KEY INVENTIONS

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 561, 19 June 1933, Page 7

KEY INVENTIONS

DEBT TO BR5T1SH . MECHANICAL PROGRESS DUE TO GENIUS OF. THE RACE. GREAT ACIifEVEMENTS. Th the mechandcal genius of the Britdsh race the world owes an incalculahle debt. Jtt may be said without exa.ggeration that tbe great key inventions axe all of British origin, writes Hugh Sbarp in the1 Melbourne Argus. It "vyas James Watt who devised the first practical steam engine as a general pnrpose prime-rnovei>. It is tru& that Savery, Papin and Newcomen werp explorers in this field; but their engines, besides heing crude in conception, and most extravagant in the consumption of fuel, had but limited usefulness. Indeed, they were suitable only to the operating of slow-moving punips. • Another essentially British invention, which has fevolutionised nieand of trayel, is the railway locomotive. Blenkinsop and. Hedley roughed it out in a form that was suitable to slow work on colliery tranvways, but George Stephenson ' improved on the designs of his predecssors— a.mong whom Trevithick rnust not be forgottfen — .and, in his Roclcet, provided a model on which the modern locomotive is still bhsed. Symington showed that steam power could be rmade iavailahle for th'e proP'ulsion of ships, and the liner of today is a direct rescendant of the quaint little Charlotte Dundas, which, in 1802, proved that a vessel could be naviga.ted independently of the wind. In 1890, when the reciprocating en-g-ine had reached tihe limit of its capacity, it was Charles Parsons who devised the famous turhine associated v;ith his napie. The principle of the turbine differs in no wa y from that of the windmill,. and that principle had been known for centuries; but it was through the .genius of Parsons that th'e principle was applied to a steam-driven motor. Units of more than 40,000 horse-power are scarcely practicable with the reciprocating engine, even on land, but turbine units ■of 300.000 horse-power are now iin operation, and the limit is not in sight. Apart from the enormous increase in output of power for a unit which the turhine has made possible, it is about 25 per cent. more economical th'an the best reciprocating engine. Electrical Power. Another great basic dnvention. of British origin which has had an.extraordinary influence on andr^try and social conditions is that of the eleetric generator, and its corollary, the eleetric motor. The electrical age wa.s ushefed in when that brilliant sdientist, Faraday, carried out his classic experiments with a horseshoe magnet and a copper disk; '^nd proved that eleetric current could be generated hy mechanical means a.t a cost which would be infinitesimal compared with that of generating it by chemical reactions. The principle of the hydraulic press, which, with its variants, is indispensihle in metal works for making large forgings and for bending and riveting, was discovered hy • Joseph Bramah; and it was Nasmyth who gave to foundrymen the almosi equally indispensable steam hammer. The latlie in (its present form may be regardsd as essentially British, too, for Ihough it had been known from ancient times, it never became a machine capable of turning out accurate work cr even heavy work untdl Henry Maudslay devised the slide-rest, a sort of mechanical hand, whieh is moved at a controlled speed truly parallel t'o the work to be turned, and which holds the eutting tool rigidly against the material. If the British possess above all oth'er races the inventive geniusy they possess also the equally valuable gift of being able to turn it to practical account. An Englishman first pereeived how greatly the outp'ut of machines could be increased if natural forces were harnessed to drive them. This is so obvious that it is amazing that not until the eighteenth century was p'ower-driving applied to any machinery except that of the old stone flour mills, which for centuries had been driven either hy water-wheels or windmills. But hy the eighteenth century, when numerous large factories had sprung up in Great Britain, thd demand for something more effio: ent than rnan-power to operate the machines had become insistsnt. Indeed, the need must have been felt lcng before thi's, for Fuller, writipg in the sixteenth century, tells of the weaving and dyeing works that had been established by John Wdnchcomhe. In this there were 200 hand looms, and 100 women were required to card the wool for the weavers. In the dyehouse and other branches of this very considerable factory there were hundreds of employees also, so there were nearly 1000 names on the pay-rol»l. Gro^vth of Factories. Although water-wheels would have been availahle to V/inchcombe's spinnilng mill for the generation of power — windmills woulcj not have been suitable owing to their irregular working — power-drive was not adopted for nearly 200 years after Winchcombe's tim'e. It was Richard Ark wright, the inventor of the spinning jenny, who P'ioneered the way. The jenny so cheapened the production of yarn thait the demand rnpidly outstripped the supply. Arkwright constructed larger jenndes, v/hich were driveii by h'or'sepower, and afterwards hy waterwheels. After this, mechanical power rapidly came into use for driving factories, and as larger powers were required inc^easingly * the steam-engine superseded the wafter-wheel. Twenty years ago and even less. every factory had its own power-. pdant — usually ia 's,tealm.-en§ine ' or an oil-engine. But ajll thait has- changed, or is fast changing. Both' in Australia and elsewhere e.lectric power obtadned frpm >su central source 'is preferred generally. This makes it possible for each machirie or each group of machinqs, to be driven Iby its own motor, in place of heing hel/t-driven I from overhead shafting, as was the "practice "when factories %ad their own

supply of power. Th'e change has made it possible to effect large .savings, for to drive the shafting alone in some factories required about half the total power developed by the engine. Another advarutage of the change is the rapid disappearance of the smokng factory chimneys which used to pollute th'e air of towns and cities. A Dominatmg Position. c U'ntil the . middle of the nineteenth century Great Britain held a domdna.ting position in Europe as a manufacturing country. Indeed, she may almost he said to have been the workshop of the world. This was dule to natural advantages — favcurable geo_ grapbical situation, and, above all, the immense . deposits of high'-grade coal and iron ore that were in close proximity to one another, so that they could be worked cheaply. That position could not he maintained, however, when the countries of Continental Europe began to manufacture increasingly on their accourit, protecting their industries with high tariff harriers. But such is the excellence bf Empire products, machinery and oth'er, that tariff^ barifers cannot iaitogether shut them out of the most highly protected countries. This applies especially, perh'aps, to locomotives, marine engines, steam tractors, and heavy ma- ' chine tools. Durability is the distinguishing ■mark of British machinery. In some other manufactujrling copntrxcs. tli|is quality is not aim'ed at. "Bqy a cheaper machine," the makers say, "that wiil last for a f'ew years, "and then hy the time it is worn out you can afford toscrap it and buy a, new and improved ope." ^There may b:e something to' he said for this policy, hnt'it Jas never been favoured by the British mapufacturer. Thte unequalled. reputation that. British goods have gaiin.ed both within and without th'e Empire goes to show that the general policy of the British manufacturer to give his custbmer the best p'ossible article at fhe lowest possible price has been justified hy results; "