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John Clark (inventor)
John Clark (1785-1853) was a British printer and inventor who created the first automated text generator, the Latin Verse Machine (also known as the Eureka) between 1830 and 1843. Clark also patented a method for rubberising cloth that was used for air beds. Life John Clark was born on 21 November 1785 and died on 23 May 1853. He was a cousin of Cyrus and James Clark, who founded the shoe manufacturing company C. & J. Clark, still doing business as Clark. He was a Quaker. Air beds In 1813 Clark registered a patent for air-tight beds, pillows and cushions. In an article for the Furniture History Society, Edward Joy wrote that this was the first such patent, and that Clark used " unvulcanized rubber filled by means of an air pump." Clark's patent describes various uses for the new technique, including for beds, which would not require stuffing materials other than air. The air pump could be kept beneath the bed. For medical uses, the bed could also be filled with hot steam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Latin Verse Machine
The Eureka, also known as the Latin Verse Machine, is a mid-19th century machine for generating Latin verses, created and exhibited by the Quaker inventor John Clark of Bridgwater. Clark, a cousin of Cyrus Clark, was born at Greinton in Somerset in 1785 and moved to Bridgwater in 1809. There he was first a grocer and later a printer. In 1830 he started work on the Eureka and was able to exhibit it in 1845 in the Egyptian Hall in Picadilly. Visitors, for the admission price of one shilling, could see a machine that resembled a ‘small bureau bookcase’, with six narrow windows in the front. As it prepared each new verse, the machine would play the National Anthem, becoming silent after about a minute, when the verse was complete. Verse production The verses created by the Eureka were gloomy and oracular hexameters, created to a single format, which allowed for many combinations, all metrically sound and (more or less) meaningful. Verses output from the machine included ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the Roman Republic it became the dominant language in the Italian region and subsequently throughout the Roman Empire. Even after the fall of Western Rome, Latin remained the common language of international communication, science, scholarship and academia in Europe until well into the 18th century, when other regional vernaculars (including its own descendants, the Romance languages) supplanted it in common academic and political usage, and it eventually became a dead language in the modern linguistic definition. Latin is a highly inflected language, with three distinct genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter), six or seven noun cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, ablative, and vocative), five declensions, four verb conjuga ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mechanical Computers
A mechanical computer is a computer built from mechanical components such as levers and gears rather than electronic components. The most common examples are adding machines and mechanical counters, which use the turning of gears to increment output displays. More complex examples could carry out multiplication and division—Friden used a moving head which paused at each column—and even differential analysis. One model, the Ascota 170 accounting machine sold in the 1960s calculated square roots. Mechanical computers can be either analog, using smooth mechanisms such as curved plates or slide rules for computations; or digital, which use gears. Mechanical computers reached their zenith during World War II, when they formed the basis of complex bombsights including the Norden, as well as the similar devices for ship computations such as the US Torpedo Data Computer or British Admiralty Fire Control Table. Noteworthy are mechanical flight instruments for early spacecraft, which ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
History Of Computing In The United Kingdom
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well as the memory, discovery, collection, organization, presentation, and interpretation of these events. Historians seek knowledge of the past using historical sources such as written documents, oral accounts, art and material artifacts, and ecological markers. History is not complete and still has debatable mysteries. History is also an academic discipline which uses narrative to describe, examine, question, and analyze past events, and investigate their patterns of cause and effect. Historians often debate which narrative best explains an event, as well as the significance of different causes and effects. Historians also debate the nature of history as an end in itself, as well as its usefulness to give perspective on the problems of the p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Generative Literature
Generative literature is poetry or fiction that is automatically generated, often using computers. It is a genre of electronic literature, and also related to generative art. John Clark's Latin Verse Machine (1830–1843) is probably the first example of mechanised generative literature, while Christopher Strachey's love letter generator (1952) is the first digital example. With the large language models (LLMs) of the 2020s, generative literature is becoming increasingly common. Definitions Hannes Bajohr defines generative literature as literature involving "the automatic production of text according to predetermined parameters, usually following a combinatory, sometimes aleatory logic, and it emphasizes the production rather than the reception of the work (unlike, say, hypertext)." In his book Electronic Literature Scott Rettberg connects generative literature to avant-garde literary movements like Dada, Surrealism, Oulipo and Fluxus. Bajohr argues that conceptual art ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
English Inventors
English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national identity, an identity and common culture ** English language in England, a variant of the English language spoken in England * English languages (other) * English studies, the study of English language and literature * ''English'', an Amish term for non-Amish, regardless of ethnicity Individuals * English (surname), a list of notable people with the surname ''English'' * People with the given name ** English McConnell (1882–1928), Irish footballer ** English Fisher (1928–2011), American boxing coach ** English Gardner (b. 1992), American track and field sprinter Places United States * English, Indiana, a town * English, Kentucky, an unincorporated community * English, Brazoria County, Texas, an unincorporated community * Engl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electronic Literature Writers
Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductor *Electronics (magazine), ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic commerce or e-commerce, the trading in products or services using computer networks, such as the Internet *Electronic publishing or e-publishing, the digital publication of books and magazines using computer networks, such as the Internet *Electronic engineering, an electrical engineering discipline Entertainment *Electronic (band), an English alternative dance band **Electronic (album), ''Electronic'' (album), the self-titled debut album by British band Electronic *Electronic music, a music genre *Electronic musical instrument *Electronic game, a game that employs electronics See also *Electronica, an electronic music genre *Consumer electronics, devices including active (amplifying) electrical components Motherb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Automata (mechanical)
An automaton (; plural: automata or automatons) is a relatively self-operating machine, or control mechanism designed to automatically follow a sequence of operations, or respond to predetermined instructions.Automaton – Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/automaton Some automata, such as bellstrikers in mechanical clocks, are designed to give the illusion to the casual observer that they are operating under their own power. Since long ago, the term is commonly associated with automated puppets that resemble moving humans or animals, built to impress and/or to entertain people. Animatronics are a modern type of automata with electronics, often used for the portrayal of characters in films and in theme park attractions. Etymology The word "automaton" is the latinization of the Ancient Greek , , (neuter) "acting of one's own will". This word was first used by Homer to describe an automatic door opening, or au ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Analog Computers
An analog computer or analogue computer is a type of computer that uses the continuous variation aspect of physical phenomena such as electrical, mechanical, or hydraulic quantities (''analog signals'') to model the problem being solved. In contrast, digital computers represent varying quantities symbolically and by discrete values of both time and amplitude (digital signals). Analog computers can have a very wide range of complexity. Slide rules and nomograms are the simplest, while naval gunfire control computers and large hybrid digital/analog computers were among the most complicated. Complex mechanisms for process control and protective relays used analog computation to perform control and protective functions. Analog computers were widely used in scientific and industrial applications even after the advent of digital computers, because at the time they were typically much faster, but they started to become obsolete as early as the 1950s and 1960s, although they remained ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1853 Deaths
Events January–March * January 6 – Florida Governor Thomas Brown signs legislation that provides public support for the new East Florida Seminary, leading to the establishment of the University of Florida. * January 8 – Taiping Rebellion: Zeng Guofan is ordered to assist the governor of Hunan in organising a militia force to search for local bandits. * January 12 – Taiping Rebellion: The Taiping army occupies Wuchang. * January 19 – Giuseppe Verdi's opera ''Il Trovatore'' premieres in performance at Teatro Apollo in Rome. * February 10 – Taiping Rebellion: Taiping forces assemble at Hanyang, Hankou, and Wuchang, for the march on Nanjing. * February 12 – The city of Puerto Montt is founded in the Reloncaví Sound, Chile. * February 22 – Washington University in St. Louis is founded as Eliot Seminary. * March – The clothing company Levi Strauss & Co. is founded in the United States. * March 4 – Inauguration of Franklin Pierce as 14th President of the U ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1785 Births
Events January–March * January 1 – The first issue of the ''Daily Universal Register'', later known as ''The Times'', is published in London. * January 7 – Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard and American John Jeffries travel from Dover, England to Calais, France in a hydrogen gas balloon, becoming the first to cross the English Channel by air. * January 11 – Richard Henry Lee is elected as President of the U.S. Congress of the Confederation.''Harper's Encyclopaedia of United States History from 458 A. D. to 1909'', ed. by Benson John Lossing and, Woodrow Wilson (Harper & Brothers, 1910) p167 * January 20 – Battle of Rạch Gầm-Xoài Mút: Invading Siamese forces, attempting to exploit the political chaos in Vietnam, are ambushed and annihilated at the Mekong River, by the Tây Sơn. * January 27 – The University of Georgia in the United States is chartered by the Georgia General Assembly meeting in Savannah. The first students are ad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Don Juan (poem)
In English literature, ''Don Juan'' (1819–1824), by Lord Byron, is a satirical, epic poem that portrays the Spanish legend of Don Juan not as a womaniser, but as a man easily seduced by women.English 151-03 ''Byron's 'Don Juan' notes'' , Gregg A. Hecimovich As genre literature, ''Don Juan'' is an , written in '''' and presented in sixteen cantos. Lord Byron derived the character, but not the story, from the same Spanish legend. Upon publication in 1819, cantos I and II were criticised as immoral, because the author B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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