science

George Armour

George Armour is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand George Armour rather than just read about it. In short: George Armour (24 April 1812 – 13 June 1881) was a Scottish American businessman and philanthropist involved in the development of grain elevator infrastructure in Chicago. He was credited with developing the grain elevator system, establishing grain trading standards as director and president of the Chicago Board of Trade (CBT), founding the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (CBQ), Commercial Club of Chicago…

Key takeaways

George Armour belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect George Armour to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of George Armour from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

George Armour (24 April 1812 – 13 June 1881) was a Scottish American businessman and philanthropist involved in the development of grain elevator infrastructure in Chicago. He was credited with developing the grain elevator system, establishing grain trading standards as director and president of the Chicago Board of Trade (CBT), founding the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (CBQ), Commercial Club of Chicago, YMCA of Chicago, Merchants' Loan & Trust Company (MLTC), the precursor to Continental Illinois, and the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts which later became the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Art Institute of Chicago. He served as a director of several notable companies during his career. As founder of Armour, Dole & Co. and other firms, he helped build the first extensive system of large mechanized grain elevators in Chicago, enabling the shipment of grains from the American Midwest to destinations around the world. During his tenure, the CBT standardized the grading and selling of grains and established the first commodity futures markets. He was "popularly known as the father of the grain elevator system" or as a "rapacious, blood sucking insect."

Early life

George Armour was born on 24 April 1812, in Campbeltown, Scotland, on the Mull of Kintyre. Armour was a wheelwright and worked his way across the ocean as a shipboard cooper or carpenter. In 1834, Armour with his brother John and cousin James a shoemaker, left Campbeltown and made a voyage to Ottawa, Illinois. Soon after their arrival in Ottawa, the brothers went north to what was then known as the "Argyle Settlement" near Rockford, Illinois. The brothers built a 14' x 14' cabin in hopes of establishing a timber and prairie land claim, but "farming was not to their liking." In 1836, while on a trip to back to Scotland, the brothers helped their friend John Greenlee and his family escape from Campbeltown in order to avoid Greenlee being arrested by one of the Duke of Argyll's tax collectors. After the escape, the brothers furnished the Greenlees with passage to the US and set up the Greenlees in the cabin they had built in the Argyle Settlement. Subsequently, Armour lived in Joliet and Lockport, Illinois, and entered the business of merchandising. At the time, both cities were expanding rapidly because of the construction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal. Lockport became headquarters for building the canal in 1837.

Later Armour became a sub-contractor with George Steel. Steel was born in Forfarshire, Scotland in 1797 and arrived in Chicago in 1837. Steel had come to the US on contract for building a section of the Illinois & Michigan Canal but the work had stopped in the aftermath of the Panic of 1837. Steel and Armour built a section of the Illinois and Michigan Canal sometime between 1836 and 1848. They also built a portion of the CBQ. The railroad was constructed starting in March 1848 and was completed in 1853. Armour was a contractor for 16 miles (out of 181 miles) of road grading for the ROCK which started construction in 1851 and was completed by 1854. Armour most likely also worked on the Galena and Chicago Union Railroad – the first railroad built west of Chicago, which established William B. Ogden and George Smith as major figures in Chicago history. Smith operated a "wildcat bank" that issued scrip which was used to pay workers – including Armour's employees. In the early 1850s, Armour resettled in Chicago. His brother John Armour remained in Ottawa where he became a successful businessman. Of John Armour's many investments, one that remains is Armour's Warehouse built in 1861. Records of how George Armour's career developed over the following decades are incomplete.

Prospering in Chicago

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with George Armour

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what George Armour claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to George Armour before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about George Armour ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of George Armour

In research: George Armour appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses George Armour in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: George Armour is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1812 births, 1881 deaths, 19th-century American businesspeople, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for George Armour outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study George Armour in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what George Armour means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain George Armour out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is George Armour in simple terms?

Why does George Armour matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study George Armour?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on George Armour.