1.
Norfolk
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Norfolk /ˈnɔːrfək/ is a county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the west and north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea and, to the north-west, The Wash. With an area of 2,074 square miles and a population of 859,400, of the countys population, 40% live in four major built up areas, Norwich, Great Yarmouth, Kings Lynn and Thetford. The Broads is a network of rivers and lakes in the east of the county, the area is not a National Park although it is marketed as such. It has similar status to a park, and is protected by the Broads Authority. Norfolk was settled in times, with camps along the higher land in the west. A Brythonic tribe, the Iceni, inhabited the county from the 1st century BC to the end of the 1st century AD, the Iceni revolted against the Roman invasion in AD47, and again in 60 led by Boudica. The crushing of the second opened the county to the Romans. During the Roman era roads and ports were constructed throughout the county, situated on the east coast, Norfolk was vulnerable to invasions from Scandinavia and Northern Europe, and forts were built to defend against the Angles and Saxons. Norfolk, Suffolk and several adjacent areas became the kingdom of East Anglia, the influence of the Early English settlers can be seen in the many place names ending in -ton and -ham. Endings such as -by and -thorpe are also common, indicating Danish place names, in the 9th century the region came under attack. In the centuries before the Norman Conquest the wetlands of the east of the county began to be converted to farmland, and settlements grew in these areas. Migration into East Anglia must have high, by the time of the Domesday Book survey it was one of the most densely populated parts of the British Isles. During the high and late Middle Ages the county developed arable agriculture, the economy was in decline by the time of the Black Death, which dramatically reduced the population in 1349. During the English Civil War Norfolk was largely Parliamentarian, the economy and agriculture of the region declined somewhat. During the Industrial Revolution Norfolk developed little industry except in Norwich which was an addition to the railway network. In the 20th century the county developed a role in aviation, during the Second World War agriculture rapidly intensified, and it has remained very intensive since, with the establishment of large fields for growing cereals and oilseed rape. Norfolks low-lying land and easily eroded cliffs, many of which are chalk and clay, make it vulnerable to the sea, the low-lying section of coast between Kelling and Lowestoft Ness in Suffolk is currently managed by the Environment Agency to protect the Broads from sea flooding
2.
The Crystal Palace
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The Crystal Palace was a cast-iron and plate-glass structure originally built in Hyde Park, London, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. More than 14,000 exhibitors from around the world gathered in its 990, designed by Joseph Paxton, the Great Exhibition building was 1,851 feet long, with an interior height of 128 feet. It stood there from 1854 until its destruction by fire in 1936, Crystal Palace F. C. were founded at the site in 1905 and played at the Cup Final venue in their early years. The park still contains Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkinss Crystal Palace Dinosaurs which date back to 1854, the Commission in charge of mounting the Great Exhibition was established in January 1850, and it was decided at the outset that the entire project would be funded by public subscription. Within three weeks, the committee had received some 245 entries, including 38 international submissions from Australia, turner was furious at the rejection, and reportedly badgered the commissioners for months afterwards, seeking compensation, but at an estimated £300,000, his design was too expensive. Opponents of the scheme lobbied strenuously against the use of Hyde Park, the most outspoken critic was arch-conservative Col. At this point renowned gardener Joseph Paxton became interested in the project, the lily and its house led directly to Paxtons design for the Crystal Palace and he later cited the huge ribbed floating leaves as a key inspiration. Paxton left his 9 June 1850 meeting with Henry Cole fired with enthusiasm and he immediately went to Hyde Park, where he walked the site earmarked for the Exhibition. Two days later, on 11 June, while attending a meeting of the Midland Railway, Paxton made his original concept drawing. In the event, Paxtons design fulfilled and surpassed all the requirements, would cover roughly twenty-five times the ground area of its progenitor. He was exultant, but now had less than eight months to finalize his plans, manufacture the parts and erect the building in time for the Exhibitions opening, which was scheduled for 1 May 1851. Paxton was able to design and build the largest glass structure yet created, from scratch, in less than a year, Paxtons modular, hierarchical design reflected his practical brilliance as a designer and problem-solver. These were the largest available at the time, measuring 10 inches wide by 49 inches long, the original Hyde Park building was essentially a vast, flat-roofed rectangular hall. A huge open gallery ran along the axis, with wings extending down either side. The main exhibition space was two stories high, with the upper floor stepped in from the boundary. Most of the building had a roof, except for the central transept. Both the flat-profile sections and the transept roof were constructed using the key element of Paxtons design - his patented ridge-and-furrow roofing system. The basic roofing unit, in essence, took the form of a triangular prism
3.
Windmill sail
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Windmills are powered by their sails. Sails are found in different designs, from primitive common sails to the patent sails. The jib sail is found in Mediterranean countries and consists of a triangle of cloth wound round a spar. The mill must be stopped in order to adjust the reefing of the sail, though rare in the UK, at least two windmills are known to have had jib sails. The common sail is the simplest form of sail, in medieval mills, the sailcloth was wound in and out of a ladder-type arrangement of sails. Medieval sails could be constructed with or without outer sailbars, post-medieval mill sails have a lattice framework over which the sailcloth is spread. There are various reefs for the different spread of sails, these are full sail, dagger point, sword point, the mill must be stopped in order to adjust the reefing of the sail. Spring sails were invented by Scottish millwright Andrew Meikle in 1772, the sail is divided into a number of bays, each having a number of shutters. All the shutters are joined together by a bar. Although automatic in operation, the mill must be stopped in order to adjust the reefing of the sail, roller reefing sails were invented by Stephen Hooper in 1789. As with spring sails, the sail is divided into a number of bays, the cloth is extended or retracted by a rod and lever system, and connected with a shutter bar on each sail. Adjustment of the roller reefing sail can be made without stopping the mill and this type of sail was popular in Yorkshire, although the only remaining mill with roller reefing sails intact is Ballycopeland Windmill in Northern Ireland. Patent sails were invented by William Cubitt in 1807 and they combine the shutters of the spring sail with automatic adjustment of the roller reefing sail. Their construction is similar to that of the spring sail, adjustment of patent sails can be made without stopping the mill. Air brakes In 1860, the English millwright Catchpole fitted an automatic air brake to the ends of patent sails and these were longitudinal shutters at the tip of each sail, which opened up if the wind got too strong, thus slowing the sail. Spring patent sails have a spring to enable each sail to be adjusted individually, the system was not a common one. In the Netherlands, the common sail predominates, Dekker / Van Bussel system The Dutch millwright A. J. Dekker improved on the efficiency of the common sail. The stock is given an airfoil shape by completely covering it with galvanised steel plates, dekkerised sails provide enough surface area to be able to work the mill with no sailcloth spread if the wind is strong enough
4.
Windmill
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A windmill is a mill that converts the energy of wind into rotational energy by means of vanes called sails or blades. Centuries ago, windmills usually were used to mill grain, pump water, thus they often were gristmills, windpumps, or both. The majority of modern windmills take the form of wind turbines used to generate electricity, the windwheel of the Greek engineer Heron of Alexandria in the first century is the earliest known instance of using a wind-driven wheel to power a machine. Another early example of a wheel was the prayer wheel. It has been claimed that the Babylonian emperor Hammurabi planned to use wind power for his ambitious project in the seventeenth century BCE. The first practical windmills had sails that rotated in a horizontal plane, according to Ahmad Y. al-Hassan, these panemone windmills were invented in eastern Persia as recorded by the Persian geographer Estakhri in the ninth century. The authenticity of an anecdote of a windmill involving the second caliph Umar is questioned on the grounds that it appears in a tenth-century document. Made of six to 12 sails covered in reed matting or cloth material, these windmills were used to grind grain or draw up water, Windmills were in widespread use across the Middle East and Central Asia, and later spread to China and India from there. A similar type of windmill with rectangular blades, used for irrigation, can also be found in thirteenth-century China. Horizontal windmills were built, in numbers, in Europe during the 18th and nineteenth centuries, for example Fowlers Mill at Battersea in London. Due to a lack of evidence, debate occurs among historians as to whether or not Middle Eastern horizontal windmills triggered the development of European windmills. In northwestern Europe, the horizontal-axis or vertical windmill is believed to date from the last quarter of the century in the triangle of northern France, eastern England. The earliest certain reference to a windmill in Europe dates from 1185, a number of earlier, but less certainly dated, twelfth-century European sources referring to windmills have also been found. These earliest mills were used to grind cereals, the evidence at present is that the earliest type of European windmill was the post mill, so named because of the large upright post on which the mills main structure is balanced. The body contains all the milling machinery, the first post mills were of the sunken type, where the post was buried in an earth mound to support it. Later, a wooden support was developed called the trestle and this was often covered over or surrounded by a roundhouse to protect the trestle from the weather and to provide storage space. This type of windmill was the most common in Europe until the nineteenth century, in a hollow-post mill, the post on which the body is mounted is hollowed out, to accommodate the drive shaft. This makes it possible to drive machinery below or outside the body still being able to rotate the body into the wind
5.
Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies
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Ransomes also manufactured Direct Current electric motors in a wide range of sizes, and electric forklift trucks and tractors. They manufactured aeroplanes during the First World War and their base, specially set up in 1845, was named Orwell Works. Ransomes railway equipment business was hived off in 1869 with a different ownership as Ransomes & Rapier, in 1809 Robert Ransome made his eldest son, James Ransome, his partner and they called themselves Ransome & Son. In 1826 Jamess son known as Allen but technically James Allen Ransome went to live at Yoxford, Suffolk, in 1839 Allen Ransome moved from Yoxford to Ipswich and under his direction the firm of J, R & A Ransome was to assume huge proportions. After about 1841 the manufacture of ploughs and other machinery was supplemented by production of portable, traction and other steam engines. In the middle decades of the 19th century the company produced iron work for astronomical telescopes, mountings. In 1869 four engineers, Allen, who remained the senior partner in the parent firm, bennett, took the firms railway department aside from the parent business and established Ransomes & Rapier at Riverside Works, Ipswich. An independent factory was set up for the manufacture of lawn mowers of every class Ransomes produced the Automaton hand-powered lawn mower in 1867, in 1902 Ransomes produced the first commercially available powered lawn mower, driven by an internal combustion gasoline engine. In the First World War, they manufactured aeroplanes,350 Royal Aircraft Factory F. E.2 fighters, in the 1950s Ransomes started producing forklifts, Class 1 Lift Code 5. With the start of production of the A Series, Ransomes forklifts were sold by the Hyster dealership network under Hyster serial number codes, the codes still show in the Hyster serial number system. Ransomes also started producing Class 2 Lift Code 3 machines, later the company expanded to producing Class 6 Lift Code 1. When Hyster Corporation bought Lewis Sheppard, the largest market for Ransomes forklifts disappeared, in the early 1980s Ransomes sold their forklift line to Hawkins Mechanical Handling, which produced machines under the Hamech Ransomes brand name. Hawkins Mechanical Handling was later purchased by Crown, and the Hamech name retired, until 2004, in 1989 the whole of the agricultural implement business was sold to Electrolux and merged with their subsidiary Överum. This left Ransomes solely as a manufacturer of lawn mowers, with the Ransomes, Westwood, the company accepted a take-over offer from Textron Inc. USA, and their independent existence ended early in 1998, Westwood and Mountfield were later sold in a management buyout. Ransomes to this day still produce a variety of cutting equipment. From professional high quality turf machines to more industrial gang mowers for use on wider areas such as public parks etc, yet they do still make a range of pedestrian mowers for use on manicured lawns and bowling greens for example. The business begun by Robert Ransome was later owned as partners by various individuals, sole trader on his own account 1809 Ransome & Son
6.
Ipswich
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Ipswich is the county town of Suffolk, England, located on the estuary of the River Orwell, about 60 miles north east of London. The town has been occupied since the Saxon period. It has also known as Gyppewicus and Yppswyche. Ipswich is one of Englands oldest towns, if not the oldest, the claim has also been made of the Essex town of Colchester, but that town was abandoned for some time, leaving Ipswich to claim to be the oldest continuously inhabited town in England. Under the Roman empire, the area around Ipswich formed an important route inland to towns and settlements via the rivers Orwell. A large Roman fort, part of the defences of Britain, stood at Walton near Felixstowe. The modern town took shape in Anglo-Saxon times around Ipswich dock, gipeswic ) arose as the equivalent to these, serving the Kingdom of East Anglia, its early imported wares dating to the time of King Rædwald, supreme ruler of the English. The famous ship-burial and treasure at Sutton Hoo nearby is probably his grave, the Ipswich Museum houses replicas of the Roman Mildenhall and Sutton Hoo treasures. A gallery devoted to the towns origins includes Anglo-Saxon weapons, jewellery, the 7th-century town was centred near the quay. Towards 700 AD, Frisian potters from the Netherlands area settled in Ipswich and their wares were traded far across England, and the industry was unique to Ipswich for 200 years. With growing prosperity, in about 720 AD a large new part of the town was out in the Buttermarket area. Ipswich was becoming a place of national and international importance, parts of the ancient road plan still survive in its modern streets. After the invasion of 869 Ipswich fell under Viking rule, the earth ramparts circling the town centre were probably raised by Vikings in Ipswich around 900 to prevent its recapture by the English. The town operated a mint under royal licence from King Edgar in the 970s, the abbreviation Gipes appears on the coins. King John granted the town its first charter in 1200, laying the foundations of its modern civil government. In the next four centuries it made the most of its wealth, Five large religious houses, including two Augustinian Priories, and those of the Greyfriars, Ipswich Whitefriars and Ipswich Blackfriars, stood in medieval Ipswich. The last Carmelite Prior of Ipswich was the celebrated John Bale, there were also several hospitals, including the leper hospital of St Mary Magdalene, founded before 1199. During the Middle Ages the Marian Shrine of Our Lady of Grace was a pilgrimage destination
"Cubitt, William (1785-1861)". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
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