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Evanston

(Encyclopedia)Evanston. <1> Residential city (2020 pop. 78,110), Cook co., NE Ill., on Lake Michigan; settled 1826, inc. 1892. A largely residential suburb ...

Ferraris, Galileo

(Encyclopedia)Ferraris, Galileo gälēlāˈō fār-räˈrēs [key], 1847–97, Italian physicist and electrical engineer. He is noted for his work on alternating current and for his discovery (1885) of the rotary m...

crank

(Encyclopedia)crank, mechanical linkage consisting of a bar attached to a pivot at one of its ends in such a way that it is capable of rotating through a complete circle about the pivot. One of the principal uses o...

Cierva, Juan de la

(Encyclopedia)Cierva, Juan de la hwän dā lä thyārˈvä [key], 1895–1936, Spanish aeronautical engineer, inventor of a rotary-wing aircraft called an autogiro. He flew his first autogiro in 1923 and crossed th...

commutator

(Encyclopedia)commutator, device used in an electric generator to convert the alternating current produced in the generator into direct current before the current is sent into an external circuit; it is basically a...

engine

(Encyclopedia)engine: see diesel engine; internal-combustion engine; steam engine; rotary engine; automobile. ...

Hill, Sir Rowland

(Encyclopedia)Hill, Sir Rowland, 1795–1879, English educator, inventor, and postal reformer. He introduced the system of self-government in his school at Hazelwood in Birmingham. In his Plans for the Government a...

barrel organ

(Encyclopedia)barrel organ, mechanical musical instrument requiring nothing but the regular rotary motion of a handle to keep it going. It probably originated at the beginning of the 18th cent., and was once used e...

Watt, James

(Encyclopedia)Watt, James, 1736–1819, Scottish inventor. While working at the Univ. of Glasgow as an instrument maker, Watt was asked to repair a model of Thomas Newcomen's steam engine. He devised improvements t...

gear

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Types of gears gear, toothed wheel, cylinder, or cone that transmits motion from one part of a machine to another; it is one of the oldest means of transmitting motion. When the teeth of two g...