Introduction
Sir Ambrose Fleming (1849-1945) was a Lancashireman who invented the vacuum-tube diode or ‘valve’, for fifty years the essential component of modern electronics.
FANNY Umphelby’s ‘Child’s Guide To Knowledge’* can have had few readers more devoted, or more distinguished in later life, than Ambrose Fleming.
Her collection of scientific facts sparked his long career at University College, London, and at the Marconi Company, assisting in the first transatlantic radio transmissions.
Those early transmissions relied on instruments such as Marconi’s magnetic detector, or the gloriously-named ‘cat’s whisker’, to detect them.
On November 16, 1904, Fleming patented his ‘thermionic vacuum tube diode’, which harnessed the Edison Effect (the flow of electrons in a vacuum from a hot cathode filament onto an anode plate) to detect and rectify radio waves.
It was far superior to existing devices, robust enough even for the Navy. For the next fifty years, descendants of Fleming valves were at the heart of electronics, from radios and TVs to radar and computers, until superseded by transistors and a new generation of solid-state devices.
Fanny would have been proud.
You can read Mrs Umphelby’s scientific catechism online here. Fleming had it by heart, and would quote from it all his life.
Précis
A children’s book of scientific facts inspired Ambrose Fleming to become an electrical engineer, and in 1904 he patented a device for detecting and rectifying radio waves, the thermionic vaccum tube diode. For fifty years, it remained an indispensable component of electronics, and drove the development of modern TV, radar and radio. (52 / 60 words)
A children’s book of scientific facts inspired Ambrose Fleming to become an electrical engineer, and in 1904 he patented a device for detecting and rectifying radio waves, the thermionic vaccum tube diode. For fifty years, it remained an indispensable component of electronics, and drove the development of modern TV, radar and radio.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 45 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: although, because, despite, must, otherwise, since, unless, who.
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Word Games
Spinners Find in Think and Speak
For each group of words, compose a sentence that uses all three. You can use any form of the word: for example, cat → cats, go → went, or quick → quickly, though neigh → neighbour is stretching it a bit.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 Career. Transatlantic. University.
2 Devote. First. Proud.
3 Cat. Few. Superior.
Variations: 1. include direct and indirect speech 2. include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who 3. use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)
Opposites Find in Think and Speak
Suggest words or phrases that seem opposite in meaning to each of the words below. We have suggested some possible answers; see if you can find any others.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
Variations: 1.instead of opposites, suggest words of similar meaning (synonyms). 2.use a word and its opposite in the same sentence. 3.suggest any 5 opposites formed by adding -less.
Subject and Object Find in Think and Speak
Use each word below in two sentences, first as the subject of a verb, and then as the object of a verb. It doesn’t have to be the same verb: some verbs can’t be paired with an object (e.g. arrive, happen), so watch out for these.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1. Plate. 2. Solid. 3. Computer. 4. Spark. 5. Effect. 6. Device. 7. Cat. 8. Knowledge. 9. Guide.
Variations: 1.use your noun in the plural (e.g. cat → cats), if possible. 2.give one of your sentences a future aspect (e.g. will, going to). 3.write sentences using negatives such as not, neither, nobody and never.
Add Vowels Find in Think and Speak
Make words by adding vowels to each group of consonants below. You may add as many vowels as you like before, between or after the consonants, but you may not add any consonants or change the order of those you have been given. See if you can beat our target of common words.
rts (13+3)
aerates. arts. rates. ratios. rats. riots. rites. roots. rotas. rots. routes. routs. ruts.
aortas. orates. riotous.
