B) the brunels family

Two engineers whose inventions had a major influence on transportation methods were Marc

Isambard Brunel and his only son, Isambard Kingdom Brune. Marc solved the historic problem of underwater tunneling. Isambard, a civil1 and mechanical engineer, was the designer of the first transatlantic steamer.

Marc Isambard Brunel was born on April 25, 1769, in Hacqueville, France. Because of his

Royalist sympathies, he fled to the United States in 1793 during the French Revolution. He held the post of chief engineer of New York.

After Brunel improved a method for loading ships by mechanical means, rather than by hand, he sailed to England in 1799 to market his plans to the British government. A prolific inventor, he also designed machines for sawing timber, boot making, knitting, and printing. In 1818, in his practice as a civil engineer, he patented the tunneling shield, a device that made safe underwater tunneling possible. In 1825 operations began for building the Brunel-designed tunnel under the Thames River.

This project, which had no precedent, was completed in 1842, after great physical and financial difficulties. Brunel, who was knighted for his engineering feat, died in London on Dec. 12, 1849.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel was born in Portsmouth, England, on April 9, 1806. At the age of

19 he was appointed resident-engineer when work on the Thames Tunnel began. Later he served as engineer at the Bristol Docks and also designed several other docks in England. In 1833 he was appointed chief engineer to the Great Western Railway. His introduction of the broad-gauge railway, with tracks 7 feet (2 meters) apart, made possible high speeds that helped stimulate rail progress. Brunel was responsible for building railways in Great Britain and Italy and served as an adviser on projects in Australia and India.

The younger Brunel's outstanding contributions to marine engineering were his three ships, each the largest in the world at its launching date. The Great Western (1837), a wooden paddle vesse,was the first steamship to provide regular transatlantic service. The Great Britain (1843) was the first large vessel driven by a screw propeller. The Great Eastern (1858) achieved fame by laying the first successful transatlantic cable. During the Crimean War, he designed a complete prefabricated hospital building that was shipped in parts to the Crimea and a floating armored barge that was used in warfare. Isambard Brunel died on Sept. 15, 1859, in London.

Notes:

1. civil engineer – инженер строитель

2. tunneling shield – туннельный щит

3. resident-engineer – прораб

4. paddle vessel – колёсное судно

c) GEORGE WESTINGHOUSE (1846 – 1914)

“If I understand you, young man, you propose to stop a railroad train with wind. I have no time to listen to such nonsense.” Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, the powerful railroad owner, thus dismissed George Westinghouse and his new air brake. But within a few years the old hand brakes on trains were replaced with air brakes, launching Westinghouse into a notable career as inventor and industrialist. Westinghouse was born on Oct. 6, 1846, in Central Bridge, N.Y. (the USA). The son of a manufacturer of farm implements, he explored the world of machines at an early age. After serving in both the Union Army and the Navy in the Civil War, Westinghouse received in 1865 his first patent—for a rotary steam engine. In that same year he invented a device for replacing derailed1 freight cars on their tracks. Railroad problems fascinated Westinghouse. Among his other inventions was a device called a frog that allowed wheels on one rail of a track to cross an intersecting rail. He bought various patents on railroad switches and signals and combined them with his own developments into an efficient switching system. The air brake, his greatest invention, was patented in 1869, the same year he organized the Westinghouse Air Brake Company. With various design improvements, the air brake became widely accepted, and the Railroad Safety Appliance Act of 1893 made them compulsory on trains in the United States.

Westinghouse was chiefly responsible for the adoption of alternating current (AC)3 systems for electric power transmission in the United States, which up to the 1880s had used direct current (DC)4 systems. Importing an AC system from Europe, Westinghouse purchased the patents of Nikola Tesla’s AC motor and hired him to improve and modify the motor for use in the power system. Once the new system was ready, advocates of DC power set out to discredit AC power.

Public acceptance of AC power came soon after Westinghouse dramatically proved its advantages at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago (1893). Using incandescent lighting, the fairground was set aglow with light. With buildings set like jewels against the evening sky, the display marked the start of large-scale outdoor lighting and of illuminated advertising signs.

Most of the Westinghouse factories were located in Pittsburgh and associated companies were

established throughout the world. Westinghouse lost most of his control over his industrial empire during the financial panic of 1907. He died in New York City on March 12, 1914.

Notes:

1 to derail – сходить с рельсов

2 switch – стрелочный перевод

3 alternating current – переменный ток

4 direct current – постоянный ток

d)CASEY JONES (1864 – 1900)

Casey Jones was the great American locomotive engineer hero who would not save1 his own life but died doing his duty. Casey worked as an engineer of the American train the Cannon-ball which ran between Tennessee and Mississippi on Illinois Central Railroad. He was a skilful engine-driver and always brought the train in on time. Casey was skilful with the whistle too – the locomotive whistle. He had a special way of blowing it: beginning very softly, rising to a shriek, and dying away. It would2 made people’s hair stand on end3 as the train passed by in the night. “There Casey is going,” they said. On the night of April 29, 1900 when Casey had just finished his own run and brought the Cannon-ball into the town on time, he was said that the engineer of another train fell ill and couldn’tmake his run. Casey offered to substitute his friend and pulled the train out of the station at 11 p.m. The train was already one hour and thirty-five minutes late at the start. Casey wanted to make up the time4 and he ran his locomotive at a high speed. By four o’clock in the morning he had made up most of the time, but suddenly in front of his engine, as he came round a curve, he saw a standing freight train on the rails. “Jump, Sim,” he cried Sim Webb, fireman to Casey Jones, jumped and lived to tell the story. Casey’s body was found with one hand still on the whistle and one on the air-brake.

There is a monument to Casey Jones in his native town in Kentucky. In 1950 the United State Government put out a three-cent stamp in honor of American railroad engineers, which has the portrait of Casey Jones and a picture of the old Locomotive 382.

Notes:

1) would not save – не захотел спасти

2) would – зд: бывало

3) to stand on end – вставать дыбом

4) to make up the time – наверстать время

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