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John Ratcliffe Chapman
John Ratcliffe Chapman (1815 – February 4, 1899) was an eminent British engineer and the son of another eminent British engineer, William Chapman, inventor of the Steam Elephant. John Ratcliffe Chapman brought his wife, Mary Pollitt Chapman to America in 1842 on HMS Britannia with the great author Charles Dickens aboard. Dickens mentions Chapman briefly as follows in Chapter II of "American Notes, ". . . and that the gentleman carried more guns with him than Robinson Crusoe, wore a shooting-coat, and had two great dogs on board." Chapman, a man of considerable wealth for the time, purchased several hundred acres along the south shore of Oneida Lake, in Madison County, New York, where he, his wife and their nine sons established many local farms and businesses, including a cheese factory. Chapman invented, designed and manufactured the telescopic rifle sight. He also invented and patented a four-barrel revolving rifle. It is in the possession of a family member living near Rochest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Chapman (engineer)
William Chapman (1749–1832) was an English engineer. Born in Whitby, he worked on the construction of the Old and Humber Docks in Hull, as well as many drainage and canal projects. He is credited with the invention of the bogie and articulation (see Articulated vehicle) for rail vehicles. Personal life William Chapman was born on 7 March 1749 in Whitby. His father, Captain William Chapman, already had three daughters from his first marriage, but William was the first of ten children born to his second wife, Hannah Baynes. He left home in 1765, moving to Barnes, Sunderland, and then to Newcastle. Two years later, he joined the Merchant Navy, and was able to enrol in the Guild of Master Mariners in 1769. Next he set up as a merchant and coal fitter, and with his brother, took out a lease on collieries at St. Anthony's and Wallsend in 1778. Despite initial success, the project ran into financial difficulties, and both men were declared bankrupt in 1782. The failure did not dete ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Steam Elephant
''Steam Elephant'' was an early steam locomotive from North East England. Historiography An illustration of the locomotive first came to modern attention in 1931 and it was then generally assumed to be the work of George Stephenson. More recent interpretation is based on research carried out at Beamish Museum for construction of a replica. This interpretation is based largely on contemporaneous paintings (one being the earliest known oil of a steam locomotive, by an unknown artist) and other material from the Museum archives. It is from the paintings that the name ''Steam Elephant'' has become associated specifically with this locomotive. Description and interpretation ''Steam Elephant'' was a six-wheeled locomotive of Stephenson gauge. It was built for the Wallsend Waggonway, an edge railway now known to have been of gauge. As with Stephenson's Killingworth locomotives of the year before, it had a centre-flue boiler with two vertical cylinders of about set into its to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territories, nine Minor Outlying Islands, and 326 Indian reservations. The United States is also in free association with three Pacific Island sovereign states: the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau. It is the world's third-largest country by both land and total area. It shares land borders with Canada to its north and with Mexico to its south and has maritime borders with the Bahamas, Cuba, Russia, and other nations. With a population of over 333 million, it is the most populous country in the Americas and the third most populous in the world. The national capital of the United States is Washington, D.C. and its most populous city and principal financial center is New York City. Paleo-Americ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era.. His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime and, by the 20th century, critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius. His novels and short stories are widely read today. Born in Portsmouth, Dickens left school at the age of 12 to work in a boot-blacking factory when his father was incarcerated in a debtors' prison. After three years he returned to school, before he began his literary career as a journalist. Dickens edited a weekly journal for 20 years, wrote 15 novels, five novellas, hundreds of short stories and non-fiction articles, lectured and performed readings extensively, was an indefatigable letter writer, and campaigned vigorously for children's rights, for education, and for other social ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
American Notes
''American Notes for General Circulation'' is a travelogue by Charles Dickens detailing his trip to North America from January to June 1842. While there he acted as a critical observer of North American society, almost as if returning a status report on their progress. This can be compared to the style of his '' Pictures from Italy'' written four years later, where he wrote far more like a tourist. His American journey was also an inspiration for his novel ''Martin Chuzzlewit''. Having arrived in Boston, he visited Lowell, New York, and Philadelphia, and travelled as far south as Richmond, as far west as St. Louis and as far north as Quebec. The American city he liked best was Boston – "the air was so clear, the houses were so bright and gay. ..The city is a beautiful one, and cannot fail, I should imagine, to impress all strangers very favourably." Further, it was close to the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind where Dickens encountered Laura Bridgman, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oneida Lake
Oneida Lake is the largest lake entirely within New York state, with a surface area of . The lake is located northeast of Syracuse and near the Great Lakes. It feeds the Oneida River, a tributary of the Oswego River, which flows into Lake Ontario. From the earliest times until the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, the lake was part of an important waterway connecting the Atlantic seaboard of North America to the continental interior. The lake is about long and about wide with an average depth of . The shoreline is about . Portions of six counties and 69 communities are in the watershed. Oneida Creek, which flows past the cities of Oneida and Sherrill, empties into the southeast part of the lake, at South Bay. While not geologically considered one of the Finger Lakes, Oneida Lake, because of its proximity, is referred by some as their "thumb". Because it is shallow, it is warmer than the deeper Finger Lakes in summer and its surface freezes solidly in winter. It is popular for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Madison County, New York
Madison County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2020 census, the population was 68,016. Its county seat is Wampsville. The county is named after James Madison, the fourth president of the United States, and was first formed in 1806. Madison County is part of the Syracuse metropolitan area. History Indigenous peoples had occupied areas around Oneida Lake for thousands of years. The historic Oneida Nation is an Iroquoian-speaking people who emerged as a culture in this area about the fourteenth century and dominated the territory. They are one of the Five Nations who originally comprised the Iroquois Confederacy or ''Haudenosaunee''. English colonists established counties in eastern present-day New York State in 1683; at the time, the territory of the present Madison County was considered part of Albany County, with the city of Albany located on the Hudson River. This was an enormous county, including the northern part of New York State around ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rochester, New York
Rochester () is a City (New York), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, the county seat, seat of Monroe County, New York, Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, and Yonkers, New York, Yonkers, with a population of 211,328 at the 2020 United States census. Located in Western New York, the city of Rochester forms the core of a larger Rochester metropolitan area, New York, metropolitan area with a population of 1 million people, across six counties. The city was one of the United States' first boomtowns, initially due to the fertile Genesee River Valley, which gave rise to numerous flour mills, and then as a manufacturing center, which spurred further rapid population growth. Rochester rose to prominence as the birthplace and home of some of America's most iconic companies, in particular Eastman Kodak, Xerox, and Bausch & Lomb (along with Wegmans, Gannett, Paychex, Western Union, French's, Cons ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Telescopic Sight
A telescopic sight, commonly called a scope informally, is an optical sighting device based on a refracting telescope. It is equipped with some form of a referencing pattern – known as a ''reticle'' – mounted in a focally appropriate position in its optical system to provide an accurate point of aim. Telescopic sights are used with all types of systems that require magnification in addition to reliable visual aiming, as opposed to non-magnifying iron sights, reflector (reflex) sights, holographic sights or laser sights, and are most commonly found on long-barrel firearms, particularly rifles, usually via a scope mount. The optical components may be combined with optoelectronics to add night vision or smart device features. History The first experiments directed to give shooters optical aiming aids go back to the early 17th century. For centuries, different optical aiming aids and primitive predecessors of telescopic sights were created that had practical or pe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Firearm Designers
A firearm is any type of gun designed to be readily carried and used by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see Legal definitions). The first firearms originated in 10th-century China, when bamboo tubes containing gunpowder and pellet projectiles were mounted on spears to make the portable fire lance, operable by a single person, which was later used effectively as a shock weapon in the Siege of De'an in 1132. In the 13th century, fire lance barrels were replaced with metal tubes and transformed into the metal-barreled hand cannon. The technology gradually spread throughout Eurasia during the 14th century. Older firearms typically used black powder as a propellant, but modern firearms use smokeless powder or other propellants. Most modern firearms (with the notable exception of smoothbore shotguns) have rifled barrels to impart spin to the projectile for improved flight stability. Modern firearms can be described by their caliber (i.e. b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1815 Births
Events January * January 2 – Lord Byron marries Anna Isabella Milbanke in Seaham, county of Durham, England. * January 3 – Austria, Britain, and Bourbon-restored France form a secret defensive alliance treaty against Prussia and Russia. * January 8 – Battle of New Orleans: American forces led by Andrew Jackson defeat British forces led by Sir Edward Pakenham. American forces suffer around 60 casualties and the British lose about 2,000 (the battle lasts for about 30 minutes). * January 13 – War of 1812: British troops capture Fort Peter in St. Marys, Georgia, the only battle of the war to take place in the state. * January 15 – War of 1812: Capture of USS ''President'' – American frigate , commanded by Commodore Stephen Decatur, is captured by a squadron of four British frigates. February * February – The Hartford Convention arrives in Washington, D.C. * February 3 – The first commercial cheese factory is founded in S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
