How It Works Incredible History

119 Electric telegraph

machines explained

How these early devices sent

and received messages

120 Darkrooms
illuminated

Discover the science and history

behind the original photo lab

122 How do overhead
projectors work?

Before the days of digital

projection, what did we use?

122 The first vacuums

Meet the famous vacuums that

cleaned up for royalty

106 123 How are bronze
statues cast?
Insidethe
pocketwatch Explore the complex process
Meet
Madame behind this centuries-old art

Guillo1ti0n7e 123 What are life-

preserving coffins?

How did this odd casket save

anyone buried alive?

124 The Sony Walkman

Inside the world’s first
commerical portable and
personal stereo cassette player

124 Hearing aid evolution

Find out why modern electronic
hearing aids were made possible
by Alexander Graham Bell and
his telephone

125 How did the first
electric refrigerators
work?

Discover the main components
of the first commercial fridges

© Thinkstock; DK images; SPL 126 How Leonardo da
Vinci tried to fly

Explore the crazy machine that

da Vinci used to fly

127 How the gramophone
worked

The invention that brought

sound to the home explained

127 The bow drill

Read about the ancient device

that uses friction to light fires

101

Industry & Invention

Inside a cotton mill

Working with cotton Minders Piecer Mill school

The key roles and components explained The spinning mule A pair of children called As most mill owners
would be manned by piecers worked barefoot offered a basic education to
Fibre bales only a single worker and undertook their employees’ children, it
at any one time, dangerous tasks such as was commonplace to find
After the raw cotton lint called a minder. sweeping up runoff lint. school facilities in the mill
is straightened and or within the site. The
cleaned it is inserted children were only taught
onto the spinning mule for a few hours a day.
in drum-like bales.
Carding machine
Spindles Carriage
One of the first stages in
The mule’s many The spindles rest on a the mill was to process raw
spindles collect the series of carriages so they fibres in a carding machine.
spun fibres (yarn) can move fluidly while These cleaned, streamlined
repeatedly until they spinning fibres into and intermixed the raw
are perfectly formed. weavable cotton yarn. cotton fibres into a ‘sliver’
string, which could then be
spun into yarn.

Inside a cotton mill

Understand the workings of one of the cornerstones of the
Industrial Revolution and how cotton changed the world

In the 19th century, cotton production processed, spun and woven at a scale that not people often travelling
was one of the most profitable only could meet demand but also rendered these across the country to
enterprises around. Western society cottage industries obsolete. cotton hotspots like
had long been split into a two-tier system, with Lancashire to earn
the aristocracy controlling over 90 per cent of the And so was born the cotton mill. These were some money. Many
nation’s wealth, with the rest left virtually staffed with the remnants of the former cottage mill owners also
penniless. The Industrial Revolution changed industries as well as hundreds and thousands of offered packages that,
that, with a new merchant middle-class others, with workers no longer required to hold before that point, the
becoming a significant financial power. proficiency in traditional skills such as sewing working class simply would
With the middle class’s ascension came an but instead simply be capable of operating the never have dreamed of, often
increased need for quality fabric products. But machines that now did everything for them. including free accommodation and even
while the need for cotton had grown, the cotton a rudimentary education for their children as
industry itself was still largely restricted to a Conditions were poor for the workers, with an incentive to work there.
series of cottage industries – small home-grown people of all ages – including children – exposed
businesses staffed by manual labourers who to potentially crippling machines as well as hot As the Industrial Revolution came to a close,
were unable to keep pace with demand. and dusty conditions that often led to fatal the industry went into decline. By the early-20th
Luckily, automated machines such as ailments. Workers frequently lost fingers and century, cotton yarn and fabrics were now being
even limbs while operating the machinery too. produced all over the world, with new industrial
the self-actuating spinning mule heartlands emerging in Asia. This meant that by
and power loom were invented Despite the dire conditions, the sheer number 1950 the age of the cotton mill was over, with its
that enabled cotton to be of jobs available – to women and men alike, once bustling rooms falling silent.
granting the former an independent income –
saw the working class flock to cotton mills, with

A stitch 5000 BCE 3000 BCE 800 CE 1500
in time…
Treated cotton bolls The Harappan civilisation Arab merchants begin Cotton is now used
Follow the key developments and pieces of cotton in what is Pakistan today importing Eastern-made throughout the world.
in the history of cotton with cloth in Mexican caves grows, spins and weaves cotton into Europe in Its production remains
this quick timeline date to around 7,000 cotton during the large quantities for the restricted to cottage
years ago. Bronze Age. first time. industries though.
102

HEAD 1. DEADLY Textile factory 2. DEADLIER Coal plant 3. DEADLIEST Metallurgy
forge
2HEAD With powerful machines Extracting coal from mines
designed to shred and tear, was bad enough, but The production of metals
FATAL FACTORIES a tiny lapse in concentration workers who processed it in super-hot and insanely
could mean losing a limb, in poorly ventilated hazardous furnaces
potentially dying from factories often died young inevitably led to many
blood loss or infection. from lung diseases too. horrific burns and deaths.

DID YOU KNOW? In 1833, England’s largest cotton mill employed over 1,500 people

Power loom Mill offices

Once the cotton had been The mill was a business and, with
turned into yarn it could be many factors to consider in the trade,
woven into a variety of fabrics
using large power looms. such as establishing plantations in
foreign lands as well as the importing

and protection of cotton shipments,
all mill administration would take

place in offices off the factory floor.

Engine house Water wheel Spinning mule

The energy for the mill was Water power was the only The central piece of
captured through a water energy source capable of machinery to any cotton
wheel and then transferred powering a cotton mill’s mill was the self-actuating
to the machines via an machinery at the time. This
engine house containing a energy was harnessed with spinning mule. These
series of gears and pulleys. a massive water wheel. machines took prepared

cotton fibres and spun
them automatically at high
speed into weavable yarn.

Storage area

With the advent of spinning mules
and power looms, fabrics could be

produced at a super-fast rate. As
such, a mill had to make space for
airy storage rooms to keep products
safe and dry prior to distribution.

1730 1741 1794 1824 1855 1950 © DK Images;
Getty; Grjatoi
The first machines The world’s first US inventor Eli Whitney English inventor In the mid-19th 100 years on many mills
to automatically mill designed to spin cotton patents the ‘cotton Richard Roberts creates his most century cotton have closed and those
process and spin mechanically is opened by gin’, a machine that can famous machine, the spinning mule, production enters a that survive become
cotton are put English engineers Lewis Paul separate cotton fibres which can spin cotton at a rate golden age, with huge increasingly automatic,
into use. and John Wyatt. from their seeds. unimaginable to manual spinners. mills being built. with electric engines.

103

Industry & Invention

Medieval writing equipment

Medieval writing equipment

Why we used quills for over 1,300 years

Before the invention of the pen, Quills were easy to supply, comfortable to until then. Feathers were stripped, buried in
most people used quills to write hold and tapered down to a point so the hot sand to harden, hollowed out and then
with. These were stripped bird writer could create all the subtle curves and filled with ink. They were time-consuming
feathers, usually from geese. Swan lines of fine handwriting. to make and had to be refilled and reshaped
feathers were very sought after but geese, regularly, but continued to be the main
crow, owl and turkey feathers were more The first record of their use was around writing implement until the metal pen
simpler to obtain. the 6th century by European monks, became popular in the mid-19th century.
replacing the reeds they had been using up

How to make a quill

Travel back through time to the Middle Ages and write with feathers

Prime your feather Toughen and shape Finishing off

Scout around near a river or lake for a feather that has Heat sand in the oven at 175°C (350°F) and bury the Shave the pinched end so it is nice and smooth and you
been dropped by a swan or goose. Ideally it should be feather, using oven gloves to avoid burns. Wait until the should have a feather tapering nicely to a point. Dip your
around 15cm (6in) long and intact. Using a Stanley knife, sand has cooled and remove the hardened feather. From quill in the ink where it should soak up the writing fluid.
very carefully shave off the fluffy feathers at the pointy about 2.5cm (1in) above the tip, slice down at an angle of There should be enough to write a fair few lines,
end. You should be able to grip the quill without around 45 degrees to the tip of the feather. Make a small, depending on how tightly you’ve pinched it together. The
touching any feathers. Then place the feather in a bowl flat cut on the opposite side of the tip. There should now tighter you’ve pinched it, the more ink it should retain.
of water and leave it overnight to soak. be two spikes on the tip that you need to pinch together. Take it out and begin writing like a medieval scribe!

The first Early hearing aids could
hearing aids hardly be described as
‘inconspicuous’
From 19th-century ear trumpets
to microchips © Thinkstock; Ed Crooks; Getty

Although they may look like something out of a
cartoon, ear trumpets were used frequently
throughout the early-19th century. The first
type of hearing aid had a large surface area that
amplified sound that was directed toward the ear. They
were made of metal, silver, wood or animal horns and
were incredibly bulky. However, as their use became
more widespread, they featured a collapsible design so
the ear trumpet could be carried in pockets and removed
when necessary. Horns were so popular that even
midwives would use a similar instrument to the ear
trumpet for listening to pregnant ladies’ wombs.

104

HEAD 1. PHYSIOLOGY William Cullen 2. VACCINATIONS Edward Jenner 3. HOMEOPATHY Samuel
Hahnemann
2HEAD A professor at the Jenner was the first to
Edinburgh Medical understand vaccination The original founder of
18TH-CENTURY School, Cullen’s teachings and proved that an homeopathy, he was one of
MEDICS inspired physicians like injection of mild cowpox the first to describe the use
William Withering, Joseph would make you immune of highly diluted drugs to
Black and Benjamin Rush. to more deadly smallpox. allow the body to heal itself.

DID YOU KNOW? The term ‘apothecary’ originates from the Latin ‘apotheca’, which is where spices and herbs were stored

Apothecary secrets Apothecary
treatments
What are the origins of the A replica of an 18th-
pharmaceutical industry? century apothecary 1Artificial leech
shop in Mexico Rather than using
It’s thought the first apothecary – which real leeches for
can mean both pharmacy or bloodletting, a man- © Science Museum/SSPL; Alamy
pharmacist – emerged in Ancient made alternative was
Babylon and was introduced to the West by Galen, created by Carl Baunscheidt in
a Roman doctor. It originally revolved around the the mid-19th century. It was a
preservation of food, but its focus shifted to the pen-like device with a group of
relationship of drugs and medicines with living tiny needles on the end.
systems and the process of recording symptoms
for the cure and prevention of disease. 2Vesiculation
The preparation and selling of medicines was Used to combat madness
handled by an apothecary after the Society of and hypochondria, this
Apothecaries was established in London in 1617. involved intentionally raising
By the 19th century, their role had evolved. The blisters on the skin.
Apothecaries Act in 1815 meant that chemists now
had to have formal qualifications and provide 3Clysters
medical care and surgery, while new chemist A medicine injected to help
shops would look after the retail side. The practice nutrition and cleanse the
evolved into pharmacology as new substances bowels. Along with vomiting
were developed such as morphine, strychnine, and bloodletting this was seen
atropine and quinine. Morphine, for example, as a way of ‘purging’ the body
was isolated in 1805 by Friedrich Setürner who of bad elements.
stirred and heated opium in methanol.
Apothecaries remained prominent throughout 4Chamomile
the 20th century, with about 100 apothecaries still A flower that had sedating
in the USA during the 1960s. The age of and anti-inflammatory
apothecaries all but came to an end in the 1980s effects, it was prescribed
as large chain drug stores superseded them. for colds and infections
and was one of many
Compass of the oceans plants used in medicine.

The device mariners once used to navigate the seven seas 105

The age of discovery owes a lot to the brass frame and wooden box for protection.
mariner compass. The journeys of Later, in 1745, Dr Gowin Knight
pioneering explorers such as
Columbus and Vasco de Gama would never designed a needle of magnetised steel
have been undertaken if it wasn’t for the that lasted longer and worked with
instrument’s ability to help navigate Earth’s much more precision than the
vast oceans. Like so many instruments of its previous version. This was essential
time, it was originally invented in China. The to lengthy ocean expeditions, as
mariner’s compass, or dry compass, was first the needles would not need to be
introduced to Europe around 1300. replaced or remagnetised. An
Its key components were the gimbal, which upgrade of this system was
allowed the compass to rotate on its axis, a devised by silversmith Francis
compass card that marked the directions on its Crow in 1813; the new ‘liquid
face and a lubber line that was used for compass’ had the needle floating
reference. This was then all held together in a on a mix of alcohol and water, again
improving on the mechanism’s accuracy.

Industry & Invention

The origins of helicopters / Pocket watches

The origins of helicopters

How did we first take to the skies on an aircraft without wings?

Leonardo da Vinci is the first recorded Horatio Phillips using a steam engine to power rudder, while Igor Sikorsky pushed this
person to consider the helicopter as a a vertical flying machine. However, Frenchman development even further in 1940 with a rotor
means of transport. He designed an Paul Cornu used a simple frame, a pair of rotors on the tail to improve steering. Finally, in the
air gyroscope in 1483 with rotating blades and connected by a belt to a gas-powered motor to 1940s, Sikorsky’s R-4 helicopter, now with the
an iron screw to cut through the air. lift a person off the ground for the first time. ability to move forward at speed and with
The late-19th century saw the next big leap greater control, became the world’s first
forward in helicopter flight, with Englishman The Fa-61, built by Heinrich Focke in 1936, was commercially viable helicopter.
the first to demonstrate controlled flight using a

Cornu’s helicopter in focus Helicopter
flight physics
Meet the first helicopter with the power to lift a pilot
A helicopter is an enigma of flight as it
Rotor blade doesn’t look like it should work. But
with careful piloting, they can go
Two rotors provided thrust places no plane can.
to lift the helicopter into
the air. They rotated in The helicopter motor rotates the
opposite directions to blades at high speed. By pressing the
prevent torque reaction. collective-pitch lever, the pilot raises
the rotor blades to a particular angle.
Turning belt Gas-powered motor Steering wing © Thinkstock The blades generates lift as they are
spun rapidly, with the tail rotor
Connecting the rotors This 18kW (24hp) Antoinette Cloth-covered wings were providing sideways force to stop the
to the motor, the motor was something of a placed in the rotors’ helicopter spinning out of control as it
turning belt powered technological leap forward slipstream and could be leaves the ground.
the rotors’ rotation. for its day, using gas rather manoeuvred to provide
than steam for power. steering and direction. In order to move forward, the rotor
blades are angled down at the front.
This results in more lift at the back,
propelling the chopper forward.
Meanwhile, foot pedals are used to
control the tail rotor speed, which will
direct a helicopter to the left or right.

Pocket watches explained Centre wheel

Find out what’s going on inside these portable timekeepers… This is the piece upon
which all the other gears
German watchmaker Peter Henlein is Inside a pocket watch rest. The front pivot of the
considered the father of pocket centre wheel drives the
watches. His spring-based design What makes these mini timepieces tick? cogs which turn the
involves winding up a watch and compressing a hands on the face.
coiled spring. The coil’s steady expansion Hour and
provides the energy for the gears to turn, minute wheels Gem bearings
pushing the hand around via a wheel. The first
pocket watches only had an hour hand but, as These interlock and Precious stones such as rubies
time went by, minute and second hands were are moved by the were used inside watches as
added, operated by interlocking gears. steady expansion of bearings, helping mechanical
Initially, pocket watches had to be wound the mainspring parts move more smoothly,
twice a day, as the hour hand completed two pushing against the reducing wear and tear.
full rotations, but as more hands were added, centre wheel.
watches only needed winding once a day. Casing
Henlein’s design was so successful that the Mainspring Balance wheel
mainspring design is still being used today, The earliest pocket watches
despite being over 500 years old. Below the wheels the The timekeeping part of the were housed in a steel casing,
mainspring is wound watch. It oscillates back which was strong and cheap.
by an external winder, and forth at a regular speed Later, more refined versions
expanding steadily to to ensure the hands don’t used brass, gold and silver.
push all moving parts. move too fast or slow.

106

DID YOU Moving heads
KNOW?
Numerous witnesses have reported
heads moving, speaking and blinking
for a few seconds after decapitation.

Meet Madame Some blades
Guillotine were raised
The guillotine was the official method by means of a
of execution in France until 1981 The scaffolding © Thinkstock crank on the
contained grooves
During the French Revolution, anatomy professor to guide the blade side of the
Joseph-Ignace Guillotin proposed that capital downward. scaffolding.
punishment in France should be carried out by
decapitation on people of all classes because it Blades could be Some
was the most humane method available. Dr Antoine Louis of curved or flat, but executioners
the Academy of Surgery designed the machine that came to be angled blades had a casket
known as the guillotine after pointing out that beheading by worked best.
sword was highly impractical. nearby to
The guillotine consists of a wooden frame with an angled The condemned’s catch the
blade that runs along grooves. After the executioner raises the head was immobilised head as it fell.
weighed blade with a rope, the condemned is placed on a by a lunette.
platform with his or her head in a round wooden frame called 107
a lunette. The executioner lets go of the rope, allowing the
blade to drop. Until abolishment of the death penalty in 1981,
France continued to use the guillotine as its method of
execution. Although still legal in a few other countries, the
guillotine has not been used since.

“Angled blades
worked best on the
guillotine”

The first telephone Alexander Graham Bell,
the father of the telephone
The telephone was a worldwide 2. Receiver
revolution and the start of instant 1. Mouthpiece
long-distance communication The electric charges are pulsed through
the line and then converted back into When a person spoke into
The first telephones to be manufactured acoustic energy at the other end. the mouthpiece the acoustic
featured three main parts: a speaker, a vibrations shook the iron held
microphone and a hook switch, but the first 3. Hook within a stretched
telephone was much more basic. membrane in the transmitter
Alexander Graham Bell, who is credited with the first A hook switch was later added to which resulted in a variation
patent for the telephone, created an instrument that the device as was used to connect of voltage, therefore
featured a transmitter formed of a double electromagnet in and disconnect the phone from the converting acoustic energy
front of which sat a membrane stretched around a ring telephone network, and was into electrical energy.
holding a piece of iron in its middle. The mouthpiece was installed when the first telephones
positioned before the diaphragm and when sounds were were manufactured.
directed upon it, it vibrated and the iron moved.
This movement induced currents in the coils of the © DK Images
magnet which were passed along the electric current of the
line to the receiver which consisted of a tubular
electromagnet. One end of this was partially closed by a thin
circular disk of soft iron and as the current was received the
disk vibrated and acoustic sounds were emitted.

Industry & Invention

Colossus computer

Colossus computer

How the first programmable digital computer helped bring WWII to an end

The Colossus computer was a The Colossus solved this issue by finding the A colossal
machine used by the British Lorenz key settings, rather than actually reconstruction
intelligence service during World War decoding the message – the latter part done
II to analyse and decrypt teleprinter orders and manually by cryptologists. The computerised As part of the transformation of Bletchley Park
messages enciphered with a Lorenz SZ40/42 process involved the Colossus analysing the into a museum, a fully functional replica of the
encryption machine by the Nazi Germany High inputted encoded message’s characters and Mark 2 Colossus was completed in 2007 by a
Command. The contents of the messages were then counting a statistic based on a team of engineers led by electrical engineer Tony
of incredible value to the Allies, as they often programmable logic function (such as whether Sale. Unfortunately, this was nowhere near as
contained key orders for German generals, an individual character is true or false). By simple as six decades' worth of technological
including troop movements and tactics. analysing a cipher text in this way a number of advancement since the war might make you
Prior to the German use of the Lorenz cipher, times, the initial position of the Lorenz think, with many blueprints and original
the Allies had successfully cracked their machine’s 12 pinwheels could be determined hardware being destroyed after WWII, leaving
Enigma code and had for years held the ability and the keystream established. those responsible for its reconstruction severely
to decode messages thanks to Alan Turing’s lacking in workable information.
electromechanical Bombe machine. The Lorenz Historically, the Colossus proved to be a
cipher was much more complex, however, with colossal success, with the Allies decoding many Luckily though, after a dedicated research
the SZ40/42 enciphering a message by war-changing messages throughout 1944 and campaign, many of the Bletchley team’s original
combining its characters with a keystream of 1945 and the generated intelligence used to notebooks were acquired, which when collated
characters generated by 12 mechanical counter the Nazis’ movements in Europe. In delivered a surprising amount of information. As
pinwheels. As such, without knowing the key addition, after the war, the technological such, by using the notebooks and consulting
characters – ie the position of the pinwheels – advancements in computing brought about by several original members of the Bletchley team,
no decryption could take place. Colossus led to Britain becoming a pioneering including the designer of the Colossus’s optical
centre for computer science. tape reader – Dr Arnold Lynch – the
reconstruction was completed successfully and
is today situated in exactly the same position of
the original Colossus at Bletchley Park, where it
can be used to crack codes once more.

108

KEY 1837 1936 1943 1948 1975
DATES
Charles Babbage describes German engineer Konrad The original Colossus, the The Small-Scale Experimental The first machine to be
COMPUTING world’s first programmable Machine (right) is built in sold to the public as a
MILESTONES his design for the first Zuse builds the Z1 (right), electronic digital computer, ‘personal computer’ is
is built by Tommy Flowers. Manchester. It can store and
mechanical computer – which is the first run a program from memory. the Altair 8800.

the Analytical Engine. programmable computer.

DID YOU KNOW? The Colossus was not made public knowledge until the 1970s due to the Official Secrets Act

A sculpture to commemorate Guide to cracking codes 1. Paper tape
Flowers, with his son (left)
Understand how this deciphering machine worked step by step Captured enemy-enciphered
Flowers in focus teleprinter messages – which
2. Memory were transmitted as radio
Thomas (Tommy) Flowers was the signals – were first punched
British engineer behind the design The inputted characters onto paper tape and then fed
and construction of the Colossus were then stored in the into the Colossus at a rate of
computer. After graduating from Colossus’s memory bank 5,000 characters per second.
the University of London with a ready for analysis.
degree in electrical engineering,
Flowers went on to join the 4. True or false characters
telecommunications branch of the
General Post Office, where he A series of internal vacuum tubes,
explored the use of electronics for thyratrons (gas-filled chambers) and
telephone exchanges. photomultipliers optically read the code
before applying the programmed logical
Off the back of this work, function to each character. It could then
Flowers was invited to help deliver a true or false output for each.
code-breaking expert Alan Turing
to build a machine that could help 5. Output 3. Switches
automate part of the cryptanalysis
of Nazi Germany’s Lorenz cipher By analysing a code in this way Thirdly, the operator of the
– a high-level cipher used to several times, the ‘true’ position for machine would then use
communicate important orders each character could be determined, the Colossus’s patch panel,
from the high command. thereby revealing the position of plugs and program
cryptography machine’s original switches to set up the
By 1943 Flowers had built the settings. This true pattern could then machine’s wiring for a
Colossus, and soon after received be used by cryptographers to specific statistical analysis.
funding to create a second manually decode the message.
improved variant, which went into
active service in June 1944. Bletchley’s role in WWII After WWII Alan Turing went on to © Getty; Alamy; BT
Despite his key role in helping the advance our knowledge of computers
Allies to victory, Flowers could not Bletchley Park was the British government’s main and artificial intelligence even further
talk about his work for decades as decryption headquarters throughout World War II.
he was sworn to secrecy. Located in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England,
Bletchley was a top-secret facility for Allied
In 1993 Bletchley Park was communications, with a diverse team of engineers,
re-opened as a museum electricians and mathematicians working manually –
devoted to code breakers and later with the help of decryption machines – to
break the various enemy codes used to disguise
orders and private communiqués.

Among the many decoders – also known as
cryptanalysts – working at Bletchley, Alan Turing
became by far the most famous, with his work in
breaking the Enigma and then Lorenz codes earning
him the nickname the ‘Father of Computer Science’.
Indeed, between them Turing, Flowers and the rest of
the Bletchley team’s efforts arguably were crucial to
the Allies’ eventual victory in 1945, with the
intelligence gathered by them – intel which was
code-named ‘Ultra’ – speculated by some to have
shortened the war by up to four years.

Today Bletchley Park is run by the Bletchley Park
Trust, which maintains the estate as a museum and
tourist attraction, with thousands of people visiting
the site every year. Among the Trust’s many activities
is the reconstruction of many of the machines that
helped to break the Axis codes – as discussed in more
detail in ‘A colossal reconstruction’ opposite.

109

Industry & Invention

Dry stone walls / Metronomes

How dry stone walls are built

This clever form of masonry dates back centuries and has been used to make all manner
of structures without any cement, relying instead on craftsmanship and gravity

Dry stone walls form the architectural Materials Batter frame
backbone of history. They are
comprised of a series of interlocking Dry stone walls are usually This helps the builder guide the
stones carefully stacked and balanced together crafted from local stones. wall; they place the largest stones
without the aid of any mortar. This gives them a unique along the foundation, with smaller
There are various methods adopted during appearance and is considered blocks as it tapers upwards.
construction, but most are made of regular environmentally sound.
blocks assembled using wooden frames and Double wall
measuring lines. Today, dry stone walls are Guideline
commonly seen in the countryside, where they This method is used to
are used to divide land and crops. However, dry A guideline is used to monitor strengthen the structure. It
stone walling was also used in the ancient the height and length of the prevents either side of the
world; indeed, the practice was used in the wall. As the builder reaches wall from collapsing inwards.
construction of many prehistoric monuments, the top large flat stones are
Roman bridges and early churches. used to seal the surface. The Village de Bories in
On the other hand, its methodology has even France is made up of over
been used to create works of modern art. Some 20 mortarless buildings
of the most famous structures of this kind
include the pyramids of Egypt and the cairns of
prehistoric Ireland. Perhaps the most elegant
use of dry stone walling can be seen at Machu
Picchu in Peru, where the Incan civilisation
created a magnificent city constructed of
polished, dry stone walls.

Weight Inside metronomes

A weight is slid up or down the Learn all about these time-keeping instruments
pendulum in order to increase that help musicians to keep the beat
or decrease the tempo.
The earliest notable scientific Today, metronomes are highly
Numerals experiments with pendulums advanced and are can be in electronic or
were conducted by Galileo Galilei digital formats. The beats they produce
Metronome markings are used in 1602. In 1696, Étienne Loulié adopted his can help a musician assimilate the timing
to set the tempo – they are theories and designed the first metronome or ‘tempo’ of a piece of music. The
reproduced on musical scores. – an instrument that is still used by metronome can be used by composers to
musicians today. Received with great mark variances on a written score.
Switch enthusiasm, by 1812, Dietrich Nikolaus
Winkel was manufacturing ‘Maelzel’s There has been much debate about the
The switching Metronomes’, a device that is still in use. use of the metronome. Some musicians
device controls A metronome produces a systematic believe that it is unnatural for a player to
the accented beat. series of clicks or beats that can be work to an exact tempo. In fact, many
measured over minutes. Traditional notable composers, including Wagner and
Box Pendulum metronomes were designed with a slim Brahms, have criticised the metronome, © Thinkstock
pendulum, weighted and attached to a believing that it denies the player a
The traditional metronome The metronome clicks wooden frame; the pendulum counts a natural form of expression. Those against
consists of a pyramid- as the pendulum swings series of rhythmic beats. the tool claim that musicians using one
shaped box made of woods back and forth. produce a dull ‘metronomic’ sound.
like mahogany or walnut.

110

DID YOU KNOW? The Central Telegram Office would send 5 million letters by pneumatic tube a year to London’s post offices

What were pneumatic
tube systems used for?

Discover how these unusual machines transported messages in a flash

Pneumatic tube systems were a novel postal workers to cross large areas of a city, only Down but not out
form of transportation popular in the making the final short connection between
late 19th and early 20th century, in local branch and target destination on foot. The Despite pneumatic tube systems garnering
which cylindrical containers were transported same largely became true for banks, with widespread popularity and usage through
through a network of metal tubes via money, deposits and even withdrawals late-19th and early-20th-century cities
compressed air or by partial vacuum. actioned via pneumatic tube. worldwide, the advent of the digital computer,
The systems were developed as an internet and World Wide Web meant that by the
alternative form of courier for objects, letters Indeed, the uptake of pneumatic tube turn of the 21st century, they were almost all
and even – for a short, experimental time systems was so great that in the latter decades redundant. After all, no pneumatic tube system
– people, with banks, post offices, telegraph of the 19th century it was even attempted to could run a message from London to New York
exchanges and offices all connecting extend the principle to carry people, with in a matter of seconds like an email can.
themselves via an intra or extranet of tubes. projects such as the 1869 Beach Pneumatic
The most common use for pneumatic tubes Transit Company in New York building However, despite email’s dominance,
was in post offices and telegraph exchanges, hundreds of metres of subway-style tube pneumatic tube systems are still used today in
with large city-based postal centres connected networks. While these systems worked, the select areas – foremost of which is in the
to local branches by miles upon miles of tubing. upscaling in size largely eradicated the medical sphere. Many large hospitals and
These systems greatly sped up the delivery of efficiency and speed of smaller, post-sized medical research laboratories have extensive
physical mail, reducing the need for human networks, leaving them to be abandoned in pneumatic tube networks, allowing drugs, tools,
favour of traditional rail networks. blood packs and biological samples to be rapidly
transited around typically large and warren-like
facilities. To gain a better understanding of how
these amazing systems work, be sure to take a
look at the video link above.

Telegraph exchange step-by-step

Follow the journey of a telegraph and find out the role pneumatic tubes played

1. Telegraph in

Telegraphs would enter the
exchange from their point of
origin – ie another post office
branch – via manual mail or
pneumatic tube delivery.

2. Sorting

The telegraph would be
sorted, with its destination
logged by human operators.

3. Re-routing A secretary collects capsules
of documents at a typewriter
The telegraph would then be factory in Hull, UK, in 1954
re-routed in the exchange,
being sent to the relevant
dispatch area via an intranet
of internal pneumatic tubes.

4. Telegraph out

Once at the dispatch area, the
telegraph was sent out by
pneumatic tube. This network
was extensive in major cities,
transporting the telegraph
over hundreds of metres.

5. Receipt A tube used to transport © Corbis; Getty
airmail between a post office
The sent telegraph would and the airport in the Thirties
arrive at its destination’s local
office or exchange, with the
communiqué delivered in
person to the recipient.

111

Industry & Invention

The Parsons steam turbine

The Parsons Steaming ahead
steam turbine
Parsons saw potential in his prime mover in
How this Victorian generator made steam the driving places other than just power stations. He also
force behind power production around the world experimented with turbines as compressors and
for driving small-scale machinery such as pumps,
The steampunk science-fiction Inside the Parsons fans and blowers. The most significant
sub-genre depicts an alternative steam turbine application he foresaw, aside from the
reality in which modern devices production of power on land, though, was in
run on gaseous water. This isn’t as far-fetched Discover how Parsons’ powerhouse making ships go faster. In an audacious
is it might sound, because roughly 80 per produced electricity for the masses demonstration he crashed the 1897
cent of Earth’s power stations generate Naval Review that was part of
electricity using steam-driven turbines. Rotating shaft Queen Victoria’s Diamond
Appropriately, we have Victorian engineer Sir Jubilee celebrations by
Charles Parsons to thank for that, as it was his The force of the steam turned speeding past the best of the
energy and imagination that turned a device the central shaft, which British Navy in the 44-ton
transferred the mechanical turbine-driven boat,
energy into the dynamo. Turbinia. Ten years later,
steam turbines were
being widely adopted by
the Royal Navy and
companies such as Cunard.
In Parsons’ later years there
were also attempts to put
steam turbines in trains, but
these were short-lived.

dating back to the first century CE into

something capable of converting H2O into
power on an industrial scale.

Steam turbines operate on a similar

principle to those driven by wind: molecules in

a fluid rotate angled blades and produce

mechanical energy that can be converted into

electrical energy by a dynamo. Instead of

meteorological forces providing the thrust,

however, it is the impact of pressurised steam

emitted from nozzles (impulse turbines) or the

change in the pressure of the steam as it

expands (reaction turbines).

In Parsons’ turbine, water was converted to

steam by burning coal. The steam was then

literally squeezed into one or more drums

containing a series of disc-like rotors attached

to a rotating shaft. The perimeter of each rotor

was fitted with brass blades designed to

receive the force of the steam at high speed

without shattering or divert it so that it struck

the next set of blades at the proper angle.

Successive rotors were fitted with longer blades

to expand their diameter and accommodate

the increasing volume of the cooling steam.

Parsons’ greatest achievements were

making the technological advances needed to

boost the power output and efficiency of steam

turbines. These included inventing a special

bearing that allowed the rotors to turn at much

faster speeds than had previously been Dynamo
achieved. His basic design is still used today,
and because of that the vision of a society The mechanical energy generated by the
dependent on steam is fact, not fiction. turbine was converted into electrical
energy in an attached dynamo.

112

RECORD 1.8GW LARGEST NUCLEAR STEAM TURBINE
BREAKERS
Named Arabelle, this mega-generator made by Alstom yields over 30
MEGA-TURBINE times as much electricity as Parsons’ top turbine, and is fitted with
1.9-metre (6.3-foot) rotor blades – the longest in commercial use.

DID YOU KNOW? Parsons also invented the auxetophone, which amplified sound by passing compressed air through a valve

Who was Sir Charles Parsons?

Magnet Charles Algernon Parsons was years later and subsequently
born in London on 13 June 1854. founded companies to develop
A large magnet was required He was the youngest son of Irish his turbo-generator designs. He
to create the magnetic field astronomer William Parsons, the would go on to set up the Marine
that allowed the dynamo to Third Earl of Rosse, who served Steam Turbine Company, which
generate electricity. as president of the Royal Society. built turbines for battleships
Parsons graduated from such as the HMS Dreadnought.
Cambridge in 1877 with a Parsons became a fellow of the
first-class degree in Royal Society in 1898 and was
mathematics and mechanics. He knighted in 1911. He died on 11
finished his first turbine seven February 1931 in Jamaica.

Throttle valve Drum

The high speed at which Pressurised steam was
steam entered had to squeezed into a sealed
be carefully controlled drum near the middle and
and could be shut down filled the spaces around
in an emergency. the rotors inside.

Guide and Lubricating oil
moving blades
Oil was constantly circulated through
Inside the drum, the pipes to keep the specially designed
pressurised gas moved bearings on the rotors running smoothly.
across brass blades
fitted to the rotors that The HMS Dreadnought was
turned the shaft. the first capital ship (leading
battleship) in the Royal Navy
Turbine
to run on steam turbines
Parsons’ steam turbine generated mechanical
energy by using steam to drive a series of 113
bladed rotors on a rotating shaft.

Industry & Invention

Rack-and-pinion railways

Rack-and-pinion railways

How did these unique transit systems Rack and roll
help hefty locomotives scale steeper
mountain slopes than ever before? Understand the anatomy of a rack-and-pinion
locomotive now with our cutaway illustration
A rack-and-pinion railway (also Due to the primary form of power
known as a cog railway) was traditionally being steam, for rack-and- Cabin
one that employed a toothed pinion systems to work the trains needed
track. The addition of the toothed rail – to be considerably adjusted. This To the rear of the engine
which was usually located centrally modification stretched from the and carriage is the cabin.
between the two running rails – enabled undercarriage of the train (so pinions From here the driver
locomotives to traverse steep gradients could be installed) to the tilting of its controls the steam boiler
over seven per cent, which remains to boiler, cab and superstructure. and the engagement of
this day the maximum limit for standard the pinion gears.
adhesion-based railways. Tilting was necessary as steam engine
Core to the operation of each rack-and- boilers require water to cover the boiler
pinion system was the engagement of the tubes and firebox at all times to maintain
locomotive’s circular gears onto the stability – something that is nigh-on
linear rack. The rack and pinion impossible to achieve if the train isn’t
therefore was essentially a means of level. As such, cog railway locomotives
converting the rotational energy would lean in towards the track to
generated by the train’s powerplant into counter the terrain’s gradient.
linear motion on the rack. As both the
rack-and-pinion gears had teeth, the Today, while rare, rack-and-pinion
system also acted as an additional form systems are still in operation worldwide,
of adhesion to the track, with the albeit with a mix of steam engines and
inter-meshing teeth holding the vehicle diesel/electric locomotives. One of the
in place when not in motion. most famous is the Mount Washington
Cog Railway, which we look at more
closely in the boxout opposite.

A rack-and-pinion railway Wheel
built with a Strub system
in rural Italy, 1920 The running wheels
work like standard train
114 wheels, running along
the rails either side of
the central rack.

RECORD 48% STEEPEST RAILWAY GRADIENT
BREAKERS
This is the maximum gradient of the world’s steepest cog railway. The Pilatus
TRACK RECORD Railway runs from Alpnachstad at Lake Lucerne, Switzerland, to a terminus
near the Esel summit of Mount Pilatus, climbing 1,635 metres (5,364 feet).

DID YOU KNOW? The first rack-and-pinion railway was introduced in West Yorkshire, England, in 1812

Engine Buffer Carriage Cog railway
evolution
Older cog railways Unlike standard adhesion Passengers sit in a
would use steam trains, rack-and-pinion covered wooden carriage. 1Marsh
engines to provide the systems don’t tend to Due to the slow nature of Made famous by the Mount
power to drive the attach the carriage to the the system, larger-than- Washington Cog Railway, the
pinion gears. As with locomotive with a linkage. standard windows are Marsh system – invented by
the cab, the engine is Instead, the carriage is often installed that offer Sylvester Marsh in 1861 – used
tilted forward so it’s simply pushed with the panoramic views. the locomotive’s gear teeth
level during operation. locomotive’s buffers. like rollers, arranged in rungs
between two ‘L’-shaped
Rack Rail wrought-iron rails.

In the centre of the line Either side of the rack are 2Riggenbach
is the rack, a toothed two standard rails for the The 1863-made system
rail into which the carriage and locomotive’s created by inventor Niklaus
locomotive’s pinions wheels to run on. These Riggenbach used a ladder
allow for the switching of rack made from steel plates
slide. This engagement lines and access to connected by regularly
between the pinion and mechanical turntables for spaced rods. While effective,
the rack allows the train 360-degree rotation. the fixed ladder rack was
to maintain a good grip fairly complicated and
A mechanical expensive to build, so very
even on steep terrain. mountain climber few examples survive.

The Mount Washington Cog Railway in New 3Abt
Hampshire, USA, was the first rack-and-pinion Carl Roman Abt improved
railway used to climb a mountain. Completed by the Riggenbach system in 1882
Sylvester Marsh in 1869, the system is the by using multiple solid bars
second-steepest rack railway in the world, with a with vertical teeth machined
top gradient of 37.4 per cent. The railway runs 4.8 into them that were mounted
kilometres (three miles) up Mount Washington’s centrally between the rails.
western slope, beginning at 820 metres (2,700 This ensured the pinions on
feet) above sea level and culminating just short of the wheels were in constant
the peak at 1,917 metres (6,288 feet). The contact with the rack.
locomotive goes up at 4.5 kilometres (2.8 miles)
per hour and descends at 7.4 kilometres (4.6 4Locher
miles) per hour. Despite being built 144 years ago, Eduard Locher’s 1889
this cog railway is still fully operational. system had gear teeth cut into
the sides of the rails rather
Pinion gears than the top, which were © Alamy; Thinkstock
engaged by two cog wheels on
Mounted to the locomotive’s the locomotive. This system
undercarriage is a series of could work on steeper track
circular, teethed gears. As gradients than anything prior.
these rotate, driven by the
engine, the teeth slot into 5Strub
the recesses in the rack, Invented by Emil Strub
helping haul the train along. in 1896, the Strub system
utilised a rolled flat-bottom
rail with rack teeth machined
into the head 100mm (4in)
apart. Safety jaws installed on
the locomotive gripped the
underside of the head in order
to prevent derailments.

115

Industry & Invention

The Mona Lisa

116

DID YOU KNOW? Infrared images of the painting have revealed Da Vinci’s original sketch marks beneath the paint/varnish 5TOP
FACTS

THE MONA LISA

What a steal

The Mona Lisa was actually

1 stolen from the Louvre

museum in Paris on 21 August
1911. However the work of art
was later recovered in Italy
and returned in 1913.

Preserving the Mona Lisa Bulletproof

Today the Mona Lisa is

2 displayed behind a bulletproof

glass enclosure to prevent
damage by vandals, which has
been attempted a number of
times over the years.

What techniques are being used to maintain the world’s most well-known painting? Saving face

The Mona Lisa is an oil painting on a physical manipulation is partnered with a A special magnifying glass As the Mona Lisa is over 500
poplar wood panel by Leonardo da closely monitored environment, with the Mona called a loupe is often used
Vinci. Believed to be a half-length Lisa kept in a clear container with controlled to help restore oil paintings 3 years old it has gone through
portrait of Lisa del Giocondo (maiden name humidity, temperature and light levels.
Gherardini) – the little-known wife of a a number of renovation and
Florentine cloth and silk merchant – it’s Restoration of the painting itself has gone on conservation programmes
considered the most famous painting on Earth, for centuries, having first received a wash and – the latest seeing it lit by a
with millions viewing it every year at the new coat of varnish back in 1809. This involved 20-watt LED lamp.
Louvre museum in Paris, France. the painting being cleaned with spirits, having
As the Mona Lisa is over 500 years old, an specific colours touched up and then being Popular lady
intensive conservation effort is ongoing to revarnished. Following its theft and return in
preserve it. This conservation is split into two the early-20th century, the painting was In its current position in the
main areas: frame rectification and painting worked on once more, with a number of
restoration. The frame is the most altered part scratches filled in with watercolour. 4 Louvre, the Mona Lisa is
of the Mona Lisa to date, with the original
poplar frame warping to the extent that by the Finally, following an attack on the painting viewed by over 6 million
start of the 20th century, a crack had by vandals in 1956 which caused damage to people per year. As a result
developed. This crack was secured by the left elbow of the figure, this was also it’s one of the most viewed
installing two butterfly-shaped walnut braces repainted with watercolours. Today, work paintings on the planet.
into the poplar panel and then later a flexible continues on the Mona Lisa to restore much
117 oak frame and pair of cross braces. Today this of the colour to the enigmatic portrait, with Worth millions
the wash carried out in 1809 now believed to
© SPL have removed the top layer of paint. In 1962 it was assessed at

5 £64.5 million ($100 million).

In 2013 it was worth over
£489.5 million ($760 million),
easily making it the world’s
most expensive painting.

Industry & Invention

The first electric submarine / Piltdown Man

The first electric submarine

Learn about the Goubet I – the earliest underwater vessel to be electrically powered

The Goubet I submarine was a Tour of the Goubet I Tower
two-person, electric submarine built
by French inventor Claude Goubet in Take a peek inside the first sub that ran The crew saw out of the Goubet
1885. Manufactured in Paris, the sub has gone on electricity and learn why it failed I via a series of windows and
down in history as the first to be electrically prisms in the conning tower.
powered, with a brace of cutting-edge tech This gave them narrow viewing
advancing more primitive models. angles on each side of the sub.
The Goubet I was battery powered, utilised a
Siemens electric motor to drive its propeller and Propeller Mine Ballast tanks Batteries
power a navigation light, and measured five
metres (16.4 feet) long. The craft weighed in at The sub did not have a Quickly commandeered Stability was supposed to Power was supplied by
just over six tons. It was controlled from a rudder or dive planes, for military ends, the be ensured by a ballast an array of batteries
central position, with its two crew positioned instead being fitted with Goubet I could carry a system that filtered a small located in the bow.
back to back, seeing out of the vessel via small a ‘Goubet joint’ – a single mine which was quantity of water between
glass windows; they could see up, down and to mechanism that allowed released via a wire. the front and back of the These sent electricity to
the sides to some extent thanks to prisms. the propeller to be vessel, but it didn’t work. the pumps and lights.
After testing in the River Seine in Paris, redirected for steering.
however, the Goubet I was ultimately deemed a
failure, because the submersible wasn’t able to
maintain a stable course or depth while moving
forward. As a result, while some of its
innovative technology lived on in later designs,
the Goubet I itself was quickly scrapped.

Who was the Piltdown Man?

How did these fake ‘missing link’ bones fool scientists for decades?

Piltdown Man was a famous hoax in © Thinkstock
which a species of extinct hominin was
supposedly dug up at the Piltdown Today the word ‘Piltdown’ is used to
gravel pit in East Sussex, England, in 1912. The describe any fake or poorly executed
excavation, led by scientist Charles Dawson,
appeared to unearth the fossilised fragments of research in the scientific world
a cranium and jawbone that, on analysis by
Dawson and some of his contemporaries, was
confirmed as a new species: a missing link
between apes and early humans.
For the next 40 years other scientists voiced
serious doubts over Piltdown Man’s authenticity
– especially as later, genuine discoveries left the
species isolated in the evolutionary sequence.
These misgivings were eventually proven
justified in 1953 after an intensive re-
examination of the bone fragments with modern
scientific techniques revealed they were in fact
from three different species. The cranium was
from a modern human, the jawbone from an
orangutan and the teeth from a chimpanzee.

118

STRANGE What does the famous Answer:
BUT TRUE message ‘SOS’ stand for?
It comes as a surprise to many, but the international
DISTRESS DECODED A Smelly Old Sausages B SOS C Save Our Souls distress signal doesn’t actually stand for anything.
The three letters were chosen because they were
easy to remember and quick to transmit: ‘S’ is
represented by three dots, while ‘O’ is three dashes.

DID YOU KNOW? The facsimile telegraph was invented in the 1930s and was later replaced by the digital fax machine

Electric telegraph
machines explained

How did these early telecommunications devices send and receive messages?

Experienced operators could The advent of electricity was the seed was actually a professor of painting and
easily converse at 30 words that spawned a thousand modern sculpture, but the idea of using electricity to
a minute using Morse code technologies. One of the first to take communicate had inspired him. During the
advantage of this new form of power was the mid-1830s – along with his associate, Alfred Vail
Morse code tech electric telegraph – a machine that could send – he devised a cipher language using dashes,
and receive messages over hundreds of miles spaces and dots, which is still a part of some
How one of the simplest and most of wire in seconds. A number of inventors naval training to this day: Morse code.
effective telegraph devices works contributed to the development of this device:
Hans Christian Orsted’s discovery of magnetic With that established, he went on to invent
5. Message needles deflecting in the presence of an electric and patent a telegraph machine in 1837. This
current, William Sturgeon’s multiturn magnet, was divided into a transmitter and a receiver.
The duration that the key is and both Michael Faraday and Joseph Henry’s The part sending the message – the transmitter
held dictates how long the advancements of electromagnetism. – housed a component called a portarule with a
roller inks the paper – One of the most important pioneers of moulded typeset, dots and dashes set into it. As
creating either dots or electrical telegraphy was Samuel Morse. Morse the type moved through the mechanism it
dashes to denote letters. would intermittently make and break the
4. Spool connection between receiver and battery. At
Receiver the other end, the receiver would then use a
A continuous blank stylus controlled by an electromagnet to print
strip of paper reels these dots and dashes onto a strip of paper.
off this spool.

3. Lever Telegraph revolution © Thinkstock; Jorge Royan; Fingalo

The electromagnet While Morse’s code was designed with the new
attracts a nearby lever, telegraph machine in mind, it went on to be used
pressing an inked roller as an efficient system of communication in itself.
against the paper. Needless to say, the telegraph machine
transformed many areas of society. The railway
2. Electromagnet companies were big proponents, especially in the
USA where suddenly stations hundreds of miles
On the receiver, an apart could keep abreast of the latest news. An
electromagnet is early taste of how the telegraph could change
energised by the Britain came in 1839, with the West Drayton to
current when the Paddington (London) line and its newly installed
circuit is completed. telegraph system. A suspected murderer was on
board a train and the operator in Slough was able
to send a detailed description of the suspect to
Paddington, before the train arrived. This
particular model of electrical telegraph was
developed by the English inventors William
Fothergill Cooke and Charles Wheatstone.

Transmitter 1. Key

When the operator
presses the key, it

completes the
electric circuit

between the
transmitter and

the receiver.

119

Industry & Invention

Darkrooms

Darkrooms illuminated

Discover the science and history behind the original photo laboratory

The darkroom was invented around made it possible to capture stable images using the light, which means parts of the paper are
the same time as photography in the chemicals that would develop the print onto less exposed, resulting in highlighted areas in
early-19th century. Today it’s often plates. This method – later superseded by the photograph. Pale areas on a negative, on the
referred to as the ‘Photoshop of the film age’ William Henry Fox Talbot’s calotype process in other hand, represent the shadows, which
and although they may not be as commonly 1841, which used paper instead of plates – means more light is let through to expose and
used nowadays, darkrooms are still popular paved the way towards the development of the darken the paper. After the light-sensitive
among traditional film photographers. traditional darkroom we know today. paper has been exposed under the enlarger for
The idea of the darkroom came from the a set amount of time, it is transferred to a tray of
camera obscura – a darkened chamber that It was not until the invention of black-and- developer solution, where the image will
projected the outside view through a pinhole white film in 1885 that darkroom equipment, appear. The paper can then be placed in a stop
onto a flat surface like a wall. The concept of the such as an enlarger, emerged. Working in bath to halt the developing process before
camera obscura dates back to at least the fourth a darkroom today, you’ll find a lot of similar finally being stabilised with a fixer chemical.
century BCE, but it was not until the 1800s that processes to those used over a century ago.
scientists had any success in capturing the Over the years many photographers have
projection as an image using chemicals. Once film has been developed into a negative developed darkroom techniques to artistically
In the early-1830s recording light using silver using the same chemicals that are required to alter the look of their images. Even today
salts placed on glass plates and eventually create prints, you can copy the image onto you’ll find image-editing software, such as
paper had been successful. Louis Daguerre’s light-sensitive paper to produce a photograph. Photoshop, featuring tools mimicking classic
famed process, which dates from around 1833, To do this, the negative is placed inside the techniques – like the Dodge and Burn tools –
enlarger and projected down. As negatives are for bringing a retro look to our digital shots.
reversed, dark areas on the negative will filter

Developing prints

How to create a photographic print
in the darkroom step by step…

1. Negative

The film negative is
positioned inside
the enlarger and
projected onto the
platform below.

2. Focus/crop 3. Projection 4. Developer 5. Stop bath 6. Fixer

The picture can be Once the paper is in After the paper has The paper is then Finally, the paper can be
focused and cropped place, the enlarger is been exposed it will dipped into a stop moved into what’s known
before placing the light- used to project the need to lie in a tray of bath chemical to avoid as a fixer, which effectively
sensitive paper down. image for a set time. developer fluid to it over-developing. locks the image in place.
start the process.

120

DKEATYES 1800 1826 1833 1841 1885

PHOTOGRAPHY Thomas Wedgwood is Nicéphore Niépce Louis Daguerre devises his William Henry Fox George Eastman creates
IN DEVELOPMENT the first person to invents heliography, daguerreotype process, Talbot improves the paper film and later celluloid
capture permanent producing the first snap using light-sensitive plates photography field with
images onto paper. with a camera obscura. and chemicals. his calotype process. film, which will be used in
the first consumer cameras.

DID YOU KNOW? Light-sensitive paper is not affected by red light, hence why it’s used in a darkroom to help you see

The darkroom’s origins Print chemistry
lie in the camera obscura
which could project There are three chemicals
outdoor scenes onto a flat commonly used to process film
surface indoors via mirrors and develop photographs onto
light-sensitive paper in the
darkroom. These include a
developer, stop bath and fixer.

The developer is the first stage
after exposing the film or paper to
light, and is designed to make the
latent image visible by reducing
the silver halides that have been
exposed. A timer is used to
prevent the paper from being
over-developed and turning black.

The next step is the stop bath
chemical which neutralises and
halts the developer. The final
stage is the fixer chemical, which
stabilises the image and
essentially fixes it to the paper.

Tour of a darkroom Clock Enlarger

We shine a light on a darkroom and expose the Timing is everything in a The enlarger is used to
essential equipment used for printing pictures darkroom if you don’t want project the negative onto
to under- or overexpose an the light-sensitive paper.
image. Hence a clock that
Film tank has stopwatch capabilities
is a must-have tool.
Film tanks are used to
develop film into Glass beakers
negatives. The same
developer, stop bath Accurate measurements
and fixer chemicals of the chemicals are
are used to do this. required to process film
and paper correctly.

Drying pegs Safelight Light-sensitive paper

Once the print has been The red light in a Light-sensitive paper is kept
through the chemical darkroom is used to guide in a box at all times and only
process it is rinsed in the photographer while taken out once the enlarger
water and hung to dry. they’re developing prints. light has been turned off.

Chemical storage

All chemicals need to be
stored away safely with
obvious lid colours or
labels to avoid mix-ups.

Developing tray Focus finder

There are a minimum of A focus finder can be used
three trays in a darkroom to ensure the projected
for the developer, stop image appears sharp before
bath and fixer chemicals. you place the light-sensitive
paper into position.

© DK Images; Alamy; Thinkstock

121

Industry & Invention

Overhead projectors/Vacuum cleaners

How do overhead projectors

work? The science behind the Lens and mirrors
classroom classic
A Fresnel lens is used to
Anyone who went to school in the 1980s What’s in a focus the beam into an
and 1990s will remember the overhead projector? image. Flat on one side
projector. Its roots can be traced to a and ridged on the other,
device known as a magic lantern. This was The parts that make up the same method is
introduced in the 17th century and used an overhead projector applied to lighthouses.
candles, lamps or the Sun itself as its light
source and an array of mirrors to display Arm Focus
painted images.
An overhead projector works by placing a The arm is adjustable and A dial on the side or top of
transparency – an A4 sheet of plastic – on top of works with the focus dial to the arm allows it to be
main projector base. This has a glass top with a change the height and size focused and zoomed to
lamp underneath, allowing the light to shine of the projector’s output. suit the surface it is being
through the sheet, reflect off the mirror, out magnified onto.
through the lens and onto the surface that it’s Light source
pointed at. Fan
The projector is a low-cost teaching aid, as The lamp is usually a
the transparencies can be used again and standard bulb powered When the light is
again. Written material can be preprinted onto by mains electricity. switched on, the
the plastic sheets and notes can be added in Recent portable versions cooling fan keeps
nonpermanent marker, which saves teachers can use batteries. the projector base
time and resources. However, in recent years from overheating.
the use of the projector has declined due to the Transmissive projectors
rise of computers and LCD projection, as well as Transmissive projectors use an Reflective projectors Opaque projectors
presentation programs such as Keynote or adjustable head and a Fresnel The light source is in the head Using the same system as the
Microsoft PowerPoint. lens to focus the image. These of the projector rather than the reflective projector, these
hulks are fast becoming obsolete. base, which shines the light machines can also display
down onto reflective mirrors. opaque paper and 3D objects.

The first
vacuum cleaner

How this horse-drawn vacuum
cleaned Victorian houses

British engineer Hubert 244-metre (800-foot) long hose © Look and Learn; Dreamstime
Cecil Booth patented would snake in through the
the motorised vacuum windows and the oil-powered
cleaner in 1901. Far from the engine would burst into life. It
slender pieces of equipment we sucked the dirt into a filter,
have nowadays, this vacuum ridding homes of years and years
cleaner was so cumbersome it of accumulated dust. Far too big
had to be drawn by a horse and for everyday use, Booth
cart. Because most Victorian successfully marketed it as a
houses didn’t have electricity, hired service and was even
Booth’s machine had to get its asked to clean the ceremonial
power from coal or oil. It would carpet for King Edward VII’s
park outside a house and a coronation in 1902!

122

DID YOU KNOW?

How are bronze statues cast?

Explore the complex process Making Louis XIV on Horseback Stone casing
behind this centuries-old art
See how this famous statue of the French king was created The replica and castings
The first step in the casting of a bronze Forge were protected and
statue is to create a replica of the piece
out of wood or clay. Secondly a Due to the scale of the structurally reinforced by
lubricant such as oil is used to coat the statue model, the forge needed to a thick layer of stone.
followed by a thick layer of silicone rubber. melt the bronze had to
After the rubber has hardened – a process that be directly above it.
can take 24 hours – the coating can be removed
from the replica, leaving a detailed mould. Model
Next, the mould is filled with hot wax. After
being left to cool, the mould is taken off to leave The replica model
a wax sculpture. After attaching the wax model for the bronze
to a device called a screw that channels molten was created out of
bronze via a series of fine channels, the mould wood by renowned
is dipped into a ceramic solution and covered French sculptor
with powdered silicon to strengthen it. François Girardon.
The internal wax mould is then melted in a
steam oven, while the ceramic one is fired to Pipework
provide the final mould. Bronze is heated to
over 2,000 degrees Celsius (3,630 degrees Due to its immense size
Fahrenheit) prior to being poured into the an intricate system of
mould, solidifying in 30 or so minutes. Lastly pipes was needed to
the ceramic layer is chipped and sandblasted feed the molten bronze
away to reveal the bronze statue within. into every recess.

What are life-preserving coffins?

How did this odd casket Back from the dead Head plate
save anyone buried alive?
Check out the key components of this unusual Victorian coffin A head plate is placed
Very much a historical oddity, the Air mesh against the supposedly
life-preserving coffin was a special deceased’s brow. It
burial casket designed by Christian A special grille is installed triggers the spring catch
Henry Eisenbrandt in 1843 to allow those in the lid, enabling anyone should it be disturbed.
mistakenly buried alive to safely get out. inside to breathe for long
The system works by fitting the typical enough to escape. © Corbis; Getty
hinged lid with a series of levers and springs,
which activate via motion-detecting devices Ring
in the coffin, ultimately releasing the latch.
Any motion is detected through two A ring slips around one of
mechanisms: a ring slipped around the the occupant’s fingers. It
occupant’s finger and a metal head plate. is connected via wires to
Both are connected by wires to the coffin’s the spring latch.
opening mechanism, with the slightest
movement triggering the lid catch.
In addition to the opening mechanism, the
life-preserving coffin also features a mesh in
its lid which would supposedly provide a
limited supply of air post-burial.

123

Industry & Invention

The sony Walkman / Hearing aids

The Sony Walkman
Inside the world’ first commercial portable
and personal stereo cassette player

For 20 years after its introduction Additional Inside the 1991 vintage Walkman WM-FX20
in 1979, the Walkman dominated controls
the personal stereo market. The Flywheel
first Walkman (TPS-L2) had two There is one
mini headphone jacks that enabled two headphone socket Rubber pulley belts to
people to simultaneously listen to it through and a rotating the drive motor and
Sony’s new lightweight 50-gram (1.8-ounce) volume control. gear wheel link the
MDR-3L2 headphones. Three push buttons central flywheel.
The blue and silver metal-cased unit change the mode
measured 88 x 133.5 x 29mm (3.5 x 5.25 x 1.15in), from tape deck to Drive © iFixit.com
weighed only 391 grams (13.8 ounces) and was radio, normal to motor
powered by two AA batteries, making it light, metal audiocassette Outer casings
compact and easily portable. It could also be tape, and FM to AM The 3v DC motor
powered by a 3v DC adaptor (which wasn’t radio stations. It also powers the The black plastic
supplied with the Walkman). includes an LCD Walkman; it runs outer casings
It contained a stereo tape head that played digital alarm clock. on batteries or
standard compact audiocassette tapes at a through a DC sandwich and hold
frequency response rate of 40Hz-12kHz. 300 to Controls power adaptor. together the circuit
500 different Walkman models have been
produced that have since included new There are three board and drive
media formats like MiniDiscs and CDs, but it push-button Play, mechanism. The
was only in 2010 that the cassette-based Rewind and circuit is connected
Walkman ceased production in Japan. New Fast-Forward to a small speaker.
rivals like the introduction of Apple’s iPod controls. Next to them
digital music player in 2001 and the increasing is the Stop/Eject
sophistication of mobile phones helped put button, which opens
the Walkman brand in the shade. the front panel to
insert or remove an
audiocassette from
the machine.

Hearing aid evolution Hearing aids have developed from
basic trumpets to digital devices
Find out why modern electronic hearing aids were made tiny enough to fit inside the ear
possible by Alexander Graham Bell and his telephone
Direct to the brain
Up until the late-19th century, hearing generated by sound waves. Miller Reese © Alamy
aids were little more than just passive Hutchison used this device in 1898 to create the Today’s hearing aid technology is more advanced
tubes that relied entirely upon Akouphone, the first electric hearing aid. than ever. A cochlear implant is commonly used to
capturing sound waves and funnelling them as deliver electrical signals through the cochlea to
much as possible towards the ear. Carbon transmitter hearing aids were very the auditory nerve. But if the nerve itself is
It wasn’t until the invention of the telephone, bulky, but the invention of smaller amplifiers damaged, auditory brainstem implants may be
which contained technology capable of – first the vacuum tube and later on the used instead. The cochlear nucleus is the area of
converting sound energy into an electrical transistor – allowed for increasingly portable the brain responsible for processing signals from
signal, that advances in hearing aid devices devices. Transistors were not only smaller, but the auditory nerve and can be stimulated
were made possible. This could then be they also consumed less power, meaning artificially with electrodes. A processor is worn on
amplified and sent to a speaker positioned battery size could be reduced, making hearing the outside of the ear and transmits a signal to a
near, or inside, the user’s ear. aids ever-more practical for users. receiver, implanted just beneath the skin. The
The key piece of tech was the carbon receiver is connected to a silicon-coated implant
transmitter, invented independently by The development of computers – particularly array, which terminates on the brainstem, directly
Thomas Edison, Emile Berliner and David microprocessors – allowed hearing aids to be stimulating the nerves so sound can be perceived.
Hughes, but Edison was awarded the first digitised. This enabled the incoming sound to
patent. The transmitter contained carbon be processed before being sent to the speaker,
granules, which reduce their electrical allowing the signal to be separated, with
resistance when compressed by the pressure individual frequencies modulated to boost
weak sounds and adjustments made according
to incoming pitch and volume.

124

How did the first electric
refrigerators work?

Often taken for granted today, once refrigerators Toxic origins
were a groundbreaking and luxury appliance
Today, the inert tetrafluoroethane gas R134a is
Back in the Twenties, one electric These refrigeration units worked under the commonly used in fridges and freezers, but in
refrigeration company dominated the same principles as modern fridges. By using a the Twenties refrigerants like sulphur dioxide,
market: Kelvinator. Its wooden cold compressor, a circulating refrigerant was methyl formate and methyl chloride were used.
box/compressor combo cost $714 (nearly transformed from vapour into a liquid and These are quite toxic: sulphur dioxide causes
$9,800/£6,100 today) – way beyond the pocket of cooled to near-room temperature under burns on contact and can damage vision, methyl
the average household. So, with the goal of pressure, before being released back into formate is highly flammable, while methyl
bringing more affordable refrigerators to the circulation. The sudden change in pressure chloride, or chloromethane, can cause dizziness,
masses, General Electric ploughed $18 million caused the refrigerant to turn into a vapour nausea and even seizures at high concentrations.
into making the GE ‘Monitor-top’ fridge. again, which had to draw heat from the air These nastier chemical refrigerants were
They were called Monitor-tops because the inside the cabinet, ultimately cooling it. replaced by Freon, a relatively harmless gas that,
cabinet was all steel and the condenser was nevertheless, was banned in the production of
sealed in a cylindrical enclosure on top, which Several models of the Monitor-top were made, new fridges in 1990 over concerns about CFCs’
made it look like the turret from a 19th-century including two and three-door units, but the effect on the ozone layer. Monitor-top fridges
ironclad warship – the USS Monitor. most popular was the single-door variant, have become quite collectable now, the steel
which originally sold for $300 in 1927. build ensuring many have survived for nearly a
century. They are usually converted, with the
dangerous gases removed and a modern
compressor system installed to be eco-friendly.

Inside a Monitor-top fridge Refrigerant vapour

Discover the major components that made up The cool refrigerant liquid is passed
one of the first commercial refrigerators through a valve and expands back to
a partial gas state, taking heat from
the air in the cabinet in the process.

Heat-exchanging
pipes

The liquid refrigerant,

warm from compression,

is passed around a series

of pipes and cooled to

room temperature.

Compressor pump

This pushes the refrigerant
around the unit and
compresses the
refrigeration vapour.

Liquid refrigerant © Getty

The compressor applies
pressure to the methyl
formate gas in the Monitor-
top fridge, which
transforms it into a liquid.

125

Industry & Invention

Leonardo’s flying machine

How Leonardo da Vinci
tried to fly

Discover the secrets behind the legendary Da Vinci’s other
inventor’s incredible flying machine flying machines

Few individuals truly fit the much- mimic them in the construction of his Da Vinci didn’t limit his pursuit of flight to just his

overused sobriquet of ‘man ahead of ornithopter. Sharing similarities with the ornithopter. Predating its invention by over 400
his time’, but Leonardo da Vinci is one paragliders of today, it required a solo pilot to years, one of his designs reveals something akin
to a modern-day helicopter. Also known as an

of the select band who undoubtedly fits into manually operate a system of pullies, levers aerial screw, its blades revolved like a corkscrew,

this category. His mind seemed to be of and pedals with his hands and feet in order to compressing air in order to gain flight – a
another time entirely, devising all sorts of simulate flight. A hand crank increased the principle shared by its eventual successors.
Although the theory was sound, modern-day

inventions that would either pre-empt or form production of energy and the wings were scientists believe that it would have been too

the basis for modern-day equivalents. The designed to flap – much like those of a bird. heavy to achieve flight, and as such remained
item that perhaps best of all encapsulates his However, while it looked impressive on the strictly in the drawing book.

He is also credited with devising early designs

capacity to work beyond the constraints of his page, da Vinci’s ornithopter was never for what would become what we know as the

time, however, is his visionary ornithopter physically realised in his day. While it may parachute. Despite its triangular shape and
flying machine. well have worked while in flight, the task of wooden frame causing many to doubt its
effectiveness, it a prototype based on the same

Having spent much time watching and actually taking off proved to be an design was constructed and tested

studying the flight of birds, he observed the insurmountable obstacle, as there wasn’t a in 2000 – where it was
different ways they flapped their wings while known way of producing enough power to proven to work
perfectly.

taking off and in mid-flight, and sought to actually get it off the ground. Pointed wings

Da Vinci’s ornithopter Wing frames The pointed edges of
the wings are a further
The basis for the wings indication of the

was essentially made inspiration Da Vinci
took from birds.
The bits and pieces that formed the basis of his revolutionary flying machine from wooden poles.

Headpiece Rope Flap valves

By moving his head, The rope attached to These would allow
the pilot would have the pulley provided a air to flow through
been able to steer means for the pilot to the wing surface
the vehicle. control the machine. while the wing was
moving upward.
Levers
Wings
From his position, the
pilot would have Fabric would have
operated the wings by covered the wings in
pushing and pulling a order to provide a
number of levers. wider lifting surface.

Hand crank Pilot Landing gear

This allowed the pilot The pilot would Intended to be retractable,
to increase the output have been forced this would enable the pilot
of energy from the to lie still where he to land safely.
flying machine. was positioned.
© Thinkstock
126

5 TOP Neolithic times Solar power Tinderbox Friction matches Safety matches
FACTS
1 The earliest fire-making 2 Using reflective surfaces to 3 In the Middle Ages, it was 4 English chemist and 5 In 1844, Gustaf Erik Pasch
FIRE method consisted of twirling focus sunlight on tinder was found that a spark is created apothecary John Walker sold developed the first safety
a pointed stick in a wooden known in ancient times. by striking steel and flint. The the first friction matches in match. The head contained
block, creating an ember to Experiments with mirrors/ portable tinderbox caught the 1827. They could be ignited by potassium chlorate, reacting
light tinder. Iron pyrite rocks lenses were conducted to spark in tinder and then ignited striking the head of the match when struck against a surface
were also struck against flint. develop deadly weapons. a small piece of wood. against any rough surface. coated with red phosphorus.

DID YOU KNOW? The ‘His Master’s Voice’ image of Nipper the dog listening to a gramophone originally featured a phonograph

How the gramophone Sled dog and gramophone,
Terra Nova Expedition

worked

The invention that brought Horn

Amplifies and

sound to the home explained projects the
sound from the

needle (stylus). A

In the 19th Century, there was fierce ball or material Pickup head Turntable
competition in Europe and the USA to create was put into the
machines that could record and playback The needle on the pickup head was This is rotated at a
music and sounds. As early as 1857, the horn to reduce commonly made of copper or steel. The constant speed by a
phonautograph, created by Édouard-Léon Scott de the sound from needle is attached to a diaphragm that wind-up clockwork
Martinville, used a diaphragm attached sends the sound vibrations to the horn.
to a bristle that responded to sound vibrations. the horn. mechanism. They
These vibrations were traced onto a sheet of paper usually operated at a

coated in soot, which was wrapped around a speed of 78rpm.

rotating cylinder. This, however, could not play

back the recording.

In 1877, Thomas Edison’s phonograph followed

a similar principle to the phonautograph, but

used tinfoil wrapped over a grooved cylinder. The

vibrations of a needle attached to a diaphragm and

horn made indentations in the foil, and to play it

back the needle retraced the indentations in the foil. © Thinkstock

Wax cylinders enabled such recordings to be played

back more than once.

Ten years later, Emil Berliner introduced Support arm
the gramophone that used discs with a spiral
groove, rather than a cylinder to record and This supports the heavy horn.

play back the sound. It still used a horn and Anatomy of a Spindle
needle, but unlike cylinders, the master gramophone
recording could be easily copied onto a mould The hole punched in the centre
and mass-produced. The gramophone came to of the record disc is placed over
dominate the market in the Twenties, the spindle. This keeps the
superseded by the electronic record player. record from spinning off the
turntable as it rotates.

The bow drill Handhold Parts of the
An ancient device that uses friction to light fires bow drill
Made of stone, bone or
The bow drill works by pressing hardwood, it should be Bow
down on the handhold at the top of smooth to prevent blistering
the drill with one hand, while and should fit comfortably This can be about 70cm or 90cm
moving the bow horizontally into the palm of the hand. (two or three feet) long and made
backwards and forwards with the other hand.
This makes the drill revolve fast enough to create Drill of lightwood. It should have a
friction and heat on the fireboard. slight curve and not be too heavy.
The hot sawdust produced by this action falls A thin, round piece of
down the notch at the side of the fireboard and wood fitted to the Fireboard
ignites dry leaves or other tinder material. Once handhold. If too thick, it’ll
this is lit, the burning tinder can be removed and reduce how fast it revolves. The fireboard has depressions in it that have
used elsewhere. notches cut next to them. It should be placed
The Ancient Egyptians used the bow drill as Bow string on a dry base to protect it from damp ground.
long ago as 3000BC, with the bow string wrapped
several times around the drill, to produce holes The string is attached to
in wood and stone rather than to light fires. both ends of the bow
Carpenters are even depicted using this device and twisted around
on the fifth dynasty tomb of an important official the drill.
called Ti, at Saqqara.
© Science Photo Library

127

The
Wright
brothers

136

INFLUENTIAL
FIGURES

130 Benjamin Franklin 142 Max Planck Alfred
Nobel
How the man on the $100 bill The father of quantum physics
revolutionised technology just 146
as much as American politics 144 Michael Faraday

132 Isambard Kingdom The scientist behind
Brunel electromagnetic induction
who inspired Albert Einstein
One of the greatest engineers
of all time whose designs 146 Alfred Nobel
revolutionised transport
After exploding into the
134 Guglielmo Marconi history books, this Swedish
scientist sought to leave a
The father of radio who prestigious academic legacy
led the widespread use of
wireless telecommunications 148 Peter Higgs

136 The Wright brothers This physicist only shot into
the limelight in 2012 with the
How these siblings played a discovery of the Higgs boson
pivotol role in the evolution of
powered flight 150 Charles Darwin

138 Tycho Brahe The father of evolutionary
biology, Darwin is the most
Meet the man who calculated famous naturalist of the
planetary motion before the Victorian era, if not all time
invention of telescopes

140 Albert Einstein

Considered the most

influential physicist of all time

150 Charles Peter
Darwin Higgs

128 148

Tycho
Brahe

138

130

Benjamin
Franklin

132

Isambard
Kingdom Brunel

134 © Look and Learn; Cardiff Council Flat Holm Project; Alamy; Thinkstock; Cern

Guglielmo
Marconi

140

Albert
Einstein

129

Influential figures

Benjamin Franklin

Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin, one of the greatest
minds of all time, had his first big break
How the man on the $100 bill revolutionised while pretending to be a woman. At 12
technology just as much as American politics years old, he began an apprenticeship at his
brother James’ printing shop, which published
“Franklin dreamt up inventions like bifocal the first independent newspaper in the colonies.
glasses and swimming fins, which were But despite Benjamin’s determination and hard
to become commonplace later on” work, James refused to print any of his articles.
Instead, the young Franklin began writing
under the pseudonym ‘Mrs Silence Dogood’,
regularly sending letters to the paper for
publication. ‘Her’ witty and insightful
commentary became the talk of the town, but
James was outraged when he discovered that the
true author was in fact his younger brother.
Benjamin Franklin abandoned his
apprenticeship and moved to Philadelphia,
where he set up his own printing business and
purchased The Pennsylvania Gazette.
The 1730s saw his prominence and success
grow, especially with his publication of the Poor
Richard’s Almanack. Franklin bought properties
and businesses, organised a volunteer fire
department, established a lending library and
was elected grand master of the Pennsylvania
Masons, clerk of the state assembly and
postmaster of Philadelphia. He also began to
expand into entrepreneurship, and in 1741 he
invented the Franklin stove – a heat-efficient
fireplace that aimed to produce less smoke and
more heat than the ordinary open fireplaces on
the market. While the stove failed to take off, in
1749 he retired from business to concentrate
more on his inventions, dreaming up things like
bifocal glasses and swimming fins that were to
become commonplace. Never one to rest on his
laurels, Franklin then turned his attention to the
study of electricity, and in 1752 conducted the
famous kite-and-key experiment, which proved
that lightning was made up of static electricity.
He also developed the single fluid theory, which
proposed that electricity was a ‘common
element’ rather than two opposing forces.
The 1750s saw Franklin become more involved
in politics. In 1757, he travelled to England to
represent Pennsylvania in its fight with the

A life’s 1706 1718 1723 1728 1732
work
Franklin is born At the age of 12, After publishing Franklin establishes Franklin publishes
We travel through the in Boston on 17 Franklin begins an work under a his own printing the first edition of
key events in the famous January to Josiah apprenticeship at false name, company and the Poor Richard’s
polymath’s career Franklin and his his brother’s new Franklin purchases The Almanack, which
wife Abiah. printing business. runs away to Pennsylvania Gazette quickly becomes
Philadelphia. the following year. very popular.

130

FINOOTTHSETIERPS… Michael Faraday Thomas Edison

Born the year after Franklin died, he built on Franklin’s work Edison was also devoted to the study of electricity. He
in his own experiments. He discovered electromagnetic discovered the ‘Edison effect’, or the heat-induced flow of
induction and his Faraday cage, which blocks electric fields, an electric charge through space. This allowed for the
was largely based on one of Franklin’s experiments, where invention of things like radios, TVs and other wireless
he dangled a cork ball into a metal cup to discover it was products. Though he didn’t actually invent the light bulb, he
only attracted to the exterior, not the interior. did develop a more practical incandescent bulb.

DID YOU KNOW? Franklin remained a printer to his end, and wherever he lived he made sure he had a printing press to hand

The big idea Five Franklin
inventions
Before Franklin began his experiments in science, the popular
belief was that electricity consisted of two opposing forces. 1Bifocals
Franklin proved that in fact it was a single element, imagining Franklin suffered from poor
it to be like an invisible fluid. If a body had an excess of this eyesight, but came up with the
fluid, it was positively charged. If it had a deficiency, it was brilliant idea of creating glasses
negatively charged. He theorised that the body with more with a separate upper and lower
fluid flowed to the body with less fluid, or rather that electric half; the upper for distance and
charges flowed from positive to negative. However, it has the lower for reading.
since been discovered that electricity is actually the flow of
electrons, which means it flows from negative to positive. 2Lightning rod
After studying the
Benjamin Franklin invented the bifocals Kite Twine behaviour of electricity,
Franklin designed a metal rod
Franklin’s blueprint The kite had a Franklin attached the that could be attached to the
for the Franklin stove pointed metal kite to a piece of twine, tops of buildings and connected
wire fixed to the which conducted the to the ground through a wire to
top to attract the electric charge when it discharge lightning.
lightning. was wet.
3Glass armonica
It’s electric! A popular form of
entertainment in the 18th
Franklin noticed century was playing music
that the loose using wine glasses filled with
fibres of the string water. Franklin invented a
stood out in all mechanised version consisting
directions due to of 37 glass bowls.
static electricity.
4Franklin stove
descendants of the Penn family over who should Key Silk ribbon This metal-lined fireplace
represent the colony. On his return almost 20 stood in the centre of the room,
years later, he fought fiercely for American A key was Franklin held a radiating heat in all directions.
sovereignty, and was one of the five people who fastened to silk ribbon that It provided more heat, used less
drafted the Declaration of Independence in 1776. the end of the was attached wood and produced less smoke
Later that year he went to France as a diplomat string, which to the other than open fireplaces.
for the United States where he became a was charged end of the key.
much-loved figure, and it was largely because of by the electric 5‘Long arm’
him that the government of France signed a current. Franklin loved reading and
Treaty of Alliance with the USA in 1778. established a number of
libraries. His idea for a wooden © Look and Learn; Corbis; Getty; Moses King, 1881; Louis Bachrach
When Franklin died in 1790, he was dubbed pole with a grasping claw at the
‘the harmonious human multitude.’ The legacy end helped visitors to reach
of his inventions and political work lives on to books on the top shelves.
this day.

1741 1752 1776 1783 1790

The efficient Through his kite Franklin signs the The Treaty of Paris Franklin dies on 17 April aged
Franklin stove Declaration of
is invented but experiment, Franklin Independence, signalling is signed, ending 84. Over 20,000 mourners
fails to take off the United States’
as a product. proves lightning is an independence from the the American attend his funeral.
British Empire.
electrical phenomenon. Revolutionary War.

131

Influential figures

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Though not always successful, Brunel’s designs revolutionised transport, and
he is now remembered as one of the greatest engineers of all time

Isambard Kingdom Brunel While an era of progress, the
revolutionised rail and water Industrial Revolution was also a time
of trial and error. Those leading the
transport not just in the UK way in technological advances attempted to
but all around the world make huge leaps forward, often resulting in
failure, but sometimes incredible success. One
“SS Great Britain laid the of the greatest of the innovators of this time was
foundations for a new era Isambard Kingdom Brunel, born at the start of
of transatlantic travel” the 19th century. His father, Marc, was a French
civil engineer, and encouraged his son to learn
arithmetic, scale drawing and geometry. At 16,
he became a watchmaker’s apprentice.
In 1824 Marc was appointed chief engineer of
a project to construct a tunnel under the River
Thames. He hired his son as an assistant
engineer, who later became resident engineer.
The project was fraught with disaster,
witnessing several incidents of flooding, as well
as financial difficulties. At one point the
operation was halted for several years and the
tunnel bricked up. It was eventually opened in
1843 and is still in use today as part of the
London Overground network.
The project transformed the young Brunel
into a full-fledged engineer. In 1830 he entered a
competition to design a bridge that would span
across the River Avon in Bristol, and although
rejected initially, he eventually persuaded the
panel to appoint him as project engineer. Work
on the Clifton Suspension Bridge commenced in
June 1831, but just four months later the Queen
Square riots drove investors away. Once again a
project ground to a halt.
In 1833 Brunel was made chief engineer of the
Great Western Railway, which would run from
London to Bristol. It was then that he developed
one of the most controversial ideas of his career
– to use a 2.1-metre (seven-foot) gauge (distance

A life’s 1806 1827 1830 1831 1833
work
Isambard Kingdom Brunel is born Brunel is appointed resident He enters a Work on the Clifton Brunel becomes chief
Brunel made his mark on competition to design Suspension Bridge engineer of the Great
history – but what were in Portsmouth, UK, to French civil engineer of the Thames Tunnel a bridge to span the begins but financial Western Railway,
the defining moments in River Avon and is difficulties bring the developing his idea
this innovator’s career? engineer Marc Isambard Brunel project in London, taking over awarded first place. project to a halt. for a wider track.

and Sophia Kingdom. from his father.

132

FINOOTTHSETIERPS… Edward Harland John Roebling

He formed Harland and Wolff Heavy Industries Ltd with Born in the same year as Brunel, in 1841 Roebling began
Gustav Wolff in 1861, to build ocean liners. Harland built on producing wire rope and in 1844 designed a replacement for
Brunel’s design, replacing wooden decks with iron ones for a wooden aqueduct. The bridge was supported by a
strength and giving the hulls a flatter bottom for capacity. In continuous cable of wires bound together, which is now the
1899, construction of the Oceanic began. At 215m (705ft) standard for bridge design. Roebling built many suspension
long, it was the first ship to exceed Brunel’s Great Eastern. bridges, including the Brooklyn Bridge.

DID YOU KNOW? Brunel University in Uxbridge, London, established in 1966, is named after Brunel

Clifton Suspension Bridge in focus Deck Brunel trivia

What feats of engineering ensured the The deck is made of timber 1French connection
bridge’s survival to the modern day? sleepers some 13cm (5in) During his teenage years,
thick overlaid by planking Brunel attended school in
Towers 5cm (2in) deep. France, but his application to
the renowned French
The two 26m (86ft)-tall engineering school École
towers are not identical, Polytechnique was rejected
as the Clifton tower has because he was a ‘foreigner’.
side cutouts and the Leigh
tower pointed arches. 2River party
In 1827, after several
Foundations Span Chain incidents of flooding, Brunel
held a lavish banquet inside
The red sandstone-clad At the time of its The bridge has three the Thames Tunnel to help
abutments contain construction, the bridge’s wrought iron chains on convince people that it was
vaulted chambers up to 214m (702ft) span over each side, which are perfectly safe.
11m (35ft) high, reducing the River Avon was the anchored in tunnels 18m
the cost of construction. longest in the world. (60ft) below the ground. 3Beating the
competition
between the tracks) rather than the standard railways in the country should revert to using
1.4-metre (4.6-foot) gauge. He believed that this the standard gauge. However, funds were also Brunel’s submission to the
would allow the trains to run at much higher raised to complete the Clifton Bridge, which Clifton Bridge competition was
speeds, as well as provide a more stable and was finally opened five years after Brunel’s initially rejected by the judge,
comfortable journey. For the rest of his life the death and is still in use to this day. Thomas Telford, who instead
efficiency of this design was heavily contested. put forward his own design.
The big idea
But none could contest the efficiency of his 4Flip of a coin
Great Western Steamship, which transported The Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol spans 214m (702ft) In 1843, while performing
passengers from Bristol to New York. It was between two 26.2m (86ft) towers, which then was the longest a magic trick for his children, a
thought a steamship would not be able to carry bridge span in the world. In its design of chains and rods, coin became lodged in his
enough fuel for the trip and have room for Brunel had made a near-perfect calculation of the minimal windpipe. To remove it, Brunel
cargo. However, it completed its maiden voyage weight required to provide maximum strength. The abutments was strapped to a board and
in 15 days, with a third of its coal remaining. contain a honeycomb of chambers and tunnels, some of which turned upside down.
Brunel was also a fierce proponent of propeller- are 11m (36ft) high, which reduced the cost of construction
driven ships and incorporated a propeller on without compromising strength. 5Lady with the lamp
his second ship, SS Great Britain. Considered In 1855 he responded to a
the first modern ocean-going ship, it was made request from Florence
of metal, powered by an engine rather than Nightingale to design a new
wind, and driven by a propeller rather than a hospital to replace the
paddle wheel. Indeed, this vessel laid the unsanitary British Army
foundations for a new era of transatlantic travel. Hospital in Scutari, Turkey,
which he did successfully.
Brunel’s personal life was a series of ups and
downs too. Many say the stress of the Great
Western Railway led to his early death in 1859.
Soon after Brunel’s death it was decided that all

1838 1843 1852 1859 1864 © Alamy; National Maritime Museum

The Great Western The Thames Tunnel is Brunel’s design for Paddington Brunel dies on The Clifton
Suspension Bridge is
Steamship sails opened to the public and Station is constructed. 15 September, finally completed as
a tribute to Brunel
from Bristol to New the propeller-driven SS ten days after by the Institute of
Civil Engineers.
York in just 15 days. Great Britain is launched. suffering a stroke.

133

Influential figures

Guglielmo Marconi

Guglielmo Marconi

Sometimes called the father of radio, this resourceful inventor’s practical
telegraphy system led to the widespread use of wireless communications

Marconi developed his radio Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi
equipment in the attic of his was a widely respected Italian
parents’ home in Italy, with inventor who pioneered the
the help of his butler, Mignani development of wireless communication and
long-distance radio transmission.
“The Marconi room aboard the RMS Often credited as the inventor of radio,
Titanic and its two Marconi wireless Marconi was actually an astute businessman
operators transmitted the most who combined, and built upon, the work of
famous radio signals of all time” other scientists to develop a commercially
viable method of long-distance communication.
His interest in electricity and physics began
at an early age, and he was inspired by the work
of scientists like James Clerk Maxwell, Heinrich
Hertz and Nikola Tesla, among others.
In 1894, Marconi read the work of German
physicist Hertz, who had developed equipment
to send and detect electromagnetic waves over
short distances. Marconi saw the potential for
transmitting information using radio waves
and set about developing a longer-range system
to replace wire-based telegraphy.
Marconi began his experiments at his father’s
estate and with the help of his butler, Mignani,
built equipment in the attic. Soon he could
transmit radio waves over short distances, so
he moved his experiments outdoors to develop
the technology further. He found that
increasing the length of the antennas – and
arranging them vertically – increased the range
of transmission so much that he was able to
send and receive signals over distances of
around 2.4 kilometres (1.5 miles).
It was at this point that Marconi began to see
the potential commercial applications of his
experiments. Italy already had a well-
established telegraph system though, with
networks of wires extending across the country,
and his applications for funding were

A life’s 1874 1894 1896 1899 1900
work
Guglielmo Marconi Begins to Travels to London, Sets up the Takes out his No
Tune in to some of the is born in Bologna, where he gains the first wireless 7777 ‘Improvements
major events from the Italy, to landowner develop a method of transmitting support of engineer- link between Britain and France in Apparatus for
lifetime of this astute Giuseppe Marconi in-chief of the Post from Wimereux, France, to a Wireless Telegraphy’
Italian radio pioneer and his Scots-Irish telegraph messages without Office, William Preece. lighthouse in Dover, England. patent to protect
wife Annie Jameson. his technological
134 wires, using radio waves. developments.

FINOOTTHSETIERPS… Edwin Armstrong John Logie Baird

Captivated by Marconi’s radio technology, Armstrong was a Baird was a pioneer in the development of publicly available
prolific inventor and made the regenerative circuit – the first television broadcasting, who compiled, tested and modified
radio amplifier; it used a positive feedback loop to greatly the work of others to produce a live, moving TV image. He
amplify incoming radio signals. He also invented modern once said of Marconi: “It was he who ventured forth like
frequency modulation (FM) radio transmission, which Columbus and forced upon the attention of the world the
enabled much clearer communication. existence of a new means of communication.”

DID YOU KNOW? Marconi’s wireless experiments disproved the dominant belief that the Earth’s curvature affected transmission

Post Office engineers inspect Top 5 facts:
Marconi’s radio equipment Guglielmo
before the first-ever transmission Marconi
of radio signals over the open sea
1Royal connections
dismissed. Undeterred, Marconi travelled to The big idea Marconi installed radio
the UK. Britain had a powerful Royal Navy and equipment on Queen Victoria’s
was the world’s greatest trading empire, and Marconi combined and modified the inventions of other royal yacht so that she could
his thinking was that they might have use for scientists to develop equipment that could transmit radio communicate with the Prince
his work in maritime communication. waves over great distances. He used a spark-gap transmitter to of Wales (Edward VII).
generate radio frequency electromagnetic waves and a
Marconi gained the support of the engineer- coherer receiver to detect them. A telegraph key enabled him 2Educated but
in-chief of the British Post Office and, with his to send radio waves in bursts, generating Morse code. Marconi unqualified
help, demonstrated his technology to the discovered that the maximum distance of radio wave
British government. During his first few years transmission varied according to the square of the height of Marconi had no formal
in England he gradually improved the distance the transmitting antenna – tall, vertical antennas were key. qualifications, but had a keen
of radio transmission – first on land and then interest in physics. At the
over sea. His work excited the international request of his mother, he was © Corbis; Jza84; Oast House Archive; Cardiff Council Flat Holm Project
community and stations were set up in France mentored by physicist
for the first radio crossing of the Channel. Professor Augusto Righi, who
introduced him to radio waves.
As his technology continued to evolve,
‘Marconi rooms’ were installed in ships, 3Are you ready?
containing a suite of wireless telegraphy The first radio transmission
equipment which enabled communication across the open sea was sent
with land as well as other vessels. The Marconi over the Bristol Channel and
room aboard the RMS Titanic and its two travelled a distance of 6.4
Marconi wireless operators transmitted kilometres (four miles). It read
perhaps the most famous radio signals of all ‘Are you ready’.
time: ‘CQD CQD SOS Titanic position 41.44 N
50.24 W. Require immediate assistance. Come 4High-speed Morse
at once. We struck an iceberg. Sinking’. To be employed as a
wireless operator by Marconi’s
Marconi died in Rome in 1937 at the age of 63. Wireless Telegraph Company
He was given a state funeral and – as a tribute you had to be able to send and
to his massive contribution to wireless receive Morse code at a speed
communication – every radio station in the of 25 words per minute.
world fell silent for two minutes.
5Lucky escape
Marconi was offered free
passage on the RMS Titanic,
but decided to travel to
America three days earlier on
the RMS Lusitania because he
had paperwork to do.

1901 1909 1912 1914 1937

Successfully Receives the Nobel Prize Marconi Joins the Italian Marconi dies aged
transmits the in Physics – along with radio is used to war effort during 63. He receives a
letter ‘S’ in Morse Karl Ferdinand Braun – save victims of the Titanic, and World War I, where state funeral in Italy
code 3,380km for their contribution to passes distress signals from the he takes charge and all radio stations
(2,100mi) across the wireless telegraphy. sinking ship to the RMS Carpathia. of the military’s hold a two-minute
Atlantic Ocean to radio service. silence in his honour.
Newfoundland.
135

Influential figures

The Wright brothers

The Wright
brothers
These siblings played a pivotal role in the
evolution of powered flight and radically
altered the path of aviation history

Wilbur (right) and Orville Wilbur and Orville Wright are two engineering, with Wilbur especially spending
attend the Belmont Park of history’s most famous aviation much time in his father’s and public libraries.
Aviation Meet, NY, in 1910 pioneers who, through a series of
experiments in the late-19th and early-20th One of their heroes was German gliding
The big idea centuries, created the first controllable, pioneer Otto Lilienthal, who up until his death
powered, heavier-than-air aircraft. Named the in 1896 had built and flown a series of aircraft to
Prior to the Wright brothers’ successful flight Wright Flyer, the plane was the culmination of varying degrees of success. His death, however
(pictured below), many other scientists and over a decade’s worth of research and trials that – which was the result of a glider crash – oddly
engineers had dreamed about and, to varying saw the brothers progress from custom-built spurred the brothers’ interest in flight, with
degrees of failure, attempted to build machines kites, through to gliders and finally on to them writing to the Smithsonian Institution for
that could not only defy gravity, but do so in a engine-powered aeroplanes. Together these suggestions on other aeronautical manuscripts.
controlled manner. Their failures left the idea of talented siblings are generally credited with One of the museum’s recommendations was the
a non-dirigible method of flight as mere fancy, launching the age of powered flight. engineer Octave Chanute, a leading authority
with materials, aerodynamics and energy Wilbur and Orville Wright were the sons of on aviation and civil engineering at the time.
supplies all seeming insurmountable obstacles. Milton Wright, an ordained minister of the
Church of the United Brethren in Christ, and With Chanute’s help the brothers began
What is testament to the Wright brothers’ Susan Catherine Koerner Wright. The family conducting a number of aeronautical
expertise is that they addressed each one of lived in various locations including Richmond, experiments. Crucial to their approach was the
these issues with their aircraft in turn, solving in IN; Cedar Rapids, IA; and Dayton, OH – the latter focus on control of the aircraft, advancing
years what countless minds had failed to for the majority of the brothers’ lives. Orville previous designs that could only fly in a straight
address in centuries. Examples include the later explained that his father had encouraged line by introducing a helical twist across the
testing of hundreds of wing designs in a both of them from an early age “to pursue wings in either direction. The brothers tested
custom-built wind tunnel to determine which intellectual interests and to investigate this configuration in 1899 and, after discovering
shape best granted lift, designing and building whatever aroused curiosity.” that it allowed the acute control of a kite, began
their own four-cylinder internal combustion This encouragement led Orville and Wilbur working on a full-scale model: the first Wright
engine that was adapted for air travel and into a diverse range of interests and expertise Glider. It was tested in October 1900 at Kitty
recognising that propeller blades could be including printing, bicycles – which the pair Hawk, NC, where although lifting off the
understood as rotary wings. sold and repaired for several years – and the ground, it produced disappointing results.
construction of various machines from wood
and metal. Both engineers and inventors, the The Wright brothers refined their glider and
brothers became well known for their tested it in 1901, then again in October 1902 after
academic and practical application of modern spending the summer undertaking a vast series
of tests into more efficient wing designs. This
third model was the breakthrough, with the
glider performing exactly as predicted. The pair

Up, up 1867 1869 1892 1900
& away Wilbur is born,
The Wright family Both brothers Years of research lead to the
with Orville move to Dayton, team up to open brothers testing the Wright
OH, due to the a bicycle repair Glider (right), an unpowered
arriving four father’s work shop. They begin biplane with a forward
commitments. building bikes a elevator for pitch control.
The main milestones years later. few years later.
that led to the Wright
Flyer taking off…

136

FINOOTTHSETIERPS… Octave Chanute Augustus Herring

While not a protégé of the Wright brothers, Octave Chanute This American aviator followed in the Wrights’ and
was a key collaborator. A French-born American railway Chanute’s footsteps by actually flying a compressed air
engineer and aviation pioneer, Chanute worked extensively engine biplane glider. In addition, in 1909 Herring set up an
with the brothers and even produced his own gliders, kites aviation company and, despite suffering from a series of
and model aircraft. He also wrote a celebrated book on early strokes, went on to work with the US Army in the design of
aircraft: Progress In Flying Machines. aircraft used throughout World War I.

DID YOU KNOW? The brothers tossed a coin to see who would first test the Wright Flyer – Wilbur won the toss

The Wright Flyer in focus Propeller Top 5 facts:
Wright bros
Take a closer look at the pinnacle of Two large propellers were
the Wright brothers’ aviation careers driven by a sprocket chain 1No college
drive, granting the Flyer a Wilbur and Orville were the
Elevator only members of the Wright
small amount of thrust. family who didn’t attend
A forward-mounted college. Orville spent the years
elevator system learning the printing trade,
made from spruce while Wilbur helped at the
wood generated local church.
extra lift at takeoff.
2Lifelong bachelors
Engine Wing Neither of the Wright
brothers married throughout
The Flyer used a custom-built, Wires connected to the their lives. Wilbur is recorded
four-cylinder, water-cooled pilot’s cradle warped the as once saying that he “did
piston engine, which could wings when the plane’s not have time for both a wife
produce about 9kW (12hp). rudder was adjusted. and an airplane.”

– who each piloted the glider in turn – racked The Wright Brothers 3Child’s play
up almost 1,000 flights between them over a National Memorial is based In their later lives, the
two-month period, covering distances at Kitty in the Kill Devil Hills, NC – Wright brothers attributed
their fascination with flying
Hawk of up to 190 metres (622 feet). not far from Kitty Hawk machines to a small toy
helicopter which their father
Realising they had cracked both the had brought home one day
from his travels.
aerodynamic and control issues that all of their
4Luminaries
predecessors had struggled with, the two Both of the brothers
extensively catalogued their
brothers turned their attention to a powerplant aviation experiments, leading
to Wilbur Wright delivering
for the glider. In 1903 they built their own a talk at the prestigious
Western Society of Engineers
four-cylinder internal combustion engine and in Chicago in 1901. The
speech was entitled ‘Some
returned to Kitty Hawk to trial it. Unfortunately Aeronautical Experiments’.

the first attempt ended in the engine stalling 5Hobby to business
In 1909 the Wright
during takeoff and the front of the plane getting Company was incorporated
with Wilbur as president
damaged, but after a couple of repairs, the and Orville as one of two
vice-presidents.
second flight ended in resounding success.

Lifting off at 10.35am on 17 December 1903, the

“The brothers became wellWright Flyer flew 36 metres (120 feet), then 53
metres (175 feet), followed by 60 metres (200 © Thinkstock; Getty
feet) and finally 259.7 metres (852 feet). This known for their academic

and practical application ofseries of flights heralded a new era of aviation
and propelled the Wright brothers and their
aeroplane to worldwide fame. modern engineering”

1903 1909 1912 1915 1920 1948

The brothers The Wright Company Wilbur dies of Orville ends Orville joins the board Orville suffers
successfully fly sells the first-ever his leadership a heart attack
the Wright Flyer in sustained military aircraft, the typhoid fever of the Wright of the National Advisory on 27 January
flight at Kitty Hawk, NC. Its Wright Military Flyer Company by and dies three
fourth flight covers 259.7 metres (right), to the US on 30 May at selling his shares Committee for Aeronautics days later in
(852 feet) in just 59 seconds. Army Signal Corps. to a group of Dayton, OH,
45 years old. financiers. – a precursor to NASA. aged 76.

137

Influential figures Few other naked-eye astronomers
have plotted the movement of planets
Tycho Brahe quite as accurately as Danish
nobleman Tycho Brahe. His observations of a
Tycho Brahe new star in 1572 and the Great Comet of 1577
helped to shake off the Aristotelian belief that
Meet the man who coined the term ‘nova’ and the planets and stars were unchanging and
calculated planetary motion before telescopes locked in ‘immutable’ celestial spheres.
Brahe’s schooling began at an early age.
Indeed, at just two years old, he was taken from
the family home by his uncle to start his
education. At age 12, he began studying law at
the University of Copenhagen, as was the norm
for sons of nobility. However, while the solar
eclipse of 1560 cast a dark shadow across the
Earth, it lit Brahe’s passion for astronomy, and
he emerged himself in the works of the great
astronomers of the time.
For some time Brahe studied abroad, but
upon his return another uncle – Steen Bille
– funded the construction of an observatory and
chemical laboratory at Herrevad Abbey. It was
here in 1572 that he first noticed the appearance
of a very bright star. At the time, the popular
theory was that the planets and stars were
carried on material spheres (spherical shells)
that fitted tightly around each other. Brahe’s
observations proved that his sighting was
indeed a new star and not a local phenomenon,
and therefore this arrangement was impossible.
A year later he published his first book – De
Nova Et Nullius Aevi Memoria Prius Visa Stella
(On The New And Never Previously Seen Star) –

An artist’s impression of
Brahe’s observatory on Hven

“While the solar eclipse of 1560 cast a
dark shadow across the Earth, it lit
Brahe’s passion for astronomy”

A life’s 1546 1559 1560 1572 1573
work
Tycho Brahe is born Brahe begins The prediction of a Brahe first Brahe publishes
A quick guide to at Knutstorp Castle his studies solar eclipse on 21 his book, De Nova
Tycho Brahe’s in the then-Danish in law at the August 1560 impresses observes a new star, now Stella, coining the
illustrious career Scania, to nobleman University of Brahe enormously, and term ‘nova’ for a
as an astronomer Otte Brahe and his Copenhagen. inspires him to study known as SN 1572, from the new star.
wife Beate Bille. astronomy.
138 Herrevad Abbey observatory.

FINOOTTHSETIERPS… Johannes Kepler Isaac Newton

In Prague, Brahe was assisted by Johannes Kepler, a former Brahe and Kepler’s work provided a foundation for Sir Isaac
maths teacher from Germany. The pair came head-to-head Newton’s laws of gravity, presented in 1687, explaining how
after Kepler publicly criticised the Tychonic system. In 1601, planets could stay in orbit without being fixed to solid spheres.
Brahe invited him to Prague and was so impressed by his Gravity also meant that the planets must orbit around the Sun.
ideas that he made him his successor. Kepler then used He also modified Kepler’s third law, stating that all the planets
Brahe’s data to develop his three laws of planetary motion. and the Sun orbit around a common centre of mass.

DID YOU KNOW? There is much speculation that Brahe’s life and work provided inspiration for Shakespeare’s Hamlet

Kepler collaborated with Brahe and Top 5 facts:
continued his work after he died Tycho Brahe

Brahe was born a nobleman, The Tychonic system 1Naked eye
but became fascinated by Brahe was the last of the
astronomy at an early age The Tychonic system is a model of the Solar major naked-eye astronomers,
System developed by Brahe. Unlike as it wasn’t until seven years
Copernicus’s heliocentric model (with the Sun after his death that the first
at the centre), he believed that Earth was too telescopes came into use.
‘hulking’ and ‘lazy’ to be continuously in motion.
Religion also played a part in Brahe’s rejection 2Hard nosed
of heliocentrism, and cited the Bible in his work. At the age of 19, Brahe lost
Instead, he suggested a ‘geo-heliocentric’ the bridge of his nose in a
model in which the Earth is at the centre of the sword fight with a fellow
universe, with the Sun and Moon orbiting the student. For the rest of his life
Earth and the other planets orbiting the Sun. he wore a metal prosthesis.

3Tycho the tyrant?
It is rumoured that Brahe
led an oppressive regime on
the island of Hven, and that he
was deeply despised by the
people living there.

4Murder mystery
It was suggested that
Brahe had been poisoned, but
after being exhumed from his
grave in 2010, results indicated
that he probably died from a
burst bladder or similar.

5Lunar legacy
Craters Tycho on the Moon
and Tycho Brahe on Mars are
named after Brahe.

and it was from this that the term ‘nova’ came workshops where Brahe designed and built Benátky nad Jizerou. Here he was responsible
into common use to describe a new star. new instruments. He was able to make for compiling the Rudolphine Tables –
incredibly accurate observations – they were astronomical tables that allowed calculations
After another tour abroad, King Frederick II, said to be more accurate than any before. of the planetary positions for any time in the
desperate to keep Brahe in Denmark, offered past or future. Here Brahe’s assistant was
him the island of Hven and funding to set up After King Frederick’s death in 1588, Brahe’s Johannes Kepler. Brahe entrusted the
another observatory. In 1576 Uraniborg was popularity declined. In 1599, after falling out continuation of his extensive research to Kepler
built, and later an underground observatory with King Christian IV, Brahe moved to Prague after his death in 1601, who published the
called Stjerneborg. As well as being (then part of Bohemia). Sponsored by Bohemian finished astronomical tables 26 years later.
observatories, they also functioned as king Rudolph II, he built a new observatory at

1576 1577 1599 1601 © Thinkstock; Alamy; Corbis

King Frederick II of Brahe’s observations After a disagreement Brahe suddenly
Denmark offers Brahe with the new Danish contracts a kidney
the island of Hven, of the Great Comet (above) prove king Christian IV or bladder ailment
where he builds the (right), Brahe moves and dies 11 days
Uraniborg observatory. that objects can move through the to Prague, becoming later, aged 54.
Bohemia’s official
celestial spheres. imperial astronomer. 139

Influential figures

Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein

The foremost scientist of his age, Einstein is
considered the most influential physicist of all time

E=mc2 Einstein renounced his Albert Einstein was born on 14 March
German citizenship in 1896 1879, in Ulm, Germany. He is
This equation shows that the considered the most influential
increased relativistic mass of a to avoid military service physicist of the 20th Century, formulating both
body comes from the energy of the theories of special and general relativity,
motion of it when divided by the concepts that still underpin much in the fields
speed of light squared. It shows of physics and astrophysics today. In 1921 he
that mass and energy are the was awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize in
same physical entity and can be Physics for his explanation of the photoelectric
changed into each other directly. effect – a process where electrically charged
particles are released from a substance when
exposed to electromagnetic radiation.
Einstein’s first real contact with science came
when he was a young boy, instigated by his
intrigue with his father’s compass. Confused by
the invisible forces that seemed to be acting
upon the needle, he went through his early
years fascinated by such forces. Spurred on by
reading the work of Aaron Bernstein, which
introduced him to the concepts of electricity
and light, Einstein dedicated his later teenage
years to the nature of light, writing a scientific
paper entitled ‘The Investigation Of The State Of
Aether In Magnetic Fields’.
Despite a great love for the sciences, Einstein
had a troubled education. He skipped classes
while attending the Swiss Federal Polytechnic
School, and his father’s failed business led to
much disruption, with Einstein having to move
frequently. This led to a period where he was
forced to take a position at the Swiss patent
office in Bern, a role significantly less
prestigious than his desired doctorate.
In hindsight, though, the position at the
patent office was ideal, as the work left much
time for him to theorise on the properties and
nature of light. Then, suddenly, in 1905 Einstein
made a breakthrough, starting what is now

A life’s 1896 1905
work
After avoiding military Einstein released four 1908
We chart Einstein’s
phenomenal journey to 1879 1906service, Einstein He becomes
becoming the most papers on the photoelectric lecturer at
influential physicist Einstein is born the University
on 14 March in enrolled in a four-year effect, Brownian motion, of Bern.
140 Ulm, Germany.
mathematics and special relativity and the Einstein receives a

physics teaching equivalence of matter doctoral degree from the

course in Zurich. and energy. University of Zurich.

IFNOOTTHSETIERPS… Stephen Hawking Carl Sagan

The English theoretical physicist has acknowledged a debt American astrophysicist Carl Sagan was a proponent of the
to Einstein. Most famous for his theorems regarding power of science and the importance of Einstein, stating
gravitational singularities, Hawking has published many that: “Those afraid of the universe as it really is will prefer
books. In a recent interview with Time, when asked what he the fleeting comforts of superstition. But those with the
would ask Einstein if he were alive today, Hawking said: “I courage to explore the weave and structure of the cosmos
would ask him why he didn’t believe in black holes.” will penetrate its deepest mysteries.”

DID YOU KNOW? Einstein had an illegitimate daughter born in 1902

Top 5 facts:
Einstein

1Boy of few words
According to reports,
Einstein seldom spoke as a
child and when he did, it was
very slowly. Accounts state he
did this until he was nine.

A photograph of Einstein Einstein’s former summer home in 2Point of inspiration
receiving his United States Germany was confiscated by the Einstein’s interest in
citizenship papers in 1940 Nazis and is currently the subject science was reportedly
of a legal battle over its ownership sparked by his father’s
termed his ‘miracle year’. In that time he compass. At the age of five
published four papers: the first on the While in America, though he was not he thought there must be
photoelectric effect, the second on the immediately convinced that an atomic bomb some force in the apparently
existence of atoms, the third introducing the was possible, Einstein had encouraged the US empty space that acted on
mathematical theory of special relativity and government, including personally writing to the needle.
the fourth on the theory of relativity. Famously, President Roosevelt, to research nuclear chain
Einstein published the last paper almost as an reactions using uranium in response to German 3Slow to start
afterthought, despite it containing the key advances in the field. He did not work directly Einstein did not receive
equation for which he is famous: E=mc2. on the project to build a bomb, despite it being outstanding grades while at
heavily based on his own work. According to school and when he left could
At first the scientific establishment ignored reports, Einstein was on vacation when the first not get a university position.
Einstein’s papers. Fortunately, though, they atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Instead he went to work in the
caught the attention of the foremost scientist of Japan. This action and its aftermath led to him Swiss patent office.
the age: Max Planck, the founder of quantum undertaking anti-nuclear campaigns and
theory. Through Planck, Einstein became a lectures for the rest of his life. 4Nuclear pacifist
respected member of the international Einstein was a pacifist
community, attending the prestigious Solvay Einstein’s later years saw him pioneer and while initially supporting
conferences and being offered important numerous key theories including wormholes, the use of atomic weapons as
positions at Europe’s foremost universities. multi-dimensional models and the possibility a deterrent, later campaigned
of time travel, as well as discovering his unified for nuclear disarmament and
After completing his theory of general field theory. The latter was to be an all- world peace.
relativity in November 1915, Einstein’s work was embracing theory that would unify the forces
interrupted by World War I. Being a life-long of the universe and physics into one 5Man with two brains
pacifist, Einstein opposed the war and spoke framework. The theory was never completed, After his death in 1955,
frequently on its folly. After its conclusion, however, with Einstein dying of an aortic Einstein’s brain was removed
Einstein toured the world, but his period away aneurysm in 1955. for preservation by Thomas
from Europe was soon to be made permanent, Stoltz Harvey in an attempt
with Einstein fleeing Nazi Germany in 1933. He to discover what made him
settled in America and was granted US so intelligent.
citizenship in 1940.
“In 1905 Einstein made a breakthrough,
starting his ‘miracle year’”

1911 1912 1915 1919 1921 1933 © Roland zh; NASA

Einstein moves Einstein moves back to Einstein completes A solar eclipse 16 years after its Einstein and his family
to Prague, Switzerland, taking up a his general theory provides dramatic publication in 1905, flee from Nazi Germany
where he acts as professorship at his alma of relativity. observable evidence Einstein wins the to settle in the United
professor at the mater, the Swiss Federal that his general theory of Nobel Prize in Physics States. He works at the
Karl-Ferdinand Institute of Technology relativity is correct, making for his work on the Institute of Advanced
University. in Zurich. him a worldwide celebrity. photoelectric effect. Study at Princeton.

141

Influential figures

Max Planck

Max Planck If you had to choose two scientists of
the 20th century whose work most
The father of quantum physics, Max Planck was one affected its course and discoveries,
of the foremost theoretical physicists of the 20th the first would no doubt be Albert Einstein, but
century whose work ushered in a new era of science the second could be Max Planck. Einstein’s
theory of relativity revolutionised how humans
Planck pioneered quantum mechanics perceived and understood space and time,
in a paper delivered to the German while theoretical physicist Planck’s
Physical Society in 1900 development of quantum theory, with his
probing work into atomic and subatomic
processes, radically transformed how physics
was understood and directly led to many other
discoveries and inventions that still have a
widespread impact today.
Easily Max Planck’s most important
discovery was his realisation that the energy of
electromagnetic waves is contained within
indivisible ‘quanta’ packets that have to be
radiated or absorbed as a whole. This is
commonly referred to as Planck’s black-body
radiation law and, as can be seen in detail
within ‘The big idea’ boxout explanation, it is
both simple and incredibly enlightening.
However, when Planck delivered his research
for the first time in 1900, it was anything but,
with its suggestions seemingly conflicting
directly with all of classical physics. Indeed,
even Planck himself did not fully believe his
law was correct, only reluctantly deducing it
through a cold sense of logic.
His remarkable discovery was not recognised
either by the existing scientific establishment,
with recognition only coming after Einstein
himself adopted the idea of quanta and later
introduced the follow-on theory of wave-
particle duality in 1909. Following this, Planck
was suddenly seen as the genius he had always

“Planck was suddenly seen as
the genius he had always been
and became one of the most
prominent scientists of the
early-20th century”

A life’s 1858 1864 1878 1880 1885
work
He is born Max Experiences war After graduating early Planck presents his Planck is appointed associate
Events that sculpted Karl Ernst Ludwig from the Maximilians habilitation thesis entitled
the life of one of the Planck in Kiel, the first hand as Prussian and Austrian school in Munich, he Equilibrium States Of professor of theoretical physics
20th century’s Duchy of Holstein travels to Berlin to study, Isotropic Bodies At
leading physicists in the German troops march through Kiel during passing his exams with Different Temperatures at the University of Kiel.
Confederation. flying colours. and becomes a private
the Second Schleswig War. lecturer in Munich.

142

IFNOOTTHSETIERPS… Max von Laue Gustav Ludwig Hertz

Max von Laue was a student under Max Planck and later A German experimental physicist and another Nobel prize
Nobel prize winner, receiving the prestigious award for his winner, Gustav Ludwig Hertz was one of Max Planck’s
discovery of the diffraction of X-rays by crystals. For four earliest students, later going on to win the prestigious
decades he was one of the foremost scientists in Germany physics accolade for his experiments into inelastic electron
and spent many years re-organising Germany’s broken collisions in gases. Indeed, Hertz had one of the longest
scientific institutions post-WWII. careers of any of Planck’s students, dying aged 88 in 1975.

DID YOU KNOW? The asteroid 1069 was named after Planck as ‘Stella Planckia’ in 1938

Max Planck working in his study in Top 5 facts:
1918 – the year he was awarded Max Planck
the Nobel Prize in Physics
1Name change
been and became one of the most prominent The big idea Max Planck was born Karl
scientists of the early-20th century, attending Ernst Ludwig Marx Planck,
among numerous others, the celebrated Solvay Planck’s law is a mathematical relationship formula created in but by the age of ten he began
Conference in Brussels in 1911. 1900 by Max Planck to explain the spectral-energy signing his name as simply
distribution of radiation emitted by an idealised black-body ‘Max’. He would continue to
Indeed, famously it was due to Planck’s input phenomenon. Key was Planck’s assumption that sources of use this for the rest of his
at the conference that Henri Poincaré – the most radiation are atoms in a state of oscillation and that the life, largely abandoning his
famous mathematical physicist of the 19th vibrational energy of each atomic oscillator may have a series other forenames.
century – could provide mathematical proof of discrete values but never any fixed value between. This
that Planck’s radiation law required the discovery, along with the ground-breaking work of Albert 2Special theory
existence of quanta and, as a knock-on effect, Einstein, led directly to the end of the age of classical physics. Max Planck was one of the
converted many of Europe’s top scientists to first physicists to understand
this new quantum theory. the importance of Albert
Einstein’s theory of relativity,
And so quantum theory was born, and over using his influence to promote
the following decades it was built upon and the young Einstein’s seminal
expanded by some of the most well-known work and expand upon it.
scientists of all time. From Einstein to Niels
Bohr, Erwin Schrödinger to Paul Dirac, Planck 3Manifesto
– as the father of quantum theory – had given Max Planck was one of the
them an entirely new way to look at and German scientists who signed
understand the processes of the physical world the Manifesto of the Ninety-
– one which they would go on to explore in Three, a 1914 proclamation that
much more detail through the nuclear age. supported the German military
actions in the early period of
World War I. He later regretted
signing the declaration.

4Highest authority
After World War I Planck
was considered the highest
scientific authority in the whole
of Germany and consequently
held positions at Berlin
University, the Prussian
Academy of Sciences and the
German Physical Society.

5Resistant
During WWII Planck was
one of very few scientists to
remain in Nazi-led Germany.

1892 1900 1918 1928 1947 © Corbis

After years of Planck outlines for the Max Planck receives the The German Physical Max dies at the
lecturing, Planck is first time his famous Society creates the Max
made full professor black-body radiation Nobel Prize in Physics for Planck medal and enshrines age of 89 in his last
at the prestigious law to the German it as the highest accolade
University of Berlin. Physical Society. his groundbreaking work that they can bestow. home situated in

on quantum theory. Göttingen, Germany.

143

Influential figures

Michael Faraday

Michael Faraday Michael Faraday was born in 1791 to a
poor family who couldn’t afford to
The scientist behind electromagnetic induction educate him. Few could have guessed
who played a key role in inspiring Einstein… that he would go on to massively advance our
understanding of electricity and more. He
Faraday was a chemist as well as a learned to read and write at Sunday school, and
physicist, who investigated liquefied became a bookbinder’s apprentice in his teens.
gases, optical glass and electrolysis Faraday loved to read and he worked his way
through the books that he was binding,
developing a keen interest in chemistry,
electricity and magnetism. His newfound
interest in science led him to attend a series of
four lectures by chemist Humphry Davy, where
he took extensive notes in the hope of securing
employment at the Royal Institution.
Eventually, his persistence paid off and he
managed to get a job working as a laboratory
assistant to Professor Davy.
Faraday worked for Davy for several years,
during which time the pair travelled to Europe.
While with Davy, Faraday made several
discoveries in the field of chemistry, including
identification of the ring-shaped hydrocarbon
benzene. He also made two new chemical
compounds: hexachloroethane, which now
forms the basis of military smoke grenades, and
tetrachloroethylene, which is widely used to
dry-clean clothes even to this day.
Faraday’s major breakthroughs were not in
chemistry though but in physics. In 1820, Hans
Christian Oersted discovered that an electrical
current could produce a magnetic field. Faraday
was convinced that the opposite must also be
true, and began his most influential work on
electromagnetic induction. His first discovery
came shortly after, when he showed that by
wrapping two insulated coils of wire around an
iron ring a current could be transferred from
one coil to another in a process known as
mutual inductance.
Keen to further this research, Faraday
continued investigating the electromagnetic
properties of materials, and this led to his
greatest achievement of all in 1831 – the
discovery of electromagnetic induction (see
‘The big idea’ for more information).

A life’s 1791 1805 1813 1821 1824
work
Michael Faraday is Faraday starts He works as Faraday discovers the He is elected
We highlight some key born in Surrey, UK,
events from Faraday’s to James Faraday work as a bookbinder’s assistant to Professor principle behind the electric a fellow of the
electrifying career in and Margaret
the 19th century Hastwell. apprentice. During this time he Humphry Davy, making motor, using the idea of Royal Society.

144 develops an interest in science. several advances in the field. electromagnetic rotation.

IFNOOTTHSETIERPS… James Clerk Maxwell Albert Einstein

James Clerk Maxwell was a Scottish physicist best known The work of both Faraday and Maxwell inspired Einstein, and
for his work on electricity, magnetism and optics. His he kept pictures of both scientists on the wall of his study,
theories on electromagnetism are underpinned by Faraday’s alongside an image of Isaac Newton. Einstein’s major work
experimental work. Maxwell attended many lectures at the was to reconcile Newton’s classical laws of physics with the
Royal Institution and met Faraday on several occasions. He new laws of electromagnetism, pioneered by scientists by
was more mathematically minded than his colleague. the work of Faraday and Maxwell.

DID YOU KNOW? Due to family money contstraints Faraday left school at the age of 13 to earn money

The big idea “Faraday worked his way through the
books that he was binding, gaining interest
Faraday was a prolific scientist, but is best in chemistry, electricity and magnetism”
known for his work on electromagnetic
induction. Faraday’s Law states that a change in Faraday declined Top 5 facts:
the magnetic environment near to a coil of wire knighthood and Michael
will induce a voltage in the coil. Faraday presidency of the Faraday
developed a spinning copper disc, which Royal Society twice
rotates next to a static magnetic field (provided 1No one-trick pony
by a bar magnet). As the disc spins through the Faraday developed an early
magnetic field, a potential difference is version of the Bunsen burner
generated between the centre and the edge of and also discovered the laws
the disc, creating a steady direct current. of electrolysis.
Faraday’s disc was inefficient, but it provided
the basis for the development of transformers,
inductors, electrical motors and generators.

2Nanoparticles
Faraday was the first to
report nanoparticles’
properties, noticing that gold
colloids (sub-micrometre-sized
gold particles dispersed in a
liquid) have different
properties to solid gold.

Faraday’s work on electromagnetism sparked Faraday worked at the Royal 3Modest man
the interest of other scientists and Institution in London, where he He declined a knighthood
mathematicians, which led to William developed his theories in the offered by Queen Victoria, and
Thomson writing to him, suggesting that it was fields of physics and chemistry refused to accept presidency of
mathematically possible for magnets to alter the Royal Society twice.
the plane of polarised light. Faraday had been
interested in this idea himself for a very long 4Christmas Lectures
time, conducting experiments to show how Faraday founded the Royal
light and magnetic fields interact with each Institution’s (RI) Christmas
other. This was one of the first steps towards the Lectures. To this day, fun
realisation that visible light is actually science demonstrations for
electromagnetic radiation. children are broadcast every
Christmas in the UK by the RI.
Later in life Faraday’s health declined, but he
continued to lecture at the Royal Institution. His 5Competition
scientific contributions were acknowledged by Italian priest Francesco
the royal family and, in 1858, Faraday moved to Zantedeschi and US scientist
a home in Hampton Court, granted to him by Joseph Henry were working on
Queen Victoria. He died in 1867 and, having electromagnetic induction too.
previously refused a burial site at Westminster Which man came up with the
Abbey, he was buried in Highgate Cemetery. idea first is still contested.

1825 1831 1858 1867 © Corbis

Faraday is appointed He discovers the principle Faraday moves Faraday dies, aged 75,
director of the laboratory of electromagnetic
at the Royal Institution, induction and invents to Hampton Court, awarded at his home in Hampton
beginning the Christmas the electromagnetic
Lecture series. generator. to him by Queen Victoria for Court. He is buried in

his services to science. Highgate Cemetery.

145

Influential figures

Alfred Nobel

Alfred Nobel
After exploding into the history books, this
Swede sought to leave an academic legacy

Few scientists have left a legacy more Alfred Bernhard Nobel was born in Nobel was also interested in other
noble than Alfred Nobel. This Swedish Stockholm, Sweden, on 21 October 1833 to aspects of chemistry, including the
chemist not only invented dynamite, Immanuel and Andriette. His mechanical manufacture of synthetic rubber,
but also urged other scientists to explore new engineer father enjoyed varying degrees of leather, artificial silk and more
avenues of study by establishing the world’s success with a number of inventing and
most prestigious accolade for intellectual manufacturing business ventures. In 1837, recognised the industrial potential of this
achievement: the Nobel prize. however, Immanuel left in search of better explosive, the use of nitroglycerin was just not
Since the award was founded in 1901, the fortune in Russia. By 1842 he had established a practical due to its unstable nature. The
greatest minds have been rewarded for their profitable business producing equipment for challenge was to find a way to control
services to the advancement of science and the Russian military, and so the rest of the nitroglycerin so it could be safely handled.
other arts. This peer-assessed award, Nobel Nobel family moved out to join him.
hoped, would inspire people to push the Nobel spent many years perfecting the
boundaries for the benefit of humanity. Past Together with his three brothers – Robert, formula for his explosives, as well as inventing
winners include such geniuses as Albert Ludwig and Emil – Alfred was home-educated and developing detonation devices. Eventually
Einstein, Marie Curie and Alexander Fleming. by private tutors. Taking a cue from his his research led him to discover a way to make
entrepreneurial father, who also designed and nitroglycerin stable and practical for the
The big idea made mines, Alfred developed a talent for construction and mining industries. This
chemistry – and explosives in particular. In development was the invention of dynamite
Nobel’s work with nitroglycerin led him to 1850 Alfred travelled to Paris to study chemistry (see ‘The big idea’ boxout), for which Nobel
experiment with different additives to stabilise under French professor Théophile-Jules obtained the patent in 1867. With a commercial
the oily liquid. One of Nobel’s early ‘big ideas’ was Pelouze, who had been carrying out product on his hands, Nobel became a
the invention of a functioning detonator, which experiments using concentrated nitric acid to wealthy man at the heart of a brand-new
he designed first as a simple wooden plug and develop explosive materials in his laboratory. industry. He established some 16 factories
developed into the patented blasting cap, which
was fitted with a small primary charge that could On his return to Russia Nobel began working
be detonated by a strong shock. While the in his father’s factory manufacturing military
detonators were groundbreaking, it was Alfred’s equipment for the Crimean War. Once the
chemistry that really put him on the map. conflict was over in 1856, however, the company
struggled to turn a profit and, by 1859, the firm
To make nitroglycerin safer, Nobel spent years had gone bust, forcing the Nobels to return to
developing the formula; several labs and factories Sweden. Alfred’s two elder brothers, Robert
were blown up in the process! Before long he and Ludwig, remained in Russia with hopes of
discovered that by adding a very fine inert silica salvaging what was left of the business.
powder called diatomaceous earth, or kieselguhr,
the oily nitroglycerin liquid could be transformed Alfred, meanwhile, started experimenting
into a safer, malleable paste. When shaped into with explosives in his father’s lab. By 1862 he
rods, this paste could be inserted into drilling had set up a small factory in which he began to
holes and detonated in order to blast rock for manufacture an exciting but highly volatile
mining. And the name of this material? Dynamite. explosive called nitroglycerin, which had
recently been invented by another of Pelouze’s
students: Ascanio Sobrero. While Nobel

A life’s 1833 1837 1850 1862

work Alfred Nobel’s After being reunited In a quest to develop
Bernhard father (right) with his father new products for
moves away in Russia, Nobel his father’s shop,
Nobel is born from the family to Finland and travels to France. In Nobel embarks on
then St Petersburg to start up Paris he is employed the research into
The explosive in Stockholm, a mechanical workshop. The in the laboratory of nitroglycerin that will
business goes bankrupt in 1856. chemist TJ Pelouze. lead to dynamite.
timeline of the Sweden, on

inventor of dynamite 21 October.

146

5TOP Factory tragedy Lived to work The richest hobo Controversial will Dynamite diamonds
FACTS
1 In 1864, two years after the 2 Alfred was a workaholic and 3 Upon his death it was 4 The Royal Swedish 5 Organisations like the
ALFRED NOBEL invention of Nobel’s first never married nor had realised that Nobel had not Academy of Sciences South African De Beers
detonator, in an unrelated children. At one point he did been registered as a resident claimed there were diamond-mining company
incident, his younger brother, place a newspaper advert of any country, earning him insufficient instructions in were inspired to find use
Emil, was killed when one of seeking a secretary and the nickname ‘the richest Nobel’s will about awarding dynamite for blasting rock
Nobel’s factories exploded. household supervisor. vagabond in Europe’. the prizes. in its mines.

DID YOU KNOW? As a child, Alfred became fluent in English, French, German and Russian, as well as his native Swedish

for producing explosives in almost as In the first 20 years “He bequeathed much of his
many countries. after dynamite was wealth to the establishment of an
patented, 66,500 annual prize that he hoped would
Nobel died aged 63 at his home in San tons was produced
Remo, Italy. Without the help of a lawyer, a across the globe stimulate scientific progress”
year before his death Nobel had signed his
last will and testament. In it he passed much In their footsteps…
of his wealth to the establishment of an
annual prize that he hoped would stimulate Ragnar Sohlman
scientific progress. He wrote: ‘The whole of
my remaining realisable estate shall be Swedish chemical engineer Ragnar Sohlman became Nobel’s
dealt with in the following way: the capital, personal assistant when he moved to San Remo in 1883.
invested in safe securities by my executors, Together with civil engineer Rudolf Lilljequist, Sohlman was
shall constitute a fund, the interest on which appointed executor of Nobel’s will. He fought both family and
shall be annually distributed in the form of awarding bodies contesting the will to ensure the Nobel prize
prizes to those who, during the preceding was set up. Sohlman was also creator of the Nobel Foundation
year, shall have conferred the greatest and became its executive director from 1929-1946.
benefit on mankind.’
Albert Einstein

Without a doubt one of the most renowned Nobel laureates
since the award was set up is Albert Einstein, who received the
Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921. In 1905 he had published four
pioneering papers: on the photoelectric effect, Brownian
motion, the special theory of relativity and equivalence of
matter and energy (E=mc2). Einstein famously commented on
the irony that a man credited with developing devastating
explosives used to wage war had created a prize for peace.

1863 1864 1866 1871 1895 1896 © Alamy; Corbis; Adam Redzikowski

Nobel patents Nobel’s brother Keen to make handling After being granted a Nobel’s Nobel dies at
nitroglycerin (a volatile Emil dies while nitroglycerin safer, patent for dynamite last will is
blasting oil) for use as carrying out Nobel finds the oil can in 1867, Nobel sets up signed at the home in San
an industrial explosive nitroglycerin be stabilised by adding the British Dynamite Swedish-
as well as a blasting experiments. diatomaceous earth – Company (later Norwegian Remo, Italy, on
cap detonator to set and dynamite is born. renamed Nobel’s Club in Paris.
off explosions. Explosives Company). 10 December.

147

Influential figures

Peter Higgs

Peter Higgs

Well known in the scientific community
for decades, it’s only with the suspected
discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012 that
this physicist shot into the limelight

We can safely say that the 4 July 2012 existing for infinitely short expanses of time Peter Higgs on a visit
discovery of a new particle, likely to were mentioned, and our collective to the CMS experiment
be the elusive Higgs boson, had to be imaginations were captured. For its namesake at CERN in 2008
the biggest scientific announcement of the year. Peter Higgs though, it must have felt like the
For most, it was enough to know that the Large ultimate validation of his entire career. and Abdus Salam in the late-Sixties – a solution
Hadron Collider (LHC) – that huge, super- to which had eluded the scientific community
expensive particle accelerator in Switzerland Higgs was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK, for some time.
– had given real weight to some decades-old but in 1929. He graduated from King’s College in the
cohesive physical theory. Some impressive University of London with a first-class degree in By 1983 – the same year that Peter Higgs
figures were released, then impossible speeds Physics then went on to secure a Master’s and became a fellow of the Royal Society – the only
and inconceivably small theoretical particles finally a doctorate in 1954. It was during his unproven parts of this electroweak theory were
work as a research fellow and a lecturer that the Higgs field and the Higgs boson, but it took
The big idea Higgs began the basis of a paper that would nearly 20 years and physical experiments of an
help describe the very nature of mass, even if it unprecedented scale in the LHC and beyond, to
The existence of the Higgs boson hasn’t been was completely disregarded at first. Higgs’ work finally draw a line under the Higgs boson.
proven absolutely, but CERN’s experiments did began in quantum field theory – the surreal
confirm the existence of a new particle that is world of the forces that bind subatomic Peter Higgs retired in 1996 from a career that
consistent with Higgs’ theory. For most particles and an exciting new area at the time. also saw him win the Rutherford Medal and the
physicists, there’s no doubt it’s the Higgs Dirac Medal. In the wake of 2012’s CERN
boson. What this particle proves is the His first paper on the Goldstone boson was announcement, he has received praise from
existence of the Higgs field, which allows the picked up and published by a physics journal many notable peers – including Stephen
building blocks of our universe to gain mass edited at the only recently founded CERN in Hawking, who has publicly recommended
and form stars, planets, galaxies and Switzerland that same year. To his dismay him for the Nobel Prize in Physics.
everything around us. Currently, it provides the though, his next paper – finished in 1964 – was
answers to the last few burning questions in rejected on the basis that it bore no relevance to
the Standard Model of Physics, and in the physics. This paper described the radical
future it could prove integral to science. concept of what became known as the Higgs
mechanism, a scalar field present in all points
of space, which gives particles mass. The Higgs
mechanism was independently discovered by
several other leading physicists in the same
year, however none of them made any mention
of a massive boson, which Higgs had gone on to
include in a revision of the same paper.

Higgs’ ideas were used to describe the origins
of particle mass by physicists Steven Weinberg

A life’s 1929 1954 1964 1983 1991
work
Born on 29 May, Finishes his PhD He describes the W and Z bosons Higgs becomes
The big events that the family moves at King’s College Higgs mechanism are discovered, leaving only a fellow at the
led to the discovery around a lot as London (right) and in a paper, which is the Higgs particle to confirm prestigious
of this tiny particle Higgs’ father is a goes on to lecture rejected. He later the electroweak theory. Higgs Institute of
sound engineer at the University revises it to include also enters the Royal Society. Physics, London.
for the BBC. of Edinburgh. the Higgs boson.

148

5TOP High five The ‘God particle’ Need for speed Big Bang Humble Hawking
FACTS
1 Physicists use standard 2 The Higgs boson has been 3 Two of the highest-energy 4 Conditions conducive to the 5 Many who doubted the
PETER HIGGS deviation to determine an nicknamed the ‘God particle’, particle accelerators in the creation of the Higgs boson existence of the Higgs
official discovery or not. At 5 attributed to physicist Leon world were employed to were created by smashing boson, including Professor
sigma, there’s a one in 3.5 Lederman, whose book search for the Higgs boson elementary particles Stephen Hawking, who bet
million chance the Higgs originally referred to it as the – the LHC, and the Fermilab’s together at nearly the speed Gordon Kane $100 that
boson data is a fluke. ‘goddamn particle’. Tevatron, near Chicago, IL. of light. CERN would find nothing.

DID YOU KNOW? Reacting to the discovery, Higgs said “It’s very nice to be right sometimes”

Without the £6.2b ($9b) LHC
at CERN the Higgs boson
would remain only theory

In their footsteps…

Ken Currie Sir David Wallace

The celebrated Scottish artist Higgs was Wallace’s advisor

Ken Currie was commissioned while he was studying a PhD

by the University of Edinburgh in elementary particle theory.

to paint a portrait of Peter Formerly a researcher at

Higgs in 2008. He admitted to Princeton University and a

being inspired by Higgs’ work lecturer at Southampton “During his work as a lecturer Higgs
began the basis of a paper that would
– not claiming to understand University, it’s for his work as help describe the very nature of mass”

his theory, per se, but grasping director of the Edinburgh

the sublime and ‘beautiful’ Parallel Computing Centre

nature of his solution. that he was awarded a CBE.

1996 1997 2004 2011 2012 © CERN; Tom Morris; Philip Alfrey; Thinkstock

Higgs retires and He receives an Another award – this The results of CERN’s The strongest indication
award for his work in time the Israeli Wolf initial experiments of a new particle with
becomes emeritus theoretical physics, Prize in Physics, with the LHC in significant mass is
named after a hero of though Higgs December are announced by CERN in July.
professor at the his: theoretical physicist refuses to fly to extremely positive, For his work, Higgs is made
Paul Dirac (right). Jerusalem to receive but more tests are a Companion of Honour at
University of Edinburgh. it on moral grounds. needed to be certain. the start of 2013.

149

Influential figures

Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin

The father of evolutionary biology, Darwin is the most
famous naturalist of the Victorian era, if not all time

The big idea When he first published his Charles Robert Darwin was an English
ideas, Darwin came under naturalist renowned today for his
A key mechanism in evolution, theories of evolution and natural
natural selection describes how fire from the Church, but he selection, both of which were introduced in his
biological traits become more or has since been vindicated seminal work On The Origin Of Species. The
less common through targeted reproduction book was both lambasted and celebrated on its
within a population. By selectively publication. Early controversy stemmed from
reproducing changes in the gene pool, a its apparent undermining of religious scripture,
species can gradually and non-randomly but it would become one of the most influential
adapt to environmental factors beyond its works of Western society, with the entire field of
control, upping its chances of survival. evolutionary studies arising from it.
Though On The Origin Of Species was
published in 1859, Darwin originally conceived
of evolution by natural selection shortly after an
around-the-world tour starting in 1831. He
embarked on the journey to expand his newly
formed interest in natural history, spending the
trip collecting specimens and analysing many
interesting species, when not suffering from
seasickness. During the expedition on HMS
Beagle he collected over 5,436 skins, bones and
carcasses of various creatures. His experiences
and findings led him to question many of the
accepted beliefs concerning life’s origins.
In 1838 he pinned down his theory of natural
selection proper – see ‘The big idea’ boxout for
more details. Over the next 20 years, he
continued to refine it until he received a letter
from fellow British naturalist Alfred Russel
Wallace proposing a collaboration. The fact that
both men shared the same ideas led to the joint
publication of their research. While Wallace’s
hypotheses on the subject were detailed, his
hands-on research was lacking and Darwin’s
extensive fieldwork won out, with history since
attributing the theory largely to the latter.
The publication of On The Origin Of Species
the following year was therefore a landmark

A life’s 1809 1818 1825 1827 1831
work
Charles Darwin In June, Darwin Darwin signs up for He is admitted to Accepts an
Famous for describing the Christ’s College
evolution of humanity, we is born in Shrewsbury, England. goes to Shrewsbury medical courses at Cambridge to offer to join a voyage on
chart Darwin’s own evolution study not science
through the 19th century His parents are Robert (above) and School as a boarder, the University of but divinity. HMS Beagle which sets

Susannah Darwin. where he studies Edinburgh with elder sail on 27 December.

for seven years. brother Erasmus.

150