engineering

Samuel Lake

Samuel Lake is a engineering 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 Samuel Lake rather than just read about it. In short: Samuel Lake AM (1842–1887) was a general merchant, civil engineer, and pioneering designer and builder of steam trawlers, from Dartmouth, Devon in the United Kingdom. In his civil engineering work in the 1860s he constructed one of the first rows of terraced cottages to be built out of poured shuttered concrete, using what was then a revolutionary building material and technique.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Samuel Lake AM (1842–1887) was a general merchant, civil engineer, and pioneering designer and builder of steam trawlers, from Dartmouth, Devon in the United Kingdom. In his civil engineering work in the 1860s he constructed one of the first rows of terraced cottages to be built out of poured shuttered concrete, using what was then a revolutionary building material and technique. They were then known as Coombe Terrace, today numbers 12 to 21 Coombe Road, and were built for Lake himself and for his employees. Lake's trawler work was in conjunction with George Parker Bidder, also of Dartmouth, and proved to be a technical success, but not at that time to be commercially viable. Lake spent a substantial part of his life in India. In 1867 Lake of the Bombay Reclamation Company was awarded the Albert Medal for his bravery in helping rescue the crew and some 400 Muslim pilgrims from a shipwreck off Bombay. He returned to Dartmouth in 1866. Lake was contracted in 1879 to build Milford Haven and in 1881 Felixstowe Docks but went bankrupt. Lake Street in Dartmouth is named after him.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Samuel Lake

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Samuel Lake claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, 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 Samuel Lake 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 Samuel Lake 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 Samuel Lake

In research: Samuel Lake appears in engineering 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 Samuel Lake 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: Samuel Lake is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1842 births, 1887 deaths, 19th-century civil engineers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Samuel Lake 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 Samuel Lake in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Samuel Lake 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 Samuel Lake out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Samuel Lake in simple terms?

Why does Samuel Lake matter?

Because it connects several engineering 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 Samuel Lake?

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 Samuel Lake.