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Herman Hollerith
Herman Hollerith , 1860-1929, American inventor, b. Buffalo, N.Y. After graduating from Columbia Univ. (B.S., 1879), he worked on the U.S. Census of 1880. Intrigued by the problem of tabulating vast amounts of data, he developed over the next several years a card that could be represent data through...
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typewriter
typewriter instrument for producing by manual operation characters similar to those of printing. Corresponding to each key on the instrument's keyboard is a steel type. Activated through a series of levers or an electronic impulse when its key is pressed, the type strikes the paper in the machine t...
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machine tool
machine tool power-operated tool used for finishing or shaping metal parts, especially parts of other machines. An establishment that is equipped with such tools and specializes in such work is known as a machine shop. Machine tools operate by removing material from the workpiece, much as a sculpto...
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sewing machine
sewing machine device that stitches cloth and other materials. An attempt at mechanical sewing was made in England (1790) with a machine having a forked, automatic needle that made a single-thread chain. In 1830, B. Thimonnier, a French tailor, patented a wooden device with a hooked needle. In 1841...
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machine gun
machine gun an automatic gun that fires bullets in rapid succession for as long as the trigger is pressed. v. machine-gun shoot with a machine gun. machine-gunner n....
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machine
machine arrangement of moving and stationary mechanical parts used to perform some useful work or to provide transportation. From a historical perspective, many of the first machines were the result of human efforts to improve war-making capabilities; the term engineer at one time had an exclus...
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facsimile
facsimile or fax, in communications, system for transmitting pictures or other graphic matter by wire or radio. Facsimile is used to transmit such materials as documents, telegrams, drawings, pictures taken from satellites, and even entire newspapers. The surface of the material to be sent is t...
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fluoroscope
fluoroscope , instrument consisting of an X-ray machine (see X ray ) and a fluorescent screen that may be used by physicians to view the internal organs of the body. During medical diagnosis the patient stands between the X-ray machine, or other radiation source, and the fluorescent screen. Radiati...
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Albany Regency
Albany Regency name given, after 1820, to the leaders of the first political machine, which was developed in New York state by Martin Van Buren . The name derived from the charge that Van Buren's principal supporters, residing in Albany, managed the machine for him while he served in the U.S. Sena...
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Thomas John Watson, Jr.
Thomas John Watson, Jr. 1914-93, American industrialist, b. Dayton, Ohio. The son of Thomas John Watson , Sr., the founder of the International Business Machines Corp. (IBM), he joined the family business following his graduation from Brown Univ. in 1937. Except for service as a pilot in the Army ...
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