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John Penn (engineer)
John Penn (1805–1878) was an English marine engineer whose firm was pre-eminent in the middle of the 19th century due to his innovations in engine and propeller systems, which led his firm to be the major supplier to the Royal Navy as it made the transition from sail to steam power. He was also president of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers on two occasions. Early life John Penn was born in 1805 in Greenwich, the son of engineer and millwright John Penn (born in Taunton, Somerset, 1770; died 6 June 1843). The senior John Penn had in 1799 started an agricultural engineering business on the site at the junction of Blackheath and Lewisham Roads (close to modern-day Deptford Bridge). It grew in two decades to be one of the major engineering works in the London area. The focus of the firm was mainly in agriculture and more specifically mills for corn and flour. Although John Penn senior lived in Lewisham he stood as a reformist candidate for Greenwich in the December 183 ...
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Greenwich
Greenwich ( , ,) is a town in south-east London, England, within the ceremonial county of Greater London. It is situated east-southeast of Charing Cross. Greenwich is notable for its maritime history and for giving its name to the Greenwich Meridian (0° longitude) and Greenwich Mean Time. The town became the site of a royal palace, the Palace of Placentia from the 15th century, and was the birthplace of many Tudors, including Henry VIII and Elizabeth I. The palace fell into disrepair during the English Civil War and was demolished to be replaced by the Royal Naval Hospital for Sailors, designed by Sir Christopher Wren and his assistant Nicholas Hawksmoor. These buildings became the Royal Naval College in 1873, and they remained a military education establishment until 1998 when they passed into the hands of the Greenwich Foundation. The historic rooms within these buildings remain open to the public; other buildings are used by University of Greenwich and Trinity Laban C ...
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Aaron Manby (ironmaster)
Aaron Manby (15 November 1776 – 1 December 1850) was an English civil engineer and the founder of the Horseley Ironworks, notable for the many fine iron canal bridges that it built. The eponymous Aaron Manby steamboat was the first iron-hulled steamer to go to sea, and it was driven by Manby's patent Oscillating Engine, an effective and durable marine steam engine. Career In 1812 Manby was managing partner of the Horseley Coal and Iron Co, Tipton, Staffordshire. It ran coal mines, blast furnaces to make iron, and assorted workshops. Manby expanded the business into civil engineering. In 1813 Manby obtained patent No 3705 for a means of casting the slag from blast furnaces into blocks for building. In 1815, the firm supplied a cast-iron swing bridge, possibly the first of Horseley's many iron bridges. In 1821, diversifying into mechanical engineering, Manby obtained British Patent No 4558 for his "oscillating engine" designed for use in ships. That same year, Horseley Iro ...
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Gunboat
A gunboat is a naval watercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns to bombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed for naval warfare, or for ferrying troops or supplies. History Pre-steam era In the age of sail, a gunboat was usually a small undecked vessel carrying a single smoothbore cannon in the bow, or just two or three such cannons. A gunboat could carry one or two masts or be oar-powered only, but the single-masted version of about length was most typical. Some types of gunboats carried two cannons, or else mounted a number of swivel guns on the railings. The small gunboat had advantages: if it only carried a single cannon, the boat could manoeuvre in shallow or restricted areas – such as rivers or lakes – where larger ships could sail only with difficulty. The gun that such boats carried could be quite heavy; a 32-pounder for instance. As such boats were cheap and quick to build, naval forces favoured s ...
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HMS Warrior (1860)
HMS ''Warrior'' is a 40-gun steam-powered armoured frigate"Ironclad" is the general term for armoured warships of this period. Armoured frigates were initially designed for the same role as traditional wooden frigates; this later changed as the size and expense of these ships forced them to be used in the line of battle. built for the Royal Navy in 1859–1861. She was the name ship of the ''Warrior''-class ironclads. ''Warrior'' and her sister ship were the first armour-plated, iron-hulled warships, and were built in response to France's launching in 1859 of the first ocean-going ironclad warship, the wooden-hulled ''Gloire''. ''Warrior'' conducted a publicity tour of Great Britain in 1863 and spent her active career with the Channel Squadron. Obsolescent following the 1873 commissioning of the mastless and more capable HMS ''Devastation'', she was placed in reserve in 1875, and was "paid off" – decommissioned – in 1883. She subsequently served as a storeship and ...
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Superheater
A superheater is a device used to convert saturated steam or wet steam into superheated steam or dry steam. Superheated steam is used in steam turbines for electricity generation, steam engines, and in processes such as steam reforming. There are three types of superheaters: radiant, convection, and separately fired. A superheater can vary in size from a few tens of feet to several hundred feet (a few metres to some hundred metres). Types * A radiant superheater is placed directly in radiant zone of the combustion chamber near the water wall so as to absorb heat by radiation. * A convection superheater is located in the convective zone of the furnace usually ahead of economizer (in the path of the hot flue gases). These are also called primary superheaters. * A separately fired superheater is a superheater that is placed outside the main boiler, which has its own separate combustion system. This superheater design incorporates additional burners in the area of superheater pip ...
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Stave Bearing
A stave bearing is a simple journal bearing where a shaft rotates in a bearing housing. Rather than the usual arrangement where the fixed part of the bearing surrounds most of the circumference of the shaft in one or two pieces, a stave bearing uses a large number of axial staves to support the shaft. A large housing is made with grooves running along the shaft, these grooves being filled with strips of suitable material, originally wood. Uses Stave bearings have long been associated with ships and their propeller shafts. The bearing is suitable for slow speeds and high loads. When used on ships, the bearing is designed to run immersed in water, allowing its use outboard of the stern gland or stuffing box. Stave bearings are also well suited to applications such as rudder shafts, where rotation is intermittent and reciprocating, rather than continuous and unidirectional. Other bearing types, such as some ball bearings, don't perform well under this type of use and may fail prematur ...
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Lignum Vitae
Lignum vitae () is a wood, also called guayacan or guaiacum, and in parts of Europe known as Pockholz or pokhout, from trees of the genus ''Guaiacum''. The trees are indigenous to the Caribbean and the northern coast of South America (e.g: Colombia and Venezuela) and have been an important export crop to Europe since the beginning of the 16th century. The wood was once very important for applications requiring a material with its extraordinary combination of strength, toughness, and density. It is also the national tree of the Bahamas, and the Jamaican national flower. The wood is obtained chiefly from ''Guaiacum officinale'' and ''Guaiacum sanctum'', both small, slow-growing trees. All species of the genus ''Guaiacum'' are now listed in Appendix II of CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) as potentially endangered species. ''G. sanctum'' is listed as Near Threatened by the IUCN Red List. Demand for the wood has been red ...
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Steam Ship
A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is a type of steam-powered vessel, typically ocean-faring and seaworthy, that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically move (turn) propellers or paddlewheels. The first steamships came into practical usage during the early 1800s; however, there were exceptions that came before. Steamships usually use the prefix designations of "PS" for ''paddle steamer'' or "SS" for ''screw steamer'' (using a propeller or screw). As paddle steamers became less common, "SS" is assumed by many to stand for "steamship". Ships powered by internal combustion engines use a prefix such as "MV" for ''motor vessel'', so it is not correct to use "SS" for most modern vessels. As steamships were less dependent on wind patterns, new trade routes opened up. The steamship has been described as a "major driver of the first wave of trade globalization (1870–1913)" and contributor to "an increase in international trade that was unprecedented in hum ...
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HMS Agamemnon (1852)
HMS ''Agamemnon'' was a Royal Navy 91-gun battleship ordered by the Admiralty in 1849, in response to the perceived threat from France by their possession of ships of the ''Napoléon'' class. Characteristics She was the first British battleship to be designed and built from the keel up with installed steam power, although, due to the inefficiency of steam engines of the period, it was expected that she would spend much of her time travelling under sail power. She therefore carried a full square rig on three masts, in common with large sailing warships of the period.Parkes. ''British Battleships''. She was named after Agamemnon, the King of Mycenae, who led the Greek forces in the Trojan War. She carried an armament of muzzle loading smooth-bore cannon, typical of warships at this time, on two decks. She was completed in 1852. She was not the first British battleship to be completed with steam power; , a pre-existing square-rigged second-rate, was converted to ancillary stea ...
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HMS Arrogant (1848)
HMS ''Arrogant'' was an early wood screw frigate of the Royal Navy, launched in 1848 and sold in 1867. During the period of 1848–1850 she was commanded by Captain Robert FitzRoy. In 1854 ''Arrogant'' was part of the fleet deployed to the Baltic Sea on the outbreak of the Crimean War, and served in that theatre until 1855. On 15 April 1854 ''Arrogant'' was one of a number of Royal Navy ships that captured the Russian brig ''Patrioten.'' Three of the ship's company, Lieutenant John Bythesea, Captain of the Mast George Ingouville and stoker William Johnstone won Victoria Crosses. Bythesea and Johnstone won theirs after they went ashore in one of the ship's boats on 9 August 1854, intercepted Russian soldiers carrying mailbags, and then forced the soldiers back to the ship along with the mailbags. Ingouville won his VC after heroically saving Arrogant's second cutter under heavy enemy fire off Viborg on 13 July 1855. Later in the Crimean War, four vessels of the Royal ...
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HMS Encounter (1846)
HMS ''Encounter'' was ordered as a First-Class Sloop with screw propulsion on 5 February 1845 to be built at Pembroke, in accordance with the design developed by John Fincham, Master Shipwright at Portsmouth. Her armament was to consist of 8 guns (2 x 85 cwt, 4 x 65 cwt and 2 x 25 cwt). She was to have a more powerful steam engine rated at 360 nominal horsepower. In 1848 she would be altered abaft and lengthened at Deptford prior to completion. A second vessel (''Harrier'') was ordered on 26 March 1846 but after her keel was laid at Pembroke Dockyard, her construction was suspended on 9 September 1846 then cancelled five years later, on 4 April 1851. ''Encounter'' had her armament radically altered in 1850 and she was broken up at Devonport in 1866. ''Encounter'' was the third named vessel since its introduction for a discovery vessel in service in 1616.Colledge ''Harrier'' was the fourth named ship since the name was introduced for a ‘Cruizer’ class fir built 18-gun brig ...
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Henry Maudslay
Henry Maudslay ( pronunciation and spelling) (22 August 1771 – 14 February 1831) was an English machine tool innovator, tool and die maker, and inventor. He is considered a founding father of machine tool technology. His inventions were an important foundation for the Industrial Revolution. Maudslay's invention of a metal lathe to cut metal, circa 1800, enabled the manufacture of standard screw thread sizes. Standard screw thread sizes allowed interchangeable parts and the development of mass production. Early life Maudslay was the fifth of seven children of Henry Maudslay, a wheelwright in the Royal Engineers, and Margaret (''nee'' Whitaker), the young widow of Joseph Laundy. His father was wounded in action and so in 1756 became an 'artificer' at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich (then in Kent), where he remained until 1776 and died in 1780. The family lived in an alley that no longer exists, off Beresford Square, between Powis Street and Beresford Street. Career ...
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