engineering

Thomas Brown Jordan

Thomas Brown Jordan 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 Thomas Brown Jordan rather than just read about it. In short: Thomas Brown Jordan FRSA (24 October 1807 – 31 May 1890) was a British inventor and engineer. Birth and beginnings Born at Bristol on 24 October 1807, he was the son of Thomas Jordan (a Quaker engineer), and began life as an artist.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Thomas Brown Jordan FRSA (24 October 1807 – 31 May 1890) was a British inventor and engineer.

Birth and beginnings Born at Bristol on 24 October 1807, he was the son of Thomas Jordan (a Quaker engineer), and began life as an artist.

Move to Cornwall When barely twenty he moved to Falmouth. While painting there and at Penzance he made the acquaintance of Robert Were Fox the Younger, in whose physical researches he took the greatest interest, as well as becoming drawing master to Fox's son, Barclay.

Inventor R.W.Fox's influence led him to relinquish painting and to set up as a mathematical instrument maker in Falmouth, where he effected improvements in the miners' dial, and had some share in the construction of Fox's improved dipping-needle. In 1838 Jordan devised an instrument for recording by photography the variations of the barometric column, and he shortly afterwards invented a declination magnetograph and a self-recording actinometer. His pioneering use of photography in meteorology was acknowledged by both Charles Wheatstone and Sir John Herschel. For some years subsequent to 1839 he held the post of secretary of the Royal Cornwall Polytechnic Society. Sir Henry de la Beche, when engaged on the geological survey of Cornwall, made Jordan's acquaintance, and secured his appointment in 1840 as first keeper of mining records, with charge of plans, sections, and models. Jordan took a great interest in electro-metallurgy during the early years of its development, and in 1841 he made an egg-cup of electro-deposited copper, plated with silver outside and gold inside, which was considered a model of workmanship, and is now deposited in the Museum of Practical Geology, Jermyn Street, London.

London move Upon resigning his appointment as keeper of mining records in 1845, Jordan invented a highly ingenious process of carving by machinery, and set up works at Lambeth for carrying into effect the invention, for which in 1847 he received the gold Isis medal from the Society of Arts, and in the same year he was elected a Fellow of the Society. The wood-carving machinery was subsequently exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851, and the products were extensively used in the decoration of the House of Lords. Later on Jordan started work as a mechanical engineer, first at Manchester, then at Glasgow, where he devised a series of machines for the production of school slates. Shortly after 1870, however, he returned to London, and established himself as a mining engineer in conjunction with his son, Mr. Thomas Rowland Jordan. Jordan's last invention, patented in 1877, was a portable machine for boring blast-holes in rock. He died in Bournemouth on 31 May 1890.

Personal life and eventual death Jordan married, in 1837, Sarah Dunn. They had eleven children. He died 1890-05-31. Mrs. Jordan survived him.

Notes

References Fox, Robert Barclay (1979). Barclay Fox's journal, ed. by Raymond Brett. London: Bell and Hyman. ISBN 0-7135-1865-0. and US Fox, Robert Barclay (1979). Barclay Fox's journal, ed. by Raymond Brett. Totowa, N.J.: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 0-8476-6187-3.. McConnell, Anita (2004). "Jordan, Thomas Brown (1807–1890)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/15123. Retrieved 20 January 2008. Attribution This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Seccombe, Thomas (1892). "Jordan, Thomas Brown". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 30. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 204. This entry cites: Times, 19 June 1890; Iron, 20 June 1890, p. 541; Information kindly supplied by Thomas Rowland Jordan; Boase and Courtney's Bibl. Cornub. i. 280, iii. 1250, where a full list of Jordan's scientific papers is given.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Thomas Brown Jordan

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Thomas Brown Jordan 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 Thomas Brown Jordan 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 Thomas Brown Jordan 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 Thomas Brown Jordan

In research: Thomas Brown Jordan 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 Thomas Brown Jordan 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: Thomas Brown Jordan is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1807 births, 1890 deaths, British mining engineers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Thomas Brown Jordan 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 Thomas Brown Jordan in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Thomas Brown Jordan in simple terms?

Thomas Brown Jordan FRSA (24 October 1807 – 31 May 1890) was a British inventor and engineer. Birth and beginnings Born at Bristol on 24 October 1807, he was the son of Thomas Jordan (a Quaker engineer), and began life as an artist.

Why does Thomas Brown Jordan 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 Thomas Brown Jordan?

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 Thomas Brown Jordan.