1.
Eric Laithwaite
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Eric Roberts Laithwaite was an English electrical engineer, known as the Father of Maglev for his development of the linear induction motor and maglev rail system. Eric Roberts Laithwaite was born in Atherton, Lancashire, on 14 June 1921, raised in the Fylde, Lancashire and he joined the Royal Air Force in 1941. Through his service in World War II, he rose to the rank of Flying Officer, on demobilization in 1946, he attended the University of Manchester to study electrical engineering. His work on the Manchester Mark I computer earned him his masters degree and his subsequent doctoral work started his interest in linear induction motors. He derived an equation for goodness which parametrically describes the efficiency of a motor in general terms and he became professor of heavy electrical engineering at Imperial College London in 1964 where he continued his successful development of the linear motor. He also worked at applying linear motors on the Tracked Hovercraft until its cancellation, Laithwaite was an able communicator who made many television appearances. Memorable among these were his Royal Institution Christmas Lectures to young people in 1966 and 1974, the latter of these made much of the surprising phenomena of gyroscopes. In 1974, Laithwaite was invited by the Royal Institution to give a talk on a subject of his own choosing and he decided to lecture about gyroscopes, a subject in which he had only recently become interested. His interest had been aroused by an inventor named Alex Jones. After seeing a demonstration of Joness small prototype, Laithwaite became convinced that he had seen something impossible and this was part subject of the BBC science series Horizon - 2015-2016,2. Project Greenglow - The Quest for Gravity Control, at this time, Laithwaite suggested that Newtons laws of motion could not account for the behaviour of gyroscopes and that they could be used as a means of reactionless propulsion. The members of the Royal Institution rejected his ideas and his lecture was not published and they were subsequently published independently as Engineer Through The Looking-Glass. Laithwaite set up Gyron Ltd with William Dawson and, in 1993, see US5860317, GB2289757 and WO9530832 for the US, UK and PCT application for patents respectively. A United States Patent, Number 5860317, was granted in 1999, although Laithwaite is best known for his ideas concerning gyroscopes, he also held an idea concerning moths. It was that they communicate via short wave electromagnetic phenomena. He persisted in this even after the pheromone which they actually use had been isolated. This explanation did not account for where the energy might come from — a matter later taken up by P. S. Callahan. Laithwaite also had a habit of championing the ideas of amateurs over those of experts, such ideas included the ones that there are three types of magnetism and that the 196 problem is not a problem, terminating after relatively few iterations
2.
Alternating current
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Alternating current, is an electric current which periodically reverses direction, whereas direct current flows only in one direction. A common source of DC power is a cell in a flashlight. The abbreviations AC and DC are often used to mean simply alternating and direct, the usual waveform of alternating current in most electric power circuits is a sine wave. In certain applications, different waveforms are used, such as triangular or square waves, audio and radio signals carried on electrical wires are also examples of alternating current. These types of alternating current carry information encoded onto the AC signal and these currents typically alternate at higher frequencies than those used in power transmission. Electrical energy is distributed as alternating current because AC voltage may be increased or decreased with a transformer, use of a higher voltage leads to significantly more efficient transmission of power. The power losses in a conductor are a product of the square of the current and this means that when transmitting a fixed power on a given wire, if the current is halved, the power loss will be four times less. Power is often transmitted at hundreds of kilovolts, and transformed to 100–240 volts for domestic use, high voltages have disadvantages, such as the increased insulation required, and generally increased difficulty in their safe handling. In a power plant, energy is generated at a convenient voltage for the design of a generator, near the loads, the transmission voltage is stepped down to the voltages used by equipment. Consumer voltages vary somewhat depending on the country and size of load, the voltage delivered to equipment such as lighting and motor loads is standardized, with an allowable range of voltage over which equipment is expected to operate. Standard power utilization voltages and percentage tolerance vary in the different mains power systems found in the world, high-voltage direct-current electric power transmission systems have become more viable as technology has provided efficient means of changing the voltage of DC power. HVDC systems, however, tend to be expensive and less efficient over shorter distances than transformers. Three-phase electrical generation is very common, the simplest way is to use three separate coils in the generator stator, physically offset by an angle of 120° to each other. Three current waveforms are produced that are equal in magnitude and 120° out of phase to each other, if coils are added opposite to these, they generate the same phases with reverse polarity and so can be simply wired together. In practice, higher pole orders are commonly used, for example, a 12-pole machine would have 36 coils. The advantage is that lower rotational speeds can be used to generate the same frequency, for example, a 2-pole machine running at 3600 rpm and a 12-pole machine running at 600 rpm produce the same frequency, the lower speed is preferable for larger machines. If the load on a system is balanced equally among the phases. Even in the worst-case unbalanced load, the current will not exceed the highest of the phase currents
3.
Linear motor
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A linear motor is an electric motor that has had its stator and rotor unrolled so that instead of producing a torque it produces a linear force along its length. However, linear motors are not necessarily straight, characteristically, a linear motors active section has ends, whereas more conventional motors are arranged as a continuous loop. The most common mode of operation is as a Lorentz-type actuator, in which the force is linearly proportional to the current. Many designs have been put forward for linear motors, falling into two categories, low-acceleration and high-acceleration linear motors. Low-acceleration linear motors are suitable for trains and other ground-based transportation applications. High-acceleration linear motors are normally rather short, and are designed to accelerate an object to a high speed. High-acceleration linear motors are used in studies of hypervelocity collisions, as weapons. They are usually of the AC linear induction motor design with an active three-phase winding on one side of the air-gap, however, the direct current homopolar linear motor railgun is another high acceleration linear motor design. These magnets can be permanent magnets or energized magnets, the Shanghai Transrapid motor is an LSM. In this design the rate of movement of the field is controlled, usually electronically. For cost reasons synchronous linear motors rarely use commutators, so the rotor often contains permanent magnets, examples include coilguns and the motors used on some maglev systems, as well as many other linear motors. In this design, the force is produced by a moving magnetic field acting on conductors in the field. The two opposing fields will repel each other, thus creating motion as the magnetic field sweeps through the metal, in this design a large current is passed through a metal sabot across sliding contacts that are fed from two rails. The magnetic field this generates causes the metal to be projected along the rails, piezoelectric drive is often used to drive small linear motors. A feasible linear induction motor is described in the U. S, patent 782,312, for driving trains or lifts. The German engineer Hermann Kemper built a model in 1935. In the late 1940s, Dr. Eric Laithwaite of Manchester University, in a single sided version the magnetic repulsion forces the conductor away from the stator, levitating it, and carrying it along in the direction of the moving magnetic field. He called the later versions of it magnetic river, because of these properties, linear motors are often used in maglev propulsion, as in the Japanese Linimo magnetic levitation train line near Nagoya
4.
Induction motor
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An induction motor can therefore be made without electrical connections to the rotor. An induction motors rotor can be either wound type or squirrel-cage type, three-phase squirrel-cage induction motors are widely used in industrial drives because they are rugged, reliable and economical. Single-phase induction motors are used extensively for smaller loads, such as household appliances like fans, although traditionally used in fixed-speed service, induction motors are increasingly being used with variable-frequency drives in variable-speed service. VFDs offer especially important energy savings opportunities for existing and prospective induction motors in variable-torque centrifugal fan, pump, squirrel cage induction motors are very widely used in both fixed-speed and variable-frequency drive applications. Tesla applied for U. S. patents in October and November 1887 and was granted some of these patents in May 1888, in April 1888, the Royal Academy of Science of Turin published Ferrariss research on his AC polyphase motor detailing the foundations of motor operation. George Westinghouse, who was developing an alternating current power system at time, licensed Tesla’s patents in 1888. Tesla was also employed for one year as a consultant, Westinghouse employee C. F. Scott was assigned to assist Tesla and later took over development of the induction motor at Westinghouse. Steadfast in his promotion of development, Mikhail Dolivo-Dobrovolsky invented the cage-rotor induction motor in 1889. Furthermore, he claimed that Teslas motor was not practical because of two-phase pulsations, G. Lamme developed a rotating bar winding rotor. The General Electric Company began developing three-phase induction motors in 1891, by 1896, General Electric and Westinghouse signed a cross-licensing agreement for the bar-winding-rotor design, later called the squirrel-cage rotor. Arthur E. Kennelly was the first to bring out full significance of the i to designate the 90-degree rotation operator in complex number analysis of AC problems. GEs Charles Proteus Steinmetz greatly developed application of AC complex quantities including in terms now commonly known as the induction motors Steinmetz equivalent circuit. Induction motor improvements flowing from these inventions and innovations were such that a 100-horsepower induction motor currently has the same mounting dimensions as a 7. 5-horsepower motor in 1897. In both induction and synchronous motors, the AC power supplied to the motors stator creates a field that rotates in time with the AC oscillations. Whereas a synchronous motors rotor turns at the rate as the stator field. The induction motor stators magnetic field is changing or rotating relative to the rotor. This induces a current in the induction motors rotor, in effect the motors secondary winding. The rotating magnetic flux induces currents in the windings of the rotor, the currents in the rotor windings in turn create magnetic fields in the rotor that react against the stator field
5.
Magnetic levitation
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Magnetic levitation, maglev, or magnetic suspension is a method by which an object is suspended with no support other than magnetic fields. Magnetic force is used to counteract the effects of the gravitational acceleration, Magnetic levitation is used for maglev trains, contactless melting, magnetic bearings and for product display purposes. Magnetic materials and systems are able to attract or press each other apart or together with a dependent on the magnetic field. To calculate the amount of lift, a pressure can be defined. Earnshaws theorem proves that using only paramagnetic materials it is impossible for a system to stably levitate against gravity. However, servomechanisms, the use of materials, superconduction. In some cases the force is provided by magnetic levitation. Static stability means that any small displacement away from a stable equilibrium causes a net force to push it back to the equilibrium point, Earnshaws theorem proved conclusively that it is not possible to levitate stably using only static, macroscopic, paramagnetic fields. Conductors can have a relative permeability to alternating magnetic fields of below one, dynamic stability occurs when the levitation system is able to damp out any vibration-like motion that may occur. Magnetic fields are conservative forces and therefore in principle have no built-in damping and this can permit vibration modes to exist that can cause the item to leave the stable region. Damping of motion is done in a number of ways, external mechanical damping, such as dashpots, from Earnshaws theorem at least one stable axis must be present for the system to levitate successfully, but the other axes can be stabilized using ferromagnetism. The primary ones used in maglev trains are servo-stabilized electromagnetic suspension, with a small amount of mechanical constraint for stability, achieving pseudo-levitation is a relatively straightforward process. If two magnets are mechanically constrained along an axis, for example, and arranged to repel each other strongly. Another geometry is where the magnets are attracted, but constrained from touching by a tensile member, another example is the Zippe-type centrifuge where a cylinder is suspended under an attractive magnet, and stabilized by a needle bearing from below. The attraction from a fixed strength magnet decreases with increased distance, for a stable system, the opposite is needed, variations from a stable position should push it back to the target position. Either system represents examples of ElectroMagnetic Suspension, for a very simple example, some tabletop levitation demonstrations use this principle, and the object cuts a beam of light or Hall effect sensor method is used to measure the position of the object. The electromagnet is above the object being levitated, the electromagnet is turned off whenever the object gets too close, such a simple system is not very robust, far more effective control systems exist, but this illustrates the basic idea. EMS magnetic levitation trains are based on this kind of levitation, The train wraps around the track, the servo controls keep it safely at a constant distance from the track
6.
Charles Wheatstone
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Charles Wheatstone was born in Barnwood, Gloucester. His father was a music-seller in the town, who moved to 128 Pall Mall, London, four years later, Charles, the second son, went to a village school, near Gloucester, and afterwards to several institutions in London. One of them was in Kennington, and kept by a Mrs. Castlemaine, from another he ran away, but was captured at Windsor, not far from the theatre of his practical telegraph. As a boy he was shy and sensitive, liking well to retire into an attic. His father encouraged him in this, and finally took him out of the uncles charge. At the age of fifteen, Wheatstone translated French poetry, some lines of his on the lyre became the motto of an engraving by Bartolozzi. Small for his age, but with a fine brow, and intelligent blue eyes, he visited an old book-stall in the vicinity of Pall Mall. Most of his pocket-money was spent in purchasing the books which had taken his fancy, whether fairy tales, history, or science. One day, to the surprise of the bookseller, he coveted a volume on the discoveries of Volta in electricity and it was written in French, and so he was obliged to save again, until he could buy a dictionary. Then he began to read the volume, and, with the help of his brother, William, to repeat the experiments described in it, with a home-made battery. In constructing the battery, the boy philosophers ran short of money to procure the requisite copper-plates and they had only a few copper coins left. A happy thought occurred to Charles, who was the spirit in these researches, We must use the pennies themselves, said he. At Christchurch, Marylebone, on 12 February 1847, Wheatstone was married to Emma West and she was the daughter of a Taunton tradesman, and of handsome appearance. She died in 1866, leaving a family of five children to his care. His domestic life was quiet and uneventful, Sir Henry Taylor tells us that he once observed Wheatstone at an evening party in Oxford earnestly holding forth to Lord Palmerston on the capabilities of his telegraph. I must get you to tell that to the Lord Chancellor, and so saying, he fastened the electrician on Lord Westbury, and effected his escape. Wheatstone was knighted in 1868, after his completion of the automatic telegraph and he had previously been made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. Some thirty-four distinctions and diplomas of home or foreign societies bore witness to his scientific reputation, the same year he was awarded the Ampere Medal by the French Society for the Encouragement of National Industry
7.
King's College London
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Kings College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom, and a founding constituent college of the federal University of London. Kings was established in 1829 by King George IV and the Duke of Wellington, in 1836, Kings became one of the two founding colleges of the University of London. It is a member of organisations such as the Association of Commonwealth Universities, the European University Association. Kings has five campuses, its main campus on the Strand in central London. In 2015/16, Kings had an income of £738.4 million, of which £193.2 million was from research grants and contracts and as of 2014/15. It has the fifth largest endowment of any university in the United Kingdom, and its academic activities are organised into nine faculties which are subdivided into numerous departments, centres and research divisions. Kings is home to six Medical Research Council centres and is a member of the Kings Health Partners academic health sciences centre, Francis Crick Institute. Kings College London, so named to indicate the patronage of King George IV, was founded in 1829 in response to the controversy surrounding the founding of London University in 1826. The need for such an institution was a result of the religious and social nature of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, which then educated solely the sons of wealthy Anglicans. The secular nature of London University was disapproved by The Establishment, indeed, thus, the creation of a rival institution represented a Tory response to reassert the educational values of The Establishment. Winchilsea and about 150 other contributors withdrew their support of Kings College London in response to Wellingtons support of Catholic emancipation. In a letter to Wellington he accused the Duke to have in mind insidious designs for the infringement of our liberty, the letter provoked a furious exchange of correspondence and Wellington accused Winchilsea of imputing him with disgraceful and criminal motives in setting up Kings College London. The result was a duel in Battersea Fields on 21 March 1829, Winchilsea did not fire, a plan he and his second almost certainly decided upon before the duel, Wellington took aim and fired wide to the right. Accounts differ as to whether Wellington missed on purpose, Wellington, noted for his poor aim, claimed he did, other reports more sympathetic to Winchilsea claimed he had aimed to kill. Honour was saved and Winchilsea wrote Wellington an apology, duel Day is still celebrated on the first Thursday after 21 March every year, marked by various events throughout Kings, including reenactments. Kings opened in October 1831 with the cleric William Otter appointed as first principal, despite the attempts to make Kings Anglican-only, the initial prospectus permitted, nonconformists of all sorts to enter the college freely. William Howley, the governors and the professors, except the linguists, had to be members of the Church of England but the students did not, though attendance at chapel was compulsory. Kings was divided into a department and a junior department, also known as Kings College School
8.
Imperial College London
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Imperial College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom. Its founder, Prince Albert, envisioned an area comprised of the Victoria and Albert Museum, Natural History Museum, Royal Albert Hall, the Imperial Institute was opened by his wife, Queen Victoria, who laid the foundation stone in 1888. Imperial College London was granted a charter in 1907. In the same year, the joined the University of London. The curriculum was expanded to include medicine after merging with several medical schools. In 2004, Queen Elizabeth II opened the Imperial College Business School, Imperial is organized through faculties for Science, Engineering, Medicine, and Business. The main campus is located in South Kensington, the universitys emphasis is on emerging technology and its practical application. Imperials contributions to society include the discovery of penicillin, the development of fibre optics, Imperial is consistently ranked among the top universities in the world. In 2017, it ranked 8th in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, 9th in the QS World University Rankings, in 2015, Imperial was also ranked the most innovative university in Europe, and in 2017 as the 5th most international university in the world. Staff and alumni include 15 Nobel laureates,2 Fields Medalists,70 Fellows of the Royal Society,82 Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and 78 Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences. The Great Exhibition in 1851 was organised by Prince Albert, Henry Cole, Francis Fuller and other members of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce. The Great Exhibition made a surplus of £186,000 used in creating an area in the South of Kensington encouraging culture and education for everyone. Its founder, Prince Albert, envisioned an area composed of the Victoria and Albert Museum, Natural History Museum, Royal Albert Hall. Several royal colleges and the Imperial Institute merged to form what is now Imperial College London, as a result of a movement earlier in the decade, many politicians donated funds to establish the college, including Benjamin Disraeli, William Gladstone and Robert Peel. It was also supported by Prince Albert, who persuaded August Wilhelm von Hofmann to be the first professor, William Henry Perkin studied and worked at the college under von Hofmann, but resigned his position after discovering the first synthetic dye, mauveine, in 1856. It is considered the highest honour given in the chemical industry. The Royal School of Mines was established by Sir Henry de la Beche in 1851, developing from the Museum of Economic Geology and he created a school which laid the foundations for the teaching of science in the country, and which has its legacy today at Imperial. The Royal College of Science was established in 1881, the main objective was to support the training of science teachers and to develop teaching in other science subjects alongside the Royal School of Mines earth sciences specialities
9.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
