telescope he had built himself, based on what he had heard about Lippershey's recent invention, he observed four moons, which had not previously been visible with the naked eye, orbiting the planet Jupiter. This was revolutionary news since it was definitive proof that the Earth was not the centre of all celestial movements in the universe, overturning the geocentric or Ptolemaic model of the universe which for more than a thousand years had been the bedrock of religious and Aristotelian scientific thought. At the same time his observations of mountains on the Earth's moon contradicted Aristotelian theory, which held that heavenly bodies were perfectly smooth spheres.
Publication of these observations in his treatise Sidereus Nuncius (Starry Messenger) gave fresh impetus to the Scientific Revolution in astronomy started by the publication of Copernicus' heliocentric theory almost 100 years before, but brought Galileo into a confrontation with the church. Charged with heresy, Galileo was made to kneel before the inquisitor and confess that the heliocentric theory was false. He was found guilty and sentenced to house arrest for the rest of his life.
In 1612, having determined that Jupiter's four brightest natural satellites, Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto, (also known as the Galilean Moons), made regular orbits around the planet, Galileo noted that the time at which they passed a reference position in their orbits, such as the point at which they begin to eclipse the planet, would be both regular and the same for any observer in the World. This could therefore be used as the basis for a universal timer or clock which in turn could be used to determine longitude.
Galileo carried out many investigations and experiments to determine the laws governing mechanical movement. He is famously reputed to have demonstrated that all bodies fall to Earth at the same rate, regardless of their mass by dropping different sized balls from the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, thus disproving Aristotle's theory that the speed of falling bodies is directly proportional to their weight but there is no evidence that Galileo actually performed this experiment. However such an experiment was also performed by Simon Stevin in 1586.
In 1971, Apollo 15 astronaut David Scott repeated Galileo's experiment on the airless Moon with a feather and a hammer demonstrating that, unhampered by any atmosphere, they both fell to the ground at the same rate.
Galileo actually attempted to measure the rate at which a body falls to Earth under the influence of gravity, but he did not have an accurate method of measuring the time since the speed of the falling body was too fast and the duration too short. He therefore determined to "dilute" the effect of gravity by rolling a ball down an inclined plane to slow it down and increase the transit time. He expected to find that the distance travelled would increase by a fixed amount for each fixed increment in time. Instead he discovered that the distance travelled is proportional to the square of the time. See more about Galileo's "Laws of Motion"
In 1602 his inquisitive mind led him to make a remarkable discovery about the motion of pendulums. While sitting in a cathedral he observed the swinging of a chandelier and using his pulse to determine the period of its swing, he was greatly surprised to find that as the movement of the pendulum slowed down, its period remained the same. His curiosity piqued he followed up with a series of experiments and determined that the only factor affecting the period of the pendulum's swing was its length. It was independent of the arc of the swing,the weight of the pendulum bob and the speed of the swing. By using pendulums of different length Galileo was able to produce timing devices which were much more accurate than his pulse.
It can't have been easy, counting and keeping a running total of pendulum swings and heart rate pulses at the same time.
About 40 years later, Christiaan Huygens developed a mathematical equation defining the period of the pendulum and went on to use the pendulum in the construction of the first accurate clocks.
See more about Oscillators and Timekeeping
1614 Scottish nobleman John Napier Baron of Merchiston, published Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis Descriptio - Description of the Marvellous Canon (Rule) of Logarithms in which he described a new method for carrying out tedious multiplication and division by simpler addition and subtraction, together with a set of tables he had calculated for the purpose. The logarithmic tables contained 241 entries which had taken him 20 years to compute.
Napier's logarithms were not the logarithms we would recognise today. Neither were they Natural logarithms with a base of "e" as is often misquoted. Natural logarithms were invented by Euler over a century later.
Napier was aware that numbers in a geometric series could be multiplied by adding their exponents (powers) for example q2 multiplied by q3 = q5, and that division could be performed by subtracting the exponents. Simple though the idea of logarithms may be, it had not been considered before because with a simple base of 2 and exponent n, where n is a whole number, the numbers represented by 2n become very large very quickly as n increases. This meant there was no obvious way of representing the intervening numbers. The idea of fractional exponents would have, (and did eventually) solve this problem but at the end of the sixteenth century, people were just getting to grips with the notion of zero and they were not comfortable with idea of fractional powers.
To design a way of representing more numbers, while still retaining whole number exponents, Napier came up with the idea of making the base number smaller. But, if the base number was very small there would be too many numbers. Using the number 1 (unity) as a base would not work either since all the powers of 1 are equal to 1. He therefore chose (1-10-7) or 0.9999999 as the base from which he constructed his tables. Napier named his exponents logarithms from the Greek logos and arithmos roughly translated as ratio-number.
Napier's publication was an instant hit with astronomers and mathematicians. Among these was Henry Briggs, mathematics professor at Gresham College, London who travelled 350 miles to Edinburgh the following year to meet the inventor of this new mathematical tool.
He stayed a month with Napier and in discussions they considered two major improvements that they both readily accepted. Briggs suggested that the tables should be constructed from a base of 10 rather than (1-10-7) and this meant adopting fractional exponents and Napier agreed that the logarithm of 1 should be 0 (zero) rather than the logarithm of 107 being 0 as it was in his original tables. Briggs' reward was to have the job of calculating the new logarithmic tables which he eventually completed and published as Arithmetica Logarithmica in 1624. His tables contained 30,000 natural numbers to 14 places.
Meanwhile in 1617 Napier published a description of a new invention in his Rabdologiae, a "collection of rods". It was a practical method of multiplication using "numbering rods" with numbers marked off on them. Known as Napier's Bones", surprisingly they did not use his method of logarithms.(See also the following item - Gunter)
Already old and frail, Napier died the same year without seeing the final results of his work.
Briggs' logarithms are still in use today, now known as common logarithms.
Napier himself considered his greatest work to be a denunciation of the Roman Catholic Church which he published in 1593 as A Plaine Discovery of the Whole Revelation of St John.
1620 Edmund Gunter professor of astronomy at Gresham College, where Briggs was professor of mathematics, made a straight logarithmic scale engraved on a wooden rod and used it to perform multiplication and division using a set of dividers or calipers to add or subtract the logarithms. The predecessor to the slide rule. (See the following item)
1621 English mathematician and clergyman, William Oughtred, friend of Briggs and Gunter from Gresham College, put two of Gunter's scales (See previous item) side by side enabling logarithms to be added directly and invented the slide rule, the essential tool of every engineer for the next 350 years until electronic calculators were invented in the 1970s.
Oughtred also produced a circular version of the slide rule.
1628 English physician Robert Harvey published "De Motu Cordis" ("On the Motion of the Heart and Blood") in which he was the first to describe the circulation of blood and how it is pumped around the body by the heart, dispelling any remaining Aristotelian beliefs that the heart was the seat of intelligence and the brain was a cooling mechanism for the blood.
1629 Italian Jesuit priest Nicolo Cabeo published Philosophia Magnetica in which electric repulsion is identified for the first time.
1636 The first reasonably accurate measurement of the speed of sound was made by French polymath Marin Mersenne who determined it to be 450 m/s (1476 ft/s). This compares with the currently accepted velocity of 343 m/s (1,125 ft/s; 1,235 km/h; 767 mph), or a kilometre in 2.91 seconds or a mile in 4.69 seconds in dry air at 20 °C (68 °F).
(For reference, note also that the speed of light is 300,000,000 m/s compared with the speed of sound of around 343 m/s.)
Seventeenth century methods of measuring the speed of sound were usually based on observations of artillery fire and were notoriously inaccurate. Since the transit time of light over a given distance is negligible compared with the transit time of sound, by measuring the delay between seeing the powder flash from a distant cannon and hearing the explosion, the time for the sound to cover a given distance and hence the speed could be estimated. For practical measurements the distance of the artillery from the observer had to be a kilometre or more to obtain a reasonably long delay of a few seconds which could be measured by available means. Even so, the only available methods for measuring such short times were by means of a pendulum or by counting the observer's own pulse beats which were hopelessly imprecise, error prone and dependant on operator reaction times.
Furthermore, because the effects of temperature, pressure, density, wind and moisture content of the air on the speed of propagation were unknown, they were not taken into account in the measurements.
Variations on the above procedure are still used today as traditional folk methods of estimating the distance to a lightning strike by counting the seconds between the flash and its following thunderclap.
Alternative set-ups, used at the time, for calculating the speed of sound involved creating a sharp noise in front of a wall or cliff and measuring the time delay before hearing its echo. The round trip distance to the wall and back divided by the time gives the speed of sound. Echo delays in practical, controlled sites are usually very short. A distance of 100 metres to the reflecting surface (200 metres round trip) results in an echo delay of only around half a second. This leads to great difficulties in measuring the time delay with the crude equipment available.
Milestones in the Understanding of Acoustics and Sound Propagation
(Circa 350 B.C.) Aristotle was one of the first to speculate on the transmission of sound, writing in his in his treatise "On the Soul" that "sound is a particular movement of air".
1508 Leonardo Da Vinci, using a water analogy, showed in drawings that sound travels in waves like the waves on a pond..
1635 Pierre Gassendi, French priest, philosopher, scientific chronicler and experimentalist and a friend of Mersenne, is reported to have measured the speed of sound as a somewhat high 478 m/s (1568 ft/s), though this experiment was not documented in his workbooks. Using the artillery method he compared the low rumbling sound from a cannon with the higher pitched sound of a musket from the same distance and concluded that the speed of sound is independent of the pitch (frequency).
Gassendi was an anatomist and did not believe the wave theory of sound. He believed that sound and light are carried by particles which are not affected by the surrounding medium of air or wind through which they travel. In other words, sound was a stream of atoms emitted from the sounding body and the speed of sound is the velocity of the moving atoms, and its frequency is the number of atoms emitted per second.
1636 Marin Mersenne, in contrast to his friend Gassendi, held the more rational view that sound travelled in waves like the ripples on water. Using a pendulum to measure the time between the flash of exploding gunpowder and the arrival of the sound. He determined the speed of sound to be 450 m/s (1476 ft/s). As measurement techniques improved it was revised to a more accurate 316 m/s (1036 ft/s).
He also established that the intensity of sound, like that of light, is inversely proportional to the distance from its source and showed the speed to be independent of pitch as well as intensity (loudness).
The same year Marsenne also published his "Harmonie Universelle" describing the acoustic behaviour of stretched strings as used in musical instruments which provided the basis for modern musical acoustics. The relationship between frequency and the tension, weight, and the length of the strings was expressed in three laws known as Mersenne's Laws as follows:
The fundamental frequency f0 of a vibrating string (that is without harmonics) is:
Inversely proportional to the length L of the string (also known as Pythagoras Law). f0∝1/L
Inversely proportional to the square root of the mass per unit length μ. f0∝1√/μ
Proportional to the square root of the stretching force F. f0∝F
The three laws can be combined in a single exression thus:
f0=1/2L. √(F/μ)
Known as the "Father of Acoustics", Mersenne regularly corresponded with the leading mathematicians, astronomers and philosophers of the day, and in 1635 set up the informal, private Académie Parisienne where140 correspondents shared their research. This was the direct precursor of the French Académie des Sciences established by Colbert in 1666
1660 Giovanni Alfonso Borelli and Vincenzo Viviani working at the Accademia del Cimento in Florence improved the sound timing techniques resulting in more consistent results and a value of 350 m/s (1148 ft/s) was generally accepted as the speed of sound.
1660 Robert Boyle using an improved vacuum pump, showed that the sound intensity from a bell housed in a a glass chamber diminished to zero as the air was pumped out. From this he concluded that sound can not be transmitted through a vacuum and that sound is a pressure wave which requires a medium such as air to transmit the sound. See also the luminiferous aether and the transmission of light.
1687 Isaac Newton in his Principia Mathematica showed that the speed of sound depended on the density and compressibility of the medium through which it travelled and could be calculated from the following relationship using air as an example.
V = √(P/ρ)
Where: V is the sound velocity, P is the atmospheric pressure and ρ is the density of the air and the ratio P/ρ is a measure of its compressability.
Newton used echoes from a wall at the end of an outdoor corridor at Trinity College, Cambridge to estimate the speed of sound to verify his calculations but the calculated value of 295 m/s (968 f/s), was consistenly around 16% less than his measured experimental values and those achieved by others at the time.
The unexplained difference is attributed to the assumptopns made and not made. These include the following:
Newton used a mechanical interpretation of sound as being "pressure" pulses transmitted through adjacent fluid particles.
When a pulse is propagated through a fluiid, particles of the fluid move in simple harmonic motion at a constant frequency and if it is true for one particle it must be true for all adjacent particles.
Possible errors due to temperature, pressure, moisture content and wind, elasticity of the air and whether they were constant, proportional or non-linear were mostly unknown at the time and were consequently ignored.
1740 Giovanni Lodovico Bianconi, an Italian doctor demonstrated that the speed of sound in air increases with temperature. This is because molecules at higher temperatures have more energy and vibrate more quickly and since they vibrate faster, they can transmit sound waves more quickly.
1746 Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert, a French philosopher, mathematician and music theorist deduced the Wave Equation relating the velocity of a sound wave v to its frequency f and wavelength λ, based on studies of vibrating strings, as follows:
v = f λ
The relationship also applies to electromagnetic waves.
1802 Pierre-Simon Laplace and his young protégé Jean-Baptiste Biot rectified Newton's troublesome error and followed up by publishing a formal correction in 1816. They explained that in a pressure wave, when the sound wave compresses and rarefies the air in quick succession, Boyles Law does not apply because the temperature does not remain constant. Heat is liberated during compression part of the cycle, but because of the relatively high frequency of the sound wave, the heat does not have time to dissipate or be reabsorbed during the low pressure half of the cycle. This causes the local temperature to increase, in turn increasing the local pressure and raising the speed of the sound correspondingly. Thus Newton's calculations were brought into line with the experimental results.
In modern terms, the rapidly fluctuating compression and expansion of air through which the sound wave passes is an adiabatic process, not an isothermal process).
1642 At the age of eighteen, French mathematician and physicist, Blaise Pascal constructed a mechanical calculator capable of addition and subtraction. Known as the Pascaline, it was the forerunner of computing machines. Despite its utility, this great innovation failed to capture the imagination (or the attention) of the scientific and commercial public and only fifty were made. Thirty years later it was eclipsed by Leibniz' four function calculator which could perform multiplication and division as well as addition and subtraction.
Pascal also did pioneering work on hydraulics, resulting in the statement of Pascal's principle, that "pressure will be transmitted equally throughout a confined fluid at rest, regardless of where the pressure is applied". He explained how this principle could be used to exert very high forces in a hydraulic press. Such a system would have two cylinders with pistons with different cross-sectional areas connected to a common reservoir or simply connected by a pipe. When a force is exerted on the smaller piston, it creates a pressure in the reservoir proportional to the area of the piston. This same pressure also acts on the larger piston, but because its area is greater, the pressure is translated into a larger force on the larger piston. The difference in the two forces is proportional to the difference in area of the two pistons and the hydraulic, mechanical advantage is equal to the ratio of the areas of the two pistons. Thus the cylinders act in a similar way to a lever, as described by Archimedes, which effectively magnifies the force exerted. 150 years later Bramah was granted a patent for inventing the hydraulic press.
The unit of pressure was recently named the "Pascal" in his honour, replacing the older, more descriptive, pounds per square inch (psi) or Newtons per square metre (N/M2).
Besides hydraulics, Pascal explained the concept of a vacuum. At the time, the conventional Aristotelian view was that the space must be full with some invisible matter and a vacuum was considered an impossibility.
In 1653 Pascal described a convenient shortcut for determining the coefficients of a binomial series, now called Pascal's Triangle and the following year, in response to a request from a gambling friend, he used it to derive a method of calculating the odds of particular outcomes of games of chance. In this case, two players wishing to finish a game early, wanted to divide their remaining stakes fairly depending on their chances of winning from that point. To arrive at a solution, he corresponded with fellow mathematician Fermat and together they worked out the notion of expected values and laid the foundations of the mathematical theory of probabilities.
See Pascal's Triangle and Pascal Probability
Pascal did not claim to have invented his eponymous triangle. It was known to Persian mathematicians in the eleventh and twelfth centuries and to Chinese mathematicians in the eleventh and thirteenth centuries as well as others in Europe and was often named after local mathematicians.
For most of his life Pascal suffered from poor health and he died at the age of 39 after abandoning science and devoting most of the last ten years of his short life to religious studies culminating in the publication (posthumously) of Pensées (Thoughts), a justification of the Christian faith.
1643 Evangelista Torricelli served as Galileo's secretary and succeeded him as court mathematician to Grand Duke Ferdinand II and in 1643 made the world's first barometer for measuring atmospheric or air pressure by balancing the pressure force, due to the weight of the atmosphere, against the weight of a column of mercury. This was a major step in the understanding of the properties of air.
1644 French philosopher and mathematician René Descartes published Principia Philosophiae in which he attempts to put the whole universe on a mathematical foundation reducing the study to one of mechanics. Considered to be the first of the modern school of mathematics, he believed that Aristotle's logic was an unsatisfactory means of acquiring knowledge and that only mathematics provided the truth so that all reason must be based on mathematics.
He was still not convinced of the value of experimental method considering his own mathematical logic to be superior.
His most important work La Géométrie, published in 1637, includes his application of algebra to geometry from which we now have Cartesian geometry. He was also the first to describe the concept of momentum from which the law of conservation of momentum was derived.
Descartes accepted sponsorship by Queen Christina of Sweden who persuaded him to go to Stockholm. Her daily routine started at 5.00 a.m. whereas Descartes was used to rising at at 11 o'clock. After only a few months in the cold northern climate, walking to the palace for 5 o'clock every morning, he died of pneumonia.
1646 The word Electricity coined by English physician Robert Browne even though he contributed nothing else to the science.
1651 German chemist Johann Rudolf Glauber in his "Practise on Philosophical Furnaces" describes a safety valve for use on chemical retorts. It consisted of a conical valve with a lead cap which would lift in response to excessive pressure in the retort allowing vapour to escape and the pressure to fall. The weight of the cap would reseat the valve once the pressure returned to an acceptable level. Today, modern implementations of Glauber's valve are the basis of the pressure vents incorporated into sealed batteries to prevent rupture of the cells due to pressure build up.
In 1658 Glauber published Opera Omnia Chymica "Complete Works of Chemistry", a description of different techniques for use in chemistry which was widely reprinted.
1654 The first sealed liquid-in-glass thermometer produced by the artisan Mariani at the Academia del Cimento in Florence for the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Ferdinand II. It used alcohol as the expanding liquid but was inaccurate in absolute terms, although his thermometers agreed with each other, and there was no standardised scale in use.
1656 Building on Galileo's discoveries, Dutch physicist and astronomer Christiaan Huygens determined that the period P of a pendulum is given by:
P = 2 π √(l/g)
Where l is the length of the pendulum and g is the acceleration due to gravity.
Huygens made the first practical pendulum clock making accurate time measurement possible for the first time. Previous mechanical clocks had pointers which indicated the progress of slowly rising water or slowly falling weights and were only accurate to large fractions of an hour. Huygens clock enabled time to be measured in seconds. It depended on gearing a mechanical indicator to the constant periodic motion of a pendulum. Falling weights drove the pointer mechanism and transferred just enough energy to the pendulum to overcome friction and air resistance so that it did not stop.
Huygens pendulum reduced the loss of time by clocks from about 15 minutes per day to about 15 seconds per day.
In 1675 Huygens published in the French Journal de Sçavans, his design for the balance spring escapement which replaced the clock's pendulum regulator, enabling the design of watches and portable timekeepers.
The pendulum clock however remained the world's most accurate time-keeper for nearly 300 years until the invention of the quartz clock in 1927.
See more about Huygens' Clocks
Huygens also made many astronomical observations noting the characteristics of Saturn's rings and the surface of Mars. He was also the first to make a reasoned estimate of the distance of the stars. He assumed that Sirius had the same brightness as the Sun and from a comparison of the light intensity received here on Earth he calculated the distance to Sirius to be 2.5 trillion miles. It is actually about 20 times further away than this. There was however nothing wrong with Huygens' calculations. It was the assumption which was incorrect. Sirius is actually much brighter than the Sun, but he had no way of knowing that. Had he know the true brightness of Sirius, his estimation would have been much closer to the currently accepted value.
1658 Irish Archbishop James Ussher, following a literal interpretation of the bible, calculated that the Earth was created on the evening of 22 October 4004 B.C.
1660 English mathematician and astronomer, Richard Towneley together with his friend, physician Henry Power investigated the expansion of air at different altitudes by enclosing a fixed mass of air in a Torricelli/Huygens U-tube with its open end immersed in a dish of mercury. They noted the expansion of the enclosed air at different altitudes on a hill near their home and concluded that gas pressure, the external atmospheric pressure of the air on the mercury, was inversely proportional to the volume. They communicated their findings to Robert Boyle a distinguished contemporary chemist who verified the results and published them two years later as Boyle's Law. Boyle referred to Towneley's conclusions as "Towneley's Hypothesis".
See also Towneley's improvements to the pendulum clock timekeeping mechanism. Another of his ideas for which others appear to have got the credit.
1660 The Royal Society founded in London as a "College for the Promoting of Physico-Mathematical Experimental Learning", which met weekly to discuss science and run experiments. Original members included chemist Robert Boyle and architect Christopher Wren.
1661 Huygens invents the U tube manometer, a modification of Torricelli's barometer, for determining gas pressure differences. In a typical "U Tube" manometer the difference in pressure (really a difference in force) between the ends of the tube is balanced against the weight of a column of liquid. The gauges are only suitable for measuring low pressures, most gauges recording the difference between the fluid pressure and the local atmospheric pressure when one end of the tube is open to the atmosphere.
1661 Irish chemist Robert Boyle published "The Sceptical Chymist" in which he introduced the concept of elements. At the time only 12 elements had been identified. These included nine metals, Gold, Silver, Copper, Tin, Lead, Zinc, Iron, Antimony and Mercury and two non metals Carbon and Sulphur all of which had been known since antiquity as well as Bismuth which had been discovered in Germany around 1400 A. D.. Platinum had been known to South American Indians from ancient times but only became to the attention of Europeans in the eighteenth century. Boyle himself discovered phosphorus which he extracted from urine in 1680 taking the total of known elements to fourteen.
Though an alchemist himself, believing in the possibility of transmutation of metals, he was one of the first to break with the alchemist's tradition of secrecy and published the details of his experimental work including failed experiments.
1662 Boyle published Boyle's Law stating that the pressure and volume of a gas are inversely proportional.
PV=K
The first of the Gas Laws.
The relationship was originally discovered in 1660 by English mathematician Richard Towneley but attributed to Boyle. Both Towneley and Boyle were not aware that the relationship was temperature dependent and it was not until 1676 that the relationship was rediscovered by French physicist and priest, Abbé Edme Mariotte, and shown to apply only when the gas temperature is held constant. The law is known as Mariotte's Law in non-English speaking countries.
See also Boyle on Sound Transmission
1663 Otto von Guericke the Burgomaster of Magdeburg in Germany invented the first electric generator, which produced static electricity by rubbing a pad against a large rotating sulphur ball which was turned by a hand crank. It was essentially a mechanised version of Thales demonstrations of electrostatics using amber in 600 B.C. and the first machine to produce an electric spark. Von Guericke had no idea what the sparks were and their production by the machine was regarded at the time as magic or a clever trick. The device enabled experiments with electricity to be carried out but since it was not until 1729 that the possibility of electric conduction was discovered by Gray, the charged sulphur ball had to be moved to the place where the electric experiment took place. Von Guericke's generator remained the standard way of producing electricity for over a century.
Von Guericke was famed more for his studies of the properties of a vacuum and for his design of the Magdeburg Hemispheres experiment. In 1650, in a challenge to Aristotle's theory that a vacuum can not exist, like many of Aristotle's theories, accepted uncritically by philosophers as conventional wisdom for centuries and encapsulated in the saying "Nature abhors a vacuum", von Guericke set about disproving this theory by experimental means. In 1650 he designed a piston based air pump with which he could evacuate the air from a chamber and he used it to create a vacuum in experiments which showed that sound of a bell in a vacuum can not be heard, nor can a vacuum support a candle flame or animal life. To demonstrate the strength of a vacuum, in 1654 he constructed two hollow copper hemispheres which fitted together along a greased flange forming a hollow sphere. When the air was evacuated from the sphere, the external air pressure held the hemispheres together and two teams of horses could not pull them apart, yet when air was released into the sphere the hemispheres simply fell apart.
(See Magdeburg Hemispheres picture).
1665 Boyle published a description of a hydrometer for measuring the density of liquids which was essentially the same as those still in use today for measuring the specific gravity (S.G.) of the electrolyte in Lead Acid batteries. Hydrometers consist of a sealed capsule of lead or mercury inside a glass tube into which the liquid being measured is placed. The height at which the capsule floats represents the density of the liquid.
The hydrometer is however considered to be the invention of Greek mathematician Hypatia.
1665 The Journal des Sçavans (later renamed Journal des Savants), the earliest academic journal to be published in Europe was established. Its content included obituaries of famous men, church history, and legal reports. It was followed two months later by the first appearance of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.
1665 English polymath, Robert Hooke published Micrographia in which he illustrated a series of very small insects and plant specimens he had observed through a microscope he had constructed himself for the purpose. It included a description of the eye of a fly and tiny sections of plant materials for which he coined the term "cells" because their distinctive walls reminded him of monk's or prison quarters. The publication also included the first description of an optical microscope, and it is claimed, was the inspiration to Antonie van Leeuwenhoek who is often credited himself with the invention of the microscope. Hooke's publication was the first major publication of the recently founded Royal Society and was the first scientific best-seller, inspiring a wide public interest in the new science of microscopy.
1666 The French Académie des Sciences was founded in Paris by King Louis XIV at the instigation of Jean-Baptiste Colbert the French Minister of Finances, as a government organisation with the aim of encouraging and protecting French scientific research. Colbert's dirigiste economic policies were protectionist in nature and involved the government in regulating French trade and industry, echoes of which remain to this day.
1668 Dutch draper, haberdasher and scientist, Antonie Phillips van Leeuwenhoek, possibly inspired by Hooke's Micrographia (see above) made his first microscope. Known as the "Father of Microbiology" he subsequently produced over 450 high quality lenses and 247 microscopes which he used to investigate biological specimens. He was the first to observe and describe single-celled organisms and was also the first to observe and record muscle fibers, bacteria, spermatozoa, and blood flow in capillaries. Van Leeuwenhoek kept the British Royal Society informed of the results of his extensive investigations and eventually became a member himself.
1668 Scottish mathematician and astronomer James Gregory published Geometriae Pars Universalis (The Universal Part of Geometry) in which he proved the fundamental theorem of calculus, that the two operations of differentiation and integration were the inverses of eachother. A system of infinitesimals, which we would now call integration had been used by Archimedes circa 260 B.C to calculate areas. Later, the concepts of rate and continuity had been studied by Oxford and other scholars since the fourteenth century. But before Gregory, nobody had connected geometry, and the calculation of areas, to motion, and the calculation of velocity.
A more general proof of the relationship between integrals and differentials was developed by English mathematician and theologian Isaac Barrow. It was published posthumously in 1683, by fellow mathematician John Collins, in the Lectiones Mathematicae which summarised Barrow's work, carried out between 1664 and 1677, on the relationships between the estimation of tangents and areas (called quadratures at the time) which mirrored the procedures used in differential and integral calculus.
In 1663 at the age of 23 Barrow was selected as the first Lucasian professor at Cambridge. In 1669 he resigned his position to study divinity for the rest of his life. The Lucasian Chair and the baton for developing the calculus were passed to his student Isaac Newton who was already developing his own ideas on its practical applications around the same time, twenty years before the publication of his Principia Mathematica.
Meanwhile Gregory was one of the first to investigate the properties of transcendental functions and their application to trigonometry and logarithms. A transcendental function "transcends" algebra in that it cannot be expressed in terms of a finite sequence of the algebraic operations of addition, multiplication, and root extraction. Transcendental numbers are not rational, algebraic numbers which can be expressed as integers or ratios of integers. They are the sum of an infinite series. Examples of transcendental functions include the exponential function, the logarithm, and the trigonometric functions. Transcendental numbers include π and the exponential e (Euler's number)
Gregory developed a method of calculating transcendental numbers by a process of successive differentiation to produce an infinite power series which converges towards the result but he was unable to prove conclusively that π and e were transcendental. The proof was confirmed many years later after his untimely death at the age of only 36.
English mathematician Brook Taylor applied Gregory's theory to various trigonometric and logarithmic functions to produce corresponding series which he published in his book Methodus incrementorum directa et inversa in 1715. These series became known as Taylor expansions. Scottish mathematician Colin Maclaurin subsequently developed a modified version or special case of the Taylor expansion, simplifying it by centring it on zero which became known as the Maclaurin expansion.
Taylor and Maclaurin expansions are used extensively today in modern computer systems to provide mathematical approximations for trigonometric, logarithmic and other transcendental functions. See examples.
1675 Boyle discovered that electric force could be transmitted through a vacuum and observed attraction and repulsion.
1676 Prolific English engineer, surveyor, architect, physicist, inventor, socialite and self publicist, Robert Hooke, considered by some to be England's Leonardo (there were others - see Cayley), is now mostly remembered for for Hooke's Law for springs which states that the extension of a spring is proportional to the force applied, or as he wrote it in Latin "Ut tensio, sic vis" ("as is the extension, so is the force"). From this the energy stored in the spring can be calculated by integrating the force times the displacement over the extension of the spring. The force per unit extension is known as the spring constant. Hooke actually discovered his law in 1660, but afraid that he would be scooped by his rival Newton, he published his preliminary ideas as an anagram "ceiiinosssttuv" in order to register his claim for priority. It was not until 1676 that he revealed the law itself. The forerunner of digital time stamping?
In 1657 Hooke was the first to propose using a spring rather than gravity to stimulate the oscillator in clock timekeeping regulators, eliminating the pendulum and enabling much smaller, portable clocks and watches. He envisaged the back and forth bending of a straight flat spring to provide the necessary force, but it was Huygens however who later made the first practical clocks based on this method.
The following year, Hooke invented the Anchor Escapement the essential timekeeping mechanism used in long case (granfather) pendulum clocks for over 200 years until it was gradually replaced by the more accurate deadbeat escapement.
See more about Hooke's clock mechanisms.
Hooke was surveyor of the City of London and assistant to Christopher Wren in rebuilding the city after the great fire of 1666. He made valuable contributions to optics, microscopy, astronomy, the design of clocks, the theories of springs and gases, the classification of fossils, meteorology, navigation, music, mechanical theory and inventions, but despite his many achievements he was overshadowed by his contemporary Newton with whom he was unfortunately, constantly in dispute. Hooke claimed a role in some of Newton's discoveries but he was never able to back up his theories with mathematical proofs. Apparently there was at least one subject which he had not mastered.
1673 Between the years 1673 and 1686, German mathematician, diplomat and philosopher, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, developed his theories of mathematical calculus publishing the first account of differential calculus in 1684 followed by the explanation of integral calculus in 1686. Unknown to him these techniques were also being developed independently by Newton. Newton got there first but Leibniz published first and arguments about priority raged for many years afterwards. Leibniz's notation has been adopted in preference to Newton's but the concepts are the same.
He also introduced the words function, variable, constant, parameter and coordinates to explain his techniques.
Leibniz was a polymath and another candidate for the title "The last man to know everything". As a child he learned Latin at the age of 8, Greek at 14 and in the same year he entered the University of Leipzig where he earned a Bachelors degree in philosophy at the age of 16, a Bachelors degree in law at 17 and Masters degrees in both philosophy and law at the age of 20. At 21 he obtained a Doctorate in law at Altdorf. In 1672 when he was 26, his diplomatic travels took him to Paris where he met Christiaan Huygens who introduced him to the mathematics of the pendulum and inspired him to study mathematics more seriously.
In 1679 Leibniz proposed the concept of binary arithmetic in a letter written to French mathematician and Jesuit missionary to China, Joachim Bouvet, showing that any number may be expressed by 0's and 1's only. Now the basis of digital logic and signal processing used in computers and communications.
Surprisingly Leibniz also suggested that God may be represented by unity, and "nothing" by zero, and that God created everything from nothing. He was convinced that the logic of Christianity would help to convert the Chinese to the Christian faith. He believed that he had found an historical precedent for this view in the 64 hexagrams of the Chinese I Ching or the Book of Changes attributed to China's first shaman-king Fuxi (Fu Hsi) dating from around 2800 B.C. and first written down as the now lost manual Zhou Yi in 900 B.C.. A hexagram consists of blocks of six solid or broken lines (or stalks of the Yarrow plant) forming a total of 64 possibilities. The solid lines represent the bright, positive, strong, masculine Yang with active power while the broken or divided lines represent the dark, negative, weak, feminine Yin with passive power. According to the I Ching, the two energies or polarities of the Yin and Yang are both opposing and complementary to each other and represent all things in the universe which is a progression of contradicting dualities.
Although the I Ching had more to do with fortune telling than with mathematics, there were other precedents to Leibniz's work. The first known description of a binary numeral system was made by Indian mathematician Pingala variously dated between the 5th century B.C. or the 2nd century B. C..
In 1671 Leibniz invented a 4 function mechanical calculator which could perform addition, subtraction, multiplication and division on decimal numbers which he demonstrated to the Royal Society in London in 1673 but they were not impressed by his crude prototype machine. (Pascal's 1642 calculator could only perform addition and subtraction.) It was not until 1676 that Leibniz eventually perfected it. His machine used a stepped cylinder to bring into mesh different gear wheels corresponding to the position of units, tens, hundreds etc. to operate on the particular digit as required. Strangely, as the inventor of binary arithmetic, he did not use it in his calculator.
His most famous philosophical proposition was that God created "the best of all possible worlds".
1681 French physicist and inventor Denis Papin invented the pressure release valve or safety valve to prevent explosions in pressure vessels. Although Papin is credited with the invention, safety valves had in fact been described by Glauber thirty years earlier, however Papin's valve was adjustable for different pressures by means of moving the lead weight along a lever which kept the valve shut. Papin's safety valve became a standard feature on steam engines saving many lives from explosions
The invention of the safety valve came as a result of his work with pressurised steam. In 1679 he had invented the pressure cooker which he called the steam digester.
Observing that the steam tended to lift the lid of his cooker in 1690 Papin also conceived the idea of using the pressure of steam to do useful work. He introduced a small amount of water into a cylinder closed by a piston. On heating the water to produce steam, the pressure of the steam would force the piston up. Cooling the cylinder again caused the steam to condense creating a vacuum under the piston which would pull it down (In fact the atmospheric pressure would push the piston down). This pumping action by a piston in a cylinder was the genesis of the reciprocating steam engine. Papin envisaged two applications for his piston engine. One was a toothed rack attached to the piston whose movement turned a gear wheel to produce rotary motion. The other was to use the reciprocating movements of the piston to move oars or paddles in a steam powered boat. Unfortunately he was unable to attract sponsors to enable him to develop these ideas. Papin was not the first to use a piston, von Guericke came before him, but he was the first to use it to capture the power of steam to do work.
In 1707, with the collaboration of Gottfried Leibniz (still smarting over his dispute with Isaac Newton), Papin published " The New Art of Pumping Water by Using Steam". The Papin / Leibniz pump had many similarities to Savery's 1698 water pump and their claims resulted in a protracted dispute involving the British Royal Society as to the true inventor of the steam driven water pump. Savery's pump did not use a piston but used a vacuum to draw water from below the pump and steam pressure to discharge it at a higher level. Papin's pump on the other hand used only steam pressure and could not draw water from a lower level. (See diagram of Papin's Steam Engine)
Unlike Savery's pump, Papin's pump used a closed cylinder, adjacent to (or even partially immersed in) the lower pool, fed with water from the pool through a non-return valve at the bottom of the cylinder. In the cylinder a free piston rested on the surface of the water which, at it's highest point, was level with the water in the pool. Steam from a separate boiler introduced above the piston forced it downwards displacing the water in the cylinder through another non-return valve at the bottom of the cylinder and upwards to the discharge level. Simply by exhausting the steam from the cylinder through a tap, the external water pressure would cause the cylinder to refill with water through the non-return valve at the base of the cylinder elevating the piston once more to the level of the surrounding water pool. Cooling was unnecessary since the design did not depend on creating a vacuum in the cylinder.
Papin also suggested a way of using his pump to create rotary motion. He proposed to feed the water raised by the pump over a waterwheel returning it to a lower reservoir in a closed loop system.
Like many gifted inventors Papin died destitute.
1687 "Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica" - Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy published by English physicist and mathematician Isaac Newton. One of the most important and influential books ever published, it was written in Latin and not translated into English until 1729.
By coincidence Newton was born in 1642, the year that Galileo died.
He made significant advances in the study of Optics demonstrating in 1672 that white light is made up from the spectrum of colours observed in the rainbow. He used a prism to separate white light into its constituent colour spectrum and by means of a second prism he showed that the colours could be recombined into white light.
In 1668 he designed and made the first known relecting telescope, based on a concave primary mirror and a flat secondary mirror.
He is perhaps best remembered however for his Mechanics, the Laws of Motion and Gravitation which his "Principia" contains.
Newton's Laws of Motion can be summarised as follows:
First Law: - Any object will remain at rest or in uniform motion in a straight line unless compelled to change by some external force.
Second Law: - The acceleration a of a body is directly proportional to, and in the same direction as, the net force F acting on it, and inversely proportional to its mass m. Thus, F = ma.
Third law: - To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
70 years earlier, Galileo came very close to developing these relationships but he had neither the mathematical tools nor the instruments to make precise measurements to prove his theories. Newton's first law is a restatement of Galileo's concept of inertia or resistance to change which he measured by its mass. See a Comparison of Galileo's and Newton's "Laws of Motion"
Newton also developed the Law of Universal Gravitation which states that any two bodies in the universe attract each other with a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. Thus:
F = G m1m2 / r2
F is force between the bodies
G is the Universal Gravitational Constant
m1 and m2 are the masses of the two bodies
r is the distance between the centres of the bodies
Newton was thus able to calculate or predict gravitational forces using the concept of action at a distance. He was also able to explain that the motion of tides was due to the varying effect on the oceans caused by the Earth's daily rotation as the distance between the Moon and the oceans changed as the oceans rotated through the constant gravitational field between the Earth and the Moon.
He did not discover gravity however, nor could he explain it. Galileo was well aware of the effects of gravity, and so was Huygens, a contemporary of Newton, who believed Descartes' earlier theory that gravity could be explained in mechanical terms as a high speed vortex in the aether which caused tiny particles to be thrown outwards by the centrifugal force of the vortex while heavier particles fell inwards due to balancing centripetal forces. Huygens never accepted Newton's inverse square law of gravity.
Newton's concept that planetary motion was due to gravity was completely new. Before that, the motion of heavenly bodies had been explained by Gilbert as well as his contemporary the German astronomer Kepler (1571-1630), and others as being due to magnetic forces.
Even now in the twenty first century, will still do not have a satisfactory explanation of the nature of gravitational forces.
Newton was the giant of the Scientific Revolution. He assimilated the advances made before him in mathematics, astronomy, and physics to derive a comprehensive understanding of the physical world. The impact of the publication of Newton's laws of dynamics on the scientific community was both profound and wide ranging. The laws and Newton's methods provided the basis on which other theories, such as acoustics, fluid dynamics, kinetic energy and work done were built as well as down to earth technical knowledge which enabled the building of the machines to power the Industrial Revolution and, at the other end of the spectrum, they explained the workings of the Universe.
However, of equal or even greater importance was the fact that Newton showed for the first time, the general principle that natural phenomena, events and time varying processes, not just mechanical motions, obey laws that can be represented by mathematical equations enabling analysis and predictions to be made. The laws of nature represented by the laws of mathematics, the foundation of modern science. The 3 volume publication was thus a major turning point in the development of scientific thought, sweeping away superstition and so called "rational deduction" as ways of explaining the wonders of nature.
Newton's reasoning was supported by his invention of the mathematical techniques of Differential and Integral Calculus and Differential Equations, actually developed in 1665 and 1666, twenty years before he wrote the "Principia" but not used in the proofs it contains. These were major advances in scientific knowledge and capability which extended the range of existing mathematical tools available for characterising nature and for carrying out scientific analysis.
See also Gregory's earlier contribution to calculus theory.
Newton engaged in a prolonged feud with Robert Hooke who claimed priority on some of Newton's ideas. Newton's oft repeated quotation "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." was actually written in a sarcastic letter to Hooke, who was almost short enough to be classified as a dwarf, with the implication that Hooke didn't qualify as one of the giants.
Leibniz working contemporaneously with Newton also developed techniques of differential and integral calculus and a dispute developed with Newton as to who was the true originator. Newton's discovery was made first, but Leibniz published his work before Newton. However there is no doubt that both men came to the ideas independently. Newton developed his concept through a study of tangents to a curve and also considered variables changing with time, while Leibniz arrived at his conclusions from calculations of the areas under curves and thought of variables x and y as ranging over sequences of infinitely close values.
Newton is revered as the founder of modern physical science, but despite the great fame he achieved in his lifetime, he remained a modest, diffident, private and religious man of simple tastes. He never married, devoting his life to science.
Newton didn't always have his head in the clouds. In his spare time, when he wasn't dodging apples, he invented the cat-flap.
1698 Searching for a method of replacing the manual or animal labour for pumping out the seeping water which gathered at the bottom of coal mines, English army officer Thomas Savery designed a mechanical, or more correctly, a hydraulic water pump powered by steam. He called the process "Raising Water by Fire". Savery was impressed by the great power of atmospheric pressure working against a vacuum as demonstrated by von Guericke's Magdeburg Hemispheres experiment. He realised that a vacuum could be produced by condensing steam in a sealed chamber and he used this principle as the basis for the first practical steam driven water pump which became known as "The Miner's Friend". Savery's pump did not produce any mechanical motion but used atmospheric pressure to force the water up a vertical pipe from a well or pond below, to fill the vacuum in the steam chamber above, and steam pressure to drive the water in the steam chamber up a vertical discharge pipe to a level above the steam chamber.
(See diagram of Savery's Steam Engine)
The essential components of the pump were a boiler producing steam, a steam chamber at the heart of the system and suction and discharge water pipes each containing a non-return flap valve he called a clack.
Starting with some water in the steam chamber, the steam valve from the boiler is opened introducing steam into the steam chamber where the pressure of the steam forces the water out through a non-return flap valve into the discharge pipe. The head of water in the discharge pipe keeps the flap valve closed so the water can not return into the steam chamber. The steam supply to the chamber is then turned off and the chamber is cooled from the outside with cold water which causes the steam in the chamber to condense creating a vacuum in the chamber. The vacuum in turn causes water to be sucked up from the well or lower pond through another flap valve in the induction pipe into the steam chamber. The head of water in the steam chamber keeps the flap valve closed so that the water can not flow back to the well. Once the chamber is full, steam is fed once more into the chamber and the cycle starts again.
Efficiency was improved by using two parallel steam chambers alternately such that one of the chambers was charged with steam while the other chamber was cooled. The theoretical maximum depth from which Savery's engine can draw water is limited by the atmospheric pressure which can support a head of 32 feet (10 M) but because of leaks the practical limit is about 25 feet. In a mine this would require the engine to be below ground close to the water level, but as we know, fire and coal mines don't mix. On the discharge side the maximum height to which the water can be raised is limited by the available steam pressure and also by the safety of the pressure vessels whose solder joints are particularly vulnerable, a serious drawback with the available 17th century technology.
1700 At the instigation of Leibniz, King Frederick I of Prussia founded the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin to rival Britain's Royal Society and the French Académie des Sciences. Leibniz was appointed as its first president
1701 English gentleman farmer Jethro Tull, developed the seed drill, a horse-drawn sowing device which mechanised the planting of seeds, precisely positioning them in the soil and then covering them over. It thus enabled better control of the distribution and positioning of the seeds leading to improvements of up to nine times in crop yields per acre (or hectare). For the farm hand, the seed drill cut out some of the back-breaking work previously employed in the task but the downside was that it also reduced the number of farm workers needed to plant the crop. The seed drill was a relatively simple device which could be made by local carpenters and blacksmiths. Its combined benefits of higher crop yields and productivity improvements were the first steps in mechanised farming which revolutionised British agriculture.
The design concept was not new since similar devices had been used in Europe in the middle ages. Single tube seed drills were also known to have been used in Sumeria in Mesopotamia, now (modern day Iraq) during the Late Bronze Age (1500 B.C.) and multi-tube drills were used in China during the Qin Dynasty.
The introduction of Tull's improved seed drill was an early example of the mechanisation of manual labour tasks which ushered in the Industrial Revolution in Britain.
1705 Head of demonstrations at the Royal Society in London, English physicist and instrument maker appointed by Isaac Newton, Francis Hauksbee the Elder demonstrated an electroluminescent glow discharge lamp which gave off enough light to read by. It was based on von Guericke's electric generator with an evacuated glass globe, containing mercury, replacing the sulphur ball. It produced a glow when he rubbed the spinning globe with his bare hands. The blue light it produced seemed to be alive and was considered at the time to be the work of God. Like von Guericke, Hauksbee never realised the potential of electricity. Instead, electric phenomena were for many years the tool of conjurors and magicians who entertained people at parties with mild electric shocks, producing sparks or miraculously picking up feathers.
1709 Abraham Darby, from a Quaker family in Bristol established an iron making business at Coalbrookdale in Shropshire introducing new production methods which revolutionised iron making. He already had a successful brass ware business in Bristol employing casting and metal forming technologies he had learned in the Netherlands and in 1708 he had patented the use of sand casting which he realised was suitable for the mass production of cheaper iron pots for which there was a ready market. The purpose of his move to Coalbrookdale which already had a long established iron making industry was to apply these technologies and his metallurgical knowledge to the iron making business to produce cast iron kettles, cooking pots, cauldrons, fire grates and other domestic ironware with intricate shapes and designs.
Early blast furnaces used charcoal as the source of the carbon reducing agent in the iron smelting process, but Darby investigated a the use of different fuels to reduce costs. This was partially out of necessity since the surrounding countryside had been denuded of trees to produce charcoal to fuel the local iron making blast furnaces, but there was still a plentiful local supply of coal as well as iron ore and limestone. He experimented with using coal instead of charcoal but the high sulphur content of coal made the iron too brittle. His greatest breakthrough was the use of coke, instead of charcoal, which produced higher quality iron at lower cost. It could also be made in bigger blast furnaces, permitting economies of scale.
See the following Footnote about Iron and Steel Making.
Abraham Darby founded a dynasty of iron makers. His son, Abraham Darby II, expanded the output of the Coalbrookdale ironworks to include iron wheels and rails for horse drawn wagon ways and cylinders for the steam engines recently invented by Newcomen some of which he used himself to pump water supplying his water wheels. His grandson, Abraham Darby III, continued in the business and was the promoter responsible for building the world's first iron bridge at Coalbrookdale.
The mass production of low cost ironware made possible by Abraham Darby's iron making process was a major foundation stone on which the subsequent industrialisation of Britain and the Industrial Revolution were based.
Some Key Iron and Steel Making Processes
Smelting is the high temperature process of extracting iron or other base metals such as gold, silver and copper from their ores. The principle behind the iron making or smelting process is the chemical reduction of the iron ores which are composed of iron oxides, mainly FeO, Fe2O3, and Fe3O4 by heating them in a furnace, together with carbon where the carbon burns to form carbon monoxide (CO), which then acts as the reducing agent in the following typical reaction. The process itself is exothermic which helps to maintain the reaction once it is started.
2C + O2 → 2CO
Fe2O3 + 3CO → 2Fe + 3CO2
In early times the carbon was supplied in the form of charcoal. Nowadays coke is used instead. Iron ore however contains a variety of unwanted impurities which affect the properties of the finished iron in different ways and so must be removed from the ore or at least controlled to an acceptable level. A flux such as limestone is often used for this "cleaning" purpose. By combining with the impurities it forms a slag which floats to the top and can be removed from the melt.
Casting is the process of pouring molten iron or steel into a mould and allowing to solidify. It is an inexpensive method of producing metal components in intricate shapes or simple ingots. Moulds must be able to withstand high temperatures and are usually made from sand with a clay bonding agent to hold it together. The cavity in the mould is formed around a wooden pattern which is removed before pouring in the hot metal.
Forging is the process of shaping malleable metals into a desired form by means of compressive forces. It was a skill used for many centuries by blacksmiths who heated the metal in a forge to soften it, then beat it into shape using a hammer. Modern day forging uses machines such as large drop-forging hammers, rolling mills, presses and dies to provide the necessary compression of the work piece. Because these machines can exert very high forces on the work piece, it is also possible to work with cold, unheated metals in some applications. The forging process is not suitable for shaping cast iron because it is brittle and likely to shatter.
Swaging is a special case of forging, often cold forging, to form metal, usually into long shapes such as tubes, channels or wires by forcing or pulling the workpiece through a die or between rolls. It is also the method used to form a lip on the edge of sheet steel to provide stability or safety from injury from sharp metal edges.
See how gun barrels were manufactured by swaging.
Heat treatment is the black art practiced by blacksmiths for hundreds of years of manipulating the properties of steel to suit different applications. These are the tools they have used.
In its simplest form, steel is an alloy of iron and carbon and these two elements can exist in several phases which can change with temperature. The mechanical properties of the steel depend on the carbon content and on the structure of the alloy phases present. Heat treatment is concerned with controlling the phases of the alloy to achieve the desired mechanical properties. There are two critical temperatures between which phase changes occur, namely 700°C and 900°C
The basic phases and phase changes in normal cast steel are as follows:
Steel at normal working temperature (below 700°C) is made up from pearlite which is a mixture of cementite and ferrite (iron). Iron on its own is very soft.
Cementite is a name given to the very hard and brittle iron carbide Fe3C which is iron chemically combined with carbon.
Above the critical temperature of 700°C a structural change takes place in the alloy and the carbon in the pearlite dissolves into the iron to form austenite which is a hard and non-magnetic, solid solution of carbon in iron.
If the temperature of the steel cools normally below the 700°C critical temperature, the transformation is reversed and the slow cooling austenite is transformed back into pearlite.
If however the austenite is cooled very quickly by suddenly quenching it in cold water or other cold fluid, the transformation does not have time to take place before the temperature of the alloy falls below the critical temperature. The lower transformation temperature thus prevents the transformation to pearlite and instead tends to freeze the composition of the austenite at a temperature below the crtitical temperature. This transforms the ferrite solution into very hard martensite in which the ferrite is supersaturated with carbon. Martensite is too hard and brittle for most applications.
Quenching at intermediate temperatures results in a mix of martensite and pearlite leaving the steel with an intermediate hardness level.
These transformations are exploited in the following processes:
Hardening - Steel can be hardened by heating it to above the crtitical temperature and suddenly quenching it in a cold liquid to produce martensite
Annealing - Steel can be softened to make it more workable by heating it to above the critical temperature to form austenite, then letting it cool down slowly to form pearlite. This process is also used to relieve work hardening stresses and crystal dislocations caused during machining or forming processes on the steel.
Tempering - The level of hardness or maleability of the steel can be set at any intermediate level between the extremes of the hard martensite and the soft pearlite to produce steel with properties tailored for different applications, from cutting tools to springs, by quenching the steel at the appropriate temperature. Starting with hard martensite, the temperature is gradually increased so that it is partially changed back to pearlite reducing its hardness and increasing its toughness. The workpiece is quenched or allowed to cool naturally when the desired temperature has been reached.
The traditional method used for centuries for judging the temperature at which quenching should occur was by means of colour changes on the polished surface of the steel as it is heated. As the steel is heated an oxide layer forms on its surface causing thin-film interference which shows up as a specific colour depending on the thickness of the layer. As the temperature increases the thickness of the oxide layer increases and the colour changes correspondingly so that for very hard tool steel the workpiece is quenched when the colour is in the light to dark straw range (corresponding to 230°C to 240°C), whereas for spring steel the steel may be quenched when the colour is blue (300°C). Nowadays, for major tempering processes the temperature is measured by infrared thermometers or other instruments however the traditional method is still widely used for small jobs.
Case Hardening
It is difficult to achieve both extreme hardness and extreme toughness in homogeneous alloys. Case hardening is a method of obtaining a thin layer of hard (high carbon) steel on the surface of a tough (low carbon) steel object while retaining the toughness of its body. Essentially a development of the ancient cementation process for carbonising iron, it involves the diffusing of carbon into the outer layer of the steel at high temperature in a carbon rich environment for a pre-determined period and then quenching it so that the carbon structure is locked in.
Summary of Iron and Steel Making Processes and What They Do
Bloomery - Low temperature furnace. Converts iron ore into wrought iron.
Cementation Process - Low temperature furnace. Converts wrought iron into steel by diffusion of carbon.
Blast Furnace - High temperature furnace. Converts iron ore into pig iron.
Puddling - High temperature furnace. Converts pig iron into wrought iron.
Casting - High temperature furnace. Moulds molten iron and steel output into useful shapes.
Forging - Mechanical process. Forms steel ingots into useful shapes.
Heat Treatment - Low temperature process. Changes the mechanical properties of the steel.
Crucible Process - High temperature, low volume process. Purifies and strengthens low quality steel. Also used to create special steels and alloys.
Bessemer Converter - High temperature furnace. Converts pig iron into steel
Open Hearth (Siemens) Furnace - High temperature furnace. Converts pig iron and scrap iron into steel
Electric Arc Furnace - Converts scrap iron and steel into steel.
Iron and Steel Properties
Wrought iron was initially developed by the Hittites around 2000 B.C. In early times in Europe the smelting process was carried out by the village blacksmith in a simple chimney shaped furnace, constructed from clay or stone with a clay lining, called a bloomery. Gaps around the base allowed air to be supplied by means of a bellows blowing the air through a tuyère into the furnace. Charcoal was both the initial heat source and the carbon reducing agent for extracting the iron from the ore. Once the furnace was started the iron ore and more charcoal were loaded from the top to start and maintain the chemical reaction. It was not usually possible with this method to achieve a temperatures as high as 1300°C, the melting point of iron, but it was sufficient to heat up the iron ore to a spongy mass called a bloom, separating the iron the from the majority of impurities in the iron ore but leaving some glassy silicates included in the iron. If the furnace temperature was allowed to get too high the bloom could melt and carbon could dissolve into the iron giving it the unwanted properties of cast iron.
Once the reduction process was complete the bloom was removed from the furnace and by heating and hammering it, the impurities were forced out but some of the silicates remained as slag, which was mainly calcium silicate, CaSiO3, in fibrous inclusions in the iron creating wrought iron (from "wrought" meaning "worked"). Wrought iron has a very low carbon content of around 0.05% by weight with good tensile strength and shock resistance but is poor in compression and the slag inclusions give the iron a typical grained appearance. Being relatively soft, it is ductile, malleable and easy to work and can be heated and forged into shape by hammering and rolling. It is also easy to weld.
Because of the manual processes involved, wrought iron could only be made in batches and manufacturing was very costly and difficult to mechanise.
Cast iron was first produced by the Chinese in the fifth century B.C.. The process of smelting iron ore to produce cast iron needs to operate at at temperatures of 1600°C or more, sufficient to melt the iron. To produce the higher temperatures the bloomery furnace technique was upgraded to a blast furnace by increasing the rate of oxygen supply to the melt by means of a blowing engine or air pump which blasted the air into the bottom of a cone shaped furnace. Early blowing engines were powered by waterwheels but these were superseded by steam engines once they became available. To remove or reduce the impurities present in the ore, limestone (CaCO3), known as the flux was added to the charge which was continuously fed into the furnace from above. At the high temperatures in the furnace the limestone reacts with silicate impurities to form a molten slag which floats on top of the denser iron which sinks to the narrow bottom part of the cone where it can be run off through a channel into moulded depressions in a bed of sand. The slag is similarly run off separately from the top of the melt. Because metal ingots created in the moulds which receive molten iron from the runner resembled the shape of suckling pigs, the iron produced this way is known as pig iron. An important feature of the blast furnace is that it enables cast iron to be made in a continuous process, greatly reducing the labour costs. Stopping, cooling and restarting a blast furnace however involves a major refurbishment of the furnace to get it back into operation agin and great efforts are usually made to avoid such a disruption.
Iron produced in this way has a crystalline structure and contains 4% to 5% carbon. The presence of the carbon atoms impedes the ability of the dislocations in the crystal lattice of the iron atoms from sliding past one another thus increasing its hardness. Pig iron is so very hard and brittle, and very difficult to work that it is almost useless. It is however reprocessed and used as an intermediate material in the production of commercial iron and steel by reheating to reduce the carbon content further or combining the ingots with other materials or even scrap iron to change its properties. Iron with carbon content reduced to 2% to 4% is called cast iron. It can be used to create intricate shapes by pouring the molten metal into moulds and it is easier to work than pig iron but still relatively hard and brittle. While strong in compression cast iron has poor tensile strength and is prone to cracking which makes it unable to tolerate bending loads.
Steel is iron after the removal of most of the impurities such as silica, phosphorous, sulphur and excess carbon which severely weaken its strength. It may however have other elements, which were not present in the original ore, added to form alloys which enhance specific properties of the steel. Steel normally has a carbon content of 0.25% to 1.5%, slightly higher than wrought iron but it does not have the silicate inclusions which are characteristic of wrought iron. Removing the impurities retains the malleability of wrought iron while giving the steel much greater load-bearing strength but is an expensive and difficult task.
Cast steel can be made by a variety of processes including crucible steel, the Bessemer converter and the open hearth method and thus may have a range of properties. See steelmaking summary above.
Other alloying elements such as manganese, chromium, vanadium and tungsten may be added to the mix to create steels with particular properties for different applications. By controlling the carbon content of the steel as well as the percentage of different alloying materials, steel can be made with a range of properties. Examples are:
Blister Steel was a crude form of steel made by the cementation process, an early method of hardening wrought iron. It is now obsolete.
Mild steel the most common form of steel which contains about 0.25% carbon making it ductile and malleable so that it can be rolled or pressed into complex forms suitable for automotive panels, containers and metalwork used in a wide variety consumer products
High carbon steel or tool steel with about 1.5% carbon which makes it relatively hard with the ability to hold an edge. The more the carbon content, the greater the hardness
Stainless steel which contains chromium and nickel which make it resistant to corrosion
Titanium steel which keeps its strength at high temperatures
Manganese steel which is very hard and used for rock breaking and military armour
Spring steel with various amounts of nickel and other elements to give it very high yield strength
As well as others specialist steels such as steels optimised for weldability
Mild steel has largely replaced wrought iron which is no longer made in commercial quantities, though the term is often applied incorrectly to craft made products such as railings and garden furniture which are actually made from mild steel.
Iron and Steelmaking Development Timeline
Steel making has gone through a series of developments to achieve ever more precise control of the process as well as better efficiency.
(2000 B.C.) Wrought Iron Hittites
(500 B.C.) Cast Iron Chinese
(1350) Blast Furnace In Europe
(1601) Blister Steel Nussbaum, Ellyot, Meysey
(1709) Mass Produced Castings Darby
(1740) Crucible Steel Huntsman
(1783) Puddling Cort
(1828) Hot Blast Air Supply Neilson
(1855) Bessemer Converter Bessemer
(1863) Metallography Sorby
(1865) Open Hearth Process Siemens - Martin
(1876) Basic Bessemer Process Thomas
(1907) Electric Arc Furnace Héroult
(1912) Stainless Steel Haynes, Brierley, Strauss, Maurer
(1912) Physical Metallurgy Sauveur
(1912) X-Ray Crystallography Bragg
(1948) Basic Oxygen Steelmaking Durrer
1712 English blacksmith Thomas Newcomen built the world's first practical steam engine capable of doing dynamic mechanical work, not just pumping. It was an atmospheric engine using a piston to produce reciprocating motion. (See diagram of Newcomen's Steam Engine)
In its simplest form, a piston with a fixed connecting rod protruding from the top was mounted in a vertical cylinder above a water boiler. Steam from the boiler introduced at the bottom of the cylinder through a valve pushed the piston up to the top of its stroke. At the top of the stroke, the steam was shut off and the valve was closed trapping the steam inside. As in Savery's engine the cylinder was then cooled, in this case by spraying cold water into the cylinder under the piston to condense the steam. This is the power stroke of the piston in which condensing the steam creates a vacuum under the piston which pulls it back down to its bottom position, or in other words, the atmospheric pressure on the top of the piston pushes it down against the vacuum. This is what gives the engine the name of atmospheric engine.
The fixed piston connecting rod executed a reciprocating linear movement which could be harnessed to perform work.
In practical engines the piston rod was connected to one end a heavy beam balanced on a pivot above the engine. The power stroke of the piston produced a rocking motion of the beam pulling the end of the beam down while at the same time raising the other end of the beam. A second rod connected to the opposite end of the rod from the piston could be used to lift weights or water from great depths, however the actual lifting distance was limited by the stroke of the piston. The piston did not need high steam pressure to raise it to the top of its stroke because the unbalanced heavy weight of the lifting gear on the other end of the beam would tend to pull the piston upwards.
Before Newcomen, water pumps were horse drawn and were effective to a maximum depth of 90 feet (27 M). Newcomen's engine could draw water from several hundred feet enabling the operation of much deeper mines.
Because of the low operating steam pressures the engine was relatively safe. Efficiency however was very low because of the energy needed to reheat the steam chamber with every stroke and the time needed for heating and cooling it. Newcomen's first engine made twelve strokes per minute and raised ten gallons (45 Litres) of water per stroke. It was another 57 years before the next innovation in steam power, James Watt's separate steam condenser.
Because of the high consumption of coal to fuel the engine and its high cost, Newcomen engines were generally found only at pit heads where they were used for draining deep mines.
1713 Prolific French scientist and entomologist René-Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur invents spun glass fibres. In an attempt to make artificial feathers from glass he made fibres by rotating a wheel through a pool of molten glass, pulling out threads of glass where the hot, thick liquid stuck to the wheel. His fibres were short and fragile, but he predicted that spun glass fibers as thin as spider silk would be flexible and could be woven into fabric.
In 1731 Réaumur also invented an alcohol thermometer and a corresponding temperature scale which both bear his name. The temperature scale assigned zero degrees to the freezing point of water and eighty degrees its boiling point. The freezing point was fixed and the tube graduated into degrees each of which was one-thousandth of the volume contained by the bulb and tube up to the zero mark. It was an accident dependent on the expansion of the particular quality of alcohol employed which made the boiling point of water 80 degrees.
1714 The first mercury thermometer was made by Polish inventor Gabriel Fahrenheit. It had improved accuracy over the alcohol thermometer due to the more predictable expansion of mercury combined with improved glass working techniques. At the same time Fahrenheit introduced a standard temperature scale based on the two fixed points of the freezing and boiling points of water.
1714 The British government established the Board of Longitude (BOL) and passed the Longitude Act which offered financial rewards of up to £20,000 (Almost £4 million in today's money) for anyone who could find a simple and practical method for the precise determination of a ship's longitude. The requirement was originally defined as a longitude error of less than 0.5° or 30 arc minutes after a journey from Britain to any port in West Indies (lasting about six weeks).
The initiative was in response to a number of maritime disasters attributable to serious navigation errors. These included the Scilly naval disaster of 1707 in which four ships of the British fleet commanded by Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell were wrecked on the treacherous rocks off the coast of the Scilly Isles with the loss of almost 2000 sailor's lives including that of the Admiral himself.
At the time, there were rudimentary ways of determining latitude, the North-South position on the Earth, but there was no accurate way of determining longitude, the East-West position. Dead Reckoning was the method used and this involved calculating the current position by using a previously determined position, or fix, and plotting the new position based upon the vessel's known or estimated speeds and the elapsed time and headings over the course. Apart from the difficulty of measuring the speed of a sailing ship, this method was also subject to serious cumulative errors. The cause of the disaster was blamed on the navigators' inability to determine their longitude. Shovell's ships however, entering the English channel from the South, were also many miles in latitude North of their expected course when they hit the Scilly Isles and besides this, the precise location of the Scilly Isles was not known. But the navigators did not live to tell their tale since there were no survivors and there was a pressing need to do something about finding a better way to determine longitude.
Over the subsequent years this generous longitude prize seemed always out of reach as the original 1714 Act was followed by a series of new Longitude Acts which revised or added conditions for claiming the prize and the full prize money was never paid out. The man who eventually claimed the prize, albeit in installments with the balance paid by parliament in 1773, was Yorkshire born carpenter John Harrison who worked for over three decades on solving the problem.
See also alternative methods of determining longitude.
Using a Chronometer to Determine Longitude
The idea of using a clock to determine longitude was first proposed in 1553 by Dutch cartographer Gemma Frisius.
In principle it was easy
An observer's East-West position is measured with reference to lines of longitude, or meridians which run between the North and South Poles.
Since the Earth rotates at a steady rate of 360° per day, or 15° per hour, there is a direct relationship between solar time and longitude. (Solar time is the precise time, at a given location, calculated with reference to the apparent position of the Sun. Local time is usually considered to be the same time across an extensive time zone.)
As the Earth revolves, the Sun's position in the sky, as seen at noon from a fixed reference point, appears to move West, at the same time declining in elevation. In one hour, the Earth will have rotated by 15° but the Sun's position is fixed. During the same hour, to an observer 15° longitude West from the original location, the Sun will appear to be arriving from the East and at the end of the hour, rising to its maximum elevation which is the local noon. At the time of this local noon, a clock at the original, reference location will indicate an elapsed time of one hour.
By convention, the fixed reference point of 0° for longitude measurements was set on the Prime Meridian, an imaginary line running between the Poles and passing through Greenwich near London, and the reference time was known as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) or more recently Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) or Zulu Time by the Military. The scale of longitude ranges from 0° at the prime meridian to +180° eastward and −180° westward.
Thus the difference between the apparent local solar time at any location in the world and GMT can be used to calculate the longitude with each minute of time difference corresponding to 0.25°, or 15 arc minutes difference in longitude equivalent to 15 nautical miles at the equator.
The length of the nautical mile was defined in terms the scale of longitude and the circumference of the Earth at the equator. The 360 degrees of longitude correspond to 360*60 = 21.600 arc minutes and one nautical mile was defined as being equivalent to one minute of longitude at the equator.
Measured in statute miles, the circumference of the Earth at the equator is 24,901 miles. Thus 1 nautical mile ≡ 1.15 statute miles.
At any latitude above or below the equator, the longitude lines get closer together as the diameter of the Earth decreases with increasing latitude so that the East-West distance corresponding to one degree of longitude decreases from one nautical mile at the equator to zero at the Poles.
Example 1 The latitude of Greenwich is 51.48° North. At this latitude the circumference of the Earth is 13,504 nautical miles and one minute of longitude will correspond to 0.625 nautical miles.
Example 2 To win the BOL's top longitude prize of £20,000, after an Atlantic crossing to Barbados, situated at 13.19° North, the 30 arc minute longitude error allowed would correspond to a timing error of 2 minutes in time or 29.2 nautical miles (33.7 miles) error in position.
For a six week journey, the average timing error (gain or loss) of the ship's chronometer must be less than 2.8 seconds per day to meet the target timing error of less than 2 minutes.
The above calculations assume that the Earth's orbit is circular, but the orbit is actually elliptical, not circular so that adjustments must be made from navigation tables.
In practice it was difficult
Finding the apparent local time was relatively easy by setting the local noon at the time when the Sun was at its highest elevation. The difficulty was in determining the time at a distant reference point such as GMT while on a ship many weeks or months away from port. At that time, the best timekeepers were pendulum clocks but such clocks were useless at sea. There were no clocks that could maintain accurate time during long sea journeys while being subjected to the rolling, pitching and yawing of a sailing ship.
A timing error of one minute in either the ship's chronometer, or the local measurement of solar time, will result in an error in the longitude measure of 15 arc minutes, no matter how close to, or how far the ship is from its reference point (such as the Greenwich Meridian) and no matter what course the ship has followed to its current location. The major influence is the elapsed time between synchronising the chronometer with the reference time (e.g. GMT) and the current solar time. This is because the timing error of the chronometer is cumulative over time. The longer the ship is at sea, the more the inaccuracy of its longitude measurements.
Harrison's Early Clocks
Self-taught John Harrison was brought up in the small village of Barrow in Lincolnshire. An independent minded outsider throughout his life, he was driven by a passion to produce the most accurate and reliable timekeepers and a sheer determination to succeed. For fifty years he produced a series of innovative advances in timekeeping technology culminating with his recognition for solving the longitude problem.
He completed his first pendulum clock in 1713 when he was only 19 years old. Clock making and repairing were initially however only his spare time activities as he followed his father's trade as a carpenter and he did not take up the challenge of designing a marine chronometer in 1714 when the longitude prize was announced. It is not known whether he was even aware of the prize at the time.
Isolated and far from Britain's clockmaking community, his first clocks made before 1720 were all pendulum clocks and used conventional anchor escapements but apart from that they were far from conventional being made almost entirely of wood including the frame, gear wheels and pinions. Three of these clocks have survived and are held in UK collections at the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers and the Science Museum in London and and Nostell Priory near Wakefield.
The Brocklesby Park Clock
A major step forward was the commission to build an outdoor turret clock for the stables of the Earl of Yarborough. A serious issue with early clocks and watches was friction which caused the mechanisms to slow down. Friction also causes wear which leads to erratic tumekeeping. The solution was lubrication, but this brought its own serious problems. Lubrication reduced the friction for a short period but early lubricants were derived from animal fats which soon deteriorated and thickened with age gathering dust and clogging up the gears. The Brocklesby Park Clock was designed to run without lubrication with minimal friction.
Its unique features included:
The use of lignum vitae, a dense oily tropical hardwood, for bearings reduced friction and eliminated the need for lubrication.
Gear wheels of oak and box wood, except for the escape wheel which was brass.
Gear teeth in small groups mortised into the rim of the gear wheels with the grain in a radial direction to provide maximum strength.
A specially designed grasshopper escapement which eliminated the friction between sliding parts by means of a spring mechanism which caused the pallets to jump clear of the escape wheel and thus avoid the need for lubrication.
The main driving pinion was in the form of a lantern gear with teeth in the form of tiny lignum vitae rollers, mounted on brass pins so that the teeth made rolling contact with the mating gear wheel.
The clock was finished in 1722 and is still working today in its original location above the stables. Amazingly after almost 300 years of continuous working, it has still not been oiled.
Precision Long Case Clocks
Beginning 1725, working with his younger brother James, Harrison continued the quest for better timekeeping with the design of three long case (grandfather) clocks. His next major innovation in 1726 was temperature compensation which he implemented in these clocks.
Huygens had shown in 1656 that the period of a pendulum is proportional to square root of its length. Harrison was aware that increasing temperature would cause the length of a pendulum to increase and thus cause a clock lose time. He therefore devised the gridiron pendulum using two metals with different coefficients of expansion, arranged in such a form that the metal with the greatest expansion would expand in the opposite direction compensating for the expansion in the other metal so that the length of the pendulum was held constant and the clock kept good time. See a diagram of the gridiron pendulum.
The timekeeping accuracy of these clocks was so good that there were no reference timers accurate enough to measure their performance. He therefore had to check their timekeeping accuracy against apparent star movements. For this he noted the time when a reference star passed behind a fixed object (his neighbour's chimney stack) on subsequent nights. Sidereal time is the time based on the Earth's rotation relative to fixed stars rather than the Sun's orbital position and is easier to observe than the bright Sun. A mean sidereal day is 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds long, which means that a reference star would pass behind the chimney 3 minutes and 6 seconds earlier each day providing Harrison with a very precise timing reference.
He determined that his three clocks achieved the astonishing accuracy of one second error per month, far exceeding the accuracy of a few seconds error per day achieved by the best London clocks of the day.
Their accuracy was also many times better than the 2.8 seconds per day accuracy needed to win the longitude prize which no doubt piqued Harrison's interest. If only he could get rid of the troublesome pendulum!
Harrison's Clockmaking Resources
Harrison achieved his remarkable developments with the most meagre of resources.
There were no simple mathematics to analyse the dynamic performance of the moving parts of the clock mechanisms when subject to random external forces.
There were no published data on the performance of materials and structures such as, tensile strength, elasticity, coefficient of expansion or the affects of temperature, humidity and mechanical shock.
The lack of published data meant that he had to generate the data himself or proceed by "trial and error".
Without data and analytical tools it was easy to be diverted down blind alleys.
There were no high performance materials such as plastics or lubricants.
The materials which were available were of variable quality.
He had to make every single component himself including, gear wheels, springs, screws, spindles, bearings, casings, mounting plates, winders, pointers, pendulum rods and mounts, even the links in the fusee chains.
Tools in Harrison's time were still quite rudimentary and like all craftsmen of the period, he had to make his own. It was another century before the simple twist drill bit was invented.
With the only means of making precise timing measurements being by the observations of star movements at night, it could take weeks to verify the effect of minor adjustments.
All of these issues meant that progress was extremely slow.
Countering all these shortcomings, the greatest resource was Harrison himself.
He was innovative, self reliant and doggedly determined. If he encountered a technical problem he would design an alternative solution to avoid it, but if this was not possible he would design a method to compensate for it. His quest for the perfect, friction free timekeeper was never ending.
Harrison's Marine Chronometers
By 1728 nobody had come up with a viable solution to the longitude problem and the Longitude Prize was still unclaimed. The best portable timekeepers of the day were watches and their accuracy was worse than one minute per day while Harrison's pendulum clocks were capable of better than one second per month. Harrison was confident that he could produce a portable ship's clock which could meet the Board of Logitude (BOL) requirement of 2.8 seconds per day and set to work on plans for such a clock. He took the plans to London, his first ever trip South, to seek funding from the BOL and the advice and support of Edmond Halley the Astronomer Royal and member Board.
The BOL members included 6 top navy men, the potential users, 12 members of parliament who looked after the nation's purse strings and 6 top astronomers, mathematicians and academics to assess the technical merits of the proposed solutions. Halley warned that this, latter, technical group favoured astronomical navigation methods and were not well disposed to mechanical devices and while he was sympathetic, he advised Harrison to seek funding elsewhere and suggested that he visit George Graham, the country's foremost clock maker. Despite having his own deadbeat escapement which rivalled Harrison's grasshopper design, and having failed in his own attempts to produce a working temperature compensation design himself, Graham was helpful and lent Harrison £200, interest free, to start work on his ship's clock. Halley also remained an important supporter of Harrison.
Over a period of 30 years Harrison produced a series of four different marine chronometers, later designated as H1 to H4 and a copy H5. See photographs of Harrison's Marine Chronometers
H1 Chronometer
Harrison's first chronometer, H1, was started in 1730 and completed in 1735. The objective was to make a seagoing version of his wooden pendulum clocks. He retained the wooden gear wheels with anti-friction bearings and roller lantern pinions as well as the grasshopper escapement. The rest of the ideas were all new.
To make the machine completely independent of gravity and the motion of a ship, it was spring-driven, with all moving parts counterbalanced and controlled by springs.
The main driving power came from two mainsprings spaced 180° apart connected through a single fusee (see diagram) to even out variations in the spring forces of the two springs and to minimise the unbalanced force on the fusee.
The main gear wheels rotated on unusual friction free "open" balanced roller bearings of Harrison's own design.
The pendulum was replaced by a timing oscillator consisting of two 5 pound, dumbbell shaped rocking bar balances linked together by cross wires and oscillating opposite eachother in anti phase so that the effects of the rolling motion of the ship on one bar would be compensated by the effects on the other bar.
Two helical springs connecting the upper ends of each dumbbell bar and another pair connecting the lower ends provided the impulse and restoring forces to keep the dumbbells in motion.
Temperature compensation was provide by attaching each balance spring by a lever to a version of the gridiron compensator, the first ever application in a balance spring regulator.
Harrison also invented the going fusee, a mechanism for the H1 which kept it going while being wound up. Known more generally as maintaining power it has been used extensively in spring-driven clocks and watches ever since.
The H1 was made from 1,440 parts, over 5,400 if the chain links are included, and weighed 34 Kg.
In use it was mounted on gimbals and ran for 38 hours on one winding.
H1 Chronometer Sea Trials
Sea trials were belatedly arranged by the Admiralty in 1736 with a journey to Portugal rather than the specified West Indies necessary to claim the prize.
The clock did not perform well in rough seas during the one week outward journey in rough seas to Lisbon and Harrison even less so being seasick the whole time. The return journey which took one month in mixed weather was more successful. When the English coast was sighted, the ship's Master, Roger Wills, and his officers, having used traditional navigation methods identified it as Start Point, just East of their destination, Portsmouth. But Harrison's own chart, plotted using H1, placed them correctly 68 miles further West, at Lizard Point and potentially in peril. By coincidence Will's error was similar to the one which caused the demise of Admiral Shovell who ran into the Scilly Isles 55 miles West of Lizard Point.
The accuracy of Harrison's navigation was acknowledged by Wills who reported positively to the BOL. (The timekeeping accuracy of H1 was subsequently estimated as between 5 and 10 seconds per day). This was not enough to claim the longitude prize, but it was the first workable marine timekeeper and the BOL were sufficiently impressed that in 1737 he was awarded £250 to continue his experiments and the promise of £250 more on successful completion of a second approved machine. This enabled him to start work on H2, a more rugged and compact version of the H1. This was the first ever government sponsored Research and Development programme.
In 1736 Harrison moved to London, closer to the clockmaking community, to start work on H2. It followed the same basic design as H1 using a grasshopper escapement but with all the wooden parts changed to brass and improved gridiron temperature compensation. It ended up being taller and heavier than H1.
It did however have one further innovation. In 1739 Harrison invented the spring remontoire, a more controlled, secondary driving force which improved timekeeping regularity by separating the sensitive escapement from the main driving force thus avoiding variations in the driving force due to the mainspring winding down or caused by small errors in the manufacture. In the H2 the remontoire spring was rewound every 3 minutes 45 seconds.
In 1741, after three years of building and two of testing, H2 was ready for sea trials, but Britain was at war with Spain in the War of Austrian Succession and the trial was postponed because the government deemed that the clock was too important to risk falling into enemy hands. Shortly afterwards Harrison came to the conclusion that the H2, like the H1, was too cumbersome and the slow moving heavy dumbbell balances could not fully cancel all the possible ship's motions as expected. It was reluctantly abandoned and never submitted for sea trials.
In the meantime, he had already started work on a new sea clock, H3, with circular balance wheels instead of the heavy rocking arms, for which he requested, and received, further grant of £500 from the BOL.
Starting in 1740, Harrison spent 19 years working on H3 during which the BOL supported it with grants totalling £3000, before it too was also abandoned.
It was smaller and lighter than the previous two clocks and used a similar grasshopper escapement and a 30 second remontoire, but the large heavy balance wheels were just as susceptible to disturbance by the sea's forces as the previous balance bars. Another major difficulty was the lack of detailed theoretical knowledge of the properties of springs. It was not until 1807 that the notion of elasticity was defined and quantified by Thomas Young. The H3's two balance wheels were mounted one above the other and linked together by cross wires. A single, short, spiral balance spring controlled the upper wheel only in place of the four helical springs controlling the balance bars of the H1 and H2 and Harrison was unable to get this mechanism to work isochronously so that he was unable to achieve the necessary timekeeping accuracy.
Nevertheless, during this development period Harrison invented two new mechanisms for the H3 which are still used today. These were:
The Caged Roller Bearing in which the wheel shaft rotates between four bronze rollers held in a light brass cage so that there is only rolling motion and no sliding friction between the shaft and the bearing. This was the forerunner of the ubiquitous modern ball bearing.
The Bimetallic Strip which Harrison called his "thermometer curb". Constructed from brass and steel it bends under the influence of temperature, (See diagram) and this movement was used to shorten or increase the length of the balance spring. Shortening the length of the spiral spring increases its stiffness and compensates for the weakening of the spring as the temperature increased. Increasing the spring's length to compensate for the cold has the opposite effect.
The "Jefferys" Watch
While still struggling with the H3, in the early 1750s Harrison turned his attention to watches and designed a precision watch for his own personal use, which was made for him by the watchmaker John Jefferys. Completed in 1753, it used a novel vertical, recoil free, frictional rest escapement, similar to the verge balance spring escapement and was the first to incorporate in a watch some of the innovations developed for Harrison's clocks including temperature compensation and the going fusee.
Surprised by the accuracy of the watch's timekeeping, he began to realise that for over 20 years he had been working on the wrong track with his three sea clocks and that a watch would better satisfy the BOL requirements for a "practical" solution. He came to the conclusion that the secret to stability was small high frequency oscillators and that the large heavy balances in his sea clocks could not oscillate quickly enough to ensure stable timekeeping and that a smaller watch could oscillate at a much higher speed. This was one of Harrison's great insights.
He therefore admitted defeat and turned his attention to the design of a sea watch, H4.
In 1755 Harrison requested a further grant from the BOL to complete the H3 and to produce two sea watches, the H4 plus a smaller version. The BOL, still supporting the project, approved a grant of £2,500.
The H4 Sea Watch is housed in a silver case 13 cm (5.2 inches) in diameter like a large pocket watch and weighs 1.45 kg. It was based on Harrison's "Jefferys" Watch with the following innovations:
It had a high energy isochronous escapement which made it less affected by the slower ship's motions. This was accomplished by means of a heavier balance wheel with a greater amplitude swing of ±145° oscillating five times per second so that it carried much more kinetic energy making it less vulnerable to physical disturbance.
The escapement was driven by a remontoire, rewinding eight times a minute, to even the driving force.
A balance-brake stops the watch 30 minutes before it is completely run down, in order that the remontoire does not run down also.
Because the watch was too small to incorporate Harrison's anti-friction devices some of it's bearing surfaces required oil, however wherever possible jewelled (ruby and sapphire) bearings were fitted to reduce friction.
Diamonds were used for the surface of the escapement pallets.
In common with the Jefferys Watch it also had temperature compensation by means of a bimetallic strip and maintaining power by means of a going fusee.
The H4 Sea Watch was completed in 1759 and was submitted in 1760 to the BOL for sea trials. They awarded Harrison £250 to prepare and carry out the trials of H3 and H4 on a voyage to Jamaica in 1761. It had taken six years of development and testing.
Rival Methods
Meanwhile, German astronomer, Tobias Mayer had developed an alternative method of determining longitude, originally suggested in 1514 by another German astronomer Johannes Werner. Known as the lunar distances method, it was based on the position of the Moon relative to other fixed celestial bodies. Because the moon orbits the Earth in a regular orbit at around 15 degrees per day, its current position (angle) relative to a reference star, compared to its known position relative to the same reference star, as seen from some other terrestrial reference point such as Greenwich, could be used to calculate the current time difference between the two points. From the time difference, the longitude could be calculated. Unfortunately it took about four hours to perform these calculations by which time the ship would have moved to a new position.
The method only needed a sextant to make the observations and did not need an expensive chronometer.
In 1752 Mayer published initial tables of lunar distances which he had calculated. The latest update of these tables had also been sent in 1755 to Britain's current Astronomer Royal James Bradley who became a staunch advocate of the method. The recent invention of the sextant in 1757 had also improved the practicality of making the necessary celestial measurements, strengthening the case. The sextant was also much less expensive then the chronometer.
Notes: In 1612, Galileo had proposed a much simpler and accurate way of determining longitude based on observations of Jupiter's natural satellites, but such observations were impractical from a ship at sea.
In modern practice, a nautical almanac and nautical tables enable navigators to use the Sun, Moon, visible planets or any of 57 navigational stars for celestial navigation.
In 1760 the Royal Society appointed astronomer, the Reverend Nevil Maskelyne, to undertake an expedition to St Helena to observe the 1761 Transit of Venus with the objective of calculating the distance between the Earth and the Sun. Maskelyne used the opportunity to verify Mayer's method of lunar distances for calculating longitude and after his return he published British Mariner's Guide in 1763 explaining the method and showing some example lunar distances. This was followed by the Nautical Almanac in 1767 in which he provided more comprehensive tables of computed lunar distances from the Moon to the Sun and seven stars, every three hours for the whole of 1767.
Based on the Mariner's Guide, Maskelyne staked his claim for the Longitude prize and was supported by the current Astronomer Royal James Bradley who had succeeded Halley as Astronomer Royal in 1742.
With these developments just beginning in 1760, the astronomers were also preparing their bid for the prize, and the sea trials of the H4 were delayed by Bradley until late 1761. By then Harrison was 68 years old and the H3 and H4 chronometers were sent on their journey to Jamaica in the care of his son William.
It is not unusual for a timekeeper to have a fixed rate of time loss or gain, called the "rate". What is important is that the rate should not vary. If it is fixed it can be allowed for.
Before the trial, the H4 chronometer was calibrated by the Naval Academy at Portsmouth and determined to be 3 seconds slow with a fixed "rate" of time loss of 24/9 seconds per day.
During the first leg of the journey to Madeira, after 9 days out, the ship had run out of key provisions. Harrison predicted landfall the following day but Captain Dudley Digges disagreed, pointing out that, by his calculations, they were over 100 miles from Harrison's position and wagered that he was over 100 miles in error. When land was sighted the following morning, the young Harrison was proved right and Digges honoured his bet and offered to buy the first available chronometer of Harrison's design.
Continuing on their journey, they reached Kingston in Jamaica in 1762 after a total of 81 days and 5 hours at sea while the ship's log showed them to be well over 100 miles away. After allowing for the accumulated daily "rate" of time loss amounting to 3 minutes 36.5 seconds and an initial error of 3 seconds, Harrison's chronometer had lost only 5.1 seconds over the whole period as determined by solar measurements. This corresponded to an error in longitude of only 1.25 arc minutes, or approximately 1 nautical mile, compared with the known longitude of Kingston and well within the BOL requirement of 2 minutes in time or 30 arc minutes (0.5 degrees).
When the ship returned in 1762, Harrison expected to receive the £20,000 prize but he was sorely disappointed. His previous support from the BOL had evaporated. His original supporters Halley and Graham had been dead for several years and the BOL was still dominated by astronomers led by Bradley, the Astronomer Royal, who favoured the lunar distances method of determining longitude. The BOL came up with numerous arguments not to pay and demanded another trial.
The results were too good to be true.
The demonstrated accuracy was down to luck.
A timekeeper which took six years to construct did not meet the test of practicality required.
The location of Kingston was not known accurately.
The calibrated "rate" loss had not been declared before the voyage, implying that it must have been chosen after the event to fit the desired result.
It must have been a fluke.
Positive and negative errors had cancelled out.
Their conclusion was that there was insufficient evidence from the sea trials to qualify for the prize and that the chronometer should be subject to a second sea trial to prove the accuracy and viability of the watch.
Harrison was awarded £1,500 for the progress and promised a further £1,000 on completion.
The Second H4 Sea Trial
After much bitter argument it was agreed that he second trial would be a journey to Bridgetown in Barbados. Harrison was given 4 or 5 months to prepare and to calibrate the loss "rate" and the journey would take place in 1764 with the H4 in the care of Harrison's son William.
Much to Harrison's annoyance Maskelyne, his competitor for the prize, was sent to Barbados in 1763 to confirm its exact longitude using observations of Jupiter's satellites and, during the journey, to verify the suitability of Mayer's latest lunar distance tables for determining longitude. Such a conflict of interest would never be allowed today.
Before the journey Harrison gave calibration "rates" from 3 seconds per day gain at 42°F to 1 second per day loss at 82°F or an average of 1 second per day gain.
After a voyage of 47 days the timing error was just 39.2 seconds after the correction for "rate". This was less than one second per day and corresponded to an positional error of 9.8 miles (15.8 km) at 13.19° North, the latitude of Barbados. This was three times better than the performance needed to win the full £20,000 longitude prize.
By comparison Maskelyne's calculations based on lunar distances were also reasonably close with a positional error of 30 miles (48 km) at Barbados but they required several hours of calculations to determine the each position during the journey.
On the ship's return to Portsmouth after a two way journey of 156 days, and applying the average predetermined rate correction of 1 second per day, the watch had gained 54 seconds amounting to a third of a second per day. If the declared variable rate corrections for the temperature changes had been applied, the error would have been less than one tenth of a second per day. Surely enough to claim the prize. But Harrison was to be thwarted once more.
The Final Hurdles
By the time of the BOL review of the trial in 1765, Maskelyne had been appointed Astronomer Royal. In his report about the trials Maskelyne gave a negative report about the watch claiming once again that the accuracy of the measurements was attributed to luck and that the watch did not meet the needs of the BOL. The BOL consequently insisted that Harrison was only eligible for half of the prize money and applied a new set of conditions with which he must comply before he could even be awarded that.
The matter eventually reached Parliament, which offered Harrison £10,000 in advance and the other half once he handed over the design to other watchmakers to duplicate what had originally been considered to be a military secret. In the meantime he must disclose full design details of the mechanism to a BOL scientific committee and the watch would have to be handed over to the Astronomer Royal for long term testing. Eventually he reluctantly agreed and was awarded £7,500 since he had already received £2,500. Mayer was posthumously awarded £3,000 for his lunar distance method and tables.
Maskelyne who had not given up his own claims to the longitude prize, in 1766 produced a government warrant confiscating Harrison's three remaining timekeepers which were to become public property and subject to rigorous testing. Needless to say, they were treated very roughly. H4 had already been dismantled for disclosure to the board and was in need of cleaning and adjustment. After a 10 month trial H4 had gained 1 hour, 10 minutes and 27.5 seconds. Based on this Maskelyne pronounced that the watch could not be relied upon to keep the longitude on a six week journey to the West Indies despite the fact that it had already been demonstrated in twice in practice.
In 1766, in response to Harrison's claims for the second £10,000, the BOL also insisted that he must arrange the production of two copies of the sea watch to prove it was not a fluke. The first, known as K1 was made by watch maker Larcum Kendall and completed satisfactorily in 1769. Kendall had been a member of the BOL's scientific committee who had reviewed the H4 watch. The BOL insisted that the second copy had to be made by john Harrison himself. He was now 73 years old.
In 1767 the BOL published "The Principles of Mr Harrison's Timekeeper" making public the results of over 30 years of his work.
The H5 Chronometer
H5 was the copy of H4 which was demanded by the BOL and it was completed by Harrison in 1772 when he was 79 but the BOL still refused to pay up. The unschooled carpenter from the North was always at a disadvantage when arguing with the capital's aristocracy.
Frustrated and angry, Harrison appealed to the King, George III who was appalled by their treatment. In response he conducted his own private tests on the H5 watch, monitoring it daily. It performed superbly losing only 4.5 seconds in two months. Nevertheless the BOL refused to recognise the results of this independent trial. As a result the King advised John and William, to petition Parliament, threatening to appear in person to support their claim. In June of 1773, by Act of Parliament, the government finally awarded them £8750 which exceeded the balance of the £20,000 still owing.
The Board of Longitude Prize was never awarded.
The development of the first true chronometer was the life's work of one man, John Harrison, who never gave up despite numerous disappointments and setbacks during 31 years of persistent experimentation and testing. Harrison's chronometers revolutionised seafaring in the eighteenth century.
Initially they were very expensive. The K1 cost £450, an enormous sum at a time when the cost of a new ship was only around £10 per ton of displacement, but prices began to fall as chronometer's value was recognised and they became the preferred method for determining longitude.
The K1 was given to explorer Captain James Cook to trial on his three year (second) voyage of discovery to the South Sea Islands and subsequently used by him on his third voyage, having used the lunar distance method for navigation and surveying on his first voyage. He found it exceeded his expectations and became a great advocate for the chronometer. A second copy K2 was used by Lieutenant William Bligh, Captain of HMS Bounty, but taken by Fletcher Christian during his infamous mutiny in 1789.
You can still see Harrison's original sea clocks and watches.
H1, H2, H3, H4, K1 and K2 are displayed at the UK National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London
H5 is held at the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers in London.
1725 French weaver Basile Bouchon used a perforated paper roll in a weaving loom to establish the pattern to be reproduced in the cloth. The world's first use of manufacturing automation by using a stored program to control an automated machine.
1728 Another French weaver, Jean Falcon worked with Bouchon to improve his design by changing the perforated paper roll to a chain of more robust punched cards to enable the program to be changed more quickly.
1729 English chemist Stephen Gray was the first to identify the phenomenon of electric conduction and the properties of conductors and insulators and the first to transmit electricity over a wire. In an experiment, a young boy across laid across two swings suspended by silk ropes which insulated the boy electrically from the ground. The boy's body was charged up from a Hauksbee machine and when the boy held his hand above flakes of gold leaf on the floor, the flakes were picked up by electrostatic attraction to his hand. Thus electric charge was thus shown to be conducted through the boy's body to his hand but not through the insulating silk ropes to the ground.
Gray subsequently sent charges nearly 300 feet over brass wire and moistened thread and showed that electricity doesn't have to be made in place by rubbing but can also be transferred from place to place with conducting wire. An electrostatic generator powered his experiments, one charge at a time. The fore-runner to the electric telegraph.
1730 The octant, forerunner of the sextant was independently invented by English mathematician, John Hadley, and Thomas Godfrey, an American glazier in Philadelphia. The instruments enabled the precise measurement of the angle between two distant landmarks as seen by the observer. Their prime application however was for navigation where they were used to determine the angle of elevation between a celestial object and the horizon.
The principle of the "reflecting quadrant" or "octant", a doubly reflecting optical instrument, was first described in detail by Isaac Newton in 1699 in a letter to Edmond Halley, Britain's Astronomer Royal, but the description was not published until after Halley's death in 1742. The first sextant was made by London instrument maker John Bird in 1757. It was simply a scaled up version of the octant, requested after sea trials by British Admiral John Campbell who found the octant's 90° measurement range was too restrictive for lunar measurements and asked for it to be increased to 120°.
Mariners had for centuries used the principles of celestial navigation as a basis for determine their latitude by measuring the angle of elevation above the horizon of the Sun at solar noon, or Polaris, the North Star, at night (in the Northern hemisphere), but their instruments, ranging from the cross staff and astrolabe to a simple tilting quadrant scale with a plumb bob, were very inaccurate. They were also difficult to use since while standing on a pitching and rolling ship, the user had to simultaneosly observe the horizon and the target celestial object which both both move around in the observer's field of view.
The sextant, an optical instrument based on two reflecting mirrors, greatly improved the accuracy and simplicity of making these navigation sightings by superimposing the images from the horizon and the target in a single viewfinder. In this way the relative position of the two images remains steady in the viewfinder of the sighting telescope making the observation much easier to manage as the ship pitches and rolls.
The invention of the sextant was a major step in improving safety at sea. Sextants are still used today as emergency back-up in case of failure of modern electronic navigation systems. Unlike GPS satellite navigation systems they are completely autonomous and don't need electricity to get a fix on a position. They are even used for navigation in space where they provide precise calibration for correcting the drift in the guidance system which can occur with spacecraft inertial navigation platforms.
The marine sextant enables the observer to view both the horizon and the target celestial object simultaneously. Light from the horizon enters the sextant's sighting telescope directly while light from the target object is directed via a tilting mirror into the same telescope and superimposed on the image of the horizon. By tilting the mirror, the image of the target object can be brought into line with the image of the horizon and the measured angle of tilt is used to derive the angular elevation of the target.
See a diagram of a Sextant illustrating its workings.
The sextant has two lines of sight, one from the horizon and one from the target navigational marker (either the Sun or a star). The line of sight from the horizon, known as the boresight, is a straight line passing along a fixed path directly into the sighting telescope via the transparent half of a "half-silvered horizon mirror" which splits the view horizontally and provides a full view of the horizon. Alternatively the view may be split vertically by means of a "half-horizon mirror" through which the path of the horizon line of sight passes through its clear side.
The line of sight of the target object (the Sun or the star) is reflected from the "index mirror" onto the horizon mirror which in turn redirects it into the sighting telescope so that the images of the target and the horizon are superimposed. By adjusting the angle of the index arm, the image of the target can be lined up with the horizon. The angle of elevation of the target can then be read off from the graduated scale. A 1° movement of the index arm corresponds to a 2° difference in the elevation of the line of sight to the target. This is because the change in the angle between the incident and reflected rays on the index mirror is double the change in the angle of incidence of the rays on the mirror caused by rotating the index arm. (Angle of reflection = Angle of incidence). Thus the scales of the octant which covers an arc of 45° and the sextant which covers an arc of 60° are graduated from zero (or below) to 90° and 120° respectively.
Filter glasses can be moved into the optical paths to reduce the intensity of the Sun's rays in order to protect the user's eyes from harm.
The sextant's graduated scale will indicate the angle of elevation, confusingly called the altitude or the height even though it is measured in degrees, of the target celestial object above the horizon. The apparent position of the Sun in the sky varies with the seasons, in the northern hemisphere being higher in the winter than in the summer and it varies with the time of day being at its highest at noon. The actual latitude must therfore be determined from navigation tables which show the true latitude corresponding to the elevation measured, with correction factors depending on the month and day of the year and on the precise time of the day as registered by the ship's chronometer when the sighting was taken. At the same time the tables also provide the ship's longitude corresponding to the noted chronometer reading. Thus the ship's complete geographical position can be determined.
Finding Latitude Using Polaris
The line of sight to the horizon at any point on the Earth is very close to a tangent to the Earth's surface, (see corrections below).
Polaris is a distant star in the northern sky lying on a line coincident with the axis of the Earth. As the Earth makes its annual orbit around the Sun and makes its daily revolution on its axis, Polaris appears to be stationary in the sky on a line perpendicular to the Earth's equator, passing through the North Pole. It is so far away that light rays impinging on the Earth appear to be parallel.
For an observer situated on the equator, Polaris will appear to be exactly on the northern horizon and the angle of incidence between the horizon and Polaris, its elevation, will be zero since the line of sight of both the horizon and the star are at right angles to the Equator. For an observer at the North Pole, Polaris will appear to be directly overhead with an angle of incidence or elevation at 90° to the line of sight to the horizon. These two elevations correspond to the latitudes at those points. At any intermediate point between the North Pole and the equator, the elevation indicated on the scale of the sextant corresponds directly to the true latitude of the location.
Unfortunately there is no equivalent South Pole Star and alternate methods of determining latitude must be used.
Finding Latitude Using the Sun
Because the reference position of the Sun is in the plane of the equator, the measured angles of elevation will be displaced by 90° from the angles measured using the Polaris reference. Thus at noon on the vernal or autumnal equinox (when the daytime and night time are approximately equal), on the equator (latitude zero) the Sun will be directly overhead and the sextant will indicate the angle of elevation of the Sun to be 90°. At the same time, since the distant Sun's rays are essentially parallel, at the North and South Poles (90° latitude) the Sun will appear to be on the horizon and the sextant will indicate the Sun's angle of elevation to be 0°. At the Poles, and any location in between, the latitude can be determined by subtracting the sextant reading from 90°.
But this is not a practical way of determining latitude since equinoxes occur only two times per year. Using the Sun to determine latitude is much more complicated because the Sun does not appear as a stationary reference target like Polaris does. There are two reasons for this.
The first is that the Earth's axis is tilted at a fixed angle of 23.45° with respect to the plane of its orbit around the Sun so that, as it makes its 12 monthly orbit, the highest position of the noon-day Sun, as seen from the Earth, appears to move between 23.45° above the equator and 23.45° below the equator as the Earth moves between opposite sides of the Sun. See diagram of Earth's tilted orbit.
In the Northern hemisphere, at noon on the summer solstice, (the longest day), the Sun will be directly over the Tropic of Cancer at a latitude of 23.45° North. At noon on the winter solstice, (the shortest day) the Sun will be directly over the Tropic of Capricorn at 23,45° South. These observations are mirrored in the Southern hemisphere.
The apparent position of the Sun or other celestial object above or below the Earth's equator is known as its declination and the solar declination depends on the angular distance of the Earth around its orbit of the Sun, in other words, on the date.
The second variation arises because the Earth is rotating once per day so that the Sun appears from over the horizon at dawn, rising to its highest elevation at noon, then declining and disappearing below the horizon in the evening. Thus the observed elevation of the Sun depends on the time of day. For consistency and simplicity, sightings are normally taken at noon when the Sun appears at its highest position in the sky. At any other time, corrections must be applied for the declination due to the time of day.
True latitudes on any particular day are therefore determined from published navigation tables, which show the solar declination for every day of the year, by applying the following calculation:
Latitude = (90° - Sextant Angle) + Declination of the Sun if the observer is in the same hemisphere as the Sun
Latitude = (90° - Sextant Angle) - Declination of the Sun if the observer is in the opposite hemisphere from the Sun
Corrections for time and minor corrections for the height of the observer above the Earth's surface must also be applied. Any small perturbations in the Earth's orbit are already taken into account in the basic navigation tables.
Before the availability of accurate chronometers such as those first pioneered by John Harrison, the sextant was also used to determine the time and hence the ship's longitude by measuring the angle between the Moon and other celestial objects, the so called "lunar distance". Because the Moon makes regular orbits of the Earth once every 27.32 days, its position can be used as a timing reference. Greenwich time corresponding to the observed lunar distance could then be found from a nautical almanac and from the difference between the Greenwich time and the local time the longitude could be calculated.
The accuracy of the sextant depends on the precision and skills of the instrument maker. The measurement accuracy of Bird's sextant was 2 arc minutes. This corresponds to a possible latitude error of about 2 nautical miles. Modern sextants typically have an measurement accuracy of around 0.1 arc minutes or 0.1 nautical miles which is about 200 yards. At sea, results within the visual range of several nautical miles are often considered acceptable. There is also the possibility of user set up errors but adjustments are usually provided to correct this.
Correction Factors
Besides the accuracy of the instrument itself, there are several further factors also affecting the accuracy of the measurement. The line of sight to the horizon of the ocean is not a true tangent to the Earth's or the sea's surface, but depends on the height of the sextant telescope, or the observer's eye, above the surface. This correction known as the "dip" must be subtracted from the sextant reading. The dip in arc minutes is given by:
Dip correction = - 1.76√eye height in metres
Dip correction = - 0.97√eye height in feet
Thus for a reading taken 5.5 metres or 18 feet above sea level from the deck of a ship, the dip correction will be - 4.1 arc minutes corresponding to an adjustment in the calculated latitude of 4.2 nautical miles.
There are also slight, recurring irregularites in the movement of the Earth which also introduce potential errors. Another potential correction allows for sighting to be made on the centre or the edge of the Sun. The navigation tables provide compensation for most of these errors.
1733 French soldier, diplomat and chemist Charles-Francois de Cisternay du Fay discovered two types of electrical charge, positive and negative which he called "vitreous" and "resinous" from the materials used to generate the charge.
1733 John Kay of Bury, Lancashire (No relation to John Kay of Warrington) patented the flying shuttle, the device used in weaving looms, which carries the weft threads (across the width of the cloth) between the warp threads (along the length of the cloth). In a traditional hand loom, the weft thread was held in a natural reed which was propelled by hand across the loom between the warp threads pulling the weft behind it along a track called the race. It was a slow process and to produce wide bolts of cloth, it needed two weavers, one at each side of the loom to catch and return the shuttle. In Kay's system, a mechanism at each end of the race caught the shuttle and sent it back to the opposite side. The shuttle itself was made of metal and being heavier than the reed it gave the shuttle more inertia to traverse the loom. This system enabled much faster weaving speeds and the production of greater widths of cloth with only one operator per loom instead of two as well as reduced manual intervention in the process.
The introduction of flying shuttle was however perceived as a threat to their livelihood by textile workers who resisted its introduction and Kay had great difficulty in collecting the royalties on his patents.
On the positive side, the increased production of cloth created a demand for thread which exceeded the industry's production capacity, prompting the mechanisation of the thread spinning process.
The invention of the flying shuttle was one of the first examples of mechanisation being used to improve productivity and a significant first step in the Industrial Revolution.
1733 French Huguenot mathematician, Abraham de Moivre living in England to escape religious persecution in Catholic France derived and published the formula for the Normal Distribution which he used to analyse the magnitude and the probability distribution of errors. Also called the Bell Curve and the Gaussian or error distribution but strangely never by de Moivre's name, besides describing the distribution of measurement errors it is widely used to represent the distribution of characteristics which cluster round a mean value such as the spread of tolerances on manufactured parts to anthropometrical and sociological data about the general population. See diagram of the Normal Distribution.
De Moivre also derived a law relating trigonometry to complex numbers which was indeed named after him. It states that for any complex number and for any real number X and integer n it holds that:
(cosx + i sinx)n = cos(nx) + i sin(nx)
He supplemented his meagre income as a mathematics tutor with a little gambling and the publication of his book The Doctrine of Chances: a method of calculating the probabilities of events in play one of the first books about probability theory which ran into four editions between 1711 and 1756.
1738 Swiss mathematician Daniel Bernoulli showed that Newton's Laws apply to fluids as well as solids and that as the velocity of a fluid increases, the pressure decreases, a statement known as the Bernoulli principle.
More generally the Bernoulli Equation is a statement of the conservation of energy in a form useful for solving problems involving fluid mechanics or fluid flow. For a non-viscous, incompressible fluid in steady flow, the sum of pressure, potential and kinetic energies per unit volume is constant at any point.
Bernoulli's equation also underpins the theory of flight. Lift is created because air passing over the top of the wing must travel further and hence faster that air traveling the shorter distance under the wing. This results in a lower pressure above the wing than below the wing and this pressure difference creates the lift.
See also Diagrams of Aerodynamic Lift and Alternative Theories of Flight
Daniel Bernoulli was also the first to explain that the pressure exerted by a gas on the walls of its container is the sum of the many collisions by individual molecules, all moving independently of each other - the basis of the gas laws and the modern kinetic theory of gases.
Daniel Bernoulli was a member of a family of Bernoullis many of whom gained international distinction in mathematics. They were Calvinists of Dutch origin but were driven from Holland by religious persecution finally settling at Basel in Switzerland.
James (Jacques/Jakob) Bernoulli was the first to come to prominence. He learned about calculus from Leibniz and was one of the first users and promoters of the technique. In his Ars Conjectandi, "The Conjectural Arts" published in 1713, eight years after his death by his nephew Nicholas Bernoulli, he established the principles of the calculus of probabilities - the foundation of probability theory as well as the principles of permutations and combinations. He was also one of the first to use polar coordinates.
John (Jean/Johann) Bernoulli, James' brother and father of Daniel was clever but unscrupulous, fraudulently substituting the work of his brother James, of whom he was jealous, for his own to cover up his errors. He also banished his son Daniel from his home when he was awarded an prize he himself had expected to win. Nevertheless he was a great teacher an advanced the theory of calculus to explore the properties of exponential and other functions.
John's three sons Nicholas, Daniel and John Bernoulli the younger and his two sons John and James all achieved distinction in mathematics in their own right.
1740 British clockmaker Benjamin Huntsman, in search of spring steel for his clock making business, developed the crucible steel process to improve the quality of conventional blister steel which was not uniform and often contained slag and structural dislocations which made it unsuitable for high stress applications. Blister steel, the best quality steel available at the time, was derived from wrought iron, using the cementation process, and had never been in a fully liquid state.
Huntsman's solution was to refine the blister steel by melting it and skimming off the slag to produce homogeneous molten steel which could be poured into moulds to produce high strength, pure cast steel ingots. He chose Sheffield as the location for his business since it had a plentiful supply of good quality coke which was the fuel needed to achieve the very high temperature necessary to melt the steel. Such high temperatures and fine controls had never before been achieved in a practically sized furnaces.
His process involved heating a 34 pound (15 kg) charge of small pieces of blister steel together with a limestone flux to over 1600°C in small covered refractory vessels (fireclay pots) called crucibles for three hours in a coke fire to melt the steel. The crucibles had to be robust enough to withstand the very high furnace temperatures and the ceramic material from which they were constructed should not contaminate the melted steel.
This process eliminated the defects from the steel and, after casting, produced a homogeneous, high tensile strength, high quality steel. The crucible operation required very precise control of the furnace but the small scale of the operation also allowed more precise control of the process than was possible with a large blast furnace. It also allowed other alloying materials to be added to the mix to make specialist steels to precise specifications but the method was slow and labour intensive and only suitable for making small batches. Fuel costs were also very high. After 1870, the coke fired furnaces were replaced by gas fired furnaces.
Huntsman's crucible steel set new standards for the quality of steel. Key to his success were the design and manufacture of the crucibles, the high temperature furnaces and the control of the content of the steel charge, all of which he kept a closely guarded secret.
See also Iron and Steel Making
1744 Prolific French inventor Jacques de Vaucanson maker of robot devices and automatons playing musical instruments and imitating the movements of birds and animals, turned his attention to the problems of mechanisation of silk weaving. Building on the inventions of Bouchon and Falcon, he built a fully automated loom which used perforated cards to control the weaving of patterns in the cloth. Vaucanson also invented many machine tools and collected others which became the foundation of the 1794 Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers (Conservatory of Arts and Trades) collection in Paris. Although Vaucanson's loom was ignored during his lifetime, it was rediscovered more than a half century later at the Conservatoire by Jacquard who used it as the basis for his own improved design.
1745 Electricity first stored in a bottle (literally). The discovery of the Leyden Jar, essentially a large capacitor, was claimed by various experimenters but generally attributed to a Dutch physicist and mathematician Pieter van Musschenbroek and his student Andreas Cunaeus (whom he almost electrocuted with it) working at Leyden University in Holland. The first source of stored electrical energy the Leyden jar was simply a jar filled with water, with metal foil around the outside and a nail piercing the stopper and dipping into the water.
A similar device was also invented at the same time by Ewald Jurgens von Kleist, Dean of the Cathedral of Kammin in Germany.
The design was improved in 1747 by English astronomer John Bevis who replaced the water with an inner metal coating covering the bottom and sides nearly to the neck. A brass rod terminating in an external knob passed through a wooden stopper or cork and was connected to the inner coating by a loose chain or wire.
The invention of the Leyden jar was a key development in the eighteenth century and until the advent of the battery, Leyden jars, together with von Guericke's and Hauksbee's electrostatic generators, were the experimenters' only source of electrical energy. They were however not only made for scientific research, but also as curiosities for amusement. In the 18th century, everybody who had heard of it wanted to experience an electric shock. Experiments like the "electric kiss" were a salon pastime.
1746 French clergyman and physicist Jean Antoine Nollet demonstrated that electricity could be transmitted instantaneously over great distances suggesting that communications could be sent by electricity much faster than a human messenger could carry them.
With the connivance of the Abbot of the Grand Convent of the Carthusians in Paris he assembled 200 monks in a long snaking line with each monk holding the ends of eight metre long wires to form a chain about one mile long. Without warning he connected a Leyden Jar to the ends of the line giving the unsuspecting monks a powerful electric shock and noted with satisfaction that all the monks started swearing and contorting, reacting simultaneously to the shock. A second demonstration was performed at Versailles for King Louis XV, this time by sending current through a chain of 180 Royal Guards since by now the monks were less than cooperative. The King was both impressed and amused as the soldiers all jumped simultaneously when the circuit was completed.
1746 English mathematician and scientist, Benjamin Robins, constructed a whirling arm apparatus to conduct experiments in aerodynamics. He attached a horizontal arm to a vertical pole, which he rotated, causing the arm to spin in a circle. A variety of objects were attached to the end of the rotating arm and spun at high speed through the air. His tests confirmed that the size, the shape and the orientation of the objects had a tremendous effect on air resistance and the drag they experienced. This idea was subsequently picked up and used by others such as Smeaton who used it to derive the aerodynamic lift equation.
1747 - 1753 Fabulously wealthy, eccentric English loner Henry Cavendish discovered the concept of electric potential, that the Inverse Square Law applied to the force between electric charges, that the capacity of a condenser depends on the substance between the plates (the dielectric) and that the potential across a conductor is proportional to the current through it (Ohm's Law).
Charge was provided by Leyden Jars. Potential was "measured" by observing the deflection of the two gold leaves of an electrometer but since no instruments for the measurement of electric current existed at the time, Cavendish simply shocked himself, and estimated the current on the basis of the extent and magnitude of the resulting pain.
Cavendish also analysed the puzzle of the Torpedo fish which seemed to give an electric shock which was not accompanied by a spark. At that time the presence of a spark was considered to be an essential property of electricity. He was the first to make the distinction between, the amount of electricity (its charge), now called Coulombs, and its intensity (its potential difference), now called Volts. He showed that the fish produced the same kind of electricity as produced by an electrostatic generator or stored in a Leyden jar, but the electricity from the fish was high charge with low voltage whereas the electricity from a typical Leyden jar was high voltage with a low charge. This was because the fish's electric charge was generated by a multitude of gelatinous plates, each providing a small charge, connected together is series and parallel combinations as in the cells of a battery, to increase the potential difference and charge capacity respectively. We now know that the fish can generate a voltage of about 250 Volts while the voltage on the Leyden jar could typically be ten times that.
Cavendish recorded all his experiments in notebooks and manuscripts but published very little, principally the results of the chemical experiments which formed the bulk of his work. It was therefore left to Coulomb (1785), Ohm (1827) and Faraday (1837) to rediscover these laws many years afterwards. His papers were discovered over a century later by James Clerk Maxwell who annotated and published them in 1879.
Cavendish's family endowed the Cambridge University Cavendish Laboratories at which many of the world's discoveries in the field of nuclear physics were made.
1747 British physicist Sir William Watson, Bishop of Landaff, ran a wire on insulators across Westminster Bridge over the Thames to a point across the river over 12,000 feet away. Using an earth or ground return through the river. He was able to send a charge sufficiently intense after passing through three people to ignite spirits of wine. Watson was probably the first man to use ground conduction of electricity, though he may not have been aware of its significance at the time. Watson was the first to recognise that a discharge of static electricity is equivalent to an electric current.
1748 Watson uses an electrostatic machine and a vacuum pump to make a glow discharge lamp. His glass vessel was three feet long and three inches in diameter. The first fluorescent light bulb.
1748 To carry out measurements with less risk of electrocution of the experimenter or dragooned assistants Nollet invented one of the first electrometers, the electroscope, which detected the presence of electric charge by using electrostatic attraction and repulsion between two pieces of metallic foil, usually gold leaf, mounted on a conducting rod which is insulated from its surroundings. The first voltmeters.
1748 Swiss mathematician and physicist Leonhard Euler produced this remarkable formula:
eix = cos(x) + i sin(x)
where i = √-1
and e = 2.1828 the base of the natural logarithm, now known as Euler's number.
In the special case where x = π, then cos(π) = -1 and sin(π) = 0
and Euler's formula reduces to:
ei π = -1
Euler had thus discovered a simple and surprising relationship between three mathematical constants.
Among his many other accomplishments, Euler developed equations for calculating the power and torque developed by hydraulic turbines.
The following are some key developments in hydraulic power technology.
Hydropower has been used since ancient times for turning mill wheels in flour mills grinding grain. Its earliest form was the familiar wooden water wheel, often called the Vitruvius wheel after Roman military engineer Vitruvius who in around 15 B.C. first described it in detail. This was a vertical wheel rotating on a horizontal axis perpendicular to the water flow so that the water impinged tangentially to the wheel on flat blades attached to its periphery causing it to turn.
The simplest design was the undershot wheel in which the lower part of the wheel dipped into a moving stream and the water impinging on the flat blades or paddles caused the wheel to turn. To turn the horizontal mill stones, the waterwheel had to be coupled to the vertical shaft of the stones via a wooden right-angle gear drive. Undershot wheels are suitable for use in shallow streams but their efficiency is very low, between 5% in the worst case and up to 22% as later calculated by John Smeaton.
The efficiency was improved in the overshot wheel in which water was fed from above via a chute, or penstock which could control the flow, on to the wheel near the top of its cycle, just past its highest point. Instead of flat blades, the overshot wheel had a series of fixed buckets mounted around its circumference. In action, the weight of the water filled buckets on down side of the wheel compared with the weight of the empty buckets on the up side of the wheel created an unbalanced torque on the wheel causing it to turn. The orientation of the fixed buckets gradually changed as the water wheel rotated through its cycle and the water was discharged as the buckets approached their lowest point and entered their up cycle when the buckets were upside down. The overshot wheel has the double advantage of gravity providing the turning force as well as, to a lesser extent, the momentum of the water. Efficiencies could be as high as 63%.
Since Roman times a huge variety of water wheels and turbines have been developed to work in a wide range of operating conditions such as high speed low volume, and low speed high volume water flows and intermittent, variable and bi-directional flows as well as systems fully or partially immersed in the water. Practical systems however must be supported by a variety of ancillary control equipment to accommodate fluctuating water supplies and to match them to irregular mechanical or electrical loads and custom power take-off arrangements.
Water wheels and turbines derive their torque from the change in momentum (mv) of the water flow by changing either the speed, direction, pressure or weight of the flow.
Impulse turbines obtain their torque by changing the direction of the water flow. They normally operate in air or only partially submerged.
Reaction turbines develop torque from accelerating water flows between the turbine blades causing pressure differentials. They normally operate fully submerged or encased to contain the water pressure.
See more about water turbines on the Hydroelectric Power page.
1759 English engineer John Smeaton developed a method of calculating hydraulic efficiencies based on models. He designed several Vitruvian style water wheel installations and was the first to use cast iron wheels and gearing. This was around the start of the industrial revolution and water wheels were beginning to be used for powering machinery and percussion tools but ten years later Watt's steam engine also became available to fulfil that role. Subsequently, most development of hydropower took place in countries with ample, constant and reliable hydro sources such as France and the USA, whereas the development of steam power was pursued more in countries lacking those resources such as the UK.
1767 French inventor Chevalier da Borda analysed the undershot water wheel and proposed that by using a curved blade design it would enable the water to pass through the wheel with minimum turbulence and would therefore reduce losses and hence improve efficiency.
1824 In an attempt to capture the maximum energy from the water wheel French mathematics teacher at the Ecole des Mines, Claude Burdin, expanded on da Borda's idea and published "Hydraulic Turbines" and proposed that the maximum efficiency could be achieved with a water flow parallel to, rather than perpendicular to, the axis of the wheel in a configuration known as axial flow. He pointed out however that using heavily curved blades in an attempt to achieve maximum efficiency would direct the exhaust water flow against the back of the following blade thus slowing it down, while alternatively directing the exhaust downwards allowed the water to leave with comparatively high velocity resulting in less energy being extracted from the water flow. While the factors affecting efficiency were better understood, designing a practical turbine was still a problem.
Burdin coined the word "turbine" which he took from the Latin "turbo" meaning a vortex or spinning. The array of blades mounted on the rotating shaft of the turbine is called the "runner".
1827 At the age of 25, French engineer Benoît Fourneyron, a pupil of Burdin, solved many of these efficiency problems with his design for a turbine, capable of producing around 6 horsepower (4.5 kW). It was a horizontal (vertical shaft) radial flow device with the water flowing outwards from the centre using two sets of blades or vanes curved in opposite directions, a fixed set which he called a distributor, also known as wicket gates, which directed the water flow at the optimum angle on to the rotating runner blades. Since the Fourneyron turbine reacts to the pressure on the runner it is classified as a reaction turbine.
It was the world's first commercial hydraulic turbine and proved highly successful. Within a few years, hundreds of factories used Fourneyron-style turbines. By 1837, he had produced a 60 hp (45 kW) turbine operating at 2,300 r.p.m. with an efficiency of 80% weighing only 40 pounds. In 1895 Fourneyron-type turbines, designed by Faesch and Piccard of Geneva, were installed in the world's first hydroelectric AC generating station at Niagara Falls coupled to Westinghouse electric generators. See also the Current Wars.
1844 American civil and mechanical engineer Uriah Atherton Boyden made efficiency improvements to early Fourneyron turbines by optimising the passages of the input and exhaust water flows achieving 78% efficiency.
1846 Belfast born James Thomson, elder brother of Lord Kelvin, designed the Vortex inward radial flow reaction turbine which he patented in 1850. Similar to the Francis turbine (see next), water entered around the circumference of a vertical shaft runner and was directed through coupled, moveable (pivoted), curved guide vanes on to curved runner blades to enable optimum performance with different flow rates. It was compact and could work with water heads as low as 3 feet (1 m). His first model turbine, produced in 1847, delivered 0.1 hp (75 W) with an efficiency of 70%. Later models achieved 75% efficiency.
A Vortex turbine was used in 1878 by William Armstrong to power the world's first hydroelectric power installation at Cragside in the UK.
1849, British born, American James B Francis, chief engineer of the Lowell, Locks and Canals Company, friend of Uriah Boyden, developed the first modern water turbine – the Francis turbine. He made major improvements to Fourneyron's design achieving efficiencies of 90%. Like Thomson's Vortex turbine it was an inward radial flow design, rather than Boyden's outward flow design, but it also included an element of axial flow so that water entered radially and exited axially (now called a mixed flow design). For this it used deeper blades, curved around two axes at right angles to each other. Water was distributed around the circumference of the runner in a spiral casing with reducing diameter to ensure uniform velocity of entry to the blades. Curved stationary guide vanes and shaped rotor vanes ensured that water entered the runner shock and turbulence-free at the correct angle. The runner blades like many reaction turbines were shaped like aerofoils so that the water flow created a greater pressure on one side of the blades than on the other creating a reaction force which caused the runner to rotate. The blades also had a bucket-like curve towards the turbine outlet so that the water impinging on this surface provided an added kick or impulse to the blades before leaving the runner.
The Francis turbine operates under a wide range of conditions and remains the most widely used large water turbine in the world today with about 60% of all high power installations.
1851 French engineer Louis Dominique Girard introduced the Girard axial flow impulse turbine. It is comprised of an array of small curved plates arranged in an annular ring around the periphery of a large diameter flat turbine wheel or runner. Water was directed at right angles to the wheel through these moving vanes via a series of fixed, curved vanes in two diametrically opposite quadrants. Very high speeds were possible.
1870s, American inventor Lester Allan Pelton developed the Pelton wheel, an impulse water turbine, which he patented in 1880. Tangential jets of water impinge on pairs of buckets mounted side by side around the circumference of a small wheel. The buckets split the water jet into two equal streams which emerge from opposite sides of the wheel, balancing the side-load forces on the wheel. The curved profile of the buckets ensures smooth water flow maximising the energy capture from the stream. The Pelton turbine is a simple and efficient design which needs only a small water flow and can operate with very high water heads at very high speeds.
1913 Austrian civil engineer Viktor Kaplan developed the Kaplan turbine, a propeller-type turbine with adjustable runner blades as well as adjustable wicket gates directing the water flow for which he received four patents. The machine's variable geometry enabled fine control over the water flow and high efficiencies to be achieved over a wide range of water flows and pressure heads.
See also Steam Turbines.
1750 to 1850 The Industrial Revolution
In the period from around 1750 to around 1850 a series of technical innovations took place in Britain, each one with the simple aim of solving a particular problem or of doing things more efficiently, each one creating yet more opportunities for innovation. The way forward was shown by the development of rudimentary machines to improve productivity by mechanising manual work. The advent of the steam engine raised the potential of this mechanisation to a much greater level. The following were some key developments:
(1701) Jethro Tull's seed drill, an early example of mechanisation revolutionised British agriculture.
(1709) Abraham Darby's mass production of cast and wrought iron provided the essential materials for building industrial tools and machines.
(1712) Thomas Newcomen invented the first practical steam engine which was first used for pumping water out of mines, but with further developments became the workhorse of the industrial revolution.
(1733) John Kay's hand operated flying shuttle brought mechanisation to the weaving industry.
(1759) Josiah Wedgwood founded his pottery factory. He used mass production techniques coupled with scientific method to determine precise controls on the composition of the glazes, the temperatures of the kilns and the glazing process to produce high quality ceramics. (A typical example of the possibilities of mechanised production of ceramic products. Not unique to Wedgwood). Wedgwood was instrumental in commissioning and funding the Trent and Mersey Canal which secured supplies for his potteries. He was also a pioneer in marketing and advertising, one of the first to open showrooms to display his products and to make skilful use of royal patronage to promote and sell them.
(1761) James Brindley extended the British canal system creating a national network facilitating the easier and more economical movement of goods.
(1764) James Hargreaves' spinning jenny, powered by hand, brought further mechanisation to the textile industry
(1765) Matthew Boulton introduced the factory system to the metalworking industry and provided social security for his employees.
(1769) James Watt greatly improved the efficiency of steam engines improving the economic viability of steam power.
(1771) Richard Arkwright developed much larger machine driven spinning frames which he installed at Cromford Mill where he pioneered the factory system of production in the spinning industry.
(1777-1779) Thomas Pritchard designed, and Abraham Darby III built the World's first iron bridge at Coalbrookdale in Shropshire.
(1779) Samuel Crompton invented the spinning mule which could produce a wide range of high quality fine yarns.
(1783) Henry Cort improved the processes of steelmaking and forging by means of puddling and rolling mills, reducing the cost of steel and increasing its potential applications.
(1786) Matthew Boulton applied steam power to coining machines to manufacture coins for the mint. (A typical example of the possibilities of mechanised production of metal parts. Not unique to Boulton)
(1794) Eli Whitney in the USA invented the cotton gin which revolutionised the processing of raw cotton.
(1797) Henry Maudslay and James Nasmyth developed precision machine tools while Eli Whitney pioneered manufacturing using interchangeable parts.
(1825) George Stephenson opened the world's first public railway initiating a rapid improvement in the country's transport infrastructure.
(1827) Benoît Fourneyron developed the first practical water turbine enabling exploitation of low cost water resources, where available, for industrial mechanisation.
(1851) Joseph Whitworth introduced new standards of accuracy and precision engineering enabling mass production methods and interchageable parts.
(1853) George Cayley published the theory of flight and launched the first manned glider.
(1855) Henry Bessemer introduced mass production to steelmaking, lowering steel's cost and increasing its strength, dramatically increasing its use.
Taken together these innovations had a profound and unprecedented affect on society and social, economic and cultural conditions.
Though not fully exploited at the time, several important discoveries were also made towards the end of the period, which laid the ground work for a second wave of innovation based on electrical communications, electric power, computers and household appliances. These were;
(1800) Volta's battery
(1821) Faraday's electrical machines
(1835) Morse's telegraph
(1843) Babbage's computer
(1851) Singer's sewing machine
What were the results of all of this innovation?
Production methods were mechanised reducing costs and the steam engine enabled factories to use very large machines to achieve even greater levels of mechanisation reducing costs even further. The new transport infrastructure created by the canals and later by the railways made it cheaper and easier to access lower cost supplies of raw materials as well as giving access to new markets for the products produced by the factories. Manufacturing activities which had previously not been economically viable suddenly became possible. New employment opportunities were created with jobs that previously didn't exist such as engineers, draughtsmen, machine builders, tool makers, managers, book keepers and salesmen and with these jobs came the possibility of social mobility. Overall, incomes rose and were more regular and secure. The cost of manufactured goods was reduced creating more demand as well as employment opportunities. More manufactured goods were available and there was a sustained increase in the economic well being of the country.
But there were consequences of these developments. Cottage industries could not compete with mechanised factories and went out of business. The demand for craftsmen, proud of their skills and workmanship, was replaced by the demand for unskilled factory workers to operate machines and to assemble the products. The result was that there was a movement of the rural population towards the towns where living conditions were often unhealthy and far from ideal.
Although conditions in the towns were sometimes grim, the romantic view that industrialisation was a catastrophe and that rural life before these changes took place was idyllic, is unrealistic. The reality of previous rural life was also less than ideal. It was a society of subsistence agriculture ruled by an elite, landed aristocracy. It may have been a more healthy environment in the country but in the seventeenth century, before the industrial revolution, average life expectancy was only 37 years with 18% of infants dying in their first year and 31% of newborns dying before the age of fifteen.
People still lived in poverty. They still used child labour. Incomes were very low and irregular or uncertain, the population was generally illiterate and subject to the demands of landlords who were not necessarily any more benevolent than future factory owners and there were fewer opportunities for personal development and social mobility to escape from this poverty.
Unfortunately many people still write about "The Causes of the Industrial Revolution" as if it was a calamity. A more apt title would replace the word "Causes" with the word "Enablers" to recognise the positive aspects of the changes in the nation's economic welfare which it brought about.
The Industrial Revolution marked the end of feudalism and the beginning of social mobility.
How did this great transformation come about?
The industrial revolution is characterised by the development of an industrial economy resulting from the ever increasing flow of innovative practical products based on the application of new technologies, mechanised production methods and the availability of mechanical power to make it happen. But for these new ideas to flourish, they had to fall on fertile ground and these conditions were found in Britain in the second half of the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth century.
The previous two hundred years had seen the flowering of the Scientific Revolution when great thinkers, no longer hampered by censorship of new ideas by the church, provided a theoretical basis for the way things worked. Amongst others, Newton provided the Laws of Motion and Calculus, Boyle and Charles provided the Gas Laws and Hooke provided the Law of Elasticity.
Improved methods of time and temperature measurement were also available enabling more accurate scientific experiments to be performed.
The country had six universities, founded before 1600, carrying out scientific research and teaching. (Oxford, Cambridge, St Andrews, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Edinburgh)
Scientific societies such as the Royal Society (founded 1660), the Lunar Society of Birmingham (dating from 1765) and the Royal Institution (founded 1799), encouraged the sharing and dissemination of ideas.
Towards the end of the eighteenth century and during the first half of the nineteenth century, Literary and Philosophical Societies were founded in many British towns and cities, particularly in the north. Known as the "Lit and Phils" they provided the opportunity to discuss intellectual issues of the day and to sponsor cultural activities. Amongst their aims were education and the advancement of science and technology but in the days when there were few forms of public entertainment and recreation, they coincidently provided the opportunity for socialising and networking and so attracted a large membership. Lectures and presentations at the "Lit and Phils" were thus well attended and news about technology and potential investment opportunities reached a wide audience of interested and often influential people. Thoughts evolved from the familiar certainties of the past to the self confident exploration of the potential that the future may bring. Self-help and optimism replaced sufferance of the status quo.
The country was being denuded of wood used for fuel but it was self sufficient in energy from coal, which contained more than three times the energy of wood, as well as hydro power. Similarly it had ample supplies of many key raw materials such as iron, lead, copper and tin ores and limestone (used in iron smelting and building materials).
The invention of the steam engine gave the country a head start in liberating factories from inefficient manual powered and horse drawn machines or water wheels dependent on unreliable water supplies, enabling improved efficiency and reduced manufacturing costs.
Good, stable economic conditions prevailed in the country.
Most European countries at the time were ruled by absolute monarchies. Decision making tended to be concentrated in a few hands and high up on their priority list were self preservation and control of their subjects, often accompanied by expansionist territorial aspirations backed by military power.
Britain too had international aspirations but by contrast, it had just agreed a "Bill of Rights" in 1689 restricting the power of the monarchy and enhancing the power of parliament. While power was not completely devolved, members of parliament ensured that regional issues got a sympathetic hearing. Priorities such as local transport infrastructure development and the promotion and protection of commerce were higher up the priority list.
The development of the road and canal transport infrastructure dramatically reduced the costs of transporting heavy and bulky raw materials such as coal, iron ore and clay for the potteries as well as the distribution of finished goods enabling new resources to be tapped and new markets to be reached. This was accelerated by the advent of the railways whose higher speeds enabled the distribution of fresh foods over greater distances, boosting the agricultural and fishing industries.
Certain regions of the country had well organised cottage industries with established industry skills, supplies and trade routes which provided a fertile environment for the introduction of new technologies. A prime example was Lancashire which, because of its damp climate, had a large cotton processing industry with a concentration of textile producers using cotton imported from qualified trading partners. (Originally from India, but progressively from the West Indies and the American colonies.)
The rule of law prevailed with contract law and patent law providing legal protection to business and to inventors.
The British Empire facilitated extensive international trade networks providing access to foodstuffs and raw materials, mainly cotton, and a ready market for manufactured goods.
Profit flows from trade with the colonies accumulated in Britain creating a capital surplus which was available to be invested in factories, machinery, canals and railways. Similarly this influx of wealth created a new demand for manufactured goods for use in the home.
The British government encouraged international trade and protected it with a strong global naval presence.
Joint stock companies were able to provide funding enabling longer term or large projects to be undertaken.
The country had a tradition of free market capitalism supported by parliament and a stock exchange (The Royal Exchange opened by Queen Elizabeth I in 1571) to enable the trading of shares.
Insurance was available to underwrite risks. (Insurance deals were traded in Lloyd's Coffee House in London from 1688, initially, mainly for maritime risks)
Towards the end of the period, Building Societies were established enabling people to purchase their own property and Hire Purchase Contracts were introduced in support of the sales of sewing machines enabling the set up of small family businesses, both of which in their small way helped to bring about the beginnings of social mobility and the possibility for more people to realise their full potential.
The industrial revolution started in Britain but it was quickly followed in Western Europe, then North America, followed by Japan and eventually the rest of the world (or at least most of it).
1750 Nollet demonstrated the astonishing efficiency of electrostatic spraying, an idea which was not put to practical use until it was rediscovered by Ransburg in 1941.
1750 English physicist John Michell describes magnetic induction, the production of magnetic properties in unmagnetised iron or other ferromagnetic material when it is brought close to a magnet. He discovered that the two poles of a magnet are of equal strength and that they obey the inverse-square law for magnetic attraction in "A Treatise on Artificial Magnets".
1752 German astronomer Tobias Mayer published the method of determining logitude by means of lunar distances together with associated lunar distance tables. The method used only a sextant and the local times were derived from observations of the position of the Moon relative to fixed celestial objects. See more about lunar distances.
1752 French experimenter Thomas François Dalibard, assisted by retired illiterate old dragoon M. Coiffier, carried out an experiment proposed by Benjamin Franklin. They set up their experiment at Marly la Ville and from a safe distance (in Dalibard's case eighteen miles away) they waited for a storm. They used a long pointed iron rod, placed upright in a wine bottle and insulated from the ground by more glass bottles, to attract a lightning discharge from a thunder cloud. Coiffier subsequently drew electrical sparks from the charged rod to prove Franklin's theory that thunder clouds contain electricity and that it can be conducted down a metal rod.
1752 A man of many talents, Benjamin Franklin one of the leaders of the American Revolution and founding fathers of the USA, journalist, publisher, author, philanthropist, abolitionist, public servant, scientist, diplomat and inventor carried out his famous kite experiments in 1752, one month after Dalibard, and invented the lightning rod.
Franklin proposed a "fluid" theory of electricity and outlined the concepts of positive and negative charges, current flow and conductors coining the language to describe them. Words such as battery (from an array of charged glass plates, and later, a number of Leyden Jars), charge, condenser (capacitor), conductor, plus, minus, positively, negatively, armature, electric shock and electrician all of which we still use today.
Du Fay in 1733 had first described the concept of two types of electric charges, "vitreous" and "resinous". Franklin explained that current flow was the flow of a positive charge towards negative charge to cancel it out. Using the water analogy he named the point of high potential, (from which the water flows) as the positive terminal with the lower potential terminal being negative. Current can also be associated with the flow of positive ions from the positive terminal to the negative terminal, or with the flow of negatively charged electrons from the negative terminal to the positive terminal. Nowadays we tend (lazily) to associate current flow exclusively with electron flow, overlooking the equally valid positive ion flow, which leads to the confusion and the incorrect charge that Franklin got it wrong by defining the current flow in the opposite direction from which electrons flow.
The purpose of Franklin's kite experiment was to confirm that lightning was another manifestation of electricity. Legend has it that he flew a kite into a thunder cloud to pick up an electric discharge from the cloud. The electric charge was then conducted down the wet kite string to which a key had been attached near the ground and that sparks were emitted from the key which were used to charge a Leyden jar, thus proving that an electric charge came from the clouds.
Whilst it may be heresy to suggest that Franklin did not actually carry out the kite experiment for which he is famous, there are no reliable witnesses to this event and it is a fact that nobody, including Franklin, has yet been able to duplicate this experiment in the manner he described, and few have been willing to try. One who did was Professor Georg W Richmann, a Swedish physicist working in St Petersburg, who was killed in the attempt on 6 August 1753. He was the first known victim of high voltage experiments in the history of physics. Benjamin Franklin was lucky not to win this honour.
1752 Johann Georg Sulzer notices a tingling sensation when he puts two dissimilar metals, just touching each other, on either side of his tongue. It became known later as the battery tongue test: - the saliva acting as the electrolyte carrying the current between the two metallic electrodes.
1753 A proposal is submitted in an anonymous letter to the Scotsman Magazine signed "C.M.", generally attributed to Scottish surgeon Charles Morrison, for 'An Expeditious Method of Conveying Intelligence'. It described an electrostatic telegraph system using 26 insulated wires to conduct separate charges from a Leyden Jar causing movements in small pieces of paper on which each letter of the alphabet is written.
1757 French botanist Michel Adanson proposed that the discharge from the Senegalese (electric) catfish could be compared with the discharge from a Leyden jar. The ability of certain torpedo fish or sting rays to inflict electric shocks had been known since antiquity however Adanson's theory was new. It was later proved by British administrator and M.P., John Walsh, secretary to Clive of India, who in 1772 managed to draw a spark from an electric eel. It is quite possible that news of Walsh's experiment influenced Galvani to begin his own experiments with frogs.
See also Cavendish's explanation of the reason why a shock could be delivered without an associated spark.
1759 German mathematician Franz Maria Ulrich Theodosius Aepinus published his book, An Attempt at a Theory of Electricity and Magnetism. The first work to apply mathematics to the theory of electricity and magnetism, it explained most of the then known phenomena.
In 1789 Aepinus also made the first variable capacitor which he used to investigate the properties of dielectrics. It had flat plates which could be moved apart and different materials could be inserted between them. Volta also laid claim to the invention of this device and to giving it the name of "capacitor".
1759 English civil engineer, John Smeaton constructed a whirling arm device for investigating the aerodynamic properties of windmills and windmill vanes. It was based on an earlier design by Benjamin Robins and had the same functions as a modern wind tunnel but instead, it consisted of a vertical shaft supporting a rotating arm on which to mount models of windmill vanes which could be made to pass at high speed in a circular path through the still air to determine their relative efficiency. (See diagram of Smeaton's Whirling Arm) At the same time the blades could be rotated by means of a falling weight attached by a cable to a pulley on the windmill shaft. It was used to investigate the effects of camber and angle of attack of the blades.
Using the apparatus, Smeaton determined that the force L on a plate or blade (or aerodynamic lift in the case of wings) is given by:
L=kV2ACL
k is the drag in pounds weight of a 1-square-foot (0.093 m2) plate at 1 mph, known as the Smeaton coefficient
V is is the velocity of the air over the plate in miles per hour
A is the Area of the plate in square feet
CL is the magnitude of the lift relative to the drag of a plate of the same area, known as the lift coefficient
This relationship is known as the lift equation and was used by the Wright brothers in the design of their wings and propellers, though from their wind tunnel experiments they determined a more accurate value for the coefficient k.
Smeaton also used hydraulic models and similar techniques to calculate the efficiencies of water wheels.
He is more well known for the many bridges, canals, harbours and lighthouses that he built. He coined the term "civil engineers" and in 1771 founded the Society of Civil Engineers the forerunner of the Institution of Civil Engineers.
1761 Scottish chemist and physicist Joseph Black working at Glasgow University, discovered that ice absorbs heat without changing temperature when melting and similarly the temperature of boiling water does not change as heat is added to create steam. Between 1759 and 1763 he evolved the theory of latent heat for a heat flow that results in no change of temperature, that is, for the heat flows which accompany phase transitions such as boiling or freezing. He also showed that different substances have different specific heats, the amount of heat per unit mass required to raise its temperature by one degree Celsius.
James Watt was his pupil and assistant.
1761 Self taught, English engineer, James Brindley son of a farmer, opened the Bridgewater Canal which he had designed and built for Francis Egerton the third Duke of Bridgewater to carry coal from his coalmine at Worsely to market in Manchester, ten miles away. Transporting coal by canal boat rather than by pack horse reduced its cost by 50%. The Bridgewater Canal was the first British canal not to follow an existing water course. Instead he chose a more level route by following the contours of the land to simplify construction, avoiding embankments and tunnels as well as the need for the traditional, time-wasting locks. It did however require the construction of an aqueduct at an elevation of 39 feet (13 M) to carry it over the River Irwell, a feature which was unique at the time. The sight of a barge floating high up in the air became one of the first tourist attractions of the Industrial Revolution.
Brindley went on to build another 300 miles of canals. His Bridgewater canal marked the beginning of Britain's golden era of canal building from 1760 to 1830 during which the country's new inland waterway system linked up the otherwise isolated local canals serving the country's major cities into a national network, greatly improving the nation's transport infrastructure.
Before the canal system was built, the transport of bulky goods was prohibitively expensive. They were either sent by sea or overland by pack horse. This meant that users had to be located close to their source of supply or to the docks. Factories depending on steam engines had to be located near to coal mines. But canals changed all that. One canal boat, operated by one man and a horse, could carry as much as a hundred pack horses. Transport by canals cut the costs for industry and provided economic justification for new ventures which previously may not have been viable. Canals were the Motorways of the eighteenth century.
An practical example of the economic benefits of canals was the saving the pottery industry centred on Stoke on Trent. The potteries were originally located there because of the availability of suitable clay and the coal to fire it, but in the 1760s when supplies of local clay were becoming exhausted and markets demanded pottery made with finer clay from other sources, Brindley's Trent and Mersey Canal, opened in 1777, enabled the potters to bring in clay from Dorset, Devon and Cornwall by canal from the seaport rather than to move their business to other locations which may have had the clay but not the coal.
The Trent and Mersey canal necessitated the construction of the Harecastle Tunnel which was 1.64 miles (2633 m) long. It took seven years to construct and when it was completed in 1777 it was more than twice the length of any other tunnel in the world at that time. It was however only 9 feet (2.74 m) wide since it did not have a towpath so that boats had to be "legged" through it by men lying on their backs and "walking" on the roof taking 2 to 3 hours to pass through the tunnel. It was also too narrow to take boats going in both directions so boats had to be grouped and one way system allowed the direction of travel to be changed after each group had passed through. Some enterprising local men offered their service as "leggers" to help speed the boats through.
Brindley died before the canal was completed.
To relieve congestion a second, wider tunnel with a towpath, parallel Brindley's tunnel was commissioned fifty years later. It was slightly longer at 1.66 miles (2675 m) and was built by Thomas Telford. Taking just three years to complete, it was opened in 1827.
The advent of George Stephenson's faster rail transportation brought this golden era to an end.
1764 After the introduction of the flying shuttle which improved the productivity of the weaving industry, the demand for cotton yarn outstripped supply, and the cottage industry producing it, one thread at a time, on traditional spinning wheels could not keep up. In the 1760s several inventors developed machines to mechanise this process.
The first was James Hargreaves of Blackburn, Lancashire who in 1764 invented a multi-spool spinning frame which dramatically reduced the labour content of the work. It was called the spinning jenny ("jenny" derived form "engine"), a machine for spinning, drawing and twisting cotton. It consisted eight spindles driven by a single large handwheel which turned all the spindles. Cotton was drawn from eight separate rovings, long thin bundles of cotton fibre, lightly clasped between two horizontal bars then wound onto the spindles. The spindles were mounted on a moveable carriage which allowed the roving to be stretched as it was pulled away from the clasping bars, imparting a twist to the cotton. He sold several machines but kept his activities secret at first. However the selling price of yarn fell as the production increased while at the same time the employment of local spinners was reduced culminating in his house being attacked and his machines smashed. As a result Hargreaves moved to Nottingham in 1768 where he eventually patented his machine in 1770.
An improved spinning machine, called a spinning frame was invented in 1767 by John Kay a clockmaker from Warrington, Lancashire (No relation to John Kay of Bury) who made improvements to Hargreaves design. Instead of the simple clasp used by Hargreaves to stretch the cotton fibre roving, the roving was passed between three sets of rollers, each set rotating faster than the previous one, progressively reducing the thickness of the roving and increasing its length before a strengthening twist was added to the yarn by a separate mechanism. This produced a much finer and stronger cotton yarn. The spinning frame was also called a water frame when it was powered by a water wheel.
At the time Kay was employed by Richard Arkwright, of Preston, Lancashire, who controversially patented Kay's machine in 1769 under his own name without telling Kay. This resulted in a scandal and caused a protracted patent dispute which involved yet another inventor of a spinning machine, Thomas Highs, of Leigh, Lancashire, who had worked with both Arkwright and Kay who were both familiar with his work. Highs had invented several devices for processing wool and cotton but didn't have the finance to develop his ideas and like Hargreaves, he had worked in secret on his spinning machine which he claimed to have patented in 1769. All the protagonists eventually lost out in the legal proceedings as the jury found against Arkwright but no rights were ever transferred to Highs or Kay.
As the technology of the day advanced, the available power to turn the spindles was increased, evolving from the machine operator himself, to horses, then water wheels and finally to steam engines (now electric motors). This enabled much larger spinning frames carrying over 100 spindles to be constructed, greatly increasing the productivity.
Arkwright was more of a businessman, rather than an inventor. In 1771, he built the world's first water-powered textile mill at Cromford in Derbyshire where he installed production equipment driven by water power in a highly a disciplined factory with workers operating machines in 13 hour shifts with little free time, replacing the local cottage industries where whole families, including their children, developed specialist skills working together at home on traditional crafts and trades. The factory work by comparison was unskilled with the work divided into short repetitive tasks and the employees, in both situations, were mostly illiterate since this was before the advent of universal education in Britain. Most of the employees were women and children, some as young as seven, though this was later increased to ten years old. It sounds horrific, but for his times, Arkwright was an enlightened employer, building houses for his employees and providing the children six hours of education per week so they could take on tasks such as record keeping. His Cromford Mill was the start of the factory system which was quickly copied by others and became a hallmark of the Industrial Revolution.
1765 Matthew Boulton who traded in ornamental metalware such as buttons, buckles and watch chains which were made in small workshops in and around Birmingham, opened the Soho Manufactory at Soho near Birmingham to bring all his business activities together under one roof, under his own ownership and control. Previously the goods were manufactured either in Boulton's own workshops or in the workshops of local independent artisans of which there were many in the Birmingham area.
The Soho Manufactory was a three-story building which housed a collection of small specialist workshops carrying out a range of metalworking process such stamping, cutting, bending and finishing as well as showrooms, design offices, stores, and accommodation for the employees.
Boulton was a benevolent employer. Instead of subcontracting work to other workshops in town, he employed the same skilled craftsmen who had worked in the workshops which he had displaced. Working conditions were good, employment was secure and he paid them well. Labour saving jigs and tools were used to improve productivity as well as the quality of the goods produced, designs were rationalised to achieve economies of scale by using interchangeable or common components. In this way Boulton was able to take on high volume production of items such as coins for the mint as well as fine, high quality products such as jewellery, silverware and plated goods.
He refused to employ young children as in some other industries and later introduced a very early social insurance scheme, funded by workers' contributions of 1/60th of their wages, which paid benefits of up to 80% of wages to staff who were sick or injured.
At its height the factory employed a thousand people in what was the largest and most impressive factory in the world becoming Birmingham's foremost tourist attraction.
Boulton's manufactory established the factory system in the metalworking industry, mirroring changes being made in the textile industry. Another step in the Industrial Revolution.
In 1769 Matthew Boulton also provided the financial backing and the manufacturing capability for the commercialisation of Watt's Steam engine and his Soho plant became the world's first factory to be powered by steam.
1765 A group of prominent figures in the British Midlands, including industrialists, natural philosophers and intellectuals, set up an informal learned society later called the Lunar Society because it met during the full moon to take advantage of the lighter evenings for travelling home after meetings. Members included Matthew Boulton, James Watt, physician and inventor Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of Charles Darwin discoverer of the Theory of Evolution, Josiah Wedgwood and Joseph Priestley. Benjamin Franklin also attended a meeting of the society while visiting Birmingham and kept in touch with members.
1766 Swiss physicist, geologist and early Alpine explorer Horace Benedict de Saussure invents the first true electrometer for measuring electric potential by means of attraction or repulsion of charged bodies. It consisted of two pith balls suspended by separate strings inside an inverted glass jar with a printed scale so that the distance or angle between the balls could be measured. It was de Saussure who discovered the distance between the balls was not linearly related to the amount of charge.
1766 Hydrogen discovered by Henry Cavendish by the action of dilute acids on metals.
1767 English clergyman, philosopher and social reformer Joseph Priestley at the age of 34 made his first foray into the world of science with the publication of a two-volume History of Electricity in which he argued that the history of science was important since it could show how human intelligence discovers and directs the forces of nature. The previous year in London he had met Benjamin Franklin who introduced him to the wonders of electricity and they became lifelong friends. Priestley's first discovery, also in 1767, was that carbon conducts electricity.
Though he had no scientific training, Priestley is however better known as a chemist. He isolated Carbon dioxide, which he called "fixed air", and in a paper published in 1772, he showed that a pleasant drink could be made by dissolving the gas in water. Thus was born carbonated (soda) water, the basis of the modern soft drinks industry.
He was a great experimenter discovering Nitrous oxide (laughing gas) and several other chemical compounds and unaware of the work of Scheele in 1774 he independently discovered Oxygen. Priestley was no theorist however and he passed on his results to the French chemist Lavoisier who repeated the experiments taking meticulous measurements in search of underlying patterns and laws governing the chemical reactions.
Experimenting with growing plants in an atmosphere of Carbon dioxide, Priestley observed that the plants consumed the Carbon dioxide and produced Oxygen, identifying the process of plant respiration and photosynthesis. This was the first connection between chemistry and biology.
As a reformer, Priestley was a strong supporter of the 1776 American and the 1789 French Revolutions. This brought him into conflict with conservatives and in 1791 angry mobs burnt down his house and his church destroying many of his manuscripts. The intimidation continued until 1794 when the aristocratic Lavoisier, on the opposite side of the revolutionary fence from Priestley, was executed by French revolutionaries. A few weeks later Priestley emigrated to America to escape persecution spending the rest of his life there.
1769 The introduction of Watt's Steam Engine was a key event in the Industrial Revolution.
James Watt, a Scottish instrument maker working at the University of Glasgow in 1763 was given the job of repairing a model of Newcomen's 1712 steam engine. He noted how inefficient it was and between 1763 and 1775 he developed several improvements to the design. The most important of these was the introduction of a separate, cold, chamber for condensing the steam which avoided the need to heat and cool the main cylinder which could be kept hot while the steam was condensed in the cold condensation chamber. (See diagram of Watt's Steam Engine)
As in Newcomen's engine, steam introduced under the piston drove it to the top of its stroke at which point the steam was shut off, but the atmospheric power stroke was different. When the piston reached the top of its stroke a valve at the lower part of the cylinder opened releasing the steam into the cold chamber where it condensed, reducing the pressure under the piston which was pushed down by atmospheric pressure on the top of the piston. The use of the separate condenser reduced the heat losses in every cycle and led to a dramatic improvement in the fuel efficiency and speed of the engine and was the basis of Watt's patent in 1769.
Watt's original engine, like Newcomen's, generated most of its mechanical power, that is its atmospheric power, on the downstroke but not on the upstroke and this intermittent power delivery was not suitable for producing smooth, continuous rotary motion. To overcome this drawback, Watt developed a second innovation which was to introduce steam on top of the piston at the top of its stroke as well as below the piston at the bottom of its stroke. This second steam supply pushed the piston down with the steam being exhausted from above the piston into the cold chamber at the end of the down stroke thus creating a double-acting engine with the steam pushing and the vacuum pulling the pistons on both the up and down strokes. A double benefit of this system was that it also improved the efficiency still more. This idea was later developed by Trevithick and others for use in high pressure, horizontal engines.
(See Double Acting Piston).
Watt initially had difficulty in both manufacturing and commercialising his engine but this problem was solved when he entered into partnership in 1769 with Matthew Boulton, a Birmingham manufacturing entrepreneur. Watt had sought help from Boulton to produce the precision components for his steam engine and discovered a willing partner since Boulton's production had often been interrupted by the unreliable water supply to the water wheel powering his Soho factory. The Boulton and Watt company they founded was able to fund the further development of Watt's engines and to manufacture them with improved precision at Boulton's Soho plant. Their engines used only 20% to 25% of the coal used by the Newcomen engines to generate the same power and Boulton was instrumental in securing a patent for the steam condenser which meant that any user of the condenser technology had to pay substantial monthly royalties to the company and this was rigidly enforced. Boulton's Soho plant became the world's first factory with machines powered by a steam engine.
In 1788, Watt invented the centrifugal or flyball governor to provide speed control for his steam engines. An early example of an automatic control system. See diagram of Watt's Flyball Centrifugal Governor.
See more examples of Early Control Systems.
The steam engine was quite literally the driving force behind the Industrial Revolution, freeing people from back breaking work, providing prodigious mechanical power to drive factories and machines enabling a myriad of applications as well as powering the railways thus facilitating trade and travel. The prime movers used for driving the first electricity generating plants by Schuckert, Edison and Ferranti starting in 1878 were also powered by large reciprocating steam engines based on James Watt's technology. The result was that Watt is commonly credited as the father or inventor of the steam engine and with bringing about the birth of and exploitation of this technology but there were many other contributors.
The following are some of the other key technologies and inventions associated with the development of the steam engine and its applications.
(Circa 60 AD) Aeolipile - Steam Reaction Turbine Hero of Alexandria
(1551) Steam Impulse Turbine Taqi al-Din
(1663) Vacuum Pump and the Magdeburg Hemispheres Otto von Guericke
(1681) Piston Power Denis Papin
(1698) Steam Powered Water Pump Thomas Savery
(1707) Water Pump Denis Papin, Leibniz
(1712) Reciprocating Piston Atmospheric Steam Engine Thomas Newcomen
(1769) Steam Engine With Separate Condenser James Watt
(1770) Self Propelled Road Vehicle Nicolas Cugnot
(1780) Rotary Motion by Means of Flywheel and Crank James Pickard
(1787) Steam Powered Boat John Fitch
(1804) Steam Powered Road Vehicle Richard Trevithick
(1807) Steam Boat Robert Fulton
(1824) Theory of Heat Engines Sadi Carnot
(1825) First Public Railway George Stephenson
(1878) Electrical Power Generation by Steam Sigmund Schuckert
(1885) Steam Turbine Charles Parsons
(1942) Rocket Engine Turbopump Wernher von Braun
1770 French military engineer, Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot built his "fardier à vapeur", a three wheeled, steam driven military tractor, the world's first self propelled road vehicle, based on a smaller model he had produced the previous year. It was a mechanised version of the massive two-wheeled horse-drawn dray or wagon, known in France as a "fardier", used for transporting very heavy military artillery equipment.The boiler and driving mechanism were mounted on a single front wheel at the front of the vehicle replacing the horses. (See picture of Cugnot's Steam Carriage).
The engine used two vertically mounted single acting pistons, acting directly over the wheel, one on each side, with the piston rods connected to a rocking bar, pivoted at the centre, which allowed the piston movements to be synchronised in opposite directions. High pressure steam was applied alternately to the pistons so that the power stroke pushing one piston down caused the opposite piston to move back up ready to start its power stroke. Mounted on the driving axle were two disks one on each side of the single driving wheel, each disk with a ratchet or notches around its circumference. Power was transferred to alternate sides of the wheel by means of the piston rods with pawls which engaged on the ratchets on the down stroke to turn the wheel and slid over the ratchets on the up stroke while the drive was transferred to the disk on the opposite side of the wheel. This arrangement is considered to be one of the early successful devices for converting reciprocating motion into rotary motion. It was also the fore-runner of the freewheel mechanism.
The driving wheel and engine assembly were articulated to the rest of the cart and steering was by means of a lever (tiller steering) which turned the whole driving assembly including the boiler. The vehicle weighed in at over 2 tons and was designed to carry a load of 4 tons at a speed of 2.5 miles per hour. The massive boiler overhung the front of the wheel and made the vehicle somewhat unstable and, since there was no provision for carrying water or fuel, the vehicle needed to stop every ten to fifteen minutes to replenish the water and fuel and relight the boiler fire to maintain the steam pressure.
Cugnot was ahead of his time. Trials in 1771 by the French Army showed up the vehicle's limited boiler performance and difficulties in traversing rough terrain and climbing steep hills and rather than developing the invention, they abandoned the experiment. In 1772 Cugnot was awarded a pension by King Louis XV for his work but this was withdrawn with the start of the French revolution in 1789, and he went into exile in Brussels, where he lived in poverty until he was invited back to France by Napoleon Bonaparte shortly before he died in 1804. His fardier was kept at the military Arsenal until 1800 when it was transferred to the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers where it remains on display to this day.
1771 The world's first machine powered factory began operations in Cromford, Derbyshire. English inventor Richard Arkwright pioneered large scale manufacturing using a water wheel to replace manual labour used to power the spinning frames in his cotton mill.
1771 German-Swedish pharmaceutical chemist, Carl Wilhelm Scheele discovered Oxygen and two years later Chlorine. A prolific experimenter he is also credited with the discovery of the gases Hydrogen fluoride, Silicon fluoride, Hydrogen sulfide, Hydrogen cyanide. In addition he isolated and characterised glycerol, lactose, and ten of the most familiar organic acids including tartaric acid, citric acid, lactic acid and uric acid.
He was also the first to report the action of light on silver salts which became the basis of photography for over 180 years.
He received very little formal education and lived a simple life in a small town so his many achievements received little publicity. One result of this comparative obscurity is that others independently retraced his paths and were later credited with the discoveries he had already made, Priestley for Oxygen in 1774 and Davy for Chlorine in 1810.
Scheele was found dead in his laboratory at the age of 43, his death probably caused by exposure to the many poisons with which he worked. It was not unknown for scientists of his day to taste the chemicals with which they were working.
1774 An electrostatic telegraph is demonstrated in Geneva, Switzerland by Frenchman George Louis LeSage. He built a device composed of 24 wires each contained in a glass tube to insulate the wires from each other. At the end of each wire was a pith ball which was repelled when a current was initiated on that particular wire. Each wire stood for a different letter of the alphabet. When a particular pith ball moved, it represented the transmission of the corresponding letter. Intelligible messages were transmitted over short distances and LeSage's system is considered to be the first serious attempt at making an electrical telegraph.
1775 Like many experimenters of his time Alessandro Volta constructed his own Perpetual Electrophorus (that which carries off electricity) to provide a regular source of electricity for his experiments. It was crude and consisted of a resin plate on which was rubbed cat's fur or a fox tail and another insulated metal plate for picking up the charge.
1775 In response to the demands of the armaments industry the nascent steam power industry English engineer John Wilkinson made one of the first precision machine tools, a cylinder boring machine. His machine secured for him the largest share in the profitable business of supplying cannons in the American War of Independence. Wilkinson is reputed to be Britain's first industrialist to become a millionaire.
1775 Richard Ketley, the landlord of Birmingham's Golden Cross Inn, founded the first Building Society. It was a mutual financial institution owned by its members, originally offering them savings and mortgage lending services. Members of Ketley's society paid a monthly subscription to a central pool of funds which was used to finance the building of houses for members, which in turn acted as collateral to attract further funding to the society, enabling further construction. The idea quickly caught on and building societies were soon established in many cities of the UK. More recently, building societies have expanded into the provision of banking and related financial services to their members.
1779 The world's first iron bridge, built across the River Severn Gorge at Coalbrookdale in Shropshire, was opened. It was designed by Thomas Farnolls Pritchard a local architect from Shrewsbury with a span of a 100 feet (30 m) and was built by the iron maker Abraham Darby III, grandson of Abraham Darby, and is still in use as a pedestrian bridge today. The bridge is a surprisingly graceful design, build from cast iron, but since there was no experience in using cast iron, or any other metal, as a structural material the design used techniques based on the more familiar carpentry using slender, custom designed castings in compression, connected together using mortise and tenon and blind dovetail joints.
The bridge was an engineering marvel in its day. See photograph and details of the Coalbrookdale Ironbridge.
Shares were issued in 1775 to raise the £3,200 estimated cost of the bridge, but Darby found it difficult to find investors and had to give a personal guarantee to cover any costs incurred in excess of this estimate. He was awarded the contract to build the bridge and to supply the iron work from his Coalbrookdale plant and construction was eventually started in 1777 but the actual cost of building the bridge turned out to be £6,000 and resulted in Darby being in debt for the rest of his life.
1779 English inventor, Samuel Crompton invented the spinning mule so called because it is a hybrid which combined the moving carriage of Hargreaves' spinning jenny with the rollers of Arkwright's water frame in the same way that a mule is the product of cross-breeding a female horse with a male donkey. The spinning mule was faster and provided better control over the spinning process and could produce several different types of yarn. It was first used to spin cotton, then other fibres enabling the production of fine textiles.
1780 English inventor James Pickard patented the crank and flywheel to convert reciprocating motion of Newcomen's engine to rotary motion. He offered the patent rights for his device to Boulton and Watt in return for the rights to use Watt's patent for the separate condenser. Watt refused and instead designed a sun and planet gear to circumvent Pickard's patent. Once Pickard's patent expired, Boulton and Watt adopted the crank drive in their engines. The Sun and planet gear was actually designed in 1781 by William Murdoch, an employee of Boulton and Watt, but it was patented in Watt's name.
The sun and planet gear mechanism used two spur gears and was much more complex then the crank mechanism. In this application, the sun gear was fixed to the axle or output shaft and did not rotate about the axle, rather it rotated with the axle. The planet gear also does not rotate on its axis but was fixed to the end of the connecting rod. The reciprocating motion of piston causes the end of the connecting rod on which the planet gear wheel is mounted to trace a circular path around the sun gear causing the sun gear, and hence the output shaft to which is attached, to rotate.
1782 French mathematician Pierre-Simon Laplace, building on earlier work by Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler, develops a mathematical operation now called the Laplace Transform as a tool for solving linear differential equations. The most significant advantage is that differentiation and integration become multiplication and division, respectively. This is similar to the way that logarithms change an operation of multiplication of numbers into the simpler addition of their logarithms. By applying Laplace's integral transform to each individual term in differential equations, the terms can be rewritten in terms of a new variable "s" and the equations are converted into polynomial equations which are much easier to solve by simple algebra. The solutions to the original problems are retrieved by applying the Inverse Laplace Transform.
This technique simplifies the analysis control systems and analogue circuits which are characterised by time varying differential equations. Laplace's method thus transforms differential equations in the time domain into algebraic equations in the s-domain.
Between 1799 and 1825 Laplace published in five volumes "Traité de Mécanique Céleste", Celestial Mechanics, a description of the workings of solar system based on mathematics rather than on astronomical tables. In it, he translated and expanded the geometrical study of solar mechanics used by Newton to one based on calculus.
A copy of the work was presented to Napoleon who is reported to have asked why there was no mention of God in the study, to which Laplace is alleged to have replied "Je n'avais pas besoin de cette hypothèse-là". ("I had no need of that hypothesis.").
Laplace also developed the foundations of probability theory which he published in 1812 as "Théorie Analytique des Probabilités". Prior to that, probability theory was solely concerned with developing a mathematical analysis of games of chance as exemplified by Pascal. Laplace applied the theory to the analysis of many practical problems in the social, medical, and juridical fields as well as in the physical sciences including mortality, actuarial mathematics, insurance risks, the theory of errors, statistical mechanics and the drawing of statistical inferences.
In 1799 Laplace was appointed by Napoleon as Minister of the Interior but he was removed after only six weeks "because he brought the spirit of the infinitely small into the government".
He later provided the explanation of the anomaly between Newton's theoretical calculation of the speed of sound and the speeds actually measured.
1783 Henry Cort, owner of a forge in Portsmouth supplying iron products to the British Navy, invented and patented a grooved rolling mill for producing wrought iron bars and rods replacing the ancient method of hammering the bloom produced by the bloomery furnace. This reduced the processing time by over 90% and produced a much cheaper and better quality product.
In 1784 Cort also patented the reverberatory furnace and puddling, a new method of converting cast pig iron into low carbon content wrought iron to improve its quality and tensile strength. (The term "reverberation" was used at the time to describe "rebounding" or "reflecting", NOT "vibrating"). The reverberatory furnace was like a very large oven containing a coal fire which was isolated from a separate hearth containing the pig iron charge which was in turn contained in a "puddle" in the base of the hearth. The hot gases from the fire were directed over the top of the puddle heating it directly and also by reflected heat from the roof over the hearth. In this way poor quality fuel could be used without the risk of contaminating the iron. It was a bit like a modern fan assisted oven used to cook a bowl of soup, with the oven door being opened from time to time to stir the soup, except on a much greater scale.
The puddle of molten pig iron was stirred manually with long rods by "puddlers" to promote oxidation or burning of the remaining carbon in the iron by the oxygen in the hot air to form the wrought iron and CO2 which was released. After the metal cooled and solidified, it was worked with a forge hammer and could be rolled into sheets, bars or rails. This was the method used to produce the wrought iron used in the first ironclad warships. It was also used for the small scale production of low-carbon steels for swords, knives and weapons.
Cort's two inventions reduced the costs and increased the supply of better quality steel with fewer inclusions and a more homogeneous grain structure enabling its potential use in more widespread and new applications.
1784 Cavendish demonstrated that water is produced when Hydrogen burns in air, thus proving that water is a compound of two gases and not an element and overturning over two thousand years of conventional wisdom.
1784 King Louis XVI of France set up a Royal Commission to evaluate the claims by German healer and specialist in diseases of the wealthy, Franz Anton Mesmer who had achieved international notoriety with his theory animal magnetism and its supposed therapeutic powers. Members of the committee included Benjamin Franklin, Antoine Lavoisier and the physician Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, inventor of the Guillotine which was later used to remove the heads of both Lavoisier and the King. Mesmer had claimed extraordinary powers to cure patients of various ailments by using magnets. He also claimed to be able to magnetise virtually anything including paper, wood, leather, water, even the patients themselves and that he himself was a source of animal magnetism, a magnetic personality. His clients were mainly aristocratic women many of whom reported pleasurable experiences as Mesmer moved his hands around their bodies to align the flow of magnetic fluid while they were in a trance. Mesmer was a patron of the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart who included a scene in which Mesmer's magnets were used to revive victims of poisoning in the opera "Cosi fan tutte". The committee however concluded that all Mesmer's observed effects could be attributed to the power of suggestion and he was denounced as a fraud. He did however keep his head (the French revolution was still four years away) and his name lives on as hypnotists mesmerise their subjects.
Guillotin by the way was not a revolutionary. As a physician he merely proposed the guillotine as a more humane method of execution rather than hacking away with a sword.
1785 French military engineer and physicist, Charles-Augustin de Coulomb published the correct quantitative description of the force between electrical charges, the Inverse Square Law, which he verified using a sensitive torsion balance which he had invented in 1777. He showed that the electrical charge is on the surface of the charged body. Coulomb's Law was the first quantitative law in the history of electricity.
Coulomb also founded the science of friction.
The unit of charge is named the Coulomb in his honour.
1786 Luigi Galvani professor of anatomy at Bologna Academy of Science in Italy discovered that two dissimilar metals applied to the leg of a dead frog would make it twitch although he believed that the source of the electricity was in the frog. He was quite possibly influenced in his conclusions by the knowledge of Walsh's experiments with electric fish. He found copper and zinc to be very effective in making the muscles twitch. Could it be animal electricity?.
Galvani, a religious man, believed without question that the electricity was a God given property of the animal and that electrical fluid (electricity) was the "spark of life". On the other hand, his friend Volta more of a showman, influenced by "the enlightenment" and "rational thought" questioned religious dogma and believed that the electricity was man made and came from the metals. For many years a debate raged until it was eventually resolved by Volta's invention of the Voltaic pile. In the meantime Galvani lost his job for refusing to swear allegiance to Napoleon's Cisalpine Republic whereas Volta attempted to accommodate Napoleon and prospered under his rule. Sadly Galvani died in poverty in 1798 without knowing the outcome of the debate.
Galvani's experiments with frogs were repeated on a human specimen in 1803 by his nephew Giovani Aldini at the Royal College of Physicians in London, this time with a battery. He used the corpse of George Forster a convicted murderer, who had just been hanged, to demonstrate the phenomenon called Galvinism. He touched a pair of conducting rods, linked to a large voltaic pile, to various parts of Forster's body causing it to have spasms. When one rod was placed at the top of the spine and the other inserted into the rectum, the whole body convulsed and appeared to sit upright giving the illusion that electricity had the power of resurrection.
It is claimed that Aldini's demonstration was the inspiration for Mary Shelley's 1818 novel "Frankenstein" about a scientist who uses electricity to bring an inanimate body to life with disastrous consequences.
1787 Experiments by French physicist and chemist Jacques Charles (later continued by Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac) revealed that:
All gases expand or contract at the same rate with changes in temperature provided the pressure is unchanged.
The pressure of a fixed mass and fixed volume of a gas is directly proportional to the gas's temperature. Discovered by Gay Lussac in 1802, the effect (law) is now named after him.
The change in volume amounts to 1/273 of the original volume at 0°C for each Celsius degree the temperature is changed.
This work provided the inspiration for Kelvin's subsequent theories on thermodynamics.
Charles' Law and Gay Lussac's Law (1802) together with Boyle's Law (1662) and Avogadro's Law (1811) are known collectively as the Gas Laws.
Combining these laws into one relationship we get the Ideal Gas Law:
pV = nRT
p is the pressure
V is the volume
n is the number of moles associated with the volume
R is the universal gas constant
T is the temperature in degrees Kelvin
Note that P*V has the dimensions of Force*Distance and thus represents a measure of the energy in the system and the relationship implies that the energy in the system is proportional to the temperature and, for a given temperature and a given quantity of gas, the energy is constant no matter how the pressure and volume vary.
In his spare time, Charles was an enthusiastic balloonist making several ascents and improving ballooning equipment.
1787 John Fitch a skilled metalworker and American patriot, after being imprisoned by the British in the Revolutionary war, turned his energy to harnessing steam power. Early steam engines were too big and heavy to be used in practical road vehicles, however this restriction did not apply to large marine vessels which were big enough to accommodate them. Fitch built a 45 foot (13.7 M) steamboat propelled by six paddles on either side like an Indian canoe, following up in 1788 with a 60 foot (18 M) paddle wheeler with stern paddles which moved like ducks' feet. In 1790 he launched an even larger boat, with improved paddle wheels more like modern designs, which operated a regular passengers service on the Delaware river but with few passengers it operated at a loss and his financial backers pulled out. He obtained a French patent for his invention in 1795 but attempts to build a business in Europe also failed.
Undue credit for the invention of the steamboat is often given to Robert Fulton who repeated Fitch's work twenty years later, building and successfully operating steamboats on the Hudson River.
1789 French chemist Antoine Laurent Lavoisier considered to be the founder of modern chemical science, published Traité Élémentaire de Chimie or "Elementary Treatise of Chemistry", the first modern chemistry textbook. In it he presented a unified view of new theories of chemistry and a clear statement of the Law of Conservation of Mass, which he had established in 1772, that is; "In a chemical reaction, matter is neither created nor destroyed".
In addition, he defined elements as substances which could not be broken down further and listed all known elements at the time including oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, phosphorus, mercury, zinc, and sulphur. As intended, it did for chemistry what Newton's Principia had done for physics one hundred years earlier.
Lavoisier was the first to apply rigorous scientific method to chemistry. He carried out his experiments on chemical reactions with meticulous precision devising closed systems to ensure that all the products of the reactions were measured and accounted for. He thus demolished the wild ideas of the alchemists as well as the Greek concept of four elements, earth, air, fire and water which had been accepted for over 2000 years.
Lavoisier had a wide range of interests and a prodigious appetite for work and funded his experiments from his part time job as a tax collector. He was aided in his scientific endeavours by his wife Marie-Anne Pierrette Paulze, whom he had married when she was only thirteen years old. The couple were at the centre of a Parisian social life, but in 1794 Lavoisier's tax collecting activities fell foul of France's revolutionary mob and he was Guillotined during the Reign of Terror. An appeal to spare his life was cut short by the judge with the words "The Republic has no need of scientists".
Afterwards the French mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange said "It took them only an instant to cut off that head, and a hundred years may not produce another like it".
See also Lavoisier's relationship with Rumford
1790 The first patent laws established un the USA by a group led by Thomas Jefferson. Until US Independence, when Intellectual Property Rights were protected by the American Constitution, the King of England officially owned the intellectual property created by the colonists. Patents had however been issued by the colonial governments and were protected by British law.
The first US patent was granted to Samuel Hopkins of Vermont for a new method of making Potash.
1791 German chemist and mathematician Jeremias Benjamin Richter attempted to prove that chemistry could be explained by mathematical relationships. He showed that such a relationship applied when acids and bases neutralize to produce salts they do so in fixed proportions. Thus he was the first to establish the basis of quantitative chemical analysis which he named stoichiometry. He died of tuberculosis at the age of 45.
1791 English mining engineer John Barber patented a gas turbine engine. His patent, "A Specification of an Engine for using Inflammable Air for the purposes of procuring Motion and facilitating Metallurgical Operations.....and any other Motion that may be required.", outlined the operating principle and thermodynamic cycle of the engine which contained all the essential features of the modern gas turbine. The fuel used was coal gas. Fuel and air were compressed by two separate reciprocating piston pumps, chain driven from the turbine shaft, and then fed into a combustion chamber where the fuel was burned. The expanding combustion gases were then directed through a nozzle onto an impulse turbine wheel driving the output shaft.
Performance was unfortunately limited by the materials technology of the day and losses in the compression stage which reduced the available output power. Barber had a solution to alleviate these problems. He geared a water pump to the output shaft which injected a small stream of cold water into the hot combustion gases to cool the combustion chamber and the impulse wheel. This had the dual benefit in that the resulting steam increased the density of the jet impinging on the turbine wheel and thus increased the power output.
He also envisaged using the output jet from the engine to power a boat through water.
1792 Scottish engineer and inventor William Murdoch employed by Boulton and Watt to supervise their pumping engines in Cornwall was the first to make practical use of coal gas. By heating coal in a closed iron retort with a hollow pipe attached he produced a steady stream of coal gas for lighting his house.
Coal gas was one of the byproducts of pyrolysis or the destructive distillation of coal was already used to produce coke which was used in metallurgical processes to extract metals from their ores. At first the public were not interested in Murdoch's application due to health and safety fears and his employers discouraged him from patenting the idea so he left the company in 1797 to exploit it himself. When others showed interest in commercialising coal gas Boulton and Watt realised their mistake and Murdoch was invited back the following year. Boulton and Watt subsequently became major players in the gas business selling integrated illumination systems with their own self contained gas generators. Coal gas lighting was eventually patented in 1804 by German inventor Friedrich Albrecht Winzer (Frederick Albert Winsor) who pioneered the installation in Britain of public gas lighting and gas distribution systems fed from large central gas works.
The production of coke and coal gas left huge residues of coal tar which were initially regarded as mostly waste. It was another 50 years before Perkin showed how considerable value could be extracted from this waste.
1794 American law graduate and inventor Eli Whitney patented the cotton gin ("gin" derived form "engine") which automated the process of separating cottonseed from raw cotton fibres. It was about 50 times faster than the previous method of processing the cotton by hand and revolutionised cotton production in the United States, work which had formerly been done by slaves. His cotton engine consisted of a box in which was mounted a revolving cylinder with spiked teeth, or wire hooks, which pulled the cotton fibre through small slotted openings thus separating the seeds from the lint. A separate rotating brush, operated from the main drum via a belt and pulleys, removed the loose fibrous cotton lint from the projecting spikes or hooks. Early devices were powered by a hand crank but these were soon replaced by larger horse-drawn or water powered machines.
Paradoxically, the introduction of the cotton gin as a labour saving device did not reduce the demand for slave labour. Because cotton could be produced much more cheaply, the demand increased, more cotton was planted and cotton replaced tobacco and indigo as cash crops so that many more slaves were required to grow the cotton and harvest the fields. Some people claim that by increasing the demand for slave labour, the introduction of the cotton gin was one of the causes of the American Civil War (1861-1865).
Despite the success of the cotton gin, it was quickly copied many times over and Whitney spent much of his money on legal battles over patent infringements.
In 1798 Whitney also pioneered the use of interchangeable parts in the production of muskets which proved to be more commercially successful.
1795 The hydraulic press used for lifting heavy weights or for the presses used in metal forming was patented by English engineer Joseph Bramah. The principle on which it depends was first outlined by Pascal 150 years earlier but not turned into practical products.
Bramah also invented a "burglar proof" lock, which remained unpicked for sixty-seven years and examples are still in use today. The secret of the lock was the precision to which it was made.
1797 Young Prussian noble Alexander von Humboldt published a book outlining his theories about Galvanic electricity and his experiments to support them. He believed that the electricity came from the muscle and was intensified by the electrodes and he carried out experiments on plants and animals to prove it. He also carried out numerous experiments on himself to gather more data using a Leyden jar to inflict severe shocks on his body until it was badly lacerated and scarred. He was mortified three years later when his theories were proved completely wrong by Volta and turned his attention instead to geology, botany and exploration in all of which he found international fame but no fortune.
1797 English engineer Henry Maudslay introduced the precision screw-cutting lathe. Although lathes had been in use from before 3000 B.C. when the Egyptians used the bow lathe for wood turning, Maudslay's lathe was the first true ancestor of the modern machine tools industry.
Maudslay began his career in 1789 as a blacksmith, making machinery for Joseph Bramah, but he progressed to the more precision work required for Bramah's hydraulic and lock making systems when he opened his own business. His first major contract was to make the manufacturing equipment used in Mark Isambard Brunel's block making plant.
He recognised the importance of having an accurate reference plane for marking out, for inspection and for setting out tooling and assemblies to be used as a baseline for all measurements of the work piece. He introduced and championed the use of a solid high precision surface plate, usually made of cast iron for this purpose. He deivised the method of creating these extremely flat surfaces and introduced the use of engineer's blue to aid in this process. The process needs three sets of plates worked together to achieve the necessary degree of flatness. A thin coating of engineer's blue, slightly more sticky than marking blue, is applied to one of the plates and the plate is then rubbed against a second plate. Imperfections are indicated in the areas where the blue has been rubbed off one plate and transferred to the other. Originally these imperfections were corrected by grinding off the high spots but this was superceded by scraping. This process is repeated several times with all three plates until the plates are flat. The third plate is necessary to avoid creating matching pairs of concave and convex plates.
Engineer's blue is also used more generally to identify any high spots or contact between mating pieces. Marking blue, slightly thinner, is used for marking out surfaces in preparation for scribing or drilling.
Maudslay raised the standards of precision, fits, finishes and metrology and invented the first bench micrometer capable of measuring to one ten thousandth of an inch (0.0001 in ≈ 3 µm)which he called the "Lord Chancellor" because it resolved disputes about the accuracy of workmanship in his factory.
His pupils included Scottish engineer James Nasmyth who designed and made heavy machine tools, including the shaper and the steam hammer, for the ship building and railway industries, English engineer Joseph Whitworth who introduced the Whitworth Standard for screw threads and designed the Whitworth rifle and Richard Roberts, inventor of the first practical power loom, the self-acting spinning mule and various machine tools including gear cutting machines. See also Whitney - next.
1798 In an age when mechanical devices were individually made and laboriously fitted by hand, American engineer Eli Whitney pioneered the concept of interchangeable parts in the USA, using precision manufacturing made possible by more accurate machine tools just becoming available. Prior to that, if a part failed, a replacement part had to be made and fitted individually creating major problems and losses in battlefield conditions. Whitney's methods also reduced the skill levels needed to manufacture and assemble the parts enabling him to take on a contract to supply 10,000 muskets in two years to the US government. Whitney also built a rudimentary milling machine in 1818 for use in firearms manufacturing, but the universal milling machine as we would recognise it today was invented by American engineer Joseph Rogers Brown in 1862. Brown's machine was able to cut the flutes in twist drills. See also Whitworth's method of making twist drills which it replaced.
In 1794 Whitney also invented the cotton gin which revolutionised the processing of raw cotton.
1799 Count Rumford, man of science, inventor, administrator, philanthropist, self publicist and scoundrel, born Benjamin Thompson in the USA, founded The Royal Institution in London to promote and disseminate the new found knowledge of the industrial revolution. Its first director was a well connected, glamorous young Cornish chemist, Humphry Davy. Davy was a great showman, but did not consider "common mechanics" worthy of his brilliance, so the Institution rapidly evolved to presenting lectures for the wealthy, who paid to attend. In Rumford's original plan, there had been a back door through which the poor could access a balcony to hear the lectures from a distance for free. Davy had it bricked up. The Institution did, however, perform a very valuable function in that it was a subsidised science lab, one of the very few in the world, which enabled scientists of the day, such as Michael Faraday, to make many important discoveries.
Rumford was a colourful character, like fellow American Benjamin Franklin, a man of many talents. Raised in pre-Revolutionary New England, at the age of 19 he married a wealthy 31-year-old widow and he took up spying on the colonies for the British but left for England in 1776 when he was found out, deserting his wife and daughter. At first he worked in the British foreign office as undersecretary for Colonial Affairs and was knighted by George III after a stint in the army fighting on the British side in the American War of Independence. He moved on to Munich where he carried out public and military works for the Elector of Bavaria being rewarded in 1792 with the title Count of the Holy Roman Empire. Among his inventions were the drip coffee pot and thermal underwear.
His interest in field artillery led him to study both the boring and firing of cannons. Out of this work he saw that mechanical power could be converted to heat -- that there was a direct equivalence between thermal energy and mechanical work. Heat was produced by friction in unlimited quantities so long as the work continued. It could therefore not be a fluid called a Caloric flowing in and out of a substance as his adversary, the noted French chemist, Antoine Lavoisier, had proposed, since the fluid would have a finite quantity.
After Lavoisier's death Rumford started a four year affair with his wealthy, young widow, however after a short unhappy marriage they divorced with Rumford remarking that Lavoisier was lucky to have been guillotined. Rumford lived out the rest of his life in Lavoisier's former house in France engaged in scientific studies and it is claimed that he was paid by the French for spying on the British.
1799 English aristocrat, engineer and polymath, George Cayley, one hundred years before the Wright brothers, outlined the concept of the modern aeroplane as a fixed-wing flying machine with separate systems for lift, propulsion, and control. He was the first to understand the underlying principles and to identify the four basic aerodynamic forces of flight, namely weight, lift, drag, and thrust, which act on any flying vehicle.
Unfortunately there would be no suitable power sources available for many years to realise such a design, but he applied his theories to the design of gliders and made the first successful glider to carry a human being.
Throughout time, countless philosophers and experimenters had been fascinated by the flight of birds and the shape of their wings, however Cayley was the first to undertake a methodical study of the shape and cross section of wings and it is to him that we owe the idea of the curved aerofoils used in modern aircraft designs.
His theories and designs were based on models he had tested on a "whirling-arm apparatus" he had built to simulate airflow over the wings and to measure the drag on objects at different speeds and angles of attack. It had the same functions as a modern wind tunnel but instead, it was based on an earlier design by Smeaton which enabled models to be passed at high speed in a circular path through the still air. Balance springs were used to measure the forces on the model.
From his researches, he showed that a curved aerofoil produces significantly more lift than a simple flat plate. He also identified the need for aerodynamic controls to maintain stability in flight and was the first to design an elevator and a rudder for that purpose.
Cayley's paper "On Aerial Navigation", published in 1810, was the first scientific work about aviation and the theory of flight and marked the birth of the science of aeronautics.
See more about Aerofoils and Theories of Flight.
Cayley is remembered for his ground breaking work on aerodynamics and aeronautics however he was also a prolific inventor and has been called by some "the English Leonardo" though there are other candidates for this accolade (see Hooke) and some of his sketches for ornithopters and vertical takeoff aircraft are reminiscent of Leonardo's drawings. The following are some of his other activities and inventions.
In 1800 he presented to parliament a comprehensive plan he had devised for land reclamation and flood control.
His early work between 1804 and 1805 centred on ballistics. He designed artillery shells with fins which imparted a rotating movement of the shell about the direction of travel which in turn increased their range and later he introduced shells with explosive caps which increased their destructive power.
In 1807 he published a paper on the Hot Air Engine and started a series of experiments to improve its performance. The ideas were picked up by Robert Stirling who made his own improvements and patented the engine in 1816.
Also in 1807 he described a reciprocating engine fuelled by gunpowder. It consisted of two pistons connected in line and connected to one of them was an external tube into which a fixed amount of gunpowder was automatically fed with each cycle. A constantly burning flame at the end of the tube ignited the gunpowder and the gas generated, together with the expansion of the air in the second piston due to the heat of the explosion, forced the pistons to the top of their stroke. The pistons were returned to the start position by means of a stout bowspring. The engine did not produce rotary motion. There is no record of it having been built and the idea was abandoned as being too unreliable.
In his quest for a lightweight undercarriage for his gliders, Cayley turned his attention in 1808 to the wheels. For centuries wheels had been made with stout wooden spokes to support the weight of the vehicle exerted through the axle bearing down on the spokes. The spokes themselves had to be strong enough to support this compressive load so that wheels were generally very heavy. Cayley turned the problem on its head. Instead of spokes in compression, he designed a wheel in which the axle was suspended from the rim of the wheel by slender wire spokes in tension. The magnitude of the force was the same but a wire under tension can accommodate much higher forces than a shaft of wood under compression. This lightweight wheel was the forerunner of the modern bicycle wheel. Cayley thus re-invented the wheel.
Another of his inventions was the caterpillar track which he patented in 1825 shortly after Stephenson ran his first railway service, now used in tanks and earth moving equipment. It was an attempt to free steam trains from their dependence on the fixed itinerary determined by the railway lines so that they could deviate down untracked roads. He called it the "Universal Railway".
He experimented with light, heat and electricity and in 1828 he estimated absolute zero temperature to be -480°F about 11.44°C lower than the 273.15°C confirmed by Kelvin in 1848.
Cayley gave a lot of attention to the safety on the new railway systems crisscrossing the country. His first idea, published in 1831, after the first fatal railway accident at the 1829 Rainhill trials when the unfortunate William Huskisson was run over by Stephenson's Rocket, was a "Cow Catcher" though this was never introduced in Britain. At the same time he examined operating procedures and recommended that speed limits and driver training should be introduced. He also proposed the introduction of automatic braking systems and designed a braking system for that purpose. To reduce injuries in case of accidents he designed a compressed air buffer truck to be incorporated into the trains and recommended that passengers should wear seat belts and that the walls of the carriages should be covered with padded cushions (air bags?). In 1841 he also proposed new operating procedures coupled with a method of automatic signalling he designed to ensure that no two trains could ever meet on the same tracks.
He also campaigned for the compulsory introduction of self-righting lifeboats following designs by William Wouldhave in 1789 and earlier proposals in 1785 by Lionel Lukin.
Following a fire at London's Covent Garden Theatre in 1808 which twenty three firemen were killed, Cayley proposed the design of a new theatre which incorporated many of the features which are included in modern fire regulations such as safety curtains, large outward opening doors, a large reservoir of water and a pumps to direct it onto the fire. His proposal was not accepted and 47 years later its replacement, built in the classical Athenian style, was burnt to the ground.
Prompted by a friend who had lost his hand, in 1845 he designed a prosthetic hand with spring movements which enabled it to grip and pick up objects. At the time there were few concessions by the government or society to disabled people and amputees merely had a hook in place of their hand. Cayley's idea was considered too expensive and fell on stony ground.
In 1849, Cayley produced a small biplane glider in which a 10 year old boy made a short test flight. It was the world's first "heavier than air flying machine" to carry a human being. He followed up in 1853, at the age of 79, with a full scale glider which carried his reluctant coachman across Brompton Dale in Yorkshire.
In his spare time he was also a Member of Parliament, representing Scarborough.
Cayley had strong views that people should not profit in any way from human suffering and did not patent any of the ideas relating to safety or disability.
The man who started it all.
Volta's Pile
Alessandro Volta of the University of Pavia, Italy, describes the principle of the electrochemical battery in a letter to the Royal Society in London. The first device to produce continuous electric current. He had been interested in electrical phenomena since 1763 and in 1775 he had made his own electrophorus for carrying out his experiments. He was a friend of Galvani but disagreed with him about the nature of electricity. Galvani's experiments with frogs had led him to believe that the source of the electricity was the frog, however Volta sought to prove that the electricity came from outside of the frog, in his case from the dissimilar metals used to probe the specimen.
His "Voltaic Pile" was initially presented in 1800 as an "artificial electric organ" to demonstrate that the electricity was independent of the frog. It was constructed from pairs of dissimilar metals zinc and silver separated by a fibrous diaphragm (Cardboard?) moistened with sodium hydroxide or brine and provided the world's first continuous electric current. The pile produced a voltage of between one and two volts. To produce a higher voltages he connected several piles together with metal strips to form a "battery". He was the first to understand the importance of "closing the circuit".
Volta's invention caused great excitement at the time and he gave many demonstrations including drawing sparks from the pile, melting a steel wire (the first fuse?), discharging an electric pistol and decomposing water into its elements. Though little more than a curiosity at first, the ability to deliver electric energy on demand was an important development contributing to the Industrial Revolution.
Napoleon was particularly impressed, insisting on helping with the demonstrations when he was present and showering Volta with honours despite the fact that France and Italy were initially at war with each other. The unit of electric potential was named the Volt in his honour.
After the invention of the battery, Volta was awarded a pension by Napoleon and he began to devote more of his time to politics, holding various public offices. He retired in 1819 and died in 1827 and although the battery was a sensation in scientific circles and giving impetus to an intensification of scientific investigation and discovery throughout the nineteenth century, surprisingly Volta himself never participated in these opportunities.
1800 English scientists, William Nicholson and Anthony Carlisle, experimenting with Volta's chemical battery, accidentally discovered electrolysis, the process in which an electric current produces a chemical reaction, and initiated the science of electrochemistry. (A discovery like many others claimed by Humphry Davy though he did actually do original work at a later date on electrolysis).
This new technique, made possible by the availability of the constant electric current provided by the new found batteries, enabled many compounds to be separated into their constituent elements and led to the discovery and isolation of many previously unknown chemical elements. Electrolysis, "loosening with electricity", thus became widely used by scientific experimenters.
1800 German born, English astronomer, Frederick William Herschel in an experiment to measure the heat content of the various colours in the visible light spectrum, placed a thermometer in the spectral patches of coloured light. He discovered that not only did the temperature rise as he approached the low frequency, red end of the spectrum, but the temperature continued to rise beyond the red colour even though there were no visible light rays there. The conclusion was that the energy spectrum of the Sun's light was wider than that visible to the naked eye. The long wave radiation below the red end of the spectrum was named infra red radiation.
1801 After Herschel's discovery of radiation below the red end of the light spectrum (See above), German physicist, Johann Wilhelm Ritter, explored the short wave region above the violet end of the spectrum. Using the phenomenon discovered by Scheele, that the colourless salt, Silver chloride is turned black by light rays from the violet end of the spectrum, he showed that higher frequency rays from above the violet radiation also caused strong blackening of the silver salt. This higher frequency energy was named ultra violet radiation.
1801 French silk-weaver, Joseph-Marie Jacquard invented an automatic loom using punched cards to control the weaving of the patterns in the fabrics. This was not the earliest implementation of a stored program and the use of punched cards programmed to control a manufacturing process as is often claimed. That honour goes to Bouchon starting in 75 years earlier and improved by Falcon in 1728 and eventually refined by de Vaucanson in 1744. Jacquard presented his invention in Paris in 1804, and was awarded a medal and patent for his design by the French government who consequently claimed the loom to be public property, paying Jacquard a small royalty and a pension. Its introduction caused riots in the streets by workers fearing for their jobs.
Despite the loom's fame, Jacquard's principles of programmed control and automation were not applied to any other manufacturing process for another 145 years when Parsons produced the first numerically controlled machine tools.
1801 Frenchman Nicholas Gautherot observed that when a current from a voltaic battery was sent between two Copper plates immersed in Sulphuric acid, for a short period afterwards the copper plates could drive a current back in the opposite direction. He had inadvertently discovered the rechargeable battery but did not realise its significance. Sixty years later Planté repeated the experiment with Lead plates and the Lead Acid battery was born.
1802 English chemist Dr William Cruikshank designed the first battery capable of mass production. A flooded cell battery constructed from sheets of copper and zinc in a wooden box filled with brine or acid.
Cruikshank also discovered the electrodeposition of copper on the cathodes of copper based electrolytic cells and was able to extract metals from their solutions, the basis modern metal refining and of electroplating, but it was not until 1840 that the commercial potential of the plating process was realised by the Elkingtons.
1802 British chemist William Hyde Wollaston discovered dark lines in the optical spectrum of sunlight which were subsequently investigated in more detail and catalogued by Fraunhofer in 1814.
Wollaston also investigated the optical properties of quartz crystals and discovered that they rotate the plane of polarisation of a linearly polarised light beam travelling along the crystal optic axis. He applied this property in his invention of the Wollaston prism in which he used two crystal prisms mounted back to back to separate randomly polarised or unpolarised light into two orthogonal, linearly polarized beams which exit the prism in diverging directions determined by the wavelength of the light and the angle and length of the prism. Wollaston prisms are used in polarimeters and also in Compact Disc player optics.
Wollaston was also active as a chemist. He discovered the element Palladium in 1803 and Rhodium the following year and in 1816 he invented improvements to the battery. His attempts to invent an electric motor were less successful however bringing him into conflict with Michael Faraday.
1803 Ritter first demonstrated the elements of a rechargeable battery made from layered discs of copper and cardboard soaked in brine. Unfortunately there was no practical way to recharge it other than from a Voltaic Pile and for many years they remained a laboratory curiosity until someone invented a charger. Ritter was one of the first to identify the phenomenon of polarisation in acidic cells. He also repeated Galvani's "frog" experiments with progressively higher voltages on his own body. This was probably the cause of his untimely death at the age of 33.
1803 John Dalton a Quaker school teacher working in Manchester resurrects the Greek Democritus' atomic theory that every element is made up from tiny identical particles called atoms, each with a characteristic mass, which can neither be created or destroyed. Dalton showed that elements combine in definite proportions and developed the first list of atomic weights which he first published in 1803 at the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society and at greater length in book form in 1808.
In 1801 Dalton also formulated the empirical Law of Partial Pressures, now considered to be one of the Gas laws. It states that in a mixture of ideal gases the total pressure is equal to the sum of the partial pressures of each individual component in a gas mixture. In other words, each gas has a partial pressure which is the pressure which the gas would have if it alone occupied the volume. Besides its concentration, the partial pressure of the gas in a gas mixture has a major effect in determining its physical and chemical reaction rates.
For an example of the application of the Law of Partial Pressures see Refrigeration.
1804 The Electric telegraph one of the first attempted applications of the new electric battery technology was proposed by Catalan scientist Francisco Salvá. One wire was used for each letter of the alphabet and each number. The presence of a signal was indicated by a stream of hydrogen bubbles when the telegraph wire was immersed in acid. The system had a range of one kilometer.
1804 Mining engineer Richard Trevithick, known as the Cornish Giant, built the Pen-y-Darren steam engine, the first locomotive to run on flanged cast iron rails. It hauled 10 tons of iron and 70 men on 5 wagons from Pen-y-Darren to Abercynon in Wales on the Merthyr Tydfil tramroad, normally used for horse drawn traffic, at a speed of 2.4 mph (3.9 km/h) thus disproving the commonly held theory that using smooth driving wheels on smooth rails would not allow sufficient traction for pulling heavy loads. (See Trevithick's Pen-y-Darren Locomotive)
Trevithick's locomotive incorporated several radical innovations. He did not use the steam engine with a separate condenser recently invented by James Watt, the most efficient technology of the day, partly to circumvent the onerous conditions of the Boulton and Watt patent, but also because Watt's engines were too heavy and bulky for mobile use. Instead, to achieve greater efficiencies in a smaller, lighter engine he used a high pressure system with the power stroke being produced by high pressure steam on the piston rather than atmospheric pressure as in Watt's engine.
Higher pressure systems exposed weaknesses in current boiler designs which Trevithick overcame by using a cylindrical construction which was inherently stronger and could withstand much higher pressures and this became the pattern for all subsequent steam engines.
He did however use one of Watt's other innovations, the double acting piston, in which a sliding valve coupled to the piston enabled the steam to be applied alternately to each surface of the piston providing a power stroke in both the forward and back motions of the piston. (See Double Acting Piston).
To improve combustion efficiency he replaced the conventional method of producing steam in which an external flame was used to heat the water in a separate kettle or boiler, by using instead, a return flue boiler in which a U shaped, internal fire tube flue passed through the water boiler and bent back on itself to increase the surface area heating the water. Efficiency was further improved by directing the exhaust steam from the driving piston up the chimney to increase the air draft through the boiler fire. Known as the "blast pipe", this latter steam release is what gave steam engines their characteristic puffing sound.
Together, these innovations provided a 10 fold increase in efficiency over Watt's engine and all of these ideas were subsequently used by George Stephenson on his Rocket locomotive.
Converting the reciprocating motion of the piston to rotary motion for driving the wheels was however was the Achilles heal of this particular engine being overly complicated. The single horizontal piston was located centrally above the boiler and the linear motion of the piston was transferred through a connecting beam perpendicular to the piston to two connecting rods or cranks, one on either side of the boiler. On one side the crank drove a large flywheel to smooth the motion and on the opposite side of the boiler the crank turned a spur gear mounted on the same shaft as the flywheel. The drive from this input gear was transferred via a large intermediate gear to spur gears mounted on the two drive wheels on the same side of the engine. There was no drive to the two wheels on the opposite side of the vehicle.
Trevithick was a larger than life character, bursting with ingenious ideas but unsuccessful in converting them into profitable business. Between 1811 and 1827 he spent time working on steam engines used in Peruvian silver mines and exploring South America on his way back. After a perilous journey he arrived penniless in Cartagena in Colombia where by amazing coincidence he met Robert Stephenson, whom he had known as a child, who paid his passage home.
1805 Italian chemist Luigi Valentino Brugnatelli, friend of Volta demonstrated electroplating by coating a silver medal with gold. He made the medal the cathode in a solution of a salt of gold, and used a plate of gold for the anode. Current was supplied by a Voltaic pile. Brugnatelli's work was however rebuffed by Napoleon Bonaparte which discouraged him from continuing his work on electroplating.
The process later became widely used for rust proofing and for providing decorative coatings on cheaper metals. Gold plating is used extensively today in the electronics industry to provide low resistance, hard wearing, corrosion proof connectors.
1807 English physician, physicist, and Egyptologist Thomas Young introduced a measure of the stiffness or elasticity of a material, now called Young's Modulus which relates the deformation of a solid to the force applied. Also called the Modulus of elasticity it can be thought of as the spring constant for solids. Young's modulus is a fundamental property of the material. It enables Hooke's spring constant, and thus the energy stored in the spring to be calculated from a knowledge of the elasticity of the spring material.
Young was the first to assign the term kinetic energy to the quantity ½MV2 and to define work done, as force X distance which is also equivalent to energy, an extension to Newton's Laws but surprisingly taking 140 years to emerge. More surprising still is that it was another 44 years before the concept of potential energy was proposed.
He also did valuable work on optical theory and in 1801 he devised the Double Slit Interference experiment which verified the wave nature of light. He directed a light source through a slit in a plate and observed a broad strip of light on a screen a short distance behind the plate. Repeating the experiment with two parallel slits, the light passing through, and spreading from, the slits and illuminating the screen appeared as a series of bright and dark parallel bands on the screen. The slight difference in the light path lengths to the screen via the two separate slits results in a phase shift between the two emerging light beams which creates constructive and destructive interference between the light waves passing through the different slits when they are recombined. This interference pattern thus confirmed the wave nature of light. See diagram of Young's Double Slit Experiment.
But see also Taylor's demonstration of the Corpuscular Nature of Light.
Young is considered by some to be the last person to know everything there was to know. (Not the only candidate to this fame). He was a child prodigy and had read through the Bible twice by the age of four and was reading and writing Latin at six. By the time he was 14 he had a knowledge of at least five languages, and eventually his repertoire grew to 12. He practiced medicine until the work load clashed with his other interests, and among his many accomplishments he translated the inscriptions on the Rosetta Stone which was they key which enabled hieroglyphics to be deciphered.
1807 Humphry Davy constructed the largest battery ever built at the time, with over 250 cells, and passed a strong electric current through solutions of various compounds suspected of containing undiscovered elements isolating Potassium and Sodium by this electrolytic method, followed in 1808 with the isolation of Calcium, Strontium, Barium, and Magnesium. The following year Davy used his batteries to create an arc lamp.
In 1810 Davy was credited with the isolation of Chlorine, already discovered by Scheele in 1773.
In 1813 Davy wrote to the Royal Society stating that he had identified a new element which he called Iodine, four days after a similar announcement by Gay-Lussac. The element had in fact been isolated in 1811 from the ashes of burnt seaweed by Bernard Courtois, the son of a French saltpetre manufacturer, who had passed samples to Gay-Lussac and Ampère for investigation. Ampère in turn passed a sample to Davy. Although Courtois discovery was not disputed, both Davy and Gay-Lussac claimed credit for identifying the element.
1807 Robert Fulton a prolific American inventor is most remembered for building the Claremont steamboat which successfully plied the Hudson River in 1807 steaming between New York and Albany in 32 hours with an average speed of 5 miles per hour. He had earlier built a steamboat based on John Fitch's design which operated on the Seine in Paris in 1803. Where Fitch succeeded technically but failed commercially, Fulton made a commercial success of Fitch's technology and is unduly remembered as the inventor of the steamboat.
1807 As a result of his studies on heat propagation, French mathematician Baron JeanBaptiste Joseph Fourier presented a paper to the Institut de France on the use of simple sinusoids to represent temperature distributions. The paper also claimed that any continuous periodic signal could be represented as the sum of properly chosen sinusoidal waves.
For the previous fifty years the great mathematicians of the day had sought equations to describe the vibration of a taut string anchored at both ends as well as the related problem of the propagation of sound through an elastic medium. French mathematicians Jean-Baptiste le Rond d'Alembert and Joseph-Louis Lagrange and Swiss Leonhard Euler and Daniel Bernoulli had already proposed combinations of sinusoids to represent these physical phenomena and in Germany, Carl Friedrich Gauss had also been working on similar ways to analyse mechanical oscillations (see below). Whereas their theories applied to particular situations, Fourier's claim was controversial in that it extended the theory to any continuous periodic waveform.
Among the reviewers of Fourier's paper were Lagrange, Adrien-Marie Legendre and Pierre Simon de Laplace, some of history's most famous mathematicians. While Laplace and the other reviewers voted to publish the paper, Lagrange demurred, insisting that signals with abrupt transitions or "corners", such as square waves could not be represented by smooth sinusoids. The Institut de France bowed to the prestige of Lagrange, and rejected Fourier's work. It was only after Lagrange died that the paper was finally published, some 15 years later.
When Fourier's paper was eventually published in 1822, it was restated and expanded as "Theorie Analytique de la Chaleur", the mathematical theory of heat conduction. The study made important breakthroughs in two areas. In the study of heat flow, Fourier showed that the rate of heat transfer is proportional to the temperature gradient, a new concept at the time, now known as Fourier's Law.
Of greater importance however were the mathematical techniques Fourier developed to calculate the heat flow in unusually shaped objects. He provided the mathematical proof to support his 1807 claim that any repetitive waveform can be approximated by a series of sine and cosine functions, the coefficients of which we now call the Fourier Series. These coefficients represent the magnitudes of the different frequency components which make up the original signal. When the sine and cosine waves of the appropriate frequencies are multiplied by their corresponding coefficients and then added together, the original signal waveform is exactly reconstructed. Thus complex functions such as differential equations can be converted into simpler trigonometric terms which are easier to handle mathematically by calculus or other methods.
This mathematical technique is known as the Fourier transform and its application to an electrical signal or mechanical wave is analogous to the splitting or "dispersion" of a light beam by a prism into the familiar coloured optical spectrum of the light source. An optical spectrum consists of bands of colour corresponding to the various wavelengths (and hence different frequencies) of light waves emitted by the source. In the same way, applying the Fourier transform to an electrical signal separates it into its spectrum of different frequency components, often called harmonics, which makes it very useful in electrical engineering applications.
Fourier showed that the harmonic content of a square wave can be represented by an infinite series of harmonics approximated by the expression:
f(t) = ∑ 1 sin (nωt) Where ω is the pulse repetition frequency.
n=1 n
High frequency harmonics are required to construct the sharp pulse transitions of the square wave so that a high bandwidth is required to transmit a pulsed waveform without distortion. In practice, 10 to 15 times the fundamental frequency of the bit rate provides enough bandwidth to transmit a recognisable square wave. Thus to transmit a 1 kHz square wave would require a channel bandwidth of at least 10 kHz.
In electrical engineering applications, the Fourier transform takes a time series representation of a complex waveform and converts it into a frequency spectrum. That is, it transforms a function in the time domain into a series in the frequency domain, thus decomposing a waveform into harmonics of different frequencies, a process which was formerly called harmonic analysis.
The Fourier Transform has wide ranging applications in many branches of science and while many contributed to the field, Fourier is honoured for his insight into the practical usefulness of the mathematical techniques involved.
Fourier led an exciting life. He was a supporter of the Revolution in France but opposed the Reign of Terror which followed bringing him into conflict and danger from both sides. In 1798 he accompanied Napoleon on his invasion of Egypt as scientific advisor but was abandoned there when Nelson destroyed the French fleet in the Battle of the Nile. Back in France he later provoked Napoleon's ire by pledging his loyalty to the king after Napoleon's abdication and the fall of Paris to the European coalition forces in 1814. When Napoleon escaped from Elba in 1815 Fourier once more feared for his life. His fears were unfounded however and, despite his disloyalty, Napoleon awarded him a pension but it was never paid since Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo later that year.
As noted above Fourier was not the only one at the time looking for simple solutions to complex mathematical problems. Gauss was trying to calculate the trajectories of the asteroids Pallas and Juno. He knew that they were complex repetitive functions but he only had sampled data of the locations at particular points in time rather than a continuous time varying function from which to construct a mathematical model of the trajectories. Although this was before Fourier's time, like his contemporaries Gauss was aware that the result should be a series of sinusoids, but deriving a transform from sampled or discrete data, rather than from a time varying mathematical function, involves a huge computational task. Such a transform applied to sampled data is now known as a Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) and can be considered as a digital tool whereas the general Fourier Transform only applies to continuous functions and can be considered as an analogue tool. In 1805 Gauss derived a mathematical short cut for computing the coefficients of his transform. Although he applied it to a specific, rather than a general case, we would recognise Gauss's short cut today as the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) even though it owed nothing to Fourier.
1808 Prolific Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius working at the University of Uppsala in Sweden formulated the Law of Definite Proportions (discovered by Dalton five years earlier and by Richter twelve years before that) which establishes that the elements of inorganic compounds are bound together in definite proportions by weight. Berzelius developed the system of chemical notation we still use today in which the elements were given simple written labels, such as O for oxygen, or Fe for iron, and proportions were noted with numbers. He accurately determined the relative atomic and molecular masses of over 2000 elements and compounds.
1808 Fearing for his life, French civil and marine engineer, architect and royalist, Mark Isambard Brunel, fled from France in 1793 at the start of the "Reign of Terror" which followed the French Revolution after the execution of King Louis XVI. Settling in New York and taking American citizenship, he became the City's Chief Engineer with friends in high places including Alexander Hamilton, one of the U.S. founding fathers. Hearing from one of Hamilton's guests that the Britain's Royal Navy required 100,000 wooden pulley blocks per year as part of their war effort and were looking for a better method of manufacturing them, Brunel saw it as an opportunity to use his engineering talents in a venture too good to miss. Encouraged by Hamilton who saw Brunel's antipathy towards Napoleon as a way to hamper the French, he left the U.S. for England in 1799 with a letter of introduction from Hamilton to Lord Spencer, the British Navy Minister.
After winning a contract to manufacture 60,000 wooden pulley blocks per year, Brunel designed and set up one of the first ever mass production lines which went live in 1808. Instead of one man making a complete pulley Brunel divided the work into a series of simple, short cycle, repetitive tasks and using 43 custom designed, precision machines from Henry Maudslay to carry out the sequential operations in line. In this way he reduced the labour required to do the work from 110 men to 10. A formula which has become an industry standard.
See also Brunel's Thames Tunnel
1809 At a demonstration at the Royal Institution, Davy amazed the attendees by producing an electric arc between two Carbon electrodes - the first electric light and the first demonstration of the useful application of electricity. It was no longer just a curiosity. The demonstration marked the start of a new era, the era of electricity.
Davy is generally credited with inventing the Carbon arc lamp, however a Russian Vasilli V. Petrov had reported this phenomenon in 1803.
In 1816 Davy claimed the credit for the invention of the miner's safety lamp, named the "Davy lamp" in his honour but it was actually similar to a design already demonstrated in 1815 by self taught railway pioneer George Stephenson. The privileged Davy was incensed that he could be upstaged by working class Stephenson.
According to J. D. Bernal's "Science in History" Davy is quoted as saying "The unequal division of property and of labour, the difference of rank and position amongst mankind, are the sources of power in civilized life, its moving causes, and even its very soul."
See also Davy and the Royal Institution
1811 Italian physicist Amadeo Avogadro discovered the concept of molecules. He hypothesized that equal volumes of gases at the same temperature and pressure contain equal numbers of molecules. From this hypothesis it followed that relative molecular weights of any two gases are the same as the ratio of the densities of the two gases under the same conditions of temperature and pressure.
This relationship called Avogadro's Hypothesis or Avogadro's Law, now considered as one of the Gas Laws, can be expressed as:
V1 / n1 = V2 / n2
where V is the volume of the gas and n is the number of molecules it contains.
The concept of a mole is a useful measure of the number of "elementary entities" (usually molecules or atoms, but also ions or electrons) contained in a system. See definition of a mole.
The number of "elementary entities" in one mole has been defined as Avogadro's constant or Avogadro's number. It's value was not determined until 1905 by Einstein in his doctorial dissertation.
The basic scheme of atoms and molecules arrived at by Dalton and Avogadro underpins all modern chemistry.
1812 German physician Samuel Thomas von Sömmering increased the range of Salvás (1804) telegraph to three kilometers by using bigger batteries, a method subsequently used with disastrous results on the Transatlantic Telegraph Cable.
1812 Venetian priest and physicist Giuseppe Zamboni developed the first leak proof high voltage "dry" batteries with terminal voltages of over 2000 Volts. They consisted of thousands of small metallic foil discs of tin or an alloy of copper and zinc called "tombacco", separated by paper discs stacked in glass tubes. The technology was not well understood at the time and while Zamboni consciously avoided the use of any conventional corrosive aqueous electrolyte in the cells, hence the name "dry" battery, the electrolyte was actually provided by the humidity in the paper discs and a variety of experimental greasy acidic pulps spread thinly on the foils to minimise polarisation effects. Although the battery voltage was very high, the internal resistance was thousands of megohms so the current drawn from the batteries was about 10-9 amps, limiting the battery's potential applications. One notable application however was a primitive electrostatic clock mechanism in which a pendulum was attracted towards the high voltage terminal of a Zamboni pile by the electrostatic force between the pendulum and the terminal. When the pendulum touched the terminal it acquired the same charge as the terminal and was consequently deflected away from it towards the opposite pole of another similar pile from which, by a similar mechanism it was deflected back again, thus maintaining the oscillation. The current drain or discharge rate of the batteries was so low as to be undetectable with instruments available at the time and it was thought that the pendulum was a "perpetual electromotor". In fact Zamboni primary batteries have been known to last for over 50 years before becoming completely discharged!
1813 French mathematician and physicist Siméon Denis Poisson derived the relationship which relates the electric potential in a static electric field to the charge density which gives rise to it. The resulting electric field is equal to the gradient of the potential. This equation describes the electric fields which drive the flow of charged ions through the electrolyte in a battery.
Poisson published many papers during his lifetime but he is perhaps best remembered for his 1837 paper on the statistical distribution now named after him. The Poisson distribution describes the probability that a random event will occur in a time or space interval under the conditions that the probability of the event occurring is very small, but the number of trials is very large so that the event actually occurs only a small number of times. He used his theory to predict the likelihood of being killed by being kicked by a horse and tested it against French army records over several years of the number of soldiers killed in this way. Apart from analysing accident data, the distribution is fundamental to queuing theory which is used in traffic studies to dimension applications from supermarket checkouts and tollgates to telephone exchanges.
1814 German physicist Joseph von Fraunhofer identified and catalogued a series of 570 dark lines, first noticed by Wollaston in 1802, corresponding to specific wavelengths in the visible light spectrum from cool vapours surrounding the Sun.
In 1859 Kirchhoff and Bunsen began a systematic investigation of these lines and deduced that the dark lines were caused by absorption of radiation by specific elements in the upper layers of the Sun's atmosphere. Comparing these lines with the light spectrum emitted by individual elements on Earth enabled them to identify the elements present in the Sun.
1816 A two wire telegraph system based on high voltage static electricity activating pith balls, using synchronous clockwork dials at each end of the channel to identify the letters, was demonstrated in the UK by Francis Ronalds, an English cheese maker and experimental chemist, and subsequently described in his publication of 1823. Coming only a year after Wellington's victory over Napoleon at Waterloo, it was turned down by the haughty Admiralty, who had just invented semaphore signalling, with the comment "Telegraphs of any kind are now wholly unnecessary". It was an invention before its time and nobody showed any interest. At the time it was however witnessed by the young Charles Wheatstone who was later credited in the UK with the invention of the telegraph.
1816 William Wollaston built the forerunner of the reserve battery. To avoid strong acids eating away the expensive metal plates of his batteries or cells when not in use, he simply hoisted the plates out of the electrolyte, a system copied by many battery makers in the nineteenth century.
1816 Scottish clergyman, Dr. Robert Stirling patented the Stirling Engine a Hot Air external combustion engine first proposed by George Cayley in 1807. Key to the design was an "economiser", now called a regenerator, which improved the thermal efficiency. The first practical engine of this type, it was used in 1818 for pumping water in a quarry. The thermodynamic operating principle, later named the Stirling cycle in his honour, is still the basis of modern Stirling engine applications.
1819 French physicists Pierre Louis Dulong and Alexis Thérèse Petit formulated the law named after them that "The atoms of all simple bodies have exactly the same capacity for heat." In quantitative terms the law is stated as - The specific heat capacity of a crystal (measured in Joules per degree Kelvin per kilogram) depends on the lattice structure and is equal to 3R/M, where R is the gas constant (measured in Joules per degree Kelvin per mole) and M is the molar mass (measured in kilograms per mole). In other words, the dimensionless heat capacity is equal to 3.
Dulong and Petit's Law proved useful in determining atomic weights.
1819 Moses Rogers captain of the passenger ship the SS Savannah converted it from a three masted sailing ship to a paddle steamer by installing a 90 horse power steam engine in it. More a hybrid than a steamship, it was 98 feet long with a displacement of 320 tons. Its fuel storage capacity was very low since the main propulsion was intended to be by the sails with the paddle wheels only coming into use when the wind speed was too low. The paddle wheels were 16 feet (4.9 m) in diameter and unusually, they could be stored on deck when the ship was under sail. A steam ship was such a rare sight that when people saw the ship under steam they thought it was on fire. The captain was unable to pursuade any travellers to risk their lives on the steamer's first Atlantic crossing which consequently took place as an experimental voyage without passengers.
In 1819 it crossed the Atlantic from Savannah to Liverpool in 29 days and 11 hours, entering the record books as the first steam ship to make the transatlantic crossing, but the engine was used for a total of about 80 hours during the journey. The return trip was made under sail in rough weather and took 40 days.
1820 Danish physicist Hans Christian Øersted showed how a wire carrying an electric current can cause a nearby compass needle to move. The first demonstration of the connection between magnetism and electricity and of the existence of a hitherto unknown, non-Newtonian force. Two major scientific discoveries from a simple experiment.
1820 One week after hearing about Øersted's experiment, French physicist and mathematician André-Marie Ampère showed that parallel wires carrying current in the same direction attract eachother, whereas parallel wires carrying current in opposite directions repel eachother.
He also showed that the force of attraction or repulsion is directly proportional to the strength of the current and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between the wires.
He precisely defined the concept of electric potential distinguishing it from electric current. He later went on to develop the relationship between electric currents and magnetic fields.
Ampère's life was not a happy one. Traumatised by his father's execution by the guillotine during the French Revolution, there followed two disastrous marriages, the first one resulting in the early death of his wife. Finally he had to cope with an alcoholic daughter. The epitaph he choose for his gravestone says Tandem Felix ('Happy at last'). The unit of current was named the Ampère in his honour.
1820 French mathematician Jean-Baptiste Biot, together with compatriot Felix Savart , discovered that the intensity of the magnetic field set up by a current flowing through a wire varies inversely with the distance from the wire. This is now known as Biot-Savart's Law and is fundamental to modern electromagnetic theory. They considered magnetism to be a fundamental property rather than taking Ampére's approach which treated magnetism as derived from electric circuits.
1820 Johann Salomo Christoph Schweigger professor of mathematics, chemist and classics scholar at the University of Halle, Germany built the first instrument for measuring the strength and direction of electric current. He named it the "Galvanometer" in honour of Luigi Galvani rather than a "Schweiggermeter"???. Galvani was in fact unaware of the concepts of current flows and magnetic fields.
1820 Dominique François Jean Arago in France demonstrated the first electromagnet, using an electric current to magnetise an iron rod.
1820 American chemist Robert Hare developed high current galvanic batteries by using spiral wound electrodes to increase the surface area of the plates in order to achieve the high current levels used in his combustion experiments. He also used such batteries in 1831 to enable blasting under water.
Hare also developed an apparatus he called the Spiritoscope, designed to detect fraud by Spiritualist mediums, and in the process of testing his machine, he became a Spiritualist convert and eventually became one of the best known Spiritualists in the USA.
1821 Prussian physicist Thomas Johann Seebeck discovered accidentally that a voltage existed between the two ends of a metal bar when one end was cooled and the other heated. This is a thermoelectric effect in which the potential difference depends on the existence of junctions between dissimilar metals (in this case, the bar and the connecting wire used to detect the voltage). Now called the Seebeck effect, it is the basis of the direct conversion of heat into electricity and the thermocouple. See also the Peltier effect discovered 13 years later which is the reverse of the Seebeck effect.
Batteries based on the Seebeck effect were introduced by Clamond in 1874 and NASA in 1961.
1821 The English scientist Michael Faraday was the first to conceive the idea of a magnetic field which he demonstrated with the distribution pattern of iron filings showing lines of force around a magnet. Prior to that, electrical and magnetic forces of attraction and repulsion had been thought to be due to some form of action at a distance.
In 1821 Faraday made the first electric motor. It was a simple model that demonstrated the principles involved. See diagram. Current was passed through a wire that was suspended into a bath of Mercury in the centre of which was a vertical bar magnet. The mercury completed the circuit between the battery and the wire. The current interacting with the magnetic field of the magnet caused the wire to rotate in a circular path around the magnetic pole of the magnet. This was the first time that electrical energy had been transformed into kinetic energy. In 1837 Davenport made the first practical motor but it did not achieve commercial success and for forty years after Faraday's original invention the motor remained a laboratory curiosity with many weird and wonderful designs. Typical examples are those of Barlow (1822) and Jedlik (1828).
This invention was the source of a bitter controversy with Humphry Davy and William Hyde Wollaston, recently President of the Royal Society, who had tried unsuccessfully to make an electric motor. Faraday was unjustly accused of using Wollaston's ideas without acknowledging his contribution. The upshot was that Faraday withdrew from working on electromagnetics for ten years concentrating instead on chemical research.
Consequently it was not until 1831 that Faraday invented a generator or dynamo to drive the motor. Surprisingly nobody else in the intervening ten years thought of it either. Faraday had shown that passing a current through a conductor in a magnetic field would cause the conductor to move through the field but nobody at the time thought of reversing the process and moving the conductor through the field (or conversely moving a magnet through a coil) to create (induce) a current in the conductor.
In an ideal electrical machine, the energy conversion from electrical to mechanical is reversible. Applying a voltage to the terminals of a motor causes the shaft to rotate. Conversely rotating the shaft causes a voltage to appear at the terminals, thus acting as a generator. It was not until 1867 that the idea of a reversible machine occurred to Werner Siemens and practical motor-generators were not realised until 1873 by Gramme and Fontaine.
Faraday, the Father of Electrical Engineering, was the son of a blacksmith. A humble man with no formal education, he started his career as an apprentice bookbinder. Inspired by the texts in the books with which he worked and with tickets given to him by a satisfied customer, he attended lectures in 1812 given by the renowned chemist, Sir Humphry Davy, at the Royal Institution. At each lecture Faraday took copious amounts of notes, which he later wrote up, bound and presented to Davy. As a consequence Faraday was taken on by Davy as an assistant for lower pay than he received in his bookbinding job. During his years with Davy he carried out much original work in chemical research including the isolation new hydrocarbons but despite his achievements he was treated as a servant by Davy's wife and by Davy who became increasingly jealous of Faraday's success. Davy also opposed Faraday's 1824 application for fellow of Royal Society when he himself was president. Davy died prematurely in 1829 at the age of 50, it is said like Scheele, from inhaling many of the gases he discovered or investigated.
Faraday went on to eclipse his mentor discovering electrical induction, inventing the electric motor, the transformer, the generator and the variable capacitor and making major contributions in the fields of chemistry and the theoretical basis of electrical machines, (See Faraday's Law), electrochemistry , magneto-optics and capacitors. His inventions and theories were key developments in the Industrial Revolution, providing the foundations of the modern electrical industry, but Faraday never commercialised any of his ideas concentrating more on teaching. He was perhaps the greatest experimenter of his time and although he lacked mathematical skills, he more than made up for it with his profound intuition and understanding of the underlying scientific principles involved which he was able to convey to others. He used his public lectures to explain and popularise science, a tradition still carried on in his name by the IEE today.
Although he was noted for his many inventions, Faraday never applied for a patent.
In 1864 he was offered the presidency of the Royal Institution which he declined. Not so well known is his relationship with Ada Lovelace who idolised him and pursued him over a period of several months in 1844 writing flattering and suggestive letters to which he replied, however in the end he did not succumb to her charms.
When the British Prime Minister asked of Faraday about a new discovery, "What good is it?", Faraday replied, "What good is a new-born baby?"
Saint Michael? - Among Victorian scientists and experimenters, Faraday is revered for his high moral and ethical standards. A deeply religious man, he overcame adversity to become one of the nineteenth century's greatest scientists and an inspiring teacher commanding admiration and respect, but he was not entirely beyond criticism. In 1844 a massive explosion in the coal mine of the small Durham mining village of Haswell killed 95 men and boys, some as young as 10 years old: - most of the male population of the village. The mine owners would accept no responsibility for the disaster and the coroner refused to allow any independent assessor to enter the mine. Incensed, the local villagers took their grievance all the way to the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel. Such was the national concern that Peel dispatched two eminent scientists to investigate, Faraday the "government chemist" and Sir Charles Lyell the "government geologist". Their verdict was "Accidental death" and, pressurised by the coroner, they added "No blame should be attached to anyone". In the days before social security, the consequences of this verdict were destitution for the bereaved families.
Faraday's biographers who mention the Haswell mining disaster usually only recount the story that Faraday conducted the proceedings while seated on a sack which, unknown to him, was filled with gunpowder.
1822 English mathematician Peter Barlow built an electric motor driven by continuous current. It used a solid toothed disc mounted between the poles of a magnet with the teeth dipping into a mercury bath, similar in principle to the Faraday disk. Applying a voltage between the shaft and the mercury caused the disc to rotate, the contact with the moving teeth was provided by the mercury.
1822 Probably Britain's greatest engineer, Isambard Kingdom Brunel was sent to France in 1820 at the age of 14 by his father, Mark Isambard Brunel, to acquire a more thorough academic grounding in engineering and to serve an apprenticeship with master horologist and instrument maker Abraham Louis Breguet. Returning in 1822 the 16 year old took up his first job working in his father's drawing office which at the time was preparing the plans for the Thames Tunnel.
In his lifetime Isambard Brunel designed and built 25 Railways, over 100 bridges and tunnels, 3 ships, 8 docks and a pre-fabricated field hospital.
He thought big. Inspired, rather than deterred, by the seemingly impossible, his projects were audacious in scale and ambition, taking engineering way beyond the boundaries of what conventional wisdom believed to be possible with the technology of the day, setting new limits which were not matched by others for decades. A great all round engineer, he turned his hand to architectural, civil, mechanical and naval projects contributing to every detail of the designs. Nor was he afraid to get his hands dirty, helping out the men working on his projects with their manual work when necessary.
Brunel's aspirations may have had no limits, however there was a price to pay for this ambition. He had a prodigious capacity for work and would often be engaged in a number of major projects at any one time, but the actual fulfillment of his projects was carried out by contractors whom he hired and these contractors were frequently driven beyond their limits.
Though his engineering achievements were truly heroic they were not always accompanied by commercial success for his clients and engineering success was often tarnished by unrealistic expectations, aborted projects, missed deadlines, cost over-runs, accidents and in the worst cases, lives lost, and when things went wrong the contractors usually got the blame.
The following are just some of Brunel's achievements:
The Tunnels
1825 - 1843 Thames Tunnel
Working for his father on the Thames Tunnel was Brunel's first job. A very difficult project. Previous attempts by Richard Trevithick and others to tunnel beneath the Thames had failed and subsequent formal investigations had judged such a construction to be impracticable. But Brunel and his father persevered despite enormous difficulties and proved the sceptics wrong. See Thames Tunnel.
It was an experience which gave the young Isambard the confidence to take on many more "impossible" projects over in his subsequent career.
1836 - 1841 Box Tunnel
The route for Brunel's Great Western Railway (See below) was designed to follow the most direct route minimising curves and inclines. This necessitated building a tunnel 1.83 miles (2,937 m) long through Box Hill in Wiltshire. At the time,it was the longest railway tunnel in the world.
Though easier than the Thames Tunnel, the project was not without its difficulties. To speed the construction, work was carried out simultaneously on six separate isolated tunnel sections beneath the hill. They were essentially closed underground chambers until they were able to link up to the adjacent chambers as the excavation of the tunnel progressed. Access to these chambers for the workmen and for removing the excavated earth and rock was through the ventilation shafts,which were up to 290 feet (88 m) deep. Horses at the surface powered the hoists used for this purpose.
Working conditions were very hazardous. Blasting through the rock in the underground chambers took place with the workmen present and consumed 1 ton of explosives per week. Illumination was by candle light and much of the work was done with pick and shovel. Water ingress had been underestimated and water often gushed from fissures in the limestone strata and from time to time emergency evacuations of the workmen were necessary.
The project was completed in 1841, one year late and cost the lives of 100 workers.
Though Brunel designed over 100 bridges for his railway projects he did not follow a standard pattern. When the opportunity, or necessity, arose he came up with some striking and unique designs. The three examples which follow are perhaps his best known. All three are still in use today carrying modern day traffic.
(See pictures of Brunel's Bridges)
1831 - 1864 Clifton Suspension Bridge
While convalescing in 1928 from his accident in the Thames Tunnel, Brunel, at the age of 24, submitted a design for his first major project on his own, independent of his father. It was in response to a public tender for a road bridge across the Avon Gorge in Bristol, his home town. Brunel's design was for a suspension bridge with the roadway suspended from chains rather than cables. The main span of 702 ft 3 in (214.05 m) was the longest in its day. In 1931 the results of the tender were announced with Brunel's Clifton Suspension Bridge judged as the winner. Work started immediately but was abandoned in 1843 when Bristol's City Council ran out of funds. After Brunel's death in 1859, work on the bridge was restarted as a memorial to its designer with funds raised by the Institution of Civil Engineers. It was completed in 1864.
1835 - 1838 Maidenhead Railway Bridge
The Maidenhead Railway bridge was designed to carry Brunel's Great Western Railway (GWR) over the Thames. As with the Box Tunnel, Brunel's objective was to avoid inclines so that the elevation of the bridge had to be as low as possible above the surrounding fields. At the same time it needed wide spans across the river with high headroom to avoid impeding the river traffic below. Brunel's solution was a brick built bridge with two very wide but at the same time very slender arches of 128 feet (39 m) with a rise of only 24 feet (7 m). At the time it was the widest span for a brick arched bridge and today it still an essential link in the main line carrying high speed trains from London to the West Country.
1848 - 1859 Royal Albert Bridge at Saltash
The Royal Albert Bridge is a railway bridge linking Devon with Cornwall spanning the River Tamar at Saltash. Because of the terrain, the railway approaches the bridge from both sides of the river on curved tracks and it was not possible find a simple construction which balanced the horizontal thrust on the bridge piers. Brunel's solution was to use a lenticular truss construction, also known as bowstring girder or tied arch construction, to carry the track bed. Heavy tubular arches in compression formed the top chords of the trusses, and chains in tension formed the bottom chords, balancing the compression forces in the arches. These trusses simply rested on the piers without exerting any horizontal thrust on them. The unique design used two spans of 455 feet (138.7 m) each. Construction started in 1848 and the bridge was opened by Prince Albert in 1859. Like the Maidenhead Bridge it is still carrying mainline rail traffic today.
The Railways
1833 - 1841 Great Western Railway - GWR
Despite having no experience in railway construction, in 1833, just four years after the Rainhill Trials had established the viability of public railway systems, at the age of the 27 Brunel was appointed chief engineer for building the Great Western Railway between London and Bristol.
The estimated price of the route was to be £2.8 million. Government approval was given and construction was started in 1835.
As was typical of Brunel, he was personally involved in every aspect of the enterprise, from raising the finance to project management and everything in between. He set the highest standards for design and workmanship and took personal charge of every detail of the design, from all the bridges and tunnels along the line, the railway stations at the ends of the line down to the architectural details of their lamp posts and even the contractors' tools.
Brunel himself surveyed the entire route between London and Bristol, a distance of 118 miles. His target was to minimise inclines and curves so that the trains could run at high speed with increased passenger comfort.
Responsibility for providing the trains was delegated to Daniel Gooch, an engineer who had trained with Robert Stephenson. For even higher speed and comfort, Brunel specified his trains to run on tracks much wider than the conventional "Stephenson's gauge" of 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm). He chose to set his tracks 7 ft 0 1⁄4 in (2,140 mm) apart, on what became known as Brunel's "broad gauge". This added significantly to the cost of the bridges, tunnels, embankments and cuttings all along the line and required specially made trains to run on the tracks. This no doubt provided better comfort and speed but it was incompatible with the rest of the rail network making interconnections with the existing railway system difficult. This was one of the first ever standards wars and as has happened many times since, the superior technical system eventually lost out (in 1892) to the inferior system and had to be replaced because the older system had built up a much greater user base. (See The Stockton and Darlington Railway).
Telegraph signalling using Cooke and Wheatstone's system was installed between Paddington station and West Drayton on 9 April 1839, a distance of 13 miles (21 km). It was the first commercial use of telegraph signalling on the railways.
Brunel set the standard for railway excellence. When the line was completed in 1841 the alignment was so straight and level that some called the line "Brunel's Billiard Table" and the GWR was affectionately known as "God's Wonderful Railway".
But the work had cost £6.5 million, more than double the original estimate, and thanks to the problems at the Box Tunnel it was one year late.
High Speed Trains?
Brunel's GWR, 118 miles (190 km) long, was completed in 1841, 6 years after approval by parliament, using an army of navvies equipped with only picks and shovels. It used Brunel's unique broad gauge track for which new trains had to be developed and manufactured during the same period.
177 years after the GWR was approved, Britain's new High Speed Train system HS2 connecting London with Manchester and Leeds with 330 miles (531 km) of narrower, standard gauge track was announced by the government in 2012. Using powerful earthmoving equipment, tunneling machines, prefabricated track and bridge sections and automated track laying equipment it is scheduled for completion in 2033, 21 years after initial approval, including time for consultations and further approvals, at a cost of £43 Billion.
The Architecture
The designs for the prestigious railway stations at the termini, and stations in between, of the Great Western Railway are further examples of Brunel's versatility.
London, Paddington Station
Bristol, Temple Meads Station
The Ships
Brunel's vision extended beyond the shores of Great Britain. He envisaged the Great Western Railway (GWR) as the first link en route to North America with the second link carried by steam-powered iron-hulled ships. Before the GWR was completed he set about fulfilling that dream.
As with all of his projects, his ideas were big. In the case of naval engineering there were good technical reasons justifying his opinions. He was aware that the volume or carrying capacity of a ship is proportional to the cube of its dimensions, whereas the water resistance is proportional to the cross sectional area of the ship below the water line and, to a lesser extent to, the surface area of the ship in the water and these are both proportional to the square of the ship's dimensions. This meant that larger ships would be more efficient and that larger steam powered ships would need comparatively less fuel. This was particularly important for ocean going ships since their range was limited by the amount of fuel they could carry.
There are however practical limits to the size a ship can be, due to the flexing or hogging of the hull as it passes over the waves which affects their seaworthiness. The installation of a heavy steam engine in the ship would tend to make this worse. Wooden-hulled ships are particularly prone to hogging and their length is limited to about 300 feet (100 m) whereas the hull of an iron ship can be made much more rigid and thus less subject to hogging so that much bigger ships are possible. The conclusion was that in order to carry sufficient fuel as well as the cargo across the Atlantic in steam powered ships they would have to be big and preferably iron-hulled.
As ever, Brunel was undaunted by his lack of experience in this new endeavour but went on to design and build three ships that revolutionised naval engineering.
1836 - 1837 SS Great Western
Brunel's first ship, the 'Great Western', was the first steamship designed to provide a transatlantic service. It was an oak-hulled, paddle wheel steamer with a displacement of 2300 tons, powered by two Maudslay and Field steam engines with a combined output of 750 horse power driving side-wheel paddles. The hull was reinforced with iron straps to increase its rigidity and it had four masts to carry auxiliary sails. At 236 feet (72 m) long, it was the longest ship in the world and had the capacity to carry128 first class passengers with 20 servants and 60 crew.
It was launched in 1837 and then sailed to London where it was fitted with the engines. On the return journey to Bristol the following year, under her own steam, fire broke out in the engine room. When Brunel went to investigate, he was descending a ladder down into the engine room when it gave way due to damage from the fire and he fell 20 feet (6 m) to the floor landing face down and unconscious in the water being used to douse the flames. Seriously injured once more, he missed the maiden voyage to New York eight days later. As a result of the fire, 50 passengers cancelled their bookings. In 1837, only 9 years after the first demonstration of practical mobile steam power at the Rainhill Trials, the thought of crossing the Atlantic powered by a noisy, newfangled and possibly unreliable steam engine must have terrified the bravest of souls.
On 4 April 1838, while the Great Western was being readied for the journey, The Sirius, a smaller ship, with a displacement of 1,995 tons, designed to operate a ferry service between London and Cork in Ireland, was chartered by a rival company, British and American Steam Navigation, and left Cork destined for New York instead of London. Similar to the Great Western but smaller, it was a side-wheel, wooden-hulled steamship, 178 feet 4 inches (54.4 m) long with two masts for auxiliary sails, also built in 1837 (by Robert Menzies & Sons in Scotland) but never intended for crossing the Atlantic. Although it was overloaded with the maximum amount of coal it could carry, it was not enough to complete the journey, and the crew burned the cabin furniture, spare yards which carry the sails and one of the masts in their attempt for the Sirius to be the first ship to cross the Atlantic under its own steam. Sailing ships normally did the journey in 40 days, but the Sirius made the crossing in 18 days, 4 hours and 22 minutes at an average speed of 8.03 knots (14.87 km/h).
The Great Western embarked on her maiden voyage from Bristol, to New York four days after the Sirius left Cork and arrived in New York with 200 tons of coal still aboard just one day after the Sirius, after a crossing 220 miles longer, making the journey in 15 days 5 hours at an average speed of 8.66 knots (16.04 km/h). The Sirius made only one more round trip to New York, whereas the Great Western made a total of 45 round trips for its owners in the following 8 years before it was sold.
Note: Neither of these ships was the first steamship to cross the Atlantic. That record was claimed in 1819 by the American steamship the SS Savannah which was tiny by comparison.
1839 - 1843 SS Great Britain
Brunel made several proposals for a sister ship to the Great Western. His final proposal in 1839 was for the SS Great Britain, designed to carry 252 passengers (later increased to 730) and 130 crew for a cost of £70,000. It was the first to use a screw propeller to drive an iron-hulled steam ocean going ship. Bigger still than the Great Western, it was the largest ship afloat, 322 ft (98.15 m) long with a displacement 3675 tons powered by engines weighing 240 tons with a rated power of 1,000 H.P. and 5 schooner rigged and 1 square rigged mast to carry auxiliary sails. The final cost was £117,000.
Launched in 1843 the Great Britain was the first iron ship to cross the Atlantic making the voyage from Liverpool to New York in 1845 in a time of 14 days. Screw propellers had recently been claimed by Ericsson to be more efficient than paddle wheels and the Great Britain was fitted with a six bladed screw propeller with a diameter of 15 feet 6 inches (4.7 m), which was only 5% less efficient than modern day propellers. This enabled her to achieve speeds of 11 to 12 knots (20 to 22 km/h).
1854 - 1858 SS Great Eastern
In 1852 Brunel was employed by the Eastern Steam Navigation Company to build another ship. His challenge was to design a ship to carry 4,000 passengers with a crew of 418 around the world without refuelling. (At the time there were no bunkering services to refuel ships en route to Australia). To accomplish this the ship would have to be big. Very big!
His answer was the Great Eastern. Aided by John Scott-Russell, an experienced naval architect and ship builder, Brunel conceived and built the Great Eastern, an iron ship with a displacement of 32,160 tons, it was 692 ft (211 m) long, only 22 % shorter than the 882 ft 6 in (269.0 m) Titanic which was launched 53 years later in 1911. It was powered by five steam engines with a total output power of 8,000 H.P. (6.0 MW). Four of the engines drove two paddle wheels, each 56 feet (17 m) in diameter, and the fifth powered a four bladed screw propeller with a diameter of 24 feet (7.3 m) which enabled the colossal ship to reach a speed of 14 knots (26 km/h). She also had six masts to carry auxiliary sails. The ship was also the first to be constructed with a double-skinned hull, a safety feature which was decades ahead of industry practice.
Brunel estimated the cost of building the ship to be £500,000. It ultimately cost double that.
Its keel was laid down at Millwall on the Thames on 1 May 1854 and construction took just over three years to complete. Because it was so long, the ship had to be launched sideways into the narrow river. (See pictures The SS Great Eastern).
The launch was scheduled to take place on 3 November 1857 but the enormous ship refused to budge. Two more unsuccessful launch attempts were made first using winches and then hydraulic rams. The ship was finally launched on 31 January 1858, using more powerful hydraulic rams. Fitting out and sea trials took place during the following year and the ship made its maiden voyage in September 1859. This was unfortunately marred by an huge explosion which blew one of the funnels into the air and released steam which killed five stokers, one was drowned and several others were seriously injured. Six days later Brunel, who had been stressed by a series of difficult engineering and financial problems and was already in poor health, suffered a stroke and died at the age of 53.
In operation the Great Eastern was beset by accidents and failures both technical and commercial. In 1961 it sustained serious damage in a storm losing one of its paddle wheels, smashing the other one and breaking the main rudder shaft to the consternation of passengers. The following year, the New York pilot inadvertently steered the ship onto rocks which opened a gash in the ship's outer hull over 9 feet (2.7 m) wide and 83 feet (25 m) long, some 60 times the area of the damage which caused the sinking of the single hulled Titanic after its collision with an iceberg. Fortunately the Great Eastern's double hull saved it from a similar fate.
Though it may have been an engineering wonder, the Great Eastern was not a commercial success. There was insufficient traffic to fill its great bulk and, in any case, most of the docks and harbours in the world were not big enough to accommodate a ship six times bigger than anything known before so it never sailed on the long routes for which it was planned.
In 1864 the Great Eastern was sold by auction for £25,000 to Brunel's railway locomotive engineer Daniel Gooch who converted it into a cable laying ship. One of its funnels and some of the boilers were removed and the sumptuous passenger rooms and saloons were ripped out to make way for three huge iron tanks to carry 2,600 miles (4300 km) of cable and the cable paying-out gear on the decks. In 1866 the Great Eastern was used to lay the first successful transatlantic telegraph cable replacing the damaged cable of 1858.
Stepping beyond the boundaries of familiar surroundings into uncharted territory is always subject to meeting unexpected hazards and the possibility of making a wrong turn. Brunel was not immune from this and sometimes rode into a dead end. Unfortunately because of his forceful character he often took a lot of people with him. A couple of examples follow:
Abandoned Projects
1833 - The Gaz Engine
1847 - The Atmospheric Railway
In "Man and Superman", George Bernard Shaw wrote "The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.". Perhaps he was thinking of Brunel when he wrote it.
(See picture Brunel - Engineering Superman)
1823 Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner discovered that hydrogen gas "spontaneously" ignited in the oxygen of the air when it passes over finely spread metallic platinum. He used the phenomenon, an example of what we now call catalysis although he was not aware of it, in the design of a "Platinum Firelighter".
1824 Pure Silicon first isolated by Berzelius who thought it to be a metal while Davy thought it to be an insulator.
1824 While steam engines were still in their infancy, twenty eight year old French physicist and military engineer, Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot published "Réflexions sur la Puissance Motrice du Feu" ("Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire") in which he developed the concept of an idealised heat engine: the first theoretical treatment of heat engines. He pointed out that the efficiency of a heat engine depends on the temperature difference of the working fluid before and after the energy conversion process. This was later stated as:
η = (Th - Tc)/Th or η = 1 - Tc/Th
where η is the maximum efficiency which can be achieved by the energy conversion, Th is the input (hot) temperature of the working fluid in degrees Kelvin and Tc is its output (cold) temperature. This became known as Carnot's Efficiency Law and still holds good today for modern steam turbines and geothermal energy conversion. Carnot also showed that in a reversible process some energy would always be lost providing an early insight into the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
See also Heat engines.
1825 Ampère showed that the plane of a magnetic field is perpendicular to the direction of its associated electric current and that the electric current is proportional to the changing magnetic field that produces it, or alternatively, the magnetic field in the space surrounding an electric current is proportional to the current which produces it. The following relationship applies:
∫cB.dl = μ0.Ienc
C is a closed curve on the plane of the surface enclosing the magnetic field.
∫c is the line integral around the closed curve C.
B is the magnetic flux density (strength) of the magnetic field.
dl is an infinitesimal vector element (tangent with length l) of the curve C.
μ0 is the magnetic constant or permeability of the medium supporting the field.
Ienc is the total current passing through the surface bounded by the curve C
Now known as Ampère's Law, it laid the foundation of electromagnetic theory. Ten years later Gauss derived an equivalent equation for electric fields.
1825 British electrician, William Sturgeon credited with inventing the first practical electromagnet (5 years after Arago), a coil, powered by a single cell battery, wrapped around a horseshoe magnet. The world's first controllable electric device.
1825 Aluminium was first discovered by Øersted.
1825 The Stockton and Darlington Railway, the world's first public railway was opened with George Stephenson at the controls of his steam engine the Locomotion pulling 36 wagons - twelve carrying coal and flour, six for guests and fourteen wagons full of workmen.
Stephenson was self taught and didn't learn to read and write until he was eighteen. Working as an engineman at the colliery in 1813 he was over thirty years old when he was permitted to tinker with the mine's steam engines. One of his early innovations was to use wrought iron rail tracks to replace the brittle cast iron tracks, originally designed for horse drawn wagon ways, to enable them to carry the heavier steam engines.
In 1815 he designed a miners' safety lamp which could be used in coal mines where the seeping of methane gas from the deep coal seams could result in an explosive atmosphere. A year later the well connected Humphry Davy designed a similar lamp which was named the Davy lamp in his honour overlooking the contribution of the diffident Stephenson.
For the Rainhill Trials in 1829, a competition to select the engine for the new Liverpool Manchester railway, Stephenson designed the Rocket a steam engine which reached a speed of 29 m.p.h. (46 km/h) and won the competition outright. This was the first time that people had been conveyed in a vehicle at speeds greater than could be achieved on horseback and caused great excitement. (See diagram of Stephenson's Rocket).
Its performance and adoption by the railway company started a frenzy of railway building - revolutionising the transport of goods, changing the patterns of industrial development, bringing travel within the possibility of the masses and with it - new aspirations. Together with Watt's steam engine, Volta's battery and Faraday's electric motor, the development of the railways was a key driver in the Industrial Revolution.
Stephenson's Rocket used many of the innovations pioneered by Richard Trevithick and established the basic configuration of the steam locomotive. As in Trevithick's Pen-y-Darren engine it used steel wheels on steel rails, high pressure steam, double acting pistons and a "blast pipe" in the chimney. Improved features included flanged wheels rather than the flanged tracks used by Trevethick, a multi-tube boiler with 25 small diameter fire tubes running the length of the boiler to improve the heat transfer from the firebox gases into the boiler water and a more reliable drive system. For lightness and simplicity, only the two front wheels were driven and the drive was by means two horizontal pistons one on either side of the boiler through crank mechanisms directly coupling the piston connecting rods to the wheels.
The basic design principles embodied in the Rocket were soon adopted for steam trains in many countries of the world and endured until the demise of steam trains in the 1960s and the standard (or Stephenson) gauge (the distance between the rail tracks) of 4 ft 8½ in (1,435 mm) adopted by Stephenson for his railways is used in sixty percent of the worlds railways.
In later years George Stephenson was ably aided by his son Robert who contributed to the design of the Rocket and was particularly active in organising the civil works and building bridges to carry the Stephenson's tracks, spreading the railway network throughout the world.
1825-1843 The Thames Tunnel, the first successful tunnel underneath a navigable river was designed and constructed by Marc Isambard Brunel.
In response to the demand for a much needed land link between the London docks of Rotherhithe and Wapping on opposite sides of the river Thames, Brunel teamed up with a most unlikely partner, Scottish Thomas (Lord) Cochrane (see following footnote), to design a tunneling shield, which they patented in 1818, to facilitate the construction of a tunnel under the river.
They took their inspiration from the feeding and digestive process of the shipworm, "teredo navalis", which, it was claimed, "had sunk more ships than all the cannon ever cast". The shipworm was a huge mollusc, nine inches (230 mm) long and half an inch (13 mm) in diameter. Its body was soft and transparent but its head was formed by jagged shells which bored into, and ground up, the wood which it ate as it bored its way into the ship's timbers, lining and protecting the pathway it left in the bore behind it with petrified excreta.
Their design for the shield envisaged a large frame, weighing 80 tons, with 3 levels, each level with 12 cells or platforms in each of which a miner excavated the wall in front of him. The cells would be open at the back but closed at the front with removable horizontal boards to stabilise the earth on front and to limit water ingress. The boards could be removed one at a time to enable removal of a strip of earth to a depth of 4½ inches (11.5 cm) and then replaced so that the next strip could be excavated. The frame would then be moved forward 4½ inches by hydraulic rams or screw jacks and a masonry lining would be applied to the section of the walls of the tunnel just vacated by the frame to seal it and give it strength after which the process would be repeated until the tunnel was complete.
By 1823, Brunel had produced plans for the tunnel and the Thames Tunnel Company was formed in 1824 with financing secured from prominent private investors who included a local businessman, brother George of William Hyde Wollaston, Vice-president of the Royal Society and son Timothy of Joseph Bramah, inventor of the hydraulic press. They were joined in 1928 when the project as running out of money by others including Henry Maudslay who had made the machines for Brunel's block making factory and the Duke of Wellington, The Iron Duke, hero of the Battle of Waterloo who was by then British Prime Minister. Work commenced in 1825 using Brunel's new tunneling shield and steam driven water pumps to provide the drainage, both manufactured by Maudslay.
Brunel's son Isambard Kingdom Brunel had worked on the planning and design stages of the project with his father and in 1826 at the age of 19 was appointed Resident Engineer in charge of delivering the project.
The work was unfortunately fraught with difficulties. The tunnel was 75 feet (23 m) below the river's surface at high tide but only 14 feet (4.27 M) below the deepest part of the river bed and ran the 1,300 feet (396 m) of its length through gravel, sand, clay and mud. Conditions in the tunnel were most unhealthy and at times highly dangerous suffering from poor ventilation and the constant leaking sewage laden water and several times from flooding when the water broke through the roof. At the time the river itself was like an open sewer, devoid of fish and wildlife. (It was not until 1858, the year of "the Great Stink" that work was started on Joseph Bazalgette's plan for the construction of London's sewage system to manage waste and clean up the river). Accidents were common, many of them fatal. Isambard who often spent 20 hours per day working at the site submitted himself to the same conditions as his workers and paid attention to their needs, meeting and providing for the casualties which inevitably occurred. He was caught himself in one devastating inundation in 1828 and was seriously injured and lucky to escape with his life. Others were not so lucky. All this resulted in delays and cost over-runs until later in 1828 the company ran out of money. Despite pleas from its high profile backers, the company was not able to raise enough cash to carry on and work was suspended for seven years until the project was rescued by Government aid in 1835. This enabled the work to be re-started with a new tunneling shield weighing 140 tons and the tunnel was finally completed in 1843.
Although it was originally intended for pedestrian and horse drawn traffic it eventually became part of London's underground railway system and is still in use today.
Lord Cochrane was an audacious, charismatic and successful captain in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic wars and a radical member of the British Parliament to which (aided by bribery) he was elected in 1806. He was however dismissed from both the Navy and Parliament in 1814 after being convicted of fraudulent share trading on the London Stock Exchange. He and his accomplices were charged with perpetrating an elaborate hoax by faking a report that Napoleon had been killed in battle, (a year before the Battle of Waterloo). In the days before the electric telegraph, this could not be verified, and the price of government stocks rose substantially on the news enabling Cochrane and his co-conspirators to sell, at a huge profit, shares which they had acquired just one month before. After his conviction Cochrane returned to the sea, taking charge of the Chilean Navy in late 1818 in their successful revolutionary war of independence from Spain and in 1823 repeating the exploits in Brazil's war of independence from Portugal. A similar role fighting for Greece in their 1827 campaign for independence from the Ottoman Empire had less spectacular results but nevertheless contributed to their success. His exploits became the inspiration for novelist C. S. Forester's fictional hero Horatio Hornblower.
1826 Italian physicist Leopoldo Nobili together with fellow Italian Macedonio Melloni developed a thermoelectric battery based on the Seebeck effect, constructed from a bank of thermocouples each of which provided a very low voltage of about 50 milliVolts. Nobili also invented a very sensitive astatic galvanometer which compensated for the effect of the Earth's magnetic field. The pointer was a compass needle suspended on a torsion wire in the current carrying coil. A second compass needle outside of the coil compensated for any external fields.
1826 German physicist and chemist Johann Christian Poggendorff invented the mirror galvanometer for detecting an electric current.
1826 At the age of fourteen Albert Krupp dropped out of school and took over responsibility for running the Krupp family's steel making business at Essen in Germany after the death of his father Friedrich Krupp. When he arrived on the scene, the company was in debt and on the verge of bankruptcy and had only seven unhappy employees including five smelters and two forgers. The smelters were furnace men who controlled the steel production and its composition, which in turn determined its properties. The forgers were skilled blacksmiths who shaped the metal. By the time of his death in 1887, Albert had built the business up to be Europe's largest industrial company with 75,000 employees of which 20,000 were based at the Essen steelworks and the rest employed in other branch steelworks, iron ore and coal mining operations in Germany and Spain, owned by the company, as well as on railroads and a small fleet of ships bringing the raw materials to the factories. Half of this enormous business was involved in manufacturing armaments which were supplied to the armies and navies of 46 nations.
Albert's forebears had some experience in arms and steel making but the road to 1826 had been a bumpy one. The first Krupp venture into the armaments trade was made by Anton Krupp, eldest son of Arndt Krupp, a wealthy Essen trader in in wine, groceries, property, and money lending. The Krupp family had settled in Essen during the sixteenth century, just before an outbreak of the black death plague and, despite the adversity, had prospered by buying up the property of families fleeing from the plague.
In 1612, Anton married Gertrud Krösen the daughter of a local gunsmith and consequently became involved in his father-in-law's business manufacturing guns. Essen was one of the two gun making centres in Germany (the other was Suhl) and guns had been made there since 1470 and by 1608 there were 24 gunsmiths in Essen selling firearms to armies and princes. Six years later most of Europe was convulsed in the calamitous Thirty Years War (1618 to 1648) which wiped out over 20% of the German population. Essen was unfortunately located in the midst of this devastation between the warring Protestant and Catholic forces but its gunsmiths and arms merchants flourished selling weapons to the armies of both sides in the conflict. By 1620 the number of Essen gunsmiths had risen to 54 producing 14,000 gun barrels per year, of which 1,000 per year were made by Anton's factory. See how gun barrels are made.
After the war the Krupp family did not pursue gun making but for the next four generations they concentrated on trading and on offices of public administration. It was 150 years before they made their first foray into iron and steel making.
In 1751, Jodocus Krupp married Helene Amalie Ascherfeld, both direct descendants of Arndt Krupp. The unfortunate Amalie outlived both her husband and her son and inherited the Krupp's considerable wealth becoming known as the Widow Krupp. A determined business woman, she expanded the family's holdings in textile production and coal mines and in 1799 she acquired the Gutehoffnung (Good Hope) ironworks, to which she had provided a mortgage, as a settlement when the firm went bankrupt. Located on a stream near Essen, it incorporated a foundry and blast furnace which made cast iron pots, boilers and weights.
In 1800 the reorganised Good Hope forge started operations using local ores making kitchenware, stoves, weights, farm tools and cannon balls returning the business to profit. It was Krupp's first iron making plant.
In 1807 Widow Krupp's grandson Friedrich Krupp, at the age of 19, was put in charge of the forge and the operation went downhill. He had ambition and a vision of making more technical products for the new steam age including pistons, cylinders, engine parts and steam pipes, but he had no technical knowledge of iron making and his management skills were disastrous. The business started losing money and the wily Widow sold it for a profit a year later when he was ill.
In 1810 The hapless Friedrich inherited the family fortune after the death of his grandmother which gave him the opportunity to get back into the iron and steel business. Not only did he have the cash to indulge his passion, but advantageous market conditions made it an attractive prospect. At that time, Napoleon Bonaparte had implemented a blockade against Britain, denying it's goods access to mainland Europe. These goods included crucible steel which was used to make high value items such as cutlery, tools and scissors and were highly prized in Europe for their high quality and strength. Crucible steel had mostly been imported from England and was known as "English Steel" since Benjamin Huntsman, who pioneered the process in 1740, had managed to keep it a secret. In response to the continuing demand in Europe, Napoleon offered a prize of four thousand francs to anyone who could replicate the process, a prize which reinforced Friedrich's interest.
In 1811 Friedrich used his inheritance to found the Krupp Gusstahlfabrik (Cast Steel Works) with the premature, if not misleading, claims "for the manufacture of English Cast Steel and all products made thereof" and that he possessed the secret process of English Steel. Unfortunately Friedrich was more of a dreamer than a businessman and he proceeded to squander the Krupp family's entire fortune.
Since the crucible steel casting process was unknown in Germany at the time, to get the business off the ground, he offered partnerships to two self proclaimed "metallurgy experts", the von Köchel brothers, who claimed to know the secret formula. Together they built a foundry on the banks of the Ruhr River in Essen with a furnace for making blister steel by the cementation process, together with smelting furnaces and a large water powered forging hammer but things soon started to go wrong. Some blister steel was produced by conventional means but this was mainly produced to feed the crucible process and had limited sales prospects. It turned out however that the von Köchel brothers were frauds and knew nothing about metallurgy or crucible steel manufacturing, and though they produced unusable steel, they remained in the company until 1814, leaving it in debt. The following year Friedrich was swindled a second time by a new partner, a Prussian Hussar called Nicolai, with fake credentials who left him with more unusable steel and even greater debts.
Even the Ruhr River flow proved unreliable leaving the plant without power for the furnace bellows and the forging hammer for prolonged periods causing missed delivery dates. This forced Friedrich to subcontract his hammer work since he was unable to afford the purchase of a steam powered hammer.
Eventually in 1816 after five years of experimenting, he was able to smelt his first steel and began to produce files, drills, tools, dies, coin presses and rolling mill blanks. By that time, a year after the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon and the blockade were long gone and imported cast steel was available once more.
In 1818, buoyed up by his modest success Friedrich constructed a massive new factory on Essen's Berne river, designed to accommodate sixty smelting furnaces, though he only had sufficient work for eight of them, and a huge 800 pound (360 Kg) water powered forging hammer. He did manage to achieve some sales, mostly steel dies for coin making at the Prussian mint and some orders for steel for bayonets and gun-barrels from the royal ordnance factories on the Rhine, but the Berne river flow was just as unreliable as the Ruhr. Operations were intermittent and the company was losing money and his credit was running out. In response he increased prices and attempted to reduce costs by compromising on the product quality by adulterating the materials with scrap steel. The result was decreasing sales and ever increasing losses.
Friedrich was obsessed with technology and spent much of his time in the plant neglecting the wider responsibilities of the business. He had no appreciation of the importance of financial controls or of securing markets, supplies of raw materials and fuels. By the time of his death at the age of 39 in 1826 the Krupp Gusstahlfabrik had been in operation for 15 years. It had only seven employees. It was in debt and virtually bankrupt and the Krupp family fortune was gone.
It was from these inauspicious circumstances that, assisted initially by his mother Thérèse Krupp, the new Widow Krupp, the impoverished young Alfred Krupp built the company into one of the world's greatest engineering enterprises.
Widow Krupp didn't make it easy for young Alfred. She announced that his father, Friedrich, had passed on to him "the secret of manufacturing cast steel", a claim which was hard for the 14 year old to live up to. Fortunately he did not inherit the weaknesses of his father. He was a perfectionist but he was also practical, painstaking and thorough. He took his new responsibilities seriously and his devotion to the company became an obsession. He spent his entire waking hours working on company business, toiling alongside the workmen during the day, writing letters to customers and carrying on his father's experiments to find or improve the "secret process" at night. As control of the factory improved he began to devote more time to establishing a sales network, travelling widely and frequently throughout Europe, building the company through technology and market developments with disciplined management and financial controls.
Technology Developments
Progress was slow at first. The factory was no more than an artisan workshop with a limited product line, mostly flatware, consisting only of a few tools and knives and occasional coin dies for the mint.
To revive the company, Alfred borrowed money from other family members to invest in new technology to expand and diversify the product line, a strategy which became typical of his management, but for many years the factory scarcely paid its way and did not break even until 1837. His first major development, which came in 1830, was the production of steel rolls, for use in rolling mills, which he later customised for manufacturing spoons, forks and coin dies for local markets. He backed up his sales effort by guaranteeing quality workmanship.
The opportunities in the railway and armaments businesses which eventually became Krupp's main source of revenue did not arise for almost 20 years.
Steelmaking Process
Expertise in metallurgy and steelmaking were the foundations on which the Krupp enterprise was based and Alfred continued to work long and hard to develop and perfect new technologies and to build a strong patent portfolio. As late as 1838 he went on a spying trip to England where he stayed for five months in attempt to discover the secret of Huntsman's crucible steel. By that time however the principle of the process, if not the practice, was fairly well known and he didn't learn anything more than he already knew. He jealously guarded his own technology developments however as well as his the company's financial status and his staff were sworn to secrecy.
Where he did make a breakthrough was in the production of very large steel castings. By the early 1850s, the only way to make high quality cast steel was by Huntsman's crucible process, but the largest practical crucibles available could only contain between about 40 to 50 pounds (18 to 23 Kg) of the melted steel. In order to make a large solid ingot, the molten steel must be poured continuously into the mould so that the mould is completely filled before any part of the ingot begins to solidify, otherwise the structure of the ingot will not be homogeneous and hence would be weaker. In practice this meant that it was only possible to cast small objects with steel from a few crucibles before the steel temperature dropped too low.
In 1851, Alfred astonished attendees at London's Great Exhibition with his display of a flawless cast steel ingot weighing 4,300 pounds (1,950 Kg) and a muzzle loading six pounder cannon made of cast steel, previously thought to be not possible. This was an achievement of logistics rather than metallurgy. Using 50 pound crucibles it would require 86 crucibles heated in over 20 furnaces, each containing four crucibles, to be brought to the required temperature simultaneously and a gang of 50 men working in pairs with military precision to take the crucibles from the furnaces, to carry them to the mould and pour in their contents within the short timescale allowed before any of the steel begin to solidify.
This exhibition caused a sensation in the industrial world bringing fame to Krupp and the Essen works and was a major turning point for the business.
In 1862 Alfred Krupp was the first to use the Bessemer process for the mass-production of steel in continental Europe. This replaced the slow and costly crucible steel process and gave Krupp a competitive edge.
In 1869 He also pioneered the use of the new open-hearth process of steel casting bringing further productivity gains.
Alfred also invested in, and developed, new machines to improve the efficiency and scope of his operations. As sales increased, in 1835 he was able to buy a steam engine to power his forging hammer eliminating his dependence on the unreliable river flow.
In 1841 a Munich goldsmith and engraver named Wiemer, commissioned some custom engraved rolls for producing three dimensional shapes from flat plate by engraving the shape and pattern of the article to be produced in relief on the rolls. After the rolls were delivered, Alfred's brother Hermann adapted the process for the manufacturing of steel spoons, cutlery and other parts for silverware enabling Krupp to open a large silverware factory in a joint venture with a Viennese entrepreneur Alexander Scheller to produce goods for export.
In 1861, as Krupp took on projects for the railways and the army requiring larger castings and forgings, Alfred developed "Fritz", a steam forging hammer with a 50-ton blow. For many years it was the most powerful in the world.
Railway Tyres
The beginning of the construction of the German railway system in 1835 brought new opportunities for the Krupp factory which produced steel axles and springs for the rolling stock, but Krupp's biggest breakthrough which propelled the company into the big league was the invention in 1851 of the weldless steel tyre which he patented the following year.
Early railroad carriage wheels had been made from a single piece of cast iron which is very brittle and unsuitable for carrying dynamic and shock loads causing them to break or wear out very quickly. This excessive wear problem was initially overcome by redesigning the wheels to incorporate more durable, replaceable steel tyres in the form of a hoop fitted around the rim of the wheel disc. The tyre included both the surface bearing on the track as well as the flange which kept it on the rails. These tyres were manufactured by heating and bending a steel bar with a suitable cross section into a circular hoop and welding the ends together, or alternatively, by a two piece construction using two shorter bars forged into semicircular arcs and welded together to form the hoop. The steel tyres were then heat shrunk onto the cast iron wheel. Though this was an improvement, the wheels were still vulnerable to wear and breakage because of the weakness of the welds. Replacing a damaged tyre put the train off the tracks for several days causing a major service interruption.
In his search for a better solution, Alfred carried out his experiments using lead, so that he could easily melt down his failures, and avoid losing the material. The seamless steel tyres he developed were cast in a single piece and forged so they did not need welding. The tyre was machined with a shoulder on its outer face to locate it on the wheel rim, and a groove on the inside diameter under the flange face. See diagram. The internal diameter of the tyre was machined to be slightly less than the diameter of the wheel on which it was to be mounted, to give an interference fit. The tyre was fitted by heating it causing it to expand so it could be slipped over the wheel. After the tyre cooled, a shaped steel bar rolled into a hoop was fitted into the groove to act as a retaining ring and hydraulically operated rolls swaged the groove down onto the ring.
Krupp's weldless cast steel tyres could withstand the ever increasing speeds achieved by the trains. Unlike welded steel tyres, they did not fracture under pressure and lasted four times longer than the tyres they replaced.
Seamless tyres quickly became the source of Krupp's primary revenue stream, mainly from sales to railways in the United States and profits from this business funded the development of armaments. By the 1870s, thanks to the capacity of the Bessemer and open hearth converters to produce huge volumes of steel, Krupp was also shipping over 170,000 tons of steel rails per year to the United States until they were eventually overtaken by the rapidly growing U.S. steel industry.
Krupp's entry into the manufacture of arms was much slower. He started in a small way between 1836 and 1842 producing hollow forged muskets and in 1843 he made his first rifle with a cast steel barrel which was sent to the Prussian state military agents. This was followed up in 1847 with the first cannon made of cast steel, a muzzle-loading 3 pounder but the Prussian military were not impressed by this new technology. Like the British and French armies they preferred tried and tested heavy cannons, cast from bronze, over the new lightweight guns. His next steel cannon was the 6 pounder which caused a sensation when it was demonstrated at the 1851 Exhibition in London. Despite the acclaim there were no customers and Alfred gave it to the King Frederick William of Prussia who used it as a decorative piece.
Undeterred, Krupp consequently sold his guns to other international customers, some of whom were potential enemies of Prussia. Four years later, Albert produced a cast steel smooth bore muzzle loading 12 pounder cannon for the 1855 Paris Exhibition, which was 200 pounds (90 Kg) lighter than the equivalent bronze gun. He also created a stir when the 10,000 pound (4,500 Kg) cast steel ingot he was exhibiting crashed through the exhibition's wooden floor crushing all in its way. After the exhibition, the Turkish viceroy of Egypt purchased 36 of the guns. Further contracts followed over the next few years with Belgium, Russia, Holland, Spain, Austria, Switzerland, Württemberg, Hanover and Great Britain.
Wilhelm I, the Prussian King's brother, who became Prince Regent in 1858 after the King suffered a stroke, was more favourably disposed to new technology, recognising the strategic importance of supporting arms manufacturing in Prussia, but still, the Prussian military did not trust the proposed breech loading or the rifled barrels which promised superior performance to the conventional muzzle loaded smooth bore bronze cannon generally in use at the time.
Krupp's method of loading the powder charge was an improvement over William Armstrong's 1855 design and used a metal cartridge case in which to load the charge. On firing, the cartridge case expanded against the chamber wall and effectively sealed the breech. It also left less debris in the gun barrel after firing. Krupp's metal cartridge concept is still used in modern day artillery.
Krupp lobbied hard to overcome the conservativism of the military and in 1859 Wilhelm overrode the military objections and bought Prussia's first 312 cast steel 6 pounder rifled, breech loading cannons from Krupp who became the main arms manufacturer for the Prussian military.
At the request of the Russians, Krupp adopted Armstrong's "Built up" construction to improve the burst strength of the gun barrels by heat shrinking a white hot outer tube of steel over the cold breech end of the barrel to reinforce it. His guns became known as "ringed" guns.
The first test of Krupp's breech loading cannons under battle conditions came in the 1866 Austro-Prussian War when Krupp's guns were used by both sides in the conflict. Unfortunately a weakness in the design of the breech mechanism caused several of them to explode, injuring or killing the gunners.
The problem had been solved by the time of the next major conflict, the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 when Prussia's cast steel, breech loading Krupp cannon pulverised Napoleon III's muzzle loading bronze artillery. The significance was not lost on other governments and armies and orders started pouring in for Krupp guns and Alfred Krupp became known as the "Cannon King".
Having established his credibility as an arms supplier, Krupp did not rest on his laurels but continued his relentless pursuit of technology excellence building bigger and better guns, exploiting the perceived threats between nations by creating faster obsolescence thus generating more sales and more frequent replacements.
Essen was an Imperial City of the Holy Roman Empire which was annexed by Prussia in 1802.
Between 1701 and 1918, Prussia was a German Kingdom or state which included parts of present day Germany, Poland, Russia, Lithuania, Denmark, Belgium and the Czech Republic.
After the 1871 war, Prussia took over the whole of Germany, Prince Wilhelm I who had become the Prussian King in 1861 on the death of his brother, became the Emperor of Germany and Otto von Bismarck the Prussian Prime Minister became the German Chancellor.
Short term profits were never the top priority of the company. It didn't have shareholders clamouring for dividends. It was a family business and security annd continuity were important but its main motivation was to be the best in the world and and to earn the status, influence and honour which went with that achievement. Krupp's company ethos also included a sense of social responsibility and a paternal concern for the wellbeing of its workers for whom it provided generous benefits but this was not entirely altruistic.
From the early days, Alfred Krupp doggedly pursued international markets, personally travelling abroad, participating in international exhibitions and establishing sales outlets in Europe and overseas. He cultivated friendships in high places. In his native Prussia he stressed his patriotism and won the support of Prince Wilhelm I, though behind his back, business interests took priority and he sold arms to potential enemies of Prussia. He had "common cause" with Bismarck who is quoted as saying "The solution of the great problems of these days is not to be found in speeches and majority rulings, but in blood and iron!" winning him the patronage of the German government. He ingratiated himself with heads of state and military leaders from other nations often giving them examples of the latest Krupp guns.
To promote his international business he also built a huge weapons proving range to which he invited heads of government and senior military commanders to attend demonstrations of the fire power and capability of his weapons. Guests were treated to lavish hospitality.
As the business grew and the demand for raw materials increased, Albert recognised the dangers of depending on external suppliers and the importance of securing the supply chain. He also wanted to control all aspects of the manufacturing process within his own company to achieve efficiency gains and to ensure quality. In the 1840s he therefore began to acquire ore deposits, coal mines and coke ovens as well as competing iron and steel works to expand his operations.
In 1872 after the war, business was booming and he bought over 300 ore deposits in various parts of Germany and acquired a holding in the Orconera Iron Ore Company, which owned large concessions in superior low phosphorus iron ore deposits in Spain, often paying over the odds. He even bought the large "Hanover" coal mine even though he already had secure supply contracts with several collieries.
The same year he also expanded operations by buying two of his competitors' steel works, the Johanneshütte Ironworks with four blast furnaces and the Hermannshütte Ironworks with three.
The following year he set up his own shipping company in Rotterdam and built a small fleet of four ships to transport his iron ore from Orconera in Spain.
The Krupp business was forever short of cash even when it was profitable. Family members steadfastly refused to dilute the Krupp family holding or to relinquish any control of the company by putting it into a joint stock company. They were also suspicious of banks. During the early days when the company made losses they made many pleas for government support which usually fell on deaf ears and they depended on family loans to survive. When the company eventually became profitable, the profits were ploughed back into developing the business. Even when sales and profits began to grow rapidly, the cash generated by the business was needed to fund the ambitious expansion plans. This caused a particularly critical problem during the economic panic of 1873 when the euphoria of the 1872 boom wore off and many companies went bankrupt. Krupp's finances were grossly over extended by their profligate purchasing spree in 1872 and they were rescued by the Prussian State Bank. Between 1876 and 1896 German tariffs protected the steel industry from British and American competition keeping Krupp and others profitable during times of recession.
Krupp continued to look to the government for state support and once its importance as the state's main arms supplier was established, government funding was forthcoming and the connection between the firm and the State of Prussia became increasingly more close and intimate.
Industrial Relations and Social Policy
Alfred Krupp was a pioneer in providing social benefits for his employees. He had started in 1836 with a voluntary sickness and burial fund and over the years he progressively increased these benefits with company funded health insurance and a pension fund for retired and incapacitated workers.
In 1845 the company still employed only 122 workmen but by 1865 the work force had risen to over 8,000 reaching 16,000 in 1871. With the rapid expansion of the company it was becoming difficult to house and motivate the increasing workforce so that in the 1860s benefits were further increased to include subsidised housing, hostels for unmarried employees, free health and retirement benefits, widows and orphans benefits, hospitals, schools, libraries, parks, recreation clubs and stores. In return he imposed strict discipline and demanded absolute dedication and loyalty to the company and he got it. Trade unions were not necessary and company loyalty was fanatical.
Krupp Epilogue
After Alfred's death the enormous expansion of the company continued under the supervision of Krupp family members with warships, armour plating, submarines, tanks, railway locomotives, heavy trucks and ever larger guns and ammunition added to the product portfolio. The production of armaments became even more important, boosted by the requirements of World War I and World War II. Krupp almost became an arm of the German government and was closely associated with the Nazi party.
Great Guns
Paris Gun - Known by the Germans as Wilhelmgeschütze (William's Gun after Wilhelm II - "Kaiser Bill")
In 1918 Krupp produced a gun weighing 256 tons intended for bombarding Paris. Fired by a massive 180 Kg (400 lbs) powder charge, its 106 Kg (264 pounder) projectiles had a muzzle velocity of 1,640 m/s (5,400 ft/s), equivalent to Mach 5.0, giving the shells a range of 130 kms (81 miles). During their 182 second trajectory to the target, the shells soared to an altitude of over 42 kms (26 miles), into the stratosphere, the highest point ever reached by a projectile before the rocket powered V2 which had a maximum speed of Mach 5.5 .
The barrel was 34 m (112 ft) long with a bore of 211 mm (8.3 in), later re-bored to 238 mm (9.4 in). It was so long that it needed an overhead suspension, support truss to prevent it from drooping.
See a photo of Krupp's Paris Gun.
Gustav Gun
In 1934 Adolf Hitler commissioned the world's biggest ever gun, capable of piercing one meter (3.3 ft) of steel, seven meters of concrete, or thirty meters of dense earth which Krupp was able to deliver in 1941. Known as the Gustav Gun after Gustav Krupp (See next), it could fire either gigantic 4.8 ton high explosive shells propelled by an explosive charge weighing 700 kg (1,500 lb), or even bigger 7.5 ton concrete piercing shells propelled by a 250 kg (550 lb) charge. The lighter, high explosive shells had a muzzle velocity of 820 m/s (2,700 ft/s) giving them a maximum range of 47 kms (29 miles) and the heavier, armour piercing shells had a muzzle velocity of 720 m/s (2,400 ft/s) providing a range of 38 kms (24 miles).
This monster gun weighed 1344 tons and was 11.6 metres (38 ft) tall, 7.1 metres (23.3 ft) wide and 47.3 Metres (155 ft.) long with a barrel 32.5 Metres (106.6 ft) long with a calibre of 800 mm (31 in).
A crew of 500, commanded by a major general, was needed to assemble, load and defend the gun and to excavate and construct a double set of curved railway tracks embedded in concrete to enable the adjustment of its azimuth direction. (The barrel could be moved in elevation but could not swing in azimuth).
See a photo of Krupp's Monster Gustav Gun.
See also Armstrong and Whitworth Guns from previous wars.
During World War I, Gustav Krupp, heir to the business at the time, was one of the German tycoons who took over and plundered the Belgian industry when the country was occupied by German troops and Krupp's weapons were used against neutral targets and non-combatants. After the war, the Krupp factories were broken up by the victors and Gustav Krupp was cited as a war criminal but not prosecuted. He was however forbidden to manufacture arms ever again. Despite this sentence, Krupp participated in the secret rearmament of Germany when Hitler came to power. Indicted once more after WWII for war crimes he escaped trial due to his advanced dementia.
During World War II, the Krupp factories were again feeding Germany's war machine. Krupp's legendary paternal treatment of the workforce however did not extend to the unfortunate masses of slave labour, including POWs, civilians from occupied countries and concentration camp inmates, who were forced to work in Krupp's factories. Eventually the factories were destroyed by allied bombing and Alfried Felix Alwyn Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, heir to the Krupp dynasty, a member of the German SS, and "Sole Proprietor" of the business, who was in charge at the time was convicted as a war criminal. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison and the confiscation of all of his property.
The name most associated with the growth of the American steelmaking industry is Scottish born Andrew Carnegie. His story is the essence of The American Dream. In 1848 At the age of 13 his parents emigrated to the United States taking Andrew with them when their weaving business fell on hard times. Starting work at the age of 13, working 12 hour shifts, six days a week, in a cotton mill for $1.20 per week as a "bobbin boy" looking after spools of thread, he rose to become the richest person in the world in 1901 (according to J.P. Morgan). It was however as an investor, rather than a technologist that he earned his fortune.
Carnegie was diligent with a "can do" attitude and an affable personality and his initiative and hard work, together with an element of luck, won him rapid promotions and a circle influential friends.
His career was meteoric. Thanks to his early schooling in Scotland, he was soon able to assist in clerical work at the cotton mill. After two years he was offered a job as messenger boy with the O'Rielly Telegraph Company where he learned Morse code during the day while studying bookkeeping in a local library at night and at the age of 15 he became a telegraph operator. Two years later in 1853 he moved to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, also to work there as a telegraph operator and his rise continued. By 1859 he had worked his way up to be Pennsylvania Railroad's Western Superintendent where he saw the importance of the steel industry to America's fast expanding railways.
On his way up, in 1855 at the age of 20 he was offered a loan by a business friend to buy his first shares in a document delivery company and he quickly developed a passion for investments when he received his first dividend payment,
By 1862 he had saved enough, together with 5 friends, to make a major investment in his first steel company, Piper & Shiffler, to build steel railroad bridges. This was followed in 1963 by an investment in small iron foundry, the Union Iron Mills.
In 1865, still working for Pennsylvania Railroad, his annual investment income amounted $40,000, twenty times his already large salary of $2,000 per year. Carnegie then decided to leave and concentrate on investing, particularly in telegraph services and the steel industry, setting up with others, the Edgar Thomson (ET) Steel Company with a huge plant on the outskirts of Pittsburgh. Demand for steel was insatiable, first for railroad tracks and rolling stock, and replacement of the original wooden trestle bridges with steel structures, then for construction projects in the rapidly growing cities. Carnegie acquired several more steel making interests and eventually all of his iron and steel interests were consolidated into a single new company known as Carnegie Steel.
Carnegie had no experience, nor any particular interest in steelmaking and he treated the steel business purely as an investor. He appointed qualified managers to take care of business operations and the technology. He was however a great promoter of the business and worked to increase profitability by means of ruthless cost cutting and to increase market share by strategic acquisitions of, and mergers with, competitor companies as well as companies supplying raw materials.
In 1901 Carnegie Steel was bought for $480 million ($13.8 billion in today's money) of which Carnegie's share was $225 million ($6.5 billion) by Wall Street banker J. Pierpoint Morgan heading a consortium involving Carnegie's competitors, American Steel & Wire and the Federal Steel Company, to form US Steel consolidating America's steel industry and eliminating wasteful competition.
Carnegie spent the rest of his life and most of his money funding educational projects around the English speaking world.
1827 German physicist Georg Simon Ohm discovered the relationship between voltage and current, V=IR, in a conductor which is now called Ohm's Law. The importance of this relationship lies less in the simple proportionality but on Ohm's recognition that Voltage was the driver of current.
1827 Scottish botanist Robert Brown studying the suspension of pollen in water, observed the random movement of the grains we now call Brownian Motion. These random movements which were later quantified using statistical methods are also typical of the movement of electrons and ions in an electrolyte. This causes of this phenomenon were eventually explained in 1905 by Albert Einstein using the kinetic theory of gases.
1828 Berzelius compiled a table of relative atomic weights for all known elements and developed the system of symbols and formulas for describing chemical actions.
1828 German chemist Friedrich Wöhler discovered that the salt, ammonium cyanate, was transformed by heat into urea, a compound which occurs in urine and which had hitherto been known only as a product of animal metabolism. He wrote excitedly to his mentor Berzelius, "I must tell you that I can make urea without the use of kidneys of any animal, be it man or dog". This was the announcement of the birth of modern organic chemistry and was the beginning of the end of Berzelius' popular vitalist hypothesis, that "organic" compounds could be made only by living things.
Wöhler also credited with the isolation of pure aluminium (in 1827, after Øersted's discovery in 1825) and was one of the first to isolate the elements yttrium, beryllium, and titanium and to observe that "silicium" (silicon) can be obtained in crystals.
1828 Self taught English mathematician George Green, who worked in his family's windmill till the age of forty, published in a local journal in Nottingham with only 51 subscribers, mostly family and friends, An Essay on the Application of Mathematical Analysis to the Theories of Electricity and Magnetism. It earned him a place at Cambridge as a mature student but its full importance was not recognised at the time until it was rediscovered by William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) just after his graduation in 1845. Kelvin recognised this as a seminal influence in the development of electromagnetic theory.
1828 French physiologist and biologist René Joachim Henri Dutrochet discovers osmosis - the diffusion of a solvent through a semi permeable membrane from a region of low solute concentration to a region of high solute concentration. The semi permeable membrane is permeable to the solvent, but not to the solute, resulting in a chemical potential difference across the membrane which drives the diffusion. Thus the solvent flows from the side of the membrane where the solution is weakest to the side where it is strongest, until the solution on both sides of the membrane is the same strength equalising the chemical potential on both sides of the membrane.
Semi permeable membranes are now widely used as separators in batteries and fuel cells allowing the passage of certain ions while blocking others.
1828 Hungarian priest and physicist of Slovak origin, Ányos Jedlik built the first direct current electric motor using an electromagnet for the rotor and a commutator to achieve unidirectional rotation. Jedlik's motor was a shunt wound machine in which a moving electromagnet rotated within a fixed coil, the reverse of modern conventional motors. The wires powering the electromagnet protruded into two small semicircular mercury cups on either side of the shaft. This provided the required commutation as the wires picked up the current from alternate cups as the shaft rotated. Like many motors at the time, it had no practical application, however in 1855 Jedlik built another motor based on similar principles which was capable of carrying out useful work.
In 1861 he demonstrated a self excited dynamo but he did not publish his work. Subsequently Siemens, Varley and Wheatstone were credited with the invention.
Jedlik continued working on high voltage generators and spent his last years in complete seclusion at the priory in Gyór.
1828 Scottish engineer, James Beaumont Neilson patented the hot blast method of air supply to blast furnaces. Preheating the air blown into the furnace, enabled the efficiency of the iron ore smelting process to be improved.
1829 Nobili invents the thermopile, an electrical instrument for measuring radiant heat and infra red radiation. It was also based on the Seebeck effect as in Nobili's thermoelectric battery of three years earlier and consisted of a sensor made up from a bank of thermocouples connected in series which generated an electrical current in response to the heat radiation input. The current was measured by an astatic galvanometer, of Nobili's own design. With improvements from Melloni, it found extensive use in nineteenth century laboratories.
1829 French physicist Antoine-César Becquerel, father of a dynasty of famous scientists, developed the Constant Current Cell. The forerunner of the Daniell cell, it was the first non-polarising battery, maintaining a constant current for over an hour unaffected by polarisation. It was a two electrolyte system with copper and zinc electrodes immersed in copper nitrate and zinc nitrate electrolytes respectively, separated by a semi permeable membrane. It was left to Daniell to explain how it worked and thus to get credit for the idea.
1830 The invention of the thermostat made from a bi-metallic strip, usually brass and copper, was claimed by Andrew Ure a Glasgow chemistry professor. As a control device it did not find much use for 70 years until the advent of electricity supplies to the home when it could be used to operate a switch.
Note however that the bi-metallic strip used as a temperature compensating device in clocks and watches was invented by John Harrison in 1759. See Timekeepers.
1830 Joseph Henry in the USA worked to improve electromagnets and was the first to superimpose coils of wire wrapped on an iron core. It is said that he insulated the wire for one of his magnets using a silk dress belonging to his wife. An early example of insulated wire. In 1830 he observed electromagnetic (mutual) induction between two coils and his demonstration of self-induction predates Faraday, but like much of his work, he did not publish it at the time. An unfortunate tendency which he lived to regret. (See 1835 Morse)
The unit of Inductance the Henry is named in his honour.
1831 Faraday invented the solenoid and independently discovered the principle of Induction and demonstrated it in an induction coil or transformer. The induction coil has since been "invented" by many others (See 1886 William Stanley).
Faraday discovered that the motion of a magnet could induce the flow of electric current in a conductor in the vicinity of the moving magnet. He was the first to generate electricity from a magnetic field by pushing a magnet into a coil. He put this to practical use with his invention of the generator or dynamo, unshackling the generation of electricity from the battery. Faraday's dynamo, named the Faraday Disk after its construction, was a homopolar machine consisting of a copper disk rotating between the poles of a magnet. Current is generated along the radius of the disk where it cuts the magnetic field and is extracted via brushes contacting the shaft and the edge of the disk. See diagram. The Faraday Disk functions equally well as a motor and although the machine is said to be unique in that it is a direct current machine which does not need a commutator, it does owe something to Barlow's 1822 toothed motor design. (See also Siemens 1867).
From his experiments Faraday defined the relationship now known as Faraday's Law of Induction which describes how an electric current produces a magnetic field perpendicular to the direction of the current and, conversely, how a changing magnetic field generates an electric current in a conductor (normally a loop or a coil of wire with multiple turns, making a complete circuit) perpendicular to the field. The voltage generated at the terminals of the conductor is independent of how the change was produced. The change could be produced by moving the coil into or out of a magnetic field, rotating the coil relative to a magnet, changing the magnetic field strength or moving a magnet toward or away from the coil.
Faraday's Law states that the magnitude of the emf induced in a circuit is proportional to the rate of change of the magnetic flux that cuts across the circuit. It was left to Maxwell to express Faraday's Law and his notions of Lines of Force in mathematical terms.
The relationship can be stated as:
E= - N.dΦ/dt
E is the Electromotive Force (Voltage) induced in the coil.
N is the number of turns of wire in the coil.
dΦ/dt is the rate of change of the magnetic flux Φ passing through or enclosed by the coil.
The negative sign - signifies that polarity of the induced emf is such that it produces a current whose magnetic field opposes the change which produces it. (Lenz' Law).
Or alternatively:
E= - N.Δ(A.B)/Δt
Φ = (A.B)
B is the field strength of the external magnetic field.
A is area of the field enclosed by the coil.
Faraday's Law is the theoretical basis on which all modern electrical machines and tranformers are based.
See more about Michael Faraday
1831 Henry demonstrated a simple telegraph system sending a current through a mile and a half of wire to trigger an electromagnet which struck a bell (thereby inventing the electric bell, for many years the main domestic use of the battery). He used a simple coding system switching the current on and off to send messages down the line. Henry thought that patents were an impediment to progress and like Faraday he believed that new ideas should be shared for the benefit of the community. He subsequently freely shared his ideas on telegraphy with S. F. B. Morse who however went on to patent them passing them off as his own.
1831 -1835 Henry developed the relay which was used as an amplifier rather than as a switch as it is used today. At the end of each section, the feeble current would operate a relay which switched a local battery on to the next section of the line renewing the signal level. This enabled signals (currents) to be carried (relayed) over long distances making possible long distance telegraphy. In fact the relay reconstituted the signal rather than amplified it, just as the repeaters used in modern digital circuits do, thus avoiding amplifying the noise. The relay and its use with local battery power to "lengthen the telegraph line" were more of Henry's ideas which he failed to publicise or exploit.
Henry was appointed the first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution when it was founded in 1846.
For over thirty years telegraphy was the main practical application of the battery, this new found electrical technology.
1832 After witnessing a demonstration of von Sömmering's electrochemical telegraph some time earlier, Baron Schilling an attaché at the Russian embassy in Munich, in turn developed the idea by making an electromagnetic device which he demonstrated in 1832. It was a six wire system which used the movement of five magnetic needles to indicate the transmission of a signal. This was the method subsequently used by Cooke and Wheatstone who later "invented" and patented the five needle electric telegraph for two way communications in 1837.
1832 Hippolyte Pixii built his "magneto generator" the first practical application of Faraday's dynamo. The term "magneto" means that the magnetic force is supplied by a permanent magnet. His first machine rotated a permanent magnet in the field of an electromagnet generating an alternating current for which there was no practical use at the time. The following year at Ampère's suggestion he added a commutator to reverse the direction of the current with each half revolution enabling unidirectional - direct current to be produced. Pixii's magneto liberated electrical experimenters from their dependence on batteries.
1833 Faraday published his quantitative Laws of Electrolysis which express the magnitudes of electrolytic effects and galvanic reactions, putting Volta's discoveries and battery theory on a firm scientific basis.
The amount of a substance deposited on each electrode of an electrolytic cell is directly proportional to the quantity of electricity passed through the cell.
Faraday's Constant, named in his honour, represents the electric charge carried on one mole of electrons. It is found by multiplying Avogadro's constant by the charge carried on a single electron, and is equal to 9.648 x 104 Coulombs per mole. It is used to calculate the electric charge needed to discharge a particular quantity of ions during electrolysis.
The quantities of different elements deposited by a given amount of electricity are in the ratio of their chemical equivalent weights.
With William Whewell, he also coined the words, electrode, electrolyte, anode (Greek - Way in), cathode (Greek - Way out) and ion (Greek - I go) .
1833 Samuel Hunter Christie of the British Royal Military Academy publishes a bridge circuit for comparing or determining resistance, later to be called the Wheatstone Bridge.
1833 German physicist Wilhelm Eduard Weber, working with Gauss, demonstrated "the world's first electric telegraph" using a moving magnet and a coil of wire to send a signal along a wire suspended from a church spire in Gottingen to the other side of the town, a distance of 3 kilometers. One of many such claims before and since. The system used a simple coding scheme switching the current on and off, similar to Henry's, combined with reversing the polarity of the current to deflect a compass needle in opposite directions, to send different letters down a single wire. Over the subsequent years Weber investigated terrestrial and induced magnetic fields and verified the theoretical laws put forward by Ampère and others using electrical instruments which he designed for this purpose. The unit of Magnetic Flux is named the Weber in his honour.
1833 Russian physicist Heinrich Friedrich Emil Lenz formulated Lenz Law which states that an induced electric current flows in a direction such that the current opposes the change that induced it. A special case of the Law of Conservation of Energy. The law explains that when a conductor is pushed into a strong magnetic field, it will be repelled and that when a conductor is pulled out of a strong magnetic field that the magnetic forces created by the induced currents will oppose the pull. This also explains the phenomenon of back emf in electric motors, that is, the voltage created by the moving armature which opposes the applied voltage and hence the movement of the armature itself. Lenz law was later extended for more general application by Le Chatelier.
In the same year he also showed that the resistance of a metal increases with temperature.
1833 Scottish chemist Thomas Graham discovers the rate at which a gas diffuses is inversely proportional to the square root of the density of the gas. Now known as Graham's Law of Diffusion. Diffusion however is not confined to gases, it can take place with matter in any state. It may take place through a semi permeable membrane, which allows some, but not all, substances to pass. In solutions, when the liquid solvent passes through the membrane but the solute (dissolved solid) is retained, the diffusion process is called osmosis, a process which is used in many battery designs.
1833 British engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel brought bad news to his father Marc Isambard Brunel about the "Gaz Engine" on which they had been working for 10 years. After consultations with Humphry Davy in 1923, the elder Brunel concluded that closed cycle hot air engines similar to Stirling's engine could be more fuel efficient than steam engines which lost a significant quantity of water in every cycle, an opinion which was shared by many at the time including Michael Faraday and the British Admiralty. He then began working on a closed cycle engine using "carbonic acid gas" (Carbon dioxide) which was relatively easy to liquefy under pressure. The engine had two reservoirs for the condensed gas which could be alternately heated (vaporised) and cooled by hot and cold water and these two gas sources were used to propel a double acting piston. The idea was patented in 1825 and, joined by the younger Brunel, they made several demonstrators using pressures up to 120 atmospheres. (The hot air engine had originally been conceived to avoid the explosions of high pressure steam boilers). Based on intuition, as were many inventions of the day, a huge amount of money was invested in the project. Eventually the younger Brunel was able to make use of early thermodynamic theories to justify the project. Unfortunately his conclusion in 1833 was that "No sufficient advantage on the score of economy of fuel can be obtained", and the project was abandoned.
1833 Undeterred by the experience of the Brunels (see previous paragraph above), flamboyant, Swedish born, engineer John Ericsson patented in Britain his "caloric engine" a double-acting external combustion hot air engine in which expansion occurs simultaneously on one side of the displacer piston with compression on the other. It was similar to a Stirling engine (patented in 1816) in which the displacer also acts as the power piston but it used an open cycle instead of a closed cycle design.
Ericsson had left his home country for England in 1826 where he entered a design for a railway locomotive in the Rainhill Trials. Although his design "Novelty" was the fastest in the competition, he lost out to Stephenson's Rocket on reliability grounds. Ericsson, an irrepressible self publicist and showman made extravagant claims for his caloric engine which he was not always able to substantiate.
His next ventures were a stream of inventions for naval applications including the ship's screw propeller, a variant of the Archimedes Screw, which he patented in 1836 (though earlier designs by Scottish inventors James Steadman(1816) and Robert Wilson (1827) and others existed but had not been patented). The superior efficiency of the screw propeller was demonstrated by the British Admiralty in 1845 in a competition between two similar sized Navy steam sloops, the Rattler with a screw propeller and the Alecto driven by paddle wheels. On a calm day in the North sea, coupled together stern to stern, they engaged in a "tug-of-war". The Rattler won, pulling the Aleco backwards at a speed of 2.8 knots. It was argued that this was not a fair trial since the Rattler's engines produced 300 horse power compared to only 141 horse power for those of the Alecto, but the Admiralty had already made up its mind and the spectacle gave them the convincing publicity they wanted.
Discredited by his failure to demonstrate the benefits claimed for the caloric engine and failing to interest the British Admiralty in the propeller and after a series of business losses and a spell in a debtors' prison Ericsson left Britain in 1839 for the USA where he continued to work on the caloric engine for 20 years. Though he sold may examples of his caloric engine, interest faded when he was unable to show its superiority to the steam engine. He was however more successful as a naval architect and munitions designer, his most famous design being the USS Monitor the "ironclad" used to great effect by the Union's forces in the American Civil War (1861-1865).
1834 French clockmaker Jean Charles Athanase Peltier discovered that when a current flows through a closed loop made up from two dissimilar metals, heat is transferred from one junction between the metals to the other and one junction heats up while the other cools down. Used as the basis for refrigeration products with no moving parts. This is now known as the Peltier effect and is the reverse of the Seebeck effect discovered 13 years earlier.
1834 French engineer and physicist, Benoît Paul Émile Clapeyron published "Puissance Motrice de la Chaleur" ("The Driving Force of the Heat") in which he developed further Carnot's work on heat engines. He showed how the heat cycle relationship between the volume and pressure of the working fluid as well as the work due to expansion and contraction could be presented and analysed in graphical form.
He also showed that the work done on, or by, a working fluid such as steam can be determined using calculus. Thus:
W = ∫ PdV (integrated between the initial volume Vi and the final volume Vf)
where W is the work done on, or by, the steam, V is its volume and P is its pressure.
1835 German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss showed that the total of the electric flux flowing out of a closed surface is proportional to the total electric charge enclosed within that surface. The following relationship applies:
Φ = Q/ε0
Φ is the total flux of the electric field flowing out of the surface.
Q is the total electric charge enclosed by the surface.
ε0 is the electric constant or permittivity of the medium supporting the field.
Now known as Gauss's Law of Electric Fields, it is the electrical field equivalent of Ampère's Law for magnetic fields. It was not published however until 1867 together with Gauss's Law of magnetic fields.
Meanwhile Faraday, working independently, introduced the concept of capacitance with his definition of the dielectric constant ε, being equivalent to Gauss' permittivity.
See also the relevance to Maxwell's Equations.
Gauss also did pioneering work on probability and statistics, defining and characterising the Normal Distribution, now also named the Gaussian Distribution in his honour. It is the theoretical basis of much of today's quality control of which Six Sigma is an example.
Gauss was one of the worlds most gifted and prodigious mathematicians making major contributions to geometry, algebra, statistics, probability theory, differential equations, electromagnetics, and astronomy. Working alone for much of his life Gauss' personal life was, like Ampère's, tragic and complicated. His first wife died early, followed by the death of one of his sons, plunging him into a depression which was not helped by an unhappy second marriage which also ended with the early death of his second wife.
While he was working, when informed that his wife is dying Gauss replied: "Ask her to wait a moment - I am almost done."
1835 Samuel Finley Breese Morse, American artist and professor of the Literature of the Arts of Design in the University of the city of New York and religious bigot with a mandate directly from God, made a career change at the late age of 41 and started work on telegraphy. Undaunted by his lack of knowledge of the principles of electricity, he sought the assistance in developing his ideas, first from a colleague Leonard Gale of the University of New York who pointed out to Morse the need for insulation on the windings of his electromagnets, and then from Joseph Henry who already had a working telegraph system and who explained the need for relays to extend the range of the system. Morse subsequently patented Henry's ideas in his own name. He demonstrated the "first" electric telegraph in 1835 ignoring many prior claims dating as far back as Gray in 1729, Morrison's design of 1753 and Salvá's in 1804 as well as more practical recent inventions by Henry in 1831 and Weber in 1833.
Morse patented his system in 1837 and although it came after the needle telegraphs of Schilling (1832) and that of Cooke and Wheatstone (1837) which was patented earlier the same year as Morse's, Morse's system was simpler and more robust using only a single signalling wire plus a return wire and its use spread very quickly.
Morse subsequently claimed sole authorship for these ideas and also for the relay, another of Henry's inventions ignoring Henry's essential contributions to the system thus creating an irreparable rift with Henry. Similarly, the coding system Morse Code on which single channel telegraphy depends was based on existing technology including Henry's ideas, as well as those of Gauss and Weber, which Morse developed jointly with Albert Vail, Morse's business partner. It was Vail who invented the Morse key and also the printing telegraph which was patented in Morse's name. Their relative contributions are still in dispute. (See also 1841 Bain)
Henry is reported to have said in later life "If I could live my life again, I might have taken out more patents".
The Communications Revolution
Before the advent of the electric telegraph, communications had been limited by the speed of the fastest horse or the fastest ship. It took anything from four to six months to send a message from Britain to Australia and the same time to send a reply back. The telegraph reduced this to minutes, but it didn't just increase the speed of communications, it also dramatically increased the value of the information transmitted. Think of railway signalling which enabled safer movement of trains or military communications which gave commanders intelligence about the enemy's position and enabled rapid deployment of their own assets. Similarly, government or business administrators could monitor the status of remote operations giving them timely opportunity to intervene or to revise their own plans. Think also of commercial networks which could provide time sensitive commercial information to market traders or speculators giving them a competitive advantage.
The electric telegraph also facilitated both the gathering and dissemination of information and brought better understanding of unfamiliar people, places and communities, the first step towards the so called "Global Village".
Providing timely access to information, and the ability to communicate with remote locations transformed news reporting, knowledge of world events, trade, travel, warfare, diplomacy, administration and long range personal and business relationships much more dramatically than today's Internet Revolution.
See also the Transatlantic Cable
For 35 years the battery was a solution looking for a problem. It had been used on a small scale as a laboratory tool providing the energy for electrolysis in the analysis of chemical compounds and the isolation of new elements but it was Morse's electric telegraph which eventually created the deployment of batteries on an industrial scale.
1835 Electric arc welding proposed by James Bowman Lindsay of Dundee. The idea was eventually patented fifty years later by Benardos and Olszewski in 1885.
Lindsay had many bright ideas, including the design for an electric light which he demonstrated in 1836 and several innovations in the field of telegraphy but none of these were ever commercialised.
1836 Demonstration by a British chemist John Frederic Daniell of the Daniell cell, a two electrolyte system using two electrodes immersed in two fluid electrolytes separated by a porous pot.
Volta's simple voltaic cell cannot operate very long because bubbles of hydrogen gas collect at the copper electrode acting as an insulator, reducing or stopping further electron flow. This blockage is called polarisation. Daniell's cell overcomes this problem by using electrolytes which are compatible with the electrodes. Thus the zinc electrode is suspended in an electrolytic solution of zinc sulphate which is contained in the porous pot (Initial designs used sulphuric acid rather than zinc sulphate). The porous pot is in turn immersed in the copper sulphate solution which is contained in a glass jar into which the copper electrode is also suspended. The Daniell cell does not produce gaseous products as a result of galvanic action and copper rather than hydrogen is deposited on the cathode. Daniell's non-polarising battery was thus able to deliver sustained, constant currents, a major improvement on the Voltaic pile.
The Daniell cell chemistry was also available in other configurations which provide superior performance such as the gravity cell or crowfoot cell which eliminated the porous pot.
Daniell's cell was however based on a similar non polarising battery design demonstrated by Becquerel in 1829 which used nitrate electrolytes rather than the sulphate electrolytes used by Daniell. Despite the prior art, Daniell, rather than Becquerel, is remembered as the inventor of the non-polarising cell.
Early galvanic cells were all based on acidic electrolytes and many of these designs produced hydrogen at the cathode causing the cell to become polarised. Two approaches were adopted to solve the polarisation problem. Daniell's solution was a non-polarising cell which did not produce hydrogen. The other alternatives were depolarising cells containing oxidising compounds which absorbed the hydrogen as it was produced and did not allow the build up of bubbles. The Leclanché cell which uses manganese dioxide as a depolariser is an example of this type.
1836 Although it had been known for many years that some chemical processes could be speeded up by the presence of some unrelated chemical agent which was not consumed by the chemical action and that the phenomenon had been used by Döbereiner and others, it was Berzelius who in 1836 introduced the term catalyst and elaborated on the importance of catalysis in chemical reactions.
1836 Electric light from batteries shown at the Paris Opera.
1836 Parisian craftsman Ignace Dubus-Bonnel was granted a patent for the spinning and weaving of glass. His application was supported by a small square of woven fibreglass. The drawn glass was kept malleable by operating in a hot vapour bath and weaving was carried out in a room heated to over 30°C.
1836 Irish priest, scientist, and inventor, Nicholas Joseph Callan, working at Maynooth Theological University in Ireland, invented of the induction coil. He discovered that by interrupting a low current through a small number of turns of thick copper wire making up the primary winding of an induction coil, a very high voltage could be induced across the terminals of a high turns secondary winding of thinner copper wire on the same iron core. Such induction coils are used in the automotive industry to operate the sparking plugs, but in the other industries they are generally known as Ruhmkorff coils.
The importance of Callan's pioneering work was not recognised at his remote institution which had other priorities and he never received recognition for this invention which is now associated with the name of German-born Parisian instrument maker, Heinrich Ruhmkorff. Like all instrument makers, he put his name on every instrument he made and Callan's coil eventually become known as the "Ruhmkorff Coil".
Callan also developed a galvanic cell known as the Maynooth Battery in 1854.
1837 Faraday discovers the concept of dielectric constant, invents the variable capacitor and states the law for calculating the capacitance. The capacitance of a parallel plate capacitor is given by:
C = ε.A/d
C is the capacitance.
A is the area of the two plates.
ε is the permittivity (sometimes called the dielectric constant) of the material between the plates.
d is the separation between the plates
The unit of Capacitance, the Farad, is named in Faraday's honour.
See more about Faraday.
1837 Sixteen years after the principle was demonstrated by Faraday, self taught American blacksmith Thomas Davenport patented the first practical electric motor as "an application of magnetism and electro-magnetism to propelling machinery." Powered by a galvanic battery consisting of a bucket of weak acid containing concentric cylindrical electrodes of dissimilar metals, the motor was a shunt wound, brush commutator device. The magnetic field of the stator was provided by two electromagnets. Two further electromagnets formed the spokes of a wheel which acted as the rotor. The commutator reversed the polarity of the rotor electromagnets as they passed the alternate north and south poles of the stator to create unidirectional rotation. It was granted the first ever patent for an electrical machine.
Davenport's "revolutionary" invention was ahead of its time and it did not bring him the commercial success his efforts deserved. At the time, the lack of suitable batteries or any other source of electrical power to drive the motor inhibited its adoption and his persevering endeavours to improve and promote the motor led him into bankruptcy. His pioneering use of electromagnets in both the stator and the rotor of his machine went largely unnoticed until the idea was reinvented simultaneously by Varley, Siemens and Wheatstone in 1866 for use in their designs for dynamos. It was not until forty years after Davenport's invention that the demand for electric motors eventually took off. Unfortunately Davenport didn't live to see it. He died aged 49 in 1851.
1837Patent granted for a Needle electric telegraph (Two way electric communications) conceived by William Fothergill Cooke, a retired English surgeon of the Madras army studying anatomy at the University of Heidelberg, and refined by physicist Sir Charles Wheatstone of King's College, London. (See 1816 Ronalds) This was claimed to be the first practical battery powered telegraph, however it is very similar to Schilling's design of 1832. An elegant design, instead of using one wire for each letter it used only five signalling wires plus a return wire. By using a combination of the five signalling needles the number of wires could be reduced. When activated, the needles pointed to individual letters on a board. Twenty different letters could be identified by only five wires. There was no provision for sending the letters C, J, Q, U, X and Z. The design was overtaken by the simpler single wire system devised Morse using his coding system of dots and dashes. The relationship between Cooke and Wheatstone eventually ended acrimoniously over a dispute about their respective contributions to the design.
In 1839, Cooke and Wheatstone's telegraph was installed on Brunel's Great Western Railway where, on 1 January 1845, it was successfully used to enable the apprehension of murderer John Tawell fleeing from the scene of his crime on a train travelling from Slough to Paddington. After he boarded the train a telegraph message was sent from Slough, alerting police in London who were able to arrest him on arrival at his destination. It was an event which stirred the public interest in telegraphy which up to that time had been regarded as no more than a scientific curiosity.
Wheatstone claimed many inventions in his lifetime, usually some time after they had been invented by somebody else. Apart from the needle telegraph see the electric clock , punched tape and the dynamo. At least he acknowledged that the Wheatstone Bridge was invented by somebody else.
1837 First commercially available insulated wire made by British haberdasher W. Ettrick who adapted silk wound "millinery" wire, used in hat making, for electrical purposes. The same year William Thomas Henley made a six head wire wrapping machine for manufacturing silk insulated wire and founded Henley Cables.
1837 James W. McGauley of Dublin invented the self acting circuit breaker in which the electric current moved an armature which opened the circuit switching off the current. When the current was removed the armature moved back to its original position and switched on the current once more causing the armature to oscillate and the current to be switched rapidly on and off. The same year American inventor Charles Grafton Page built a similar device which he called a rocking magnetic interrupter. The original purpose of these devices was to provide current pulses to the primary of an induction coil causing repetitive high voltage sparks at the terminals of the secondary winding. This trembler mechanism was subsequently widely used in electric bells, buzzers and vibrators.
1838 Scottish engineer Robert Davidson built a DC electric motor based on iron rotor elements driven by pulses from electromagnets in the stator. It was the first example of what we would now call a switched reluctance motor. The motor comprised two electromagnets one on either side of a wooden rotor and three axial iron bars equally spaced around the periphery of the rotor. The electromagnets were switched on and off in turn by means of a mechanical commutator driven from the rotors.
Davidson used four of these motors to drive a 5 ton electric locomotive on the newly opened Edinburgh/Glasgow railway in 1842 reaching a speed of 4 mph over a distance of one and a half miles.
The vehicle was powered by two large batteries constructed from wooden troughs each with 20 cells containing sulphuric acid in which were suspended zinc and iron electrodes. The motor speed was controlled by lowering or raising the electrodes into and out of the acid. A resin sealant protected the wooden cells from attack by the acid.
Like Davenport's motor, Davidson's motor was also ahead of its time and was not developed into a practical product. The more efficient electromagnetic rotors and stators as pioneered by Davenport, became the norm and the reluctance motor was forgotten. It was however revived in the 1960's when new semiconductor technology made electronic commutation possible and, because of its simplicity, the reluctance motor finds many uses today.
1838 Carl August von Steinheil a German physicist discovers the possibility of using the "earth return" or "ground return" in place of the current return wire for the signal in telegraph circuits thus enabling communications using a single wire.
1839 Steinheil builds the first electric clock.
1839 Welsh lawyer Sir William Robert Grove demonstrates the first Fuel Cell. Attempting to reverse the process of electrolysis by combining hydrogen and oxygen to produce water, he immersed two platinum strips surrounded by closed tubes containing hydrogen and oxygen in an acidic electrolyte. His original fuel cell used dilute sulphuric acid because the reaction depends upon the pH when using an aqueous electrolyte. This first fuel cell became the prototype for the Phosphoric Acid Fuel Cell (PAFC) which has had a longer development period than the other fuel cell technologies.
The same year Grove also demonstrated an improved two electrolyte non-polarising galvanic cell using zinc and sulphuric acid for the anodic reaction and platinum in nitric acid for the cathode. Known as the Grove cell it provided nearly double the voltage of the first Daniell cell. Grove actually developed a rechargeable cell however there were few facilities for recharging at that time and the honour for inventing the secondary cell eventually went to Planté in 1860. Grove's nitric acid cell was the favourite battery of the early American telegraph systems (1840-1860), because it offered high current output. However it was found that the Grove cell discharged poisonous nitric dioxide gas and large telegraph offices were filled with gas from rows of hissing Grove batteries. Consequently, by the time of the American Civil War (1861-1865), Grove's battery was replaced by the Daniell battery.
In later life (1880) Grove became a high court judge.
1839 The Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) Generator proposed by Michael Faraday.
1839 Prussian engineer Moritz Hermann von Jacobi financed by Czar Nicholas makes first electric powered boat using 128 Grove cells. He also formulated the law known as the Maximum Power Theorem or Jacobi's Law which states: "Maximum power is transferred when the internal resistance of the source equals the resistance of the load". Also known as Load matching.
In 1838 von Jacobi also discovered electroforming by which duplicates could be made by electroplating metal onto a mould of an object, then removing the mould. This galvanic process was used for making duplicate plates for relief or letterpress printing when it was called electrotyping.
1839 Alexandre-Edmund Becquerel discovered the photovoltaic effect when he was only nineteen while experimenting with an electrolytic cell made up of two metal electrodes placed in an electrically conducting solution. He noticed that small currents were generated between the metals on exposure to light and these currents increased with the light intensity. This new source of electricity never had the same impact as the Volta's cells since the currents were small and the phenomenon was largely ignored by the scientific community. 100 years later Becquerel's discovery was recognised as the first known example of a P-N junction. See also Becquerel 1896
1839 Polystyrene isolated from natural resin by German apothecary Eduard Simon however he was not aware of the significance of his discovery which he called Styrol. Its significance as a plastic polymer with a long chain of styrene molecules was recognised by Staudinger in 1922.
1840 James Prescott Joule an English brewer published "On the Production of Heat by Voltaic Electricity" showing that the heat produced by an electric current is proportional to I2R now known as Joule's Law. He also discovered that electrical power generated is proportional to the product of the current and the battery voltage and he established that the various forms of energy, mechanical, electrical, and heat - are basically the same and can be changed, one into another. Thus he formed the basis of the law of Conservation of Energy, now called the First Law of Thermodynamics. See also Joule's work on refrigeration.
1840 Robert Sterling Newall from Dundee patented a wire rope making machine suitable for manufacturing undersea telegraph cables. It was used to make the first successful telegraph cable connecting England and France in 1851 and later with others the first transatlantic telegraph cable. The cable was insulated with gutta-percha, the adhesive resin of the isonandra gutta tree, introduced to Europe in 1842 by Dr. William Montgomerie, a fellow Scot working as a surveyor in the service of the East India Company. Gutta percha was used for 100 years for cable insulation until it was eventually replaced by polyethylene (commonly called polythene) and PVC.
1840 Electroplating, a process discovered by Cruikshank forty years earlier, was re-invented by the Elkingtons of Birmingham and commercialised by Thomas Prime. Articles to be plated were suspended as one electrode in a bath containing an electrolyte of silver or gold dissolved in cyanide. When the voltage was applied to the electrodes the metal was deposited on the suspended article.
1840 Eminent British mathematician and Astronomer Royal, George Biddell Airy, develops a feedback device for continuously manoeuvring a telescope to compensate for the Earth's rotation. Problems with his mechanism led to Airy becoming the first person to discuss instability (hunting or runaway) in closed-loop control systems and the first to analyse them using differential equations. Stability criteria were later established by Maxwell.
Feedback control systems were not new. The list below gives some examples from earlier times:
270 B.C. Greek inventor and barber Ktesibios of Alexandria invented a float regulator to keep the water level in a tank feeding a water clock (the clepsydra - Greek water thief) at a constant depth by controlling the water flow into the tank.
250 A.D. Chinese engineer Ma Chun invented the cybernetic machine, also called the south pointing carriage, models of which can be found in several museums throughout the world. Based on connecting the wheels through a system of differential gears to a pointer, usually in the form of a statuette with an outstretched arm, the pointer always points south no matter how far the carriage has travelled or how many turns it has made. Legend has it that a Chinese general used south pointing chariots to guide his troops against the enemy through a thick fog.
1620 Dutch engineer living in England Cornelius Drebbel invented the thermostat for his stove. It depended on the expansion and contraction of a liquid to move a damper which controlled the air flow to the fire.
1745 Scottish blacksmith and millwright Edmund Lee added a fantail to the moveable cap of the windmill, perpendicular to the main sails, to keep the main sails always pointing into the wind.
1759 English clockmaker John Harrison used a bi-metallic strip to compensate for temperature changes affecting the balance springs in his clocks. As the temperature rises the bi-metallic strip reduces the effective length of the balance spring to compensate for its expansion and change in elasticity.
1787 English carpenter Thomas Mead regulated the speed of rotation of a windmill using the displacement of a centrifugal pendulum to control the effective area of the sails.
1788 James Watt designed the centrifugal flyball governor to control the speed of his steam engines by adjusting the steam inlet valve.
Considering his track record, Airy surprisingly held the post of Astronomer Royal, the highest office in the British civil service, for forty six years. Filled with his own self importance he belittled the work of those whom he considered his social inferiors such as Faraday whose mathematics, in his view, wasn't up to scratch and John Couch Adams who predicted the existence and orbit of the planet Neptune and whom Airy ordered to proceed slowly and re-do his calculations "in a leisurely an dignified manner". Consequently Airy missed its eventual discovery which was scooped by Frenchman Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier.
In his role as chief scientific advisor to the government he put a premature end to Babbage's pioneering work on computers with his verdict, "I believe the machine to be useless, and the sooner it is abandoned, the better it will be for all parties", which cut off all government funding for the project.
Airy also advised against the construction of the Crystal Palace to house the Great Exhibition of 1851 because he said the structure would collapse when the salute guns were fired. Despite Airy's objections, it was built anyway and was a great success.
After the Tay Bridge disaster in 1879 when the bridge collapsed into the river during a storm killing all 75 passengers on the train passing over it at the time, the subsequent investigation found that Airy, who who provided the wind loading for designer Thomas Bouch, seriously miscalculated the effect of a Tayside gale on the structure, and that the bridge would have fallen "even if construction had been perfect".
1840 "Steam Electricity", electrostatic discharges produced by the frictional electrification of water droplets, observed by a colliery "Engine Man" near Newcastle in England when probing a steam leak. The phenomenon was investigated by local lawyer, (later to be engineer and arms manufacturer), William Armstrong who constructed what he called a Hydro-Electric Generator using the effect to produce electrostatic charges on demand. It consisted of a boiler insulated from the ground generating a jet of steam from which sparks could be drawn on to an insulated metallic conductor. The conductor became positively charged, while the boiler acquired a negative charge.
See also Kelvin's Thunderstorm for an explanation.
1841 The non-polarising Carbon-Zinc cell, substituting the cheaper carbon for the expensive platinum used in Grove's cell, invented by German chemist Robert Wilhelm Bunsen. His battery found large scale use for powering arc-light and in electroplating.
Bunsen did not invent the eponymous burner for which he is famous. The basic burner was in fact invented by Faraday and improved by Peter Desaga, a technician working for Bunsen at the University of Heidelburg. The improved burner was designed to provide the high temperature flames needed for Bunsen's joint studies of spectroscopy with Kirchhoff and Desaga was smart enough to manufacture and sell the new device under his boss's name.
Bunsen never married. He was a popular teacher who delighted in working with foul smelling chemicals. Early in his career he lost the use of his right eye when an arsenic compound, cacodyl cyanide, with which he was working, exploded.
1841 Scottish clockmaker Alexander Bain invented the first pendulum electric clock. Bain demonstrated his clock to Charles Wheatstone who copied the clock and three months later demonstrated it to the Royal Society claiming it as his own invention. Fortunately, unknown to Wheatstone, Bain had already patented the invention.
Bain also proposed a method of generating electricity to power his clock by means of an earth battery. This consisted of two square plates of zinc and copper, about two feet square, buried deep in the ground a short distance apart forming a battery with the earth acting as the electrolyte. Such an arrangement produces about one volt continuously.
1842 Austrian physicist Christian Andreas Doppler explained that the apparent frequency of waves as experienced by an observer depends on the relative motion between the observer and the source, the wavelength being shorter for an approaching source and longer for a receding source. He used the analogy of a ship sailing into or retreating from the waves to explain his hypothesis, but sceptics were not convinced and so in 1845 he set up an experiment to demonstrate the effect. He arranged for a trumpeter to ride on an open train carriage and, as a reference, for two trumpeters to be positioned (stationed) in a railway station. All three trumpeters were to hold the same note as the train passed through the station. His experiment verified that the pitch of the moving trumpet heard by an fixed observer at the station was higher than the pitch of the stationary trumpets as the train approached the station and lower than the stationary trumpets as the train was leaving the station. Known as the Doppler effect it was shown by Fizeau in 1848 that the effect also applied to light (electromagnetic) waves.
The principle of the Doppler effect is used extensively today in Radar applications and highway speed traps to determine the speed of moving objects by measuring the frequency shift of signals bounced off the speeding vehicles.
1843 Alexander Bain patented a device to scan a two-dimensional surface and send it over wires. Thus, the patent for the fax machine and the first use of scanning to dissect and build up an image was granted 33 years before the patent was given for the telephone. Over a period of five years Bain designed and patented many improvements to the electric telegraph including the use of punched tape (re-invented by Wheatstone and sold to Samuel Morse in 1857) which were widely adopted at the time. Unfortunately he derived no financial benefit from his ideas. His efforts and his money were spent in pursuing patent infringements by Samuel Morse and he retired into a life of obscurity, poverty and hardship.
1843 The first computer program was written by Augusta Ada Byron, Countess of Lovelace, to calculate values of a Bernoulli function. Known as Ada Lovelace she was the beautiful daughter of romantic English poet Lord Byron and wife of the Earl of Lovelace. At the age of 14 she was tutored by famous mathematician Augustus De Morgan at the University of London and became the world's first software engineer. Convinced of her own genius she let everybody know it at every opportunity. She worked as an assistant to Charles Babbage on the development of his "analytical engine" the world's first programmable computer which used punched cards for input and gears to perform the function of the beads of an abacus.
Before Babbage, computing devices were mostly analogue, performing calculation by means of measurement, Babbage's machine however was digital, performing calculation by means of counting. It is claimed that Ada originated the concept of using binary numbers, a practice used in all modern computers, however Babbage's difference engine and more versatile analytical engine were both based on the decimal numbering system. Her notes indicate that she understood and used the concepts of a stored program, as well as looping, indexing, subroutine libraries and conditional jumps, the first use of logic in a machine, however the extent of Babbage's contribution to these thoughts and how much was her own work is not clear. She wrote "The Analytical Engine ... weaves algebraic patterns, just as the Jacquard-loom weaves flowers and leaves." Though her contribution to the technology may be questioned, her charm did wonders for Babbage's PR (although it didn't quite work on Michael Faraday).
Ada however managed to run up considerable gambling debts with her lover John Crosse and as a solution she applied her mathematical prowess to fresh fields developing a winning "system" for betting on horses (proving, incidentally, that genius and common sense don't always go hand-in-hand). Unfortunately, the horses being unaware of their responsibilities, the system didn't win and Ada finished her life as a bankrupt, alienated from her family, addicted to laudanum (opium), dying a painful death from cancer of the cervix at the age of 36, repeating the demise of her father, also an opium addict who died of a fever at same age of 36.
Babbage did not have the financial resources to complete his machines and he appealed to the Prime Minister Robert Peel for help, but after taking advice from the formidable Astronomer Royal Sir George Airy, the request was turned down and his machines were never finished. In 1991 the British Science Museum completed the construction of Babbage's Difference Engine No.2 from Babbage's original drawings with new components and it worked just as he said it would, performing its first test calculation for the public, the powers of seven (y=x7) for the first 100 values.
1843 Sir Charles Wheatstone "found" a description of the Christie's 1833 bridge circuit, now known as the Wheatstone Bridge, and published it via the Royal Society though he never claimed he invented it.
The same year Wheatstone also invented the Rheostat (Greek - "Rheo" Flowing stream) variable resistor.
1843 Patents for the vulcanisation of natural rubber with sulphur to improve its strength, wearing properties and high temperature performance were awarded to Thomas Hancock in England in May 1843 and one month later to Charles Goodyear in the USA. Subsequently patents for hard rubber called vulcanite or ebonite, created by using excess sulphur during vulcanisation, were granted to Hancock in England in 1843 and to Nelson Goodyear (brother of Charles) in the USA in 1851.
Ebonite is a hard, dark and shiny material initially used for jewellery, musical instruments, decorative objects and dental plates (with pink colouring) for nearly 100 years. It is also a good insulator and soon found use in electrical equipment and power distribution panels.
Ebonite was a milestone because it was the first thermosetting material and because it involves modification of a natural material.
Ebonite mouldings were exhibited by both Hancock and Goodyear at the Great Exhibition of 1851.
1843 German founder of modern electro physiology Emil du Bois-Reymond discovered that nerve impulses were a kind of "electrical impulse wave" which propagated at a fixed and relatively slow speed along the nerve fibre. In 1849, using a galvanometer wired to the skin through saline-soaked blotting paper to minimise the contact resistance, he was able to detect minute electrical discharges created by the contraction of the muscles in his arms. Realizing that the skin acted as an insulator in the signal path, he increased the strength of the signals by inducing a blister on each arm, removing the skin and placing the paper electrodes within the wounds. He determined that a stimulus applied to the electropositive surface of the nerve membrane causes a decrease in electrical potential at that point and that this "point of reduced potential", or impulse, travels along the nerve like a wave.
Galvani's theory of animal electricity vindicated at last? See also nerve impulses.
1845 Michael Faraday discovers that the plane of polarisation of a light beam is rotated by a magnetic field. The first experimental evidence that light and magnetism are related. Now called the Magneto-Optic effect or the Faraday effect.
1845 Gustav Robert Kirchhoff a German physicist at the age of 21 announced the laws which allow calculation of the currents, voltages, and resistances of electrical networks. In further studies, based on Kelvin's mathematical representation of the circuit elements, he demonstrated in 1857 that current flows through a conductor at the speed of light.
Between 1855 and 1863 Kirchhoff formed a productive working partnership with Robert Bunsen at the University of Heidelburg where they undertook the first systematic investigation of atomic spectra. They discovered the that the flames of each element had a unique emission and absorption visible light spectrum and founded the science of emission spectroscopy for analysing and identifying chemical substances. They invented the spectroscope which allowed them to analyse not only laboratory samples, but also the Fraunhofer lines in cosmic light spectra and by comparing them with the dark lines in the spectrum of earthly elements they could determine the composition of the Sun and the stars by spectral analysis of the radiation they emit.
These achievements were forty years before the discovery of the electron. A more comprehensive theory taking into account the structure and quantum nature of the atom was eventually developed by Neils Bohr in 1913.
See diagrams and explanation of Bohr's Atom and Spectral Lines.
After an accident in early life, Kirchhoff spent most of his working life in a wheelchair or on crutches.
1845 Two thousand years after Archimedes explained the mechanical advantage of the compound pulley system, English lawyer William George Armstrong invented the first major enhancement of the original design, a hydraulic jigger for improving the efficiency of dock-side cranes which he demonstrated at Newcastle's "Lit and Phil". It was the converse of Archimedes' block and tackle and used high pressure water from the municipal water supply to operate a hydraulic ram which Bramah had shown to be capable of exerting very high forces. Pulley blocks were attached to the ram's piston and to the case of the ram at the opposite end and a cable or chain was looped around the pulley sheaves and connected to the load. The pressure of the water forced the piston out of the ram thus forcing the pulleys apart, the opposite of a conventional block and tackle which pulls them closer together. Depending on the number of sheaves, the jigger's pulley system magnified the stroke of the ram, increasing the displacement of the lifted load, but reduced the force pulling the load, whereas the basic pulley system magnified the lifting force but reduced the displacement of the lifted load. The load was lowered simply by releasing the water from the ram.
Armstrong's system eliminated the need for costly manual labour to operate the old block and tackle system and provided a smooth lift and greatly increased the speed at which the load could be lifted. It was immediately successful and led to a string of new hydraulic applications including hoists, capstans, turntables, dock gates, rock crushing and even passenger lifts.
Armstrong's interest in hydraulics had been inspired by his role as a lawyer involved in the legal aspects of the provision of municipal water supplies and also by his first view of a waterwheel in action which he encountered while on a fishing trip. As an amateur he had made models of hydraulic systems while still working as a lawyer, but at the age of 37, in 1847 he made a major career change abandoning his Newcastle law practice to start an engineering works at Elswick-on-Tyne, to manufacture hydraulic cranes, where he could work full time on engineering projects.
This was the modest start of Britain's greatest Victorian enterprise.
Armstrong was a great innovator. His next invention, in 1850, was the hydraulic accumulator which was designed to overcome the problem of low, or variable, water pressure for his hydraulic machinery. It provided a controllable high pressure hydraulic source and comprised of a large water-filled cylindrical reservoir with a piston onto which a heavy weight of several tons of concrete or metal could be loaded to increase and maintain the pressure of the water. In 1865 he installed two blast furnaces to manufactture his own castings.
His next venture was to use his considerable engineering skills to revolutionise the design and manufacture of armaments for the British army.
During the Crimean War (1853-1856), he was prompted by reports from the Battle of Inkerman (1854) describing the difficulties caused by the manoeuvrability of the British field guns. It took 150 soldiers and 8 officers three hours to manhandle two smooth bore 18 pounder field guns each weighing 2.1 tons (2134 kg) across one and a half miles (2.4 kms) of rough and muddy, ridged terrain to get them from their siege park to a strategic, elevated defensive position on Home Ridge from which the 100 attacking Russian guns 1300 yards (1200 m) away on Shell Hill would be in range. Meanwhile, until the guns were in place, the British troops, outnumbered by more than 3 to 1, were extremely vulnerable to enemy fire, suffering appalling casualties and loss of life.
Note: Pounders - The size of the guns was specified as the weight in pounds (0.454 kg) of the projectile it fired. After 1864, the capacity of the larger guns was specified as the diameter or calibre of the bore.
The Guns
While the presence of the two 18 pounders at Inkerman was successful in turning the tide of the war, Armstrong felt that it should not be necessary to have a gun weighing over two tons to fire an eighten pound projectile. He believed he could design something much lighter with even better performance by applying the experience he had gained in manufacturing precision hydraulic rams to the development of large field guns. He also recognised that the heavy artillery design, favoured by the military, had not much changed in over 200 years with muzzle loading bronze or cast iron barrels prone to blowing up. Cast iron was fine for making hydraulic rams but it was not suitable for containing the explosive loads found in gun barrels. Attempted breech loading designs had also been too weak and dangerous, failing to withstand the explosion of the charge. On the other hand small arms producers had taken advantage of new materials, skills and technologies developed during the Industrial Revolution to introduce wrought iron rifles and breech loaders firing conical shells and percussion caps replacing smooth bored, cast iron muzzle loading muskets firing round shot.
Artillery development had just not kept pace with small arms development.
What was needed was a scaled up version of the rifle.
Spurred on to come up with a solution by his friend James Rendel, chief civil engineer of the British admiralty who provided practical insight into the issues involved, Armstrong called upon the advice of James Nasmyth and Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who had both shown an interest in weapons development, to help him in this task. The result was a series of breech loading field guns with rifled steel barrels which were lighter, more accurate with greater range than the army's muzzle loading cast iron and bronze cannons, and improved projectiles to use in them. It was a major step in artillery development.
In 1855 the War Office (Now called the Ministry of Defence - How times change.), seeking ideas for improved artillery, received almost 1000 proposals from which Armstrong was selected to produce six prototypes.
Design challenges and solutions included:
Conventional field guns or cannon used heavy barrels with thick walls of bronze or cast iron to contain the explosive firing charge and to direct the projectile on its way, but cast iron is brittle with a crystalline structure and has poor tensile strength so the castings had to be very large. Large castings are also susceptible to flaws and cracks. Bronze is softer but that means it wears much more quickly than cast iron. Armstrong's barrels were built up from layers of more flexible and durable wrought iron or steel, each with properties or characteristics optimised for its task. Early designs used an inner tube, or core, forged from solid bars of wrought iron heated to a high temperature and wrapped round a mandrel and forged together to form the lining of the barrel. Subsequently in 1863, mild steel, toughened in oil, was used to manufacture the barrel's core because it had better wear characteristics. The tensile strength needed to contain the explosive charge was obtained by shrinking and welding cylindrical wrought iron rings over the inner tube. The diameter of the rings when cold was slightly less than the diameter of the inner tube, but when heated they expanded and could be slipped over the inner tube. On cooling the interior of the barrel became under compression from the rings shrunk over it. Thicker outer tubes, or more layers, were used near the breech where pressure from the detonation of the charge was greatest. This "Built up" or laminated structure provided a "pre-stressed" barrel. Inward pressure from the outer tube, or tubes, compressed the inner tube, and during firing, counteracted the outward radial forces exerted on the barrel by the explosive charge when the gun was fired. The result was that the barrel, the heaviest part of the gun, could be much smaller and lighter than in previous guns. This construction was later adopted in 1866 by Alfred Krupp in his "ringed gun".
Added benefits were that the stronger barrel allowed the cannon to withstand more powerful explosions from larger charges of gunpowder so that greater speed and energy could be imparted to the projectile or larger projectiles could be used. The size and weight reduction also enabled much larger guns to be produced.
The "Build up" construction method was one of the keys to the success of the gun. It's composite structure allowed the gun to be designed to exploit the properties of different materials to create a structure whose strength was greater than the strength of the individual parts.
Projectile
The second major factor contributing to the gun's success was the design of the projectile. It was well known that using an elongated shell with a conical tip rather than round shot would increase the range since the wind resistance encountered by a projectile increases with its cross-sectional area. For the same weight an elongated shell will have a lower cross-section and hence lower wind resistance. To provide directional stability and prevent the shell tumbling end over end or deviating from its course the gun must impart a spin to the shell as it leaves the gun and this is done by rifling the barrel.
Rifling also placed requirements on the projectiles. They must be a tight fit in the barrel and engage with the rifled grooves. For this reason shells with a soft metal casing such as lead are required. Armstrong's shells were hollow, containing an explosive charge which was not unusual for the period, but a soft metal hollow shell would be prone to collapsing due to the explosive forces during firing.
The shells were therefore made from cast iron with a thin deformable lead coating so that its diameter was slightly more than the calibre of the gun. When the gun was fired the lead engaged, and was crushed, in the barrel's rifling grooves imparting the necessary spin to the shell. This tight fit had the added advantage of minimising the windage losses (See below) in the gun barrel thus increasing the range.
Propellant Charge
The gunpowder propellant charge used to accelerate the shell was contained in a cloth bag which was loaded directly behind the projectile.
Windage
Windage is the narrow gap between a gun's bore and the projectile's diameter which was necessary in smooth bore, muzzle loading guns to allow for crude manufacturing tolerances of the cast iron projectiles and to allow the projectile to be rammed down the length of the barrel on loading. Windage also referred to the amount of hot propellant gas that escaped around the loosely fitting projectile on firing. This effect reduced the volume and pressure of the gas accelerating the projectile, seriously reducing the gun's range. Traditional cannon firing spherical cannon balls were particularly wasteful.
On the positive side, the flash of the escaping propellant gas passing around the shell provided a self-igniting fuse when used with explosive cells, avoiding the need to light the fuse before loading the shell.
Armstrong's tight fitting rifled shells however did not suffer from windage. All of the propellant gas generated by the explosive charge was applied to the projectile increasing the range of the gun or allowing smaller firing charges to be used. It also meant that, without the hot flash, another method of initiating the shell's fuse had to be found. (See below).
Rifling
The method of rifling was Armstrong's third major innovation. A projectile's range, accuracy and stability are improved by spinning it around its axis as it emerges from the muzzle so that the gyroscopic forces due to the spin stabilise its orientation and keep it on track during its flight to the target. This is achieved by machining helical grooves, called rifling, along the length of the gun barrel to impart spin to the projectile as it emerges from the muzzle. This puts conflicting demands on the material used for the gun barrel. It must be very hard to resist the wear caused by friction with the projectiles used. This would suggest the use of cast iron, but because cast iron is very hard, it is difficult to machine. Its tensile strength is also too low, unless the casting is very thick, to absorb the pressures of the explosive charge and is brittle and prone to cracking. While bronze castings are much easier to machine, they are too soft and the rifling would soon be damaged. It was wrought iron which made rifling possible - being harder than bronze and having higher tensile strength than cast iron, it made rifled barrels more practical.
Rifling also affected the design of the projectiles which had to be compatible with the rifling in the barrel.
See more about Whitworth and alternative rifling.
Breech Loading
Breech loading was necessary because the alternative of loading a rifled gun through the muzzle was very difficult, but it also had other advantages, the main one being a faster rate of fire. Loading the gun from the rear leaves the crew less exposed to enemy fire and also allows smaller gun emplacements or turrets.
These advantages were well known at the time but existing designs were unreliable, unsafe and unpopular. The bore of Armstrong's gun was closed by a metal block or "vent piece" which was dropped into a slot and kept in place by a large screw. It was an improvement on current practice but still not perfect and in a few cases vent pieces had been ejected at high speed from the breech.
Muzzle Loading
Because of the extremely high explosive forces encountered in high calibre guns and the greater consequences of a failure, Armstrong did not consider the safety margin of the breech loading mechanism to be sufficient for guns larger than his 110 pounders. He therefore reverted to muzzle loading for higher calibre guns.
With the elimination of windage, Armstrong had to find a new safe method of self igniting the fuses in his explosive shells. He designed a variable delay fuse, initiated on the shell's exit from the barrel and timed to explode before the shell hit the target to cause fragmentation damage. The shell contained a suspended hammer which was released by the shock of firing to ignite the primer, initiating the timing sequence. Shells designed to explode on impact to increase the blast damage to, or the penetration of, the target caused by the shell used a percussion fuse in the nose of the shell to initiate the explosion.
Armstrong's gun, like all guns, was subject to extreme tensile, compression, shock, vibration and abrasive forces as well as temperature extremes and the selection of optimum materials was important for their success. Manufacturing processes included steel making, casting, welding, forging and precision machining. The behaviour of the explosive charges used had to be controlled.
In the 1850s, process control was rudimentary and the quality of the materials used was often inconsistent. Metallurgy was in its infancy and there was very little, if any, published data about the strength of materials.
Armstrong spent months testing different materials to understand the factors influencing their performance to enable him to optimise their use and to ensure they were fit for purpose. He even tested a variety of chemical additives to the explosive charges to ensure a safe, optimum burn rate of the charge.
Armstrong Guns - Performance
In 1855 the first trial gun delivered to the War Office for testing was a 3 pounder firing cylindrical shaped lead shot and weighing 560 pounds. It was disparaged by the War Office's Ordnance Committee as being too small for use on the battlefield though they conceded that it had improved accuracy, range and power. Undeterred, Armstrong bored out the barrel to carry a 5 pound cast iron shot coated with lead, following up the next year with an 18 pounder.
In 1859 after four more years of discussions with sceptical military men and unfriendly rivalry from Joseph Whitworth, a competing arms manufacturer, new tests of larger guns, under service conditions, were arranged. Armstrong's 18 pounders demonstrated three times the range and 57 times better accuracy at the same distance than the Army's 18 pounders. The reloading time was substantially reduced and their higher speed projectiles carried more destructive power. Furthermore with a weight of only 0.6 tons (610 kg) they were over 70% lighter than the cumbersome 18 pounders used at Inkerman.
The Army officers present were astonished and Armstrong's gun was rapidly approved by the War Office, going into service the same year.
Armstrong suddenly became a national hero. He was made Engineer of Rifled Ordnance to the War Department and given a large order for guns.
The War Office recognised the importance of Armstrong's gun technology but were concerned that the technology could be acquired by the foreign armies. Armstrong in turn was worried that the War Office would eventually transfer the production of his gun to its own munitions factory at Woolwich Arsenal. Between them, they negotiated a long term contract which protected Armstrong's Elswick gun making business and in return Armstrong gave his 11 patents for ordnance and projectiles to the government. In recognition of this gesture he was awarded a knighthood. As Armstrong had feared, procuction at Woolwich was ramped up using using his patents and government contracts for guns from Elswick were severely cut back. Fotunately he was able to more than make up for the loss by selling overseas.
He went on to produce breech loading guns in various sizes ranging from 6 pounders to 110 pounders weighing 4 tons but for larger sizes (150, 300 and 600 pounders) he reverted to muzzle loading, considering breech loading to be too risky and dangerous.
In 1887 he produced a "Monster" gun weighing 111 tons (112,000 kg) with a calibre of 16.25 inches (413 mm) and a total length of 43ft 8in (13.3 m). Designed for use on warships it had an effective range of 8 miles (12.9 km). Its 1800 pound (816 kg) shells emerged from the muzzle at a speed of 2020 feet per second (2,217 km/h), and could penetrate wrought iron to a depth of 30.6 inches (777 mm) at a distance of 1000 yards (914 m).
In 1867 Armstrong's company expanded into fitting out warships, a logical progression since the navy already used Armstrong's hydraulics for handling their big guns. He negotiated a venture with the local shipbuilding firm of Mitchell & Swan who would make warships at their Walker yard 6 miles down river, while Armstrong would provide the guns.
Unfortunately there was low bridge across river between the two factories blocking the passage of large ships. He solved the problem by designing a Swing Bridge, operated by his hydraulic rams, rotating on a pivot at the centre of the river to let the ships through. The bridge was opened in 1873 and is still in operation today.
In 1894 Armstrong also designed the hydraulic mechanism that operated London's Tower Bridge.
In 1882 Mitchell & Swan merged with Armstrong's company to form Armstrong, Mitchell & Co. and a new shipyard specialising in warship production was built at Elswick next to the armaments works, together with a new steelworks with two Siemens open hearth furnaces. When it was completed the Elswick works covered 50 acres extending for over a mile along the north bank of the River Tyne and employed 11,000 rising to 13,000 during peak loads. It was the only shipyard which could build a battleship including all its armaments. Armstrong also opened a manufacturing plant in Italy. Between 1881 and 1897, 42 warships were produced at the Elswick works.
By 1897 Armstrong, Mitchell purchased the engineering firm of their old rival Joseph Whitworth who had died 10 years earlier. By now Whitworth's employed 2000 men, compared with Armstrong Mitchell's 20,000 and had added toughened steel armour plate and gun mounting mechanisms to their product line which neatly complemented Armstrong's output. Armstrong Whitworth became one of the world's greatest manufacturing companies.
Armstrong's weapons and ships were bought by armies and navies all over the world from Russia, China and Japan to Argentina, Chile and the United States, where he supplied both armies in the American Civil War (1861-1865), bringing him immense wealth.
Though Armstrong died in 1900, his company still prospered and supplied vital armaments during World War I including 13,000 big guns, 100 tanks, 47 warships, 140 converted merchant ships, 1,000 aeroplanes, 3 airships, 14,500,000 shells, 18,500,fuses and 21,000.000 cartridges. What would Europe look like today if had not had Armstrong's technology to challenge Germany's mighty Krupp?
Cragside, Armstrong's home in Northumberland, was a showcase for his ingenuity. In 1878 it was the world's first private dwelling to be fitted with electric lights (apart from the homes of the various inventors of rival electric lights). Initially it was lit by carbon arc lamps powered by a hydroelectric generating system of his own design, also a world's first. Electric power was supplied by a 4.5kW, 90 Volt Siemens dynamo, belt driven by a 6hp Vortex inward flow reaction turbine locally manufactured to a design by James Thomson, elder brother of Lord Kelvin. The turbine was fed with water from an artificial lake created for the purpose in the grounds of Armstrong's estate. The power plant was located 1320m (almost a mile) from the house and current was transmitted through bare copper wire with a round trip of 2.6km. In 1880, the carbon arc lamps were replaced by 45 incandescent lamps, recently invented by his friend Joseph Swan. Then four years later, in the first of many upgrades, the generating capacity was increased to power 92 lights using a Compton dynamo delivering 90 Amps at 110 Volts, driven by a 24hp (17.9 kW) Vortex turbine.
Other domestic gadgets included central heating by means of warm air ducted to the rooms, an electric bell system to summon staff to their stations, a hydraulic lift to provide access to the upper rooms and a water powered roasting spit in the kitchen.
Armstrong was a hard task master but also a generous philanthropist funding many public works in his native Newcastle.
When he died aged ninety in 1900 he was worth £1,400,000 (£160 million in today's money).
1846 The Smithsonian Institution established in the USA, "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men" with a large endowment from English chemist and mineralogist, James Smithson, in neat symmetry with the founding of the Royal Institution in England by the American, Count Rumford. Joseph Henry was chosen as the Smithsonian's first distinguished Secretary. Smithson never visited the United States but after he died his remains were brought there for burial.
1846 From his experiments on magneto optics Faraday discovered that some substances such as heavy glass and Bismuth are repelled rather than attracted by magnets and named the phenomenon diamagnetism. Using the analogy with dielectrics and conductors he made the distinction between diamagnetics - "poor conductors of magnetic force" and paramagnetics - "good conductors of magnetic force".
1846 The birth place of the modern oil industry was Baku in Azerbaijan, then part of the Soviet Union, where the first "modern" oil well was drilled in 1846 by local mining engineer V. Semyonov. It was followed by others in Bobrka in Poland (1854), Bucharest in Romania (1857), Lambton County, in Ontario, Canada (1858) and Titusville in the USA (1859). Except for the 1857 Canadian well which was originally dug by hand, all of these so called "modern" wells used the same percussion drilling techniques, also called cable tool drilling, that the Han Chinese had pioneered in their oil fields 2000 years before.
In 1898, the Russian oil industry exceeded the U.S. oil production level and by 1901, Baku produced more than half of the world's oil.
Though it was not the first, the Titusville oil well drilled by Edwin Laurentine Drake in 1859 is usually considered to be the West's first commercially viable source of oil.
Drake's is a sad story. An ex railroad conductor with no engineering or drilling experience he had retired from the railroad at the age of 38 due to ill health. Around the same time, the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company had been formed to exploit oil deposits which were seeping from land in various locations, particularly around Titusville in Pennsylvania, but financial difficulties caused the break up of the company which re-emerged with a low capital base as The Seneca Oil Company.
In 1858 Drake invested in Seneca Oil and he was hired by them with a salary of $1,000 per year. Giving him the nickname of "Colonel" to impress the local residents, Seneca Oil sent him to Titusville to investigate the oil deposits there. He set about building a drilling rig based on traditional percussion drilling methods but using a steam engine for repetitively raising the heavy drill bit. He devised improvements for drilling through the bedrock, housing the bit in an iron pipe to prevent the borehole from collapsing but the work took longer than expected. When Seneca Oil, having invested $2,000 in what appeared to be a dry hole, refused to provide any more capital to purchase essential equipment, Drake used his own money to fund the work. After many difficulties and scorn from the locals he struck oil in August the following year at a depth of 69½ feet (21 metres). Almost immediately Drake's methods, which he failed to patent, were copied by others in the vicinity and America's oil boom was launched.
Unfortunately Seneca Oil did not pay Drake's salary for more than two years, eventually paying him off in June 1860 with a payment of $2,167. By 1862 much more productive wells had come on stream causing the price of oil to drop and Seneca Oil with its original low capacity wells went out of business. The man who had made countless people very rich died in poverty, an invalid, confined to a wheelchair at the age of 61.
1847 Ignoring the difficulties encountered with previous experimental Atmospheric Railways including the Croydon railway by built by William Cubitt in 1846, as well as warnings from experienced engineers such as Daniel Gooch and Robert Stephenson, in 1847 Isambard Kingdom Brunel launched his his own atmospheric railway connecting Exeter with Newton Abbot in Devon, a distance of 20 miles (32 km).
This system did not use heavy locomotives on the track to pull the carriages. Instead the carriages were pulled along by a piston moving in a pipe laid between the tracks. A large stationary engine ahead of the train pumped air out of the pipe and the pressure differential between the partial vacuum in front of the piston and the atmospheric pressure behind it caused the piston to move along the pipe. The piston was connected to the floor of the carriage by means of a plate which slid in a slot at the top of the pipe and the vacuum was maintained by airtight leather flaps, rivetted to the pipe, which opened as the plate passed through and closed again after it passed. Brunel's railway used 15 inch (381 mm) pipes on the level sections, and 22 inch (559 mm) pipes for the steeper gradients. Pumping stations were situated every three miles along the line and trains could run at 20 miles per hour (32 km/h).
The advantages of this system were that there were no heavy locomotives on the track, the stationary engines were more efficient, more reliable and easier to maintain, there were fewer problems with traction on the gradients, and the passengers would not be subject to the noise and smell of the steam engine.
Disadvantages were mainly associated with the seal around the piston and, more importantly, maintaining the vacuum seal in the slot which was its Achilles heal. Apart from wear and tear, the leather flaps were attacked by vermin and damaged by frost in the winter. Various lubricants were tried to keep the leather supple including cod oil, soap, beeswax and tallow but the problems with the seals remained. Less serious problems were the inconvenience of decoupling the carriages from the piston at the end of each section and reconnecting them to the piston in the next section. Furthermore the trains could not be run in reverse. Running costs however were another major problem. It was calculated that Brunel's atmospheric traction cost 3s 1d per mile (£0.10/km), compared to 1s 4d (£0.04/km) for conventional steam power.
In view of these insurmountable difficulties the project was abandoned in 1848 after only one year and the line returned to conventional locomotive haulage. The shareholders in the system had lost £500,000.
1848 Scottish physicist, born in Belfast, William Thomson (later elevated to "Lord Kelvin") established the basis for an absolute temperature scale. Starting from the experimental results of Charles and Gay Lussac, Kelvin showed also that there is an absolute zero of temperature which is -273°C. The absolute temperature scale is named the Kelvin scale in his honour and -273°C is called 0°K or absolute zero.
Kelvin was an infant prodigy in mathematics, entering Glasgow University at the age of ten, he started the undergraduate syllabus when he was only fourteen and published his first scholarly papers, correcting errors in the works of both Fourier and Fourier's critics, when he was only sixteen. Fourier remained an inspiration to him throughout his early years. Kelvin always sought practical analogies to explain his theories and published over 600 scientific papers on mathematics, thermodynamics, electromagnetics, telecommunications, hydrodynamics, oceanography and instrumentation and he filed 70 patents. He is remembered for his work on the Transatlantic Telegraph Cable but he initially gained fame by estimating the age of the Earth from a knowledge of its cooling rate at over 100 million years (later revised and broadened from 20 to 400 million years) in contradiction of the prevailing religious, creationist view of the World. Despite this he maintained a strong and simple Christian faith throughout his life and engaged in a long running public disagreement with Charles Darwin, remaining "on the side of the angels", claiming that, according to his calculations, the age of the Earth was too short for Darwin's evolutionary changes to have taken place. (Current estimates give the age of the Earth as 4.6 billion years taking into account the heating effect of radioactivity of the Earth's core, something of which Kelvin could not have been aware). He remained actively involved in scientific work until he was 75 but in later life he found it difficult to accept Maxwell's theories, for which he himself had been the Genesis, and the concept of radioactivity.
According to C. Watson, Kelvin's biographer, "During the first half of Thomson's career he seemed incapable of being wrong while during the second half of his career he seemed incapable of being right."
1849 President Abraham Lincoln was granted a U.S. patent number 6469 for a device for lifting riverboats over shoals [shallow water], the only U.S. president ever to have been awarded a patent. Part of his application read, "Be it known that I, Abraham Lincoln, of Springfield, in the county of Sangamon, in the state of Illinois, have invented a new and improved manner of combining adjustable buoyant air chambers with a steam boat or other vessel for the purpose of enabling their draught of water to be readily lessened to enable them to pass over [sand] bars, or through shallow water, without discharging their cargoes...".
The device was never manufactured.
1849 The first accurate terrestrial measurement of the speed of light was made by French physicist Armand Hippolyte Louis Fizeau. Previous measurements had been based on observations of the movement of planets and moons by Danish astronomer Ole Christensen Rømer (1676), English astronomer James Bradley (1728) and others. Fizeau directed a beam of light through the gaps in a rotating cog wheel to a mirror several miles away and observed the reflection of the pulses of light coming back through gaps in the wheel. Depending on the speed of rotation of the wheel, the returning light would either pass though the gap or be blocked by a tooth. The speed of light could be calculated from the distance to the mirror, the number of teeth on the wheel and its rate of rotation. He determined the speed of light to be 186,000 miles per second or 300,000,000 metres per second.
Also known as Einstein's constant, the speed of light is represented by the symbol c for "celeritas" (Latin - "speed").
Fizeau also showed that the Doppler effect also applied to lightwaves.
1849 The Bourdon tube pressure gauge was patented by French engineer Eugene Bourdon. It is still one of the most widely used instruments for measuring the pressure of liquids and gases of all kinds, including steam, water, and air up to pressures of 100,000 pounds per square inch as well as pressures below atmospheric. It consists of a "C" shaped or spiral curved tube sealed at one end which tends to straighten out when a pressurised fluid is admitted into it. The displacement of the end of the tube is used to move a pointer or other indicator.
1850 Prussian born theoretical physicist Rudolf Julius Emmanuel Clausius publishes his seminal paper "On the Mechanical Theory of Heat" establishing the study of Thermodynamics and outlining the basis of the Second Law. In 1865 Clausius defined the notion of entropy.
1850 The trembler electric bell invented by John Mirand.
1851 In his treatise "On the Dynamical Theory of Heat." Kelvin formally states the Second Law of Thermodynamics, that "Heat does not spontaneously flow from a colder body to a hotter". It was later restated in the form "In a closed system entropy can only increase", recognising the concept of entropy proposed by Clausius in 1865.
1851 Joseph Whitworth, one of Britain's great Victorian engineers first came to the public's attention with his exhibits of precision engineering at the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London. They included his bench micrometer based on precision flat planes and a measuring screw which he claimed (possibly somewhat dubiously) could measure to an accuracy of one millionth of an inch (0.000001 in ≈ 0.025 µm). He also showed the BSW screw thread standards named after him and a range of precision machine tools he had built. These exhibits provided the foundations necessary for mechanisation, for the manufacturing interchangeable parts and for mass production.
In the early nineteenth century machines were very basic and often powered by hand or by a foot treadle. There were no standard measures, parts would have to be individually engineered and each workshop had its own techniques and references. Nuts and bolts were hand made and expensive. They would be made to fit as a pair and were not interchangeable. In 1830 a good workman could typically achieve an accuracy of one sixteenth of an inch but that was all changed by Joseph Whitworth who raised the standards of accuracy in manufacturing to a degree previously unknown, revolutionising the manufacturing of mechanical parts and the production of armaments.
Whitworth, born in 1903, was fostered out at the age of 11 after the death of his mother. He received only elementary education and on leaving school he became an indentured apprentice for four years in a cotton mill after which he he worked for another four years as a mechanic in a factory in Manchester. At the age of 22 he moved to London where he managed to find a job working for Henry Maudslay, inventor of the screw-cutting lathe. His experience there was invaluable. Maudslay set the highest standards of precision and workmanship which were readily assimilated by Whitworth.
In 1828 Whitworth left Maudslay's to work at Charles Holtzapffel's machine shop, moving on again in 1830 to join Joseph Clement, another eminent London toolmaker, where amongst other things he worked on Charles Babbage's difference engine until the government funding was withdrawn in 1832.
Whitworth's Machines and Tools
In 1833 he returned to Manchester and opened his own business developing and manufacturing machine tools for steam engines, for the cotton and textile industries and for the fledgling railway system. They included precision tools for turning, shaping, milling, slotting, gear cutting and drilling and Whitworth became renowned for his high standards of accuracy and workmanship.
In 1834 he filed his first independent patent for improved precision screw cutting machinery which speeded up the manufacturing of nuts and bolts, dramatically reducing the costs, while at the same time improving the accuracy and thus enabling interchangeable parts.
He was passionate about setting high measurement and workmanship standards and took the accuracy of Maudslay's reference surface planes to another level by scraping rather than grinding, publishing the results in 1840 in his first paper "Plane Metallic Surfaces or True Planes". Applications of his true planes and measurement systems were shown at the 1851 Great Exhibition to great acclaim.
In 1841 Whitworth produced a paper recommending a rationalised universal system of screw threads. The angle between the V groove of the thread was a standard 55 degrees and the depth and pitch of the thread were in constant proportion. The number of threads per inch was specified for different diameters screw diameters. The proposal became known at the Whitworth thread. Its adoption by the Woolwich Arsenal, the government's main munitions factory, quickly followed by the railway companies, who until then had all used their own screw thread designs, led to its widespread acceptance and by 1858 it was in universal use in Britain and several other countries, though it was not formally approved by the British Board of Trade as a national standard until 1880.
The USA adopted a different standard based upon a 60 degree thread form proposed by William Sellers in 1864 and these were subsequently developed into the American Standard Coarse Series (NC) and the Fine Series (NF).
After 1945, the requirements of international trade created the need for international, rather than national, standards. This need was reinforced by problems experienced during World War II, caused by the lack of interoperability between the equipment of the different allied armies. In response, international standards for American Unified and ISO Metric threads were defined and after 1948 the British Standard Whitworth BSW thread standard was gradually replaced.
BSW standards are however still widely used today for some applications, though not in the US, such as the British Standard Pipe thread and also in some photographic camera fittings.
In 1849 Whitworth lodged 15 patents for machine tools.
The Whitworth Rifle
Whitworth's exhibits at the Great Exhibition had earned him the reputation as a manufacturer of machines of unrivaled quality and precision. Two years later as Britain was becoming concerned about the possibility of war in Crimea his talents were called upon by the government's War Office who asked him to provide equipment for the mass production of their standard issue Enfield Rifle. This was based on the French, muzzle loading Minié rifle design and produced at the government's Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield near London. Whitworth was cautious, never having made a firearm before. The Enfield was notoriously inaccurate and unreliable. Why would he want to be involved in making such a questionable product? He suggested instead that he would carry out research into a new weapon to replace it. This offer was turned down, but by 1854, when Britain had entered the war, Whitworth was once more approached by the War Office. In response he proposed to undertake a series of trials to analyse the factors contributing to the rifle's performance and to determine the best manufacturing methods before production could start. This would take about three years - one year to construct an experimental shooting gallery suitable for housing the experiments and two years to carry them out. There was little support for this approach from military officers who believed that battles were won with heavy artillery, not with rifles. The project was eventually approved after Whitworth pointed out that he would use the experiments on small arms to better understand the principles involved, particularly rifling, then this technology could be scaled up for heavy artillery.
The main problem to be solved centred around the rifle barrel. In 1854 no rifle barrel had ever been bored from a solid metal rod and there were no suitable tools for doing it. It was not possible to drill a deep narrow bore since the available drill bits deviated uncontrollably from the desired path. Drilling from both ends of the rod was no better as there was no guarantee that the two bores would meet in line. Consequently, all small arms barrels were produced by blacksmiths swaging a wrought iron strip lengthways around a cylindrical metal rod, called a mandrel, with a diameter matching the desired bore of the gun barrel. The strip was heated until white hot then hammered by hand, using a 5 pound (2 kg) hammer, into a curved swage block mounted on an anvil, to form a long "U" shaped channel. Then after further heating, to maintain the white hot temperature, the "U" shaped channel was gradually curved around a mandrel by further hammering until the opposite edges met. Continued hammering in the presence of a flux was required to fuse the edges together to form a seamless, solid tube. This was highly labour intensive and required great skill from the blacksmith. With such a primitive process, it was difficult to control the accuracy of the results and individual barrels had wide variations in the diameter of the bore and the straightness of barrel. It was at least possible to clean out the bore using a plate or spade drill but this did little to improve the accuracy.
This was the method used to manufacture the Enfield rifle barrels. A "generous" tolerance was permitted on the bore diameter to allow for muzzle loading. Even if the barrel was straight, at the low side of the tolerance it was possible that the projectiles jammed in the bore. Using the traditional ram rod to push the a lead projectile down the bore damaged its point destroying its aerodynamic shape. At the high side of the bore tolerance the projectile would be loose in the bore as it exited so that there was no control over its direction.
Whitworth's next challenge was the rifling. It was already known that rifling the gun barrel's bore provided spin stabilisation which improved a projectile's range, accuracy and stability. In 1835 English gun maker William Greener developed a self expanding bullet and later mechanical fit bullets for this purpose. His muzzle-loading shotguns and rifles had been demonstrated at the Great Exhibition where he was awarded a gold medal.
Self Expansion Projectiles
The Greener bullet was designed to fit easily into the muzzle for easy loading, but to expand due to the explosive charge when fired so that it would engage with the rifling while at the same time reducing the windage, the wasted energy of the charge leaking past the bullet. The reduction in windage allowed more of the energy of the explosive charge to be transferred to the bullet, however some of this gain was lost due to the increased friction between the bullet and the barrel due to the rifling. Greener's bullet was a two part projectile with a hollow base fitted with a plug which forced the base of the bullet to expand on firing.
The Enfield rifle was based on Greener's ideas. It used a version of the Minié ball invented by French Army officer Claude-Étienne Minié in 1846. It was a conical bullet with lead skirting containing three exterior grease-filled grooves around its circumference and a conical hollow in its base containing an iron plug which expanded the bullet on firing.
William Armstrong's big guns also used a variation on this design.
Mechanical Fit Projectiles
Soft lead coated bullets were prone to fouling up the gun barrels and Greener proposed mechanical fit bullets to overcome this. This enabled the use of harder, more destructive, steel bullets and shells, however it needed tighter tolerances and much more precise dimensional control of the barrel rifling and of the bullet shape to avoid the possibility of jamming and to keep the windage losses to a minimum. Few gun makers were able to deliver this accuracy on a repeatable basis. This was the route taken by Whitworth. Instead of machining narrow slots in the barrel to guide the oversize bullets, he chose to make the cross section of the bore hexagonal in shape with the spin being imparted by a helical (often incorrectly called "spiral") twist to the bore along the length of the barrel. The corresponding bullets would also need to have a hexagonal cross section fitting snugly into the barrel.
In 1854 Whitworth began his test programme to find ways of designing a superior rifle which solved the above problems. The first task was to build the shooting range. It was a brick tunnel 500 yards (457 m) long 20 feet (6 m) high with a tiled roof and a level concrete base. This was not ready until the following year, after which tests began.
Like all his work, Whitworth's comprehensive test programme was meticulous and methodical. Rather than producing a series of trial prototypes as was typical at the time, he investigated and measured every aspect of gun design changing one element at a time to determine its affect on performance. This included, the weight and composition of the explosive charge, the length, bore and weight of the barrel, the weight and shape of the bullets, self expansion and mechanical fit bullets, different types of rifling and spiral turn rates and the manufacturing methods and tolerances needed to produce the parts.
For his initial test sample of hexagonal rifling, he used six thick metal strips pressed together under great heat to form a hexagonal tube held together by external hoops. The desired helicality (usually called "spirality") was achieved by heating and twisting the tube. For ballistics testing he also had to improvise since no suitable high speed test equipment was available. To track the trajectory of the projectiles he suspended tissue paper screens every 30 yards to record their path and to determine the spin behaviour he used bags full of bran to catch bullets in mid flight.
The tests showed that the friction of expansion bullets caused an efficiency loss of 20% to 21% in the barrel whereas mechanical fit bullets in a hexagonal barrel suffered only a comparable loss of 2% to 3%. In summary he demonstrated that using polygonal rifling with a fast helical turn rate and mechanical fit bullets gave more accuracy, longer range, higher impact energy with a lower explosive weight than current self expansion bullets.
For production, in 1857 Whitworth devised a more accurate method of deep boring rifle barrels from solid. Up till that time the only drill bits available were spade or plate bits welded to a narrow rod to allow the swarf to pass. They had poor axial location, tending to wander, and poor swarf removal. He solved both problems simultaneously by extending the length of the spade and giving it a twist over its whole length which improved its rigidity and helped remove the swarf. This was the first simple twist drill.
In 1861 a more practical twist drill bit which we would recognise today was invented by American engineer Steven A. Morse. It used a more substantial steel rod, with a diameter equal to the hole to be bored to avoid the problem of wandering. Early Morse twist drills were made by cutting straight parallel grooves on opposite sides, along the length of the rod, then heating and twisting it to form the helical grooves. The following year another American engineer, Joseph R. Brown, invented the first fully universal milling machine which was used to cut the helical flutes in twist drills.
After boring, an adjustable broach was passed down the bore to cut the necessary hexagonal rifling in the bore.
Whitworth's first prototype rifle incorporating all his new found knowledge and his elongated hexagonal bullets were ready in 1857 as planned, but this was one year after the Crimean war had ended.
Trials were carried out the same year to compare the Whitworth and Enfield rifles and the performance of the Whitworth rifle was superior in every way. It was able to hit the target at a range of 2,000 yards, where the Enfield was only able to hit the same target at a range of 1,400 yards. It was also lighter, it used a smaller charge and permitted a faster reload rate than the Enfield and it was also the first rifle with the capability to shoot a bullet through a 0.6 inch (15 mm) wrought iron plate (at a reduced range of 20 yards). This accuracy was also demonstrated at the British National Rifle Association meeting in 1860 when Queen Victoria fired the first shot from a Whitworth rifle mounted on a fixed rest hitting the bullseye of a target set up 400 yards away.
Despite these successes the British government rejected the design because the calibre of the Whitworth barrel was smaller and more prone to fouling than the Enfield, and the Whitworth rifle also cost approximately four times as much to manufacture. Nevertheless, Whitworth was able to sell the rifle to others including the French army, and also to the Confederate army during the American Civil War (1861-1865) where it was highly valued for its range and accuracy. Between 1857 and 1865 the company sold 13,400 rifles.
Whitworth Artillery
Starting in 1859 Whitworth took the design principles he had learned about rifles and applied them to the design of heavy artillery. At the same time he developed a new breech loading mechanism to complement the design. Trials over the next three years indicated that cast iron or hard steel gun barrels had a tendency to fracture or explode when they were unsound, whereas gun barrels made from ductile steel would more likely be deformed and less dangerous. Casting flawless ductile steel however was very difficult mainly due to the presence of tiny voids or air pockets within the ingot. Whitworth's solution for improving the bursting strength of the guns was to construct the barrels from solid steel. Concerned about the possibility of air bubbles in Bessemer steel he applied extreme hydraulic pressure to the fluid metal during the casting process followed by similar hydraulic pressure, rather than the steam hammer, for forging. The method, which he called "fluid-compressed steel", was patented in 1865 and the metal produced was known as "Whitworth steel".
Between 1859 and 1862, he produced breech loading 3, 12, 32, 70, 120 and 130 pounder guns with excellent performance but the War Office were not impressed.
In formal shoot out trials against Armstrong's big guns in 1859, Whitworth's 3 pounder (1.4 kg) shot, at a range of 5.25 miles (8.5 km), deviated a mere three yards(2.7 m) from the centre of the target. At a range of 2 miles it hit the centre of the target in two out of five shots. His 12 pounders also achieved impressive accuracy at 5.8 miles.
Again in 1862, Whitworth's guns achieved superior performance to Armstrong's. With a target representing an ironclad warship, made up from a 4.5 inch (114 mm) steel plate backed up by 18 inches (457 mm) of teak and a further 0.625 inch (16 mm) steel plate, at a range of 600 yards (550 m), Whitworth's 131 pound (59.4 kg) projectile passed straight through all three layers and buried itself in the sand. Despite these successes, subsequent production contracts were awarded to Armstrong. As with the rifle, Whitworth was able to find overseas customers for his guns which included both sides in the American Civil War.
Whitworth's biographer, Norman Atkinson, implied that there were questionable procurement practices at the War Office. Whitworth and Armstrong were serious rivals in the gun making business. Both had superior products which had lost out in against inferior competition from government owned factories, the Woolwich Arsenal in the case of Armstrong's big guns and the Enfield Small Arms Factory in the case of Whitworth's rifles. Now the new big gun contracts had gone to Armstrong who had trained as a lawyer and had more friends in high places while Whitworth who had made is way up from the shop floor did not help himself with his aggressive and stubborn attitude and lost out.
By contrast such perverse government decision making, and the resulting wasteful use of resources, did not hamper their international rivals, the Krupp heavy arms industry, who had the constant and unstinting patronage of the German government, once they had established their credentials as an arms supplier, propelling them to the biggest company in Europe at the beginning of the twentieth century.
In 1897, ten years after Whitworth's death, Armstrong purchased Whitworth's company.
Between 1854 and 1878 Whitworth was awarded 20 patents relating to arms production. Guns using polygonal bores are still in production today.
Whitworth was a strong believer in the value of technical education. During his life he founded "Whitworth Scholarships" to advance mechanical engineering and in 1868 donated £128,000 (£10.1 million in today's money) to a similar government scheme. He also backed the Mechanics' Institute, now part of Manchester University.
At the time of his death in 1887, with the exception of Cecil Rhodes, Whitworth was the country's most generous benefactor. He bequeathed much of his fortune to the people of Manchester for public works and a hospital and appointed three legatees, providing them each with over £500,000 (£46 million today) to spend on projects of which they were expected to know he would have approved.
The Crimean War (1853-1856) was The First Modern War and The First Media War.
The Crimean War saw the first tactical use of modern technology changing the nature and immediacy of war. It included the following:
The use of armoured warships and submarine mines.
A 7 mile (11 km) long railway to carry supplies from the port of Balaclava to the troops besieging Sevastopol was constructed by the British army.
See also the Battle of Inkermam which highlighted the need for improved weapons technology to gain military superiority - still a never ending quest.
The electric telegraph, enabled better communications with front line troops but it also enabled the first "live" reporting of the state of battle from remote battlefields, not just to government headquarters, but also through newspapers to the general public.
It was also the first European war to be photographed.
The gathering, use and pubication of statistics by Florence Nightingale showed that casualties were seven times more likely to die of disease than from their wounds.
These last three items, for the first time, brought home to the general public the chaos and true horrors of war creating great anxiety and much soul searching.
1851 German inventor Heinrich Daniel Ruhmkorff patents the Ruhmkorff Induction Coil capable of producing sparks 30 centimetres long. Basically a high turns ratio transformer, it was invented in 1836 by Irish priest Nicholas Callan.
1851 French physicist Léon Foucault proved for the first time that the Earth rotated on its axis by suspending a 28 kg brass-coated lead bob pendulum on a 67 meter long wire from the dome of the Panthéon in Paris. The plane of the pendulum's swing, though fixed, appeared to rotate by 360 degrees during the course of the day thus indicating the rotation of the Earth.
In 1852 Foucault performed similar experiments with gyroscopes. Though he was not able to sustain the rotation of the rotor for a full day, he was able to demonstrate that over a short period of time before friction slowed the rotor, the gyroscope maintained a fixed position in space independent of the Earth's rotation.
See more about Gyroscopes.
1851 American inventor and entrepreneur Isaac Merritt Singer invented the Singer Sewing Machine. Like many great inventors his inspiration drew on prior art to which he added his own contributions which brought the commercial success which had eluded his predecessors. In this case he improved the lockstitch mechanism of Elias Howe (See below), making it more reliable. He changed the needle movement from "side to side" to "up and down" enabling the use of a straight, rather than curved needle, and also enabling the machine to sew on a curved path. He also added automatic feed of the cloth and a presser "foot" to hold the cloth down against the upward stroke of the needle, and he introduced the foot treadle to power the movement of the needle and shuttle, replacing the hand-cranked mechanism used in all previous machines.
His major innovation however was in the marketing of the product. Previously sewing machines had been designed for industrial use and Singer launched the first domestic models in 1856 and pioneered the introduction of the Hire Purchase Agreement or Installment Payments, with $5 securing a machine, followed by monthly payments of $3 until the full purchase price was paid off. This allowed people of modest means to acquire relatively expensive capital goods. He later adopted the policy of accepting trade-ins against new purchases. These measures in turn increased the potential market for the machines and allowed the introduction of mass production methods for the first time, reducing the costs and increasing market potential still further. By 1870 the price of a new machine had been reduced to only $30.
Singer expanded into the European market, establishing a factory in Clydebank, near Glasgow, controlled by the parent company, becoming one of the first American-based multinational corporations, with agencies in Paris and Rio de Janeiro.
Singer's machine came towards the end of the Industrial Revolution which had largely benefited the textile industry with the mechanisation of spinning and weaving. His sewing machine dramatically reduced the time to make up garments while simultaneously improving both the quality and strength of the stitching giving further impetus to the textile industry by providing new markets for the increased textile production.
According to Brian Coats of the eponymous thread company, "To put sewing mechanisation into perspective, a skilled seamstress can manage 40 stitches per minute (spm) at full speed. The earliest machines claimed speeds of about 250 spm, Singer's machine in the 1850s could reach 900, and a contemporary domestic machine can do 1,500. Industrial machines will now get up to 10,000 spm and can sew coarse fabrics such as canvas and denim so fast that they will catch fire."
Just as important as the improvement in efficiency however, the sewing machine provided a means for families not just to make their own clothing, but also to start a small family businesses to supplement their incomes and improve their lives.
There had been many attempts at designing sewing machines in the past leading up to, and perhaps influencing, Isaac Singer's design in 1851 but most were unreliable or expensive and failed to gain commercial acceptance. These antecedents included the following:
1755 German inventor Charles Weisenthal awarded an English patent for his invention of a sewing needle for use in a machine, but the description of the machine was not included in the patent, so it is unknown whether he actually designed a machine as well.
1790 English inventor and cabinet maker, Thomas Saint was issued the first patent for a complete machine for sewing. It is not known if Saint actually built a working prototype of his invention. The patent describes an awl that punched a hole in leather and passed a needle through the hole. A later reproduction of Saint's invention based on his patent drawings did not work, though it did with work when some modifications were made.
1810 German hosiery maker, Balthasar Krems developed an automatic machine for sewing caps but did not patent it. Like many others it never functioned well and was forgotten.
1804 A French patent was granted to English inventors Thomas Stone and James Henderson for "a machine that emulated hand sewing."
The same year a British patent was granted to Scottish inventor John Duncan for an "embroidery machine with multiple needles."
Both inventions failed and were soon forgotten by the public.
1814 Austrian tailor, Josef Madersperger was issued a patent for a machine which made embroidery stitches, but it could not sew seams. By 1839 he had also received a patent for a machine suitable for chain stitching but this was not considered to be successful.
A chain stitch is formed by a single thread introduced from one side of the material only and is normally used for hemming or temporary stitching. It will unravel rapidly if the last stitch in the chain is not secured.
1818 The first American sewing machine was invented by pastor John Adams Doge and John Knowles. Their machine failed to sew any useful amount of fabric before malfunctioning.
1830 The first practical sewing machine was patented by the French tailor, Barthelemy Thimonnier. His machine had no transport mechanism, with the cloth being moved forward by hand, and used only one thread and a hooked needle that made an acceptable chain stitch like that used in embroidery. He set up a garment factory with 80 of his machines and had contracted with the French army to manufacture their uniforms but he was almost killed by an angry group of French tailors who feared being put out of work by his new invention and burned down his garment factory in 1841. Thimonnier died bankrupt in England.
1833 American Walter Hunt invented the lockstitch sewing machine. In traditional lockstitch sewing, the needle thread interlaces with a separate under-thread, which is on a small bobbin over which the needle thread can pass to lock the stitch in place. This is a much more secure structure than the chain stitch.
Hunt's machine had two spools of thread and a curved needle with the eye at the point rather than in the shank as in conventional hand sewing needles. Hunt's needle passed the thread through the fabric in an arc motion; creating a loop on the other side of the fabric and a second thread carried by a shuttle running back and forth on a track passed through the loop creating a lockstitch. It was the first time an inventor moved away from attempting to duplicate hand sewing motions. Unfortunately his machine was only suitable for sewing straight seams.
He later lost interest in the device because he believed his invention would cause unemployment and never patented it.
Hunt also invented the safety pin.
1844 The earliest known patent for a sewing machine which used two threads and the combination of an eye-pointed needle and a shuttle to form couched stitches was granted to Englishmen John Fisher and James Gibbons who received the patent for a lace making machine which was almost identical to the machines later made by Howe and Singer. The commercialisation of Fisher's machine was hampered by poor preparation of his patent application and subsequent legal challenges by Howe and Singer.
1846 The first American patent was issued to Elias Howe of Spencer, Massachusetts for "a process that used thread from two different sources". It was basically a refinement of Hunt's idea. With a price tag of $300, equivalent of six months' wages, no single family could afford such a machine and Howe struggled to attract commercial interest in his invention in America. Trying his luck in England he eventually sold his first machine there but ended up in a debtors' prison in 1849.
Returning to Massachusetts he discovered that "his" lockstitch mechanism was being copied by many others and he embarked on a series of incessant law suits to protect his design. The most serious offender was Isaac Singer whose machine used the same lockstitch mechanism that Hunt had invented, but which Howe had patented, and in 1854 Howe sued Singer for patent infringement. The courts upheld Howe's patent, since Hunt had abandoned his design and not filed patent, giving Howe the exclusive patent rights to the eye pointed needle and Singer, as well as all others, had to pay royalties to Howe for the use of the patent on every machine manufactured.
Howe then saw his annual income jump from $300 to more than $200,000 a year.
In 1856 Howe, Singer and two other sewing machine manufacturers, "Grover & Baker", and "Wheeler & Wilson" agreed to pool their various patents creating the Sewing Machine Combination which extracted royalties of $15 per machine for the use of their patents by others.
Between 1854 and 1867, Howe earned close to $2 million from his invention. During the Civil War(1861-1865), he donated a portion of his wealth to equip an infantry regiment for the Union Army and served in the regiment as a private.
Elias Howe died in 1867, the year his patent expired.
1849 American John Bachelder from Boston patented a sewing machine with a belt to feed the fabric along a horizontal sewing surface, though his invention was still only capable of making chain stitches. The patent for his feed mechanism was later sold to Singer.
1851 American inventor, Allen B. Wilson, developed the rotary hook shuttle used extensively in lockstitch sewing machines which enabled much faster, vibration-free sewing speeds and the intermittent four-motion feed for advancing the material between stitches which is still used today.
Singer lived an unconventional lifestyle. He ran away from home at the age of eleven to join a travelling stage act and became a consummate showman who put his talents to good use in promoting his machines. He also lived a life of polygamy, marrying his first wife when she was only fifteen and subsequently fathering at least 24 children with seven common law wives and various mistresses.
On the darker side, when his business partner George Zeiber, fell seriously ill and was not expected to survive, Singer persuaded him to sign over his share of the company's assets which were at the time worth around $500,000 for only $6,000. Zeiber had helped Singer to start up the sewing machine company by giving him his entire life savings of $1,700 in return for a full share of the venture and even contributed his own ideas for improvement to the designs. Zeiber recovered however and though he managed to obtain menial employment from the company he never received any offer of compensation for his blatantly immoral treatment.
1852 English chemist Edward Frankland invented the notion of chemical bond and introduced the idea of valency, that an atom of one element could only compound with a definite number of atoms of another element.
1852 Joule and Kelvin (William Thomson) discovered that when a gas is allowed to expand without performing external work, the temperature of the gas falls. Now known as the Joule-Thomson Effect, it is the basis of nearly all modern refrigerators and gas liquefaction processes. (The Peltier Effect is also used in some special cooling applications)
For an explanation see Refrigeration Systems in the section on Heat Engines.
1852 American engineers William F. Channing and Moses Gerrish Farmer installed the first municipal electric fire alarm system using a series of electric bells and call boxes with automatic signaling to indicate the location of a fire in Boston, twenty four years before the advent of the telephone.
Farmer was a prolific inventor in the same mould as Edison. In the same year (1852) he also demonstrated diplex telegraphy, the simultaneous transmission of two signals in the same direction down a wire (or channel), the first example of time division multiplexing (TDM). It was based on two rotating switches, one at each end of the line which connected the transmission line alternately to each transmitter / receiver pair permitting sequential, interleaving of signals from each channel. Unfortunately he was not able to develop it into a practical system because of the difficulty of synchronising the receivers with the transmitters, a problem which was not solved until 1874 by Baudot.
In 1858 he did however patent a two battery duplex system similar to Gintl's 1853 design. (See next). As with the diplexer, there were obstacles to overcome before practical duplexers were ready for roll out. In this case it was the design by Stearns in 1872 which took the honours.
In 1853 Farmer also patented an improved battery.
1853 Austrian telecommunications engineer Julius Wilhelm Gintl working in Vienna, invented a method of duplex telegraphy, the simultaneous transmission of two signals in opposite directions down a wire (or channel). The first telecommunications duplexer - allowing simultaneous message transmission and reception. It was a two battery, "compensating" system with differential relays, in which two samples of the transmitted signal were arranged to cancel eachother in the local receiving relay but were able to operate the remote receiving relay normally.
In 1855 German engineer Carl Frischen working for Siemens & Halske registered of a patent for a simplified version of Gintl's design with only one compensating battery.
1853 The electric burglar alarm patented by American Minister Augustus Russell Pope. When a door or window was opened, it closed an electrical contact initiating an alarm. The rights to the patent were purchased by Edwin Holmes who began manufacturing and selling the alarms in 1858 and was subsequently credited with its invention.
1853 Almost 200 years after Newton, Scottish engineer William John Macquorn Rankine introduced the concept of potential energy for stored energy (In mechanical terms - energy based on position). Together with Kelvin they applied the concept to electrical potential whose unit of measurement they named the volt.
1853 Mathematical representation of the voltage-current relationships of capacitors (i = C dv/dt) and inductors (v = L di/dt) derived by Kelvin enabling the analysis of RLC circuits and the performance of telegraph cables. A more detailed model of the cable or transmission line, based on Kelvin's theory, but taking into account the distribution of the capacitance and inductance along the line, was developed by Kirchhoff in 1857.
1854 The fundamental idea of the electrical transmission of sound (the telephone) was published in the magazine "L'Illustration de Paris" by Belgian experimenter Charles Bourseul, working in France.
1854 Heinrich Geissler, a master glassblower in Bonn, Germany, was the first to make use of improved vacuum technology to create a series of astonishingly beautiful evacuated glass vessels into which he sealed metal electrodes. Geissler's vacuum tubes emitted brilliant and colourful fluorescent light when energised by a high voltage which aroused the interest of both scientists and artists of his day.
1854 English mathematician George Boole published "An Investigation of the Laws of Thought, on Which Are Founded the Mathematical Theories of Logic and Probabilities" in which he expressed logical statements in mathematical form. Now known as Boolean Logic it also used a binary approach to represent whether statements were "True" or "False". Starting with statements A, B or C etc. which are either true or false, (With binary or two valued logic they can't be anything in between. "Maybe" or "sometimes" are not acceptable.), other statements which are true or false, can be derived by combining the initial statements together using the fundamental logic operators AND, OR and NOT.
A simple example with two propositions A and B
A "Ford makes cars" is true.
B "Ford sells hamburgers" is false.
Using Boolean logic we can make the following more complex statements which are also correct.
A AND B is false.
A AND NOT B is true.
A OR B is true.
It seemed trivial at first and Boole's symbolic logic made little impact at the time until twelve years later it was picked up and developed by American logician Charles Sanders Pierce. However Boolean logic still remained in obscurity until it's value was eventually recognised by Claude Shannon in 1937 and used to make improvements to Vannevar Bush's analogue computer the differential analyser. Overnight Boolean algebra became a basic information processing concept now used in all modern digital computers.
See Boolean Logic and Digital Circuits.
Boole's wife, Mary Everest, niece of Sir George Everest after whom the mountain was named, was not blessed with the same logical mind as her husband. in 1864 at the age of 49 Boole caught a serious cold after walking two miles in the rain and giving a lecture still dressed in his wet clothes. His wife believed that a remedy should resemble the cause. She put him to bed and threw buckets of water over the bed since his illness had been caused by getting wet. Boole died of pneumonia.
1854 Irish inventor John Tyndall, in a demonstration at the Royal Institution, directed a beam of sunlight into the path of the curved stream of water pouring from a container. Due to total internal reflection at the boundaries of the water stream with the air, the light followed a zig zag path inside the arc of the water stream which acted as a light pipe. This is the phenomenon on which fibre-optics are based today.
Tyndall was a prolific inventor as well as a renowned populariser of science in the mould of Michael Faraday whom he counted among his friends.
Experimenting with cures for insomnia he died at the age of 73 from an overdose of chloral, a sedative administered by his wife.
1854 Scottish chemist John Stenhouse invented the gas mask. It was based on the ability of powdered charcoal to absorb large volumes of gases. Carbon based absorbers are still the most common filters in use today
1854 Italian priest and engineer Eugenio Barsanti in partnership with hydraulic engineer Felice Matteucci patented a four stroke, spark ignition internal combustion engine running on coal gas. They failed to sufficiently promote their business and when Barsanti died at the age of 43 in 1864 Matteucci was unable to carry on alone and Otto's recent (1862) similar design became the industry standard.
1855 British chemist and inventor Alexander Parkes produced the first synthetic (man made) plastic. By dissolving cellulose nitrate in alcohol and camphor containing ether, he produced a hard solid which could be molded when heated, which he called Parkesine (later known as celluloid). Unfortunately, Parkes could find no market for the material. In the 1860's, John Wesley Hyatt, an American chemist, rediscovered celluloid and marketed it successfully as a replacement for ivory. Thus was born the plastics industry which brought new opportunities to the electrical industry for both insulation and packaging.
1855 During the Crimean War (1853-1856), in response to military demands for large quantities of heavy guns and stronger metals to make them, English engineer and inventor, Henry Bessemer developed and patented a more effective, fast and inexpensive method of mass-producing steel from pig iron simply by reducing its carbon content. (See more about how the properties of iron and steel are determined by their carbon content). He devised a way of purifying the iron by blowing cold air through the molten metal to oxidise and separate out the impurities, which included silicon, manganese as well as the carbon, thus converting the high carbon pig iron into low carbon steel. The silicon and manganese oxides were removed as slag and the carbon monoxide burned off into CO2.
The chemistry governing the properties of steel was not well understood at the time and several industrial chemists and foundrymen had been working for some time on similar processes including James Nasmyth in England and William Kelly in the United States as well as others working independently. Kelly's explanation of the process was that the carbon content of the iron was burned out by blowing air through the molten iron. He claimed to have built a pilot plant but Bessemer was the first to build a full scale practical converter for which he submitted a British patent application in 1855 which was granted in 1856. On hearing of Bessemer's subsequent U.S. patent application in 1856 which was also granted, Kelly belatedly challenged this and applied for a U.S. patent himself for the basic chemical process which was granted in 1857. Kelly was however declared bankrupt the same year and was forced to sell his patent.
Bessemer's patent concerned the practical system in which the decarbonising process took place in a 20 feet (6 m) tall, egg shaped, tilting steel retort or furnace lined with refractory material and known as a Bessemer converter. Molten pig iron was fed into the retort from the top and air was blown in from the bottom. The process itself did not use any fuel. The oxidation reactions were exothermic and kept the temperature up and the iron molten. On completion of the conversion the retort was tilted to pour out the molten steel into moulds.
The initial process was successful in removing the impurities from the iron but it also removed too much of the carbon, the amount of which controlled the properties of the steel, and it left excess oxygen in the steel leaving it too soft to be useful.
The problem was solved the following year by metallurgist Robert Mushet who came to the rescue with a solution for managing the carbon content of the steel and in so doing ensured the economic viability of Bessemer's converter.
Further innovations allowing the use of cheaper and poorer quality iron ores were introduced by Gilchrist Thomas in 1876.
Bessemer's steel was much stronger than wrought iron and cast iron whose serious weaknesses had been exposed in some construction projects. It was also less expensive than wrought iron which it rapidly replaced.
Bessemer's converter, together with the innovations introduced by Muchet and Thomas, reduced the costs of steelmaking by about 80% but just as importantly it enabled the large scale production of steel. Previously steel had been made artisans in small quantities in crucibles and involved much highly skilled manual labour. Steel was expensive and its use was mainly limited to small, high cost products such as cutlery, scissors, hand tools, swords and small arms. Large metal structures were made of wrought or cast iron. The availability of mass produced, low cost, high quality, bulk steel in large pieces opened the door to a host of new applications for steel in railways, construction, ship building, heavy armaments, cable making and high pressure boilers and had a major impact on industrial development in the nineteenth century.
Bessemer was a prolific inventor with at least 129 patents to his name and made his first fortune selling "gold" paint, enabling passable imitations of the very expensive ormolu to be made. He made it from fine powdered brass suspended in a paint like solution. Rather than patenting it, he kept the process a closely guarded secret, carrying out parts of the production in four separate locations so that nobody could know the complete process. Bessemer's gold paint was used to adorn much of the gilded decoration which was popular at the time, and brought him great wealth.
1856 British metallurgist Robert Forester Mushet found an inexpensive way of providing more precise control of the carbon content of Bessemer steel. He recognised that Bessemer's steel was "over oxidised" and by adding small, controlled quantities of ferro-manganese, or spiegeleisen (German Spiegel - mirror and Eisen - iron) to the mix, this could be reversed. Spiegeleisen is an alloy of iron containing approximately 15% manganese and small quantities of carbon and silicon and when added to the furnace charge, the carbon in the spiegeleisen replaced a controlled amount of the carbon lost in the Bessemer conversion and the surplus manganese and silicon were oxidised by the oxygen supply and removed as slag. Mushet's innovation restored the strength to Bessemer's steel, making it suitable for rolling, forging and high temperature working.
The following year Mushet developed tungsten steel, the first commercial steel alloy. by adding about (8%) of tungsten to molten steel in a crucible. When forged at a low red heat, and allowed to cool gradually, the steel is naturally hard (so called self-hardening) and suitable for use as a tool steel. It maintains its edge and can cut much harder metals at much higher speeds than had previously been possible. Until then, the only way to produce hard tool steel had been to heat high carbon steel to a vey high temperature and to quench it quickly in cold water. Steel hardened in this way lost its hardness if it was overheated during use. Tungsten steel revolutionised the machine tools industry and industrial metalworking.
Muchet went on to develop and manufacture other iron and steel alloys with chromium and titanium.
Also in 1857 Mushet was the first to make durable rails for the railways from steel rather than the more brittle cast iron which had been used until then. Steel rails were also less costly to produce and were soon adopted worldwide.
Like many prolific inventors he was not a good businessman and never made any money from his inventions. He was however paid a small pension by Bessemer in recognition of his invaluable contibution to the converter process without which Bessemer's design would not have been viable.
1856 As an extension to his "dynamical theory of heat" published in 1851, Kelvin submitted a paper to the Royal Society outlining the "dynamical theory of electricity and magnetism" treating electricity as a fluid. It was these ideas which led Maxwell to develop his theory of electromagnetic radiation published in 1873.
In the same year Kelvin invented the strain gauge based on his discovery that the resistance of a wire increases with increasing strain.
1857 Following his discovery the previous year that the resistance of a conductor increases with increasing strain Kelvin also discovered that the resistance also changes when the conductor is subjected to an external magnetic field, a phenomenon known as magnetoresistance. In bulk ferromagnetic conductors, the main contributor to the magnetoresistance is the anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR). It is now known that this is due to electron spin-orbit interaction which leads to a different electrical resistivity for a current direction parallel or perpendicular to the direction of magnetisation. When a magnetic field is applied, randomly oriented magnetic domains tend to align their magnetisation along the direction of the field, giving rise to a resistance change of the order of a few percent. The AMR effect has been used for making magnetic sensors and read-out heads for magnetic disks. See also GMR
1857 Wheatstone introduced the first application of punched paper tapes (Ticker tapes) as a medium for the preparation, storage, and transmission of data (another one of Bain's ideas) which was rapidly adopted in the USA to speed up the transmission of Morse code.
1858 The laying of the first Transatlantic Telegraph Cable from two wooden warships, Agamemnon and Niagara, was completed. - One of the greatest engineering feats of the nineteenth century. Financed by American entrepreneur Cyrus Field, it was designed and supervised by arrogant and incompetent amateur electrician, the aptly named, Dr Edward Orange Wildman Whitehouse, a former surgeon from Brighton. The cable was made up from seven copper strands carrying the signal, insulated with a treble layer of gutta percha held together by a jute yarn impregnated with tar, pitch, boiled oil and beeswax. The protective armouring consisted of eighteen strands of seven wires each of charcoal iron bright wire and the total weight of the cable was one ton per mile. The signal was carried in one direction by the cable while the return path was through the Earth.
Unfortunately the cable failed after less than a month in use, almost before the celebrations were complete, having transmitted only 732 messages. At its peak, over a period of 20 days, the cable was able to transmit in one direction 271 messages with an average of 10 words each, and 129 messages in the other direction, but the transmissions got steadily weaker with the message pulses becoming lost in the noise until it was taking half a day or more to send a message.
The signal pulses were generated from Daniell cells whose voltage was augmented using induction coils. In an attempt to solve the problem of weak signal levels, Whitehouse, advised by Morse it is claimed, increased the battery voltage from 600 Volts to 2000 Volts with disastrous results causing the breakdown of the cable's insulation. Kelvin, a consultant on the project, had advocated solving the weak signal problem by using more sensitive receiving equipment. He had the same year patented a mirror galvanometer (originally devised by Poggendorff in 1826) which enabled the detection of very weak signals for this purpose which arch rival Whitehouse was reluctant to use, preferring his own detectors. Kelvin's work on this high profile project and his design and management of the subsequent successful cable, laid by Brunel's Great Eastern and the Archimedes, in 1866 enhanced both his reputation and his bank balance as well as his already considerable ego.
One of the last messages sent over the original cable before it failed was from the British government to General Trollope, commander of the British forces in Halifax, Nova Scotia, rescinding an order to send two regiments of troops to help quell the Indian Mutiny, a rebellion against British rule. The original order had been sent by ship, the fastest way possible, a few weeks earlier, but by now the rebellion had been contained and there was no need for reinforcements. This single message of only nine words saved the British government £60,000 - more than paying back its investment in the cable.
The Archimedes, used to lay the second cable, was the world's first propeller driven steam ship and was named appropriately after the Archimedes Screw. Built in 1839 by Henry Wimshurst, father of the inventor of the Wimshurst electrostatic generator, it was sixteen years before the launch of the similarly equipped Niagara which had been used to lay the first cable.
It was not until 1956, almost a hundred years after the original cable was laid, that the Atlantic was spanned by the first telephone cable TAT 1.
1858 German physicist Julius Plücker at Bonn University, looking for a way to observe "pure electricity" separate from the conductor carrying it, discovered cathode rays. Aware of Hauksbee's glow discharge demonstrations in 1705, he commissioned local glassblower Heinrich Geissler to construct an evacuated tube with a metal plate or electrode at each end. Plücker and his assistant Johann Hittorf evacuated the tubes using Geissler's "mercury air pump", which produced a much greater vacuum than Hauksbee had been able to achieve. They created an electric discharge between the electrodes and observed what happened in the intervening empty space. At first, with partial vacuum, the tube was filled with an eerie glow just as Hauksbee had found but as the vacuum was increased the glow disappeared and a different greenish glow appeared on the glass near one of the electrodes. Hittorf showed that the glow was due to invisible rays which he called glow rays (now called cathode rays) which were emanating from the other electrode. He noticed that they cast shadows when objects were placed in their way indicating that they travelled in straight lines and that they were deflected by magnets indicating that they were electrically charged.
On further investigation Plücker filled the tube with different rarified gases to observe how they conducted electricity and discovered that each gas glowed with a bright characteristic colour like modern day fluorescent lights, years before their time. Although this amazing nineteenth century invention was picked up by local shopkeepers to entertain their customers it was never commercialised and seems to have been forgotten until it was rediscovered by Claude in the twentieth century.
1858 Scottish linguist and chemist Archibald Scott Couper and German chemist Friedrich August Kekulé von Stradonitz of Czech decent simultaneously and independently recognized that carbon atoms can link to each other to form chains giving birth to the study of organic chemistry. Prior to this thinking, it was believed that molecules could only have one central atom. Couper's publication was delayed for three weeks by his reviewer Charles Adolphe Wurtz and all credit for the discovery went to Kekulé. Couper was devastated and never published another paper.
1858 The electric burglar alarm, invented five years earlier by Augustus Russell Pope, was first commercialised by American inventor Edwin Holmes who is usually credited with its invention. Holmes' workshop was later used by Bell in the development of the telephone and he was the first person to have a home telephone. Holmes' Burglar Alarm business was eventually bought by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company in 1905.
1858 Italian chemist Stanislao Cannizzaro, using Avogadro's theories, resolved the confusion between atoms and molecules of the compounds of the same atoms allowing a unified scale for relative atomic mass of the elements to be developed.
1859 Scottish engineer and polymath William John Macquorn Rankine published his "Manual of the Steam Engine and Other Prime Movers" in which he provided a systematic treatment of the theory of steam engines. Building on Carnot's theory on the efficiency of heat engines which was based on the thermodynamic cycle of a single gaseous phase reversible process, he recognised that the relationship does not apply if a phase change is encountered, because the heat added or removed during a phase change does not change the temperature of the working fluid. He therefore developed a more general theory of heat cycles for vapour based, closed systems in which the working fluid was alternately vaporised and condensed. Now known as the Rankine Cycle, it describes the steam cycle used in modern day electricity generating plants.
1859 French inventor Ferdinand Carré developed the first gas absorption refrigeration system using gaseous ammonia which he patented in 1860. The system does not depend on a compressor and instead uses heat to change the vapour back to a liquid. Due to the toxicity of ammonia they were mainly used for the commercial production of ice rather than for domestic applications. Since gas absorption systems with no moving parts can be built, they are still used today portable applications where no electricity supply is available.
For an explanation of how heat is used for cooling see Refrigeration Systems in the section on Heat Engines.
1859 English naturalist Charles Robert Darwin published On the Origin of Species explaining his Theory of Evolution that all species are descended from common ancestors by Natural Selection. There had been many similar speculations in the past but coming from a respected scientist and justified by evidence, though not yet possible by experiment, it created widespread interest as well as controversy since its findings directly contradicted the Creationist Theory as found in the bible and traditionally held by the church.
It was the culmination of many years' work by Darwin. As a self funded naturalist with the aim of collecting specimens, in 1831 he accompanied captain Robert FitzRoy's expedition to chart the coastline of South America sailing on HMS Beagle as a passenger. The expedition was planned to take two years but lasted almost five years during which Darwin was seasick most of the time while at sea. In South America he gathered fossils of extinct species and discovered later that they were allied to other species still living on the same continent. He noticed that finches present on three of the Galapagos Islands represented three separate species each unique to that particular island, and speculated that "one species does change into another" by the genealogical branching of a single evolutionary tree. It was not until over twenty years later after much further research that Darwin eventually published his theories.
1860 Spurred by the threat of the Civil War, entrepreneurs William H. Russell, William B. Waddell and Alexander Majors launched the Pony Express mail service to bring faster communications to the American West. It consisted of relays of men riding horses carrying saddlebags of mail across a 2000 mile trail between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California. The journey took between ten and twelve days with the pony riders covering around 250 miles in a 24-hour day. Soon the Pony Express had more than 100 stations, 80 riders, and between 400 and 500 horses, becoming part of the legend of the Old West. Sadly, despite its fame, the service lasted only 19 months when the completion of the Pacific Telegraph line in October 1861 rendered its service obsolete and its investors bankrupt.
1860 Belgian engineer Jean Joseph Étienne Lenoir patented the first practical internal combustion engine, a single-cylinder, two-stroke engine which burnt a mixture of coal gas and air. It was a double acting configuration with the power stroke and exhaust stroke taking place simultaneously on opposite sides of the piston. The fuel/air charge was not compressed before ignition which was provided by a spark from a Ruhmkorff coil. His patent also included the provision of a carburettor so that liquid fuel could be substituted for gas. The thermodynamic cycle on which the engine was based is named the Lenoir cycle after him.
Lenoir went on to build an experimental vehicle driven by his gas-engine, which managed to achieve a speed of 3 kms/hour in 1862.
1860 Munich clockmaker Christian Reithmann was granted a patent for a four stroke internal combustion engine, but lost out to Otto in subsequent legal patent disputes. He is also reputed to be the first person to use Hydrogen to power an internal combustion engine.
1860 The Lead Acid battery, the first practical rechargeable storage battery was demonstrated by Raymond Gaston Planté. It used spiral wound electrodes of Lead and Lead Oxide immersed in Sulphuric Acid and despite delivering remarkably high currents it remained a laboratory curiosity for two decades until the manufacturability and performance were improved by Fauré. The reversible battery cell chemistry had been observed 60 years earlier by Gautherot using copper electrodes but he failed to realise the potential of his discovery. (Sorry!) After over 145 years of development, patents are still being awarded for improvements to this simple device. Currently the value of Lead Acid batteries sold every year in the world is over $30 Billion and still growing.
1860 Concerned with the security of coal supplies, French mathematician Auguste Mouchout started work on the design of a solar powered motor, the first practical application of solar energy. The following year he was granted a patent for his design which used sunlight to boil water in a solar boiler to raise steam to drive a conventional motor. By 1865 his efficiency improvements included solar collectors or reflectors to catch and focus more of the sun's energy and also a tracking device to maintain the optimum orientation towards the sun.
1860 Maxwell showed that white light can be generated by mixing only three colours not the full spectrum as indicated by Newton.
The following year he published "On the theory of primary colours" in which he explained that any colour, not just white light, can be generated with a mixture of any three primary colours. He chose red, green and blue and produced the world's first colour photograph at a demonstration of colour photography to the Royal Institution in London in 1861. The subject was a tartan ribbon. Three separate monochrome images were made by exposing the ribbon through red green and blue filters respectively to make three lantern slides. A colour image of the ribbon was then created by projecting the three images from the slides simultaneously on to a screen through three separate lanterns, each equipped with the same filter used to make its image. See Maxwell's Colour Photograph.
Maxwell also developed the colour triangle, a practical tool for generating any desired colour. The vertices of the triangle represent the primary colours and the proportions of each primary colour required to generate the desired colour are determined by the distance of the desired colour from each vertex.
Maxwell's work could be considered to be the basis for modern colorimetry. Colour television and HTML, the language used to generate the colours in Internet browsers, work on the principle of combining different proportions of red, green and blue primary colours (RGB) to produce the full spectrum of colours as proposed by Maxwell.
1861 German schoolmaster Johann Philipp Reis made the first public presentation of a working telephone to Frankfurt's Physics Association (Der Physikalische Verein) and published "Telephony Using Galvanic Current". His transmitter and receiver used a cork, a knitting needle, a sausage skin, and a piece of platinum. Initially fifty units were made but their performance was erratic. Unfortunately Reis suffered from tuberculosis and did not have the time nor the energy to perfect his invention which he called the "Telephon", nor did he find the time to patent it. He died at the age of forty.
1861 Italian immigrant to the USA, fugitive from persecution as a supporter of the Italian unification movement, Antonio Santi Giuseppe Meucci, after constructing numerous devices which enabled the transmission of sound, demonstrated a working telephone system in New York. It was based on a system he had devised for communicating between his bedridden wife's room and his workshop in the basement. He called it the Telettrofono and it was reported in the local Italian language newspaper "L'Eco d'Italia" at the time.
Meucci was perpetually short of cash. He was a prolific inventor but was unsuccessful in commercialising his ideas and this consumed most of his income. Nevertheless he also provided financial support to the leader of the Italian unification movement Giuseppe Garibaldi during his exile in the United States.
Meucci continued to devise improvements to his telephone system, including inductive loading (in 1870) to enable longer distance calls. Unfortunately, in 1871 when he was incapacitated with serious burns from an explosion aboard the steamship Westfield on which he was travelling, his wife sold all his early models of telephone devices for $6. Meucci could not afford the $250 needed to patent his system, however in 1871 he did manage to obtain a cheaper official "Caveat" stating his paternity of the invention. After the sale of the old prototypes, in 1874 he handed some new models to Western Union Telegraph for evaluation and these were subsequently seen by Alexander G.Bell who had access to the laboratory where they were stored. In 1876 he was surprised to read in the newspapers that Bell was credited as the sole inventor of of this amazing new device. United States Patent No. 174,465, issued to Alexander Graham Bell in 1876, became recognized as the world's "most valuable patent." Meanwhile Meucci died in poverty in 1989 bringing to an end the US Government's fraud proceedings against Bell.
Meucci was finally recognised as the first inventor of the telephone by the United States Congress in its resolution 269 dated June 15, 2002, 113 years after his death.
1861 French engineer Alphonse Beau de Rochas patented the four stroke cycle the principle on which most modern internal combustion engines depend though he never built an engine.
1862 German travelling salesman and inventor Nicolaus August Otto demonstrated the World's first successful four-stroke, spark ignition, internal combustion engine. Prior to that, three patents for four stroke engines had been awarded, the first to Italian inventors Eugenio Barsanti and Felice Matteucci in London in 1854, the second to German engineer Christian Reithmann in 1860 and the third to French engineer Alphonse Eugène Beau de Rochas in 1861 however none of these engines achieved commercial application and there is no evidence that Otto was aware of these developments. In 1864 with Eugen Langen the owner of a sugar factory, Otto established N.A. Otto & Cie. (today's DEUTZ AG) to manufacture the engines. Initially they made only stationary engines but today the Otto cycle, named after him, is the operating principle used by the vast majority of the world's piston engines.
1863 The British government passes the Alkali Works Act setting limits to the emissions of noxious substances, one of the first attempts to recognise and control environmental pollution. Alkali compounds were widely used at the time in the production of glass, soap, and textiles and were manufactured using the Le Blanc Process whose byproducts included various harmful emissions including hydrochloric acid, nitrous oxides, sulphur and chlorine gas. As a result, manufacturing plants were ringed by dead and dying vegetation and scorched earth and local residents suffered health problems. The new law was backed by the appointment of Alkali Inspectors who monitored pollution levels.
One of the founders of modern chemical engineering was George E. Davis who started his career as an "Alkali Inspector". He stressed the value of large scale experimentation (the precursor of the modern pilot plant), safety practices, and a unit operations approach for controlling chemical manufacturing processes.
1863 Ányos Jedlik, then physics professor at the University of Pest in Hungary, introduced his multiplying capacitor battery in which a bank of electrostatic generators was used to simultaneously charge a parallel bank (battery) of capacitors. The charged capacitors were then switched to a series connection so that the voltage appearing on the output terminals was equal to the sum of the voltages on the individual capacitors, enabling very high voltages to be built up. He was awarded a gold medal at the 1873 Vienna World Exhibition for his design.
1863 English geologist, Henry Clifton Sorby, developed techniques for studying the microscopical structure of iron and steel by polishing its surface and etching it with acid so that the structure could be observed with a with a microscope. In this way he discovered how the strength of the steel is determined by small but precise quantities of carbon in its content. After 4,000 years of empirical studies on steel making, Sorby's metallographic techniques at last provided a much needed tool for steel makers to understand, contol and improve the properties of their steel.
1864 Maxwell predicts that light, radiant heat, and "other radiations if any" are electromagnetic disturbances in the form of waves propagated through an electromagnetic field according to electromagnetic laws. It was not until 1873 that Maxwell provided the theoretical justification for his predictions.
1864 James Elkington the owner of a silver plating works in Birmingham, invented a commercial method for the refining of crude copper by the electrolytic deposition pure copper from a solution of copper salts. He patented the idea the following year and 1869 he founded the first electrolytic refining plant using this process, at Pembrey in South Wales.
1865 Clausius introduces the concept of entropy (from the Greek "transformation") defined as: "The internal energy of a system that cannot be converted to mechanical work" or "The property that describes the disorder of a system". He restated the Second Law of Thermodynamics, first outlined by Kelvin, in the context of system entropy as "In a closed system the entropy can only increase".
1865 French engineer Pierre-Émile Martin took out a license from German engineer, Karl Wilhelm Siemens and developed the open-hearth process in an attempt to circumvent the Bessemer patents. This process converts iron into steel in a broad, shallow, gas fired open-hearth furnace, by adding scrap iron including wrought iron or iron oxide as well as the alkaline limestone to molten pig iron until the carbon content is reduced by dilution and oxidation. The process allows for the production of larger batches of steel than the Bessemer process. It also allows precise control of the specifications of the steel but it is very slow.
1865 The International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the world's oldest international organization, an example of international cooperation at its best, was established to develop a framework agreement covering the interconnection of the first national and independent telegraph networks which at the time were built and operated to different and often incompatible standards. Its agreements cover interconnections, signalling and message protocols, equipment standards, operating instructions, tariffs, accounting and billing rules.
Today every telephone whether it is a new push button phone or an old dial phone, an analogue or digital cordless phone, a mobile phone, a payphone or a proprietary office system phone can be connected to every other telephone in the world. The same network is used to connect fax machines and the telephone message may be analogue or digital. The telephone message may be routed to an office in New York, a remote rural village in China or it can find the called party wherever they might be driving their car in Europe, passing through open overhead wires, underground cables, microwave links, fibre optic links, satellite links, undersea cables or local wireless links on the way. The signalling will be understood, the message will get through and the intermediate organisations carrying the call will get paid for their service.
With the advent of radio and later television, the ITU took on a similar role in managing the use of the radio spectrum, regulating frequency allocations, bandwidths and transmission powers to avoid the possible chaos of millions of transmitters from all over the world interfering with eachother. Despite the finite limitation on the available bandwidth, the ITU's regulatory framework also allows the flexibility to accommodate an ever growing number of users as well as new applications such as radar, cellular phones and GPS satellite navigation and the use of new modulation, multiplexing and transmission technologies as they have been developed to ensure the efficient use of this scarce resource.
The telephone network used to be the biggest machine in the world. Now with the advent of the Internet the machine is even bigger with computers as well as telephones connected together over the same network with modems carrying data and broadband terminals passing data, video and a host of new services down the same old wires and it still all works thanks to the ITU working anonymously in the background.
And all of this has been achieved with the ITU's recognition of "the sovereign right of each State to regulate its telecommunication"
See ISO and the Internet for how NOT to do it.
1866 Almost thirty years after Davenport had built the first practical electric motor using electromagnets in both the stator and rotor, the same technique was applied to the self energising dynamo. A wound rotating electromagnetic armature, replacing the weaker permanent magnet of the magneto, was invented almost simultaneously by Samuel Alfred Varley who's design was patented on 12 December 1866, by Werner Siemens who publicised his design on 17 January 1867, and by Charles Wheatstone who presented a paper to the Royal Society on 4th February 1867 about the principles involved. The design permitted much more powerful and efficient DC generators.
It was later revealed that a patent had been granted in 1854 to Mr. Soren Hjorth, a Danish railway engineer and inventor for a similar invention with self excited armature coils. Hjorth's patent is to be found in the British Patent Office Library.
The principle had also been demonstrated by Hungarian priest Ányos Jedlik in 1861.
The advent of practical dynamos provided a convenient, low cost, inexhaustible source of electric power overcoming many of the limitations of the battery and marked the beginning of electricity generation by electromechanical means rather than by electrochemistry. Rotary generators paved the way for the widespread use of electricity for both high power industrial applications and for consumer appliances in the home.
1867 The reversibility of the dynamo was enunciated by Werner Siemens but it was not demonstrated on a practical scale until 1873 by Gramme and Fontaine.
1867 Kelvin presented to the Royal Society, a paper "On a self-acting apparatus for multiplying and maintaining electric charges, with applications to illustrate the voltaic theory" describing a water powered electrostatic generator.
1867 Swedish chemist Alfred Bernhard Nobel was awarded a patent for the invention of Dynamite. Since 1859, Nobel had been investigating ways of safely manufacturing and handling nitroglycerine, the highly volatile explosive recently discovered (in 1847) by Ascanio Sobrero whom Nobel had known as a fellow student at the University of Paris. This was the first explosive that was more powerful than gunpowder but, though it could be highly effective, it was too unstable and impractical to use. In 1863, Nobel's first invention was the detonator followed in 1865 by the blasting cap, both of which ensured a more controlled explosion of the nitroglycerine and made possible the use of this much stronger explosive. In 1862 Nobel set up a factory to produce safer nitroglycerine, but development was fraught with difficulties. In 1864 an explosion at the manufacturing plant killed his younger brother and four others. Nobel persevered however and despite further accidents he discovered that by adding a powder of kieselguhr, a sedimentary rock consisting of fossilised remains of diatoms, the oily nitroglycerine could be transformed into a safer malleable paste which could be shaped into rods suitable for blasting rock by inserting the explosive into holes drilled into the rock. This was Dynamite.
In 1876 Nobel patented Gelignite, an even more powerful jelly-like explosive, formed from gun-cotton and other explosive materials, such as sodium or potassium nitrate, dissolved in nitroglycerine which was more stable and more easily formed into cavities either prepared or available for accepting the explosive charge. Without a detonator it simply burns rather than explodes and is thus reasonably safe to handle.
Nobel's explosives and detonators were soon used worldwide for mining and military applications with production supplied from 16 factories in 14 countries eventually including the Swedish Bofors armaments factory which he acquired in 1894. His development work continued and Nobel was awarded 355 patents for his inventions. All this brought him great wealth the bulk of which (31,225,000 Swedish Krona or £1,687,837) he bequeathed in his last will and testament dated 1895 (one year before his death) to establish the Nobel Prizes, to be awarded annually without distinction of nationality.
He wrote "The whole of my remaining realisable estate shall be dealt with in the following way: the capital invested in safe securities by my executors, shall constitute a fund, the interest on which shall be annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind".
1867 The first practical typewriter was invented by Milwaukee newspaper editor Christopher Latham Sholes and his colleagues, Carlos Glidden and Samuel W. Soule. Sales did not immediately take off and early designs suffered from clashing and jamming of the keys when fast typing was attempted. At the suggestion of Sholes' financial backer, James Densmore, Scholes re-laid out the keyboard, into what eventually became the familiar QWERTY layout by spacing out pairs of keys which are often used together to avoid jams by effectively slowing down the typist.
Commercial success eventually came when the patents, manufacturing and sales rights were sold to the Remington Arms Company where the design continued to undergo many engineering improvements. One of the innovations was a minor keyboard layout change to replace the "period" key, previously allocated a place on the top row, with the "R" key so that their brand name "TYPE WRITER" could be typed out from the keys in only one row of the keyboard.
In return for the rights they obtained, Remington offered Scholes and Densmore either cash or royalties from future sales. Scholes took the cash, $12,000, a considerable sum in those days. Densmore took the royalties and eventually received $1.5 million.
1868 Invention of the Leclanché cell carbon-zinc wet cell by the French railway engineer Georges Leclanché. It used a cathode of manganese dioxide mixed with carbon contained in a porous pot and an anode of zinc in the form of a rod suspended in an outer glass container. The electrolyte was a solution of ammonium chloride that bathed the electrodes. The manganese dioxide acts as a depolariser absorbing hydrogen gas released at the cathode. The first practical battery product to be commercialised, it was immediately adopted by the telegraph service in Belgium and in the space of two years, twenty thousand of his cells were being used in the telegraph system. Later, it was also Alexander Graham Bell's battery of choice for his telephone demonstrations. Domestically however its use for many years was limited to door bells.
Leclanché's electrochemistry was implemented with a different cell construction by Gassner in 1886 to make more convenient dry cells which still survive today in the form of zinc-carbon dry cells, the lowest-cost flashlight batteries. Polaroid's PolaPulse disposable batteries used in instant film packs also used Leclanché chemistry although in a plastic sandwich.
1868 Maxwell analysed the stability of Watt's flyball centrifugal governor. Like Airy, he used differential equations of motion to find the characteristic equation of the system and studied the effect of the system parameters on stability and showed that the system is stable if the roots of the characteristic equation have negative real parts. He thus established the theoretical basis of modern feedback control systems or cybernetics.
1868 French engineer Jean Joseph Farcot patented improvements to machine control and in 1873 published a book entitled Le Servo-Moteur introducing the notion of servomechanisms which allow a small control system to control pieces of far heavier machinery.
1869 Prussian physicist Johann Wilhelm Hittorf published his laws governing the migration of ions. These were based on the concept of the transport number, the rate at which particular ions carried the electric current, which he had previously developed. He had noted in 1853 that some ions traveled more rapidly than others. By measuring the changes in the concentration of electrolyzed solutions, he computed from these the transport numbers (relative carrying capacities) of many ions.
1869 German chemist Julius Lother Meyer discovered the periodic relationship between the elements by plotting a graph of atomic weight against atomic volume, however its publication was delayed by the reviewer.
Working at the same time, this periodic relationship was also noticed by Russian chemist Dimitri Ivanovich Mendeleyev. By arranging cards with the names, atomic weights and some properties of the 65 known elements at that time, into rows and columns he noticed an underlying pattern. His Periodic Table of the Elements was published before Meyer's and the Periodic Table thus became attributed to Mendeleyev. Since then over 700 versions of the table have been produced.
Gaps in the table led scientists to speculate on the existence of hitherto unknown elements with predicted properties related to their positions in the table. The existence and properties of these elements was duly confirmed once suitable experiments could be devised.
1869 French paper manufacturer Aristide Bergès built several hydropower machines at Lancey near Grenoble. He directed water from a 200 metre high Alpine waterfall through a Girard impulse turbine, and later from a head of 500 metres through a Pelton turbine to power the machines in his paper mill. He was very active in promoting this energy source as a basis for industrial development in the Alpine valleys. Unfortunately "hydropower" has become confused with "hydroelectric power" and Bergès has been incorrectly credited with the invention, in 1869, of the first hydroelectric power installation, and even with coining the expression "hydroelectric power". In fact the first hydroelectric scheme was implemented in England by William Armstrong in 1878. Bergès did eventually introduce hyrdroelectric power at his plant in 1882 using a Gramme dynamo and these were only invented in 1873. Bergè dubbed this abundant energy source "Huille Blanc" which means "White Oil" in French, but this has almost universally been incorrectly translated as "White Coal" in English language technical publications.
1869 John Tyndall explained that the reason why the sky is blue is because of the scattering of light by dust and large molecules in the upper atmosphere, now known as the Tyndall Effect. He noticed that most light wavelengths pass through the atmosphere unaffected, but the wavelength of blue light is comparable with the spacing of the molecules in the atmosphere which therefore tends to be scatter the Sun's blue light. The effect is more commonly known as Rayleigh scattering, after Lord Rayleigh, who studied it in more detail some years later.
1870 New Yorker John Wesley Hyatt patented the first synthetic plastic, now called Celluloid, which was invented by Parkes in1855. He first used it as a coating for billiard balls and later for denture plates.
1870 John Player developed a process of mass producing strands of glass with a steam jet process to make what was called mineral wool for use as an effective insulating material. (Editor's Note - I have not yet been able to verify this first statement which could be an oft repeated internet myth related to the next paragraph. Please email me if you can help. The next statement is true.)
John Player had no connection with John Player cigarettes, a major brand in the 1980's. Nevertheless an unfounded rumour spread in the late 1980's and early 1990's, no doubt encouraged by their competitors, that the filters in John Player cigarettes contained fibreglass resulting in major damage to their market share.
1870's Austrian physicist Ludwig Eduard Boltzmann published a series of papers developing the theory of statistical mechanics with which he explained and predicted how the properties of atoms such as mass, charge, and structure determine the visible properties of matter such as viscosity, thermal conductivity, and diffusion. He showed that the kinetic energy of a molecule of an ideal gas is proportional to its absolute temperature. The ratio is equal to 1.38 X 10-23 Joules per degree Kelvin (J/K) and is called the Boltzmann Constant in his honour.
Boltzmann also derived a theoretical relationships for the thermodynamic entropy of a gas. 70 years later Shannon used an equivalent relationship to define the information entropy in a message.
Tragically ill and depressed, Boltzmann took his own life in 1906.
1871 Weber proposed the idea for atomic structure that atoms contain positive charges that are surrounded by rotating negative particles and that the application of an electric potential to a conductor causes the negative particles to migrate from one atom to another creating current flow.
1871 German scientist Steiner revived an apparently dead patient by passing a weak electrical current directly through his heart. The first recorded use of electric shock treatment for reviving people after cardiac arrest.
1871 After witnessing a death from smoke inhalation, John Tyndall invented the fireman's respirator or gas mask. See also Stenhouse
1872 PVC, Poly Vinyl Chloride first created by German chemist Eugen Baumann. It was not patented until 1913. In 1926 Waldo Semon invented a new way of making PVC into a useful product and he is now generally credited with discovering it.
1872 One of the many "Fathers of Radio" West Virginian dentist Mahlon Loomis was granted a patent for "a new and Improved Mode of Telegraphing and of Generating Light, Heat, and Motive Power". Although not a true radio system it was an attempt at making a wireless telegraphy system by replacing the batteries with electricity gathered from the atmosphere by means of flying kites attached to long copper wires. It used a Morse key between one kite wire and the ground to send signals and at the remote kite it used a galvanometer between the wire and the ground to detect the signals. It is claimed that signals using this method were transmitted over 14 miles, however it is questionable whether this system ever worked and it was never commercially exploited. Nevertheless the Guinness Book of Records credits Loomis with sending the first signals through the air. It was another sixteen years before Hertz demonstrated the existence of radio waves.
1872 American telecommunications engineer Joseph Barker Stearns of Boston developed the first practical telecommunications duplexing system. He accomplished this by using two different types of signals, one for each direction. In one direction he used varying strength signals (e.g. On or Off) which he detected with a common or neutral relay, while in the opposite direction he used varying polarity signals (Plus or Minus) which he detected with a polarised relay. The receivers were designed to respond only to signals of the appropriate type from the remote transmitter and to ignore local transmissions. Stearns' system effectively doubled the capacity of the installed telegraph lines and Western Union rapidly acquired rights to use it.
1872 British electrical engineer Josiah Latimer Clark invented the Clark Standard Cell which provided a reference voltage of 1.434 volts at 15 °C. The cathode was Mercury, in contact with a paste of Mercurous Sulphate, and the anode was Zinc amalgam in contact with a saturated solution of Zinc Sulphate.
1872 American mechanical engineer George Brayton patented his Ready Motor, a continuous combustion, two cylinder, two stroke, kerosene (paraffin) engine. It used a rocking arm coupled to a flywheel to drive the pistons alternately up and down. One piston was used to compress the air which was then mixed with a controlled amount of fuel and ignited by a continuous flame in a combustion chamber and fed into the second chamber where the hot gases expanded providing the power stroke. The modern gas turbine uses the same three fundamental components of Brayton's system, a compressor, continuous combustion burner and an expansion chamber from which work can be extracted and the thermodynamic cycle on which it based, heat addition at constant pressure, is now called the Brayton cycle. Brayton himself never made anything other than piston engines.
See also Gas turbines and Heat engines.
1873 Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell published his "Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism" in which, using a water analogy, he unified the laws of electricity and magnetism, distilling all electromagnetic theory into a set of four rules now accepted as one of the fundamental laws of nature. Now known as Maxwell's Equations, they were one of the most important scientific works of the century, not only explaining all electric, magnetic and radiation phenomena known at the time but also providing the theory describing light waves as well as the foundations for the two great theoretical advances of the twentieth century, relativity and quantum theory.
Maxwell's four equations express, respectively:
How electric charges produce electric fields - Gauss' Law for electric fields.
The absence of single magnetic poles. North and South magnetic poles always appear in pairs and the total magnetic charge is always zero. - Gauss' Law for magnetic fields.
How currents produce magnetic fields - Ampere's Law with an additional term called the displacement current showing that a changing electric field is equivalent to a current also inducing a magnetic field.
How changing magnetic fields produce electric fields - Faraday's Law of induction.
In mathematical vector form these complex relationships can be expressed very simply as:-
∇• D = ρ or alternatively ∇• E = ρ/ε0
∇• B = 0
∇x H = J + δD/δt
∇x E = - δB/δt
ρ is the free electric charge density (not including dipoles)
D is the electric displacement field or flux density = ε0E
B is the magnetic flux density = µ0H
H is the magnetic field
J is the current density
E is the electric field
∇• is the divergence operator
∇x is the curl operator
ε0 is the electric permittivity of a vacuum
µ0 is the magnetic permeability of a vacuum
Maxwell originally expressed his theory in 20 partial differential equations. They were subsequently simplified in 1884 by Oliver Heaviside who expressed them in vector form which is the form in which they are shown above.
As some physics teachers are fond of saying:
"The Lord said Let there be light and there were Maxwell's equations"
These four equations provided the theoretical justification of his 1864 predictions of the existence of radiation or electromagnetic (radio) waves, even though at that time there was still no evidence to demonstrate that such a phenomenon existed.
Maxwell showed that electromagnetic fields hold energy which is in every way equivalent to mechanical energy and that a changing magnetic field will induce a changing electric field which in turn induces a changing magnetic field, and so on, such that an electromagnetic wave is created in which the energy oscillates between the electric and magnetic fields.
He also showed that neither the electric wave nor the magnetic wave can exist alone. They travel together, always at right angles to, and in phase with eachother.
The velocity of propagation of the electromagnetic wave v can also be derived from Maxwell's equations as v = E/B the ratio between the electric field strength E and magnetic flux density B which is also equal to 1/√µ0ε0. From a knowledge of the magnitudes of µ0 and ε0 he determined that the velocity of propagation of the electromagnetic wave is constant and equal to the speed of light and that light is an electromagnetic wave.
Together with Lorentz law describing the forces on charged particles, Maxwell's equations form the basis of the theory of electrodynamics.
It is a measure of Maxwell's genius that with four elegant and concise equations he could not only account for the movement of a compass needle next to a current carrying wire but with the same equations he was also able to predict, understand and correctly characterise mathematically such a complex phenomenon as electromagnetic radiation that nobody had yet witnessed or even imagined.
Maxwell was initially encouraged and supported in his theories by Kelvin, upon whose earlier work he built, however in his lifetime Kelvin never accepted Maxwell's conclusions believing them too theoretical and not related to reality.
It was 1888 before his predictions were proved right by experiments carried out by Heinrich Hertz.
In the twentieth century, while Einstein's relativity theory required Newton's laws to be modified, Maxwell's equations remained absolute.
See more about Electromagnetic Radiation and Radio Waves today.
Maxwell also introduced statistical methods into the study of physics, now accepted as commonplace and made significant contributions to structural analysts, feedback control theory (cybernetics) and the theory of colour taking the first ever colour photograph.
Maxwell was a kind and modest man, universally liked. His ideas were ahead of his time but he made no attempt to promote his work. Despite his monumental achievement, it was Hertz' name rather than Maxwell's that has become associated with radio waves and radio propagation.
He died of stomach cancer in 1879 at the age of forty eight without seeing the experimental confirmation of his theories.
Like several Victorian scientists, Maxwell used poetry to describe his interests and his work. 43 of his poems on such riveting subjects as "A Problem In Dynamics", "British Association, Notes Of The President's Address", "To The Committee Of The Cayley Portrait Fund" and "Torto Volitans Sub Verbere Turbo Quem Pueri Magno In Gyro Vacua Atria Circum Intenti Ludo Exercent" about spinning tops, were published in 1882, after his death, by his friend Lewis Campbell.
Quotations about Maxwell:
When Michael Faraday was asked what was his greatest ever discovery he replied "James Maxwell"
"The Special Theory of Relativity owes its origins to Maxwell's Equations of the Electromagnetic Field" - Albert Einstein.
"Ten thousand years from now, there can be little doubt that the most significant event of the 19th century will be judged as Maxwell's discovery of the laws of electrodynamics" - Richard Feynman
1873 Belgian carpenter and instrument maker Zénobe Théophile Gramme in partnership with French engineer and inventor Hippolyte Fontaine developed the first reliable commutators for DC machines. (The commutator is the device which reverses the current in the rotor coil as it passes from the influence of one magnet pole to the next magnet pole of opposite polarity in order to maintain a unidirectional current in the external circuit).
They also demonstrated the reversibility of their dynamo by pumping water at the Vienna International Exhibition using two dynamos connected together, one, the generator, deriving motion from a hydraulic engine, provided electrical power to the receiving dynamo which worked the pump. It is said that they discovered the phenomenon by accident when an idle dynamo was mistakenly connected across another working/running dynamo and began motoring backwards. They did however realise that the importance of their discovery was not just the reversibility of the dynamo, but also the possibilities electrical power transmission. The fact that electrical power could be generated in one place and used in another.
1873 The first demonstration of electric traction in a road vehicle by Robert Davidson in Edinburgh using iron/zinc primary cells to drive a truck.
1873 English telegraph engineers, Joseph May and Willoughby Smith, while working with Selenium, noticed that its conductivity changed under the influence of light thus discovering the photoconductivity effect.
1873 Dutch physicist Johannes Diederik van der Waals deduced more accurate gas laws taking into account the volume of the actual molecules making up the gas and the intermolecular forces between them. The van der Waals forces, named after him, assumed that neutral molecules behaved like dipoles with a positive charge on one side and a negative charge on the other because their shape was distorted. The true nature of the forces between molecules was later explained in 1930 by Polish-born physicist Fritz London using quantum theory.
Van der Waals was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1910 for his work on the equation of state for gases and liquids.
1874 A thermo-electric battery based on the Seebeck effect powered by a gas heater introduced by M Clamond in France. Known as the Clamond pile or thermopile, it consisted of a stack of circular arrays of junctions of iron with a zinc-antimony alloy heated by a gas burner located in the centre of the stack. It generated 8 Volts providing a current of 2 to 3 Amps and supplied both heat and electricity to galvanising baths.
1874 Thomas Alva Edison invented the quadruplex telegraph, which was capable of sending four Morse coded messages simultaneously on a single channel. He amalgamated and rearranged the duplexer of Gintl, and Farmer and the diplexer of Stearns into a single system permitting two messages to be sent in each direction. As with Gintl's duplexer design, two relays in each terminal were unresponsive to outgoing signals, one of these relays responded to current increases of the incoming signals the while the other responded to current reversals of the received signals. Thus Stearns duplexing method of distinguishing between two signals was modified by Edison to separate the signals going in the same direction (diplexing) rather than in opposite directions (duplexing). This avoided the problem of synchronising the receivers with the transmitters. The quadruplex allowed the telegraph lines to carry four times the traffic and saved the telegraph companies millions of dollars.
Edison had started the development of his quadruplex system in 1873 in cooperation with Western Union using their facilities for his experimental work. He had agreed with William Orton, the president of Western Union, a development fee and that the patents for the design would be assigned to Western Union. When the design was complete Edison was given $5000 as part payment and $25,000 later. Orton also authorised a royalty payment to Edison of $233 per year before leaving on a business trip. While he was away, Edison was approached by George Jay Gould, railroad baron, Wall Street financier, stock manipulator and head of Atlantic and Pacific Telegraph Company, an arch rival of Western Union. He offered Edison $30,000 cash for the quadruplex patents and a job at Atlantic and Pacific. Edison accepted and wrote to Orton saying their arrangement had been a mistake and he revoked the assignment of patents to Western Union. Edison had sold the patents twice over. This earned him the title of "Master of Duplicity and Quadruplicity" bestowed on him by New York journalists. There followed years of litigation which only ended with the eventual amalgamation of the two telegraph companies. A portent of Edison's business methods to come. See Edison and Tesla.
Quadruplex telegraphs were eventually displaced by two new inventions, Baudot's multiplex telegraphy capable of eight or more simultaneous transmissions (see next) and Murray's teleprinter machines which did not use Morse code.(See following entry - Baudot code).
Edison set up his first small laboratory and manufacturing facility in Newark, New Jersey in 1871 to produce new designs for Western Union and others. In 1876 he moved to a larger facility at Menlo Park equipped to work on any invention opportunities he might turn up. This was the world's first industrial research and development facility and was where Edison's phonograph, light bulb and electrical power systems were developed. See more about Edison's Inventions.
1874 Jean Maurice Émile Baudot, an officer of the French Telegraph Service made major improvements in the telegraph system by bringing together the five unit code devised by Gauss and Weber, now called the five bit Baudot code, and the synchronous time division multiplex (TDM) system, proposed by Farmer in 1852, into a practical design for a printing telegraph.
The five bit code was the first truly digital code, each unit having only two logical states which he represented as + and -, later replaced by the more familiar 1 and 0 digital logical states we know today. This enabled 32 possible combinations or characters, the shortest practicable code for the number of characters to be transmitted. To enable a full alphanumeric code, Baudot used two special characters to switch between letters and numbers giving effectively 64 combinations, enough to allow for 26 characters for the alphabet and 10 numbers plus other miscellaneous punctuation and synchronisation codes. Input was by 5 keys. Later adaptations by Murray in 1903 (and others) used five hole punched tape to input the characters with a sixth row of smaller sprocket holes to feed the tape through the reader. The tape had the advantage that it could be punched off line and subsequently transmitted at high speed, but more importantly the tapes enabled the transmission speed to be controlled thus facilitating the multiplexing. Early teletypewriters also used Baudot code which eventually supplanted Morse code as the most commonly used telegraphic alphabet becoming known as the International Telegraph Code No.1.
Although the code is now named after Baudot, the five digit binary code was first proposed by Francis Bacon in 1605.
The Baudot distributor enabled four messages to be transmitted simultaneously. Multiplexing was achieved by using synchronised motors at either end of the line with brushes which connected each channel sequentially, for a fixed interval, to a single transmission line as the motor rotated. Synchronisation codes were sent down the line to keep the transmitter and receiver in step.
In modern circuits TDM is accomplished by interleaving the bit streams from the different channels.
The unit of measurement for data transmission rates of one character per second is named the Baud, a shortened form of Baudot, in his honour.
1874 German physicist Karl Ferdinand Braun discovered one way conduction in metal sulfide crystals. He later used the rectifying properties of the galena crystal, a semiconductor material composed of lead sulfide, to create the crystal detector used for detecting radio signals which Braun worked on with Marconi. Thus was born the first semiconductor device. Now called the diode, the cat's whisker detector was rediscovered and patented 30 years later by Pickard and Dunwoody.
1874 Irish physicist George Johnstone Stoney expanding on Faraday's laws of electrolysis and the notion that an electric charge was associated with the particles deposited on the electrodes during electrolysis, proposed that the minimum unit of charge was that which was found on the hydrogen ion and that it should be a fundamental unit. He named it the "electrine". In 1891, he changed the name to "electron". He calculated the magnitude of this charge from data obtained from the electrolysis of water and the kinetic theory of gases. The value obtained later became known as a coulomb. Stoney was unaware of the nature of the atom and "Stoney's electron" is a unit of charge, not to be confused with J.J. Thomson's sub atomic particle which Thomson called a corpuscle but which we now call the electron.
1874 David Salomons of Tunbridge Wells, England demonstrated a 1 H.P. three wheeled electric car powered by Bunsen cells.
1875 American physicist Henry Augustus Rowland was the first to show that moving electric charge is the same thing as an electric current.
He built up an electrostatic charge on a rotating gramophone (phonograph) record by rubbing it with woolen cloth. A magnetic compass bought in close to the spinning disk was deflected, the magnitude of the deflection increasing with the speed of the disk. This showed that a magnetic field is not only set up by a current moving through a wire but also by a moving electrostatic field.
1876 On March 10 in Boston, Massachusetts, Alexander Graham Bell, a Scottish emigré to the USA, invented the telephone. Bell filed his application just hours before his competitor, American inventor Elisha Gray, founder of Western Electric, filed notice with the same patent examiner, an outline of a telephone he planned to patent himself. What's more, neither man had actually built a working telephone. Bell in particular did not have a working microphone but he made his telephone operate three weeks later using the microphone described in Gray's Notice of Invention, and methods Bell did not propose in his own patent. Being a "system" using several technologies over which Bell claimed sole rights, it spawned more than 600 law suits mostly focused on whether the concept of modulating a DC current supplied by a battery was revolutionary or insubstantial and which of the many rivals had thought of it first. Legitimate claimants included Belgian experimenter Charles Bourseul (1854), German schoolmaster Johann Philipp Reis (1861) and impoverished Italian US immigrant Antonio Meucci (1861) to whom the idea is now officially credited by the American Congress (disregarding the prior work of Reis).
Bell's United States Patent No. 174465 became recognized as the world's most valuable patent.
Similar controversies surround the invention of radio, but that's another story.
In an attempt to find an assassin's bullet lodged in the body of US President James Garfield, in 1881 Bell hastily devised a crude metal detector based on the induction balance recently devised in 1879 by David Hughes. It worked but it didn't find the bullet, indicating that it was deeper than at first thought. It was later discovered that the detector had been confused by the newly invented metal bed springs under the mattress on which the President lay. (The President died after eighty painful days from complications arising from contamination of, and further damage to his wound by the dozen or more doctors probing his body in search of the bullet).
Bell's father, grandfather, and brother had all been associated with work on elocution and speech, and both his mother and wife were deaf, profoundly influencing Bell's life's work. It was his research on hearing, speech and sound transmission which eventually led him to the invention of the telephone.
In 1877 Bell married Mabel Gardiner Hubbard, a student from his school for the deaf, the daughter of Boston lawyer Gardiner Greene Hubbard. Hubbard senior, helped Bell set up the Bell Telephone Company with himself as president ably defending the company from the avalanche of lawsuits it faced.
In later life Bell moved to the relative seclusion of his estate in Nova Scotia where he declared himself to be sick of the telephone which he regarded as a nuisance, referring to it as a "beast". He crusaded tirelessly on behalf of the deaf and worked on a variety of projects including flight and aerofoils. At odds with his genuine concern for the deaf, he was an advocate of eugenics and carried out experiments with sheep. He was convinced that sheep with extra nipples would give birth to more lambs, and built a huge village of sheep pens, spending years counting sheep nipples, before the US State Department announced that extra nipples were not linked with extra lambs.
1876 Most iron ores, particularly those from Europe, contain substantial amounts of phosphorus which makes the steel produced from it very brittle. Up to that time it had been necessary to use costly phosphorus free ores from Wales and Sweden in the Bessemer converters used to produce the high quality steel. Welsh metallurgist Sidney Gilchrist Thomas discovered that by adding a chemically basic (alkaline) material to the Bessemer converter it can draw phosphorus impurities from the pig iron into the slag which is skimmed off, resulting in phosphorus-free steel. He later patented this process which was called the "Basic" Bessemer Process. Bessemer consequently replaced the original siliceous (acidic) refractory lining of his retorts with a limestone lining which produced lime (a base) when heated.
Thomas's innovation meant that iron ore from anywhere in the world could be used to make steel resulting in significant savings in production costs.
Thomas died of lung disease at the age of 34 in 1885.
1877 The telephone industry created the next major leap forward in the demand for batteries.
In Bell's original 1876 system the microphone was a passive transducer in which the acoustic power of the human voice provided the energy to create the varying electric currents which represent the sound and also to carry them down the wire to the receiver. In Bell's microphone, or transmitter in telephone parlance, sound waves impinge upon a steel diaphragm causing it to vibrate in sympathy. The diaphragm is arranged adjacent to the pole of a bar electromagnet and acts as an armature. The vibrations of the diaphragm cause very weak electrical impulses to be induced in the coil of the electromagnet. However these feeble signals were quickly attenuated as they passed down the telephone line until they were inaudible, severely limiting the range of the circuit and hence the potential of the telephone system.
During 1877 and 1878 German born American Emil Berliner, David Hughes, Thomas Edison, Bell employee Francis Blake and English curate Henry Hunnings, were each working independently on designs for improved microphones based on active transducers in which the acoustic power controls an external source of power. An active transducer provides an electrical signal with about a thousand times more electrical power than the acoustical power absorbed by the transducer and their designs considerably improved the range of the telephone at the expense of requiring power from a local battery. They all used variants of a carbon transducer which depend on the fact that the electrical resistance of some materials varies with the physical pressure exerted on it, various forms of carbon material, such as carbon granules, coke or lamp black being particularly sensitive. In the carbon microphones which they developed, during the call the battery current flows constantly in a closed circuit across a capsule of carbon material between two terminals one of which is a flexible diaphragm. The sound pressure variations are transferred to the carbon by the diaphragm thus causing the battery current to vary in response to the sound pressure. Edison's design used lamp black and had the added refinement of an induction coil or step up transformer which superimposed the sound information from the transducer on to a separate higher level DC current flowing through the secondary winding of the coil in the main transmission line so that an amplified signal appeared across the terminals of the secondary coil and the stronger DC current carried it further. A process we now call modulation.
Rather than patenting his ideas for the microphone, Hughes, who was already wealthy from his invention in 1855 of the printing telegraph, communicated his designs to the Royal Society in the February 1878 and generously gave the carbon microphone to the world. This earned him the wrath of Thomas Edison who laid claim to the invention, accusing Hughes of plagiarism and patent infringement. Two months later Berliner and Edison filed for patents on carbon microphones within two weeks of each other resulting in numerous bitter law suits which were eventually settled out of court. Hunnings patented the idea of using carbon granules which could carry higher currents but his patent was challenged by Edison's lawyers. Being a man of limited means he conceded and sold the rights for £1000 and went on Edison's payroll. Berliner went to work for Bell who bought his design for $50,000 and Edison's design, based on principles described by Hughes but using Hunnings' crushed carbon granules became the basis of the standard telephone transmitter and with a few refinements was used for over a hundred years.
Berliner went on to found Deutsche Grammophon Co. and his trademark image became a painting by English artist Mark Barraud of his dog "Nipper" listening to His Master's Voice for which Barraud was paid £50 for the painting and a further £50 for the full copyright. Berliner's other notable invention was the gramophone using a flat disk instead of the cylinder used by Edison.
1877 English experimenter Williams Grylls Adams and his student Richard Evans Day discovered that an electrical current could be created in Selenium solely by exposing it to light and produced the first Solar Cells naming the currents produced this way photoelectric. Although the effect was attributed to the properties of Selenium it was in fact due to the properties of the junction between the Selenium, now known to be a semiconducting material, and the Platinum metal used to create the connection for measuring the current.
Note: Confusingly the currents produced by solar cells, named photoelectric currents by Adams and Day, do not arise from the photoelectric effect in which light causes electrons to be emitted from the surface of the material by the process of photo-emission. Solar cells or photovoltaic cells are made of semiconductor material. The incoming light (photons) moves electrons from the valence band across the band gap to the conduction band and the resulting electron-hole pairs cause an internal electrical field to be set up across the P-N junction which separates them. In this way different charges on the two electrodes of the solar cell are created, and this potential difference can be used to drive a current through a wire.
It was not until 1954 that the efficiency of photovoltaic cells was improved enough to generate useful power.
1877, German, Ernst Siemens patented the first loudspeaker before the advent of electrical music reproduction.
1878 Electric alternator invented by Gramme and Fontaine.
1878 American physical chemist Josiah Willard Gibbs developed the theory of Chemical Thermodynamics introducing the free energy concept. When a chemical reaction occurs, the free energy of the system changes. The free energy is the amount of energy available to do external work, ignoring any changes on pressure or volume associated with the change of state. Thus the change in Gibbs free energy represents the total useful energy released by the chemical action which can be made available for doing work. When the free energy decreases, the entropy always increases, and the reaction is spontaneous. (The value of the free energy lies in the fact that its change is easier to measure than the change in entropy.)
He also developed fundamental equations and relationships to calculate multiphase equilibrium and the phase rule which specifies the minimum possible number of degrees of freedom, or variables such as temperature, pressure, concentration etc. in a (closed) system at equilibrium which must be specified , in terms of the number of separate phases and the number of chemical constituents in the system, in order to completely describe the state of the system. Gibbs' work laid the foundations for the theoretical representation of the energy transfers involved in chemical reactions. This allowed the performance (energy release) of galvanic cells to be quantified and predicted.
He published his work in the Transactions of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, an obscure publication, published by his brother in law, with a very limited, mostly local, circulation. His work on thermodynamics, a major advance in the understanding of chemical reactions, therefore remained unknown until 1883, when Wilhelm Ostwald a Russian-German physical chemist discovered it and translated it to German.
In 1881 Gibbs published "Elements of Vector Analysis" which presents what is essentially the modern system of vector analysis. It permitted the presentation and analysis of complex relationships between multi-dimensional forces such as Maxwell's field theory to be simplified by the use of Gibbs' vector notation and methods. He also made important contributions to the electromagnetic theory of light. His later work on statistical mechanics was also important, providing a mathematical framework for quantum theory.
For all his major contributions to science, Gibbs was a modest man like Maxwell who shunned fame and fortune, living a quiet and contented, simple life as a bachelor, much admired by his students at Yale where he worked.
1878 French electrician, Alfred Niaudet, published "Traité élémentaire de la pile électrique" on electric batteries in which he described over a hundred different battery types and combinations of elements, indicating the growth and importance of battery technology.
Niaudet described the various chemical mixes and designs which had been used to address a range of design goals. The polarisation problem was solved by using non polarising chemical mixes which did not produce gases, or by using mixes which included depolarising agents or oxidants, which reduced any hydrogen emissions by combination with oxygen. Other recipes were used to achieve higher cell voltages, higher capacity, lower costs or longer life. Alternative constructions were designed to improve the convenience of use and current carrying capability or to reduce the cell's internal resistance. Later the possibility of electrical recharging became a design aim.
Examples not mentioned elsewhere on this web site are given below.
Non polarising 2 Volt primary cells were mostly based on potassium dichromate and often used two electrolyte gravity cells (See below). Examples were:
1840 Grenet's single electrolyte potassium dichromate "Bottle" cell with adjustable carbon and zinc electrodes, favoured by Edison for his domestic lighting systems.
Voisin and Dronier's potassium dichromate "Bottle" cell, a variation on the Grenet cell with different electrode controls.
1842 Poggendorff 2 electrolyte cell, similar to the Bunsen cell but with potassium dichromate replacing the nitric acid.
1852 John Fuller's patented "gravity cell" which had a zinc cathode whose base was immersed in liquid mercury, in a porous container with a dilute sulphuric acid solution. The anode was carbon, surrounded by orange-red potassium dichromate solution and crystals, again in sulphuric acid. Similar cells were patented by Leffert. The following year Fuller improved on Daniell's original design to provide the Daniell cell chemistry as we know it today by replacing the aggressive sulphuric acid electrolyte with the more benign zinc sulphate prolonging the life of the cell. He also used the gravity cell construction and the design became very popular for telegraph applications.
1854 Gravity cell proposed by C. F. Varley
Radiguet 2 electrolyte cell with electrodes of mercury and zinc and electrolytes of sulphuric acid and potassium dichromate.
Guiraud 2 electrolyte cell, a low cost cell with electrodes of carbon and zinc and electrolytes of brine and potassium dichromate
Potassium dichromate is strongly toxic and these cells consequently fell into disuse.
Gravity cells are two electrolyte cells which depend on a lighter electrolyte, such as zinc sulphate, floating on the top of a heavier electrolyte, such as copper sulphate, like oil and water. Normally, diffusion would soon mix the two liquids destroying the cell's efficacy, but if a current was drawn continuously the natural migration of the ions kept the electrolytes apart. This construction reduced the internal resistance of the battery by eliminating the porous pot from the current path. Gravity cells were used extensively in the telegraph and telephone industry, however the inconvenience of keeping the cells undisturbed to avoid mixing the electrolytes and also above freezing temperatures eventually led to their replacement.
Gravity cells which used zinc electrodes suspended in zinc sulphate or sulphuric acid were also called Crowfoot Cells because the shape of the zinc electrode resembled the bird's foot.
Other non polarising primary cells such as the Daniell cell were two electrolyte cells based on copper sulphate and sulphuric acid electrolytes. These included designs by the following inventors
Smée whose cell was the fore-runner of this class. It used zinc and copper electrodes and the copper electrode was coated with finely-divided platinum intended to cause the evolved hydrogen to form bubbles and detach themselves. An imperfect solution, but the cell was nevertheless popular in the electroplating industry.
Carré who replaced Daniell's porous pot with a parchment membrane.
Callaud, who in the 1860's, eliminated the porous cup in the Daniell cell perfecting the gravity cell construction.
Hill similar to the Callaud cell.
Meidinger whose design was popular in Germany. It used the Callaud chemistry but with a construction which was much easier to maintain.
Verité
Minotto who developed a gravity cell in 1862, based on Daniell's chemistry, for tropical use. It was used by the Indian PTT.
Essick whose cell was designed to operate at 70°C to achieve higher current outputs.
Tyer who patented a mercurial battery with silver and mercury-covered zinc in dilute sulphuric acid.
These cells all produced only 1 Volt which made them less attractive than the 2 Volt dichromate cells.
Many batteries at that time used elemental mercury for contacts or for preventing local action at the zinc electrodes. Impurities in zinc, such as iron or nickel, effectively created minute short-circuited cells around each grain of impurity which soon ate away the zinc. Pure zinc was far too expensive to be considered at that time, however in 1835 William Sturgeon discovered that the local action in the cheaper impure zinc could be eliminated if the zinc electrodes were amalgamated with liquid mercury.
In 1840 Sturgeon developed a long lasting battery consisting of a cast iron cylinder into which a rolled cylinder of amalgamated zinc was placed. Discs of millboard were used as separators and the electrolyte was dilute sulphuric acid.
Depolarising cells from the same period were usually based on nitric acid with a cell voltage of 1.9 Volts and included:
1839 Grove cell, the first depolarising cell, it was a two electrolyte cell with nitric and sulphuric acid electrolytes and platinum and zinc electrodes
1841 Bunsen cell, similar to Grove's cell, it replaced expensive platinum with cheaper carbon
1853 Farmer cell, similar to Grove's cell with improved design of the porous pot.
1854/5 Callan cell, the Maynooth battery, a two electrolyte cell. Expensive platinum or unreliable carbon cathodes were replaced by cast iron. The outer casing was cast iron, and the zinc anode was immersed in a porous pot in the centre.
Other variants on this theme were developed by Lansing B. Swan, Thomas C. Avery, Christian Schönbein, Archeneau, Hawkins, Niaudet, Tommasi and d'Arsonval.
Although these cells were popular, the acid decomposed rather than polarising the cell giving off toxic nitric dioxide gas which eventually led to their demise.
Other developments included:
The de la Rue silver chloride cell whose constant voltage and small size made it popular for medical and testing applications. The electrodes consisted of a small rod or pencil of zinc and a silver strip or wire coated with silver chloride and sheathed in parchment paper. The electrolyte was ammonium chloride contained in a closed glass phial or beaker to avoid evaporation.
The Schanschieff battery which used zinc and carbon electrodes and an electrolyte of mercury sulphate. It was suitable for portable applications such as reading and mining lamps.
All of the above cells were primary cells, but most were designed for re-use. In general, they used aqueous electrolytes enclosed in stout containers, often made of glass. Once the cell was discharged the spent chemicals could be replaced or replenished: - a form of mechanical recharging. High volume users such as the telegraph and telephone companies pioneered recycling, working with their battery suppliers to reprocess and recover expensive elements from the used electrolytes. (In 1886 Western Union recovered 3000 pounds of copper in this way.)
A further impetus was given to the search for alternative chemistries after 1860 when Gaston Planté demonstrated the feasibility of rechargeable cells with his Lead Acid battery.
All of the above primary cells were eventually superceded for PTT use by versions of Planté's rechargeable battery or by mains power.
For portable power, the Leclanché cell was one of the few surviving primary cells from this period.
1878 In a letter sent to the publication "Mechanic and World Science" Irish experimenter Denis D. Redmond described a 10 by 10 array of Selenium photocells each connected to a corresponding array of platinum wires which would glow when light impinged on the photocells. The system was the first to provide electric transmission of moving images, albeit silhouettes, only one year after the discovery of the photovoltaic effect and one year before Edison patented his light bulb. The system had no image scanning (later provided by Nipkow) so it required 100 channels to transmit the image. Nevertheless it was the forerunner of the modern television system.
The same year Portuguese professor Adriano de Paiva published "La téléscopie électrique basée sur l'emploi du sélénium" in a Portuguese publication "Commercio Portuguez", curiously written mostly in French with some Portuguese. It described a similar system to Redmond's which he called an electric telescope anticipating a different application from what eventually transpired.
It was another five years before practical photovoltaic cells were invented by Fritts.
1878 The bolometer, a very sensitive device for measuring very low levels of incident electromagnetic radiation, including infrared radiation, was invented by Samuel Pierpoint Langley. It works by measuring the heating effect of the radiation on the resistivity of a suitable conductive material. The name comes from the Greek bole ray of light, stroke, from ballein to throw.
Langley's bolometer used a Wheatstone Bridge with a sensitive galvanometer to measure the differential resistance between two Platinum strips coated with Carbon black, one exposed to the radiation and the other shielded from it. It was sensitive enough to detect the thermal radiation from a cow a quarter of a mile (400 m) away.
Modern bolometers use semiconductor or superconductor absorptive elements to pick up the radiation and are able to detect changes in temperature of less than 1/100,000 of a degree Celsius. They are commonly used to measure of the amount of solar energy reaching the Earth.
See also Langley's contribution to aviation.
See more about thermo-electricity.
1878 The invention which did more than any other to promote the use of electricity in the home, the incandescent electric light bulb, was patented in the UK by English physicist and chemist, Joseph Wilson Swan in 1878 and the following year in the USA by American, Thomas Alva Edison. (See following item).
Swan started his development of incandescent lamps in 1848 using platinum filaments but, because of the high cost of platinum and its short life before failing, he switched to carbon which could withstand the heat better. By 1860 he demonstrated a working device, and was granted a British patent covering a partial vacuum, carbon filament, incandescent lamp almost twenty years before Edison. Carbon unfortunately burns in the presence of oxygen and so must be enclosed in a vacuum and Swan's lamps still suffered from short lifetimes because of the difficulty of achieving a high enough vacuum. By 1878 however, vacuum technology had advanced sufficiently and Swan was able to produce and patent a reliable carbon filament lamp.
1878 The world's first electric power station was built by Sigmund Schuckert at the instigation of King Ludwig II went into operation in the Bavarian town of Ettal. It contained 24 dynamo electric generators based on a design by Siemens driven by a steam engine. It was used to power an array of Siemens carbon arc lamps to illuminate the Venus Grotto in the gardens of Ludwig's Linderhof Palace.
1878 Swedish engineer Karl Gustaf de Laval invented the centrifugal separator, the first practical bulk method for separating cream from milk. The milk container was spun up to over 1000 r.p.m. by a hand crank driving through a worm geared mechanism. He later applied the same principle of centrifugal force to the manufacture of glass bottles.
He is perhaps better known for his invention in 1882 of the impulse steam turbine, now named after him, which ran at a speed of 30,000 r.p.m.. The energy delivered to the impulse turbine rotor depends on the kinetic energy of the steam rather than its pressure so that de Laval's turbine could work over a wide range of steam pressures, however it needed to run at very high speed to achieve reasonable efficiency. A major component of the innovation was the development of the nozzle needed to deliver high kinetic energy steam to the turbine blades. It was a counter intuitive design with a convergent-divergent, hourglass, shape which could increase the velocity of the steam jet to supersonic speeds. The de Laval flared nozzle principle is now almost universally used in high speed gas jet applications including rocket engine exhausts.
Unfortunately at the time, there were few available materials needed to handle the mechanical forces associated with the high speed design and the turbine initially achieved limited success. Centrifugal forces on the rotor are immense, there were no suitable bearings for carrying the heavy, high speed rotor, and the rotation speed was too fast for most applications so that complex reduction gearing was required. All of these problems were eventually solved and turbines based on de Laval's designs are quite common today.
See diagrams and principles of de Laval's Turbine and Nozzle.
Gustaf de Laval was a prolific designer but a poor businessman and, despite his 92 patents and 37 companies, he died in extreme poverty.
See also Armstrong's hydro-electric scheme which also came on stream the same year.
1879 After an intensive search, starting in 1878, for suitable incandescent materials Thomas Alva Edison patented the Carbon filament, incandescent electric light bulb in the USA.
History is written by the winners and a certain mythology has built up around Edison's inventive genius. The light bulb itself is synonymous with bright ideas but also with Thomas Edison himself. Forgotten however is English experimenter Warren de la Rue's 1840 incandescent lamp using a platinum filament in a partially evacuated glass tube. Forgotten also are all the previous patents for electric lights similar to Edison's using carbon filaments in evacuated bulbs or bulbs filled with inert gas. These included American John W Starr from Cincinnati who was granted a UK patent in 1845 for a carbon filament incandescent lamp which he successfully demonstrated to Michael Faraday. Unfortunately Starr was found dead in bed the day after the demonstration at the age of 25, it is said, of "excitement and overwork of the brain" and nothing further became of his invention. Forgotten too are the similar inventions of Alexander Lodygin in Russia (1872), Henry Woodward and Matthew Evans in Canada (1874) and Joseph Swan in the England (See previous two items) who demonstrated an almost identical lamp to the Newcastle Literary and Philosophical Society eight months before Edison's "breakthrough". Edison actually sued Swan for patent infringement and the matter was finally settled out of court when the rivals formed the Edison and Swan United Electric Company.
Although Swan got there first, at the time, the only source of domestic electrical energy generally available was the battery and so all the lighting development took place using DC/battery power and it was Edison who popularised the invention in 1882 by providing the necessary electricity generating and distribution systems to power the lamps which made electric lighting practical. See Edison's generators.
Considering that Edison's name is almost synonymous with the invention of the light bulb it is perhaps surprising to note that in 1883 the US Patent Office ruled that a prior invention patented in 1878 by William Sawyer and Albon Man took precedence.
See also Tesla (1887)
Despite the unfortunate ending in 1874 of Edison's relationship with William Orton the head of Western Union, in 1877 Edison was hired once more by Orton to try to break Bell's patents on the telephone. Orton is quoted as saying that "Edison had a vacuum where his conscience ought to be". The battlefield was to be the telephone transmitter where Bell's design was inadequate but several others were already working on this. Edison provided an innovative design but it also used ideas developed by others and Edison's rights to these were only settled after litigation. He was paid over $100,000 for his solution by Western Union and this gave him the funding and the independence he needed to develop his creative talent. Bell's lawyers later successfully overturned Orton's main patent challenges to Bell's system although Edison's patents on the carbon microphone were upheld.
Edison, became known as the Wizard of Menlo Park, where he employed an army of engineers working on development projects and an aggressive team of lawyers. He made his first patent application in 1868 when he was 21 years old and over his lifetime he was granted 1,093 U.S. patents including 106 in 1882. In addition he also filed an estimated 500-600 unsuccessful or abandoned applications. This amounts to two successful patents per week during his most productive period and a patent application on average every eight working days over his long working lifetime of sixty years. Considering that three of these inventions, the light bulb, the phonograph and the movie projector for which he is famous each took several years of development, and at the same time he had a large company to run, you have ask your self how much Edison himself contributed to the patents which bear his name.
See also the Current wars.
Canadian author Peter McArthur is quoted as saying in 1901 "Every successful enterprise requires three men: a dreamer, a businessman and a son-of-a-bitch". The giants of the industry seem to embody all three of these characteristics at the same time.
The tale of the light bulb is a re-run of the disputes and dirty dealings around the invention of telegraphy by Morse and Edison, Bell's telephony, Edison's carbon microphone and Bain's electric clock and Fax machine, stories and intrigues destined to be repeated with AC electrical power generation and distribution, radio (Marconi), radio and telephony (Pupin) and computers, and each new technology advance, though surprisingly the "invention" of the internet seems relatively free from such disputes and charlatans.
1879 Repeating the 1858 experiment of Plücker and Hittorf Sir William Crookes used a Geissler vacuum tube with an anode in the shape of a cross noticed that the cross cast a shadow on a zinc sulfide fluorescent coating on the end of the tube. He hypothesized that there must have been rays coming from the cathode which caused the zinc sulfide to fluoresce and the cross to create a shadow. He called these rays cathode rays. Crookes tubes were used by Röntgen in 1895 to demonstrate X-rays and by J. J. Thomson in 1897 in his discovery of the electron.
Crookes also invented the radiometer which detects the presence of radiation. It consists of an evacuated glass bulb in which lightweight metal vanes are mounted on a low friction spindle. Each vane is polished on one side, and blackened on the other. In sunlight, or exposed to a source of infrared radiation (even the heat of a hand nearby can be enough), the vanes turn with no apparent motive power.
Crookes was a believer in the occult and in the 1870's claimed to have verified the authenticity of psychic phenomena. He was knighted by Queen Victoria who, it is rumoured, had similar interests.
1879 American physicist Edwin Herbert Hall discovered that when a solid material carrying an electric current is placed in a magnetic field perpendicular to the current, a transverse electric field is created within the current carrier. Known as the Hall Effect in his honour. The voltage drop across the conductor at right angles to the current is called the Hall Voltage and is proportional to the external magnetic field. The phenomenon is now used in sensors for measuring magnetic field strength as well as current.
1879 Siemens Halske demonstrate an electric railway at an exhibition in Berlin. Power was provided from a separate generator which supplied the train via a third rail. A similar system was built in 1883 to run a commercial service along Brighton promenade in the UK by the son of a German clockmaker, Magnus Volk, an electrical engineer who had already completed the electric lighting of Brighton Pavilion. It was the world's first publicly operated electric railway when it opened and with some modifications his trains are still carrying passengers along the promenade today.
1879 Austrian physicist Josef Stefan formulated a law which states that the radiant energy of a blackbody is proportional to the fourth power of its temperature.
1879 After five years working as music professor, Welsh born American David Edward Hughes resigned in 1855 to patent a printing telegraph which became very successful in the USA and most of Europe, except Great Britain, bringing him international honours. In 1879 he invented the induction balance, the basis of the metal detector. It consists of two coils, one transmitting a low frequency signal and one connected to a receiver (detector) arranged in such a way that the receiver coil is close to, but shielded from, the transmitter coil so that in free space it does not pick up (detect) any signals from the transmitter. When the coils are brought near to a metal object, small perturbations in the magnetic field upset the balance between the coils causing a current to flow in the receiving coil thus indicating the presence of the metallic object.
The same year while working on his induction balance he noticed a clicking in a separate home made telephone ear-piece which was not connected in any way to the induction balance. He diagnosed this to be caused by a loose wire in his induction balance since the clicking stopped when the wire was firmly connected. He deduced that invisible waves, which he called aerial transmissions and which would today be called radio waves, were being emitted from a spark gap which occurred when the wire in the transmitting coil of the induction balance became disconnected and that the ear piece was picking them up. Investigating further he devised a clockwork device for opening and closing the spark gap and was able to pick up signals from the spark gap with his telephone receiver over ever greater distances, up to 500 yards, walking up and down Great Portland Street in London. Effectively he made the world's first mobile phone call. In 1880 Hughes demonstrated the phenomenon of radio communications to the Royal Society in London but the president, mathematician William Spottiswoode was not impressed. According to George Gabriel Stokes, Irish mathematician and physicist specialising in hydraulics and optics, who witnessed the demonstration, the phenomenon was explained by induction not radio waves. Discouraged, Hughes passed on to other interests and did not pursue his discovery. Eight years later Hertz was credited with the discovery of radio waves.
1880 The brothers Pierre and Jacques Curie predicted and demonstrated piezoelectricity. See more about the quartz crystal and piezoelectricity.
1880 Emile Alphonse Fauré in France patented pasted plates for manufacturing lead-acid batteries. The lead plates were coated with a paste of lead dioxide and sulphuric acid which greatly increased the capacity of the cells and reduced the formation time. This was a significant breakthrough which led directly to the industrial manufacture of lead-acid batteries.
1880 Herman Hammesfahr, a German immigrant to the USA, was awarded a patent for a durable and flame retardant fibreglass cloth with the diameter and texture of silk fibres. He showed a glass dress at the 1893 Chicago World Fair. (Also attributed to American glass manufacturer Edward Drummond Libbey founder of Owens-Illinois).
1881 Improvements to the Leclanché cell, to avoid leakage, by encapsulating both the negative electrode and porous pot into a sealed zinc cup were patented by J.A. Thiebaut.
1881 The first electric torch or flashlight patented by English inventors Ebenezer Burr and William Thomas Scott. The original lamps were designed as portable table lamps and powered by a wet cell battery in a waterproof box. At the time the first power station had not yet been commissioned and there were no households wired up for mains electricity. More convenient portable versions of the torch using the recently invented dry cells were introduced starting in 1883. They quickly became popular for bicycle and miners lamps.
1881 Lead acid rechargeable batteries were first used to power an electric car by M. G. Touvé in France.
1881 The first International Electric Congress or International Conference of Electricians convened in Paris to define the international terms for the electrical units of electromotive force (Volt), resistance (Ohm), current (Ampère) The Congress also specified the manner and conditions in which the units were to be measured. Up to this time there had been at least twelve different units of electromotive force, ten different units of current, and fifteen different units of resistance.
The standard Ohm was defined by the resistance of a specified column of mercury, the standard Ampère by the current which deposits metallic silver at a specified rate from a silver nitrate solution and the standard Volt was defined by the EMF produced by an electrical circuit passing through an electrical field at a specified rate. However since most laboratories were not equipped to generate a standard Volt in the specified manner, and in any case they used batteries to provide their source of electric potential, a new voltage standard was devised, based on the EMF produced by a standard Clark cell and this was adopted at the fourth International Electric Congress in Chicago in 1893. Unfortunately with the three standards each based on independent measured quantities, Volts did not always equal Amps multiplied by Ohms and the voltage standard had to be changed once more. The 1908 International Congress in London consequently changed the Volt to a derived unit based on the standard Ampère and standard Ohm.
1881 American engineer Frederick Winslow Taylor working at the Midvale Steel company introduced Time and Motion Studies or Work Study and Method Studies to streamline manufacturing and eliminate unnecessary work. They enabled major efficiency savings to be made and became the foundation of Scientific Management.
1881 Patent granted to William Wiley Smith for the induction telegraph used to communicate with moving trains. Soon afterwards improved versions were invented independently by Lucius J. Phelps (1884), Edison (1885) and black American Granville T, Woods (1887). The system consisted of a track-side wire or rail which could pick up signals from an induction coil mounted on the train, essentially acting as the primary and secondary windings of a transformer. The forerunner of the mobile phone.
Similar systems, based on the same principle, were also used for fixed wireless communications before the discovery of radio (Hertzian) waves.
1882 French physicist and physician Jacques Arsène d'Arsonval invented the moving coil galvanometer. It had shaped pole pieces which enabled it to have a linear scale and became the basis of all modern electromechanical analogue panel meters.
1882 Nikola Tesla, working in Budapest, identified the rotating magnetic field principle and the following year used it to design a two-phase induction motor.
1882 French chemists Felix de Lalande and Georges Chaperon introduce the first battery to use alkaline electrolyte, the Lalande-Chaperon cell, the predecessor of the Nickel-Cadmium cell. Using electrodes of Zinc and Copper Oxide with a Potassium Hydroxide electrolyte, it was rechargeable and produced a voltage of 0.85 Volts.
Up to that point, all batteries had used acidic electrolytes. They chose to investigate alkaline rather than acidic electrolytes because electrodes of most metals and their compounds are attacked by the acid. Lead is one of the few metals resisting the acids but it is very heavy and a weight savings would be secured by using almost any other metal.
1882 English amateur scientist James Wimshurst invented the Wimshurst Electrostatic Generator, the first machine capable of generating high voltage static electricity that was unaffected by atmospheric humidity. Static electrical charges of opposite polarity built up on its two fourteen and a half inch (38 cm) contra-rotating discs sufficient to draw a four and a half inch (12 cm) spark. Since the breakdown voltage for air is 30,000 Volts per centimetre, this small table top machine was capable of generating over 300,000 Volts. As a reliable source of high voltage electricity, it not only provided a practical power source for X-ray machines, but it was a boon to Victorian experimenters enabling them to carry out serious scientific investigations or to carry out dubious experiments in electrotherapy. Wimshurst's basic design is still used in electrical laboratories today.
James Wimshurst was the son of British ship builder Henry Wimshurst who built the Archimedes, the world's first propeller driven steamship, using the screw propeller patented in 1836 by John Ericsson. The Archimedes was used to lay the first successful Atlantic cable in 1866, replacing the ill fated 1858 original cable.
1882 Ayrton and Perry in England build an electric tricycle with a range of 10 to 25 miles powered by a lead acid battery and sporting electric lights for the first time. (Four years before the first Internal Combustion Engine car by Karl Benz)
1882 British engineer, James Atkinson patented modifications to the spark ignition, four stroke, internal combustion engine to circumvent Otto's patent. The design used a complex crankshaft arrangement to provide a longer exhaust (power) stroke than the induction stroke to improve the efficiency of heat cycle. The penalty was a more complicated mechanical mechanism as well as a larger, heavier engine. The industry however preferred the simpler Otto design and Atkinson's design did not achieve commercial success in his lifetime. Recently however the design is making a comeback as fuel efficiency becomes a priority.
1882 In a display of optimism the first small domestic electrical appliances begin to appear, three months before power was available from the first electricity generating station. The electric fan, a two bladed desk fan was invented by Schuyler Skaats Wheeler manufactured by Crocker and Curtis electric motor company and the electric safety iron was invented by New Yorker Henry W. Seely.
1882 The world's first two large scale central electricity generating plants or power stations were completed by the Edison Electric Lighting Company. The first practical DC electrical power plants had already been installed in 1878, including a steam driven plant in Germany by Sigmund Schuckert and a hydroelectric scheme in the UK by Willam Armstrong. The first of Edison's generators to come on stream in April was at Holborn Viaduct in London providing DC Power for 2000 electric lamps. The second, in September, was at Pearl Street Station in New York City's financial district, supplying 82 customers with power for 400 lamps, increasing to 508 customers with 10,164 lamps two years later. Reciprocating, coal fired, Porter and Allen steam engines provided the motive power (about 900 horsepower) to 27 ton direct-current (DC) dynamos which produced 100 Kilowatts of power at 110 Volts. The overall energy efficiency is estimated at 6%.
Just 26 days after Edison's steam driven dynamos at Pearl Street were fired up, his hydroelectric dynamo at the Vulcan Street Plant on the Fox River at Appleton, Wisconsin came on stream supplying 12.5 kW of DC electric power to a home and two paper mills owned by a Mr R.H. Rogers. It was the first hydroelectric scheme in the world to supply commercial customers.
The project was instigated by Rogers, who was president of the Appleton Paper and Pulp Company and also of the Appleton Gas Light Company, after he heard about Edison's plans for Pearl Street. Being a ready-made user as well as having a ready-made customer, Rogers persuaded a group of investors to join him in funding the project.
Edison's DC generator was driven by a 42 inch (1 m) diameter Elmer pivot-gate, hydraulic turbine fed from a ten foot (3 m) head and running at a speed of 72 rpm. It was designed and patented by an inventor named Elmer from Berlin, Wisconsin and manufactured by a local company, Morgan and Bassett. Edison obviously had a much better public relations team than Elmer since this development is forever associated with Edison and Elmer's important contribution to this landmark project has been almost forgotten with information about him being almost impossible to find.
Despite these early breakthroughs, Edison's DC distribution scheme lost out to Tesla and Westinghouse's more efficient AC distribution scheme in the War of the Currents.
1882 Young American engineer William Joseph Hammer testing light bulbs for Edison noted a faint blue glow around the one side of the filament in an evacuated bulb and a blackening of the wire and the bulb at the other side, a phenomenon which was first called Hammer's Phantom Shadow. In an attempt to keep the inside of the electric lamps free of soot he placed a metal plate inside the evacuated bulb and connected a wire to it. He noted the unidirectional or "one-way" current flow from the incandescent filament across the vacuum to the metal plate but he was unable to explain it or realise its significance at the time. It was in fact due to the thermionic emission of electrons (not discovered until 1897 by J.J Thomson) from the hot electrode of the filament, flowing to the cold electrode of the plate creating in effect a vacuum diode or valve. In 1884 Edison was awarded a patent for a device using this effect to monitor variations in the output from electrical generators. The indicator proved ineffective however Hammer's discovery of thermionics was henceforth known as the Edison effect. The Edison effect is the basis of all the vacuum tube devices and thus the foundation of the electronics industry in the early 20th century. The first practical vacuum tube diode was patented by Fleming in 1904.
1882 English engineer John Hopkinson, an advocate of DC electricity generation and distribution systems, patented a three-wire, DC transmission system to supply two independent loads or a single load with double the voltage. (Not to be confused with Tesla, Dobrovolski, Wenström's later three phase AC distribution system which was carried on four wires). Hopkinson's system used one common wire between both circuits which enabled two, two-wire circuits to be supplied from a single generator with an output voltage of double the voltage of the individual circuits. He demonstrated the principle of load balancing to minimise the current flowing in the common, neutral line when two different DC motor loads are connected to the two parallel arms of his system. The system saved between 25 and 50 percent of the copper required for the conductors, depending on the balance between the loads. As in many other cases, Edison claimed the invention to be his.
In 1884 Hopkinson also published a paper analysing the synchronisation of parallel AC generators connected to similar systems. See more about Maintaining Grid Frequency Stability.
Hopkinson died tragically at the age of 49, together with three of his six children, in a mountaineering accident in Switzerland.
1883 Edison patents the fuse.
1883 Charles Edgar Fritts an American inventor built the first practical PhotoVoltaic module by coating selenium wafers with an ultra thin, almost transparent layer of gold. The energy conversion efficiency of these early devices was less than 1%. Denounced as a fraud in the USA for "generating power without consuming matter, thus violating the laws of physics" the idea of solar cells was taken up and commercialised by Siemens in Germany.
1883 Irish physicist George Francis FitzGerald suggests that Maxwell's theory of electromagnetic waves indicates that radio waves can be produced by an oscillating electric current.
1884 In an attempt to simplify Maxwell's Equations British engineer, physicist and mathematician Oliver Heaviside developed the branch of mathematics known as vector calculus. Maxwell expressed his theory with a cumbersome series of 20 partial differential equations with 20 variables representing the electric and magnetic fields. The equations for the fields were dependent on the coordinate system used. In each of cartesian, polar or spherical coordinate systems, three different equations were needed to represent the three possible components of the field directions. Heaviside defined the new vector operators, GRAD, DIV and CURL which enabled him to rewrite Maxwell's equations in vector notation, in a form which is independent of the coordinate system, with only four equations with four variables. Maxwell's equations are now, normally presented in the form developed by Heaviside.
Heaviside contributed much to communications theory but sadly remained unrecognised in his lifetime. In 1880 he patented the coaxial cable. In 1887 he investigated the causes of distortion in transmission lines showing mathematically that it was due to the distributed capacitance along the line, and more importantly, that it could be corrected or reduced by adding distributed inductance along the line. His suggestion to install induction coils at intervals along transmission lines was turned down by William Preece the assistant chief of the British Post Office who controlled the lines and it was published without fanfare in "The Electrician". The idea however was taken up in America by AT&T and by Michael Pupin a Columbia University lecturer in mathematical physics. Pupin subsequently patented the idea of inductive loading coils in 1899 and "Pupin coils" were implemented by AT&T throughout their network enabling them to increase dramatically the range of their telegraph and telephone cables. The patent made him extremely wealthy, much to Heaviside's chagrin, not so much for the money, which was never important to him, but for the recognition which he felt he deserved. While initially acknowledging Heaviside's contribution, Pupin changed his stance when the value of his patent became clear. His autobiography, "From Immigrant to Inventor", an example of the American dream, won him a Pulitzer Prize. In it, he rubs salt into Heaviside's wounds by mockingly crediting inspiration for "his invention" to a herdsman from his native Serbia who showed him how to send sound signals by tapping on the ground.
Heaviside is remembered today more for his 1902 prediction, published in the Encyclopaedia Brittanica, of the ionised layer in the upper atmosphere which reflected radio waves making long distance radio transmission possible by bending the radio wave around the curvature of the Earth. Known as the Heavisde Layer, or the Kennelly-Heaviside Layer since Arthur Edwin Kennelly an expatriate Briton working in the USA also independently made the same prediction at the same time, its existence was verified in 1924 by Edward Victor Appleton.
Heaviside's life was not a happy one. He was not a wealthy man and worked much of his life with no regular income. His mathematics were difficult to understand even by the most technically literate and the injustice of Pupin's exploitation of his ideas affected him greatly. An embittered man, he never married, living an eccentric existence in bare rooms furnished with granite blocks. In later life his appearance became more and more unkempt and children would taunt him in the street, shouting "Poop. Poop. Pupin".
1884 British engineer, Charles Algernon Parsons, graduated apprentice of William Armstrong, produced his first steam turbine in 1884. Coupled to a dynamo of his own design it generated 7.5 kW of electricity, but failed to generate any commercial interest in it. One of his key innovations was the compound reaction turbine which used a set of stator blades to redirect the steam after it had passed through the first rotor blades so that it could be directed through a second rotor and hence to further rotor/stator pairs. This allowed much higher power outputs and efficiencies to be achieved. See photographs of Parsons turbine showing the blades.
To publicise his invention, in 1894 he took out a patent on the turbine and commissioned a 100 foot long steel boat, the Turbinia, to demonstrate its capability. Initially he did not achieve the desired speed through the water as its propellers, rotating at 18,000 rpm, suffered from the previously unheard of problem of cavitation and churned up the water as bubbles formed behind the blades due to sudden pressure reduction. However by slowing down the turbine and modifying the propellers he was able to achieve a speed of 34.5 knots from a 2,300 hp turbine. Still his target customer, the Admiralty, was unimpressed. According to Parson's biographer Ken Smith, Parsons dictum was "If you believe in a principle, never damage it with a poor impression. You must go all the way". His opportunity came at the 1897 Spithead Naval Review of 160 of the navy's ships, arranged to show off the might of the Royal Navy to Queen Victoria and invited foreign dignitaries on the sixtieth anniversary of the queen's accession to the throne. The navy's best boats were capable of no more than 30 knots and the Turbinia astonished the gathered crowd by steaming up and down the navy's lines leaving their fastest boats in her wake. The steam turbine's future was assured. Today 86% of the world's electricity is generated using steam turbines.
See more about Steam Turbines and how they work.
1884 Charles Renard uses a Zinc/Chlorine Flow Battery to power his air ship La France with the chlorine being supplied by an on board chemical reactor containing Chromium Trioxide and Hydrochloric Acid.
1884 Swedish chemist Svante August Arrhenius working at the University of Uppsala published his PhD thesis on the Galvanic Conductivity of Electrolytes explaining the process by which some compounds conduct electricity when in solution. He proposed that when a compound like table salt NaCl (sodium chloride) was dissolved in water, it dissociated into positively and negatively charged "ions" (Greek for "the ones that move" or "wanderers") Na+ and Cl- whose motions constituted a current. These ions drift freely through the solution but when positive and negative electrodes are introduced into the electrolyte, as in electrolysis, the ions drift towards the electrode of opposite polarity. He defined acids as any substance, which when dissolved in water, tends to increase the amount of H+ hydrogen ions and bases as any substance, which when dissolved in water, tends to increase the amount of OH- hydroxide ions. (These definitions do not cover all possibilities which are now known to exist).
His 1884 thesis was treated with disbelief and was given the lowest passing grade at the time, however he was vindicated with the discovery of the electron by J J Thomson in 1897 and his disparaged thesis won him the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1903.
In 1887 Arrhenius was the first to develop the theory quantifying the rate at which chemical reactions proceed, now known as Arrhenius Law.
In 1896 Arrhenius was also the first to describe the "Greenhouse Effect" and its causes.
1884 French chemist Henri Louis Le Chatelier discovered the chemical equivalent of Lenz Law of electromagnetism. It was published in simpler form 4 years later as: "If the conditions of a system, initially at equilibrium, are changed, the equilibrium will shift in such a direction as to tend to restore the original conditions". The conditions refer to concentration, temperature and pressure. Le Chatelier's Principle allows you to predict which way the equilibrium will move when you change the reaction conditions, and helps provide ways to increase the yield in a chemical reaction.
1884 German engineering student Paul Gottlieb Nipkow patents an electromechanical image scanning system the basis for television raster scanning. The system was made possible by use of the photoconductive properties of the element selenium recently discovered by Fritts. Previous attempts at transmitting images such as Redmond's had used one channel, or pair of wires, to transmit each picture element. Nipkow's design needed only one pair of wires for transmitting the image. He used a rotating disk with holes, through which the scene could be observed, arranged circumferentially around the disc in a spiral between the centre and the edge. Light passing through the holes as the disk rotated, impinged on a selenium photocell, generating an electrical signal proportional to the brightness of the scene which could be transmitted down wires to a receiver. As the disk rotated it produced a rectangular scanning pattern or raster which scanned the scene. The number of scanned lines was equal to the number of holes and each rotation of the disk produced a television frame. A similar Nipkow disc, synchronised with the transmitter disc, was used in the receiver and the received electrical signal was used to to vary the brightness of a light source illuminating a projection screen. The light passing through the rotating disk formed a raster on the projection screen allowing an image to be built up. Like all television systems, it depended on the principle of "persistence of vision" and rapid scanning was needed to ensure that it worked. This was the first example of transmitting moving images electrically down a wire however it is not clear whether Nipkow actually built a working system. The signals from the selenium were very low and needed amplification for a practical system and it was not until 1907 that De Forest's audion made this possible.
1885 German physicist Eugen Goldstein using a cathode ray tube with a perforated cathode discovered rays of positively charged particles emerging from holes on the sides of the cathode and moving in the opposite direction of cathode rays. He called these rays Canal rays. The particles were later determined by Wien to be protons with a mass almost 2000 times the mass of an electron.
1885 Italian physicist Galileo Ferraris discovered the rotating magnetic field that he applied to the first 4 pole induction motor. He did not patent his invention but offered it freely to "the service of mankind". In 1888 he published a paper describing an electrical alternator and around the same time a similar device was patented by Tesla.
1885 Russian Nikolai Benardos and Polish Stanislav Olszewski were granted a patent for an electric arc welder with a carbon electrode. They are considered the inventors of modern welding apparatus although electric arc welding was first proposed by Lindsay fifty years earlier in 1835.
1885 Engineers from the Ganz factory in Hungary, Ottó Titusz Bláthy, Miksa Déri and Károly Zipernowsky demonstrated at the National Exhibition in Budapest, a high voltage alternating current distribution system using toroidal transformers which they also designed. The entire exhibition was illuminated by 1,067 X 100 Volt incandescent lamps supplied by 75 transformers taking their power from a 1,350 Volt 70 Hz distribution system.
In modern day power transformers the windings are usually wound around a laminated iron (Silicon steel) core (either directly or on a former). The Ganz transformers at the time provided a breakthrough in efficiency because of their unique construction which improved the transformer's magnetic circuit. The primary and secondary windings were first wound together in the shape of an annular ring and this formed the core of a torus. The magnetic circuit was made by toroidally winding thousands of turns of iron wire around the copper windings, completely encasing them in magnetic material which almost filled the inner space of the ring.
Bláthy also patented the first alternating-current kilowatt-hour meter in 1889.
1885 German mechanical engineer, Karl Friedrich Benz designed and built the world's first practical automobile to be powered by an internal combustion engine. It was a "three wheeler", powered by a water cooled 958cc, 0.75hp four stroke engine based on Nicolaus Otto's patent with electric ignition and differential gears. He was granted a patent for the gasoline fuelled "motor carriage" the following year and built his first four wheeled car in 1891. His invention marked the start of the slow demise of the battery driven car.
1886 After Bláthy's demonstrations of alternating current power distribution the previous year, New Yorker, William Stanley Jr in the USA patented the "Induction Coil", invented by Michael Faraday in 1831, what we would now call a transformer. This opened the door to the widespread use of AC power for domestic applications. Battery power, once the only source of electricity in the home, now had a serious competitor.
1886 Carl Gassner of Mainz patented the carbon-zinc dry cell which made batteries the convenient power source they are today. It used the basic Leclanché (1868) cell chemistry with zinc as its primary ingredient with the chemicals being encased in a sealed zinc container which acted as the negative electrode. A carbon rod immersed in a manganese dioxide/carbon black mixture served as the positive electrode. Initially the electrolyte was ammonium chloride soaked into the separator which was made of paper, but by adding zinc chloride to the electrolyte the wasteful corrosion of zinc when the cell was idle was reduced - adding considerably to the shelf life. A bitumen seal prevented leakage. Although the technology has been refined by over a century of development, the concepts and chemistry are the same as Gassner's first cells.
Previously most wet primary cells could be recharged mechanically by replacing the spent chemicals. The used electrolyte could then be recycled to recover the basic constituents. The advent of the dry cell marked the beginning of the single use, throwaway, primary cell since it was no longer easy or possible for the user to replace or replenish the active chemicals.
1886 Patent granted to American chemist Charles Martin Hall for the electrolytic process for extracting aluminium from its bauxite ore, aluminium oxide or alumina. His discovery was made in a laboratory he set up at home, using home made Bunsen batteries, shortly after finishing his undergraduate studies. The process was discovered simultaneously by French chemist Paul Héroult and is now called the Hall-Héroult process.
Aluminium is the most abundant metal and the third most abundant element in the Earth's crust but, because it is highly chemically reactive, it does not occur in nature as a free metal. Before Hall discovered a practical way of extracting it from its ore, aluminium metal was extremely rare and cost more than gold.
On an industrial scale the process uses enormous amounts of electricity, consequently aluminium extraction plants are normally located close to the sources of cheap hydroelectric power.
Hall went on to found ALCOA, the Aluminium Company of America.
See also Héroult
1886 English inventor Herbert Akroyd Stuart built the first compression ignition engine which he patented in 1890. In subsequent patent disputes with Rudolf Diesel who patented a similar engine in 1893, Akroyd Smith's claim to priority was upheld.
1887 Kelvin patented the electrostatic voltmeter.
1887 The Michelson-Morley experiment to determine the properties of the luminiferous aether (also called the "ether") and their influence on the speed of light was carried out in Cleveland, Ohio by Albert A. Michelson professor of physics at the Case School of Applied Science, and Edward W. Morley professor of chemistry at Western Reserve University.
At the time, the results of their experiment did not confirm the prevailing theory or conventional wisdom and the experiment was judged to be a failure. It was later realised however that it was the theory which was faulty, not the experiment, and that they had discovered a most important physical phenomenon.
For 200 years after Boyle had shown that sound can not be transmitted through a vacuum, scientists had theorised that light must similarly require a medium to support the transmission of its wave motions. They called this medium the luminiferous aether (from the Greek "light bearing substance") and since light can be received from distant stars, they speculated that this aether must fill the Universe. Since light can travel through a vacuum, it was assumed that even a vacuum must also be filled with this mysterious aether and since material bodies can pass through it without obvious friction or drag it must have an unusual combination of properties. The Michelson-Morely experiment was set up to investigate these properties.
Since it was assumed that the aether permeated the entire Universe, it must therefore be fixed and the movement through this stationary aether of the Earth as it orbits around the Sun at a speed of over 67,500 mph (108,000 km/h) would be experienced by observers on the Earth as an aether wind. This wind would either increase or decrease the speed of light depending on the direction of the Earth with respect to the direction of the wind.
It was reasoned that, the speed of light would be constant with respect to the proposed stationary aether, but if the Earth was moving with respect to the aether then that motion could be detected by comparing the speed of light in the direction of the Earth's motion and the speed of light at right angles to the Earth's motion.
Assuming the speed of light with respect to the stationary aether is c, light travelling perpendicular to the direction of the aether wind will also be c. However with an aether wind speed of v, we would expect the speed of light travelling in the same direction as the aether wind, but upstream against the wind, to be diminished from c to c-v while the speed of light travelling downstream with the wind would be augmented from c to c+v.
Using the above assumptions, the expected average speed c' of the light beam travelling back and forth in the same direction as the aether wind will be slower at c' >= c (1- v2/c2). This is because the time gained from travelling downwind is less than the time lost travelling upwind. Since v is very much smaller than c, the speed difference between the two perpendicular paths will also be very small and difficult to measure.
Michelson had the solution to this problem. In 1881 he had constructed an interferometer, a sensitive optical device that compares the optical path lengths for light moving in two mutually perpendicular directions. See diagram of Michelson's Interferometer and an explanation of its functions.
The Michelson-Morley experiment used an adapted version of Michelson's interferometer and expected to find interference fringes due to the different light speeds, and the consequent different transit times over equal distances, of light beams travelling in the same direction of the aether wind compared with light beams travelling perpendicular to the aether wind. They mounted their apparatus on top of a large block of sandstone about a foot (30 cms) thick and five feet (1.5 M) square, and floated it in a circular trough of mercury to minimise vibrations and to allow the set up to be rotated so that measurements could be taken with respect to any angle of the Earth's direction through space. One arm or light path was aligned with the direction of travel as the Earth, the other perpendicular to it.
To their chagrin, no difference in the light speeds between the paths was found and they initially believed that they had failed. Despite repeating the measurements many times over as well as making modifications and improvements to their equipment, still no difference in light speeds between the two directions was found.
Attempts to explain this puzzling result were made in 1889 by Irish physicist George Fitzgerald and by Dutch physicist Hendrik Lorentz in 1892. They hypothesised that the aether did exist and that the pressure of the assumed aether wind on the arm of the interferometer in line with the wind would cause the arm to contract and this shorter distance could compensate exactly for the supposed slower speed of light against the wind along this arm. This would in turn explain the lack of destructive interference between the light travelling along the interferomter's two perpendicular paths. According to their calculations the length L of the arm in the direction of the aether wind would contract by an amount equal to equal to L/γ where γ (gamma) = 1/√(1-v2/c2) and v is the difference between the speed of light in the two perpendicular interferometer arms. Simultaneously, the time for light t to traverse both ways along the interferometer arm in the direction of the aether wind would increase to tγ. The correction factor gamma γ was later named the Lorentz transformation in honour of Lorentz.
Unfortunately their hypothesis was proved to be incorrect and the subsequent measurements have all confirmed the absence of a luminiferous aether.
The momentous conclusion was that the luminiferous aether did not exist and that the speed of light in a vacuum is the same for all observers, regardless of the motion of the light source. By inference from Maxwell's recently (1873) formulated laws, the same conclusions also apply to electromagnetic radiation.
The Michelson-Morley experiment ultimately led to the proposal by Albert Einstein in 1905 that the speed of light is a universal constant.
Michelson was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1907, becoming the first American to win the Nobel Prize in Physics.
1887 Arrhenius publishes the equation named after him showing the exponential relationship between the rate at which a chemical action proceeds and its temperature, the rate doubling with each 10°C rise in temperature.
1887 American inventor Elihu Thomson patents the electric welding (resistance welding) process. The technique used for making battery interconnections.
1887 By 1887 huge strides had been made in the electrical power industry since the invention of the first practical dynamo 20 years earlier.
1887 - 1890 Croatian-born physicist Nikola Tesla filed for numerous US patents on AC distribution systems and polyphase induction motors and generators based on the polyphase rotating field principle he discovered in 1882. This enabled inexpensive and unlimited electric power to be brought to the home consumer thus sealing the fate of the DC system and the use of DC in domestic applications.
Contracted for $50,000 by Thomas Edison (a promoter of DC transmission) to improve his DC dynamos Tesla worked night and day to deliver the solutions on time a year later to Edison but Edison refused to pay saying he had been a joking about the contract. Tesla resigned in disgust and went to work for George Westinghouse promoter of AC distribution and Edison's arch rival. Edison with some success, spent the rest of his life trying to undermine Tesla.
For two years after Tesla left, Edison staged a morbid public relations campaign in what became known as the notorious current wars to demonstrate that the Westinghouse AC distribution system was dangerous by promoting the AC powered electric chair for carrying out the death penalty and calling such executions "Westinghousing". At the same time he arranged public executions of farm animals which he attended personally in the courtyard of his laboratory using AC power, starting with dogs and escalating to calves then horses. (The original electric chair using high voltage and direct current (DC) as a means of humane execution had been invented in 1881 by New York steam-boat engineer, dentist Alfred P. Southwick.)
Edison's system itself was responsible for a number of deaths due to mechanical failure or ignorance as the deceptively similar high voltage wires were installed overhead near to the more familiar low voltage telegraph wires.
In 1915 Reuters and the New york Times carried reports that Tesla and Edison were to share the Nobel Prize for physics. Mystery surrounds what happened next, but no such prize was awarded and it is claimed that Edison, whose fame and wealth were secure, turned down the award to deprive Tesla of a much needed $20,000. Others claim Tesla himself turned it down not wanting to be associated with Edison whom he called "a mere inventor". The Nobel Foundation did not deny that Tesla and Edison had been their first choices.
Despite having over 800 patents Tesla died penniless.
1887 British engineer, born in Liverpool, with the distinctly un-British name of Sebastian Pietro Innocenzo Adhemar Ziani de Ferranti, (his father was a photographer and his grandfather, Guitarist to the King of Belgians), designed the generation and distribution systems for Deptford Power Station (1887-1890), which at that time was the largest in the world. Power was supplied by four single phase 1000 kW, 10,000 Volts, 85 cycle/sec alternators. Ferranti pioneered the use of Alternating Current for the distribution of electrical power in Europe authoring 176 patents on the alternator, high-tension cables, insulation, circuit breakers, transformers and turbines.
Ferranti also designed the first flexible high voltage cables for power distribution using wax-impregnated paper for insulation, a technique which was used exclusively until synthetic materials became available.
In the same year Ferranti also patented the induction furnace in which materials are heated by eddy currents induced within the material itself, generated by placing the material in the magnetic field of an induction coil.
1887 British physiologist Augustus Waller of St. Mary's Medical School in London published the first human electrocardiogram - recorded by lab technician Thomas Goswell.
1887 Fibreglass invented again by Charles Vernon Boys a physics demonstrator at the London's Royal College of Science who produced glass fibre strands by using the end of an arrow fired from a miniature crossbow to draw strands of molten glass from a heated vessel.
1887 German physicist Heinrich Rudolf Hertz discovered the photoelectric effect, that physical materials emit charged particles (electrons) when they absorb radiant energy. During electromagnetic wave experiments he noticed that a spark would jump more readily between two electrically charged spheres when there surfaces were illuminated by the light from the other spark. Light shining on their surfaces seemed to facilitate the escape of electrons.
The photoelectric effect was not explained until 1905 by Albert Einstein who used quantum theory proposed in 1900 by Max Planck.
1888 Heinrich Hertz is generally considered to be the first to transmit and receive radio waves. (But see also Hughes 1880). Hertz demonstrated the existence of electromagnetic waves, predicted by Maxwell in 1864 and justified theoretically by him in 1873, by transmitting an electrical disturbance between two unconnected spark gaps situated 1.5 metres apart. He set up a wire loop containing spark gap (the transmitter) through which a large spark was deliberately generated. This caused a small spark to jump across another spark gap (the detector) at the ends of a similar wire loop situated near to but not connected to the transmitting loop. The wire loops were effectively the world's first radio transmitting and receiving antennas.
He showed that radio waves travel in straight lines and can be reflected by a metal sheet.
Hertz died of a brain tumour at the age of 36 without ever seeing the practical applications which resulted from his discoveries. The unit of frequency is named the Hertz in his honour.
Like Hughes who discovered the phenomenon before him, Hertz failed to see the potential of radio for communications. Hertz told one of his pupils " I don't see any useful purpose for this mysterious, invisible electromagnetic energy".
Hertz' (or should we say "Maxwell's") radio waves now form the basis of all broadcast radio and television, radar, satellite navigation, mobile phones and much of the backbone of the world's communications systems. Maxwell provided the theoretical basis for the technology, Hertz showed it was possible but there were many, many worthy contributors whose inventions were needed to make it happen. Each country had its national champions who invented transmitters, receivers, antennas, tuners, detectors, filters, oscillators, amplifiers, transducers, displays, batteries and other components and a variety of coding, modulation, multiplexing, compression, encryption schemes, communications protocols and software. There were however five players associated with the fundamental developments in radio technology whose contrasting fortunes are worth mentioning briefly here namely: Marconi, Fessenden, Armstrong, Watson-Watt and Dippy.
1888 German physicist Wilhelm Ludwig Franz Hallwachs discovers another example of photoelectric emission. (Becquerel's was the first). Following up Hertz' experiments on how light affected the intensity of spark discharges, he noticed that the charge on an insulated, negatively charged plate leaked away slowly but when it was illuminated with ultraviolet light the charge leaked away very quickly. On the other hand a positively charged plate was unaffected by the light. This phenomenon, now known as the Hallwachs effect, was later explained to be due to the emission of electrons from certain metallic substances when exposed to light. It is the basis of the modern photocell. Note that this is different from the photovoltaic effect in solar cells.
1888 Spanish naval officer Isaac Peral built the first electrically powered submarine.
Later the same year the French launched Gymnôte, a 60 foot submarine designed by Gustave Zede. It was driven by a 55 horse power electric motor, originally powered by 564 Lalande Chaperon alkaline cells by Coumelin, Desmazures et Baillache with a total capacity of 400 Amphours weighing 11 tons and delivering a maximum current of 166 Amps. These batteries were replaced in 1891 by 204 Laurent-Cely Lead acid cells, which were in turn replaced in 1897. Although the batteries were rechargeable, they could not be charged at sea.
An electric submarine was also built by Polish inventor Stefan Drzewiecki for the Russian Tzar in 1884.
1888 Austrian botanist Friedrich Reinitzer investigating the behaviour of cholesterol in plants observed cholesteryl benzoate changing into its liquid crystal state, nine years before the invention of the CRT. For nearly a hundred years afterwards liquid crystals remained little more than a chemical curiosity until they were eventually adopted for use in LCD displays. See Dreyer (1950) and Fergason (1969)
1888 An irate Kansas City undertaker Almon B. Strowger patented the automatic telephone exchange.
When Alexander Bell first started selling telephones, he sold them in pairs because the few subscribers that there were at the time could connect to eachother directly. As the number of telephones grew, the need quickly arose to be able to connect to more than one subscriber, but running telephone lines from each subscriber to every other subscriber was impractical so the telephone exchange with a manual switchboard was born. Each subscriber was connected to a switchboard at the exchange. When a subscriber wanted to make a call he would call the exchange and the telephone operator would connect his line to the called party line via a cable on the switchboard to complete the circuit. Strowger was infuriated by this system, since there was another undertaker in town who happened to be friends with the telephone operator and whenever someone called the operator asking to be put through to an undertaker, all the calls went to his competitor. He therefore set about designing an automatic exchange that would eliminate the need for operators.
In Strowger's design the telephone dial sent a series of pulses corresponding to each digit of the telephone number. At the telephone exchange the dial pulses would step a 10 position, rotary selector switch, called a uniselector, to a telephone line corresponding to the digit. For multi-digit telephone numbers, each line of the uniselector corresponding to the first digit was connected to a second uniselector, so that 100 lines could be accessed with 11 uniselectors. By adding a third stage, with 100 more uniselectors, 1000 subscribers could be accessed. In practice the uniselectors were designed as two-motion selectors with two dialling stages in one bank making 100 possible connections. The first stage was a rotary movement and the second stage was a linear movement with the selector stage moving up and down to connect to a set of contacts arranged vertically. This system formed the backbone of telephone communications in many countries of the world for almost 100 years.
Interestingly, before the familiar rotary telephone dial was invented, Strowger's first telephone sets used push button dialling, which required the caller to provide the pulses by tapping on the keys.
1888 AT&T engineer, Hammond V. Hayes developed the common battery system which permitted a central battery to supply all telephones on an exchange with power, rather than relying upon each subscriber's own troublesome power supply. It allowed all telephone signalling and speech to be powered from single large central 24 Volt lead acid batteries mounted in central telephone exchanges, eliminating the need for magnetos and Leclanché cells to be installed in every subscriber's premises. The system is still in use today.
1889 Elihu Thomson invents the motor driven recording wattmeter.
1889 Russian engineer Michail Osipovich Dolivo-Dobrovolski working for AEG in Germany made the first squirrel cage induction motor. In 1891 he demonstrated a complete end to end system with three phase electrical generators delivering power to three phase induction motors over a three phase electricity transmission system.
1889 America's first alternating current (AC) hydroelectric power generating station was put into service at Willamette Falls, Oregon. Using Westinghouse generators it was also America's first AC transmission system providing single phase power at 4000 Volts which was transmitted to Portland 14 miles away where it was stepped down to 50 Volts for distribution and used to power the street lights.
1889 Walther Hermann Nernst a German physical chemist applied the principles of thermodynamics to the chemical reactions proceeding in a battery. He formulated an equation (now called the Nernst Equation) for calculating the cell voltage taking into account the electrode potentials, the temperature and the concentrations of the active chemicals. It applies to the equilibrium position i.e. no current. This is a special case of the more general Gibbs free energy relationship and is one of the basic formulas used by cell designers to characterise the performance of the cell.
He also showed that in a reversible system the electrical work done is equal to the change in free energy. Also known as the enthalpy.
Nernst stated the Third Law of Thermodynamics that it is impossible to cool a body to absolute zero, when it would have zero entropy, by any finite process. In a closed system undergoing change, entropy is a measure of the amount of energy unavailable for useful work. At absolute zero, when all molecular motion ceases and order is assumed to be complete, entropy is zero.
1890 Dundee born engineer James Alfred Ewing discovers the phenomenon of hysteresis which he named after the Greek "hysteros" meaning "later". He observed that, when a permeable material like soft iron is magnetised by being subjected to an external magnetic field, the induced magnetisation tends to lag behind the magnetising force. If a field is applied to an initially unmagnetised sample and is then removed, the sample retains a residual magnetisation becoming a permanent magnet. He speculated that individual molecules act as magnets, resisting changes in magnetising potential and described the characteristic curve of the magnetic induction B versus the magnetic field H which caused it, calling it a hysteresis loop See diagram. Also known as the BH loop, it was later shown by Steinmetz that the area of the hysteresis loop is proportional to the energy expended in taking the system through a complete magnetisation - demagnetisation cycle. This wasted energy appears as heat and represents a considerable energy loss in alternating-current machines which are subject to cyclic magnetic fields. On the other hand, hysteresis is useful for creating permanent magnets or temporary magnetic memory, once the main method of providing computer Random Access Memory (RAM).
The hysteresis loop is the signature of a magnet. A slender loop indicates a good temporary magnet which has low hysteresis losses and responds readily to a small magnetic field. Temporary magnets (also known as soft magnets) are needed in magnetic circuits subject to cyclic field such as those found in motors, generators, transformers and inductors. A fat hysteresis loop indicates a permanent magnet, or hard magnet, which will remain magnetized after the application and withdrawal of a large magnetic field.
The term "hysteresis" is now used to describe any system in whose response depends not only on its current state, but also upon its past history.
1890 Tesla produced a muli-pole generator suitable for generating a high frequency carrier wave suitable for transmitting radio signals. It had 384 poles and produced a 10 kHz signal.
1891 German born, American mathematician and engineer Charles Proteus (Karl August) Steinmetz developed an empirical law for determining the magnitude of the losses due to the recently discovered phenomenon of magnetic hysteresis (see above) which he published in the magazine, "The Electrical Engineer".
The Hysteresis law for the loss of energy per magnetization cycle per unit volume "W" is given by Steinmetz's equation as:
W=ηBmaxx
where Bmax is the maximum flux density, η is the hysteresis coefficient or (a constant depending on the molecular structure and content of the material) and x is the Steinmetz exponent between 1.5 and 2.3, typically 1.6
Steinmetz also provided data on the magnetic characteristics of all magnetic materials then in current use.
As a rule of thumb, when the magnetic flux induced by the alternating current doubles, the hysteresis loss triples. The ability to predict the hysteresis losses for different materials and shapes enabled the design of more efficient machines, a process which had previously been trial and error.
In 1893 Steinmetz developed the phasor method using complex or imaginary number notation for representing the varying currents and voltages in AC circuits. This simple and practical method revolutionised the analysis of AC circuits.
Called the Wizard of Schenectady where he worked for General Electric, Steinmetz also carried out research on lightning phenomena. He was a prolific inventor with over 200 patents to his name including an electric car, the 1917 Dey electric roadster, for which he designed a compact double-rotor motor which was an integral part of the rear axle avoiding the need for a differential.
Steinmetz was physically handicapped with a deformed left leg, humped back, and diminutive stature, only four foot three inches (1.3M) tall, but he was compensated by a brilliant mind, congenial personality and infectious vitality. Raised in poverty, Steinmetz was a lifelong socialist whose early political activities brought him into conflict with the German authorities resulting in his flight from Germany. Throughout his life he applied his considerable energies to helping others.
1891 Another patent for the three-phase electric power generation and transmission system, this one granted to Jonas Wenström a Swedish engineer. His patent was disputed for many years by other claimants, including Tesla (1887), Dobrovolski (1889) and Hopkinson who patented the principle, as applied to DC power transmission, in 1882. It was finally confirmed in 1959, sixty eight years after Wenström died.
1891 American electrical engineer Harry Ward Leonard introduced the motor speed control system which bears his name. For almost a century, until the advent of thyristor controllers, it was the only practical way of providing a variable speed drive system from the fixed frequency mains electricity supply.
1891 Heinrich Hertz, with his Hungarian student Philipp Eduard Anton von Lenard, discovered that cathode rays could penetrate a thin aluminium plate. Because gas could not pass through the foil they surmised that the cathode ray was a wave, publishing their results in 1894. In 1897 J.J. Thomson showed that cathode rays were streams of particles which he called corpuscles and which we now call electrons.
Lenard was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1905 for his work on cathode rays. He was a strong proponent of the German "Master Race" and became Adolf Hitler's advisor and Chief of "Deutsche Physik" or "Aryan Physics". He claimed that so called "English physics" had stolen their ideas from Germany and denounced Einstein's theory of relativity as a deliberately misleading Jewish fraud perpetrated by "Jewish physics". He was expelled from his post at Heidelberg University by the Allied occupation forces in 1945.
1891 One of the most important inventions in radio telegraphy, the coherer, was demonstrated at the French Academy of Science by physics professor from the Catholic University of Paris, Edouard Eugène Désiré Branly, and the results were published in La Lumière Èlectrique. In 1890 Branly rediscovered the coherer effect, that loose iron or similar filings would coalesce under the influence of an electric or magnetic field dramatically reducing the resistance of a path through the material. Though he was not the first to notice the phenomenon, he was the first to see its potential for detecting radio waves. His device consisted of a small glass tube containing the filings or powder in series with a battery and a galvanometer for indicating changes in the current due to the presence of an electromagnetic field. It was much more sensitive than the spark detector used by Hertz enabling transmissions over much longer distances to be detected and for a decade it became the telegraph industry standard.
Branly's design was improved by Oliver Lodge who added a trembler which shook the filings loose for decohering between signal pulses, readying the device for detecting the next pulse. Unfortunately the coherer was only suitable for detecting the reception of a pulse of radio waves such as Morse code and could not be used for detecting the varying voice signals which, Fessenden showed, could be carried on a radio wave.
Contrary to legend, neither Branly's nor Lodge's coherer was used by Marconi for his first trans-Atlantic radio transmission in 1901. This pioneering communication needed a particularly sensitive detector and this was provided by an Iron-Mercury-Iron Coherer invented in 1899 by Indian physicist Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose of Presidency College, Calcutta. It was an example of an imperfect junction coherer which reset itself after receiving a pulse so there is no need for decohering.
On the basis of his coherer design Branly is revered in France as "The Father of Radio" and some text books even credit him with a Nobel prize for the invention. In fact Branly was nominated three times for the honour but he never actually won the prize.
Prior to Branly and the invention of radio, several others had investigated variations of the coherer effect observed when loosely compacted particles or lightly touching objects were subject to electrical or magnetic fields.
In 1866 English engineer Samuel Alfred Varley used the coherer effect in his invention of the lightning bridge for protecting telegraph circuits and their operators. The coherer, containing loosely packed carbon granules in a wooden box, was connected in parallel to the telegraph equipment by a wire running from the telegraph line to the ground. Under normal circumstances, no electrical current could flow though the carbon granules because of their high resistance. But the high voltage between the line and the ground produced by a lightning strike caused the coherer to conduct providing a route for the lighting energy to flow to ground, thus bypassing and protecting the telegraph equipment.
In 1884 Italian school teacher Temistocle Calzecchi-Onesti observed that metal filings contained in an insulating tube will conduct an electrical current when influenced by electric or magnetic fields but this property disappears if the tube is shaken. He also noticed that copper filings between two copper plates had two resistance states - conducting when a high voltage was applied between the plates but and non-conducting for low voltages.
1891 German aviation pioneer Otto Lilienthal began a series of over 2000 experimental glider flights in gliders of his own design. Jumping from low hills near Berlin he was able to make flights as far as 820 feet (250 m) demonstrating that flying machines could be possible.
His gliders were similar to modern hang gliders but with a limited range of control made possible by the pilot changing the centre of gravity by shifting his body. Designs were based on Cayley's theories and his own observations of bird flight and he made both monoplane and biplane versions.
In 1889 He published a book Birdflight as the Basis of Aviation outlining his own theories and experiences of flight which has become an aviation classic.
Tragically, in 1896, at the age of 48 while piloting his regular glider he failed to recover from a stall and fell 49 feet (15 m) to the ground, dying from his injuries 36 hours later in hospital.
His last words were "Opfer müssen gebracht werden!" roughly translated as "Victims are necessary" or "Sacrifices must be made".
1891 Russian polymath Vladimir Shukhov patented the first thermal cracking method used in oil refineries for breaking down heavy hydrocarbons in petroleum to increase the percentage of the lighter more useful volatile products such as paraffin (kerosene) and petrol (gasolene). Previously paraffin had been separated in earlier times by the Han Chinese but in more modern times by Drake and others in a process of simple distillation. This gave a welcome boost to the use of the four stroke, spark ignition petrol engine invented by Otto in 1862.
1892 British born American chemist Edward Weston invented and patented the saturated cadmium cell. Known as the Weston Standard Cell, it was adopted as the International Standard for electromotive force (EMF) in 1911 and was used as a calibration standard by the US National Bureau of Standards for almost a century. It had the advantages of being less temperature sensitive than the previous standard, the Latimer Clark Standard Cell which it replaced and of producing a voltage of 1.0183 Volt, conveniently near to one Volt. Similar to Clark's cell it used a Cadmium anode rather than Zinc.
He had revolutionised the electroplating industry in 1875 by replacing the batteries used to provide the current used in the plating process with dynamos which he designed and made himself and in 1886 he developed a practical precision, direct reading, portable instrument to accurately measure electrical current, a device which became the basis for the moving coil voltmeter, ammeter and watt meter.
A prolific inventor Weston held 334 patents.
1892 Eccentric Kentucky melon farmer Nathan B. Stubblefield "demonstrated" wireless telephony using a ground battery or earth battery (first proposed by Bain in 1841), for transmitting signals through the ground. Extravagant claims were made for the applications of the ground battery, from telephony and broadcasting to power generation, but they were never substantiated and Stubblefield, claiming he was swindled, died of starvation, an impoverished recluse. He is honoured in his hometown of Murray, Kentucky as "The Real Father of Radio".
1892 Dutch physicist Hendrik Antoon Lorentz formulates Lorentz Law, a fundamental equation in electrodynamics which gives the force F on a charged particle in an electromagnetic field as the sum of the electrical and magnetic components as follows:
F = qE + qv X B
Where q is the charge on the particle, v is its velocity, E is the electric field and B is the magnetic field. See Diagram of Lorentz Force.
This law describes the principles on which almost all electrical machines and electromechanical devices are based.
Lorentz law complements Maxwell's equations describing electric and magnetic fields and forms the basis of the theory of electrodynamics.
Lorentz developed a mathematical theory of the electron before their existence was proven for which he received the Nobel Prize in 1902
1893 Two German schoolmasters Johann Phillip Ludwig (Julius) Elster and Hans Friedrich Geitel discovered the sensitive photoelectric effect of alkaline metals such as sodium or potassium in vacuum tube at visible light spectrum. They later design the first practical photoelectric cell or "electric eye" which provides a voltage output which varies in relation to the intensity of light impinging upon it. They decline to patent their invention. The photoelectric effect is the basis of all electronic image tubes.
1893 Contract to supply hydroelectric generators to harness the power of Niagara Falls using Tesla's AC system awarded to Westinghouse, signalling the beginning of the end for DC generation and transmission, the end of the Current Wars and a triumph for Tesla. Rival Edison had lined up influential backers including J. P. Morgan, Lord Rothschild, John Jacob Astor IV, W. K. Vanderbilt and initially Lord Kelvin, a proponent of direct current, who headed an international commission to choose the system. After seeing Tesla's AC system which was used to light the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition at Chicago, Kelvin was converted to a be supporter of the AC system.
The system was completed in 1895 with three enormous 5,000 horsepower generators supplying 2,200 Volts for local consumption, stepped up to 11,000 Volts for transmission to Buffalo 22 miles away. The capacity was later increased to 50,000 horsepower with 10 generators and the transmission Voltage increased to 22,000 Volts for longer distance transmission.
1893 French born American railway engineer and aviation pioneer Octave Chanute organised an International Conference on Aerial Navigation at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. He was an enthusiastic and influential promoter of aviation developments and 1894 he published Progress in Flying Machines a survey of all published research into fixed-wing heavier-than-air aviation developments up to that date. The book became a bible for all would-be aviators at the time.
1893 German engineer Rudolf Christian Karl Diesel, born in Paris of Bavarian parents, published a paper entitled "Theorie und Konstruktion eines rationellen Wärmemotors zum Ersatz der Dampfmaschine und der heute bekannten Verbrennungsmotoren" - "Theory and Construction of a Rational Heat-engine to Replace the Steam Engine and Combustion Engines Known Today" in which he described his ideas for the compression ignition internal combustion engine, now known as the Diesel engine. The following year he applied for a patent for the engine. The German company Maschinenfabrik Augsburg Nürnberg AG (MAN) gave him the opportunity to test and develop his ideas.
At the request of the French Government who were looking for locally produced fuels for their African colonies, the Otto Company demonstrated at the Paris Exhibition in 1900, a small Diesel engine running on pea-nut oil, the first bio-diesel. Diesel himself also investigated and promoted the use of alternative fuels in his engines. Compression ignition engines using the Diesel cycle are today taking market share form the more popular spark ignition Otto cycle engines due to their superior efficiency.
Similar compression ignition engines had already been built in 1886 by English inventor Herbert Akroyd-Stuart for which he applied for a patent in 1890 entitled "Improvements in Engines Operated by the Explosion of Mixtures of Combustible Vapour or Gas and Air"
Diesel's inspiration was a modernised version of the ancient Chinese "Firestick" which was used as a cigarette or gas lighter. A piece of tinder was held in a glass tube containing a plunger. When the plunger was forced rapidly into the tube, as in a bicycle pump, the heat of compression would ignite the tinder.
On an apparently normal business trip from Belgium to attend, as guest of honour, the opening of a new Diesel engine factory in England in 1913, Diesel mysteriously disappeared from a cross Channel steamer. His body was recovered from the sea ten days later, but his death has never been satisfactorily explained. Speculation ranges from suicide, (He was thought to be in financial difficulties, though he was about to secure a new royalty stream), through accident, to assassination (On the verge of the First World War, agents of Imperial Germany possibly did not want him to allow the "allies" access to his patents).
1894 The first ever radio signal was sent 55 metres from one building to another in Oxford during the 1894 meeting at the British Association for the Advancement of Science about the work of Hertz who had died earlier that year. The lecture and demonstration were given by British physicist Oliver Joseph Lodge who arranged the transmission of the Morse code like signals which were transmitted by electrical engineer Alexander Muirhead and detected by Lodge using a modified Branly coherer rather than Hertz's spark gap. The sender used a telegraph key to send a pulse and the coherer in the receiver caused a bell to ring. It was just like a telegraph link but without the interconnecting wire. Lodge later formed a business partnership with Muirhead to commercialise a number of fundamental radio technology inventions which they had patented.
In 1911 they sold their patents, one of which was Lodge's patent for the tuned circuit to radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi.
Lodge was knighted for his contribution to physics but much of his later life was devoted to his interest in the paranormal, "life after death" and spiritualism about which he wrote several books.
1895 German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen experimenting with a Crookes tube accidentally discovered X-rays, high frequency electromagnetic radiation, while investigating the glow from the cathode rays. He gave his preliminary report "Uber eine neue Art von Strahlen" to the president of the Wurzburg Physical-Medical Society, accompanied by experimental radiographs and by the image of his wife's hand. Within three years, every major medical institution in the world was using X-rays. Röntgen, who won the first Nobel prize in physics in 1901, declined to seek patents or proprietary claims on the use of X-rays.
Röntgen used a very high voltage to accelerate the electrons in a high speed electron beam and X-rays were produced when the beam was suddenly decelerated when it hit the target electrode. These rays had a continuous frequency spectrum and are now called bremsstrahlung radiation, or "braking radiation".
Characteristic X-rays on the other hand have a spectrum with definite energy levels which are produced when electrons make transitions between characteristic atomic energy levels in heavy elements.
X-ray technology is now widely used in materials science. See Bragg (1912)
1895 French physicist Pierre Curie discovered that for paramagnetic materials such as aluminum or platinum which become magnetised in a magnetic field but whose magnetism disappears when the field is removed, their magnetic coefficients of attraction vary in inverse proportion to the absolute temperature -- Curie's Law. He also showed that when ferromagnetic materials which tend to retain their magnetic properties, such as iron and nickel, are heated to an elevated temperature, above a characteristic temperature dependent on the material, now called the Curie point or Curie temperature they lose all of their magnetic properties.
The magnetic force associated with these materials is determined by the magnetic moment, a dipole moment within an atom which originates from the angular momentum and spin of electrons producing a tiny magnetic field. The magnetic fields are normally randomly oriented so that their overall fields cancel out, but small groups of atoms may be aligned with their fields in parallel reinforcing eachother in so called magnetic domains with a distinct magnetic orientation. When placed in a magnetic field, the orientation of these domains tends to line up in the direction of the applied field.
In the case of paramagnetic materials, the magnetic moment is quite feeble and the domains return to a random distribution once the external field is removed.
Ferromagnetic materials however have a much stronger magnetic moment and tend to retain their magnetic properties up to the Curie temperature (770 °C or 1,418 °F for iron) at which point the thermal agitation of the atoms causes the domains to become randomly oriented once more thus the material loses its overall magnetic moment. Conversely if ferromagnetic materials with no retained magnetic moment are heated to a temperature above the Curie point and allowed to cool in an external magnetic field, at the Curie point the magnetic domains will tend to line up spontaneously with the field and will retain their magnetic moment once the field is removed.
Curie also showed that there is no significant magnetic effect of temperature on diamagnetic materials such as copper, mercury and gold.
1895 Alexandr Popov, an instructor at the Russian Imperial Navy's torpedo school, experimented with a variety of antennas (aerials) to capture electromagnetic radiation from lightning discharges. His receiver consisted of a coherer between an aerial wire connected to a tall mast and an earth (ground) wire connected to water pipes to detect the radiation, he successfully proved that the discharge emits electromagnetic waves. His experiment did not include a transmitter.
In 1890 he had repeated Hertz' experiments for the benefit of his students and in 1896, at a meeting of the Russian Physical-Chemical Society, he repeated Lodge's 1894 demonstration of radio signalling by sending the Morse coded message "Heinrich Hertz" over a radio link. Like Lodge, Popov was more interested in pursuing theoretical physics than in commercialising the idea, leaving the door open to the less technically competent but more commercially astute Marconi. (See following item). In later years the existence of these experiments was used to justify the claim by Popov's supporters that he was "The Father of Radio".
1896 Inspired by Hertz, 22 year old Italian Marchese Guglielmo Marconi, son of the Irish-born heiress to the Jameson whiskey fortune, was granted his first patent (in England) for radio telegraphy using Hertzian waves. This was claimed to be the first application of radio waves and the first to show that practical radio communications were possible. But Marconi had basically just patented the system demonstrated by Lodge two years earlier, and the principle of radio communications. Though he had been helped by William Preece, the Chief Engineer of the British Post Office, and his staff, Marconi himself added little to the system which was the radio equivalent of Morse's telegraph, which just switched the radio wave on and off in "dots and dashes", and did not carry voice signals. Because Marconi's "invention" was enclosed in a box, the patent office did not consider the technology to be in the public domain and so granted the patent. Lodge and Preece had been kept in the dark about the patent application and felt deceived.
It was Fessenden who first carried voices over the radio waves ten years later. Marconi was a great promoter, he developed transmitters, receivers and antennas and his telegraph systems were soon in use throughout the world, spanning the Atlantic in 1901, and earning him fame and fortune. He was awarded the Nobel prize for physics in 1909.
See also Wireless Wonders.
1896 American engineer William W. Jacques developed a carbon battery producing electricity directly from coal. 100 cells with carbon electrodes and alkaline electrolyte were placed on top of a coal fired furnace that kept the electrolyte temperature between 400-500 °C and air was injected into the electrolyte to react, he thought, with the carbon electrodes. The output was measured as 16 Amps at 90 Volts. Initially, Jacques claimed an 82 percent efficiency for his battery, but he had failed to account for the heat energy used in the furnace and the energy used to drive an air pump. The real efficiency was a meager 8 percent. Further research demonstrated that the current generated by his apparatus was not obtained through electrochemical action, but rather through thermoelectric action.
1896 Antoine Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity when Uranium crystals wrapped in paper and left in a drawer with photographic plates created an image of the crystals on the plates. Radioactivity is the spontaneous breakdown of unstable atomic nuclei resulting in the emission of radiation which may be alpha particles (Helium nuclei), beta particles (electrons), nucleons (neutrons or protons), or gamma rays (high energy electromagnetic radiation). At the time however the nature of these mysterious rays was not known and it was several years before Rutherford and others were able to identify the content of the radiation.
Radioactivity can come from the decay of naturally occurring radioisotopes in a process now known as beta decay. Nuclear batteries are designed to make use of the radiated energy of certain radioactive isotopes by converting it into electrical energy.
Becquerel came from a distinguished family of scholars and scientists. His father, Alexandre-Edmond Becquerel, was a Professor of Applied Physics, discovered the photovoltaic effect and had done research on solar radiation and on phosphorescence, while his grandfather, Antoine César Becquerel, had been a Fellow of the Royal Society and invented a non polarising battery and an electrolytic method for extracting metals from their ores.
1896 In the USA, the flashlight or torch was invented by David Misell. The original versions were designed to attach to a tie or scarf and were sold by a Russian immigrant, Conrad Hubert in his novelty shop where Misell went to work. Although portable battery powered lamps had been in use in the UK since 1881 where they were patented by Burr and Scott, the first flashlight as we know it today introduced by Hubert in 1898. It was designed by Misell and was powered by a "D" cell which, with the light bulb and a rough brass reflector, was contained in a paper tube. Hubert went on to found Ever Ready and patents for subsequent flashlights although designed by Misell were awarded to Hubert.
The invention of the tungsten filament lamp by Coolidge in 1910 greatly improved the performance of the torch which in turn created a growing market for batteries, popularising the "D" cell format we still use today.
1896 H. J. Dowsing patented the electric starter which he fitted to a modified Benz motor car purchased from maker Walter Arnold who made them under licence as the Arnold Sociable in East Peckham, Kent. Dowsing's starter consisted of a dynamotor, coupled to a flywheel, which acted as a dynamo to charge the battery and as a motor when needed to start the engine, an idea recently rediscovered as the integrated starter alternator (ISA). The first production electric self-starter was produced by Dechamps in Belgium in 1902.
1896 American astronomer, inventor, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, professor Samuel Pierpoint Langley successfully launched a series of unmanned gliders to demonstrate the potential for controlled flight in a heavier than air machine. They were launched from a boat on the Potomac River and one of these flew over 4000 feet (1220 m) while another covered 5000 feet (1525 m). To test his theories and designs he constructed a version of Cayley's "whirling-arm apparatus" to measure the aerodynamic forces on models as they were propelled at high speed through the air. He investigated various wing profiles and showed that even a brass plate could be kept aloft if its speed through the air was high enough from which he concluded that a heavier than air machine would be viable.
Based on the success of his models, in 1898 Langley received a grant of $50,000 from the US War Department and a further $20,000 from the Smithsonian to develop a manned airplane, which he called an "aerodrome" (Greek - aeros "air" and dromos, "road" or "course").
To save weight, Langley's airplane had no landing gear so it was designed for catapult launching and landing over water. It had pitch and yaw control but no roll control and a 50 horsepower engine, more than four times the power of the engine used in the Wright Flyer. The airframe of the plane was very flimsy and the engine was very heavy, - too heavy. It was ready in 1903 but it made only two flights, one in on October 7 and one on December 8, both of which ended in crashes before the plane got airborne. In the second crash the plane broke up dumping the pilot on the Potomac leaving half of the plane still on the launching boat and the other half in the river. With the benefit of perfect hindsight, the army, who had paid for the plane and witnessed the tests, announced that the reason for the failure was that the propellers were too small.
The newspapers revelled in Langley's misfortune, particularly the New York Times. After the first crash of what they called Langley's "airship", they offered their opinion that it would be at least 1000 years before man could devise a flying machine, basing their prediction on the principles of evolution. After the second crash they advised Langley to give up and stick to his academic pursuits.
One week later, the Wright brothers made the first successful controlled flight of a heavier than air machine.
NASA's Langley Research Centre at Hampton, Virginia is named in Langley's honour.
Langley also invented the bolometer in 1878.
1897 British physicist Joseph John (J J) Thomson working at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge investigating the affect of magnetic fields on cathode rays in a Crookes tube discovered the electron and calculated the ratio between its charge and its mass, the e/m ratio. He determined that they were identical particles no matter what metal had emitted them and that they were the universal carriers of electricity and a basic constituent of matter. He also calculated the velocity of the electron in the cathode ray to be 1/10 of the speed of light. He knew that the electrons were emitted by the atom but was unaware of their original distribution within the atom and assumed that they were randomly distributed within the mass of the atom like raisins in a cake or plums in a pudding. His model of the atom became known as the plum pudding model but was later shown to be incorrect.
J.J. Thomson was awarded the Nobel prize in 1906 for his studies on the conduction of electricity through gases and for the discovery of the electron and his pioneering work on the structure of the atom.
At the time there was great rivalry between German researchers who believed cathode rays to be waves and their British counterparts who believed them to be particles. In one of the greatest ironies of modern physics J.J. Thomson was awarded the Nobel Prize for showing that the electron is a particle, while his son, George Paget Thomson later received the Nobel prize for proving that the electron was in fact a wave.
Seven of Thomson's students went on to gain Nobel prizes in their own right.
Thomson died in 1940 and in his lifetime he never drove a car or travelled in an aeroplane. He had a passion for nature and said that if he had to live his life over again he would be a botanist.
Ever since Faraday published his work on the magnitude of the weights of the products of electrolysis in 1833, experimenters had postulated the idea that electric current was carried by corpuscles or particles but none had been able to isolate or describe such particles. By the late 1890's however, several other investigators working contemporaneously with Thomson had identified the charged particle we now call the electron and calculated the e/m ratio just as Thomson did in April 1897. These included Pieter Zeeman at the University of Leiden who in 1896 observed the spreading of spectral lines caused by the influence of a magnetic field and concluded that the light waves were produced by the movement of ions. The theory was superseded to take account of electron spin properties which were demonstrated by Stern and Gerlach in 1922. See diagram of the Zeeman effect. From the experiment he was able to calculate the e/m ratio. At the same time, each working independently with cathode rays, Emil Weichert at the University of Köningsburg, Walter Kaufmann at the University of Berlin and Philipp Lenard an assistant of Heinrich Hertz carrying on Hertz' experiments after his death, all published similar results for the value of the e/m ratio early in 1897. It was Thomson however who identified the electron as a sub atomic particle, while the others were hampered by trying to reconcile the evidence of a particle with the notion of the aether.
See also spectral ine spreading by the Stark effect.
In 1902 Zeeman shared the Nobel Prize for Physics (only the second time it had been awarded for physics) with his mentor Lorentz who had predicted the Zeeman effect.
History is kind to the winners of Nobel prizes. Once conferred, the other participants in the race are forgotten.
1897 The first oscilloscope using a cathode ray tube (CRT) scanning device was invented by the German scientist Karl Ferdinand Braun. He made many contributions to radio technology including antennas and detectors. He was awarded the Nobel prize with Marconi in 1909 for this work. During the First World War he was interned by the US government as an enemy alien and died before the war ended.
1897 Regenerative braking first used on a car to recharge the battery by M. A. Darracq in Paris.
1897 Russian mathematics teacher, Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky, built a wind tunnel in his apartment which he used to explore aerodynamics and the drag characteristics of different shapes. During the same year he also developed the fundamental Theories of Rocket Motion which he published as "The Exploration of Cosmic Space by Means of Reaction Devices". In it he showed that a rocket's velocity is proportional to its effective exhaust velocity and he defined the Specific Impulse, which became the standard measure for comparing the energy produced by rocket engines and propellants.
He defined the Specific Impulse (I), expressed in seconds, as follows:
I = F / (dm/dt)
Where F is the rocket thrust in pounds and dm/dt is the propellant consumption in pounds per second.
Alternatively this can be written in terms of the rocket exhaust velocity ve as follows:
I = ve / g
Where g is the acceleration due to gravity (32 f/sec/sec)
He also showed that the change δv in velocity of a rocket as it consumes its fuel is given by:
δv = veLn(m0/m1)
Where ve is the exhaust velocity, m0 is the initial total mass, including propellant, m1 is the final total mass and ln is the natural logarithmic function.
This is known as the Tsiolkovsky Equation
It can also be expressed in terms of the Specific Impulse of the fuel as follows:
δv = I.g
With these relationships he was able to compare the effectiveness of different fuels, to calculate thrust and flight velocity as a function of fuel consumption and to show the influence of gravity during vertical ascents.
In 1903 he published a summary of studies he had carried out into liquid fuelled rockets and the optimum shape for rocket exhaust nozzles and he proposed the ideas of fuel pumping systems, regenerative cooling and directional control by means of rudders in the exhaust stream all of which were first successfully introduced on the German V-2 rocket forty years later.
In 1911 he confirmed the Earth's Escape Velocity to be 25,000 miles per hour and calculated the Orbital Velocity for Earth Satellites to be 17,800 miles per hour. See also Entering Space.
He had a keen interest in space travel and published many works on space stations and life support systems. He also developed the concept of the Multi-stage Rocket, which he called a "rocket train", to achieve higher velocity and range with the same initial vehicle weight, payload weight and propellant capacity or alternatively to carry a greater payload with a smaller initial weight. By jettisoning the propellant tanks and engines of the first stages once the propellant is used up, the later stages to not have to waste energy in accelerating a useless mass.
Tsiolkovsky's early works were the first academic studies on rocketry but unfortunately they were published in Russian and at the time they did not achieve a high circulation in the international scientific community. Despite his interest and the wide ranging scope of his contribution to the science, he never built any rockets.
See also Rocket propulsion
1897 German researcher W. Peukert discovered that the faster a battery is discharged the lower its available capacity, a phenomenon for which he developed the empirical law C = I n T known as the Peukert Equation where "C" is the theoretical capacity of the battery expressed in amp hours, "I" is the current, "T" is time, and "n" is the Peukert Number, a constant for the given battery. A similar phenomenon occurs when a battery is charged. See also charging times for an explanation and a beer analogy.
1898 Danish telephone engineer Valdemar Poulsen patented the Telegraphone, the first magnetic recording and playback apparatus. It used a magnetised wire as the recording medium.
1898 The Proton discovered by German physicist Wilhelm Wien. Using an apparatus designed by Goldstein which generated canal rays of positively charged particles he determined that canal rays were streams of protons with mass equal to the mass of a Hydrogen atom. Rutherford later coined the word proton in 1919.
Wien also discovered the inverse relationship between the wavelength of the peak of the emission of a black body and its temperature now called Wien's Law. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1911 for his work on Black Body Radiation.
1898 Oliver Lodge patented the principle of tuned circuits which he called "syntonic tuning" for generating and selecting particular radio frequencies. This is the basis of selecting a single desired radio station from all those which are transmitting by tuning the receiver to the transmitter. Not only was this more efficient, it was fundamental to the orderly use of the radio spectrum and the establishment of practical radio communications systems which did not interfere with eachother.
1898 Pierre and Marie Sklodowska Curie discovered Radium named from the Latin "radius" meaning "ray" and Polonium which Marie named after her native Poland. With very limited resources, during the course of four years, the Curies refined 8 tonnes of waste pitchblende to produce 1 gram (0.04 ounces)of pure Radium Chloride. (It was not until 1911 that she was able to isolate pure Radium). Radium is over one million times more radioactive than the same mass of Uranium and one gram of Radium releases 4000 kilo joules (1.11 KWh) of energy per year. In 1900 they showed that beta rays and cathode rays are identical. Unaware at the time of the dangers of radiation in 1903 they both began to show signs of radiation sickness. Marie shared the 1903 Nobel Prize for Physics with her husband Pierre and Henri Becquerel for the investigation of radioactivity, a phenomenon which she named. In 1906 Pierre was unfortunately killed when he was run over by a horse drawn cart. Marie continued their investigations and in 1911 was awarded a second Nobel Prize, this time for Chemistry for her discovery of two new elements.
Despite her achievements and her two Nobel prizes, she was rejected by the French Academy of Sciences when seat for a physicist became vacant. During her life she worked tirelessly for humanitarian causes and the use of X-rays and radioactivity in medical research, refusing to patent any of her ideas. She died of leukaemia caused by prolonged exposure to radioactivity. Her laboratory notebooks are still considered too radioactive to handle and photographic films, when placed between the pages, show the images of Madame Curie's radioactive fingerprints when developed. A year after her death, her daughter Irene won the family's third Nobel Prize.
1899 First patent on Nickel Cadmium rechargeable cells using alkaline chemistry taken out by Waldemar Jungner of Sweden. The first direct competitor to the Lead acid battery.
1899 The world land speed record of 68 mph was set by a Belgian built electric car, the "Jamais Contente", designed and driven by Camille Jénatzy. The first to exceed 100 kph, his cigar shaped car was powered by two 80 cell Fulmen Lead acid batteries supplying two twelve volt, 25 kilowatt motors, integral with the rear axle, driving the rear wheels directly.
Jénatzy, known as the Red Devil because of his red beard, was a famous racing driver at the time when racing was very dangerous, however his life was ended at his country estate rather than on the race track when, hosting a shooting party, he sneaked into the woods to imitate a roaring bear and was shot by one of his friends.
1899 Young German engineer Ferdinand Porsche, working at the Jacob Lohner Company, built the first Hybrid Electric Vehicle (HEV), a series hybrid, optimised for simplicity and efficiency. It used a petrol engine rotating at optimum, constant speed to drive a dynamo which charged a bank of batteries which in turn provided power to hub mounted electric motors in the front wheels. 300 Lohner Porsches were produced.
1899 Serbian immigrant Mihajlo (Michael) Idvorski Pupin filed for a patent (granted in 1900) for the Pupin inductive loading coils which are used to cancel out distortion due to the distributed capacitance in long transmission lines. The idea which was originally proposed, but not patented, in 1887 by Oliver Heaviside made Pupin very wealthy and destroyed Heaviside. Far from recognising his debt to Heaviside, he chose instead to belittle his contribution.
Not content with stealing Heaviside's ideas, Pupin played the same trick on Oliver Lodge who patented the tuned circuit for selecting radio waves in 1898. In his autobiography Pupin disingenuously claimed to have invented the tuned circuit in 1892 after being inspired by the way Serbian bagpipers tuned their pipes. Strangely Pupin did not patent the idea at the time but he did receive a patent or "Electrical transmission by resonance circuits" in 1900.
Pupin arrived in the United States as a young penniless immigrant. He studied at Columbia University where he made improvements to X-ray photography and radio wave detection eventually rising to be emeritus professor.
1899 Charles H. Duell Commissioner in the US Office of Patents announced "Everything that can be invented has been invented"
1899 Working at McGill University in Montreal on Becquerel's mysterious rays, New Zealand physicist Ernest Rutherford, assisted by English chemist Frederick Soddy, investigated further Becquerel's beta decay and discovered two kinds of "rays" emanating from the Uranium, one of which he called the alpha rays, could be absorbed by a sheet of writing paper. The other which he called beta rays was one hundred times more penetrating but could be stopped by a thin sheet of aluminium. Meanwhile in 1900, French physicist Paul Ulrich Villard found that Radium emitted some far more penetrating radiation, which he christened gamma rays. These rays could penetrate several feet of concrete.
It was still some time before the properties of all these different rays could be determined.
By 1900 Becquerel succeeded in deflecting the beta rays with a magnetic field proving that the rays were in fact streams of charged particles. He also measured the e/m ratio of the particles which turned out to be close to that of cathode rays suggesting that the beta rays were in fact streams of electrons.
It was not until 1903 that Rutherford was able to deflect the alpha rays and it was 1905 before he could measure the e/m ratio. His results showed that the rays were in fact particles with the opposite charge from an electron. He concluded that if the charge on an alpha particle was the same as that on a hydrogen ion, the mass of the alpha was approximately twice that of the hydrogen atom. In 1908, he finally established that the alpha particles were helium atoms with two electrons missing, carrying charge 2 e , and having mass four times that of the hydrogen atom.
Gamma rays were not deflected by a magnetic field which showed them to be rays and not particles. They were found to be similar to X-rays, but with much shorter wavelength. This was not settled until 1914, when Rutherford observed them to be reflected from crystal surfaces.
More 1900 events - continued after "THEME"
THEME: The Development of Quantum Physics
See also the Standard Model of Particle Physics and the Timeline of Theories, Predictions and Discoveries
1900 German physicist Max Planck announced the basis of what is now known as quantum theory, that the energy emitted by a radiating body could only take on discrete values or quanta. Planck's concept of energy quanta conflicted fundamentally with all past classical physics theory and eventually gave birth to the particle theory of light as later explained by Albert Einstein. Although its importance was not recognised at the time, quantum theory created a revolution in physics. Planck was driven to introduce it strictly by the force of his logic; he was, as one historian put it, a reluctant revolutionary.
The energy E in a quantum of light, now called a photon, or resonator of frequency f is hf
Where h is a universal constant equal to 6.63 X 10-34 Joule seconds (Js), now called Planck's constant.
The relationship: E=hf is known as Planck's Law.
(Alternatively: E=hc/λ where λ is the wavelength of the radiation and c is the speed of light.)
Planck was awarded a Nobel prize in 1918 for his work on quantum theory.
See more about Photon Energy
Planck's personal life was a tragic one. His first wife died early leaving Planck with two sons and twin daughters. The elder son was killed in action in 1916 in the First World War. Both of his daughters died in childbirth. World War II brought further tragedy. Planck's house in Berlin containing his technical papers was completely destroyed by bombs in 1944. Far worse, his younger son died while being tortured by the Gestapo after being implicated in the attempt made on Hitler's life in 1944. Planck died in 1947 at the age of 88.
1905 Annus Mirabilis - Einstein's miraculous year. In those twelve months, 25 year old German born, Albert Einstein, working as a "technical expert third class" patent clerk at the Swiss Patent Office in Bern, shook the foundations of classical physics with five great papers that established him as the world's leading physicist.
Einstein first challenged the wave theory of light, suggesting that light could also be regarded as a collection of particles, now called photons whose energy is proportional to the frequency (colour) of the radiation. A photon of electromagnetic energy is considered to be a discrete particle with zero mass and no electric charge and having an indefinitely long lifetime. This helped Planck's revolutionary quantum theory to gain acceptance.
See also Hertz photoelectric effect (1887).
The second paper, Einstein's doctoral dissertation, shows how to calculate Avogadro's number and the size of molecules and surprisingly is Einstein's most cited work.
The third paper concerned the Brownian motion of small particles suspended in a liquid for which Einstein derived an equation for the mean free path of the particles as a function of the time. See also Brownian Motion (1827)
In his fourth paper "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies", Einstein introduced for the first time, the concept of Special Relativity. He used it to explain inconsistencies which resulted when Maxwell's equations were used to describe the motions of moving magnets and also to explain the absence, as demonstrated by the Michelson-Morley experiment, of the so called luminiferous aether previously thought essential for the transmission of light waves.
It was based on two postulates:
The laws of physics are invariant (i.e., identical) in all inertial systems (i.e., frames of reference, such as space and time, moving at a constant speed relative to each other, and not subject to acceleration).
The speed of light in a vacuum is the same in all frames of reference, regardless of the motion of the light source or the observers.
To this must be added the inference from Galileo's observation that it is not possible to detect whether a ship is moving (at a constant speed) by an experiment from inside the ship. This implies that since are no fixed reference points in space, it is not possible to identify absolute motion. All motion is realtive and it is only possible to detect relative motion between inertial frames of reference.
These condtions implied that time was variable and that absolute time had to be replaced by a new absolute: the speed of light introducing a new framework for all of physics with new concepts of space and time.
This further implied that the time and space experienced by moving bodies become distorted according to the following rules:
For bodies with an invariant or static length L' and invariant or rest mass m' moving with constant velocity v relative to an observer:
The time t' measured by a clock on a moving body (the dilated time), compared with the time t measured by a static observer's clock during the same period, becomes dilated by a factor γ (gamma), known as the Lorentz transformation (but see Note below) equal to 1/√(1 - v2/c2) where c is the velocity of light, so that:
t = t'/√(1 - v2/c2)
Thus a fast-moving clock will tick at a slower rate than a stationary clock and it therefore runs more slowly. This means that a clock moving with the body measures a shorter time than the static clock during the same period and an observer moving with the body will correspondingly also age more slowly than a static observer.
(The time t is simply calculated from the extra distance the light appears to travel for the moving observer travelling with velocity v as observed by the fixed observer during the time t' assuming a fixed speed of light c.)
At the same time, the length L of the moving body contracts by a factor 1/γ, becoming shorter in the direction of travel, with the contraction given by:
L = L'√(1 - v2/c2)
Similarly, the so called relativistic mass m of a moving body increases with the velocity and is given by:
m = m'/√(1 - v2/c2)
These adjustments are almost imperceptible in daily life where our movements rarely, if ever, reach 1000 km/h (0.28 m/s) compared with the speed of light of 299,792,488 m/s. However in particle physics experiments when particles may be accelerated to over 99.9% of the speed of light, these adjustments due to relativity are highly significant. Two examples:
A passenger on an airplane travelling at 920 Kph (572 Mph) for 8 hours as measured by an observer on the ground, will land 0.000,0003 seconds earlier than the sheduled 8 hours according to the time indicated by the passenger's own wristwatch and will have aged by one third of a microsecond less than the static observer.
A traveller on a spaceship travelling at 80% of the speed of light on a round trip of 6 years as measured by the spaceship's clock (and his body clock) will find that everybody on Earth will be 10 years older on his return.
An observer positioned on the moving body, and moving with it, will however have a relative velocity of v=0 with respect to the moving body. In this case γ will be equal to one so that the observer will not witness any time dilations, length contractions or increases in mass and will experience time t', length L' and mass m' just as if the body had been stationary.
The prior existance of the Lorentz transformation might imply that Lorentz anticipated or discovered special relativity before Einstein. In fact it was a mathematical expression developed by Lorentz to represent a completely different physical phenomenon which turned out to be an erroneous hypothesis. Neverthless, the name has endured and it is a coincidence that Einstein's relativistic relationships can be represented by the same mathematical expression.
In his last paper in 1905, Einstein asserted the equivalence of mass and energy with the expression E = mc2.
He used his special relativity theory to show that the energy of radiation such as light bursts emanating from a body will depend on its frame of reference. Assuming a light burst carries energy E from a body in a stationary frame of reference, the same light burst, from a body in a moving frame of reference with velocity v, will be γE, so that the difference in energy is E(γ-1). Einstein showed that to a very close approximation that E(γ-1) ≈ ½ E v2/c2. But since energy must be conserved, this energy difference must arise from the difference in the kinetic energies of the object in the two frames of reference which is ½mv2. Thus:
E(γ-1) ≈ ½ E v2/c2 = ½mv2
Since v does not change, this expression reduces to:
E/c2 = m (the change of mass) or E=mc2
This shows that the energy of the light burst comes from the reduction in the mass of the object.
By 1906 Einstein was still working at the Patent Office where, despite his achievements, he was promoted only to "technical expert second class".
It was for the discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect that Einstein eventually received the Nobel prize in 1921, not for the theory of relativity or E = mc2 as is popularly supposed.
In 1915 Einstein published a paper on General Relativity (subsequently modified several times) in which he expanded on his theory of special relativity to include the effects of gravity. He recognised that local experience of acceleration and gravity were the same, a phenomenon which he called the equivalence principle. By replacing special relativity's relative frames of reference representing bodies with constant velocity with frames representing constant acceleration, he thus brought the effects of gravity into a more universal theory. This brought "time" into the equation and required the unfamiliar concept of four dimensional mathematics to represent the interrelationships beteween the three dimensions for the familiar "3D" orthogonal axes of space and the new dimension of time.
Einstein's former teacher at Zurich Polytechnic, German mathematician Hermann Minkowski showed in 1907 that the special theory of relativity, could be understood geometrically as a theory of multi-dimensional "spacetime" where space and time are merged together in a single entity which became known as "Minkowski spacetime". This enabled the properties of space and time to be measured in the same units so that they could be represented in a single spacetime grid diagram. However this formal diagram, while helpful, still did not provide a realistic illustration of the effects of the forces involved.
See an example of a Minkowski Spacetime Diagram
In 1912 Einstein sought the help of Marcel Grossmann, the head of the mathematics department at the Zurich Polytechnic, to find a better visual analogy which fully described the physics of general relativity. Grossman pointed out that the problem was due to the limitations of the familiar Euclidean geometry of flat space to illustrate curved surfaces and their effects and that this problem had already been solved in 1854 by German mathematician Georg Bernhard Riemann.
Riemann had devised a new geometry based on the extended use of vectors for calculating distances on curved surfaces. Euclidean vectors normally describe a quantity acting in one dimension with two components, a magnitude and a direction. Riemann extended this concept to quantities acting in multiple dimensions so that a vector acting in three dimensions would have six independent components and a quantity acting in four dimensions would have 16 components. This was called a metric tensor. (A tensor can be considered to be a multi-dimensional matrix)
Thus he showed that the properties of four dimensional space can easily be represented in an abstract mathematical form by tensors (easily understood at least by expert mathematicians and physicists). This enabled Einstein to develop a visual analogy known as the spacetime grid or metric which better illustrates the physics.
See an example of the Spacetime Grid showing the warping of space due to the influence of the massive stars and planets in the Universe.
Einstein also predicted that a consequence of the distortion of spacetime is the gravitational deflection of light as it passes a massive celestial object such as a star. This effect is called gravitational lensing. If this could be demonstrated, it would verify his general relativity theory.
In 1917 Einstein's challenge was taken up by Frank Watson Dyson the British Astronomer Royal, and astrophysicist Arthur Stanley Eddington who together devised an experiment to investigate the issue. Development of the plan was not easy since it involved cooperation between scientists from Britain and Germany, two nations which were then at war with eachother.
The method was to observe the light from the stars in the part of the sky surrounding the Sun. But because the intense light from the Sun washes out the light from the stars, they would have to wait until the occurrence of a total solar eclipse when the Sun is masked the moon so that the light from the surrounding stars would be visible in the darkness.
The first opportunity was the predicted solar eclipse of 19th May 1919 which could be observed in Africa and Brazil. Eddington took a team to the island of Principe, off the west coast of Africa, and Charles Rundle Davidson from the Grenwich observatory took another team to the city of Sobral in Brazil to maximise their chances of success in case of adverse weather conditions.
The measurements were indeed hampered by the weather as had been feared but they went ahead anyway.
It rained on Principe on the morning of the eclipse and Eddington was only able to capture images through fleeting clouds. He managed to take 16 photographic plates but later discovered that only two of these contained enough stars to tell whether their light might have been bent or not and unfortunately they were blurred. Nevertheless he was convinced that they confirmed the expected displacement of their images by the Sun.
At the same time, although it was unusually cloudy in Sobral, Davidson was slightly luckier when the sky cleared one minute before the totality of the eclipse. Unfortunately 19 images from his main telescope were also blurred and out of focus because the heat of the Sun had distorted the telescope mirror, but happily he obtained several relevant star images from a back-up telescope he had taken with him.
Despite the imperfections in the images the scientific community considered that they had confirmed Einstein's predictions.
Eddington announced his findings at the Royal Society on November. 6, 1919 and the spectacular news made the front page of most major newspapers around the world making Einstein and his theory of general relativity world-famous.
Similar experiments in subsequent years have confirmed Einstein's theory. In 2017 the first observation of the apparent displacement of a star due to bending of its light by another celestial body other than our Sun was made by the Hubble telescope. It measured the displacement of light caused by the chance alignment of two stars from outside our solar system with the line of sight of the telescope.
See a diagram of The Gavitational Deflection of Light as seen by the Hubble telescope
In 1924 Indian physicist Satyendra N. Bose working at the University of Dhaka wrote a paper entitled "Planck's Law and Hypothesis of Light Quanta" outlining an alternative derivation of Planck's Radiation Law which he sent to Einstein asking for his help in publishing it. Einstein was intrigued and translated Bose's paper into German, and had it published in Zeitschrift für Physik under Bose's name. Over the next few months Einstein clarified and expanded Bose's work and used his theories to investigate and develop what became known as the Bose-Einstein statistics which defined the possible quantum energy states of photon clouds. He compared the possible energy states of a cloud of identical matter particles such as electrons and a similar, though theoretical, cloud of identical light particles (photons) and concluded that the two particle types would behave differently. This was one year before, but consistent with Pauli's current notion that matter particles obeyed the exclusion principle, and consequently had fewer degrees of freedom than the photons which did not suffer from the same constraint and would therefor have different properties.
In subsequent years, the special case of the photons which had radiation-like properties and were characterised by having integer spin was extended to a general class of all particles with zero or integer spin which possess similar properties. Paul Dirac named this class of particles "bosons" in honour of Satyendra Bose.
See more about bosons.
See also Fermi-Dirac statistics.
See also Einstein's Refrigerator.
Einstein once said "The hardest thing in this world to understand are income taxes".
1909 Cambridge undergraduate student Geoffrey I. Taylor, investigating the corpuscular nature of light, repeated Young's double-slit experiment using photons as the light source. A very low intensity light source, further attenuated by darkened glass plates, was used to produce a beam of individual photons to illuminate the target. It took three months to transmit sufficient photons to produce a photographic image of the light fringes on the screen. While the photon source was not perfect, the interference fringes produced were similar to those produced by Young, demonstrating the interference between quantum particles, confirming the corpuscluar theory of light and the principle of wave-particle duality and suggesting the possible wave nature of matter. The oddest result however was that the interference occurs even if only one particle is fired at a time. A single particle seems somehow to pass through both slits at the same time, interfering with itself. This behaviour is now known as a superposition of states. His results were later confirmed with more precise equipment by others. See diagram of Young's and Taylor's double-slit experiments.
One important conclusion was that a particle seems to behave like a particle when it is created (emitted) or annihilated (absorbed) but as a wave while in transit.
In 1961 Taylor's double-slit experiment was repeated using electron beams as the source by German physicist Claus Jönsson of the University of Tübingen confirming Taylor's prediction of the wave nature of matter.
1913 Neils Bohr a Danish physicist working under Rutherford at Manchester University applied quantum theory to molecular structure proposing a more detailed model of the atom with electrons existing in distinct orbits or shells that had discrete quantised energies, or specific energy levels. Known as the Bohr Model it was later modified to take into account Heisenberg's uncertainty principle which indicated that the electrons occupied distinct shells confusingly called "orbitals" but their position within the orbital was random and could not be known.
Bohr proposed that the chemical properties of the element are largely determined by the number of electrons in the outer orbits and introduced the idea that an electron could drop from a higher-energy orbit to a lower one, emitting a photon (light quantum) of discrete energy. This became the basis for quantum mechanics for which he was awarded a Nobel prize in 1922.
Bohr's model of the atom introduced the idea of energy states and quantum numbers and provided the basis for the Pauli Exclusion Principle. It also provided an explanation of the theory behind the Emission and Absorption Spectra of the hydrogen atom as well as the logic behind the groupings in the Periodic Table of the Elements.
See how this phenomenon is also used in Atomic Clocks, another practical application.
In contrast to his mentor Rutherford's predictions, Bohr is quoted as saying "Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future"
1916 Using the photoelectric effect Millikan determined Plank's constant directly - verifying the 1905 Einstein theory of the photoelectric effect and the quantum nature of light. (After ten years trying to prove Einstein's photon or particle theory that light was wrong, he eventually succeeded in proving it was right.) He was awarded the Nobel prize for this work in 1923.See a diagram and explanation of the Millikan's Determination of Planck's Constant.
1916 German physicist Arnold Johannes Wilhelm Sommerfeld enhanced the Bohr theory of the atomic structure by introducing non-circular orbits, by allowing quantised orientations of the orbits in space, and by taking into account the relativistic variation in the mass of the electron as it orbited the nucleus at high speed. These properties or quantum states were characterised by three quantum numbers in what is now called the Bohr-Sommerfeld model of the atom.
See also Fukui's theory of molecular orbitals
1922 German physicists Otto Stern and Walther Gerlach, demonstrated that atomic scale systems have intrinsically quantum properties. They devised an experiment which showed that atoms have spin attributes and the spin is quantised. See a diagram and explanation of the Stern-Gerlach Experiment.
When certain elementary particles move through a magnetic field, they are deflected in a manner that suggests they have the properties of little magnets. This behaviour is very similar to that of a familiar classical spinning charged object in a magnetic field and hence the elementary particle was deemed to have characteristics of spin.
Unfortunately this is a misleading analogy since elementary particles are not solid but point-like and the notion of spin is questionable, as is also the notion of spinning large atomic particles. The spin of composite particles is calculated by summing the spins of their constituent elementary particles. The mechanics of such arrangements are difficult to envisage. In the case of the triplets of quarks which make up protons and neutrons, it is not possible to know the orientation of the individual quarks and thus impossible to predict the net spin of the group. Quite possibly the so called "spin" is another name for a little understood phenomenon which produces similar results.
Nevertheless the notion of spin has been useful to describe particle deflections as being related to "intrinsic" spin, even if this is not strictly true, since it allows other particle behaviours to be predicted and has become an essential tool in understanding all interactions involving subatomic particles.
Subsequent theories and experiments by Pauli, Uhlenbeck and Goudsmit and others have confirmed that spin is an intrinsic form of angular momentum carried by elementary particles, composite particles (hadrons), and atomic nuclei and that a particle's spin never changes and has only two possible orientations, spin-up and spin-down. The Higgs boson is an exception having no spin.
1923 American physicist Arthur Holly Compton provided the first widely accepted experimental evidence that electromagnetic radiation can exhibit both particle and wave behaviour. He observed that the wavelength of X rays increased when they lost energy in collisions with, or were scattered by, electrons or low atomic weight elements. Since X rays were considered to be high energy photons, this observation was consistent with Einstein's quantum theory and Planck's Law which states that a wave's energy is inversely proportional to its wavelength.
Compton earned the 1927 Nobel Prize in Physics for this discovery.
1924 French aristocrat who came to physics late in life after studying humanities and receiving a degree in history, Prinz Louis-Victor Pierre Raymond, duc de Broglie, speculated that nature did not single out light as being the only matter which exhibits a wave-particle duality. He proposed that since light waves could be considered as particles the converse should be true and ordinary "particles' such as electrons, protons, or bowling balls could also exhibit the characteristics of waves. The relationship was neatly summarised by the following equation known as de Broglie's Law:
λ = h/p
Where λ is the wavelength - the property of a wave, p is the momentum - the property of a particle and the constant of proportionality is h - Planck's constant.
His theory was confirmed in 1927 by J.J. Thomson and others who demonstrated wave-like properties of the electron.
de Broglie was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1929 for his work on subatomic particles.
See more about Wave - Particle Duality
1925 Swiss theoretician Wolfgang Pauli explained why electrons orbiting an atomic nucleus do not all fall into their lowest energy state due to attraction from the positive protons in the nucleus. The previous year, in order to correct inconsistences in the three quantum state model of the atom proposed by Neils Bohr and Arnold Sommerfeld, as well as problems in the developing theory of quantum mechanics, Pauli had proposed that atomic particles must have a new quantum "degree of freedom" (or quantum number) with two possible values.
He was of course aware of the 1922 Stern-Gerlach Experiment indicating quantum spin properties of atoms but further support was provided by two Dutch physicists, George Uhlenbeck and Samuel Goudsmit working at Leiden University. In 1925 they published a paper suggesting that besides angular momentum of the electron due to its orbital motion around the nucleus, it also had intrinsic axial "spin" angular momentum like the rotation of the earth as it goes around the Sun.
After initial scepticism about the possibility of rotating electrons, Pauli proposed that besides orbiting the atomic nucleus, the electrons must also have spin properties. Thus the electron can have four quantum states characterised by 4 quantum numbers which define,
the distance of the electron from the nucleus,
its kinetic energy (based on its angular momentum),
its magnetic moment (based on the azimuth angle of the plane of the orbit)
plus the intrinsic magnetic moment of the electron itself due to its spin.
In 1928 Paul Dirac provided the theoretical justification for Pauli's proposition.
Pauli is remembered more for the principle proposed in 1925 that no two electrons in an atom can occupy the same quantum state (the same wave). If they did they would cancel each other out. This is now known as the Pauli Exclusion Principle. This principle also provided the theoretical basis for the Mendeléev's Periodic Table of the Elements. It also explains why, despite the empty space between the atomic cloud of an atom and its nucleus, the atoms behave as solids and can not be compressed into a smaller space.
In 1940 Pauli also formulated the spin-statistics theorem, which states that matter particles, which have 1/2 integer spin (fermions) obey the exclusion principle while force particles (bosons) which have integer spin do not. This implies that only one fermion can occupy a given quantum state at any time, while the number of bosons that can occupy a quantum state is not restricted.
He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1945 for his "discovery of a new Law of Nature". One of the giants of twentieth century theoretical physics he was notorious for his rudeness. He was also known for the "Pauli Principle" which predicted disaster for any piece of apparatus with which he was involved.
1925 German physicist Werner Heisenberg, working at Göttingen, proposed a new model for the properties of the atom showing that it had different quantised energy states represented by frequencies and intensities. At the time, current methods of describing the atom with physical analogues of orbiting electrons could not account completely for its behaviour and there was incomplete understanding by physicists about the precise nature of particle events and interactions. (They're still not completely understood). Heisenberg didn't like the notion of Bohr's imaginary electron orbits and instead based his model on observable qualities which could actually be measured before and after an event. Quantum jumps replaced the Bohr Model's electron orbits. At the suggestion of, and assistance by colleague Max Born and Born's assistant Pascual Jordan a talented theoretical physicist, these quantum states were incorporated into matrices. Known as Matrix Mechanics theory, it was a mathematical abstraction, but it worked.
The following year, Pauli used the new matrix mechanics to derive the observed spectrum lines of the hydrogen atom securing credibility for Heisenberg's theory.
See examples of Heisenberg's Matrix Mechanics
In 1928 Heisenberg, Born and Jordan were nominated by Einstein for the Nobel Prize in Physics for their creation of quantum mechanics but in 1933, when the delayed 1932 award was eventually announced, Heisenberg alone received the honour.
Jordan's contribution was not recognised, some say because of his involvement in the Nazi party which he joined in 1933 becoming one of Hitler's Storm Troopers.
Born who was Jewish was similarly overlooked, it is claimed because of speculation about his association with Jordan. He was suspended from his post at Göttingen in 1933, together with five fellow Jewish professors, when the Nazi party came to power and emigrated to England where he was offered a post at Cambridge. He was eventually awarded a Nobel Prize in 1954, albeit for his work in 1926 on statistical mechanics.
Alternative models were also developed around the same time by Schrödinger (1926) and Dirac (1928).
See also Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle.
Heisenberg was appointed to be head of Germany's atomic weapons programme during World War II and although, through the pioneerin
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1564
|
__label__cc
| 0.692023
| 0.307977
|
Arthur I. Cyr: Asia’s currents of conflict grow
Arthur I. CyrMore Content Now
Jun 23, 2016 at 12:18 PM Jun 23, 2016 at 4:27 PM
Disputes and confrontations over portions of the Pacific Ocean continue to grow. Indonesia’s government seized a Chinese fishing vessel on June 17 off the Natuna Islands, administered by Jakarta. That nation’s Vice President, Jusuf Kalla, accompanied the move with tough talk directed to Beijing.
On June 15, a China reconnaissance ship violated Japan’s waters. Six days earlier, another China vessel came near the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea. These tiny islands are under the jurisdiction of Japan.
In April 2014, Beijing authorities impounded the Baosteel Emotion, a freighter of Japan’s Mitsui O.S.K. Lines. The move was part of commercial claims resulting from World War II. The seizure was related to claims of both nations to the Senkaku Islands.
Last June, Vietnam news sources reported that fishing boats from the nation were attacked by China in disputed waters. In the first incident, water cannon flooded a ship, and a fisherman’s leg was broken. In the second, a fishing boat was boarded and robbed.
This occurred near the Paracel Islands, claimed by both nations. In January 1974, China and South Vietnam fought a naval battle there, which underscored Beijing’s aggressive long-term efforts to control the islands.
More widely, China is constructing permanent artificial islands in the South China Sea, including putting military and civilian facilities on them. As indicated, this enormous effort aggravates already strained relations with other nations in addition to Vietnam.
A range of governments are engaged in contemporary maritime disputes in and near the Pacific, including Argentina, Britain, Brunei, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam. China steadily expands militarily, including strategic naval capacities. Traditionally, the nation has been cautious in using military force for aggressive moves, but that may be changing.
President Barack Obama’s recent visits to Japan and Vietnam took place in the context of these continuing disputes. The Obama administration has formally announced that greater strategic priority would be devoted to the Pacific.
Actually, since World War II the greatest concentration of U.S. Navy ships has been committed to this vast region. American forces have fought major wars in Korea and Vietnam. Washington has been sending military ships and aircraft into and near some disputed areas in the Pacific.
Great Britain, before World War II, was the paramount maritime power in the world, and remains important. London is a global insurance industry center, populated by firms rooted initially in maritime salvage as well as shipping operations.
The Falkland Islands in the far southwest Atlantic was the site of a brief but extremely harsh war in 1982. Argentina’s military regime seized the islands in a surprise move. The British recaptured the islands, demonstrating exceptional military effectiveness, with vital U.S. logistical support.
Ocean commerce has generated deeply rooted and durable international law, which continues to be extremely important today. Maritime law indicates the practical utility as well as moral imperative of the rule of law.
Britain and the U.S. have an opportunity to collaborate, and also to build a coalition of Asian nations regarding maritime conflicts. A case brought by the Philippines against Beijing’s South China Sea aggression will soon be decided by the international court in The Hague, Netherlands. The related Law of the Sea Treaty, completed in 1982, has been approved by much of the world, but not the U.S. government. This is an ideal time for members of the U.S. Senate to provide long-overdue bipartisan ratification of this important treaty.
— Arthur I. Cyr is Clausen Distinguished Professor at Carthage College and author of “After the Cold War.” Contact acyr@carthage.edu
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1566
|
__label__wiki
| 0.975099
| 0.975099
|
Calls for federal ICAC as Australia slips outside top 10 'clean' countries in global corruption ranking
By Michaela Whitbourn
December 3, 2014 — 12.24pm
Australia has slipped outside the top 10 "clean" countries in an annual global corruption index, prompting calls for a federal body with a broader reach than the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption.
Anti-corruption organisation Transparency International said Australia had dropped for the second consecutive year in its annual Corruption Perceptions Index, and now sits at No.11 in the ranking of 174 countries.
"Accumulating corruption scandals", including alleged corruption involving the Reserve Bank's note-printing subsidiaries and the ICAC's high-profile inquiries, had helped push Australia down the rankings, Transparency International said on Wednesday.
It follows the ICAC's recent announcement that corrupt former NSW Labor ministers Eddie Obeid and Ian Macdonald will be prosecuted for misconduct in public office following revelations at its high-profile inquiries.
Since Transparency International launched the corruption perceptions index in 1995, Australia has only appeared outside the top 10 on one other occasion - almost two decades ago in 1998.
Denmark, New Zealand and Finland, which regularly appear among the "cleanest" countries, are ranked in the top three spots. But Australia ranks ahead of the United Kingdom (14), Japan (15), and the United States (17), and well ahead of France (26) and China (100).
The index does not measure actual corruption, but is a reflection of international perceptions based on the response of organisations including the New York-based Political Risk Services group and a survey of business executives conducted by the non-profit World Economic Forum in Geneva.
Professor AJ Brown, a director of Transparency International Australia and a lecturer in public policy and law at Griffith University, said Australia's ranking was not simply a reflection of "heightened awareness [of corruption] due to scandals".
He said it also pointed to a "heightened concern as to whether those scandals are leading to action and resolution".
"I think the problem that we've got is that we see more and more issues of corruption being revealed...followed by a debate about the fact that we don't seem to be dealing with it very well and doubts about whether in fact sanctions and prosecutions and remedies are happening," Professor Brown said.
He pointed to the RBA case as one such example, where it "continues to be denied that there was any problem with the oversight of those companies, and we've had no mechanism for resolving those questions".
Professor Brown said a "stronger national anti-corruption agency" was required and "most of the federal public sector continues to lack effective independent oversight".
In 2006 the Howard government set up the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity (ACLEI), which investigates and prevents corruption in the Australian Federal Police, the Crime Commission and Customs, among other bodies.
Professor Brown said ACLEI would need to be "rolled in" to any new body or it would need to "dovetail" with it.
"There is no reason to continue to leave any Commonwealth agencies outside the jurisdiction of a properly resourced independent anti-corruption agency," Professor Brown said.
"The Commonwealth needs to make it a policy priority to get on with designing a comprehensive anti-corruption agency structure that will work. There is no off-the-shelf model."
He said the states had got into some trouble by taking structures "off the shelf" from other states without adapting it to their own circumstances. The Commonwealth should take a "fresh look at it" and "take a lead in defining and facilitating a much more common approach nationally".
Australia needed to amend criminal laws dealing with foreign bribery to bring them into line with other countries and make it easier to secure convictions, he said.
Laws governing political donations - at the centre of a recent ICAC inquiry into state Liberal politicians - also needed to be reformed so that they were consistent at the state and federal level.
"Basically it's chaos at the moment," Professor Brown said. "The inconsistency of donation and disclosure regimes is obviously compounding the problem and really extending the problem to the political level.
"That's when public confidence really starts to plummet, when its not just public servants but it's actually political leaders who appear to have become contaminated by illegal or questionable conduct when it comes to their fundraising."
Australia was ranked ninth in last year's Corruption Perceptions Index, and seventh the previous year. It usually hovers around 7th place. North Korea and Somalia took out the lowest scores, in joint 174th place.
Countries in the index are given a score from one ("very corrupt") to 100 ("very clean"). Australia scored 80 points in this year's index, down from 81 last year and 85 the year before that.
Transparency International changed its methodology in 2011-12 and believes it is now easier to compare the performance of a country in the index over a number of years, starting from 2012.
Michaela Whitbourn
Michaela Whitbourn is a legal affairs reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1568
|
__label__wiki
| 0.734835
| 0.734835
|
Sonardyne > Press Release > Sonardyne Announces Major Chinese Contract for Intruder Detection Sonar
Sonardyne Announces Major Chinese Contract for Intruder Detection Sonar
Tuesday, 9th June 2009 7:00am
Sonardyne Asia Pte. Ltd has announced the signing of a major contract in China for its Sentinel Intruder Detection Sonar (IDS) system. Designed to protect vessels, ports and waterside installations from intrusion by divers, swimmers or surface vehicles.
Sentinel uses innovative sonar technology and intelligent software to automatically detect, track and classify an underwater threat at long ranges. The order, valued at over US$1.5M, is for the protection of an undisclosed infrastructure project in China and includes the provision of multiple, linked sonar heads to provide wide area underwater security coverage. Delivery and installation of the system is scheduled to occur during the summer of 2009.
Sentinel systems are now deployed and operational in America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia where they are protecting commercial property, strategic infrastructure, coastal zones, ports and harbours, VIPs and military installations. The system has shown a 100 per cent success rate in detecting targets at long ranges and in differentiating between divers, surface swimmers and non-threats such as pleasure craft, large fish and cetaceans.
Sonardyne attributes this high level of performance to the fact that unlike other diver detection systems, Sentinel is a not a hybrid of an existing sonar. It has been specifically designed to meet the challenge of tracking underwater targets in a wide range of marine environments reliably and cost-effectively.
Small and lightweight, the system’s sonar head can be easily deployed from a vessel or harbour environment. Capable of providing 360 degrees of sonar coverage, it can operate as a stand-alone portable system or configured with multiple, networked sonar heads so that very wide areas, such as large ports and entire water-front locations, can be permanently protected.
“This contract is the result of significant teamwork with local representatives and technical authorities in China to provide a solution that matched the customer’s rigorous requirements. It represents a major step forward in the recognition of the need for reliable underwater security and how the latest sonar technology can be used to achieve it.”
Mr John Ramsden, senior VP Sonardyne Asia Pte Ltd
Sonardyne Asia Pte. Ltd is based in Singapore and is part of the Sonardyne group of companies whose headquarters are in Yateley, Hampshire, UK. The company also has regional operating subsidiaries in Houston, Aberdeen and Brazil and is recognised as a world leader in the design and manufacture of underwater acoustic positioning, inertial navigation, subsea communications and sonar technology systems for the offshore oil and gas, ocean scientific and maritime security industries.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1570
|
__label__wiki
| 0.774266
| 0.774266
|
U.S. Air Force preparing to send its classified, high-tech space plane back into orbit
Trent Moore
@trentlmoore
Tag: Air Force
The U.S. Air Force’s mysterious, classified space plane returned to Earth last year after spending a record 22 months in orbit doing ... something. Now it’s headed back to space.
It’s been revealed the unmanned ship will launch on its fourth mission next month, though we don’t actually know what it'll be doing. That fits the status quo, since the military has not revealed any of the mission goals or objectives for the X-37B project in recent years. Best guess? They’re testing out new tech and equipment for space travel, but that’s about all we know. Second-best guess? Aliens.
Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office director Randy Walden noted that the first three missions were a huge success (accomplishing whatever it was doing), and now they plan to shift the focus from “initial checkouts of the vehicle to testing of experimental payloads.” According to Space, the upcoming mission will be trying out an “experimental propulsion system.” We’re hoping this is Warp 1, but hey, we like to dream big. They’ll also be taking other equipment up to test its viability in space.
The solar-powered X-37B was built by Boeing’s Phantom Works division and measures 29 feet long by 9.5 feet tall. It’s similar in design to the space shuttle. No word on how long this mission will last, but considering the last one pushed the limit at almost two years, there’s no telling when we’ll see the X-37B again.
What do you think the Air Force is doing up there?
(Via Space)
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1572
|
__label__wiki
| 0.954334
| 0.954334
|
Gauff Wimbledon Magic Continues, Anderson Latest Big Fish To Fall
Fifteen-year-old sensation ranked 313 in the world saved two match points to reach the last 16 in the women's singles
US player Cori Gauff (R) poses for a selfie with fans after a session on the practice courts at The All England Tennis Club in Wimbledon, southwest London, on July 4, 2019, on the fourth day of the 2019 Wimbledon Championships tennis tournament. PHOTO/AFP
Her reward is a fourth round clash on 'Manic Monday' against former world number one and ex-French Open champion Simona Halep
Raonic, the 15th seed, reached the fourth round for the fifth time by seeing off the sport's tallest man Reilly Opelka of the United States 7-6 (7/1), 6-2, 6-1
Romanian seventh seed Halep came from 1-3 down in the first set to defeat fellow former world number one Victoria Azarenka 6-3, 6-1
LONDON, England- Fifteen-year-old sensation Coco Gauff's magical Wimbledon journey continued on Friday night when the American youngster saved two match points to reach the last 16.
Gauff, ranked 313 and who came through qualifying, battled back from 2-5 down in the second set and held her nerve when Slovenian opponent Polona Hercog clawed her way to 4-4 from 1-4 in the decider.
Her reward is a fourth round clash on 'Manic Monday' against former world number one and ex-French Open champion Simona Halep.
"I'm just super relieved that it's over, it was a long match," said Gauff.
"She was playing unbelievable. It was my first match on Centre Court, people say Court One is my court, maybe Centre can be too now.
She added of her second set recovery: "I knew I could come back so I just kept going for my shots."
Gauff's dramatic victory on an enthralled Centre Court overshadowed Novak Djokovic's passage to the last 16 for the 12th time.
MUST READ: Organisers Declare Its Game Set, Match For Historic Everton In Kenya Tour
The four-time champion is one of just four top 10 seeds left in the tournament along with Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Kei Nishikori.
Defending champion and world number one Djokovic defeated Poland's Hubert Hurkacz 7-5, 6-7 (5/7), 6-1, 6-4.
He will next face Ugo Humbert of France, the world number 66.
"He was fighting. He was playing well, serving well and hitting clean and accurate shots," said Djokovic who is now level with Boris Becker in third place on the all-time list with 12 last-16 places.
Roger Federer and Jimmy Connors lead the way with 16 apiece.
However, Kevin Anderson, the 2018 runner-up and fourth seed, slumped to a shock third round 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) defeat to Argentina's Guido Pella, the 26th seed.
MUST READ: Ten Squirrels Of Benin Slay Toothless Morocco Atlas Lions In AFCON Shocker
"He made life really difficult for me," said Anderson, playing just his second tournament since March after recovering from an elbow injury.
Pella goes on to face 2016 runner-up Milos Raonic for a place in the quarter-finals.
Poor calls
In the women's event, Czech third seed Karolina Pliskova reached the fourth round for the second successive year with a 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 win over Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan.
Pliskova, who fired 14 aces and 42 winners, will next face compatriot Karolina Muchova, the world number 68, who put out Estonian 20th seed Anett Kontaveit 7-6 (9/7), 6-3.
Muchova is making her Wimbledon debut as is 19-year-old Dayana Yastremska and the 35th-ranked Ukrainian marked the occasion by also making the last 16.
MUST READ: Shaking My Head Alert! Shame For Ethiopia Star Gebrhiwet Who 'Wins' Race A Lap Early
She put out Switzerland's Viktorija Golubic 7-5, 6-3 and next meets unseeded Chinese player Zhang Shuai.
World number 60 Zhang made the fourth round for the first time, coming back from 0-4 down in the opening set to beat former world number one Caroline Wozniacki 6-4, 6-2 who failed to see eye-to-eye with the Hawk-Eye line call review system.
Before this year, the 30-year-old Zhang had never won a main draw match at Wimbledon in five attempts.
It was a record which reflected her previous struggles -- she was 0-14 at the Slams until she broke through to the 2016 Australian Open quarter-finals.
On Friday, she fired 26 winners against just eight for Wozniacki, the 2018 Australian Open champion.
Wozniacki's affection for the tournament would not have been helped by her unhappiness at what she claimed to be a number of poor calls by Hawk-Eye.
MUST READ: It's Catch 'The Flash': Champ Tundo Inches Ahead, Uhuru Flags Off Safari Rally
"You trust that it tells you the right thing. Sometimes you do see the balls a little differently than Hawk-Eye," said the 28-year-old.
Zhang, the first Chinese woman in the last 16 in five years, said: "These three matches, I've moved well. If I want to win, I must be focused, clear my mind and play my game."
Raonic, the 15th seed, reached the fourth round for the fifth time by seeing off the sport's tallest man Reilly Opelka of the United States 7-6 (7/1), 6-2, 6-1.
France's Benoit Paire booked a last 16 place for the second time with a 5-7, 7-6 (7/5), 6-3, 7-6 (7/2) win over Czech qualifier Jiri Vesely.
He will meet Spain's Roberto Bautista Agut who stunned Russian 10th seed Karen Khachanov 6-3, 7-6 (7/3), 6-1.
Romanian seventh seed Halep came from 1-3 down in the first set to defeat fellow former world number one Victoria Azarenka 6-3, 6-1.
Azarenka was undone by 33 unforced errors.
MUST READ: Kariobangi Sharks Will Put Up A Fight, Coach Muluya Promises Everton
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1575
|
__label__cc
| 0.554831
| 0.445169
|
The Football Manager Guide to Tottenham Hotspur: Part 1
November 03, 2016 by Jack Pettiford
The Start of Something Special at Tottenham Hotspur
Football Manager 2017 is one of the most highly anticipated games of the year. This year it has brought about a lot of new changes, which adds more diversification to this beautiful game. The AI and match engine is forever changing meaning that it is now much harder to beat your opponents. Changing in-game tactics and keeping your team fresh is now vital in capitalising on opponents and forever making it more difficult to beat our opponents, potentially making this one of the greatest (and maybe hardest) FM’s of all time. In this series I will be managing the club I support in real life, Tottenham Hotspur. In preparation for the release date on Friday, this article will feature a complete squad guide to the club. Going forward each article in the series will feature what has happened in the previous in-game month.
The Squad
Tottenham have always been very strong in this department. Hugo Lloris has always been one of the best in the world and any team is in safe hands with him in-between the sticks. He will clearly be our number 1 for the season, and more importantly, he is also the leader and captain of our team. What makes this position more interesting this year, is the back-ups available in Lloris’s absence. With the addition of Pau Lopez on loan from Espanyol, along with the reliable Michel Vorm, a decision will need to be made on who should be Lloris’s deputy, in either cup competitions or if, and god forbid, Lloris’s was to get injured. An early look at the states suggests Lopez could be a worthy number 2, and a few games in pre-season should test that.
As well as being strong in goal, Tottenham also possess arguably one of the best centre-back pairings in the world in Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireld. Spurs had the best efence in the Premier League for the 2015/16 season, and have so far started the new season unbeaten. Wimmer is essentially our only back-up in the squad - Carter-Vickers starts off in the reserves. However, with a starting transfer figure of £50million (increasing to £65million if you target top four) it could be wise to dip our toes in to the wonderful world of the transfer market, to add further steel to our defence. Who knows, we may even find the next Ledley King! In the full back positions, we also boast having the starting England fullbacks. Danny Rose and Kyle Walker have both been excelled in the past couple of years, and you just can’t look past them being our starters. Ben Davies and Kieran Trippier, who I happen to be quite fond of, are both more than adequate back-ups, and will get their chances. Walker-Peters will also likely get chances within the cup to impress.
This is where my first problem could be. Tottenham’s midfield is very impressive, but it could cause me a few headaches on who to start. We have too many good midfielders for not many places, which makes it quite difficult to keep everyone happy. In the centre of midfield, it’s the selection of Dier, Dembele & Wanyama. This is again made difficult by the attacking trio, with numbers in depth to choose from. Lamela, Alli and Eriksen would be my preferred trio, although Nkoudou, Sissoko and Son can all potentially fight for a place if they capitalise on the game time they get.
Well, do I really need to say anything at all? I might just leave it at that really as this picture speaks for itself. The boy wonder will be starting as a loan striker in a complete forward role - hopefully bagging the goals on his way to winning the golden boot for us. Janssen could be a very decent back up, but I fear should both of these become injured at any one stage, that we lacking in depth in the striker position, and therefore we could see Tottenham dip into the transfer market for a young striker that can come in and perform if these two somehow manage to become Injured, at the same time.
Tottenham have some great youth players, that could potentially come through and be potential first team members. I will look to give quite a few their starts in the domestic cup competitions to give a rest to the first string players. I have taken some screenshots of the players I think have the potential to be key players for the squad in the future. When the youth intake comes in the month of March, I will also provide an update as to any wonderkid regens we may unearth.
Although he is currently on loan at Schalke, Bentaleb has the potential to be a key player within this Tottenham squad in the future. If Schalke try to sign him on a permanent basis at the end of the season, and he doesn’t put up a fight to go, I will try and keep him with all my might! Although the one thing that may bug me is trying to fit him in with the trio of Dier, Wanyama & Dembele.
Cameron Carter-Vickers
Has had a few sporadic performances in the Tottenham squad in recent weeks, and to me has been impressive. At 18, his Heading, Marking & Tackling stats are very good, and he can improve on those massively with the right training and tutoring.
Marcus Edwards
Here is what I’m sure many of you have been waiting for. Marcus “Messi” Edwards has been the guy has been touted to be the next big thing, and although he has no stand out stats, he is a very well-rounded player at the ripe age of 17. I expect big things of this kid, and will give him the chance to impress in a few games, but I will contemplate loaning him in the Championship, if I feel the right team make and offer for him and I feel he can develop as a player there.
Shayon Harrison
The final youth player to feature here and one that could also potentially break into the first team, whilst providing the cover that we need for Janssen and Kane, is Shayon Harrison. He has good overall finishing stats and decent pace and finishing. Shayon could be one to keep an eye on.
So here we are, the season approaches us, and on the back of this, Tottenham have a great team, and one that I believe could potentially challenge for the top. Most certainly, we must challenge for a top 4 spot, and eventually perform better than what we did against Leverkusen. As previously sated, the updates will begin on a monthly basis in football manager months, and depending on the popularity, perhaps a more regular update.
Follow The Football Manager
Enjoyed this article? Hit the heart below. Part 2 coming soon!
November 03, 2016 /Jack Pettiford
tottenham hotspur football manager guide, best spurs team football manager, spurs football manager
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1576
|
__label__wiki
| 0.995346
| 0.995346
|
India polls: Bollywood turns political in election season
Indian Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan poses for a photograph during a promotional event for the forthcoming Hindi film Bhoothnath Returns directed by Nitesh Tiwari in Mumbai on March 22, 2014. Better known for its romantic escapism, Bollywood is releasing a series of political satires during India's election season that poke fun at corrupt lawmakers and religious tensions. -- FILE PHOTO: AFP
Apr 11, 2014, 3:50 pm SGT
http://str.sg/rqc
MUMBAI (AFP) - Better known for its romantic escapism, Bollywood is releasing a series of political satires during India's election season that poke fun at corrupt lawmakers and religious tensions.
Featuring a goat, a ghost and a disputed dead body, three upcoming releases are aimed at making voters think before they cast their ballots - although none refers directly to real-life candidates.
In family entertainer "Bhoothnath Returns", opening on Friday, Bollywood's biggest legend Amitabh Bachchan plays a friendly ghost who takes on an evil and corrupt local politician at the polls.
The comedy horror film "gives a serious message of voting through its storyline", Mr Bachchan told the Press Trust of India news agency.
"One vote can bring a sea-change in our country and I feel youth should participate in large numbers to bring that change," said the 71-year-old, who has a history of politically-themed movies.
Director Nitesh Tiwari told AFP the film is about the virtues of "sacrifice, courage and patriotism".
"I hope children think this is how they want the future of their country to be, while adults should think that this is the difference they can make to the present. The theme is that we can all make a difference," Tiwari said.
Also opening next month is "Yeh Hai Bakrapur" ("This is Bakrapur"), a socio-political satire which explores the complex belief systems in rural India through the story of a pet goat who acquires celebrity status in his village and surroundings.
Director Janaki Vishwanathan said she consciously chose to release her film bang in the middle of the world's biggest elections.
"I believe that every decision we make in our life has a political angle - not only in terms of government and ministers but also the politics in daily life," she told AFP.
"My film explores how the individual benefits from the larger politics and vice versa." "Dekh Tamasha Dekh" ("Watch the Spectacle"), releasing on April 18, is based on a true story recounted by a former police commissioner to director Feroz Abbas Khan, in which a poor man is crushed under the weight of a politician's giant billboard.
Two groups - one Hindu the other Muslim - subsequently claim the body as their own.
The film "was made to go out there at a time when people are in the frame of mind to make a very important decision, and at a time when they should know that this is all a big spectacle," Khan said.
The results of India's mammoth general elections are due on May 16, nearly six weeks after the start of voting.
The contest is largely between Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Rahul Gandhi of the ruling Congress party, whose father, grandmother and great-grandfather all served as prime minister.
The film "Youngistaan", released on March 28, tells the story of a young prime minister struggling to balance his personal life with public office after taking on the job when his father dies - a character that several reports have likened to Gandhi's own.
The lead actor Jackky Bhagnani denies that he is portraying the real-life politician - perhaps luckily for Gandhi, given that one critic described the movie as "brain-dead and largely insufferable".
Bollywood has run up against politicians in the past, with films such as "Aandhi" (Storm) in 1975, allegedly based on the life of Indira Gandhi, Rahul's grandmother and prime minister at the time. She banned the film, which only released two years later after her electoral defeat.
Political issues have also been satirised in films such as the cult 1983 hit "Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro" ("Let it be, friends") about exposing corruption, and "Peepli Live" in 2010 on the topic of farmer suicides.
A number of Indian film stars have gone into politics, capitalising on their vast fan base.
One of the top regional politicians contesting this election is Jayalalithaa Jayaram, chief minister of Tamil Nadu state and a former siren of southern Indian cinema, whose party was set up by her late on-screen love interest M.G. Ramachandran.
In the northern state of Chandigarh, the actresses Kirron Kher and Gul Panag are going head-to-head for the BJP and the anti-corruption Aam Admi Party respectively.
One of Bollywood's biggest names, Aamir Khan, is the face of a campaign to encourage voting - but it seems a number of actors will themselves be skipping the polling booths.
Voting day in Mumbai, the entertainment capital, clashes with a grand Bollywood awards ceremony in the United States, so the showbiz set are expected to decamp to Florida for a long weekend.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1581
|
__label__wiki
| 0.898512
| 0.898512
|
What Is Wormhole Theory?
By Nola Taylor Redd 2017-10-21T02:53:00Z Science & Astronomy
Reference Article
Wormhole Theory: A model of 'folded' space-time illustrates how a wormhole bridge might form with at least two mouths that are connected to a single throat or tube.
(Image: © edobric | Shutterstock)
The wormhole theory postulates that a theoretical passage through space-time could create shortcuts for long journeys across the universe. Wormholes are predicted by the theory of general relativity. But be wary: wormholes bring with them the dangers of sudden collapse, high radiation and dangerous contact with exotic matter. [Is Time Travel Possible?]
Wormhole theory
Wormholes were first theorized in 1916, though that wasn't what they were called at the time. While reviewing another physicist's solution to the equations in Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity, Austrian physicist Ludwig Flamm realized another solution was possible. He described a "white hole," a theoretical time reversal of a black hole. Entrances to both black and white holes could be connected by a space-time conduit.
In 1935, Einstein and physicist Nathan Rosen used the theory of general relativity to elaborate on the idea, proposing the existence of "bridges" through space-time. These bridges connect two different points in space-time, theoretically creating a shortcut that could reduce travel time and distance. The shortcuts came to be called Einstein-Rosen bridges, or wormholes.
"The whole thing is very hypothetical at this point," said Stephen Hsu, a professor of theoretical physics at the University of Oregon, told our sister site, LiveScience. "No one thinks we're going to find a wormhole anytime soon."
Wormholes contain two mouths, with a throat connecting the two. The mouths would most likely be spheroidal. The throat might be a straight stretch, but it could also wind around, taking a longer path than a more conventional route might require.
Einstein's theory of general relativity mathematically predicts the existence of wormholes, but none have been discovered to date. A negative mass wormhole might be spotted by the way its gravity affects light that passes by.
Certain solutions of general relativity allow for the existence of wormholes where the mouth of each is a black hole. However, a naturally occurring black hole, formed by the collapse of a dying star, does not by itself create a wormhole.
Science fiction is filled with tales of traveling through wormholes. But the reality of such travel is more complicated, and not just because we've yet to spot one.
The first problem is size. Primordial wormholes are predicted to exist on microscopic levels, about 10–33 centimeters. However, as the universe expands, it is possible that some may have been stretched to larger sizes.
Another problem comes from stability. The predicted Einstein-Rosen wormholes would be useless for travel because they collapse quickly.
"You would need some very exotic type of matter in order to stabilize a wormhole," said Hsu, "and it's not clear whether such matter exists in the universe."
But more recent research found that a wormhole containing "exotic" matter could stay open and unchanging for longer periods of time.
Exotic matter, which should not be confused with dark matter or antimatter, contains negative energy density and a large negative pressure. Such matter has only been seen in the behavior of certain vacuum states as part of quantum field theory.
If a wormhole contained sufficient exotic matter, whether naturally occurring or artificially added, it could theoretically be used as a method of sending information or travelers through space. Unfortunately, human journeys through the space tunnels may be challenging.
"The jury is not in, so we just don't know," physicist Kip Thorne, one of the world's leading authorities on relativity, black holes and wormholes, told Space.com. "But there are very strong indications that wormholes that a human could travel through are forbidden by the laws of physics. That's sad, that's unfortunate, but that's the direction in which things are pointing."
Wormholes may not only connect two separate regions within the universe, they could also connect two different universes. Similarly, some scientists have conjectured that if one mouth of a wormhole is moved in a specific manner, it could allow for time travel.
"You can go into the future or into the past using traversable wormholes," astrophysicist Eric Davis told LiveScience. But it won't be easy: "It would take a Herculean effort to turn a wormhole into a time machine. It's going to be tough enough to pull off a wormhole."
However, British cosmologist Stephen Hawking has argued that such use is not possible. [Weird Science: Wormholes Make the Best Time Machines]
"A wormhole is not really a means of going back in time, it's a short cut, so that something that was far away is much closer," NASA's Eric Christian wrote.
Although adding exotic matter to a wormhole might stabilize it to the point that human passengers could travel safely through it, there is still the possibility that the addition of "regular" matter would be sufficient to destabilize the portal.
Today's technology is insufficient to enlarge or stabilize wormholes, even if they could be found. However, scientists continue to explore the concept as a method of space travel with the hope that technology will eventually be able to utilize them.
"You would need some of super-super-advanced technology," Hsu said. "Humans won't be doing this any time in the near future."
NASA's Gravity Probe B: Einstein's Spacetime
NASA's Cosmicopia: Wormholes
Stephen Hawking: Space and Time Warps
Poll: 50 Years After Apollo 11, More Americans Now Back Mars Landing
Awesome 'Star Wars' Lego Sets On Sale for Prime Day
What Is NASA's Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST)?
SpaceX Says Faulty Valve Led to Crew Dragon Test Accident
The Best Space Books On Sale for Prime Day
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1584
|
__label__cc
| 0.587344
| 0.412656
|
Yuca Leaves
• 6 Sharess
Kong Thao
Yuca leaves are small to medium in size and are slender, palm-like, and lanceolate in shape, averaging 15-20 centimeters in length. The bright green leaves extend from the apex of the woody stems, typically have 5-7 lobes, and are glossy on the surface and matte on the underside. There is also a light green-yellow central vein that runs from the base of the stem through the length of the lobe. Yuca leaves must be cooked before consuming and have a mild, bland flavor similar to spinach.
Yuca leaves are available year-round.
Yuca leaves, botanically classified as Manihot esculenta, grow on a woody perennial shrub and are members of the Euphorbiaceae, or spurge family. Also known as Cassava and Tapioca, yuca plants are known for its starchy root which is one of the top sources of food in developing countries, but the leaves are also used medicinally and in culinary preparations. It is important to note that when raw, Yuca leaves contain high amounts of hydrocyanic acid which is toxic. To remove the toxins, they must be boiled and cooked before consumption.
Yuca leaves contain vitamin C, vitamin B, beta carotene, iron, and zinc.
Raw Yuca leaves are toxic and must be double-boiled for at least fifteen minutes to remove toxic glucosides and the deadly hydrocyanic acid effectively. They are best suited for applications such as boiling and once cooked, they are most commonly used in salads, vegetable rolls, soups, and stews with coconut milk. Yuca leaves can also be processed along with the roots into flour and used in puddings and snacks. Yuca leaves pair well with garlic, chile, onions, turkey, anchovies, or dried shrimp. They are highly perishable and should be used immediately after harvest. Yuca leaves can also be chopped and frozen or dried for extended use.
Yuca leaves are frequently used in alternative medicine to help reduce symptoms of inflammation, digestive issues, and aches and pain. In Africa, leaves are ground into a powder and used as a compress for fevers and headaches. They are also made into a poultice and applied to sores and skin irritations.
Yuca leaves are native to South America, specifically in the Amazon, and were then introduced to Africa by Portuguese traders in the 16th century. Today Yuca leaves can be found in fresh markets in Africa, the Caribbean, Central and South America, Europe, the South Pacific, Indonesia, Asia, Southeast Asia, and the United States.
Recently Shared
People have shared Yuca Leaves using the Specialty Produce app for iPhone and Android.
Produce Sharing allows you to share your produce discoveries with your neighbors and the world! Is your market carrying green dragon apples? Is a chef doing things with shaved fennel that are out of this world? Pinpoint your location annonymously through the Specialty Produce App and let others know about unique flavors that are around them.
Apopka Market at Tractor Supply Near Apopka, Florida, United States
About 33 days ago, 6/15/19
Oviedo Farmers Market Near Oviedo, Florida, United States
lake County farmers market Near Forest City, Florida, United States
Oviedo farmers market Near Forest City, Florida, United States
About 193 days ago, 1/06/19
Sanford Farmers Market Near Sanford, Florida, United States
About 264 days ago, 10/27/18
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1585
|
__label__wiki
| 0.932264
| 0.932264
|
Tributes and warnings three years on from murder of Jo Cox MP
Kim Leadbeater. Picture by Scott Merrylees.
John Blow
Published: 17:16 Sunday 16 June 2019
The sister of Jo Cox appealed for people to “stop shouting at each other and start listening” on the third anniversary of the politician’s murder while her widower warned that “the hate still spews forth”.
Kim Leadbeater was among the family members, campaigners and politicians who today paid tribute to the Labour MP for Batley and Spen and mother-of-two who was killed aged 41 by right-wing terrorist Thomas Mair outside Birstall library on June 16, 2016.
“We need to stop shouting at each other, we need to start listening to each other, we need to start understanding other people’s positions and perspectives and that’s what we’re trying to do through Jo’s foundation,” Ms Leadbeater told Sophy Ridge on her Sky News show.
She said: “It’s easy to be angry - I’m angry, believe me, about what’s happened to us - but I’m not giving in to that anger and I’m not giving in to the negative emotions.”
It comes after Ms Leadbeater said on Saturday that a resolve for “calmer, kinder politics” in the wake of the her sister’s assassination has been “forgotten”.
In a tribute to her friend and party colleague posted online, Leeds West MP Rachel Reeves said: “Thinking today of Jo’s children, husband, sister, parents and everyone who grieves for her. It is still impossible comprehend what happened three years ago. I will never forget Jo Cox and all she stood for.”
Meanwhile her successor Tracy Brabin, who is now MP for the constituency, said: “Inspired by Jo, we’ll continue to look for common ground with those who disagree. We’ll celebrate our diversity and shout loud about our great community, its ambition, kindness, creativity, and compassion. Our thoughts are with her family today.”
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn also shared his feelings.
He said: “Three years ago today our brilliant colleague Jo Cox was murdered by a far-right extremist. From Jo’s death to the attacks in Westminster, Manchester and London Bridge, to the murder of Makram Ali, families and communities have come together to say we won’t be divided.”
Mr Ali, who was 51, was killed after a man drove a van into a crowd of Muslims near a mosque in Finsbury Park, London, in 2017.
Mrs Cox’s widower said that her loss is still felt by his family every day.
Brendan Cox said: “Anniversaries are strange things. I guess as the years go by the anniversary of Jo’s death will become more significant but our family feels our loss everyday and today just feels like another day with our family incomplete and Jo’s joyful presence missing. Life still feels muted.
"But we still have so much to be grateful for. Our family, our neighbours, our friends who have stuck by us through thick and thin. Our kids who are a daily reminder of Jo’s vitality, love and empathy. When Jo died I knew she’d want two things; to fight the hatred that killed her and to surround her kids with love.
Four men arrested over firearms offences in Heckmondwike
Man robbed at knifepoint in broad daylight on busy Cleckheaton street
"On the former, today’s headlines are another reminder of how the hate still spews forth. And today it has new cheerleaders including the most powerful man in the world.”
The Great Get Together, an international event aiming to heal social divisions by giving people a chance to meet one another, takes place at the weekend.
It is organised by the Jo Cox Foundation, a charity formed to honour the MP’s legacy, and gatherings are due to be hosted across the country and in areas as far away as the USA, Brussels and Luxembourg.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1587
|
__label__wiki
| 0.808564
| 0.808564
|
Affordable early childhood learning and care is the top-funded issue on Summit County ballot initiative 1A
FIRC executive director Tamara Drangstveit, left, debates initiative 1A with Summit GOP chair Kim McGahey, right, during the candidate forum Wednesday night, Oct. 3, at the Summit County Community and Senior Center in Frisco.
Hugh Carey / hcarey@summitdaily.com
Ballot Initiative 1A aims to create a 10-year mill levy that would raise $8.8 million a year for five different issues of need in Summit County. The issue area receiving the highest dollar amount is “affordable early childhood care and learning,” which will be allotted $2.5 million a year for 10 years, or $25 million total. The amount seems enormous for a rural mountain county, but so is Summit’s demand for the services.
From the 70s to the 2010s, Summit County was one of the fastest-growing counties in the country. The population went from just under 9,000 residents in 1980 to over 30,000 residents in 2017. The population growth is largely due to transient populations, but babies are also being born at a clip of about 300 a year in the county.
The demand for early childhood providers — including licensed childcare centers, public elementary school options and licensed family childcare providers — is far outpacing the county’s supply.
Previously, the Summit Daily reported that 345 children are on waiting lists for an early childhood provider, mostly infants and toddlers. At the time, Lucinda Burns, executive director of Early Childhood Options, said the $2.5 million a year would go toward tuition assistance for four-year-olds as well as putting money into a capital fund for a new childcare center.
The issue area receiving the highest dollar amount is “affordable early childhood care and learning,” which will be allotted $2.5 million a year for 10 years, or $25 million total. The amount seems enormous for a rural mountain county, but so is Summit’s demand for the services.
“It would not immediately address the needs for infants and toddlers, but if we can solve the accessibility problem for four-year-olds, we can start working on those other segments,” Burns said. “That funding will be a big boost for the community.”
The county’s capacity for early childhood care is low because there is a skill, labor and resource shortage, which are in turn related to the high cost of living, constitutional handcuffs on the county’s ability to raise new revenue on its own and a general lack of preparation for the population boom.
Tamara Drangstveit, executive director of the non-profit Family, Intercultural and Resource Center, spoke generally on behalf of 1A at a candidate and issue forum at the community and senior center this past Wednesday. However, as a mother of toddler twins, she was most ardent about the need to fund the early childhood issue.
“Working families like me, we can’t afford $2,300 a month for early childhood care,” Drangstveit said.
“That’s more than my mortgage, and my mortgage is more than the bank says it should be, and I can’t find anywhere cheaper to live.”
Kim McGahey, chairman of the Summit County GOP, spoke generally in opposition to 1A at the forum. He said that he did not dispute the county’s needs in the issue areas, including early childhood care, saying he lauded everyone in the county for doing the best they can to “live the American dream at 9,000 feet.”
However, he does oppose 1A, both because he considered it another unnecessary tax increase and, as a conservative, he opposes the incrementally increasing reach government is having in everyday life, and that throwing tax money at the problem won’t solve it. He asserted that the county government merely needs to make more efficient use of existing tax revenue, and he considered 1A to be a pork barrel for spending. McGahey also claimed that the county had a $20 million “surplus” it could spend on the programs. The Summit Daily could not independently verify that figure at publication.
McGahey also opposed putting all the issues into one question on the ballot, and wants the county to break the question into five separate questions which can stand on their own merits.
Drangstveit countered McGahey’s assertion that there is already enough money to pay for these programs, saying that she and other people who care about these issues have been trying very hard to find the money by alternate means, but the exorbitant cost of early childhood care can’t be covered by current funds or by donations from private business alone.
She also defended putting all five issues into a single question, saying that every single issue is important to the county’s full-time population, and that the cost to campaign separately for five questions is much more than campaigning for a single question.
Drangstveit’s most passionate plea for passing 1A came to an appeal to the community to take care of itself, and to not rely on help that may never come from state, federal government or private interests looking to make a profit.
“This community, we care about our problems and solve our problems for ourselves, and that’s what I’m most proud of,” Drangstveit said.
Rep. McCluskie, Attorney General Weiser host town hall in Frisco to review first months in office
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1588
|
__label__cc
| 0.662261
| 0.337739
|
Cruse Grieving Services.
Home/Dying Matters/Cruse Grieving Services.
Cruse started out as a small local service focused on helping widows and their children through the bereavement process and now Cruse Bereavement Care is the most highly respected bereavement care charity in the United Kingdom. It offers bereavement services, support and counseling to people across England, Northern Ireland, Wales and (via its sister charity) Scotland.
In addition to helping individual people deal with grief, Cruse has also been contracted by larger organizations. They were flown to New York after 9/11 to help support Brits living in the states. The Metro Police contracted them to help lend support after the London bombings and the LOCOG hired them to provide support if it was needed during the Paralympic and the Olympic Games.
The Individuality of Grief
Cruse understands that grief and bereavement are different for everyone. Though many are able to work through the grieving process safely because they are supported by friends and loved ones, others are not so lucky. Many people find themselves either without a support system or that they do not how to reach out to an existing support system for help. With the understanding that the loss of a loved one can be the most damaging and terrible thing someone experiences, the people behind the charity make it their business to be there for you when someone dies.
The People behind the Name
Cruse has developed an extensive variety of different services to help people deal with their grief. This free service is provided by volunteers whom have been intensely trained and are closely supervised. They are required to partake in ongoing development courses and training for as long as they are volunteers for the charity. While Cruse’s volunteers come from every social construct, one thing that binds the majority of them is that they were once on the receiving end of Cruse’s services.
The training the volunteers receive is all funded by Cruse. In addition to individual counselor and volunteer training, Cruse has worked with Brighton Funeral Directors and provided courses in bereavement awareness to Brighton Funeral Home staff.
The services offered by Cruse range to fit the many different needs of the bereaved person. Some people might simply need someone to call when the grief gets too intense to handle alone. Others take part in the support groups that are offered to help people dealing with grief after specific circumstances for example, losing a loved one who has taken their own life. There are also helplines available to people who are confused by some of the “side effects” of grief (the feeling of losing one’s mind is quite common after a loved one dies).
In addition to the help lines and support groups, Cruse also offers the majority of its services and support in one-to-one or family sessions.
Their Work with Children
It has long been understood that children—especially very young children—process death and grief differently than teens and adults. Cruse is the region’s largest and most highly respected provider of bereavement care for young children living in the UK. They have written materials, a free help-line and a special website geared toward a younger audience that is equipped with message boards and email support. They also offer one-on-one /in-person counseling sessions to children who need specialized support and care.
Carrying the Banner
In addition to offering individualized support and help to grieving people, Cruse also works tirelessly to raise awareness about bereavement and its affects. The charity’s goal is to change the way the bereaved are viewed and treated in today’s society. They helped campaign for changes in government policy, against changes made to bereavement benefit packages and even in the chief coroner’s campaign. They are currently focused on Brighton funeral poverty and workplace bereavement care and leave.
They are also currently working hard to prevent medical examiner costs from being passed on to those who are grieving and at developing Bereavement Care Service Standards with the Bereavement Services Association.
Besides the already mentioned campaigns and goals, Cruse is always working to grow and develop as a charity. They recently put together a five year plan to ensure that they can continue to offer the support and services they currently offer while also allowing for expansion.
Lend Your Support
Brighton Funeral staff and directors can take part in the training offered through Cruse for helping bereaved people deal with the funeral process. Individuals can contribute privately directly through donations.
Supporters receive certificates of training completion that they can display and literature to read and share with other bereaved people.
Bereavement issues affect everyone at some point or another. Knowing that you have someone to turn to is the best way to get through grief in healthy and productive ways.
By | 2017-06-14T14:53:09+00:00 |Dying Matters|Comments Off on Cruse Grieving Services.
Pauper’s Funerals on the Rise
Body Donation Rising in Popularity
Do You Know What Funeral Music Your Loved One Wants?
Workplace Bereavement
Bereavement Workplace Leave.
Dying Matters
Funeral Music
Greener Funerals
Hove Funeral Directors
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1589
|
__label__cc
| 0.53025
| 0.46975
|
Addressing Sex-Based Differences in Lung Treatmen...
Addressing Sex-Based Differences in Lung Treatment
Posted December 21, 2017 by Temple Lung Center
Once considered a taboo topic, gender is now an increasingly important part of the patient care journey as research shows some diseases present primarily, differently, or exclusively in women rather than men. For example, in cases where women and men have the same degree of airway obstruction from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), women report more anxiety and depression, worse symptoms, a lower capacity to exercise, and worse overall health-related quality of life compared to men. In addition, women’s lung diseases are generally diagnosed and treated at lower rates than men—a statistic that sheds light on a significant gap in healthcare.
In an effort to address disparities like these at the Temple Lung Center, the new Women’s Lung Disease Program is the first of its kind in the region that makes it possible for female patients to now identify and select female doctors who have an extensive understanding of sex-based health differences. Providers in the program also pay close attention to external variables—such as home and work environments—to factor in how those, too, may impact women patients in different ways than men.
“We are creating a supportive environment where we can be more sensitive to the unique needs of female patients,” says Dr. Jamie Garfield, one of seven female doctors championing the initiative. “The more intentional we are about the need to identify areas of disparity, the more sensitive we are with our patients.”
We are creating a supportive environment where we can be more sensitive to the unique needs of female patients.
- Dr. Jamie Garfield
Growing up in a diverse community in Manhattan, Dr. Garfield began her career working in public health in New York. After meeting many patients who struggled to access “safe and reliable medical care from compassionate providers,” she decided she wanted to do more than just research. “It no longer felt satisfying to study and write about problems from an academic’s desk,” says Dr. Garfield. “I wanted to be part of the solution on the ground. I wanted the privilege to learn from and take care of another human being.”
Today, Dr. Garfield has been practicing pulmonology and critical care medicine for more than 15 years. An active member of the LGBTQ community, she’s also a long-time advocate for listening to traditionally underserved groups. In fact, she says the new program is largely a result of her female patients sharing they prefer a doctor of the same sex.
“We know some female patients—including ourselves when we’re in the waiting room—may be more comfortable being cared for by a provider of the same sex,” says Dr. Garfield. “There’s a level of trust that a female patient affords a female provider that may be very different in another situation. The Women’s Lung Disease Program is organized in a way to accommodate and nurture this need.”
At the end of the day, Dr. Garfield says it’s all about improving patient care: “We have a responsibility to provide safe and clear access to community education and clinical care to our patients. Women are an understudied and an underrepresented group of people who make up 50 percent of our population, so this is a start... and that’s why I am proud to practice at Temple.”
Temple Lung Center
See all posts from Temple Lung Center View full bio
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1590
|
__label__wiki
| 0.943335
| 0.943335
|
Home Music Elton John And Universal Music Group Strike Global Partnership Across Recorded Music,...
Elton John And Universal Music Group Strike Global Partnership Across Recorded Music, Music Publishing, Merchandise, Brand Management And Licensing Rights
Rocket Entertainment and Universal Music Group, today announced a significant new agreement to provide Elton John, one of music’s most iconic artists and the most successful male solo artist in US Billboard chart history, the industry’s best resources and expertise across recorded music, music publishing and licensing rights. This partnership not only means that UMG represents the entirety of Elton John’s legendary creative output throughout his extraordinary five-decade career, but also will see UMG’s labels globally release all of Elton John’s new music for the rest of his career going forward.
The multi-faceted agreement marks the beginning of a new era of expanded collaboration between Elton John and UMG and significantly expands their global business partnership. The long-term commitment also includes the publishing rights to his iconic song writing catalogue to be administrated by Universal Music Publishing Group long into the future. Bravado, UMG’s brand-management and merchandise company, will work closely with Rocket to expand and develop global merchandising, branding and retail licensing opportunities around Elton’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road world tour and catalogue.
Since becoming CEO of Rocket Entertainment in 2015, David Furnish has fostered an ever-closer working partnership with UMG. Together, they have focused on growing Elton John’s presence on streaming services and social media platforms to support a broader strategy in touring, branding and licensing. A strategically planned series of initiatives across the fields of recorded and live music, fashion, film and video have ensured that not only does Elton’s oeuvre continue to find new fans, but his continuous creative output has remained exciting and relevant across the generations.
Some of the world’s biggest and most exciting artists from a wide-range of genres joined together to pay homage to cover versions of songs written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, resulting in two albums released in April: Revamp (Virgin EMI/Island Records) and the country music companion Restoration (MCA Nashville). Miley Cyrus to The Killers, Little Big Town to Maren Morris, Q-Tip to Lady Gaga, Chris Stapleton to Kacey Musgraves, Ed Sheeran to Queens Of The Stone Age contributed recordings to the albums. Revamp reached No. 2 in the U.K. Compilation Charts, educating a new generation of fans to the influence and inspiration that Elton has had on various genres leading lights.
Also, in April, CBS aired the concert special “Elton John: I’m Still Standing — A GRAMMY Salute,” featuring performances from Elton John and artists including Alessia Cara, Lady Gaga, Shawn Mendes and Sam Smith covering some of his most-loved hit songs. Elton John was named the top-performing solo male artist in the 60-year history of the Billboard Hot 100, with 67 chart entries between 1970 and 2000, including nine No. 1 songs and 27 than landed in the top 10.
November 2017 saw the release of Diamonds, a career-spanning Greatest Hits set. Timed to coincide with Elton’s 70th birthday, as well as the anniversary of his 50th year working with his songwriting partner Bernie Taupin, a sustained period of celebratory activity surrounded the release, including an ITV1 90-minute prime-time special and a Radio 2 special in the U.K., where the album was certified twice Gold and reached the Top 5 of the U.K. Album Charts upon release.
This year has seen the live side of Elton John’s business pushed to ever greater heights. The announcement of the Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour was a VR extravaganza that transported attending media- and fans around the world watching on YouTube – through the defining moments of Elton’s illustrious performance career. The tour, which kicked off earlier this month in Allentown, Pennsylvania marks the Elton John’s goodbye to the road, drawing the curtain on a career that has broken records and redefined the parameters of live music. The U.S. dates became the fast selling American Express presale of all time, selling 450,000 tickets on first day, and 76 of the dates sold out instantly. The tour will take in over 300 shows over three years, and it’s projected to see Elton perform in front of 6 million to 7 million people.
Elton continues to impact the world of fashion and will work with Bravado to create an inspired line of merchandise for his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour. Bravado will oversee worldwide tour and retail merchandise, brand partnerships, licensing and direct-to-consumer sales along with activations planned in cities throughout the tour. Elton’s iconic presence in fashion and design was felt last year as Gucci unveiled their Spring Summer 2018 collection. Designed by Alessandro Michele and inspired by Elton’s inimitable style, the collection referenced original items taken from his archives. Gucci has also designed Elton’s wardrobe for the Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour, threading the various style elements that make up the superstar’s DNA.
Elton also appeared as himself in a critically lauded, hilariously tongue-in-cheek role in Kingsman: The Golden Circle, and his songs soundtrack Sherlock Gnomes. Staying within the visual medium, last year also saw Elton and Bernie launch The Cut, a project allowing undiscovered creative talent from all over the world the chance to create the official music videos for some of their most iconic songs: “Rocket Man,” “Tiny Dancer” and “Bennie And The Jets,” each winning video attracting millions upon millions of views. The Cut, which was supported by YouTube, helped build a dialogue with Elton’s younger fanbase and exposed Elton’s catalogue to a creative, youth-orientated audience, allowing new and emerging talent to produce the first-ever official videos for some of Elton’s classic tracks from before the commercial music video-era.
Elton’s regular Beats 1 Rocket Hour show on Apple Music also reinforces his unsurpassed reputation as a connoisseur of pop and a supporter of new and emerging talent. Having recently transmitted it’s 150th episode, Elton has now presented more shows for Beats 1 than any of the other regular presenters.
As Elton’s globally anticipated Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour gets underway in the U.S., the next phase of the icon’s unparalleled career will continue to push the boundaries and define the meaning of the term global Superstar. With the path of his future recording career now set in stone with UMG, and under Rocket Entertainment’s stewardship, Elton John defines pop culture in the 21st Century.
Previous articleChris Cornell Gets 64-Track Limited-Edition Deluxe Box Set To Be Released November 16
Next articleAndrea Bocelli Enlists Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran, and Josh Groban For His New Album ‘Si’
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1591
|
__label__wiki
| 0.979237
| 0.979237
|
Book Review: Lippman's new stand-alone novel drags a bit
Wire Stream
By BRUCE DeSILVA
For The Associated Press
"The Most Dangerous Thing" (William Morrow), by Laura Lippman. In 1979, two girls and three boys on the brink of adolescence spent an idyllic summer exploring heavily wooded Leakin Park on the outskirts of Baltimore. But one day, something happened there that none of them wanted to talk about.
The friends drifted apart. Decades passed.
But now one of those old friends, Gordon "Go-Go" Halloran, gets rip-roaring drunk and smashes his car into a highway barrier. The funeral draws the surviving friends -- a magazine editor named Gwen, a stewardess named Mickey and Go-Go's brothers, Tim and Sean -- back into the same orbit.
Police figure Gordon's death is either an accident or a suicide. Gwen, the protagonist of the story, isn't so sure. As she pokes into the case, she and the surviving friends are pulled back into the past -- to what happened long ago in those dark woods.
Each of them, it turns out, has a different memory of it. But it's not just because childhood memories warp over time. It's because each of the old friends, and their parents as well, never knew more than a small part of the story. And what each of them knew was a different part.
"The Most Dangerous Thing" is Laura Lippman's seventh stand-alone novel, although fans of her popular private eye series will be pleased to know that its hero, Tess Monaghan, makes a cameo appearance. The stand-alones, including "I'd Know You Anywhere" (2010) and "What the Dead Know" (2007), have been widely praised not only as mysteries but also as literature -- a body of work that places her in the company of Thomas H. Cook and Dennis Lehane as one of our finest literary crime novelists.
"The Most Dangerous Thing" doesn't quite measure up to the earlier stand-alones. The first third drags a bit, and story doesn't pack quite as much emotional punch. But it is nevertheless a fine and ambitious novel that explores how much parents don't know about the lives of their children, and how little children know about their parents.
Lippman flashes effortlessly between the past and the present, describing that long-ago summer and chronicling Gwen's present-day search for the truth. Gwen, burdened with the care of her aged father and looking for a way out of her dying marriage, doggedly searches for answers, gradually unwinding the past layer by layer.
What she discovers will shock both her and the readers, and will change the lives of all of the characters forever.
Bruce DeSilva is the author of "Rogue Island," which won the Mystery Writers of America's Edgar Award for best first novel.
http://lauralippman.com
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1592
|
__label__wiki
| 0.685897
| 0.685897
|
EYE ON SJC, News
Measles Cases Continue to Soar in 2019, Prompting Concerns of Unvaccinated Children
Editor’s Note: This story has been updated to include CUSD’s current immunization rates and the number of confirmed measles cases from the CDC.
By Shawn Raymundo
More than 700 confirmed cases of measles have been reported in the U.S. this year, making 2019 the highest on record this decade, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The number of reported measles cases in 2019 has far surpassed last year’s total of 372 and last week exceeded the 667 total confirmed cases that occurred in 2014.
As of April 26, the CDC had found 704measles cases across 22 states, including California, Arizona, Colorado, Oregon and Washington. In California, there have been a total of 38 confirmed cases, six of which were in Los Angeles.
The county of Butte in Northern California has seen the highest number of confirmed cases in the state, with 16. Thirteen of those cases in Butte were among adults; three were found in children.
The influx of measles cases has reignited concerns among health officials regarding unvaccinated children.
Ryan Burris, spokesperson for the Capistrano Unified School District, recently said that all of the notices for parents to have their children vaccinated ahead of the next school year have been sent out. The notices, he added, state that children won’t be able to attend class next year if their vaccination records aren’t up to date based on state law.
Amid a measles outbreak in Rockland County, N.Y., that was declared an emergency late last month, nearly 6,000 unvaccinated children were pulled from schools. Officials from the county said such children would be banned from public places including schools, churches and shopping centers, the New York Times reported.
The ban was placed on hold earlier this month by a New York state judge.
The Rockland County outbreak began in October and has since reached 194 confirmed cases of measles, according to the CDC’s latest data.
Citing California’s Health and Safety Code, Jorge De la Cruz, public information officer for the California Department of Public Health (CDPH), told The Capistrano Dispatch that a similar protocol is in place in the state.
“California law (Health and Safety Code Section 120370 (b) ) permits exclusion of unimmunized children from school during outbreaks,” Cruz wrote in an email. “The need to exclude children, and the number of children affected, depends upon the details of the specific outbreak.”
According to CDPH, schools do have the authority to exclude children from classes if they don’t “meet the statutory school entry vaccination requirements,” while state and public health officers also have the authority to keep such kids out of schools.
In 2016, Senate Bill 277 was enacted, eliminating the exemption from vaccinations based on personal belief.
According to Burris, the district’s immunization rate is currently at 96%, with 46,310 of the district’s 48,252 students having the MMR vaccine, which protects against measles, mumps and rubella.
Nearly 200 students in grades K-12 are temporarily exempted for MMR, while 625 students, or 1.3%, are permanently exempt, according to Burris. And currently, there are 1,118 students in grades 2-6 and 10-12 who are grandfathered under the existing personal belief exemption from before the 2016 law.
Cruz said CDPH has been encouraging parents to vaccinate their children through media campaigns and has worked to increase and monitor immunization rates by working with local health departments, specifically in distributing doses of the influenza vaccines.
“CDPH monitors the occurrence of measles and promotes multiple activities to increase immunization throughout California,” Cruz said in the email. “While California still experiences outbreaks of measles . . . immunization rates have increased substantially in recent years, increasing protection of communities against measles.”
Across the state, Cruz noted that between the 2013-2014 and 2017-2018 school years, the rate of kindergarteners reported as having all required immunizations jumped from 90.2% to 95.1%. The rate of personal belief exemptions, he said, dropped from 3.2% in the 2013-2014 school year to zero in 2017-1018.
After the 2016 law, CUSD saw an increase in vaccinated kindergarteners from nearly 73% in the 2013-2014 school year to 90.2 percent in the 2016-2017 school year, according to a report the Orange County Grand Jury released in May 2017.
The report also noted that while CUSD’s rate of unvaccinated children had sharply decreased, it still remained below the “recommended herd immunity threshold” of 92-94%.
California Department of Public HealthCapistrano Unified School DistrictFeaturedimmunizationmeaslesOrange CountyOuch! – Now That Didn’t Hurt: The Implementation of the Vaccination Bill SB 277 in Orange County SchoolsSan Juan Capistranovaccination
Previous Post Orange County’s Homeless Population Reaches Nearly 7,000
Next Post On Life and Love after 50: Should Single Seniors Make List of Qualities They Seek In A Mate?
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1597
|
__label__wiki
| 0.93442
| 0.93442
|
Kevin-Prince Boateng (left) and Mario Balotelli have led the player movement against racism in soccer
Sports Top Stories
The long, sad story of Balotelli and racial abuse
February 24, 2018 February 25, 2018 today 0 Comment Balotelli, Racial abuse
The Nice striker was booked for complaining about racist abuse last week, underlining the total failure of the game’s attempts to tackle the issue.
On August 13, 2008, the day after he had turned 18, Mario Balotelli was belatedly granted citizenship by the country in which he had been born.
“I’m Italian,” the Inter striker proudly declared. “I feel Italian. I will always play for the Italian national team.
“This is even more exciting than making my debut in Serie A. The best birthday present I could receive now would be a call to join the Italy squad, although I’d be happy to play for the Under-21 team.”
Balotelli’s secondary wish was promptly granted and, the following summer, he was selected to represent his country at the European Under-21 Championship.
Just before the team’s departure from Rome for the tournament in Denmark, Coach Pierluigi Casiraghi allowed his Azzurrini some down time. During a stroll around ‘The Eternal City’, Balotelli and some of his teammates were approached by a group of Roma supporters.
They racially abused Balotelli and threw bananas at him before fleeing when the carabineer were called. In the face of such contemptible provocation, Balotelli remained calm. “Mario behaved exceptionally,” Casiraghi said afterwards.
The 18-year-old declined the offer to file a complaint, dismissing the incident as “nothing.” And it was nothing to him. He had already seen and heard it all before. Even at that age, Balotelli had grown accustomed to being targeted by the most ignorant members of society.
His mere presence in the Azzurrini squad had already provoked fury among contributors to fora on right-wing sites such as Stormfront and White Front. The sight of a player born to Ghanaian parents but adopted by an Italian family was apparently too much for them to take. Sadly, they weren’t alone in that regard.
In April 2009, Juventus fans throughout Inter’s 1-1 draw racially abused Balotelli with the Bianconeri in Turin. “There are no black Italians,” they sang. Inter President, Massimo Moratti, was among those outraged by the chants.
“If I had been at the stadium, at a certain point I would have left my seat in the stand, I would have gone onto the pitch and I would have taken the team off,” he told the Gazzetta dello Sport. “They seemed proud and happy to sing those things. This is terrible.”
The authorities, unsurprisingly, didn’t deem such conduct quite so offensive, with Juve merely ordered to partially close a section of their stadium for one game.
Then President, Giovanni Cobolli Gigli, issued a public apology to Balotelli and called for an end to such behaviour, but his words carried no weight. In Juve’s very next game, away to Chievo, the supporters continued their campaign of hate against Balotelli.
“If you jump up and down, Balotelli will die,” they defiantly roared.
By Euro 2012, Balotelli was no longer willing to ignore the insults. “I will not accept racism at all,” he declared in Poland. “It’s unacceptable. If someone throws a banana at me in the street, I will go to jail, because I will kill them.
“But let’s see what happens at the Euros. I hope it will pass without a problem.”
It didn’t. Both Croatia and Spain fans racially abused Balotelli. The US-based website- Stormfront- was also shut down in Italy after saying of Balotelli: “He’s black and Jewish. He should play for Israel not Italy.”
Sulley Muntari was sent off playing for Pescara after protesting racial abuse during the game
The following year, AC Milan’s Serie A game against Roma was suspended for a minute and a half because of racist chants against Balotelli. Even then, he defended his compatriots, arguing that the small minority abusing him were more ignorant or jealous, rather than racist or prejudiced.
“Racist people are few and you can do nothing against [to change] them,” he told Time Magazine. “You can talk, you can do what you want, but you can’t do anything because they are just stupid people.
“When I wasn’t famous, I had a lot of friends, almost all of them Italian. The racism only started when I started to play football.”
Unfortunately, it’s never stopped, no matter where he’s played. He was racially abused while playing for Manchester City in Portugal and he has been racially abused while playing for Nice in France.
Last year, he was subjected to monkey chants during a game against Bastia, which resulted in the Corsicans being ordered to play three games behind closed doors.
Last week he was booked after complaining to the referee about the abuse he was receiving from Djion supporters. It is the victim that is now being punished – not the culprit, meaning things have changed, just not for the better.
Balotelli was once asked how the incessant racist abuse made him feel. He replied, “A little bit alone.” Depressingly, that remains as true today as it was a decade ago.
Today Sports
…with Gottlieb Baako
← E/R: Student Dies In Galamsey Pit
Today Profile: Akenten Appiah-Menka—The Apino Soap man →
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1599
|
__label__cc
| 0.530212
| 0.469788
|
Animal hoarding crimes
When the Houston Fire Department responded to a house fire in Tomball, they got much more than they bargained for. Shortly after the fire began, dozens of dogs poured out of the burning home and ran wild throughout the upscale subdivision. Neighbors rounded up over 40 dogs and called the Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) to send a rescue team to handle the unusual situation. After the fire was extinguished, a responding SPCA officer entered the home to perform a welfare check and gauge the situation. Immediately, he was overwhelmed by the stench of feces, urine, and trash, which was piled from floor to ceiling (see a photo of the scene at right). The officer found many more dogs throughout the home and all of them suffered from fleas, skin infections, and eye ulcers. Several dogs were in such poor condition that they had to be euthanized, and others will require long-term veterinary care and prolonged behavioral socialization. Fortunately, the owner agreed to relinquish custody of all the animals and surrendered a total of 108 dogs to the Houston SPCA, allowing those authorities to provide proper care and treatment.
Animal hoarding cases are particularly challenging for prosecutors because of the defendant’s mental health issues and the large number of animals involved. The number of animal victims in a hoarding case typically ranges from dozens to hundreds but can climb into the thousands in the most extreme cases. Oftentimes, these animal victims have to be kept as evidence, requiring rescue agencies to hold large numbers of animals up to years at a time, which can quickly wipe out their resources. Additionally, cases can be difficult to coordinate because they can span across multiple jurisdictions and involve many different agencies.
The ultimate challenge for a prosecutor is determining whether a person should be criminally prosecuted for her hoarding behavior or if the civil remedy of seizing the hoarder’s animals sufficiently serves justice. This article addresses factors that prosecutors should consider to successfully resolve this type of case.
To make the right charging decision, a prosecutor must first understand the hoarding mentality. Secondly, the prosecutor should form a partnership with local animal welfare organizations to treat and care for any animal victims and understand the potential seizure or impound issues involved. Finally, a prosecutor should recognize the ramifications of civil versus criminal proceedings, charging decisions, and sentencing options. A clear understanding of these factors will help the prosecutor make a charging decision designed to prevent the offender from hoarding and hurting animals again.
What is animal hoarding?
According to the Hoarding Animal Research Consortium (HARC), animal hoarders are not just individuals who own a lot of pets. As defined, hoarders collect a large number of animals, fail to provide adequate food, water, sanitation, and veterinary care, and, more often than not, are in denial about their inability to provide adequate care.1 This type of abuse differs from other kinds of cruelty because many hoarders do not accept or recognize the suffering they inflict on animals. Leading animal cruelty researchers believe that many hoarders suffer from mental health problems, in particular, a delusional disorder combined with an obsessive-compulsive drive to collect.2 The delusional component is a recent addition to the mental illness theory and explains why many hoarders sincerely believe that they provide adequate care despite abundant evidence to the contrary.
Although animal hoarders typically “are female, well over 40 years old, and single, widowed, or divorced,” hoarders can be any age, gender, or from any socio-economic background.3 According to HARC, there are three types of animal hoarders: 1) the overwhelmed caregiver; 2) the rescue hoarder; and 3) the exploiter hoarder.4 An overwhelmed caregiver is usually a breeder who has gotten in over her head. Rather than being spurred on by a mental illness, an overwhelmed caregiver has a stronger grasp on the reality of the situation and is better able to recognize that she can no longer provide adequate care for all of their animals. By comparison, a rescue hoarder operates on the principle that she is saving the animal from certain death at the hands of a shelter and truly believes she is the only person who can provide the animals with proper care. However, a rescue hoarder prolongs and intensifies the animal’s suffering, thereby inflicting greater harm than euthanasia.
The final category, the exploiter hoarder, demonstrates the strongest traits of mental instability. Exploiters are very manipulative, lack empathy for the animals they harm, and still are intellectually savvy enough to know how to work the judicial system to their advantage.5 Both the overwhelmed caregiver and rescuer generally hoard with “good intentions” and have a better chance of rehabilitation than the exploiter who collects animals without any regard for their wellbeing.
Based on these categories, criminal prosecution is usually warranted for the exploiter hoarder, whereas the civil proceeding may be the appropriate remedy for the overwhelmed caregiver and possibly the rescue hoarder.
How does hoarding cause animal suffering?
Animal hoarding is one of the largest sources of animal violence with a greater number of animal victims than intentionally violent acts.6 Authorities identify between 700 and 2,000 new cases of animal hoarding nationwide each year, and a single hoarding event averages around 40 animal victims.7 Animal hoarding victims endure extreme neglect in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions. Most rescued animals are in poor physical condition, suffering from weight loss, parasite infestation, and severe skin infections from feces and urine caking their haircoat. The animals suffer psychologically as well from their cramped confinement. The stress of being surrounded by so many other animals is compounded by the fact that many have not been properly socialized. When rescued, some animals will lash out at handlers from fear or display other bizarre reactions to normal stimuli. As a result of these physical and mental problems, euthanasia is the best option for many of the rescued animals.8
There are also numerous health hazards to people living in the hoarding home and neighboring residents. Rescue workers frequently have to wear respirators to even enter the property as a result of increased ammonia levels from feces and urine.9 In severe cases, infectious diseases spread because of the extreme levels of rodent infestation typically associated with all of the filth and debris. One such disease is Hantavirus, a rare but deadly disease that is contracted by breathing air that has been contaminated by rodent droppings and urine containing the virus.10 While an episode of “Hoarding: Buried Alive” was filming for the Discovery Channel, a home in the Houston area was quarantined out of fear that it contained Hantavirus. Fortunately, a second round of tests came back negative for the disease, but earlier this year an outbreak at Yosemite National Park infected 10 people and caused three deaths.
Beyond the animals or humans immediately involved, there are other victims in hoarding’s wake. Animal shelters suffer financial strain because they lack the space or resources to deal with a large influx of animals. Many shelters are already overwhelmed, and the abrupt arrival of a large number of animals can force them to euthanize healthy, adoptable pets to make room for sickly, skittish hoarding victims. If the owner declines to relinquish custody, they often must be kept alive as evidence, prolonging their suffering and taxing a shelter’s resources.11
Because of the impound issues, every prosecuting agency should have a working partnership in place with an animal welfare organization to handle animals seized in cruelty cases. In Harris County, we are fortunate to have a great partnership with four animal welfare organizations: Houston Humane Society, Houston SPCA, Bureau of Animal Regulation and Care (BARC), and Harris County Veterinary Public Health. Two of the agencies are private, non-profit organizations and two are government animal-control agencies. We initiated the partnership by asking to meet with each organization to discuss their willingness to assist us in animal cruelty cases. We discussed their resources and limitations, and we also explained our evidentiary needs, including the need for photos, chain of custody protocol, a veterinarian report for each animal, and the need for a necropsy.
Based on our discussions, we developed a standard protocol, which provides for 24/7 veterinary coverage utilizing the four animal shelters. It outlines which animal welfare agency will provide assistance and under what circumstances. Because of this partnership, we have a plan in place and can handle any animal cruelty case, including large seizures, in a coordinated and efficient manner. (If you live in an area that does not have animal shelter resources, you can contact Katie Jarl, the Texas State Director of the Humane Society of the United States, for assistance at [email protected] humanesociety.org.)
Seizure issues
Under Texas law, animals may be seized with a criminal search warrant pursuant to §18.02(10) in the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure or by a civil warrant pursuant to §821.022 in the Texas Health & Safety Code. However, even in criminal cases, it is always preferable to seize the animals with a civil warrant because the civil statute is animal-friendly and provides for a swift disposition of the animals seized. Under the civil statute, a hearing regarding the disposition of the animal must be held within 10 days; it also provides that if the defendant wants to appeal, he must post an appeal bond determined by the court. These conditions are beneficial to animal welfare agencies because it minimizes their costs in caring for the animals. Additionally, it reduces animal suffering by offering the agencies that gained custody of the animals the ability to adopt healthy animals soon after the civil hearing without having to wait for the disposition of the criminal case.
Even in situations where a criminal search warrant is necessary to gain access to the animals, law enforcement officers should also obtain a civil warrant. With both warrants in hand, officers should use the criminal search warrant as authority to gain access to the animals; however, officers should seize the animals pursuant to the civil warrant. By seizing the animals pursuant to the civil warrant, officers do not need to list the animals as inventory in the criminal search warrant. The officer will then file the civil warrant with the appropriate justice or municipal court and a hearing will be held within 10 days to determine the disposition of the animals. Once the civil hearing is over, the prosecutor can file criminal charges, if appropriate.
Finally, there are two common scenarios where an officer may seize animals without a warrant. One way is to have the owner/caretaker sign a voluntary surrender form, which alleviates the need for both a warrant and subsequent civil hearing. The second scenario is when an officer, who is standing in a lawful place, observes an animal in dire need of medical care. Under this scenario, the seizure of the animal is proper under the emergency doctrine. In Pine v. State, the defendant had a malnourished colt and the sheriff removed the colt from the defendant’s farm without first obtaining a warrant.12 Although the court was unable to find precedent for applying this doctrine to an emergency involving saving the life of an animal, it found that the deputy was presented with an emergency situation that made the warrantless seizure reasonable. (The officer should still obtain a civil seizure warrant as soon as practicable after seizing the animals.)
Texas law provides two avenues for handling animal cruelty cases: civil and criminal. Although each statute serves a different purpose and a single case can be prosecuted under both statutes, the prosecutor should wait until the disposition of the civil hearing before filing criminal charges. The civil statute focuses on the welfare of the animals and provides a mechanism to remove them from an abusive situation, whereas the criminal statute focuses on the abuser and seeks justice for her actions. Additionally, the civil statute differs from the criminal statute in that it has a broader definition of “animal,” a lower burden of proof, and does not require a culpable mental state. For these reasons, the vast majority of animal cruelty cases, including hoarding cases, are handled civilly and do not result in criminal prosecution.
Charging options
Texas does not have specific hoarding legislation; therefore, animal hoarders must be prosecuted under §42.092 of the Penal Code, which makes it a Class A misdemeanor for animal owners to fail to provide necessary food, water, care, or shelter.13 Prosecutors should always file multiple charges because the statute provides for enhancement provisions for repeat offenders. After reviewing the complete file, the prosecutor should file charges on two or three animals that are in the worst medical and/or environmental condition. These animals should specifically be identified by their tag or identification numbers in the charging instrument. The prosecutor can also file multiple charges using a different manner and means for each animal. Finally, the prosecutor should give notice to the defense of extraneous offenses regarding the animals that were harmed but were not the bases of any charges. The enhancement provisions are especially applicable to animal hoarders, who have nearly a 100-percent recidivism rate.14
A noteworthy challenge to Texas law was discussed in State v. Kingsbury.15 In Kingsbury, Cameron County Animal Control workers found approximately 76 dogs that were emaciated and dehydrated. The workers also found four other dogs that had died of starvation. The indictment alleged that the defendants intentionally or knowingly tortured those four dogs by “leaving them without food and water to such an extent as to cause the death of said dogs.”16 The court held that the felony offense of “torture” did not include failing to provide necessary food, care, or shelter and to rule otherwise would defeat the statute’s categorization of “torture” as a more serious crime. Therefore, to avoid the problems in Kingsbury, even in the extreme cases where animals die from starvation, prosecutors must file misdemeanor charges under §42.092 charging that the animal owners failed unreasonably to provide necessary food, water, care, or shelter by failing to provide adequate nutrition or medical care or sanitary shelter.17
Sentencing options
Due to the high likelihood of reoffending, probation is often preferable to incarceration because the defendants can be strictly monitored. As a component of the probation, courts should order mandatory psychological evaluation and treatment to help diagnose and treat any underlying mental illnesses.18 Additionally, offenders should be prohibited from owning, possessing, caring for, or having any contact with an animal during their probation. If the court permits an offender to keep animals, humane law enforcement officers should provide close supervision and make periodic unannounced visits to monitor compliance.19 The prosecutor specifically needs to have the defendant consent to these visits in the plea paperwork. This ensures that the offender adheres to any limitations (or prohibition) on the number of pets permitted and provides the animals with adequate care. A judge should also order restitution to the animal rescue organizations or municipalities involved to compensate for medical care, housing, and transportation for rescued animal victims. A prosecutor could also ask for jail time as an option, but typically this should be reserved for extreme cases and repeat offenders.
To successfully handle a hoarding case, a prosecutor needs to understand the nature of the hoarding mentality. Not all hoarders are created equally, so it is beneficial to understand the categories of hoarders to determine whether civil, criminal, or both remedies are appropriate in a given case. A successful prosecution also requires a multiple-agency response. Animal rescue officers, shelters, and veterinarians must work together to provide health care, food, and housing. Reducing the health, financial, and legal risks associated with responding to a hoarding incident hopefully will help prosecutors bring more animal hoarding cases to court and feel confident that with a coordinated effort, care can be provided to both defendants and their animal victims.
1 Hoarding of Animals Research Consortium, Common Questions about Animal Hoarding, http://vet.tufts.edu/hoarding/abthoard.htm (last accessed Nov. 15, 2012).
2 Gary J. Patronek & Hoarding of Animals Research Consortium, The Problem of Animal Hoarding, 42 Mun. L. 6, 7 (May/June 2001).
3 Carrie Allen, Rescued from Squalor, The Humane Society, All Animals Magazine, 29 (July/ August 2010).
4 Debra L. Muller-Harris, Animal Violence Court: A Therapeutic Jurisprudence-Based Problem-Solving Court for the Adjudication of Animal Cruelty Cases Involving Juvenile Offenders and Animal Hoarders, 17 Animal L. 313, 326 (2011).
5 Id. at 326-327.
6 Lisa Avery, From Helping to Hurting: When the Acts of “Good Samaritans” Become Felony Animal Cruelty, 39 Val. U. L. Rev. 815, 818 (2005) (citing that the ratio of animal victims injured in intentional violent abuse compared those injured in hoarding incidents is 2.3 to 30. Randall Lockwood, Animal Cruelty and Violence Against Humans: Making the Connection, 5 ANIMAL L. 81, 85 (1999)).
7 Allen, at 29 (citing authors Randy Frost & Gail Stektee of the book “Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things,” (2011)).
8 Patronek, at 6.
9 Colin Berry et al., Long-Term Outcomes in Animal Hoarding Cases, 11 Animal L. 167, 169-170 (2005) (stating that an “ammonia concentration of 300 ppm or greater is a threat to life and health.”). See also Avery, at 826-827 (noting that hoarding homes can become biohazardous sites requiring hazmat groups to clean the contaminated homes).
10 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Hantavirus, http://www.cdc.gov/hantavirus/index .html.
11 Allen, at 31 (stating that “[e]ach animal has to be documented for court; this time-consuming process involves photographing the area where the animal was found, and then the animal himself from multiple angles in order to capture his physical condition.”).
12 Pine v. State, 889 S.W.2d 625 (Tex.App.— Houston [14th Dist.] 1994, pet. ref’d).
13 Tex. Penal Code §42.092.
14 Mueller-Harris, at 335.
15 State v. Kingsbury, 129 S.W.3d 202 (Tex. App.—Corpus Christi 2004, no pet.).
16 Id. at 203.
18 Mueller-Harris at 334-335.
19 Id. at 333-334. Courts will sometimes allow an offender to keep one or two pets despite their crimes against animals to assuage the offender’s trauma of having all of her animals removed and to enhance the likelihood of a successful rehabilitation by “foster[ing] a cooperative relationship with the hoarder while recognizing the importance animals have in the hoarder’s life.” Avery, at 853.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1603
|
__label__wiki
| 0.759188
| 0.759188
|
Competency to be executed
Competency to be executed is a complex web of statutory and case law that can be a minefield, but the Court of Criminal Appeals recently gave important guidance on the issue in Battaglia v. State. The lessons can be applied not only in execution competency cases, but also in broader issues of competency and mental health issues.
John David Battaglia and his wife, Mary Jean, divorced in 2000.1 They had two daughters, Liberty and Faith. In 2001, Mary Jean reported Battaglia for violating his probation by leaving a threatening message on her answering machine. The police contacted him and told him to make plans to turn himself in. That day, Battaglia had a scheduled visitation with his daughters, ages 9 and 6. Mary Jean was at a friend’s house where she got a call that Battaglia was trying to reach her. She called him, and he put the phone on speaker. Faith asked, “Mommy, why do you want Daddy to go to jail?” Mary Jean then heard Faith scream, “No, Daddy, please don’t, don’t do it!” followed by gunshots, the girls screaming, and Battaglia shouting, “Merry f—ing Christmas!” When police arrived at the house, they found both girls dead of gunshot wounds near the front door. Battaglia was arrested at a tattoo parlor with his girlfriend.
Battaglia was convicted and sentenced to death. Evidence was presented during punishment that Battaglia suffered from bi-polar disorder and was having a psychotic break during the murders, but his expert agreed that he knew what he was doing when he killed his daughters and that it was wrong. On the day of his execution, the Fifth Circuit granted a stay on the grounds that his counsel had abandoned him and did not raise the issue of his competency to be executed. Battaglia’s new counsel filed an Article 46.05 motion raising his competency, and the trial court held a series of hearings, including the testimony of four experts—two court-appointed, one for the defense, and one for the State. The trial court found Battaglia was competent to be executed, and he appealed that decision to the Court of Criminal Appeals.
Incompetency to be executed
A prisoner is incompetent to be executed if his mental illness prevents him from understanding the reasons for the penalty or its implications.2 But the harder question is what degree of “comprehension” is required. The CCA engaged in an extensive review of federal caselaw to determine what the state of the law truly is. The most recent Supreme Court opinion was Panetti v. Quarterman, a Texas case where the Court concluded that a “rational understanding” of the connection between the person’s crimes and his execution is required.3 Thus, he must not only understand that he is going to be put to death but also that that punishment is because of the crime he committed. A person with “gross delusions” may be aware that the State claims to be executing him for a crime but believe that another reason is the true purpose of the execution and thus not have a rational understanding.
However, when Panetti was remanded for consideration of these factors, the trial court concluded that he was competent to be executed.4 Panetti claimed that he was on Death Row to preach the gospel and save souls, not because he committed a crime. Three experts believed he had a genuine delusion, but two others concluded that he was malingering and was “as normal as he wants to be.” Although he preached and ranted to fellow inmates, he spoke normally with his parents and had a sophisticated understanding of his case, including blaming political corruption for his conviction rather than a mission to preach the gospel. Giving heavy deference to the trial court’s credibility finding in the duel of experts, the higher courts upheld the trial court’s finding of competency.
In Billiot v. Epps,5 a federal court in Mississippi concluded that Billiot was convinced he was going to be released rather than executed. Thus, he could not “prepare himself in any spiritual sense for death” and was incompetent to be executed.
In Wood v. Thaler, an expert concluded that Wood was incompetent based on “persecutory delusions”—he believed that he was going to be convicted based on corruption in the system and a conspiracy by the trial judge and district attorney against him.6 But the expert, Dr. Roman, had no experience dealing with criminal defendants. Another expert in the same case, Dr. Conroy, concluded that Wood was competent because he had an accurate understanding of the reason for his execution. Dr. Conroy did not believe that he was delusional despite his belief in a conspiracy against him because “his explanation was one that we’ve heard over and over in this courtroom”—the State of Texas was “out to get him.” Dr. Conroy explained that this was a very common belief in the prison system. This was significant because the DSM-IV definition of “delusion” does not include beliefs that are shared by other members of the person’s culture or group. The experts who evaluated Wood and who had experience in the prison system concluded that he was not delusional because his only “delusion” was one of corruption in the system, a commonly shared delusion among prison inmates. The court specifically discounted Dr. Roman’s diagnosis because he had no experience in the prison population and did not make any reference to the DSM-IV’s requirement to consider the patient’s subculture or group. Additionally, the beliefs “suspiciously appeared suddenly after the Supreme Court’s Panetti decision was handed down.”7
In case out of Florida, Ferguson had delusions that he was the Prince of God and would be resurrected after his execution to sit at the right hand of God.8 But he still understood the reasons and consequences of his upcoming execution, and some experts believed that he was malingering. The state courts concluded that, despite his mental illness and delusional beliefs, he still understood the connection between his execution and the murders he committed and that he would die when executed. Thus, he was competent to be executed. The federal courts upheld the decision, again deferring to the trial court’s decision to credit some experts’ testimony over others.
In Eldridge v. Thaler,9 four experts examined Eldridge and again split on whether he was competent. Eldridge reported that his girlfriend (whom he was convicted of murdering in Texas) was not dead and that he had just spoken to her recently. Two experts believed he was truly delusional, but the other two believed he was malingering. One noted that he had never received any psychiatric treatment prior to his arrest and that his symptoms were almost entirely self-reported. The court found Eldridge competent to be executed, and the higher courts upheld the decision.
Finally, in Madison, the defendant had several severe strokes and as a result had no memory of committing the murder that resulted in his death sentence.10 The trial court agreed with the State of Alabama’s experts that Madison was competent to be executed because he was able to accurately discuss his legal theories with his attorneys and had a rational understanding of his sentence. However, the 11th Circuit overturned that finding. The experts agreed that Madison was not malingering and genuinely had no memory of the murder. Even though he had been told why he was being executed, his total lack of memory about the event prevented him from truly having a rational understanding. “A person does not rationally understand his punishment if he is simply blindly accepting what he has been told.” Thus, he was not competent to be executed.
In Texas, competency to be executed is governed by Article 46.05 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. A person is incompetent to be executed if he does not understand 1) that he is to be executed and that the execution is imminent, and 2) the reason he is being executed. After meeting a threshold burden of making a “substantial showing” of execution incompetency, the trial court must conduct an adversarial hearing where the defendant has the burden of proof by a preponderance of the evidence that he is incompetent to be executed.
After Article 46.05 was enacted, the CCA decided Green v. State.11 Dr. Mosnick, a defense expert who had testified only a few times in criminal cases, concluded that Green was incompetent due to various delusions, including that he had not killed anyone and that “demons” lived inside him and controlled him. But State’s expert Dr. Moeller testified that Green was not delusional and understood he was to be executed because he was convicted of capital murder. The trial court found he was competent. On federal habeas, Green submitted more evidence that he believed his body was being controlled and he had conversations with voices in his head. Dr. Mosnik again concluded that he was incompetent. But the Fifth Circuit noted that Green had spent much of his interview discussing flaws in his trial and belief that the police “set him up,” and it found he was competent.12
In light of findings in Green, the CCA concluded that the statutory language of Article 46.05 “must be interpreted in accordance with and consistent with Panetti.”13 Thus, the review cannot focus exclusively on the defendant’s “awareness of his situation” but must consider whether a delusional thought process prevents him from rationally comprehending a causal link between his offense and his imminent execution. Thus, a person is competent to be executed if he 1) knows the reason he is to be executed, 2) knows the execution is imminent, and 3) despite any delusional beliefs or mental illness he might have or his denial of committing the offense, he understands a causal link between the offense and his imminent execution.
Weighing expert testimony
When the Court actually evaluated Battaglia’s case, as in most of the federal cases the CCA examined, the question of competency came down to weighing the credibility of the experts who examined him. Three of the four experts who examined him—defense expert Dr. Mosnik, State’s expert Dr. Proctor, and court-appointed expert Dr. Allen—all concluded that Battaglia was delusional and incompetent to be executed.14 But the trial court credited the opinion of a fourth expert, court- appointed expert Dr. Womack, who believed that Battaglia was competent.
Dr. Mosnik concluded that Battaglia was delusional, citing claims that he was to be executed as part of a cover-up scheme so he would not disclose others’ illegal behavior. She admitted he was aware he had a scheduled execution date and would be executed because he was convicted of murdering his daughters, but the doctor claimed Battaglia did not have a rational understanding because he believed the true reason he was being executed was due to a cover-up. Dr. Proctor similarly believed that Battaglia had a “vast and complicated delusional system,” though he admitted it was possible for an intelligent person to feign delusions. Dr. Allen noted that Battaglia had no prior psychiatric history and was intelligent and well-read. He observed that Battaglia had delusions of a “complex web of plots against him” and that this delusion prevented him from a rational understanding of the reason for his execution.
However, at the evidentiary hearing, Dr. Allen retreated slightly from his written report—he noted that Battaglia had no psych referrals during his time in prison, and every mental status report showed normal functioning. At the hearing, he concluded that it was possible Battaglia was malingering but that he could not prove it either way. Along those lines, Dr. Womack concluded that Battaglia was competent. His jail mail and media interviews showed that he was aware of why he was going to be executed and showed a clear understanding, even though he denied committing the murder. His explanations were not consistent with a fixed delusion—for example, he wavered about whether he was never present at the crime scene or whether he had been there but had been mind-controlled. Dr. Womack noted that Battaglia was highly intelligent and capable of creating a complex story line to feign delusion. He also observed that complaints about the system being rigged or corrupt were common in the prison system and Battaglia did not show any particular emotion connected to the complaints.
The law library supervisor at Battaglia’s unit was familiar with him both from her time as a corrections officer and while working in the law library. Battaglia came to the library as often as three days a week and requested legal materials. Notably, Battaglia requested Panetti and other competency cases just 12 days before his scheduled execution date. Dr. Womack pointed out that Battaglia had a “sudden insight” into his disorder despite not receiving any treatment, and reading caselaw about competency could give him enough information to fake delusions.
Ultimately, the trial court determined that Dr. Womack was the most credible of the four witnesses and adopted his conclusions that Battaglia was highly intelligent and highly motivated to exaggerate his symptoms, was malingering, and was competent to be executed. After exhaustive review of the testimony and the caselaw, the CCA decided that this conclusion was supported by the record.15
Applicability for the future
Battaglia will be important for future practice for a few reasons. First and most importantly, of course, it nails down the test of competency to be executed for future death penalty cases. Its exhaustive discussion of existing execution competency caselaw and resolution of state law with federal requirements should prove useful in any upcoming cases on the issue. But it also discusses some important credibility issues when dealing with mental health experts in all cases.
Specifically, the trial court concluded that one expert was not credible in part because she focused on clinical psychology rather than working with the prison population and testified exclusively for the defense.16 As in Wood, the expert determined most qualified was the one who spent most of his career working directly in the prison system.17 Because competency cases—and mental illness issues generally—so often turn on which expert the trial court believes, this is important reinforcement of factors that can affect credibility.
The source of opinions was also given attention. The court noted that Battaglia’s delusions were all self-reported rather than being observed by others, and his letters, interviews, and phone calls all showed that he appeared to be intelligent and aware.18 It also pointed out several experts’ testimony that Battaglia was both highly intelligent and had a significant motive to malinger.19 Very importantly, the CCA looked at the suspicious timing of Battaglia’s claims—he showed no prior signs of mental illness in prison, but he requested competency caselaw only two weeks before his execution date and then started showing symptoms.20 These three factors are useful to question experts about when they are determining competency. Remember also not to be bound entirely by an expert’s written report. One of the experts here believed that Battaglia was incompetent in his written report, but after being cross-examined more on the factors above—including motivation to malinger and his investigation of caselaw about incompetency—he withdrew that opinion.
Finally, one of the most useful pieces of information from Battaglia is the reinforcement from Green and Wood that a defendant is not delusional just because he proclaims his innocence.21 The DSM-IV requires that an expert consider the subject’s particular subculture or group when determining delusion. Because the belief that one is innocent or being set up by a corrupt system is very commonly espoused in the prison system, it is not in itself proof that a defendant is delusional. This is a very important fact that can be used both when cross-examining a defense expert or when arguing which expert’s testimony should be credited.
Competency issues are never simple to deal with, especially in the highly charged context of an execution. But Battaglia gives important support for dealing with those cases.
1 Battaglia v. State, No. AP-77,069, slip op. at 1 (Tex. Crim. App. Sept. 20, 2017).
2 Ford v. Wainwright, 477 U.S.399 (1986).
3 Panetti v. Quarterman, 551 U.S. 930 (2007).
4 Panetti v. Stephens, 727 F.3d 398 (5th Cir. 2013).
5 Billiot v. Epps, 671 F.Supp. 2d 840 (S.D. Miss 2009).
6 Wood v. Thaler, 787 F.Supp. 2d 458 (W.D. Tex. 2011).
7 Id. at 499.
8 Ferguson v. Secretary, Florida Department of Corrections, 716 F.3d 1315 (11th Cir. 2013).
9 Eldridge v. Thaler, No. H-05-1847, 2013 WL 416210 (S.D. Tex. Jan. 31, 2013).
10 Madison v. Commissioner, Alabama Dept. of Corrections, 851 F.3d 1173 (11th Cir.).
11 Green v. State, 374 S.W.3d 434 (Tex. Crim. App. 2012).
12 Green v. Thaler, 699 F.3d 404 (5th Cir. 2012).
13 Battaglia, slip op. at 46.
14 Id. at 49.
16 Id. at 65-66.
18 Id. at 66, 70.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1604
|
__label__wiki
| 0.717841
| 0.717841
|
Transplanting Gene into Injured Hearts Creates Biological Pacemakers
Cardiologists at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute have developed a minimally invasive gene transplant procedure that changes unspecialized heart cells into “biological pacemaker” cells that keep the heart steadily beating.
The laboratory animal research, published online and in print edition of the peer-reviewed journal Science Translational Medicine, is the result of a dozen years of research with the goal of developing biological treatments for patients with heart rhythm disorders who currently are treated with surgically implanted pacemakers. In the United States, an estimated 300,000 patients receive pacemakers every year.
“We have been able, for the first time, to create a biological pacemaker using minimally invasive methods and to show that the biological pacemaker supports the demands of daily life,” said Eduardo Marbán, MD, PhD, director of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, who led the research team. “We also are the first to reprogram a heart cell in a living animal in order to effectively cure a disease.”
These laboratory findings could lead to clinical trials for humans who have heart rhythm disorders but who suffer side effects, such as infection of the leads that connect the device to the heart, from implanted mechanical pacemakers.
Eugenio Cingolani, MD, the director of the Heart Institute’s Cardiogenetics-Familial Arrhythmia Clinic who worked with Marbán on biological pacemaker research team, said that in the future, pacemaker cells also could help infants born with congenital heart block.
“Babies still in the womb cannot have a pacemaker, but we hope to work with fetal medicine specialists to create a life-saving catheter-based treatment for infants diagnosed with congenital heart block,” Cingolani said. “It is possible that one day, we might be able to save lives by replacing hardware with an injection of genes.”
“This work by Dr. Marbán and his team heralds a new era of gene therapy, in which genes are used not only to correct a deficiency disorder, but to actually turn one kind of cell into another type,” said Shlomo Melmed, dean of the Cedars-Sinai faculty and the Helene A. and Philip E. Hixson Distinguished Chair in Investigative Medicine.
In the study, laboratory pigs with complete heart block were injected with the gene called TBX18 during a minimally invasive catheter procedure. On the second day after the gene was delivered to the animals’ hearts, pigs who received the gene had significantly faster heartbeats than pigs who did not receive the gene. The stronger heartbeat persisted for the duration of the 14-day study.
“Originally, we thought that biological pacemaker cells could be a temporary bridge therapy for patients who had an infection in the implanted pacemaker area,” Marbán said. “These results show us that with more research, we might be able to develop a long-lasting biological treatment for patients.”
If future research is successful, Marbán said, the procedure could be ready for human clinical studies in about three years.
“Semi-synthetic” Bacteria Churn Out Proteins Containing Unnatural Amino Acids
Researchers have optimized a semi-synthetic bacteria to efficiently produce proteins containing unnatural amino acids.
The Human Genome Goes Wireless
It seems like everything is going wireless these days. That now includes efforts to reprogram the human genome.
Protein Gives Identical Cells Individuality
New insight into a protein's role in regulating tight DNA packing could have implications for combating tumor cell resistance to anti-cancer treatments.
Arcis Biotechnology and Mirnax Biosens Sign Exclusive License Agreement for Arcis Sample Prep Technology
Bio-Rad Launches its scATAC-Seq Solution
Genetic Study Suggests Anorexia Nervosa Is at Least Partly a Metabolic Disorder
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1605
|
__label__wiki
| 0.750155
| 0.750155
|
How Plants & Fruits From Amazon Forests Can Improve Diets and Livelihoods
20 December 2011, Rome (FAO Media Release) – A new study by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization released today shows how plants and fruits from Amazonian forests can be used to improve people’s diets and livelihoods. The book — which is written in easy-to-grasp, accessible language — seeks to take science out of the ivory tower and put it to work on the ground, in the hands of people.
Fruit Trees and Useful Plants in Amazonian Life was co-produced by the FAO, the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) and People and Plants International. It was unveiled today during a ceremony at FAO marking the close of the International Year of Forests.
“During the International Year of Forests we have managed to highlight close ties between people and forests, as well as the numerous benefits that forests provide if they are managed by local communities in a sustainable way,” said Eduardo Rojas-Briales, FAO’s Assistant Director-General for Forestry.
“Some 80 percent of people living in the developing world rely on non-wood forest products such as fruits and medicinal plants for their nutritional and health needs. This new book provides comprehensive information on Amazon fruits and plants, and is a perfect example of how to make our knowledge accessible for poor people to help them maximize the benefits from forest products and services and improve their livelihoods. While the International Year of Forests is almost over, our efforts on promoting sustainable forest management and the importance of involving forest communities in development initiatives will continue,” added Rojas-Briales.
The layout of FAO’s new book aims at allowing readers lacking in formal education to extract knowledge using pictures and numbers. Twenty five percent of people in developing countries are functionally illiterate — in rural areas this figure can reach close to 40 percent.
“Some 90 Brazilian and international researchers who were willing to present their research to rural villagers in alternative formats — including jokes, recipes and pictures — collaborated in the production of this book,” said Tina Etherington, who managed the publication project for FAO’s Forestry Department. “And a number of farmers, midwives, hunters and musicians contributed valuable insights and experience as well. The book is of interest to a worldwide audience because of its truly innovative way of presenting science and how those techniques can be transferred to other areas in the world.”
Patricia Shanley, Senior Research Associate at CIFOR and lead editor of the publication, said: “This is an unusual book. Written by and for semi-literate rural villagers, it weaves together a tapestry of voices about the myriad values forests contain.”
“The book enables nutritional data and ecology to coexist alongside music and folklore making the forest and its inhabitants come alive,” she added.
Marina Silva, former Minister of the Environment of Brazil, who wrote the preface to the book, noted: “This book is an extraordinary poem to Amazonia”.
Forests and food at risk
The Amazon is the largest contiguous tropical forest remaining in the world, with 25 million people living in the Brazilian Amazon alone. However, deforestation, fire and climate change could destabilize the region and result in the forest shrinking to one third of its size in 65 years, according to today’s publication.
In addition to the environmental services they provide, forests like the Amazon are also a rich nutritional storehouse. Fruits provide essential nutrients, minerals and anti-oxidants that keep the body strong and resistant to disease. Buriti palm fruit, for example, contains the highest known levels of vitamin A of any plant in the world. And açaí fruit is being hailed as a “superfood” for its high antioxidant and omega fatty acid content. Brazil nuts are rich in a complete protein similar to the protein content of cow’s milk, which is why they are known as the “meat” of the plant kingdom, said the publication.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1606
|
__label__wiki
| 0.752667
| 0.752667
|
Exploring Hamburg
by John Stone |
Hamburg celebrates its maritime heritage with the “Hafengeburtstag” port festival every May.
Hamburg, The second largest city in Germany, is engaged in a multi-year project to reclaim its maritime heritage by shifting the center of its urban activities and new building development toward its waterfront harbor on the Elbe River. The focus of development is HafenCity Hamburg, located between the city’s warehouse district, one of the world’s largest, and the river. Scheduled to be completed by 2025, the HafenCity project includes apartments, businesses, and cultural, tourism and leisure attractions. It will expand Hamburg’s existing city center by an estimated 40 percent.
Since Hamburg’s post-World War II reconstruction period, the city’s focus was toward its geographic center surrounding the hour-glass shaped Alster Lake. The lake attracts residents and visitors to view the opulent villas erected by wealthy 19th-century trade merchants along its banks. The area is popular for the four-mile jogging and cycling track that follows a green park circling the water. Two landmark hotels, the Fairmont Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten (earlier a “Four Seasons”), and the Hotel Atlantic Kempinski opened on opposite sides of Alster Lake in 1897 and 1909. Today, the two hotels are the most popular addresses for Americans visiting Hamburg, including a small media group recently hosted by Hamburg Tourismus, the marketing arm for tourism to the city.
Celebrating Harbor History
Despite Alster Lake’s beauty and popularity, the Elbe waterfront represents Hamburg’s economic history. It has served for nine centuries as Germany’s trading gateway to the North Sea, located 70 miles west of Hamburg. The expansive harbor connects a network of canals extending like fingers through Hamburg’s revitalized warehouse district into the city. The port handles more maritime cargo than New York and has enabled Hamburg to become one of Germany’s wealthiest cities.
Our media visit in May began at the city’s Harbor Festival Parade commemorating the 824th anniversary of Hamburg’s membership in the Hanseatic League of European free trade cities. Thousands of spectators, elaborate fireworks and hundreds of parading sailing ships make this annual holiday the Hamburg version of America’s July 4th. It celebrates the port as the lifeline for the city’s 1.8 million residents.
“There are 100,000 more inhabitants in Hamburg than 10 years ago,” Hamburg harbor guide Thomas Menai told the press guests. “This is a growing city that has benefitted from the fall of the Iron Curtain.”
As explained by Menai and Hamburg Tourismus marketing representative Guido Neumann, there are many components of the ongoing, multi-year port redevelopment project. The city’s new Elbe Philharmonic Hall is a modern glass edifice rising on the waterfront and scheduled to open in 2017. It will include a Westin Hamburg hotel as well as luxury apartments in the concert hall complex.
Following the Beatles’ Tracks
Steffi Hempel conducts Beatles tours of Hamburg
An enjoyable and enlightening evening can be spent “On the Tracks of the Beatles,” courtesy of Hempel’s Beatles-Tour, hosted by the engaging young singer-songwriter Steffi Hempel. She grew up as a fan of the Beatles from age nine while living in the German Democratic Republic of East Germany during the end of the Cold War. Hempel knows literally everything about the launch of the Beatles’ careers in Hamburg from 1960 through 1962, which predated their success in Liverpool.
Hempel sings Beatles tunes during her two-and-a-half-hour guided walking tour through Hamburg’s St. Pauli nightclub district while revealing dozens of little-known tidbits about the famous four. The tour visits bars, such as the Starck Club and Kaiserkeller, where the Beatles first became known, and then ventures into the courtyard of the existing apartment building where the group lived for a time.
It was in Hamburg that Ringo Starr met and joined the three other Beatles and a German friend named Astrid Kirchherr convinced the four to adopt the famous Beatles haircut. Despite a rainy evening that restricted some of her musical presentation, Hempel delivered a winning finale for the American group’s experience of Hamburg.
Cruise Numbers Surging
A third cruise terminal and new river embankment are under construction in Hamburg’s port. The number of cruise passengers has risen from 130,000 passenger calls in 2010 to the more than 400,000 expected this year. Cunard’s Queen Mary 2, which visited Hamburg port during the harbor festival, will call at Hamburg at least eight times in 2013-14, with Americans able to extend seven-day transatlantic cruises between New York and Southampton by two days with an embarkation or disembarkation in Hamburg. Other cruise lines scheduled to call in the months ahead, according to Hamburg Tourismus, are Azamara Club Cruises, Costa Cruises, Crystal Cruises, Seabourn, Celebrity and MSC Cruises.
The city has improved its transportation accessibility and can be reached in 90 minutes by train from either Berlin to the east or Copenhagen to the north. A new subway connection from the airport to Hamburg’s central rail station opened in 2006 when Germany hosted the World Cup Soccer finals. The modern Terminal 1, opened in 2005 at Hamburg’s Airport, provides a smooth entry for Americans taking the daily nonstop flight on United Airlines flying from New York’s Newark Liberty International Airport. There is also a recently completed riverside walking and cycling path that extends almost 400 miles from Hamburg east to Prague in the Czech Republic.
Anna Ziegler, the Assistant Director of Sales at the Fairmont Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten, said 11 percent of the Hamburg property’s guest mix comprises of Americans, many of them cruise passengers from Seabourn, Crystal, Celebrity and the Cunard Queen Mary 2 who spend an overnight in the city before or after their northern European cruise itineraries. The Fairmont Vier Jahreszeiten is the only hotel partner of the Virtuoso travel agency consortium in Hamburg, Ziegler noted.
The Hamburg port has popular dining facilities including Block Brau, a new German beer and nautical-themed casual restaurant with a wide deck garden affording panoramic views of the river. Another unique Hamburg port favorite is the Fischauktionshalle (“Fish Auction Hall”) located inside the city’s 400-year-old fish market. Between 5 a.m. and 9:30 a.m. on Sundays, dozens of vendors line the piers outside the hall selling fresh fish, flowers, nuts and baked goods as they have for centuries. Inside the hall reservations are needed to get table seating where hundreds of fish market visitors enjoy a bountiful breakfast buffet while listening enthusiastically to German bands performing covers of classic American rock tunes.
Money-saving ‘Hamburg Card’
The Hamburg Kunsthalle is the third-largest art museum in Germany.
Visitors with more than a few hours to spend seeing Hamburg’s attractions should consider buying the Hamburg Card offered by Hamburg Tourismus. Priced at €8 and 90 cents for one day, €20 and 90 cents for three days or €36 and 50 cents for five days, the card provides free transportation on all city buses, subways and trams, up to 40 percent off museum entries, and discounts on concerts, shows and souvenirs, with 150 attractions throughout the city honoring the card. They can be purchased at the central train station, the Hamburg tourist office at the harbor or at the airport, and in some hotels. Group discounts are available and travel agencies can contact Julia Grundmann, head of sales promotion at Hamburg Tourism, for more information on obtaining them for clients.
Population Grows Younger
According to the Hamburg Tourismus group tour guide Tomas Kaiser, Hamburg’s appeal in Germany is to a younger demographic of newly arriving city dwellers. “The population here is 50 percent younger than 10 years ago, and the young population keeps growing by 10 percent each year.” Kaiser said. “Munich is seen as more old fashioned. The young people of Germany love Berlin first, Hamburg second and Munich third.” Kaiser noted that Frankfurt, in comparison to Hamburg’s 1.8 million population, has only 700,000 residents.
The guides revealed other surprising features about Hamburg during the press visit. There are 100 art galleries in Hamburg and “every residential street has trees... it is the greenest city in Europe with a population of more than one million people,” said Kaiser.
American Tourism Lags
Remarkably, U.S. tourism is only a small part of the city’s business compared to Dutch, Scandinavian, British and German domestic visitors. The European visitors flock here for festivals and weekend getaways to enjoy the music and nightlife scene, both around the harbor and in the former red-light district of St. Pauli, now undergoing its own reformation into a music and dining district.
Lakefront Signature Suite at the Fairmont Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten.
According to Kaiser, there are about 150,000 overnights by Americans per year, with the average length of stay at 1.8 nights. That works out to roughly 80,000 visitor from the U.S. annually. This comprises only a small part of the 5.6 million total visitors to Hamburg during 2012, and contrasts sharply with the 700,000 Americans who visited Munich last year.
The Hamburg hosts suggested a variety of reasons why more Americans should discover Germany’s most northerly big city. For starters, the 2,500-seat St. Michael’s Church serves as the city’s largest music venue for classical concerts. Its historic figures include Johannes Brahms, baptized here in 1833, George Telemann, and Christian Phillipp Emanuel Bach, son of Johann Sebastian Bach, who served as music directors here in the late 18th century.
Art, Beer and Food
The Hamburg Kunsthalle is the third-largest art museum in Germany. It includes intriguing, unfamiliar pieces by famed French painters including Eugene Delacroix Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Paul Cezanne, Gustav Courbet, and Henri Toulouse-Lautrec. Most interesting, given that the small American group was staying at the Atlantic Kempinski Hotel, were two paintings by Edouard Vuillard presenting views from the same Atlantic Hotel of the wharfs on Alster Lake in 1913, four years after the hotel’s opening. Another 1913 painting by Pierre Bonnard was a “View Out of the Atlantic Hotel on the Illuminated Parade on the Alster during Kaiser Day.” The painting revealed that famed Wilhelm II, the German Kaiser and King of Prussia until 1918, enjoyed celebrating his birthday with a boat parade starring himself on Hamburg’s lake. German and Dutch masters are strongly represented throughout the Kunsthalle.
It was surprising to learn that Germany lags behind the U.S. in the development of a micro-brewery industry, but such was the revelation of Axel Ohm, the Marketing Manager and Chief Executive Officer of the newly-opened Ratsherrn Brauerei, the first Hamburg gastro-pub with beer brewed on premises. After a tour of the brewery with craft beer store manager Max Marner, guests can enjoy the excellent German pub grub and home brew in the adjoining Altes Maedchen Restaurant, which has quickly become one of Hamburg’s most popular.
Another dining choice is the Egyptian-themed Nil Restaurant, named after the River Nile. The Nil was serving three-course fixed menus for €28 ($38) and four courses for €42 on the night of our visit, with specialties including the white fish plaice from Brittany, braised ox cheek and a pork pate.
Hotels Historic Hotels Luxury Hotels Spa Restaurants Cruises Family Cruises Travel News European Destinations Europe Germany Tourism
Senior Contributing Editor
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1607
|
__label__cc
| 0.543742
| 0.456258
|
Rotorua Taupo Tongariro National Park
Rotorua sits on the edge of one of the most awesome and concentrated volcanic areas in the world. In every direction is tangible evidence of a riotous geological past extending back millions of years. The Te Arawa people settled the area in the mid-14th century, and it was their ancestors who began tourism in the area in the 19th century, guiding visitors to the famous Pink and White Terraces. The terraces were destroyed in the 1886 eruption of Mount Tarawera, but the legendary Maori hospitality lives on. Coupled today with enough daredevil activities to rival Queen-stown's reputation as New Zealand's adventure capital, this famous welcome continues to draw international visitors at a rate of 1.5 million a year.
Volcanic activity was also responsible for the formation of Lake Taupo. Back in a.d. 186, an enormous eruption—estimated to have been 100 times greater than that of Mount St. Helens in 1980—tore a savage hole 32km (20 miles) wide, 40km (25 miles) across, and 183m (600 ft.) deep. Today, we're thankful for that. Where would New Zealand holiday-makers be without these cool blue waters that provide ideal conditions for fishing, water-skiing, and boating?
To the south of Taupo lies Tongariro National Park, home to three volcanoes. Tongariro was New Zealand's first national park (the world's second after Yellowstone), and today it is a winter playground for skiers and a perfect place for summer tramping. Unfortunately, Mount Ruapehu's eruptions create havoc from time to time—the last 6 years ago, when its eruptions ruined any possibility of a successful ski season and many businesses suffered.
Median Empire
Oman UAE and Arabian Peninsula
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1608
|
__label__cc
| 0.644544
| 0.355456
|
Traversing Chapters > Reviews > Fire & Heist – Review
Fire & Heist – Review
You know what I love? Dragons. And heists. So you can imagine my excitement about Fire & Heist, a book that promised us were-dragons performing heists. But did Sarah Beth Durst deliver an exciting story, or did it fizzle out?
Sky is a wyvern, a human who can turn into a dragon (theoretically, more on this later). In the wyvern community, leading your first heist is an important milestone. And for Sky, this is even more so. Because her mother has gone missing recently, and family has fallen in their wyvern community’s standings. When she discovers secrets about her mother, about the reason her boyfriend broke up with her, and about a precious jewel that could restore her family’s reputation, she gathers her crew and embarks on her heist.
So Fire & Heist wasn’t objectively bad or anything. But it just wasn’t for me. First of all, it’s a contemporary setting in America, with wyverns living in mansions. And I’m not a big fan of these contemporary settings, authors often feel the need to put in some pop culture references that feel forced. And I didn’t know it would be contemporary, so I wasn’t prepared.
Furthermore, the synopsis describes wyverns as “humans capable of turning into dragons”. You can imagine my disappointment when the story itself mentions early on that wyverns have lost this ability long ago. Here I was, expecting some epic heist in which the characters had to transform into wyverns to pull it off. Alas.
Wanted: more heisting
Speaking of the “heist” part of the title… There wasn’t a whole lot of heisting going on. About halfway through the book, they embark on their big heist and it all goes pretty smoothly. Now, when I think of heists, I want meticulous plans that then fall apart, improvisation and narrow escapes. Not something that is over within a few pages.
After that heist, the story suddenly took a completely different turn. I won’t go into detail because spoilers, but it was totally different. And I loved it, once I got over the shock of this sudden change. Unfortunately, it didn’t feel satisfying. And that’s something that was lacking with this book as a whole. It seemed underdeveloped, while there was so much potential to expand on the world, the lore, the characters and their relationships.
It also reads quite young. Which is not a problem and I’m not docking points for it. But I do think this would be more suited for 12-year-olds than 18-year-olds. Again, this isn’t criticism, I just want to mention this, so you’re aware when picking it up.
Lots of unused potential
Fire & Heist is a standalone of only 290 pages, and that is the main problem, I think. It would have been possibly to split this book into a duology: have the first book focus on Sky’s life and the world in general, then do the heist and make it a 20+ page finale for that first book. Have it end on that one cliffhanger I’m not going to spoil here, and then have the second book start off from there, with this new situation Sky finds herself in. This way, you have enough time and pages to create a rich and fully-developed world, while still having two exciting storylines/finales.
All things considered, I give Fire & Heist 3 stars out of 5. It sounded amazing, but the contemporary setting isn’t for me. And while the concept has a lot of potential, it wasn’t well developed here. But I’m sure younger readers will enjoy it!
Title: Fire & Heist
Author: Sarah Beth Durst
Genre: Young Adult Fiction
Publisher: Crown Books for Young Readers
Fans of Cassandra Clare and Julie Kagawa will devour this contemporary fantasy about a teen were-dragon who must steal her first treasure. But a dark discovery during her heist could put her family in incredible danger. In Sky Hawkins's family, leading your first heist is a major milestone--even more so than learning to talk, walk, or do long division. It's a chance to gain power and acceptance within your family, and within society. But stealing your first treasure can be complicated, especially when you're a wyvern--a human capable of turning into a dragon. Embarking on a life of crime is never easy, and Sky discovers secrets about her mother, who recently went missing, the real reason her boyfriend broke up with her, and a valuable jewel that could restore her family's wealth and rank in their community. With a handpicked crew by her side, Sky knows she has everything she needs to complete her first heist, and get her boyfriend and mother back in the process. But then she uncovers a dark truth about were-dragon society--a truth more valuable and dangerous than gold or jewels could ever be.
contemporary, dragon, fantasy, fire & heist, heist, sarah beth durst, wyvern
The Pillars of the Earth – Review
The Gilded Wolves – Review
Four Dead Queens – Review
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1609
|
__label__wiki
| 0.952797
| 0.952797
|
Canada Hall Findlay's big red bus brings some needed energy to Liberal leadership race
Hall Findlay's big red bus brings some needed energy to Liberal leadership race
Roy MacGregor
Published June 21, 2006 Updated April 23, 2018
Think of it as Grass Skirt Diplomacy.
Martha Hall Findlay has learned quickly what to say and what not to say when it comes to the little hula dancer that sits on the dashboard of the bus she's hoping will carry her to the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada.
She won't tell you where the grass skirt dances highest, but she will say where the skirt bounces least: Saskatchewan.
"It's a great way to learn about the infrastructure of this country," she laughs. "I now know where all the bad roads are as well as the good.
"And Saskatchewan has good roads."
The original idea was to hang a pair of fuzzy dice from the rear-view mirror, but the big red campaign bus -- with the candidate's picture and "It's Time"painted on the side -- didn't have the right sort of mirror, so they went with the bobble doll instead.
The dice, perhaps, would have been more appropriate -- for there is no bigger gamble in this so-far dreary leadership race than Martha Hall Findlay.
She began as a complete unknown -- jokingly calling herself "Martha Who Who" -- but over the past several weeks, this trilingual Ontario lawyer who barely lost to high-profile Conservative candidate Belinda Stronach in 2004 and was bounced in favour of Stronach, now a Liberal, in the 2006 election, has been getting unexpected attention from the right quarters.
The Globe's John Ibbitson wrote, after listening to her in one dreadful leadership forum, that "she was the only one who made you think the Liberals might be the party of this century, rather than the last."
Both of the Toronto Star's political pundits, James Travers and Chantal Hébert, have written approvingly of her. Hall Findlay, said Travers, "who entered first and hopes to finish strongly by being everyone's second or third choice, is justifiably gaining attention as a fast study." Hébert said that, of the three women trying for the leadership -- Ontario's Carolyn Bennett and British Columbia's Hedy Fry, both former cabinet ministers, are the other two -- Hall Findlay "is the only one who has the necessary language credentials and the presence that front-line politicians are made of."
At the last forum, held in Moncton, Hall Findlay won the day twice.
After candidate Scott Brison said he wouldn't want to see The New York Times slam Canada as a fair-weather partner in the war on terrorism had the government motion on extending the effort in Afghanistan been defeated, Hall Findlay shot back that Canada's foreign policy was not something that should be tailored to fit the headlines of U.S. newspapers.
Her finest moment, however, came when she declared the obvious that no one else has dared say: "The Liberal debate needs a little more pizzazz."
"It's been crushingly boring," Hall Findlay says. "And it needn't be."
She finds the format of the leadership forums restrictive, mostly dry exchanges between candidates who largely agree with each other -- or at least agree to gang up on the perceived front-runner, Michael Ignatieff.
She finds that matters of substance and of immediate import to Canadians, such as the importance of maintaining a single-tier health-care system, are simply not being addressed.
She would like to see new formats attempted, and suggests "roundtable" sessions that would involve journalists questioning the candidates, or one-topic debates, such as on the environment, which might be broadcast over the Internet to a wider audience.
But the greatest problem, she concedes, is "a singular lack of personality."
With Phase I of the leadership race drawing to a close, with the next official forum not scheduled until September, she sees summer as a perfect opportunity to inject a little "personality" into the campaign.
She would like to see the candidates have a barbeque cook-off or perhaps even head off on a "survival" canoe trip, although she thinks she might have a bit of an advantage in her choices. If other candidates have their own ideas of how to fire up this snooze, she's open to any suggestion.
In the meantime, she's heading out across the country in that big red bus with the hula dancer on the dash.
"Every town we drive into becomes an 'event,' " she says. "It's something I didn't anticipate at all. But we're getting great local media out of it.
"And what a great excuse this has been to drive across the country and just talk to people. What I'm finding is a huge appetite among Liberals to feel that it is important again to be a Liberal in this country."
What she is also finding is that her own appetite is an issue: she's so busy running she forgets to eat. She's been losing weight to the point that, in Moncton, she finally could take the heat and boredom of the campaign no longer and stepped away.
"I had to hike up my pants," she says. "I felt just like that guy in the Canadian Tire ad wearing that heavy tool belt!"
And if some people got a chuckle out of it, so much the better.
"We have to throw some life into this thing."
Follow Roy MacGregor on Twitter @RoyMacG
U.S. President Donald Trump at rally criticizes congresswomen; crowd roars, ‘Send her back!’
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1615
|
__label__wiki
| 0.58604
| 0.58604
|
the origins and applications of nuclear physics
the structure of the nucleus: particles and forces
how particle accelerators and detectors work
the cause of radioactivity
the principles of medical imaging
plus, many other applications of nuclear physics
Nuclear radiation is everywhere. At this moment, byproducts of cosmic rays are raining down on you from the galaxy, neutrinos produced in the Sun are piercing your body by the trillions, and nuclear particles from everyday sources in rocks, air, food, and water are bombarding you from all directions. If you had a supersensitive “Geiger counter” that picked up all nuclear particles, it would chirp nonstop.
Yet despite this continuous exposure, “radiation” is a term that evokes worry and even panic. There are sources of radiation to be concerned about, but true vigilance lies in understanding the physics of the atomic nucleus—an endlessly interesting structure that defines the universe we live in.
Then, of course, there are nuclear weapons, which have arguably kept a fragile peace since the end of World War II, but which also threaten civilization with an unparalleled cataclysm. All of these insights, benefits, and dangers trace to an inconceivably tiny subatomic structure that was unknown until a century ago.
Covering the science, history, hazards, applications, and latest advances in the field, Nuclear Physics Explained is your guide to a subject that is rarely presented at a level suitable for non-scientists. In these 24 eye-opening, half-hour lectures, Professor Lawrence Weinstein of Old Dominion University begins by bringing you straight into the sometimes mind-bending ideas of nuclear physics, and then takes you into the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility to explain the awe-inspiring machines at the forefront of nuclear research—machines he is using in his own work. Then, the second half of the course—watchable separately but deepened by your engagement with key principles and methods from the first half—explores the many scientific and technological applications of nuclear physics, e.g., understanding accelerators in the first half deepens your understanding of nuclear medicine in the second half.
Throughout these lectures, Dr. Weinstein shows how nuclear physicists think, analyzing problems in a rapid, off-the-cuff style that dispenses with exact numbers in favor of rounding, making the math in the course easy to follow for anyone familiar with exponential notation. Viewers will find Dr. Weinstein’s presentation clear, enthusiastic, and tinged with humor. Plus, Nuclear Physics Explained is richly illustrated with diagrams, charts, and computer animations, as well as lab demonstrations that bring the nuclear realm alive.
Move beyond Three-Mile Island
An astonishingly productive field, nuclear physics accounts for such diverse phenomena and applications as these:
Particle physics and beyond: The gigantic instruments often called “atom smashers” are in fact probes of nuclear and other subatomic matter, revealing not only the fundamental constituents of nature, but also how they combine.
Astrophysics and cosmology: Nuclear physics not only explains how atoms work but also how stars shine—and why they sometimes explode. It also gives insight into the birth and evolution of the universe.
Medical tools and treatments: Nuclear processes make possible a wide range of medical imaging tools, such as X-ray, CT scan, PET scan, and MRI, as well as treatments for killing cancer cells.
Nuclear power: The energy released from nuclear fission provides 20 percent of the electricity generated in the US, and a much larger fraction in countries such as France and Sweden.
For many people, nuclear physics is inextricably linked to the reactor meltdowns at Three Mile Island in the U.S., Chernobyl in the Soviet Union, and Fukushima in Japan. Dr. Weinstein investigates these costly power-plant disasters, which led to acute radiation deaths in the case of Chernobyl, but otherwise far less of a radiation impact on public health than was feared at the time. He details the lessons from the mishaps and looks ahead to the new generation of reactors that can be operated more safely, cheaply, and with less nuclear waste and risk of proliferation. He also explores the challenge of harnessing an even more potent nuclear process: fusion.
Look inside the Nucleus
The key to understanding nuclear physics is knowing what goes on inside the nucleus. Here, Dr. Weinstein takes the mystery out of a notoriously arcane subject, explaining such key concepts as:
Protons and neutrons: An atom’s central core, or nucleus, consists of positively charged protons and neutral neutrons (except for hydrogen, which has a single proton), held together by a short-range, but very strong, nuclear force. Surrounding the nucleus is a cloud of negatively charged electrons.
Elements and isotopes: Elements are the 92 naturally occurring atoms, each with a unique number of protons. The number of neutrons may vary, and these different forms of the elements are called isotopes, which may be unstable. The element tin has 10 stable isotopes, uranium has none. There are over 3,000 confirmed isotopes, with more created all the time.
Radioactivity: Unstable isotopes are prone to disintegrate, releasing high-energy alpha particles (helium nuclei), beta particles (electrons or positrons), or gamma rays (high-frequency light waves). These are the primary forms of nuclear radiation.
Dr. Weinstein delves deeply into what binds protons and neutrons together, how both are made of different types of quarks, how the curve of binding energy explains processes of both fission and fusion, other types of radioactive decay, and the enormous utility of a two-dimensional graph of isotopes called the table of nuclides, which he presents in a colorful, easy-to-read chart.
How do we know all this? Dr. Weinstein answers this question with a fascinating four-lecture tour of the impressive electron linear accelerator and research halls at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Newport News, Virginia, which Dr. Weinstein knows inside and out. Later in the course, he takes you to the nearby Hampton University Proton Therapy Institute to witness the medical application of nuclear physics for targeting cancer cells with precision.
Risks and Rewards
Precision is vital with medical radiation so that healthy cells are not harmed. This underscores the risks as well as the benefits of radioactivity. Nuclear Physics Explained covers exactly what types of radiation are dangerous and which are less hazardous, including:
Radium: In the early 20th century, women painting luminous numbers on watches ingested dangerous amounts of radium by “pointing” brushes with their lips. Wearing a watch with a radium dial poses little if any risk, but ingesting radium can be lethal.
Radon: A radioactive gas, radon is a natural decay product of uranium and thorium in the Earth’s crust. It can concentrate in mines and basements in certain geological regions, where it is easily inhaled. Radon is the leading cause of lung cancer among non-smokers.
“Dirty” bombs: A hypothetical “dirty” bomb uses conventional explosives to disperse radioactive material. Anyone exposed would need to leave the area, remove potentially contaminated clothes, and shower, but the results would be more scary than harmful.
Bananas: Bananas are mildly radioactive, though not dangerous, due to their potassium content, which includes a tiny percentage of a naturally occurring radioactive isotope. The “banana equivalent dose” is a humorous way to quantify the radioactivity around us.
You’ll finish Nuclear Physics Explained by looking at how radiation reveals hidden worlds in space and time. For example, ratios of different isotopes can be used to date everything from human artifacts to continental collisions; gamma-ray and neutrino telescopes chart the most energetic and distant events in the cosmos; and cosmic rays—that ever-present rain of radiation from space—can be harnessed to analyze the structure of ancient buildings, such as the Great Pyramids. These examples and countless other applications show that nuclear physics is a versatile tool like no other.
A Tour of the Nucleus and Nuclear Forces
Take a whirlwind tour of nuclear physics, getting a glimpse of the rich array of topics and concepts you will cover in this course. Professor Weinstein explains the constituents of the nucleus; what holds the nucleus together, its role in determining atomic identity; and the nature of isotopes. He introduces two key tools: the periodic table of elements and the table of nuclides. x
Curve of Binding Energy: Fission and Fusion
See how the strong and electromagnetic forces shape the nuclei of all atoms. Focus on the curve of binding energy, which explains why heavy nuclei are prone to fission, releasing energy in the process, while light nuclei release energy by fusing. Then, visit some classroom lab equipment to explore the principles that govern particle accelerators, which are used to probe the structure of nuclear matter. x
Alpha, Beta, and Gamma Decay
Now turn to unstable nuclei and the process of radioactive decay. Trace three types of decay—alpha, beta, and gamma—studying the particles involved, their charge (or lack thereof) and energy ranges. Measure radioactivity with a Geiger counter, and consider what it would take to shield against each type of radiation. x
Radiation Sources, Natural and Unnatural
Survey the sources of radiation in the world around us, bombarding us from the sky (cosmic rays), found in the ground (uranium and other naturally occurring radioactive elements), zapping us in medical procedures, and found in consumer goods. Look at some long-discontinued radiating products such as shoe fluoroscopy and Radithor, an ill-advised radium-laced health tonic. x
How Dangerous Is Radiation?
Radiation terrifies many of us, but how scared should we be? Probe the difference between ionizing and non-ionizing radiation, focusing on what high-energy emissions do to DNA. Consider a host of radiation sources—from the innocuous, such as cell phones and power lines, to nuclear explosions and dirty bombs. Finally, learn what to do if you are ever exposed to nuclear fallout. x
The Liquid-Drop Model of the Nucleus
Now open the hood to see how the nucleus works. Start simple with a hydrogen atom, which has a nucleus of one proton orbited by a single electron. Build from there, adding neutrons and more protons, forging elements and their isotopes and seeing how the nucleus behaves much like a liquid drop. Then use the Fermi gas model to refine your understanding of nuclear structure. x
The Quantum Nucleus and Magic Numbers
High school chemistry introduces students to the atomic shell model, which describes the distribution of electrons around the nucleus. In this lecture, learn the analogous nuclear shell model and the magic numbers that constitute full shells of protons and neutrons within the nucleus. Also, discover how an entire nucleus can ring like a bell or spin like a top. x
Particle Accelerators: Schools of Scattering
Take a behind-the-scenes tour of the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Newport News, Virginia, where Professor Weinstein and his colleagues use high-energy electron beams to probe the structure of the nucleus. Dr. Weinstein also explains other types of particle accelerators and their purposes, including the Large Hadron Collider in Europe. x
Detecting Subatomic Particles
Subatomic particles are inconceivably small and move unbelievably fast. So how are they detected? To learn the ropes, go into an instrument facility where detectors are built. Begin with the simple circuitry of a Geiger counter, invented in the 1920s, and graduate to state-of-the-art tools that are millions of times more sensitive, including scintillators and wire chambers. x
How to Experiment with Nuclear Collisions
Continue your tour of Jefferson Lab by learning how scientists design an experiment, get it approved, run it, and then analyze the results. Discover why interpreting the outcome of nuclear collisions is like reconstructing car crashes. One tool relies on the shock wave produced by particles moving faster than light, which is possible in mediums other than a vacuum. x
Scattering Nucleons in Singles or in Pairs
Focus on specific experiments at Jefferson Lab's largest research hall, where mammoth machines smash electrons into nuclei and measure the scattered electrons and other particles. The goal is to understand the quantum orbits in nuclear shells. Professor Weinstein shows how nuclear physicists think in designing experiments to peel away the layers of the nuclear onion. x
Sea Quarks, Gluons, and the Origin of Mass
Discover the fundamental particles that make protons and neutrons tick—namely, quarks and gluons. Learn why quarks are never seen in isolation and why the mass of ordinary valence quarks (three per proton or neutron) accounts for only a tiny fraction of their mass. The answer to both riddles lies in “sea quarks,” the swarm of quark-antiquark pairs within protons and neutrons, which can be infinite in number. x
Nuclear Fusion in Our Sun
Study the fusion reactions that take place inside the Sun. First, consider the formidable barrier that hydrogen nuclei must overcome to fuse into helium. Then, see how the mass and temperature of a star govern the types of reactions it can support. One product of stellar reactions is neutrinos, ghostly particles that pass through the Earth (and us) in colossal numbers. x
Making Elements: Big Bang to Neutron Stars
See how hydrogen, helium, and a few other light nuclei were forged in the fiery aftermath of the Big Bang. Then, trace the formation of heavier nuclei in the interiors of stars, in supernova explosions, and in the collisions of neutron stars. Special attention is paid to the sequence of reactions and the required conditions that gave us the complete periodic table of elements. x
Splitting the Nucleus
The discovery of the neutron in 1932 led to the insight that neutrons can incite certain heavy elements to fission (break apart), releasing more neutrons and a prodigious amount of energy. In this lecture, lay the groundwork for understanding nuclear weapons and nuclear power by investigating nuclei that are prone to fission, how to initiate fission, and the “daughter nuclei” that result. x
Nuclear Weapons Were Never "Atomic" Bombs
Often called “atomic” bombs, the fission weapons first exploded in 1945 are in fact nuclear bombs—as are the fusion-boosted “H-bombs” developed a few years later. Study how these devices work, the difficulty of producing their reactive material, and techniques for enhancing their yield and miniaturizing warheads. Also, understand why the search for peaceful applications of nuclear weapons proved fruitless. x
Harnessing Nuclear Chain Reactions
Learn the fundamentals of nuclear reactor design, which has the task of sustaining nuclear reactions at a controlled rate in order to boil water, produce steam, and drive a generator. Explore why a nuclear reactor can't explode like a bomb, and consider pluses and minuses of the most common reactor designs in use. x
Nuclear Accidents and Lessons Learned
Under specific circumstances, it has been possible for a nuclear reactor to fail catastrophically. Revisit the serious nuclear accidents at Three Mile Island in the US, Chernobyl in the Soviet Union, and Fukushima in Japan, drawing lessons on the fallibility of safety features and human operators. Track the cascading sequence of failures in each accident, leading to core meltdown and radiation release. Consider the health effects, which were severe for emergency workers at Chernobyl. x
The Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Advanced Reactors
Explore the current state of fission power, now in its third generation since the dawn of the nuclear age, with a fourth generation in the works. Today's nuclear plants are designed to produce power more cheaply, more safely, with less waste, and less risk of proliferation than earlier designs. Survey the latest technology, from advanced light water reactors to molten salt and thorium reactors. x
Nuclear Fusion: Obstacles and Achievements
The holy grail of nuclear power is fusion, which has been tantalizingly out of reach for decades. Learn why fusion power is so desirable and so difficult to achieve. Study the different strategies for attaining a contained, self-sustaining thermonuclear reaction, focusing on the tokamak, which confines a high-temperature plasma in a powerful toroidal magnetic field. x
Killing Cancer with Isotopes, X-Rays, Protons
High-energy radiation has been used against cancer tumors since the discovery of X-rays in 1895. Discover the powerful arsenal of radiation sources and procedures that radiation oncologists use today. Visit the Hampton University Proton Therapy Institute to look at a technique that targets cancer cells with remarkable precision, while sparing the surrounding tissues. x
Medical Imaging: CT, PET, SPECT, and MRI
The ability of radiation to penetrate the body and chart density and metabolic activity has led to a wide range of tools for medical imaging, including mammograms, PET scans, CT scans, bone-density tests, MRI, and other technologies. Learn how these tools work; what they reveal; and when, if ever, the doses of radiation might pose a significant risk. x
Isotopes as Clocks and Fingerprints
The steady rate at which unstable isotopes decay, known as their half-life, makes them ideal for dating objects. Identify the radioactive isotopes best-suited for establishing age, such as carbon-14 for organic remains from human history and uranium-238 for billion-year-old geological formations. Also, see how stable isotopes can be used for fraud detection and studying ancient climates. x
Viewing the World with Radiation
Finish the course by surveying the many uses of radiation on Earth and beyond. Passive detectors identify radioactive contamination and clandestine nuclear bomb tests. Cosmic rays can be used to “X-ray” ancient buildings and learn the secrets of their construction. And, see why some scientists speculate that humans thrive on Earth thanks to an ancient bath of radiation from a supernova explosion. x
A list of Nobel Laureates honored for their work in nuclear physics
Lawrence Weinstein, Ph.D.
Lawrence Weinstein is a Professor of Physics at Old Dominion University (ODU) and a researcher at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. He received his undergraduate degree from Yale University and his doctorate in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Professor Weinstein’s research involves electron scattering to study the structure of the nucleus and proton. Among his many awards,...
(Set) Nuclear Physics Explained & The Theory of Everything
(Set) Nuclear Physics Explained & The Nature of Matter
(Set) Nuclear Physics Explained & Physics and Our Universe
(Set) Nuclear Physics Explained & Foundations of Organic Chemistry
(Set) Nuclear Physics Explained & The Science of Energy
(Set) Introduction to Astrophysics & Nuclear Physics Explained
Nuclear Physics Explained is rated 4.1 out of 5 by 48.
Rated 5 out of 5 by Charlie2 from Perfect This is one of the best course from the Teaching Company. Truly a "great" course. This professor not only knows the subject, but knows how to teach
Rated 5 out of 5 by CeeCee from Nuclear Physics Explained Great course, very well presented. Enjoyable and informative.
Rated 5 out of 5 by RJay from Information Rich, High Value Course I found this course extremely valuable. It filled in a lot of gaps in my knowledge of nuclear physics and its applications. Notable points: 1. There is a ton of good information presented, and it sometimes does go quickly, such that you might not soak it all up the first time. But that’s why you have it recorded. I think if you pick up 100% of a course the first time through, it’s too easy and less valuable. I’m watching it for a second time now. 2. In addition to basics, the aspects average people are interested in are covered – human exposure to radiation, nuclear bombs, how the sun and stars work, nuclear energy and accidents, nuclear medicine, and “nuclear detective work". 3. Prof. Weinstein actually walks you through quite a few calculations, which are just arithmetic and simple algebra. This enables you to make similar calculations on different scenarios for yourself with confidence. 4. The guidebook is the most detailed I’ve encountered, with quiz questions and answers for every lecture, which gives another resource for learning. Very useful! 5. Prof. Weinstein is highly knowledgeable and engaging, and even tosses in dry humor from time to time. I am an electrical engineer, not a physicist, but I stay current with scientific developments. If you have little to no scientific background, this course will likely overwhelm you. Maybe start with something more basic before this, and even after that you will probably be watching many of these lectures multiple times. But if you want to learn and you stick with it, you will be rewarded.
Rated 4 out of 5 by Larry1 from Haven't started yet. I have purchased about 30 Great Courses. I am planning on using them in my retirement. But the courses I have completed are top shelf! I was planning on attending college courses, but these Great Courses are much more convenient and presented by TOP professors. The prices are well worth the purchase.
Rated 3 out of 5 by Igor the Ghastly from Great Material, Painful Presentation. Nuclear Physics Explained is packed with good and wonderful material. Unfortunately, the presentation is uninspiring at best. Think of a machine gun blast, with no inflections, pauses to consider, or clear emphasis on important points. It makes for great material to sleep through. This review saddens me. It is wonderful material.
Rated 3 out of 5 by 2768 from It was a professional and well done course… But it was too technical for me and way over my head. It seems more a college level of physics class with a lot of formulas and math.
Rated 5 out of 5 by JerryR from Very deep, and very interesting I really enjoyed Prof Weinstein's course on nuclear physics, learning a lot about leading-edge research in the field. He's a good lecturer who clearly loves the material. I particularly like and appreciate the video segments from various parts of the Thomas Jefferson National Laboratory. In these, Prof Weinstein explains the details of many of the exotic and amazingly complex instruments (many the size of buildings) that he and his colleagues have designed to learn more about the most minute details of what's going on inside of, say, protons and neutrons. I'm fairly advanced already in the material but found it amazing that, for example, we can learn about the distribution of quarks and their interactions inside the proton and neutron. Just like with the distribution of electrons around the atomic nucleus, there's a shell model inside the nucleus. The discussion of isotopes, the standard model, how all elements past hydrogen and helium were later created after the Big Bang, so on are all quite well done and very informative. My one caution about this course is that while there's a lot in it for beginners, there's also a lot that a beginner in the field would miss. For example, there's one early lecture that speak about quantum tunneling; that's a deep and interesting topic all on its own but it's never explained - you just have to get the gist of it from past education to understand the point. Still, I recommend this to anyone interested in nuclear physics and the wonder and excitement of modern experimental physics.
Rated 2 out of 5 by Lardog from Disappointed Over the years I have bought about 25 courses, and in general I have found them to be excellent, and provided what I expected from the course. Unfortunately I was disappointed with this course because I expected it would EXPLAIN how nuclear physics worked. Instead it provided only a rattling off of unexplained facts, without any explanation as to why things were as they were. It provided nothing in the way of "WHY", only an endless string of seemingly unrelated memory work.
Nuclear Physics Explained Reviews - page 2
Radio Astronomy: Observing the Invisible Universe
Felix J. Lockman
Introduction to Astrophysics
Joshua Winn
Foundations of Organic Chemistry
Ron B. Davis Jr.
Black Holes, Tides, and Curved Spacetime: Understanding Gravity
Benjamin Schumacher
Everyday Engineering: Understanding the Marvels of Daily Life
Stephen Ressler
The Science of Information: From Language to Black Holes
A Visual Guide to the Universe with the Smithsonian
David M. Meyer
Introduction to Paleontology
Stuart Sutherland
Dark Matter, Dark Energy: The Dark Side of the Universe
Mysteries of Modern Physics: Time
The Power of Mathematical Visualization
James S. Tanton
Cosmology: The History and Nature of Our Universe
Mark Whittle
The Remarkable Science of Ancient Astronomy
Bradley E. Schaefer
Understanding Multivariable Calculus: Problems, Solutions, and Tips
Bruce H. Edwards
Mastering Linear Algebra: An Introduction with Applications
Francis Su
Donald E. Moore III
Sean K. Todd
Understanding the Universe: An Introduction to Astronomy, 2nd...
Alex Filippenko
Save up to $570.00 Starting at $159.95 $799.95 $159.95–$799.95
Brain Myths Exploded: Lessons from Neuroscience
Indre Viskontas
What Darwin Didn't Know: The Modern Science of Evolution
Scott Solomon
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1616
|
__label__wiki
| 0.887942
| 0.887942
|
The KLF are back (sort of) – and it’s exactly what 2017 needs
The rumours that Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty are reforming after 25 years appear to be true. If we ever needed someone to shake up a staid music industry, it’s now
Thu 5 Jan 2017 10.03 EST Last modified on Mon 3 Dec 2018 10.23 EST
Bill Drummond machine-guns the audience at the 1992 Brits. Photograph: RICHARD YOUNG/REX
This year began with good news: the KLF, the duo formed in 1987 by Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty, and also known as the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, were returning after a 25-year hiatus. The joy was short-lived. News of the comeback centred on a mediocre YouTube collage featuring the duo’s previous videos, which turned out to be something someone had compiled for a 2015 book talk. Drummond himself rained on the whole parade, saying: “Jimmy and I have always remained very close but we have no plans to reform the KLF or exploit our back catalogue in any way.”
His quote, it turns out, was a feat of semantic nuance. Within 24 hours, a photograph of a chanced-upon bill poster appeared on social media, confirming that the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu (not the KLF) were working on new material (rather than exploiting their back catalogue), and that it would be unveiled on 23 August.
The poster was spotted by a journalist who, the Quietus website noted, also happened to be Drummond’s manager. Official confirmation came soon after, with a tweet from Cauty.
Jimmy Cauty (@jamescauty)
The Information is @K2PLANTHIRE
Those suffering from renaissance fatigue may ask why the world needs another early-90s band staging a return, but it’s not just that there had never been a band like the KLF. It’s that, in the 25 years since their disappearance, nobody else has come up with anything that matches the duo’s extraordinary career.
Over the course of just five years, they pioneered sampling with two albums (as the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu), released seminal rave and ambient house albums as the KLF, launched a spinoff girl-band called Disco 2000, scored an international hit as the Timelords, wrote a book, made a crop circle, issued various stand-alone singles, compiled two compilation albums, shot a film (and composed its soundtrack) and recorded an unreleased thrash-metal album. They also found time to dress up as giant ice-creams and in robes and horns. They were unique, even in an era when eccentricity was more valued than it is now.
The KLF were self-managed and owned their own label, KLF Communications. It meant they could indulge in the flights of fancy that conventional managers or labels might have vetoed. For example, in 1991, when the band’s “Stadium House” trilogy of What Time Is Love?, Last Train to Trancentral and 3am Eternal were worldwide chart hits, the band swerved the usual conventions of a sanitised press showcase. They invited the world’s media to a Scottish island where passports were confiscated, participants were dressed in billowing yellow robes and the event climaxed with the explosion of a 60ft wicker man.
KFL – American Whate Time Is Love?
Were the band sometimes taking the piss? Absolutely, and it looked and sounded spectacular. When the time came to rework What Time Is Love? for the US market, their behaviour bordered on trolling: America: What Time Is Love? was a nine-minute, stadium house, techno-metal extravaganza featuring Glenn Hughes, once of Deep Purple. The first 90 seconds explained how, 1,000 years previously, the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu had discovered America, 500 years before Columbus. (The NME decided Single of the Week would not suffice, and declared the song Single of the Millennium.) After being asked to contribute a track to a compilation album organised by CND they delivered What Time Was Love? an explosion, followed by 99 seconds of post-nuclear rumbling.
Even the band’s self-destruction was extraordinary. At the 1992 Brits (where they sent a motorcycle courier on to the stage to collect their Best British Group award), the KLF performed a thrash-metal version of 3am Eternal, fired blanks into the audience from a machine gun and closed with the declaration: “Ladies and gentlemen, the KLF have now left the music business.” They then dumped a dead sheep bearing the message, “I died for you – bon appetit,” at one of the aftershow parties. (Piers Morgan wrote, huffily, that the Brits proved the KLF were “pop’s biggest wallies”.) Three months later, they formally announced their demise via a back-page ad in the NME.
Because they owned their own music, their farewell was more final than most – their entire back catalogue was immediately deleted and remains commercially unavailable – but the following years saw further activity. In 1993, they re-emerged as the K Foundation, recorded a mashup of Que Sera Sera and Happy Xmas (War is Over) with the Red Army Choir, and sabotaged that year’s Turner prize with the K Foundation award, in which they gave £40,000 (double the Turner prize money) to the Turner winner, Rachel Whiteread, for being the “worst artist of the year”. In 1994, they filmed themselves burning £1m on the Scottish island of Jura; three years later, they rebranded as 2K for a one-off 23-minute performance at the Barbican in London.
All of which does rather suggest that, were the KLF to return in 2017, they might choose to do so with something a little more exciting than a YouTube upload. The duo have remained busy, but individually: Cauty is currently touring a Banksy-goes-Airfix art installation called The Aftermath Dislocation Principle, while Drummond has delivered a steady, super-stylised stream of books, events and even his own brand of paint.
Last year closed with Drummond discussing the legacy of punk. Punk, most would argue, is a cautionary tale of how some explosive musical moments, however exciting, should probably be left in the past. On the other hand, Bradley Walsh was the biggest-selling new British artist of last year and Rag’n’Bone Man is being touted as the saviour of this year. Yes, 2017 needs the KLF. And if not the KLF, at the very least a KLF.
Bill Drummond
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1617
|
__label__wiki
| 0.952672
| 0.952672
|
Jack Kramer obituary
Wimbledon and US tennis champion - and a promoter with a decisive influence on the modern game
Sun 13 Sep 2009 18.45 EDT First published on Sun 13 Sep 2009 18.45 EDT
4 July 1947: American tennis player Jack Kramer on his way to beating fellow American Tom Brown in the men's singles final at Wimbledon. Photograph: JA Hampton/Hulton Archive
Kramer holding a pair of his signature Wilson rackets in 2003. Photograph: Damian Dovarganes/Associated Press
Jack Kramer, who has died aged 88, was one of the greats of American tennis, as both player and entrepreneur. He changed the face of the game and earned a fortune in the process. After retiring from professional play in his 30s, he became a force in promotion and organisation, while in the second half of his life he switched his attention to golf, making another fortune from that sport. In between, he sat alongside Dan Maskell in the BBC television commentary box at Wimbledon, until tennis politics forced his departure. He was the archetypal get-up-and-go crewcut American, full of energy and ideas, and hugely competitive.
As an outstanding Wimbledon and US champion of the 1940s, he developed a powerful, ruthless serve and volley game, with one of the best second serves in history and immense mental toughness. He was considered by many to be second only to Don Budge as a master of the game at the time.
Born in Las Vegas, the son of a railroad worker, he grew up in the Los Angeles area and became a junior member of the American Davis Cup team of 1939, for a contest played in the shadow of Hitler's invasion of Poland. With a 2-0 lead after the first day, the US risked putting in Kramer and Joe Hunt for the doubles. They lost. Then the heavyweights Bobby Riggs and Frank Parker lost too, giving the cup to Australia.
It was the last such event until after the second world war - in which Kramer served in the coast guard - when he and Ted Schroeder regained the cup from Australia in 1946. Again against Australia, they retained it in 1947, but for the general public the Davis Cup would never again be so vital a competition as in the prewar period, when it had been at least as important as the Grand Slam championships.
Kramer now seized his moment at these, too. He had already won the US men's doubles in 1940, 1941 and 1943, and in 1946, aged 25, he won the singles, while at Wimbledon that year, seeded second, he and fellow American Tom Brown won the men's doubles. In the Wimbledon singles, though, after dropping just four games in his first three matches, Kramer lost dramatically - conceding the second set 15-17 - to the unseeded Jaroslav Drobny, from Czechoslovakia, the eventual champion eight years later.
Among those watching his surprise defeat was Gloria, his wife. Kramer had sold their car to finance her trip. He had also worked in a meat-packing plant owned by Wilson Sports, until he persuaded them they should pay him, but let him off the work, leaving him free to play tennis.
The following year, 1947, marked Kramer's peak. Not only helping the US retain the Davis Cup, he also won the men's doubles and singles championship at Wimbledon and the US. His doubles partner was now Robert "the praying mantis" Falkenburg. In the singles at Wimbledon Kramer stormed to the semi-finals before having a four-set match. Even in this, against Australia's Dinny Pails, Kramer took the other sets to 1, 1 and 0.
Delayed by the late arrival of King George VI, the final, against his ex-doubles partner Brown, was another straight sets win for Kramer - and lasted a mere 45 minutes. Not only was the match itself unusually brief. Kramer introduced shorts to the Centre Court that year - though Britain's Bunny Austin had introduced them to the game.
That was to be the end of Kramer's Wimbledon career. He had played for only two years, and in the doubles never lost a match. In singles, he had played 11 and won 10.
He now disqualified himself from the Grand Slams - having never attempted the French or Australian championships - by turning pro in 1947. His debut, against Riggs, was at Madison Square Garden, New York. A crowd of 15,000 braved the city's heavy snowfalls to see them. Kramer lost, though when they went on the road to tour the US, he finished 69-20 up. He made more than $70,000 against Pancho Gonzalez, well over $100,000 playing Riggs and even more playing Frank Sedgman: vast sums then. He also won the Professional singles in 1948, and in 1949 the World Professional doubles (with Riggs) and singles. That same year, banned from Wimbledon as a pro by the championship's organisers, the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, he turned up defiantly as his old partner Schroeder's "second".
More importantly to the development of the sport, he began promoting tournaments in 1952, and, with an arthritic back, retired from play two years later to concentrate on tennis the business. One of his achievements was, as he told Tennis Week magazine, "to bring the game to 85 to 95 cities outside the big cities on an annual basis". So successful was he that the Kramer Tour came to control the professional tennis world for 15 years, dominating the game and laying the foundations for the celebrity-based publicity machine and mega-bucks business we know today.
The tour was not always honest. Kramer admitted to the Guardian in 1981 that he had bribed Gonzalez to play less than his best against Ken Rosewall, that "we tried to get Pauline Betz to go easy on Gussy Moran" and "sometimes only played one set in the doubles for real".
Back at Wimbledon, Kramer provided television commentary from 1961 until the All England Club forced the BBC to drop him in 1973, doubtless holding him responsible for that year's players' boycott. This was a complex affair that began when the International Tennis Federation asked the Grand Slam tournaments to ban Nikki Pilic for allegedly declining to appear in a Davis Cup tie for Yugoslavia, and Wimbledon complied. Kramer had a hand in what happened. He had helped form the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) in 1972 and was its first executive director - and it was the ATP that called the boycott, which the Romanian Ilie Nastase, the Australian Ray Keldie and Britain's Roger Taylor were the only ATP players to break.
This victory allowed the game's professionals to wrest control of their affairs from the old-school amateur part-time officials, and Kramer was forced to abandon his BBC work in revenge. Yet this player power was the inevitable consequence of having opened up Wimbledon to the pros in 1968. Indeed, it ushered in the kind of tennis world that the Kramer Tour had shown was possible two decades earlier.
Kramer claimed that he lost interest in tennis after this, but in 1978 published his book How to Play Your Best Tennis All the Time and the following year The Game: My 40 Years in Tennis. He continued to be a big-event spectator, and it was as "Mr Tennis" that he attended Ronald Reagan's 1981 gala dinner for "America's finest sportsmen", sitting with, among others, Joe DiMaggio and OJ Simpson.
Turning his attention increasingly to golf, he had become by the 1990s the owner of both the Los Serranos golf courses in California's Chino Hills, an hour from his Los Angeles home. He was assisted in the business by his sons, headed by Bob.
Kramer underwent three hip- replacement operations and may have played his last tennis match in 1994, when he lost to one of his grandchildren – a result he still felt defensive enough to have to explain: "When you can't run too far, you have to overplay every ball you can hit, so you make a lot of errors." He was 72 at the time.
Half a century on from his championship win, Kramer was to be seen in the Royal box at Wimbledon, watching the 1997 men's finals. He was, after all, one of the greatest tennis players of the 20th century and a founder of the modern game.
He kept an eye on the leading players, finding much to admire in Pete Sampras's style of play, and at the time of his death from cancer was following the US Open.
Gloria died in 2008, and he is survived by Bob and his four other sons, David, John, Michael and Ron.
Richard Evans writes: Jack Kramer was a tough guy but a charming one, too. As European director of the ATP from 1973 to 1976, I found nothing to complain about him as a boss. But for anyone who loved tennis, opinions about him were inevitably coloured by the fact that he was a living legend, not only as a great player but as the man who had single-handedly kept pro tennis alive in an age when professional athletes were treated as being only marginally above the servant class by amateur sports officials.
Kramer fought all that – as well as one of his unruliest players, Pancho Gonzalez, on numerous occasions – but was selfless enough to step back in the early 1960s and hand over the running of his pro troupe to players such as Tony Trabert and Butch Buchholz because he realised he had become too controversial.
As soon as open tennis arrived in 1968, he set about producing the blueprint for the point-linked Grand Prix tour on which the current ATP circuit is based. He was the obvious choice to become chief executive of the ATP when it was founded in 1972 – a role he took on for no salary. When the players, led by Cliff Drysdale, Arthur Ashe, Stan Smith and John Newcombe, decided to boycott Wimbledon in 1973, they instructed Kramer to lead them through the ultimately fruitless negotiations.
With the British media siding with Wimbledon and finding it hard to turn player heroes into villains, they made Kramer the scapegoat. "Kramer Go Home!" screamed a front-page headline in the Evening News.
He was tough enough to take it, but regretted losing his BBC job as a result of the furore. "I really enjoyed working with Dan Maskell," he said. "I think we worked well together because of our contrasting styles. Obviously I had to talk a lot less than I did when working on American television. My good friends at the BBC made it pretty clear that I should not talk over actual play, or even over the umpire! When the whole boycott thing blew up and they told me I was too hot to handle, I was really sad. Sitting alongside Dan on the centre court was a real joy."
In later life, his great joy was horseracing. Even if one of his horses was not running, he loved a trip out to the Santa Ana track from his Bel Air home. He managed it for the last time only 10 days ago, when he was joined by one of the old stars of his tennis tour, Pancho Segura.
He always loved working with young players. He was not above answering the phone himself at his Los Angeles office and talking a nervous teenager through the intricacies of the ranking system and his chances of gaining entry to some future tournament.
In every sense he was a players' man, but he was also a generous friend to many, a man you could always turn to; a man whose like the game of tennis will not see again.
• John Albert Kramer, tennis player and promoter, born 1 August 1921; died 12 September 2009
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1618
|
__label__wiki
| 0.893818
| 0.893818
|
Fine Gael
party politics
Socialist Party
Here's why these twenty-somethings are running in the local elections
Whether they’re party-affiliated or independent, all of these fresh-faced candidates are looking to make a mark on their constituencies and speak out for their generation.
By Michelle Hennessy Sunday 20 Apr 2014, 8:00 AM
Apr 20th 2014, 8:00 AM 26,115 Views 65 Comments
https://jrnl.ie/1416321
THE LOCAL ELECTIONS are fast approaching and while some old familiar faces are back on those campaign leaflets, there are a significant number of younger candidates putting themselves out there.
The focus of their campaigns vary but all of them agree that more needs to be done to get younger people more engaged with politics so that their interests can be represented.
We spoke to a selection of young candidates from across the country.
Maura Hopkins – Fine Gael
29-year-old Hopkins is an occupational therapist at St James’ Hospital in Dublin whose key reason for running in the Boyle area of Roscommon is that she believes this country needs an action plan to support the economy in smaller towns like her own.
“I am one of those young people that wasn’t able to live in rural Ireland and I see so many people leaving,” she said. “It’s important for us to get that education and broaden our horizons with travel but it’s also important that we create opportunities for those who wish to return.
The biggest challenge is employment – if there is not employment, young people aren’t going to live there and raise their families, even if they want to.
Hopkins, who has been involved in the youth wing of Fine Gael for a number of years, said she feels that we need more young people involved in politics – particularly young women.
“I am getting a really positive reaction from the doorsteps and there’s been huge support,” she said. “There’s a sense that there’s new ideas – fresh ideas – needed and there’s a balance needed.”
Cian Prendiville – Anti Austerity Alliance
Source: Cian Prendiville
This candidate in Limerick City North is 24-years-old and has been politically active for ten years having joined a campaign against the war in Iraq while he was in secondary school. He said the main issue he is focusing on is unemployment in Limerick.
“I myself am unemployed and two thirds of young men in Limerick City are unemployed,” he said. “The average rate of unemployment here is twice the national average and the only options for young people are emigration and JobBridge.”
His experience on the doorsteps has also been positive as the 24-year-old said his age “doesn’t really ever come up”.
People are more concerned about what you’re about – I don’t think people are looking at the age or the face of the person – they are looking for the policy of the candidate.
On the topic of young people’s hunger for politics – or lack thereof – Prendiville said he thinks “there’s a disdain towards politicians”.
“Young people have – up until recently – tuned out of politics because there had been nothing for them. What politics had to offer was cutbacks, college fees and emigration,” he explained. “When you’re talking to them about the issues they have a lot to say and they’re interested but they’ve been alienated from the political establishment.”
Gary Gannon – Independent
27-year-old Gannon is running in Dublin’s north inner city and has recently worked with early school leavers to help them to get back into education and gain employment.
“I’m somebody who is working on a very issues formed basis, rather than politically formed,” he told us. “I don’t have any family connections to parties and I don’t have background in it.”
As Gannon is a first time candidate and doesn’t have a large party budget backing his campaign, he’s made an ambitious promise to knock on every door in his constituency before the election and he said he is “slowly and methodically getting through it”.
“I can’t get into apartments and of course lots of people aren’t answering because they aren’t there so I’ve started leaving stickers saying “sorry I missed you”,” he joked. “It’s a big promise but it’s a great conversation starter and it’s important for me to talk to people.”
The Dublin candidate said the topic of his youth does come up on the doorsteps but “only in a negative sense from people who are affiliated with other politicians”.
Most people see it as refreshing because if you keep voting for the same old politicians you keep getting the same old politics.
Political interest among Irish youths has moved away from party politics and has become more issues-based, according to Gannon, who said he would be “mortified being in the youth wing of a party”. He also said he would be in favour of lowering the voting age to 16, pointing out that at that age himself, he was working and paying taxes as many teens are today.
Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire – Sinn Féin
This is the second time the young Sinn Féin candidate is running in the Ballincollig/Carrigaline area of Cork, having come seventh in a six seat race the last time.
The 25-year-old said he had not planned to get involved in politics when he was in college but Sinn Féin’s policies spoke to him and reflected his experience of growing up in Ireland.
“I still see ferocious evidence of disadvantage and that motivates you to get involved and work for a more equal society,” he told TheJournal.ie.
Ó Laoghaire said that with 71,000 people living in his constituency, there are a variety of experiences from both an urban and rural perspective.
My generation were led to believe that Ireland was thriving and there would be great opportunities but so many people I grew up with have emigrated to Australia and Canada and there’s not much in the way of employment. Access to education is also becoming increasingly difficult, particularly if you’re from a low income background because the amount of grants has been reduced.
The Cork candidate has the advantage of having run in the area in the past and said he is well known for the work he’s done in the community in the last few years so his age is not an issue for prospective voters in his constituency.
“I think people are encouraged to see a new generation willing to step forward and take leadership to change the system. People are ferociously frustrated with politics at a local level and a national level and also the delivery.”
Grace Tallon – Labour
This 28-year-old music teacher is already sitting on the Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Council and is running in the Dundrum area in this election.
She comes from a family that has always supported the Labour party and joked that she “couldn’t really get away from it”.
“I really think it’s important for young people to be in there,” she said. “It’s important for them to have their votes and obviously experience is important but we need young voices in politics to talk about what affects young people.”
What’s the best way to get more young people interested in politics? It’s simple according to Tallon – just talk to them.
When you engage with them they realise there’s so much we can do at a local level and we can do lots more as a group and that’s what’s encouraging younger candidates to get involved.
From her experience on the council in the last two years, she has learned that “it takes an awfully long time for things to happen.”
“We have little powers in the council but there are huge things you can do,” she said, referencing a campaign she headed encouraging people to shop locally which has already helped businesses in the area.
“The thing is, you’re very much on your own as a councillor, obviously I work with Labour and get lots of help from colleagues but you’re doing all your own stuff,” she explained.
Adam Wyse – Fianna Fáil
Wyse took his place on the council representing Waterford City East following the sudden death of his father, Councillor Gary Wyse last year. For him, this election is not just about representing his community, it’s about continuing the work his father did in the area for many years.
The 19-year-old is the youngest Fianna Fáil candidate and one of the youngest candidates running in the election but he said there was always a plan for him to take his father’s seat – he just hadn’t expected it to happen so soon.
I remember when I was in sixth year and dad would be driving me to school and we’d listen to what was being said on the radio and talk about it afterwards so I always had an interest in it and what he was doing. There are two other boys in my family but my dad always said that if someone was going to take his place it would be me.
Wyse said his age is mentioned by people when he’s out canvassing but most people tell him they think he’s “brave to be out doing this”.
“There are some people who might think, you know, I haven’t the experience but that’s nothing without dedication and action and you could have ten or twenty or thirty years of experience but if you’re not taking action you won’t get anything done,” he said.
Encouraging younger people in his area to vote is a priority for Wyse as he said there are 170 people under the age of 21 in his area who haven’t registered to vote yet – including some of his own friends.
“People never believe that one vote can make a difference but it did for my dad, he got in on eight votes in 2009 and the city would have lost an awful lot if he wasn’t elected,” Wyse commented. “We need to encourage young people to realise their vote is encouraged, needed and respected.”
Cormac Manning – Green Party
Currently studying Law and Irish at UCC, the 21-year-old first time candidate says he decided to run because there are “so many things being done wrong” that he thought need to be changed.
He also thinks the 70,000 people living in his constituency of Ballincollig-Carrigaline should have the option of voting green. Manning believes his party is offering something different that is particularly attractive for younger voters – policies that look to the future.
“We don’t just look towards the short-term or the next election, we’re looking towards the next generation,” he told TheJournal.ie.
I suppose because of what happened in the last general election, we have a lot of first time candidates or people who ran limited campaigns before so we’ve got a mix of fresh ideas and people with experience.
Manning said some people on the doorstep have been “skeptical” because of his youth but he has been pointing out that with 55 people to represent the interest of everyone in Cork, diversity is needed in the council.
“There’s a whole generation of different experiences of life going unrepresented,” he said.
“It’s a vicious circle really because young people don’t see it as being relevant to them so they don’t vote and then the establishment just focuses on groups who do vote.”
Like the other young candidates we interviewed, he’s hoping his presence on the council will help foster equality in his community.
“If you walk down any street or call around any estate you can see social inequalities and gaps between rich and poor at the moment and I think that it’s horrible and needs to be addressed,” he added.
Will you be giving new and younger candidates a chance in the upcoming local elections or will you be sticking with familiar faces?
Read: Labour Youth admit: Our posters break the law – but we’re prepared to pay the fine>
Read: A candidate from the ‘Don’t Give A Feck’ Party is running in the Meath East local elections>
Michelle Hennessy
@michellehtweet
michelle@thejournal.ie
See more articles by Michelle Hennessy
<iframe width="600" height="460" frameborder="0" style="border:0px;" src="https://www.thejournal.ie/https://www.thejournal.ie/local-elections-young-candidates-1416321-Apr2014/?embedpost=1416321&width=600&height=460" ></iframe>
Email “Here's why these twenty-somethings are running in the local elections”.
Feedback on “Here's why these twenty-somethings are running in the local elections”.
Here's why these twenty-somethings are running in the local elections Comments
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1620
|
__label__wiki
| 0.653395
| 0.653395
|
Malaysia destroys 4 tons of ivory tusks, products
By The News · 04 of May 2019 06:37:19
AP Photo,, No available, In this April 30, 2019, photo, staff at a government waste management facility arrange seized ivory tusks before destroying them, outside Seremban, Malaysia. Malaysia has destroyed nearly four tons of elephant tusks and ivory products as part of its fight against the illegal ivory trade. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)
SEREMBAN, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia on Tuesday destroyed nearly four tons of elephant tusks and ivory products estimated to be worth 13.26 million ringgit ($3.2 million) as part of its fight against the illegal ivory trade.
Water, Land and Natural Resources Minister Xavier Jayakumar said the ivory was confiscated in 15 raids between 2011 and 2017.
The tusks, which were marked, and products such as ivory bracelets and chopsticks were shown to reporters before they were to be thrown into a large incinerator in southern Negeri Sembilan state.
Jayakumar said the tusks and products were burned to ensure they wouldn’t be stolen and sold back in the black market.
He said Malaysia is committed to eradicating trading in illegal wildlife, especially in ivory, and to stop smugglers from using Malaysia as a transit hub.
This was the second time Malaysia has disposed of its tusk stockpile, after burning 9.5 tons worth some $20 million in 2016.
Ivory tusks are a cherished decorative craft material in Asia, with the biggest demand coming from China, resulting in the devastation of wild elephant populations in Africa.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1622
|
__label__wiki
| 0.977101
| 0.977101
|
We have to perform better, it’s our duty – Zidane demands more from Real players
Zinedine Zidane has demanded more from his players
Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane declared he and his players had a duty to improve after they were held 1-1 at Leganes.
Jonathan Silva fired Leganes into the lead on the stroke of half-time before Karim Benzema’s 27th goal of the season in all competitions hauled Real level early in the second period.
It was another lacklustre display from Zidane’s side, who have little left to play for this season, save for a fight with city rivals Atletico Madrid for second place, after being knocked out of the Champions League and Copa del Rey.
“I as the coach and they as the players have to try,” Zidane told a press conference. “We have to try and perform better because it’s our duty.
“We didn’t have a good first half, but improved after the break. We all have to give a bit more.”
Benzema has scored seven goals in Real’s last six league games and Zidane paid tribute to the France striker as speculation mounts over his future.
“Benzema is having a very good season, particularly as far as goals are concerned,” Zidane said. “He’s a fantastic player and this season he’s scoring far more goals. I’m delighted for him.
“He’s used to rumours, but that won’t change anything for him. He’s shown his character and he’s doing a good job for the team.”
Gareth Bale was introduced as an 81st-minute substitute and made little impact.
“Bale is an important player in this squad,” added Zidane, who gave the Wales forward no assurances over his future last week after he had been booed off at the end of Real’s narrow win over Eibar.
“I wanted to make changes today and that’s it. It’s difficult to get into a game when you only play 10 or 15 minutes, but substitutions are made to change the game and we were unable to do that.”
Leganes are unbeaten in their last four games and have moved up three places to 11th in the table, but boss Mauricio Pellegrino is not yet satisfied.
“We will try to do our best until the end of the season,” he told a press conference. “It’s not the same for the club to go 10th and 16th, we’ll go for more.
“The team has been competing well, better and better. We are going from less to more and it is good news for the family of peppers.”
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1623
|
__label__wiki
| 0.671842
| 0.671842
|
Entire Treasury Department Competing For Same Goldman Sachs Job Opening
NEW YORK—Saying the company has received hundreds of résumés since posting the job opening to its website earlier this week, Goldman Sachs human resources manager David Browning reported Thursday that a high-level position with the investment bank had attracted applications from every official in the United States Treasury Department. “Within just minutes of listing the open position on our jobs page, the flood of applications from treasury.gov email addresses started rolling in, and it hasn’t slowed down since,” said Browning, adding that most of the Treasury regulators who applied for the job highlighted their previous experience working closely with Wall Street financial firms and included a letter of recommendation from former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. “All these applicants must realize what tough competition they’re up against, but at the same time, I remember how it was back when I was just another government official who was ready to make the move to the private sector. We’ll definitely keep the information of those candidates who don’t get the job on file for future openings.” Browning added that the new hire was needed to take over the responsibilities of a former Goldman Sachs executive who had recently left for a high-ranking position in the Securities and Exchange Commission.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1624
|
__label__cc
| 0.648906
| 0.351094
|
The Flemish Advisory Council for Innovation and Enterprise (Vlaamse Adviesraad voor Innoveren en Ondernemen or VARIO) was established by the Flemish Government by decision on October 14th, 2016.
The VARIO advises the Flemish Government and the Flemish Parliament on its science, technology, innovation, industry and entrepreneurship policy. The council does this on its own initiative as well as on request.
The VARIO works independently from the Flemish Government and the Flemish stakeholders in the field of science, innovation, industry and entreprise. The chairman and nine members of the VARIO take part in a personal capacity.
The VARIO is the successor of the Flemish Council for Science and Innovation (Vlaamse Raad voor Wetenschap en Innovatie or VRWI). Between 2010 and 2016 the VRWI was the strategic advisory body for the Flemish Government for science and innovation. In turn, the VRWI was the successor of the Flemish Council for Science Policy (Vlaamse Raad voor Wetenschapsbeleid or VRWB), which was active from 1985 to 2009.
VARIO-advices
VRWI-advices
VRWB-advices
Flemish Advisory Council for Innovation & Enterprise
Phone +32 2 553 24 40
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1627
|
__label__wiki
| 0.792345
| 0.792345
|
Broadly Neutralizing Antibodies in HIV Vaccine Research
More in HIV/AIDS
By James Myhre and Dennis Sifris, MD
AIDSVaccine/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0/Flickr
Broadly neutralizing HIV antibodies (bNAbs) are defensive antibodies produced by the immune system, which is able to neutralize multiple strains of HIV. These antibodies are very rare in humans when compared to non-broadly neutralizing antibodies (or NAbs) that are specific to a single HIV strain.
There are currently over 60 different dominant strains of HIV-1 in the world, with a multitude of subtypes called recombinant HIV strains. Since many HIV variants can exist within a single individual, developing an HIV vaccine has proven confounding to research since traditional vaccines trigger an antibody response that can neutralize maybe one or a few strains.
For a vaccine to be truly effective, scientists would need to develop an inoculant able to wipe out a vast array of HIV variants. This is why the discovery of bNAbs has become so central to current HIV vaccine design.
The bNAbs currently identified were isolated from individuals who demonstrated either have an innate immunity to HIV ("elite neutralizers") or the ability to avoid disease progression without the use of antiretroviral drugs ("long-term non-progressors").
Challenges and Setbacks in Vaccine Development
While a number of bNAbs have been identified as far back as 1993, the most potentially effective candidates were only isolated after 2009 (including some like VRC0-1 and VRC0-2, which are known to neutralize 90% of known variants).
However, the isolation of these antibodies doesn't mean that scientists can develop a vaccine able to spur a similar immune (humoral) response in the average individual. To date, we have not seen this, either for vaccines designed to protect against HIV or to prevent disease progression in those already infected with HIV.
What researchers have also found was that, outside of elite neutralizers, bNAbs don't necessarily function with similar effect in an immunized individual. While the bNAbs themselves have the ability to neutralize the virus, we have learned that is often difficult for them to penetrate the virus' outer coating (or "envelope").
Moreover, in people with HIV—for whom therapeutic vaccines are being explored—the humoral response is seen to wane over time. This may be explained by the fact that HIV infection, by its very nature, depletes the number of CD4 T-cells that initiate the immune defense. Without a robust CD4 response, it may be difficult to trigger the manufacture of bNAbs with sufficient or lasting impact.
And even if an adequate response is achieved, some research suggests that it may be one that develops over a long period, during which time the HIV population may have mutated to evade the antibodies' effects.
Despite these obstacles, researchers are continuing to explore alternate or adjunct strategies, including the use of genetically engineered bacterium (the approach of which was shown stimulate insulin production in diabetics, for example) and even plant-based vectors (such as Agrobacterium tumefacien, which can deliver genetically modified DNA to human cells).
Others, meanwhile, are investigating whether combination vaccines and/or booster inoculations might improve efficacy, with some research suggesting that maturation of a protective bNAb response may take several years.
Increasing knowledge about bNAbs may ultimately pave the way to a multi-pronged strategy wherein multiple neutralizing agents may be employed. Among these are so-called "monoclonal antibodies" able to selectively target specific HIV variants, some of which have broadly neutralizing properties.
One of the more exciting discoveries centered around the N6 antibody, which in lab tests was able to neutralize 98% of all HIV strains. While it is uncertain whether these results will hold up on animal or human trials, it appears to be one of the most potent bNAbs yet isolated.
Get information on prevention, symptoms, and treatment to better ensure a long and healthy life.
Corti, D. and Lanzavecchia, A. "Broadly Neutralizing Antiviral Antibodies." Annual Review of Immunology. January 16, 2013; 31:705-742.
Gils, M. and Saunders, R. "Broadly neutralizing antibodies against HIV-1: Templates for a vaccine." Virology. January 5, 2013; 435(1):46-56.
Huang, J.; Kang, B.; Ishida, E.; et al. "Identification of a CD4-Binding Site Antibody to HIV That Evolved Near-Pan Neutralization Breadth." Immunity. November 15, 2016; 45(5):1108-1121; DOI: 10.1016/j.immuni.2016.10.027.
National Institutes of Health (NIH). "NIH Scientists, Grantees Map Possible Path to an HIV Vaccine: Co-Evolution of HIV and Strong Antibody Response Charted for First Time." Bethesda, Maryland; media release issued April 3, 2013.
Rosenberg, Y.; Sack, M.; Montefiori, D.; et al. "Rapid High-Level Production of Functional HIV Broadly Neutralizing Monoclonal Antibodies in Transient Plant Expression Systems ." PLOS|One. March 22, 2013; DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0058724.
Why Is It So Hard to Make an HIV Vaccine?
Is the Mosaic Vaccine the HIV Breakthrough We’ve Been Waiting For?
When Will We Have an AIDS Vaccine?
How Close Are We to a Functional Cure for HIV?
Genetic Resistance to HIV May Unlock Secrets to a Future AIDS Vaccine
17 People Who Cheated HIV
A Timeline of HIV Vaccine Research
What Does HIV Seroconversion Mean?
HIV Does Not Cause AIDS in the Way We Thought
Symptoms of HIV by Stage of Infection
What Antibodies and Antigens Do During HIV Infection
Meet HIV-2, the Distant Cousin of HIV-1
Top HIV Breakthroughs That Fell Short of a Cure
Does a Negative HIV Test Result Give an All Clear Sign?
HIV Envelope Proteins and Their Role in HIV Entry and Infectivity
An Overview of HIV/AIDS
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1629
|
__label__wiki
| 0.90599
| 0.90599
|
Brewers beat Reds 6-5
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Yasmani Grandal led off for the first time in his career and homered in his opening at-bat to help the Milwaukee Brewers snap a season-high five-game losing streak with a 6-5 win over the Cincinnati Reds on Saturday.
Grandal, who had never batted first in 795 career games, put the Brewers ahead 5-4 with an RBI double in the fourth. Two outs later, he scored on Lorenzo Cain’s bloop single that chased Reds starter Luis Castillo (7-2).
NL MVP Christian Yelich scored a run, but went 0 for 3 to end his career-high hitting streak and the longest in the majors at 18 games.
Matt Albers (4-2) pitched 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief. Adrian Houser handled the seventh. Josh Hader struck out four of the final six outs for his 18th save.
Castillo had won seven straight decisions since a 1-0 loss to Milwaukee on April 3rd, but couldn’t get out of the fourth. He allowed six runs, four earned, on five hits with five walks and six strikeouts. The loss snapped the Reds’ season-high six-game winning streak.
Eugenio Suarez hit his 16th home run of the season in the third and added a run-scoring groundout in the fifth off Brewers starter Jhoulys Chacin.
The Reds tallied three times in the first for the third consecutive game of the series. This time, though, the Brewers answered in their half with four runs, highlighted by Grandal’s 17th home run on the second pitch of the game. A fielding and throwing error by Jose Iglesias on Orland Arcia’s roller with the bases loaded sent two more home. Travis Shaw’s RBI groundout capped the scoring.
Derek Dietrich had an RBI triple and Yasiel Puig hit his 16th home run of the season, a two-run shot, before a slick play and a successful challenge by the Brewers ended the Reds’ opening frame.
Second baseman Mike Moustakas snared Iglesias’ grounder up the middle and flipped the ball from his glove to shortstop Arcia who fired to first. After a 61-second review, the safe call was overturned.
Reds: OF Nick Senzel left Friday night’s game with a headache after homering in the fourth. He struck out pinch-hitting in the seventh and stayed in the game in center.
Brewers: Struggling RHP Jimmy Nelson (0-2, 9.75 ERA) has been dropped from the rotation after three dismal starts. The hope is that pitching out of the bullpen gets the burly right-hander on track after missing 21 months following a right shoulder injury. Nelson made four rehab starts and was recalled June 5 from Triple-A San Antonio.
BREWERS ROSTER MOVES
RHP Aaron Wilkerson (0-0, 7.36 ERA) returns for a third stint after being recalled Saturday from Triple-A San Antonio. RHP Corbin Burnes (1-3, 8.85 ERA) then was optioned to the team’s top affiliate.
Reds: RHP Anthony DeSclafani (4-3, 4.22 ERA) makes his 100th career appearance and 92nd career start when he faces the Brewers for the second time this season. He took a 4-3 loss on April 2 at Great American Ball Park.
Brewers: RHP Brandon Woodruff (8-2, 4.02 ERA) makes his 16th start of the season and second ever against the Reds. He lost 6-0 in his first outing on Sept. 27, 2017 at Miller Park.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1630
|
__label__wiki
| 0.746558
| 0.746558
|
15 Bizarre Pick-up Lines
Entertainment Zika - October 16, 2009
LinkI interviewed hundreds of thousands of people in my quest to find the strangest things to say to a stranger. According to my interviewees, these lines
10 Barbie Knockoffs
Entertainment Zika - September 28, 2010
The Barbie doll was introduced by the Mattel toy company in 1959 and had great success. However, the problem with success is that it inspires knockoffs. For
The 13 Stupidest Ways People Died (Thanks to Sex)
Entertainment Zika - March 26, 2012
Stupid people are good for three things: watching tv, procreating ceaselessly and dying in unfortunately hilarious ways. At least the more cultured among us can enjoy a good laugh when the latter two come together.
13 Things You Probably Didn’t Know About the Fallout Series
Entertainment Zika - December 7, 2015
For those who either spend their time under a rock or, more appropriately, have been trapped in an underground Vault for the past 200 years, the Fallout series is a wildly popular video game franchise. In each installment, you take on the role of a post-apocalyptic survivor in a barren wasteland of what used to be the United States, try to survive, and fight unholy monsters like – and Fallout play
The 13 Most Embarrassing Deaths Ever Recorded
Entertainment Zika - May 11, 2012
Crashing the six handled pool party, staying at Club Mud… who says death can’t be funny for those not directly involved?
4 of the Most Insane Versions of TMNT
It’s an interesting time to be a fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. There’s a new TV series, new games, new toys; it’s basically like the late
8 Fetishes Stranger Than Usual
According to the hit television show (and Weirdworm’s personal Bible) “Diffr'nt Strokes”, the world don't move to the beat of just one drum. Indeed, what
18 of the Most Absurdly Expensive Toys in the World
Everyone loves toys. It’s okay, you can admit it, whenever you find yourself in a department store you at least wander past the toy section and sneak a look at the latest action figures adorning the shelves. Of course, while those toys are getting pretty expensive in their own right at this point, they don’t hold a candle to some toys that are out there on the market, or even some of the toys you
The 10 Best Bootleg Games
Entertainment Zika - August 23, 2017
Within the greater gaming community there exists a subculture of people obsessed with bootleg games. That is, games that infringe on copyrights in one way or another. Sometimes it's a “so bad it's good” thing, but in a few rare cases a bootleg game is genuinely entertaining. Here's a list of the best ten.
These 12 Road Construction Errors Will Leave You Scratching Your Head
It's not easy to lay out a city, but some mistakes simply shouldn't happen. Mistakes like...
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1632
|
__label__cc
| 0.672651
| 0.327349
|
<!- 2019-07-18 12:00:01am --> <!- 2019-07-17 11:55:01pm --> <!- 2019-07-17 11:50:01pm --> <!- 2019-07-17 11:45:03pm --> <!- 2019-07-17 11:40:01pm -->
Woman loses home to fire a year after her mother dies in another California blaze
A woman still grieving the death of her mother in a California wildfire a year ago is now dealing with a sec...
Posted: Nov 18, 2018 1:34 AM
Updated: Nov 18, 2018 1:34 AM
A woman still grieving the death of her mother in a California wildfire a year ago is now dealing with a second wildfire tragedy -- the loss of her home in Southern California.
Carmen Meissner was out of town working as the Woolsey Fire spread through parts of Ventura and Los Angeles Counties last week, CNN affiliate KCAL/KCBS reported.
Accidents, disasters and safety
Residential fires
Southwestern United States
Airline employees
Business and industry sectors
Business, economy and trade
Workers and professionals
Meissner had moved into a new mobile home in Agoura Hills. According to KCAL/KCBS, Meissner found out her home burned down through the mobile app Nextdoor.
"I was thinking that I wasn't going to have to experience any more suffering from fires, and all of a sudden it happened again," Meissner said.
A little over a year ago, Meissner's mother, Carmen Berriz, died from smoke inhalation in the Tubbs fire in Northern California.
Berriz and her husband, Armando, were staying in a rental home while vacationing with family in Santa Rosa. According to a family member who was also staying at the house, the Berrizes got in their car to drive down from the hilltop house to escape the flames that surrounded them. But the couple was trapped by a fallen tree. Without being able to go any farther, they left the car and made their way back to the house.
Relatives say the couple, who were married for 55 years, took shelter in the rental's swimming pool for hours overnight. It wasn't until the morning that Arrmando was able to climb out of the pool. But Carmen didn't make it. She was 75.
Carmen Meissner told KCAL/KCBS that throughout this new tragedy caused by fire, she keeps thinking of her mom.
"I've been grieving her loss all year long. There's one thing that I do have, is an extreme faith. And I'm a survivor and I focus on what I have, not what I don't have," said Meissner.
The Woolsey Fire in Southern California has claimed three lives and destroyed more than 713 structures, according to CalFire. More than 98,000 acres have been burned since the blaze began November 8.
California fires: Two people burned in new blaze
Thomas Fire is the largest blaze in California history
Couple loses two homes in two months to California wildfires
Witnesses: Man died after falling out window in 3-alarm blaze
Firefighters are making strides as blazes race toward homes
Fire rages feet away from California home
Fire engineer dies as California's Thomas Fire keeps burning
Fire victim says there was an intruder in his home at time of blaze
Michigan Woman Turns Herself in for Murdering Mother Last Year
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1634
|
__label__wiki
| 0.596243
| 0.596243
|
One Million Passengers in Kaunas Airport in 2018
On the last Friday of 2018, the one-millionth passenger travelled through Kaunas Airport. The traveller taking the early morning LOT Polish Airlines flight to Warsaw was greeted by Karolis Matulaitis, head of Kaunas Airport.
“It’s a significant end to our year - it’s great to be marking this symbolic anniversary together with LOT Polish Airlines, a company that helped to turn a new page in our airport this year, by inviting our passengers to plan their trips with greater comfort. The collaboration provides more possibilities for business trips. The services are highly valued, and we hope the airline will offer even more flights from Kaunas”, said Matulaitis.
Rafał Milczarski, CEO of LOT Polish Airlines, was also very happy with the festive coincidence: “I am delighted the one-millionth passenger boarded our plane. Lithuania is an important Central and Eastern Europe region for us, and Kaunas has become one of its three major hubs together with Vilnius and Palanga. I am positive our passengers will show more and more appreciation towards your beautiful country, and that it’ll become one of the most popular routes in our fast-growing network”.
Starting June 2018, more than 90 thousand passengers travelled through Kaunas Airport each month, for five months in a row, making them the most successful period of the year. The total number of passengers was less than 2017 when the airport served 1,186 million people, but that’s because Vilnius airport underwent reconstruction last year and Kaunas was the central travelling hub in the summertime. So, 2018 is the first year Kaunas reached the major goal by itself.
It’s currently possible to reach 25 cities from Kaunas, including eight new routes launched in 2018 - Burgas (Bulgaria), Rimini, Milan and Bologna (Italy), Girona (Spain), Warsaw (Poland), Tel Aviv (Israel) and Turku (Finland). In 2019, Itaka, the major Polish tour operator, will start its flights from Kaunas to Zakynthos Island in Grece, Varna in Bulgaria and Antalya in Turkey. “We’re planning to keep growing next year, which means we’ll greet our one-millionth passenger 2-3 months earlier than in 2019,” said Matulaitis.
Based on information by Kaunas Airport
Pictures by Kaunas Airport
kaunas-airport.lt
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1635
|
__label__cc
| 0.575484
| 0.424516
|
Home » The Civil War 25th Anniversary Edition DVD Boxset Freeshipping
The Civil War 25th Anniversary Edition DVD Boxset Freeshipping
Product Code: The Civil War 25th Anniversary Edition + Freeshipping
Price: $26.99 Ex Tax: $26.99
The Civil War 25th Anniversary Edition DVD Special Features
Actors: David McCullough, Sam Waterston, Jason Robards, Morgan Freeman, Arthur Miller
Directors: Ken Burns
Format: Blu-ray, Widescreen
Studio: PBS (DIRECT)
DVD Release Date: 2015
The Civil War 25th Anniversary Edition DVD Photos
The Civil War 25th Anniversary Edition DVD Overview
A large cast of actors voiced correspondence, memoirs, news articles, and stood in for historical figures from the Civil War.Mathew Brady's photographs inspired Burns to make The Civil War, which (in nine episodes totaling more than 10 hours) explores the war's military, social, and political facets through some 16,000 contemporary photographs and paintings, and excerpts from the letters and journals of persons famous and obscure.The series' slow zooming and panning across still images was later termed "Ken Burns effect".Burns combined these images with modern cinematography, music, narration by David McCullough, anecdotes and insights from authors such as Shelby Foote,historians Barbara J. Fields, Ed Bearss, and Stephen B. Oates; and actors reading contemporary quotes from historical figures such as Abraham Lincoln, Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Walt Whitman, Stonewall Jackson, and Frederick Douglass, as well as diaries by Mary Chesnut, Sam Watkins, Elisha Hunt Rhodes and George Templeton Strong.
Tags: The Civil War 25th Anniversary Edition DVD SET, The Civil War 25th Anniversary Edition movie collection, The Civil War 25th Anniversary Edition dvd to buy, The Civil War 25th Anniversary Edition dvd box set, buy The Civil War 25th Anniversary Edition dvd, The Civil War 25th Anniversary Edition box set, The Civil War 25th Anniversary Edition dvd, buy The Civil War 25th Anniversary Edition, The Civil War 25th Anniversary Edition season, The Civil War 25th Anniversary Edition dvd set, The Civil War 25th Anniversary Edition series, The Civil War 25th Anniversary Edition series dvd, The Civil War 25th Anniversary Edition dvd collection, The Civil War 25th Anniversary Edition Boxset dvd, The Civil War 25th Anniversary Edition Boxset on dvd, The Civil War 25th Anniversary Edition Boxsetdvd, The Civil War 25th Anniversary Edition Boxsetbox set, The Civil War 25th Anniversary Edition Boxset dvd box set, The Civil War 25th Anniversary Edition Boxset dvd release date, buy The Civil War 25th Anniversary Edition Boxset, The Civil War 25th Anniversary Edition Boxsetdvd set, The Civil War 25th Anniversary Edition Boxset, The Civil War 25th Anniversary Edition Boxsetbox set, Cheap The Civil War 25th Anniversary Edition dvd
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1640
|
__label__cc
| 0.716365
| 0.283635
|
Glasgow crime unit’s valuable lessons for South Yorkshire force
Glasgow used to be the murder capital of Europe. There seemed no way that they could stem the rising tide of serious violence.
By Nigel Booth
Monday, 01 July, 2019, 09:23
South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner Dr Alan Billings
Then they heard about a different approach to tackling crime in Cincinnati in the United States of America and they decided that they would try the approach in Scotland.
In 2005 they agreed to set up a Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) in Scotland and they decided to treat crime as if it were a disease.
The Star's knife crime debate at the Winter Gardens in Sheffield in 2018. Speakers South Yorkshire Police Chief Constable Stephen Watson , South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner - Dr Alan Billings, and Councillor Jim Steinke, Sheffield City Counci
To stop a disease spreading, you map out where that disease is breaking out and then you take steps to prevent it going further. You tackle the root causes of the disease and not just the symptoms.
This is called the 'public health approach' to crime.
Recently the BBC asked me to visit the Glasgow Violence Reduction Unit with a film crew to see how it was working. You may have seen the film on Look North.
The unit in Glasgow is having impressive results. Figures for the numbers of murders and stabbings have fallen dramatically.
What is clear, though, is that this cannot be achieved just by police action alone.
The police have to work with other partners – these include schools, local authorities, the voluntary sector, the health service, employers, and so on.
This is because what people in these areas need to keep them away from the gangs and the violence is not something the police alone can deliver.
In Glasgow I met one young man, Callum, who had been carrying a knife since he was eleven. He said it was for 'protection'. All his life he had been in fear – fear of being caught by the police and fear of being hurt by a gang.
Finally, he was stabbed nine times and ended up in hospital. Here he met someone from the VRU's Navigator programme. This was a man who had once been a victim of stabbing himself but had broken free of the gangs.
The Navigator offered to be a mentor to Callum and help him get off alcohol, find a job and stick with it. This one-to-one support meant that Callum was now off the bottle and in work.
This was just one of many projects the VRU brokers that are turning lives around.
South Yorkshire Police have been following this same approach for the last two years so it was good to hear how we could develop it further in Sheffield. If only we had the funding.
The day after I came back from Glasgow the government offered us £1.6m to develop a VRU here.
With the VRU on the one hand and more police officers on the other we are now well set up to reduce violence significantly.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1641
|
__label__wiki
| 0.930981
| 0.930981
|
BCMG/Dean at Cheltenham Festival
The Australian composer Brett Dean’s first festival showcase as conductor and composer was the British premiere of his 12-minute suite of six miniatures, Recollections
Hilary Finch
July 8 2010, 1:01am, The Times
After decades of “Brett who?”, the Australian composer Brett Dean at last, and more than deservedly, finds himself festival flavour of the year in this country. The big splash will be the British premiere of his opera Bliss at the Edinburgh. Meanwhile, here in Cheltenham he is resident artist, with seven performances in six days. Dean’s first festival showcase as conductor and composer was the British premiere of his 12-minute suite of six miniatures, Recollections. It was exquisitely performed at the Pitville Pump Room by the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, for future broadcast in Radio 3’s Discovering Music slot.
The composer’s early work with rock musicians and with sampling technology has enabled him to create the most seductive and cogent instrumental sonorities in his search…
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1642
|
__label__cc
| 0.742347
| 0.257653
|
Curse of the mummy: tooth rot and brittle bones
Gregg Carlstrom
The 2,200-year-old mummy shows signs of age-related diseases familiar to us todayRONEN ZVULEN/REUTERS
The national museum of Israel will display the 2,200-year-old mummy of a man who suffered from osteoporosis and tooth decay, both thought to be largely modern-day afflictions.
The mummy, the only one in Israel, found its way there in the 1930s when a Jesuit group in Egypt sent it to a biblical institute in Jerusalem. It was recently lent to the Israel Museum for display.
Galit Bennett, the curator of the exhibit, said the inscriptions on the mummy’s gold-and-black coffin identified him as a priest from the ancient city of Akhmim, near modern-day Sohag in upper Egypt.
He was called Iret-khor-iro — the “Protective Eye of Horus” — though archaeologists in Jerusalem have nicknamed him Alex because of his previous resting place in Alexandria. Alex lived into…
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1643
|
__label__wiki
| 0.529477
| 0.529477
|
Defence chief who earns £100,000 more than Cameron could be asked to go early
June 2 2010, 1:01am, The Times
Sir Jock Stirrup earns £245,000 a yearDavid Bebber for The Times
The salary of Britain’s top military commander came under scrutiny yesterday after it emerged that he earns £100,000 more than the Prime Minister.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, the Chief of the Defence Staff, earns £245,000 a year plus perks — £80,000 more than the heads of the Royal Navy, the Royal Air Force and the Army.
Sir Jock, who attended yesterday’s meeting of the National Security Council at Chequers, is the fourth highest-paid public servant and earns more than ten times the salary of a private serving in Afghanistan.
There is already speculation that Sir Jock will be asked to stand down this summer or early autumn, well before his retirement date next April. His successor is unlikely to command the same salary,…
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1644
|
__label__wiki
| 0.729294
| 0.729294
|
Ghosts of Fleet Street
Sat 3 Aug 2019 2:30 pm - 4:00 pm
Stationers Hall Court, EC4M 7DD
An immersive walk through 600 years of bribery, gossip and booze on Fleet Street led by London historian Dr Matthew Green with broadside ballad singers, drunken hacks and psychopathic media tycoons hidden along the way. As recommended by the Guardian.
Read the Guardian‘s review of the tour here.
In 1495, an eccentric octopus-loving Walloon called Wynkyn de Worde set up a cranky printing press at the sign of the creaking sun in St Bride’s Churchyard. 250 years later, Fleet Street had blossomed into the nerve-centre of the world’s biggest and most influential mass media, churning out hundreds of newspapers each week. By the 20th century, every major UK newspaper had its headquarters on Fleet Street. And its ancient taverns were packed with impoverished hack writers and inkies.
Fleet Street came to be associated with knowledge, enlightenment, and democracy. It has been hailed as the “Palladium of English Liberty”.
But today, Fleet Street is a ghost of its former self. Not a single newspaper operates from the vicinity any longer. The thumping, hammering and squelching of printing presses has been replaced by the sound of urban ennui. But you can relive it all, just for a day.
Beginning at Stationers’ Hall, the medieval centre of printing, and finishing with a pint in Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, this musical, dramatised tour will take you through 600 years of bribery, gossip, and booze on the Street of Ink. You’ll meet the ghosts of Fleet Street denizens including Samuel Johnson, Hodge the Cat, Daniel Defoe, Kitty Fisher, the Rhinoceros of Ludgate Hill and perhaps even Rebekah Brooke being tried at the Old Bailey. Sweeney Todd will not be appearing in this tour.
From Unreal City Audio as recommended by the Guardian, Telegraph, BBC, and Culture Critic. The tour lasts around 2hrs.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1651
|
__label__wiki
| 0.703966
| 0.703966
|
A United States flag is provided, at no cost, to drape the casket or accompany the urn of a deceased veteran who served honorably in the U. S. Armed Forces. It is furnished to honor the memory of a veteran's military service to his or her country. VA will furnish a burial flag for memorialization for:
A veteran who served during wartime
A veteran who died on active duty after May 27, 1941
A veteran who served after January 31, 1955
A peacetime veteran who was discharged or released before June 27, 1950
Certain persons who served in the organized military forces of the Commonwealth of the Philippines while in service of the U.S. Armed Forces and who died on or after April 25, 1951
Certain former members of the Selected Reserves
Who Is Eligible to Receive the Burial Flag?
Generally, the flag is given to the next-of-kin, as a keepsake, after its use during the funeral service. When there is no next-of-kin, VA will furnish the flag to a friend making request for it. For those VA national cemeteries with an Avenue of Flags, families of veterans buried in these national cemeteries may donate the burial flags of their loved ones to be flown on patriotic holidays.
How Can You Apply?
You may apply for the flag by completing VA Form 27-2008, Application for United States Flag for Burial Purposes. You may get a flag at any VA regional office or U.S. Post Office. Generally, the funeral director will help you obtain the flag.
Can a Burial Flag Be Replaced?
The law allows us to issue one flag for a veteran's funeral. We cannot replace it if it is lost, destroyed, or stolen. However, some veterans' organizations or other community groups may be able to help you get another flag.
How Should the Burial Flag Be Displayed?
The proper way to display the flag depends upon whether the casket is open or closed. VA Form 27-2008 provides the correct method for displaying and folding the flag. The burial flag is not suitable for outside display because of its size and fabric. It is made of cotton and can easily be damaged by weather.
For More Information Call Toll-Free at 1-800-827-1000
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1652
|
__label__wiki
| 0.785363
| 0.785363
|
Pelosi: Barr’s Mueller report summary ‘condescending’
by: Alexandra Limon
Posted: Mar 28, 2019 / 07:26 PM UTC / Updated: Mar 28, 2019 / 10:01 PM UTC
WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) — Democratic lawmakers are taking aim at Attorney General William Barr, demanding the release of Robert Mueller’s report in its entirety.
Barr promised to release only parts of the report to Congress shortly after Special Counsel Mueller finished his investigation into Russian election meddling and whether there was collusion with the Trump campaign.
But left-wing lawmakers aren’t impressed with Barr’s promises.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi made it clear that she wasn’t pleased with the four-page report Congress has received from Barr.
“It was condescending, it was arrogant and it wasn’t the right thing to do,” Pelosi said Thursday.
Barr’s summary of Mueller’s report indicates that in two years of investigating Russian election meddling, he did not find evidence that anyone with the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with Russia to influence the election.
But Pelosi said she wants lawmakers to be shown the full report so they can draw their own conclusions.
The House of Representatives passed a resolution to release the full Mueller report with a 420-0 vote. The resolution is non-binding but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked the Senate from voting on it.
Meanwhile, Barr said he will release at least a portion of the report to Congress in weeks rather than in months.
Senator Mike Rounds (R-SD) said some of the material in the report can’t legally be made public.
“First of all, [Barr] cannot release information that’s been found by a grand jury and that’s federal law,” said Rounds.
There are also national security concerns.
“We most certainly don’t want to give any secrets away or classified information away in the release of the report,” Rounds said.
Rounds added there is a possibility Congressional intelligence committees could get a copy of the full report in a classified setting.
More Washington DC Bureau Stories
WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) – Furry friends all across the country could soon have new protections from the federal government – and lawmakers say it’s about time.
The effort to make animal abuse a federal crime is getting a lot of support on both sides of the aisle. Congressional lawmakers say with all the division in government, there’s nothing that unites people like protecting animals. They’re hoping that’s enough to get a new bill passed into law.
With ACA going to court, Dems issue warning
by Raquel Martin / Jun 26, 2019
WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) — In less than two weeks, a federal appeals court in Texas will hear arguments over whether it’s constitutional for the Affordable Care Act to continue without the individual mandate tax.
On Wednesday, a group of Democratic senators sounded the alarm over the pending verdict, which they say could strip more than 100 million Americans of their health care and cause prescription drug prices to spike.
FCC getting pressure to update broadband maps
by Staff / Jun 25, 2019
WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) — The federal government has grant money available to help expand broadband internet access, but recent doubts cast on the Federal Communication Commission’s access mapping is causing a glitch in distribution.
At least 19 million Americans live in areas without access to high-speed internet. In some rural areas, nearly a quarter of homes aren’t connected.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1658
|
__label__wiki
| 0.554989
| 0.554989
|
13-year-old hospitalized after bicycle-vehicle collision
by: Evan Anstey
TOWN OF BOSTON, N.Y. (WIVB) — The Erie County Sheriff’s Crash Investigation Unit is trying to learn more about a collision between a driver and a 13-year-old bicyclist in the Town of Boston.
Monday, around 2 p.m., deputies responded to Eckhardt Rd., where fire officials were treating the teen.
The road was closed between Taylor and Heinrich for several hours as crews began an investigation.
The teen is in stable condition at Oishei Children’s Hospital.
by Erica Brecher / Jul 17, 2019
EDEN, N.Y. (WIVB-TV) – Governor Andrew Cuomo calls the Farm Workers Bill, signed Wednesday, a win for social justice because the law will provide farm workers with protections that already existed in other industries.
But Upstate and Western New York farmers say farming isn't like other industries and that the new law fails to recognize that.
Today's Forecast / 48 mins ago
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1659
|
__label__wiki
| 0.933565
| 0.933565
|
UN says death toll from Libya fighting passes 1,000
by: SAMY MAGDY, Associated Press
FILE – In this June 15, 2019, file photo, a vehicle and structure is damaged from fighting in the region of Tajoura, east of the Libyan capital Tripoli. The battle between rival militias for the Libyan capital has killed more than 1,000 people since it began in April, the U.N. said Tuesday, a grim milestone in a stalemated conflict partly fueled by regional powers. (AP Photo/Hamza Turkia, File)
CAIRO (AP) — The battle between rival militias for the Libyan capital has killed more than 1,000 people since it began in April, the U.N. said Tuesday, a grim milestone in a stalemated conflict partly fueled by regional powers.
Forces loyal to Khalifa Hifter, a veteran army officer, opened an offensive on Tripoli in early April, advancing on the city’s southern outskirts and clashing with an array of militias loosely affiliated with the U.N.-recognized government.
Hifter’s self-styled Libyan National Army is the largest and best organized of the country’s many militias, and enjoys the support of Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Russia. But it has faced stiff resistance from fighters aligned with the U.N.-recognized government, which is aided by Turkey and Qatar.
The World Health Organization said in a brief statement that 1,048 people have been killed since the offensive began, including 106 civilians. It says 5,558 have been wounded, including 289 civilians.
The battle lines have changed little since the offensive began, with both sides dug in and shelling one another in the southern reaches of the capital. Militias aligned with the government recently recaptured Gharyan, a town some 100 kilometers (60 miles) west of the city that is on a major supply route.
The fighting has emptied entire neighborhoods of civilians. Thousands of African migrants captured by Libyan forces supported by the European Union are trapped in detention centers near the front lines. An airstrike on one facility last week killed more than 50 people, mainly migrants held in a hangar that collapsed on top of them.
Libya slid into chaos after the 2011 uprising that toppled and killed long-ruling dictator Moammar Gadhafi. Armed groups have proliferated, and the country has emerged as a major transit point for migrants fleeing war and poverty for a better life in Europe.
Hifter’s supporters say he is the only leader who can end militia rule, reunite the country and keep it from being a safe haven for terrorists. They point to his success in defeating Islamic militants and other rival factions in eastern Libya over the past few years. Egypt and the UAE see him as a bulwark against the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists.
But his critics view him as an aspiring strongman, and his offensive appears to have at least temporarily united western Libya’s fractious militias in opposition to a return to one-man rule. Many experts predicted at the start of the offensive that it was unlikely to succeed , noting widespread resistance to Hifter in the west and fractures within his own forces, which include Gadhafi-era army units, ultraconservative Islamists and tribal fighters.
Mohamed Eljareh, an analyst and the co-founder of Libya Outlook Research and Consultancy, said it was too soon to fully assess Hifter’s campaign.
“It depends on how we measure progress. Some say that the LNA’s ability to launch an offensive on the capital, Tripoli, is progress in itself,” he said. “Of course there has been miscalculation by the LNA in regards to how easy the operation will be.”
He added, however, that the LNA appeared to be better equipped for a prolonged conflict, citing its campaigns in the east. “When they are unable to achieve a quick victory they are able to continue with the war for a long time in a war of attrition,” he said.
Associated Press writer Rami Musa in Benghazi, Libya contributed to this report.
Today's Forecast / 1 hour ago
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1660
|
__label__cc
| 0.744418
| 0.255582
|
Sunshine and real estate
It’s common knowledge by now that the weather has a tangible effect on retail sales. December sales suffer if a snowfall doesn’t happen to get consumers into the “holiday spirit,” and sunny days can mean day-long window shopping excursions that turn into impulse purchases and the obligatory dinner and drinks that follow. The real estate market is no different.
Even with major investments like real estate, consumer tendencies seem to move with the mercury, almost independent of the economic climate. In Toronto, January is traditionally the slowest month for home sales, no doubt a combination of lower cash flow after the holiday season and the difficulty of showing houses effectively. Buyers are less motivated to venture out through the snow and slush to view multiple properties, and sellers can find it difficult to showcase the true beauty of their properties through the ice and snow.
And then there’s spring and summer, “high season” for those in the real estate game and prime time for sellers who want to get top dollar for their properties by employing agents who know how to capitalize on the landscaping and vibrancy of their biggest season.
The numbers are already starting to show the rise in national home sales. According to statistics released just this month by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA), national home sales rose 0.6% from March to April, with home sales improving in more than half of all local markets from March to April. This trend was led by gains in the GTA, Winnipeg, Calgary and Victoria, and with the national average sale price rising 1.3% on a year-over-year basis in April, the Canadian housing market is firmly lodged in balanced territory, which is great news for buyers and sellers alike.
Even with the new mortgage rules that took effect in 2012, the market has remained remarkably steady, and the upward trend for this warmer season is still a palpable reality for all those caught up in the real estate game.
Hours of sunshine always helps me shake off the lethargy and “blah-ness” of the winter months and gets me even more excited and geared up for my work, and I can always see the excitement in motivation in my clients as well. I feed off of it, I love it. And it’s that energy that can translate into some incredible transactions this season.
Denim shorts and wedge sandals, sunshine and real estate: my four favourite summer things. I’m looking forward to having a blast. Won’t you join me?
by Chellie Mejia, B.Sc.
Farewell to Winnipeg’s Sweetheart
Deanna Durbin, Canada’s own Shirley Temple, died yesterday at the age of 91.
A top child actress during the Depression, Durbin played the part of the perfect child, fixing the problems of the adults around her with charm and grace.
She hit Hollywood royalty with her first movie 1936’s Three Smart Girls, a musical comedy co-starring Nan Grey and Barbara Read. A box-office smash, it saved the faltering Universal Studios and turned her into one of Hollywood’s highest-paid actresses.
Then, in 1938, she was given a special Academy Award for her “significant contribution in bringing to the screen the spirit and personification of youth.”
Like many child actresses, problems arose when she started to move onto more adult roles. Her public wanted her to retain her youth and innocence, and reacted negatively to any attempts of Durbin’s to expand her range.
First married at 19, Durbin was told that she was not allowed to divorce because it would “ruin the image.” A second marriage would also end in divorce. Finally, at age 28, Durbin met director Charles David and married for the last time.
At this point, after starring in 21 feature films, Durbin retired.
She will be remembered by many as what she was officially dubbed: “Winnipeg’s Sweetheart.”
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1662
|
__label__wiki
| 0.780204
| 0.780204
|
Locations Apocrypha: Chrok Crossroads
» Worldbook
» Characters
« Return to Locations Apocrypha
Chrok Crossroads
Ra'niah
Power Groups:
Not an intersection of roads as much as an intersection of rivers, Chrok Crossroads grew up around the ferries that serviced the junction of the Chrok and Clanis rivers, flowing south out of the Agrandoran mountains.
Chrok Crossroads now is a trading town that has declared itself a free city, and built a sturdy wall to protect itself from its several neighbors. Riverine patrols from Chrok make sure the river is safe from bandits for about twenty miles in any direction from the forks, and charge passing boat traffic for this service.
The Crossroads has been able to remain an independent entity largely because it exists symbiotically with its neighbors. The Crossroads controls no large parcels of arable land, so the surrounding nations trade food to the people of the Crossroads, and in turn the Crossroaders see to it that their portion of the river is kept dredged, patrolled, and safe.
In the eyes of its neighbors, the Crossroads isn't worth directly controlling anyway. The city has a nominal Lord Mayor, but in practice exists in a state of utopian anarchy, wherein any citizen can make a deal with any other citizen for anything upon which they can agree. When disagreements arise, Crossroaders pay a third uninvolved party to mediate the dispute, both swearing to abide by the decision. The system is a legalist's worst nightmare, but it works at the Crossroads, and so it continues.
It is the lack of government that gives the neighbors of the Crossroads pause when considering its conquest. Each of the nearby rulers knows that large amounts of money, men, and material would need to be sacrificed just to pacify the place, which would leave the invader vulnerable to other enemies. The neighboring rulers therefore consider it less trouble to trade them food for services than to take the place outright.
About 400 years ago, an enterprising young man named Bardoc Cransch built a series of ferries across the Chrok and Clanis rivers, charging a small fee to the local farmers for the service. Because of this, a small village grew up around the ferries, including a smithy, a granary, and a small church.
Because of the increased prosperity in the region, the small village of Chrok Crossroads became a target for bandits and raiders. Thus, Cransch was compelled to build a small keep and retain a small militia to protect the area.
Fortified Town
Over time, Chrok Crossroads grew from a small village to a large village and eventually to a small town. Banditry increased at a faster pace than the population growth so the mayor of the town, Kalistan Cransch (a descendant of Bardoc Cransch) built a fortified wall around the city for better defense.
Peace settled over the region for a period of three generations. Chrok Crossroads continued to swell in population and wealth as traffic increased on the rivers and roads that intersected in the city.
A Royal City
During the reign of King Hangolch, 278 years ago, Chrock Crossroads received a great honor - Lord Mayor Rangor Cransch (again, a descendant of Bardoc Cransch) was given the rank of Squire in the Royal Court as a result of the many tax revenues that came from the city. Title to the lands around the city in a twenty-mile radius were given to the Cransch family and the fortified town was named a "Royal City" of the kingdom.
Of course, there was a downside to this honor. Being a Royal City meant that a significant military contingent was moved to the city under the auspices of protecting the Squire. In reality, the "honor" was to further the military ambitions of the King and the city was in a prime location to base the army and navy. In addition, with such a large number of Royal Guardsman in the city, taxes were increased and the collection of those taxes were more rigorously pursued.
Despite these negative aspects, Chrok Crossroads continued to grow in prosperity and size expanding well beyond the walls of the fortified city. One hundred-twelve years after being named a Royal City, the current Squire, Bregork Cransch, ordered a new wall built to protect the city. He also decreed that the ferries would be replaced by bridges.
The building of the walls was easily completed in only four years. The bridges were much more difficult to accomplish. After 26 years of labor, the final stones were placed and the ferries were officially decommissioned. Chrok Crossroads then entered a new era.
Military Outpost
While the people of Chrok Crossroads looked upon the bridges as an easier means of transporting goods across the rivers, the King saw them as an easier way to move his troops across the rivers. Chrok Crossroads quickly lost its place as a mercantile center as it became more and more a military base.
For the next 67 years, under the leadership of three different kings, Chrok Crossroads was a military camp. Sometimes it was the place where troops came for rest behind the battle lines, other times it was the primary staging location for upcoming battles, and six different times it was under siege by the enemies of the king.
Eventually, the kingdom could not continue to support ongoing wars and the Monarchy quietly withdrew ambitions of conquering their neighbors. Chrok Crossroads was not left in peace, however. Since, at one time, the city was a major source of revenue for the crown, the King expected the populace to help restore the Royal Treasury. Taxes were increased again and again as the King attempted to get the same level of revenues that historically had been provided. Unwittingly, the King was destroying the very possibility of those revenues by his heavy-handed monetary policies.
After many years of repression by the King, the people of Chrok Crossroads decided to take matters (and their lands) in their own hands.
The current Squire of Chrok Crossroads, Artimal Cransch was an exceptionally gifted diplomat and politician. He could convince anyone to do nearly anything, and at the same time, cause that person to believe that it was both the best option and that the idea was his own. Using these talents, Cransch convinced the entire army and navy to mutiny under his leadership.
The initial battle was over in only a few hours, after which Cransch sent a letter to the King declaring Chrok Crossroads to be an independent nation. Unfortunately for the people of Chrok Crossroads, Cransch had no military knowledge at all. Despite his skill in negotiation, the King did not accede to the situation and sent what remained of his army and navy to subdue the rogue state.
Independence was finally won from the King, but it was hard earned through 13 years of war. Chrok Crossroads was nearly destroyed in the process. The population was decimated such that all citizens lived inside the inner wall, leaving the area between the two walls as battle grounds. To make matters worse, Artimal Cransch was killed by an assassin only days after wresting victory from the King.
A New Government
Starting a new nation without a ruler is difficult under the best of circumstances. Chrok Crossroads was not under those. It had a very small population, no real farmland to support itself, only a semblance of trade, and no heir.
Eighty years of war had prevented any descendants of Cransch family from creating their own families. Only one male child was protected through adulthood per generation. The rest were drafted into the military, and inevitably died in battle. As such, when Artimal Cransch died heir-less, the closest relations were fourth cousins and there were over 200 of them.
With a firm distrust of monarchal rule, 158 years ago, the people of Chrok Crossroads created a government where the office of Lord Mayor was rotated every week from among the Ruling Council, which was repopulated by descendants of Bardoc Cransch every three months.
This means that every three months 50 different descendants are selected at random to serve as members of the Ruling Council. Most people do not want to serve, and try to get someone else to serve in their stead. This is legal as long as the replacement is a verifiable descendant of Bardoc Cransch. Fortunately (or unfortunately), certain of Bardoc's progeny were excessively promiscuous, with a result that 1 in 20 people in Chrok Crossroads easily trace their ancestry through Bardoc, while nearly 3 in 10 have some tenuous relationship.
Although most do not want to serve, all who cannot find a replacement do serve. In addition, there are some who have a great desire to serve. One man has sat continually on the Council for the last 32 years, never having been selected by lottery.
Districts of Chrok Crossroads
Old City and
North New City
High Town
Old Commons
West New City
Dock Ward
The Smithy
Central Ward
Market District
East New City
New Docks
East Bank
Naval Yards
Sixteenth Ward
Outer City Districts
West Forest Zone
West Farmland Zone
South River Road District
Eighth Ward
North Ward
East Farm District
Notes on Districts
Because of the lack of a central government controlling the city, each district has its own local power. Here are some ideas for these:
The Eighth Ward would be under the control of a benevolent church leader (a bishop) who would look after the poor families of the slums there.
Hightown would be ruled by the Matriarch, a very old lady of the Angataran family. She is a wealthy busybody whose opinion and influence touches everything.
Old Town is run by a group of merchant's wives who meet for lunch weekly. Their control is through their husbands and through their high-society social networks.
North Park contains numerous walkways, fountains, parks and secluded locations.
It is said to be claimed by the Goddess of Love herself. No one who has tried to wrest control has succeeded.
The Barracks would be run by the Major General.
And the Naval Yards would be overseen by the Admiral
Of course, these two would HATE each other passionately and their views would be echoed in their men.
(The Admiral has never served in the military. He was appointed.)
(The Major General is a career military man who started as an enlisted soldier.)
The Smithy would be controlled by a consortium of goldsmiths, silversmiths and jewelers.
The Opera Guild runs the Theatre District.
The University would be under the control of the Board of Directors.
It is under perpetual construction.
East Bank is a high-rise (5-7 stories!) commercial district. It is controlled by the banks and trading companies.
The Dock Ward is not under any known control. It is truly lawless, like the Old West towns. People fight and get killed without much concern, but if it gets out of hand, the regulars will put a stop to it.
The Warehouse District power is Janson Grinston, an underworld boss.
New Docks are also controlled by the underworld, but it is unknown who is the leader.
The outlying regions are not specifically "ruled" or "controlled" directly. Each of the has a family or two that are the most helpful/knowledgeable/wealthy that the others turn to for advice/assistance.
Itinerant
Copyright Declarations | Terms of Use | Revenant Press | Visit Surfing The Cloud | Reflex Engine
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1664
|
__label__cc
| 0.680759
| 0.319241
|
Wallingford Senior Women’s squad is a fast growing and aspirational group. The squad currently encompasses a broad range of experience and the aim is to develop that talent pool and win at the highest level; we are actively seeking athletes to join this group and particularly welcome those with one year or more rowing experience.
The squad trains six days a week, and the programme includes a mix of coached water sessions, ergos, weights, and strength and conditioning circuits. The training programme is flexible in order to accommodate the athletes’ work and family commitments, and we understand that athletes may need to train independently during the week, although we encourage people to train together at the club whenever possible.
Much of the early and mid-season work is in singles and small boats to help athletes better develop their technical skills and ability to move boats smoothly. As the season progresses there is a move towards crew boats, and the squad races at all the major events. The ambition quite simply is to develop a highly motivated and focussed squad capable of winning from Novice to Senior, while thoroughly enjoying rowing out of Wallingford alongside a group of likeminded athletes. If you would like more information on the club, to take a look around the facilities, meet some of the club members and see if WRC is for you, then please contact the Captain for further information.
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1666
|
__label__cc
| 0.529387
| 0.470613
|
Battling For Recyclables
Barry Shanoff | Jun 01, 1994
Local jurisdictions cannot force businesses and consumers to hand over their recyclable materials to private companies that hold government-awarded exclusive franchises in the area, according to a ruling by the California Supreme Court.
The ruling, which was handed down on March 31, affirms an appeals court decision upholding the right of Palm Springs Recycling Center (PSRC) to collect recyclables from businesses in the city of Rancho Mirage, Calif.
The case began with a contract between the city and a unit of Waste Management, giving the company the exclusive right to collect, transport, process and dispose of residential and commercial refuse. Under the contract, Waste Management also secured the exclusive right to collect source-separated recyclable materials from residences and commercial establishments and to keep the revenue from the sale of such materials.
At the same time, the city adopted an ordinance forbidding anyone other than the city or its contractor from collecting, hauling or disposing of refuse accumulated in the city.
Under its exclusive franchise, Waste Management established a city-wide recycling program for single-family residences, multi-family complexes and commercial establishments.
After the contract went into effect, PSRC began collecting recyclable materials from commercial establishments. The city and Waste Management responded by taking PSRC to court. PSRC was charged with violating the rights of the city and its contractor under the agreement and the ordinance and with ignoring the city's demands to stop collecting recyclable materials.
For its part, PSRC countersued the plaintiffs, alleging various illegal and unconstitutional actions by the city and Waste Management. Each side sought an injunction to prevent interference with its operations.
The trial court sided with the city and enjoined PSRC from collecting recyclable materials. However, an intermediate appeals court reversed the judgment, ruling that state law did not authorize the city to grant any exclusive franchises for the collection and removal of recyclables that are not "discarded" by their owner. Until the generator discards the recyclable materials into city-specified bins, the appellate court concluded, the owner retains control and may arrange to have the items collected by any recycling enterprise.
By a vote of five to two, the state supreme court noted that, under the California solid waste law, local governments may award an exclusive franchise for "solid waste handling" services. How-ever, the court continued that items with an economic value to their owner don't fit the statutory definition of "solid waste."
"If the owner sells his property - that is, receives value for it - the property cannot be said to be worthless or useless in an economic sense and is thus not waste from the owner's perspective. Con-versely, if the owner voluntarily disposes of the property without receiving compensation or other consideration in exchange - that is, throws it away - the obvious conclusion is that the property has no economic value to the owner."
Thus, under the court's reasoning, if a generator tosses his recyclables into a bin furnished by an exclusive franchisee and gets nothing in return, he has discarded his property and it is waste. However, if the generator dumps the items into the bins of the franchisee's competitor who pays him for the material, the owner has thus sold the property and not discarded it.
One who owns discarded recyclable materials and desires to sell or donate the items cannot be compelled by local government to hand over the property to an exclusive franchisee, under the high court's ruling. Still, the owner cannot simply discard the items as he sees fit. An exclusive franchisee would have the right to collect the discarded items (waste) under its contract.
The state supreme court ordered the case back to the trial court with directions to issue a permanent injunction in favor of PSRC, prohibiting the city from interfering with the company's collecting, transporting, processing and disposing recyclable materials acquired from commercial establishments for compensation.
Californians Against Waste (CAW), a Sacramento-based environmental lobbying group, hailed the decision. "Independent recyclers encourage competition and efficiency which are necessary to make recycling work," said CAW Policy Associate Rick Best. The case has been the focal point for an ongoing debate in California over flow control of recyclable materials. "Flow control is one of the hottest issues in recycling," said Best.
Surprisingly, not all local governments are unhappy with the ruling. Joan Edwards, solid waste director for the city of Los Angeles, praised the decision as a "first step in ensuring that cost-effective recycling continues in the Los Angeles area." Clearly identified and separated recyclables "should be exempted from exclusive franchises for solid waste," she said.
As a practical matter, a comprehensive recycling pro
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1667
|
__label__cc
| 0.613875
| 0.386125
|
Pilgrimage to Mecca
Muslims perform farewell circumambulation in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, to complete their hajj. More than 2.37 million Muslims made the pilgrimage this year, most of them from around the world, for the five-day ritual. The hajj is a religious duty, to be accomplished at least once, for every able-bodied Muslim who can afford it. (AFP)
Here's What Happened After President Trump Tweeted Racist Things About Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Other Congresswomen
Prince Harry Revealed a Major Milestone About Baby Archie to Beyoncé and Jay-Z
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1669
|
__label__wiki
| 0.905331
| 0.905331
|
24/7 Help Hotline: 1-800-814-1555(Hablamos Espaol)
B-1/B-2 Visitors Visa Extension Application
K-1 Fianc(e) Visa Application
Arrival Departure Record
Apply for U.S. Visas
Businesses Outraged Over DACA Move
September 6, 2017 September 6, 2017 / US Immigration / By US-Immigration.com
President Donald Trump has created a new rift between his party and corporate America with the decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which helped protect from the threat of deportation thousands of young undocumented immigrants who arrived in the US as minors.
The chief executives of many companies were outraged by the move, calling the decision immoral and likely to cause chaos in the labor market. The founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, said it was a sad day for the US, and that the decision was not just wrong, but cruel to young people, with the government encouraging them to pursue the American dream, only to now punish them for doing so.
The chief executive of Apple, Tim Cook, was equally unimpressed, saying that he was “deeply dismayed” that around 800,000 Americans, which includes over 250 of his company’s employees, could soon be ejected from the only country they have ever known. Business leaders echoed the President’s call for deferred action beneficiaries to gain help from Congress, but the conflict has grown between Trump and corporate America for some time, with a multitude of companies, including Ford, and Google also expressing their support for Dreamers.
The tech lobbying group, Fwd.us, co-founded by Zuckerberg, had warned that ending the deferred action program would see around 30,000 young immigrants lose their jobs every month. This would cause an estimated loss of as much as $460 billion to the gross domestic product of the US over the next decade.
Contact Privacy Policy Terms of Use Refund Policy Blog Site map
FIOA
B-1 / B-2 Visitors Visa Extension Application
|
cc/2019-30/en_head_0044.json.gz/line1672
|
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.