Technical term

“ It is included under the general term 'useful art.' An art may require one or more processes or machines in order to produce a certain result or manufacture. The term 'machine' includes every mechanical device or combination of mechanical powers and devices to perform some function and produce a certain effect or result. But where the result or effect is produced by chemical action, by the operation or application of some element or power of nature, or of one substance to another, such modes, methods, or operations are called 'processes.' A new process is usually the result of discovery ”

“ The engineer is the how-to-do-it man. This technical man of action comes in many varieties—mechanical, electrical, [Pg 16] metallurgical, ceramic, industrial, civil, instrument, and chemical, to name a few. ”

“ Mr Davies Gilbert18 has recently proposed the term efficiency to designate the work which a machine, according to the force exerted upon it, is capable of doing; the work being measured by the weight raised, and the space through which it is raised, jointly. The usual term employed among engineers for the work which a machine actually does, measured in the way just stated, is duty. ”

“ Here the term is used subjectively or passively as applied to the material operated on, and not to the method or mode of producing that operation, which is by mechanical means, or the use of a machine, as distinguished from a process.
In this use of the term it represents the function of a machine, or the effect produced by it on the material subjected to the action of the machine. But it is well settled that a man cannot have a patent for the function or abstract effect of a machine, but only for the machine which produces it. ”

“ The technical work of the engineer requires him to write notes, letters, and reports in a clear, correct, and concise manner. He must be able to read both technical and non-technical writing quickly and accurately. His advancement will depend upon the impression which he makes upon his superiors. ”

“ With this intense and growing interest in the proper application of scientific methods to the solution of the problems of electrical communication, it is natural that a widespread desire should have arisen for a technical journal to collect, print or reprint, and make readily available the more important articles relating to the field of the communication engineer. ”

“ The second, How shall we construct a machine that shall most efficiently embody and accord with not only known scientific principles, but also with all well-settled principles of engineering practice? ”

“ The Analytical Engine, far from being more complicated, will in many respects be of simpler construction; and it is a remarkable circumstance attending it, that with very simplified means it is so much more powerful. ”

“ We are looking to expand the File's range of technical specialties covered. There are doubtless rich veins of jargon yet untapped in the scientific computing, graphics, and networking hacker communities; also in numerical analysis, computer architectures and VLSI design, language design, and many other related fields. ”

“ The perfection of modern machine-tools is such that the utmost possible precision is secured, and the mechanical engineer can calculate on a degree of exactitude that does not admit of a deviation beyond the thousandth part of an inch. ”

“ They are apt to think, for instance, that the problems connected with making the parts of an engine require the especial study, one may say almost the life study, of a set of engine-making mechanics, and that these problems are entirely different from those which would be met with in machining lathe or planer parts. In fact, however, a study of those elements which are peculiar either to engine parts or to lathe parts is trifling, compared with the great study of the art, or science, of cutting metals, upon a knowledge of which rests the ability to do really fast machine-work of all kinds. ”

“ Your work on 'Applied Mechanics' is a great illustration of your power to grasp, to connect, and to apply the definite principles of exact science with the less definite known elements of practical problems. Abstract principles are valueless, except in application to the wants of man, and this work occupies that field with great eminence. Your work on the 'Steam Engine and other Prime Movers' deals with the principles involved in that important subject in a masterly manner, that renders comparison with any other similar work impossible. ”

“ The mixing of certain substances together or the heating of a substance to a certain temperature is a process. If the mode of doing it or the apparatus in or by which it may be done is sufficiently obvious to suggest itself to a person skilled in the particular art, then pointing out in the patent the process to be performed is sufficient, without giving directions, which would be supererogatory, as to the apparatus or method to be employed. ”

“ In this work the first elements of the science upon which these machines depend are traced in their operation through their material embodiment, and the laws which govern the principle of pure science connected definitely with the varied construction of the machines. ”

“ The engineer and the scientist and the chemist, within a single generation, filled Europe and America and Asia with their vast machines, with their telegraphs, their flying machines, their coal-tar products. ”

“ When a material unit representing this abstract quantity has been made, other standards are constructed by copying this unit, a process capable of extreme accuracy—of much greater accuracy than, for instance, the copying of foot-rules from a standard foot. ”

“ The principle of a machine is properly defined to be 'its mode of operation,' or that peculiar combination of devices which distinguish it from other machines. A machine is not a principle or an idea. ”

“ This work covers nearly the whole range of the practical and inventive field, and is of much value to inventors, draughtsmen, mechanics, machinists, engineers and all others interested in any way in the devising and operation of mechanical work of any kind. ”

“ But, besides this, you have designed steam and electric engines, and built them with your own hands in the shops; you have gone deeply into the mathematics of natural law and can not only operate a machine, but you can design it and build it. ”

“ In each book of the series the fundamental principles of some sub-division of engineering technology are treated in a practical manner, providing the student with a handy survey of the particular branch of technology with which he is concerned. They should prove invaluable to the busy practical man who has not the time for more elaborate treatises. ”

“ The discipline of the machine process enforces a standardization of conduct and of knowledge in terms of quantitative precision, and inculcates a habit of apprehending and explaining facts in terms of material cause and effect. ”

“ Reduction to practice refers to the actual construction of the invention in physical form: in the case of a machine it includes the actual building of the machine, in the case of an article or composition it includes the actual making of the article or composition, in the case of a process it includes the actual carrying out of the steps of the process. ”

“ Baker, 4 Fisher's Patent Cases, 409: "When, in mechanics, one device does a particular thing, or accomplishes a particular result, every other device known and used in mechanics, which skillful and experienced workmen know will produce the same result, or do the same particular thing, is a known mechanical substitute for the first device mentioned for doing the same thing, or accomplishing the same result. ”

“ Very little space is given to mere descriptions of different types of machine tools, the principal purpose being to explain the use of the machine and the practical problems connected with its operation, rather than the constructional details. No attempt has been made to describe every machine or tool which might properly be included, but rather to deal with the more important and useful operations, especially those which illustrate general principles. ”

“ Operation.—The considerations relating to the operation of a machine involve an examination of the details of its construction, in order to determine the amount of attention it will require, the character of its regulating device, its capacity, form, and weight. ”

“ I have passed unnoticed the great subject of the manufacture of machinery by itself—the invention of the slide-rest, the planing-machine, and many other contrivances by which engines can be constructed with almost mathematical correctness. ”

“ The civil engineer, the mechanical engineer, the navigator, the mining expert, the industrial chemist and mineralogist, the electrician,—the work of all these falls within the lines of the modern machine process, as well as the work of the inventor who devises the appliances of the process and that of the mechanician who puts the inventions into effect and oversees their working. The scope of the process is larger than the machine. ”

“ The special part of technology here coming into question,—or what may be called the technological part of the study of special machines,—concerns itself with the action of the natural forces, through their various applications in the machine, on the bodies to be worked upon. ”

“ With the increased demand for power, speed, safety, convenience of manipulation, and comfort in operation, the inventive ability of the engineer developed the various systems more and more perfectly, and experience gradually showed to what service each type was best adapted and the best construction of each for its peculiar work. ”

“ Examine at random any one of half a dozen lines of mechanical invention, one characteristic common to them all will instantly arrest attention—they present nothing more than a mere outgrowth of the manual processes and machines of earlier times. Some operation, once performed by hand tools, is expedited by a device which enables the foot as well as the hand to be employed. ”

“ The numerous tools used by machinists are illustrated, and also the adjuncts of the lathe. In fact, the entire subject is treated in such a thorough manner as to make this book the standard one on the subject. It is indispensable to the manager, engineer, and machinist as well as to the student, amateur, and experimental, man who desires to keep up-to-date. ”

“ The mechanical engineer, machine designer and draftsman are also well provided for in Machinery. Every number contains articles on the theory and practice of machine design, on the properties of materials, and on labor-saving methods and systems. ”

“ The trained engineer, on the other hand, could design from the standpoint of determining the entire load and then proportioning each element according to the increment of stress upon it and to the unit capacity of the material. ”

“ This requirement of mechanical accuracy and nice adaptation to specific uses has led to a gradual pervading enforcement of uniformity to a reduction to staple grades and staple character in the materials handled, and to a thorough standardizing of tools and units of measurement. Standard physical measurements are of the essence of the machine's régime. ”

“ Whether in the laboratory of the chemist or the physicist, in the machine shop or the engine-room, every means of measurement must be based on standards created with the highest skill and guarded with the utmost care. ”

“ Thus the engine may be considered as a real manufactory of figures, which will lend its aid to those many useful sciences and arts that depend on numbers. Again, who can foresee the consequences of such an invention? In truth, how many precious observations remain practically barren for the progress of the sciences, because there are not powers sufficient for computing the results! ”

“ The work is planned by architects and engineers, whether mechanical, electrical, or civil, who are more or less equipped in the technology of their particular callings, and in the sciences of mathematics, physics, and chemistry. ”

“ I may mention that, in order to effect the prompt and perfect execution of this order, I contrived several special machine tools, which assisted us most materially. These tools for the most part rendered us more independent of mere manual strength and dexterity, while at the same time they increased the accuracy and perfection of the work. They afterwards assisted us in the means of perfecting the production of other classes of work. ”

“ There is, perhaps, no description of machinery which would not afford an illustration of the importance belonging to truth of surface, and at the same time, of the present necessity for material improvement; nor is there any subject connected with machines, the bearings of which, on public interests, whether manufacturing or scientific, are more varied or more extensive. ”

“ And the more complicated the mechanism or process, the more necessary will be the discovery of the root principle—a printing machine, for instance, with its amazing complexity, will be helped wonderfully by such a device, and the reader will welcome the device even more than he would in an explanation of how, for example, a fountain pen works—though he will be glad for it in any case. ”

“ A method, which may be patented irrespective of the particular form of the mechanism which may be availed of for carrying it into operation, is not to be rejected as 'functional' merely because the specifications show a machine capable of using it. ”

“ The objects of our invention are to provide means for maintaining or restoring the equilibrium, or lateral balance of the apparatus, to provide means for guiding the machine both vertically and horizontally, and to provide a structure combining lightness, strength, convenience of construction, and certain other advantages which will hereinafter appear. ”

“ When these are answered the engineer is ready to begin work, which starts with the selection of materials and does not end till the man who is to use it has had specific instruction as to its peculiarities and care and protection. ”