A British history of 'German silver': part II: 1829-1924

Part II (of a two-part essay), published over two journals, which chronicles the history of the commercial manufacture in Britain of ‘German silver’ (more commonly known today as ‘nickel silver’). Part II chronicles the development of the German silver industry in Britain in the period 1829-1924, and analyses the alloy’s commercial application to industrial art and design from the late Regency era through the long Victorian and Edwardian period until the First World War. The essay chronicles the establishment by Percival Norton Johnson of Britain’s first nickel refinery on Bow Common and German silver manufactory at Hatton Gardens in London in 1829. It then analyses Johnson’s supplier-manufacturer relationship with the successful family firm of close-platers William Hutton and Son. Working together, Johnson in London, William Hutton in Birmingham and his son William Carr Hutton in Sheffield, the three men established a crucial nexus in the German silver trade that linked the three important metalworking communities of Britain. The essay then examines the commercial growth of the German silver industry in Birmingham, which was begun by [Henry and Theophilus] H. & T. Merry and then greatly developed by Charles Askin, Brooke Evans, and Henry Wiggin. The huge success of Evans and Askin, and then Wiggin who continued their business, supplied a steadily growing demand for German silver in close- plate, fused-plate and electro-plate design in Britain during the 19th-century. The essay concludes with an analysis of Harry Brearley’s discovery of ‘rustless steel’ at the Brown Firth Research Laboratories in August 1913, and W.H. Hatfield’s subsequent addition of nickel in the development of ‘stainless steel’ between 1916-1924

Design Considerations for an Optical PSK Homodyne Receiver

This thesis presents studies concerned with the design of an optical homodyne PSK receiver. Fundamental receiver sensitivities for a number of optical detection schemes are presented. The principal of performance degradation due to finite phase error in the detection process is established. The major noise source in semiconductor lasers is considered, lineshape anomalies, which may affect coherent communication systems, outlined, and methods for laser phase noise reduction discussed. An experimental technique for the measurement of laser phase noise is implemented, and results from free running lasers presented. Techniques for linewidth reduction are investigated and results given. An analysis of the optical Costas loop, an optimum solution of PSK detection, is presented. Performance in the presence of non-negligible phase noise is considered. Equivalent noise bandwidth integrals are evaluated for a number of loop filter functions, and a design procedure for a second order loop incorporating an active lead-lag filter derived. Consideration is then given to system operation in the presence of significant loop propagation delay. A model of the system is developed and results presented for beat linewidths typical of a number of common laser sources. A number of components necessary for the implementation of the Costas loop are developed. These include a wideband detector/amplifier module, and a phase modulator. Consideration is also given to the design of a 9

Developing site-specific guidelines for orchard soils based on bioaccessibility – Can it be done?

Horticultural land within the periurban fringe of NZ towns and cities increasingly is being developed for residential subdivision. Recent surveys have shown that concentrations of As, Cd, Cu, Pb, and ΣDDT (sum of DDT and its degradation products DDE and DDD) in such soils can exceed criteria protective of human health.¹ Soil ingestion is a key exposure pathway for non-volatile contaminants in soil. Currently in NZ, site-specific risk assessments and the derivation of soil guidelines protective of human health assume that all of the contaminant present in the soil is available for uptake and absorption by the human gastrointestinal tract. This assumption can overestimate health risks and has implications for the remediation of contaminated sites.² In comparison, the bioavailability of contaminants is considered when estimating exposure via dermal absorption and by ingestion of home-grown produce.³ Dermal absorption factors and plant uptake factors are included in the calculations for estimating exposures via these routes

From Alexandria to Hyde, via Bovillæ and Rome, London and Birmingham: a biography of an electrotype of The Apotheosis of Homer

This essay is an object study of a new acquisition by the Victoria and Albert Museum. In February 2020, just before the Covid pandemic and national lockdown in the UK forced the Museum to close, it acquired The Apotheosis of Homer; An Electrotype, from the Celebrated Original Bas-Relief in the British Museum, with a Descriptive Elucidation by Emile Braun. Few objects encompass such a profound and wide-ranging panorama across European history. This multi-layered interdisciplinary history represents a captivating social, political, literary and art historical journey, beginning c.225 BC at Alexandria in the Nile Delta of Lower Egypt, via Bovillæ and Rome, London and Birmingham, to the cotton mills and calico printworks of Hyde in Cheshire and Clitheroe in the Ribble Valley of Lancashire amidst the bourgeois industrial and political revolutions of the late 1840s. Underpinning the essay is a challenge to the generally accepted view that copies – replicated, reproduced, or rescaled objects – are in anyway inferior to the original artwork, artefact, or archetype from which they emerge. They are not. Each finds its own place in the world by making its individual social journey, which informs and shapes its cultural and political interpretation. The ‘prime object’ may be the idea and product of an inspired moment of skilled labour and technique, touched by creativity and genius, but an archetype can soon become a prototype, a pattern or model in the design process of an industrialised copyist culture

The case of the proprietors of the Birmingham canal navigation relative to Charles Colmore Esquire, 21st January 1771

No description supplie

Elkington & Co. and the art of electro-metallurgy, circa 1840-1900

This is the first major art historical study of Elkington & Co., the British art-metalwork company that from c.1840 invented and patented methods of electro-depositing gold and silver, which they developed artistically and commercially into the modern industrial art of electro-metallurgy. It analyses how Elkington’s syntheses of science and art into industrial manufacturing processes revolutionized the design and production, replication and reproduction of precious metalwork, metal sculpture, and ornamental art-metalwork, and why the art of electro-metallurgy, the world’s first electrical art, exemplifies the social, and cultural change of the mid-Victorian era. This PhD thesis studies Elkington’s technical development from c.1840-1900, analyzing how they developed new methods of gilding and plating, and important collateral technologies. It identifies key people in the company, and analyses the chronology of scientific discoveries that shaped the industrial processes and artistic practices at their manufactories in Birmingham. It then analyses the development of the company’s creative strategy, and identifies key people whose artistic contributions collectively shaped the evolution of the art of electro-metallurgy. It provides the first study of Elkington as non-precious metals manufacturers, identifying and analyzing the key artworks that they produced in copper and copper alloys as ‘bronzists,’ and examines how Elkington applied the art of electro-metallurgy to the manufacture of monumental statues. By critically analyzing key sculptures it demonstrates how Elkington became the preeminent British bronze foundry of the mid-Victorian era. It concludes with a study of Elkington & Co.’s oeuvre from 1851-1878, and analyzes how their art of electro-metallurgy was influenced by the technical and stylistic eclecticism of l’orfèvrerie française of the French 2nd Empire. It describes how, from 1853- 1899, Elkington employed three Frenchmen as their chief artists: Pierre-Emile Jeannest, Auguste Willms, and Léonard Morel-Ladeuil, who further elevated the company’s artistic reputation. It concludes with a detailed analysis of Elkington’s masterpiece, The Milton Shield (1867) and analyses how its publication as electrotype reproductions in America exemplified the art of electro-metallurgy

Elkington & Co. and the rapture of travel, 1841-1961

The first part of the essay outlines the key technical discoveries of the 1840s that made the large-scale manufacture of Elkington & Co.'s electro-plated and electro-gilded base-metal flatware and cutlery possible. The second part describes how throughout the company's lifespan, Elkington & Co.'s brand identity, corporate image, and commercial success depended on extensive orders of cutlery and flatware from an ever expanding global travel industry, particularly the great British shipping companies. The essay shows how it was in the dining saloons of ships, trains, and hotels that Elkington & Co.'s maker's mark became synonymous worldwide with the Victorians 'rapture of travel.

Time changes in the body dimensions of male Australian Army personnel between 1977 and 2012

The aim of this study was to quantify time changes in the body dimensions of male Australian Army personnel. Following a systematic review, two studies were identified and matched for occupation and age (n = 669) with time changes in 12 absolute and 11 proportional body dimensions assessed between 1977 and 2010–12. Changes in means were expressed as absolute, percent and standardised changes, with changes in variability assessed visually and as the ratio of coefficients of variation (CVs). Time changes in absolute dimensions were typically positive (increases) and moderate in magnitude (median standardised change ± 95%CI: 0.53 ± 0.23), and while changes in proportional dimensions were typically negligible (median standardised change ± 95%CI: 0.16 ± 0.33), substantial changes(standardised changes ≥0.2 or ≤–0.2) were observed in several dimensions. Variability in body dimensions has also typically increased (median ratio of CVs ± 95%CI: 1.10 ± 0.07) and become more right-skewed. These findings have important implications for the design and acquisition of new military vehicles, body equipment and clothing

Laboratory and field partial discharge measurement in HVDC power cables

A range of experimental and field measurements of partial discharge (PD) activity under high voltage direct current (HVDC) conditions have been conducted with the goal of developing effective monitoring techniques for PD in HVDC cables and ancillary equipment, particularly in offshore renewable energy HVDC grid installations. Laboratory measurements on insulation test objects and cross linked polyethylene (XLPE) cable samples have been conducted to better understand the characteristics of PD activity under direct current (DC) stress in comparison with AC. In addition, long-term PD measurements carried out at both an HVDC cable aging laboratory and an in-service HVDC interconnector circuit are presented together with a description of the monitoring system architecture