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United Technologies Corporation
United Technologies Corporation (UTC) is a major multinational corporation based in Hartford, Connecticut, USA, and is the 22nd largest U.S. manufacturer [http://www.utc.com/profile/facts/index.htm]. UTC is a $37 billion company that researches, develops, and manufacturers products in numerous areas, including aircraft engines, helicopters, heating and cooling, fuel cells, elevators and escalators, fire and security, building systems, and industrial products, among others. George David is currently the CEO.
Business units
- Carrier
World leader in the manufacture and sale of heating, ventilating, refrigerating, air conditioning, and HVAC systems and products.
- Hamilton Sundstrand
Designs and manufactures aerospace systems for commercial, regional, corporate and military aircraft. Major supplier for international space programs. Provides industrial products in industries ranging from hydrocarbon, chemical and food processing to construction and mining.
- Otis
World's largest manufacturer, installer, and servicer of elevators, escalators, moving walkways and other horizontal transportation systems.
- Pratt & Whitney
Designs, manufacturers, and supports aircraft engines, gas turbines, and space propulsion systems.
- Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation
World leader in the design and manufacture of advanced helicopters for commercial, industrial, and military uses.
- UTC Fire & Security
Provides fire products and services including fire detection, suppression and fire fighting products, integration, installation, and service of fire detection and fixed suppression systems, as well as the manufacture and service of portable fire extinguishers. Provides security products and services including integration, installation, monitoring and service of intruder alarms, access control and video surveillance systems, alarm response and security personnel services, cash logistics, and physical security.
- [http://www.utcpower.com UTC Power] and [http://www.utcfuelcells.com UTC Fuel Cells]
Manufacturer of clean distributed power generation systems and fuel cells for commercial, space, and transportation applications.
- [http://utc.com/units/research.htm UTRC] (United Technologies Research Center)
Centralized research facility that supports all UTC business units in developing new technologies and processes. Its engineers and scientists lead the world in technologies ranging from fluid dynamics to advanced materials to electronics to computer science.
Corporate Operations are carried out of the Gold Building, in Hartford, CT
History
A limited historical timeline of UTC is presented below:
- 1853 - Elisha Graves Otis demonstrates his elevator's safety mechanism at the New York World's Fair
- 1857 - The world's first passenger elevator is installed by Otis in a New York City retail store
- 1862 - Otis sells an elevator to Newfoundland, its first international sale
- 1900 - Otis introduces the escalator at the Paris Exposition
- 1902 - Modern air conditioning is invented by Willis Carrier
- 1903 - Otis introduces the gearless traction electric elevator
- 1915 - Carrier Engineering is founded
- 1919 - Standard Steel Propeller is founded (one of two predecessors of Hamilton Standard, along with Hamilton Aero Manufacturing)
- 1920 - Hamilton Aero Manufacturing is founded (one of two predecessors of Hamilton Standard, along with Standard Steel Propeller)
- 1922 - Carrier installs its first air conditioning unit at a Los Angeles theater
- 1923 - Sikorsky Aero Engineering is founded by Igor Sikorsky
- 1924 - Otis introduces the first automated elevator control system, with hall call buttons
- 1925 - Pratt & Whitney Aircraft is incorporated; its first products are the Wasp and Hornet aircraft engines
- 1928 - Carrier installs air conditioning in the chambers of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate
- 1929 - Boeing, Pratt & Whitney, Hamilton, Sikorsky, and others join to form United Aircraft and Transport Corporation
- 1929 - The Research Center is founded
- 1931 - Otis introduces the first double-deck elevators
- 1934 - United Aircraft and Transport is dissolved into United Aircraft, Boeing Airplane Company, and United Air Lines Transport
- 1938 - Hamilton Standard introduces the Hydromatic propeller
- 1939 - Sikorsky tests the first commercial helicopter, the VS-300
- 1944 - Carrier opens a frozen foods research store
- 1942 - World War II production over a 3-year period: Sikorsky supplies 150 helicopters, Pratt & Whitney supplies 300,000 aircraft engines, and Hamilton Standard supplies 500,000 propellers
- 1948 - Pratt & Whitney produces its first jet engines
- 1949 - Hamilton Standard begins developing fuel controls for aircraft
- 1950 - Otis installs the first automatic elevators not requiring operators
- 1950 - Carrier begins selling window air conditioning units affordable for average consumers
- 1952 - Pratt & Whitney begins manufacturing piston engines in Canada
- 1952 - Carrier introduces the first mass-produced home central air conditioning unit
- 1957 - Sikorsky tests its first turbine-powered helicopter
- 1958 - The Boeing 707 with Pratt & Whitney JT3 engines introduces regular commercial passenger jet service
- 1958 - United Aircraft enters the field of solid rocketry and advanced propulsion systems
- 1963 - The Pratt & Whitney JT8D enters service on the Boeing 727; it becomes the most popular commercial jet engine in history with more than 14,000 to date
- 1964 - The Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6 turboprop enters service and eventually becomes the most popular turboprop in history
- 1966 - Hamilton Standard introduces the first electronically-controlled cabin pressure regulating system
- 1969 - Apollo 11 lands astronauts on the moon, with Hamilton Standard space suits and Pratt & Whitney fuel cells; a Sikorsky helicopter picks up the returning astronauts after splash-down
- 1970 - The Boeing 747 with Pratt & Whitney JT9D engines, enters service as the first commercial jumbo jet
- 1971 - The Research Center constructs the first high-speed wind tunnel for aerodynamic noise research in the world
- 1975 - United Aircraft changes its name to United Technologies Corporation (UTC)
- 1976 - UTC acquires Otis
- 1978 - Sikorsky begins producing the Black Hawk helicopter
- 1979 - UTC acquires Carrier
- 1979 - Otis introduces the first completely microprocessor-based elevator control system
- 1981 - Space Shuttle Columbia is launched with fuel cells by UTC Fuel Cells for electrical power and Hamilton Standard space suits and environmental control systems
- 1989 - Otis introduces the first linear-motor-powered elevator
- 1993 - Hamilton Standard's space suit life support systems are used problem-free during the Hubble Space Telescope space walk repairs
- 1995 - The first Boeing 777 with Pratt & Whitney engines enters service
- 1999 - UTC acquires Sundstrand Corp and combines it with Hamilton Standard to form Hamilton Sundstrand
- 2001 - UTC forms UTC Power to focus on the distributed power generation market
- 2002 - For the historical timeline from 2002 to the present, navigate to [http://www.utc.com/profile/facts/history.htm this link]
Former businesses
Like many conglomerates, UTC has dabbled in many areas. Some of these companies included:
- Hamilton Test Systems, an Arizona-based developer of vehicle emission test equipment, which was sold to Georgetown Partners in December 1990, who renamed it Envirotest. It is now part of the ESP Remote Sensing company.
- Inmont paint and resins, which was later sold to BASF
- Mostek semiconductor - from 1980 to 1981
External link
- [http://www.utc.com UTC Homepage]
Category:Manufacturing companies of the United States
Category:Transportation companies of the United States
Category:Fortune 500 companies
Category:Companies based in Connecticut
Category:Conglomerate companies
Multinational corporationA multinational corporation (MNC) or multinational enterprise (MNE) or transnational corporation (TNC) is an corporation/enterprise that manages production establishments located in at least two countries.
Multinational corporations (MNC) are often divided into three broad groups:
- Horizontally integrated multinational corporations manage production establishments located in different countries to produce same or similar products.
- Vertically integrated multinational corporations manage production establishment in certain country/countries to produce products that serve as input to its production establishments in other country/countries.
- Diversified multinational corporations manage production establishments located in different coutries that are neither horizontally or vertically integrated.
----
Very large multinationals have budgets that exceed those of many countries. They can have a powerful influence in international relations, given their large economic influence in politicians' representative districts, as well as their extensive financial resources available for public relations and political lobbying. Given the international reach and mobility of these corporations, prospective countries, and sometimes regions within countries, must compete with each other to have MNCs locate their facilities (and subsequent tax revenue, employment, and economic activity) within. To compete, countries and regional political districts will offer incentives to MNCs such as tax breaks, pledges of governmental assistance or improved infrastructure, or lax environmental and labor standards. This process of becoming more attractive to foreign investment can be characterised as a race to the bottom.
The first multinational, appearing in 1602, was the Dutch East India Company.
Examples
ja:多国籍企業
See also
- Globalization
Hartford, Connecticut
Hartford is the capital of the state of Connecticut, in Hartford County. It is located on the Connecticut River, near the center of the state.. As of the 2000 census, it has a population of 121,578, but a July 1, 2002 Census estimate put the city's population at 124,558. It is the second largest city in the state, after Bridgeport. Greater Hartford is also the the 44th largest metro area in the country (2004 census estimate) with a population of 1,184,564.
History
Dutch fur traders from New Netherland colony set up trade in the site as early as 1623, after Adriaen Block explored it in 1614. The Dutch named their post the 'Hope House' (Huys de Hoop). Prior to the Dutch arrival, the Indians who inhabited the area had called it Suckiaug. By 1633 Jacob van Curler had added a block house and palisade to the post while New Amsterdam sent a small garrison and a pair of cannons. The fort was abandoned by 1654, but its neighborhood in Hartford is still known as Dutch Point.
The first English settlers arrived in 1635. Thomas Hooker led 100 settlers with 130 head of cattle in a trek from Newtown (now Cambridge) in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and started their settlement just north of the Dutch fort. The settlement was originally called Newtown, but was changed to Hartford in 1637 to honor the English town of Hertford.
The fledgling colony along the Connecticut River had issues with the authority with which to govern since it was outside of the jurisdiction of the Massachusets Bay Company's charter. Therefore, Thomas Hooker wrote the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut, a document investing the authority to govern with the people, instead of with a higher power. Hooker stated May 31, 1638:
:The foundation of authority is laid, firstly, in the free consent of the people.
Some historians believe Hooker's concepts of self-rule were the forerunners of the United States Constitution. The Orders were ratified on January 14, 1639.
On December 15, 1814, the Hartford Convention was called to order in Hartford. Delegations from the five New England states, (Maine was still part of Massachusetts at that time) were sent to Hartford to discuss New England's possible secession from the United States.
During the early 1800s, the Hartford area was a center of abolitionist activity. The most famous abolitionist family was the Beechers. Reverend Lyman Beecher was an important Congregational minister known for his anti-slavery sermons. His daughter, Harriet Beecher Stowe, wrote the famous Uncle Tom's Cabin, while her brother, Henry Ward Beecher, was a noted clergyman who vehemently opposed slavery and supported the temperance movement and women's suffrage. Beecher Stowe's sister, Isabella Beecher Hooker, was a leading member of the women's rights movement.
In 1860, Hartford was the site of the first "Wide Awakes," abolitionist supporters of Abraham Lincoln. These supporters organized torch-light parades that were both political and social events, often including fireworks and music, in celebration of Lincoln's visit to the city. This type of event caught on and eventually became a staple of mid to late-1800s campaigning.
In July 6, 1944, Hartford was the scene of one of the worst fire disasters in the history of the United States. The fire, which occurred at a performance of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus circus, became known as the Hartford Circus Fire.
After World War II, many residents of Puerto Rico moved to Hartford and even today Puerto Rican flags can be found on cars and buildings all over the city. Hartford Mayor Eddie Perez was born in Puerto Rico and moved to Hartford in 1969, when he was 12 years old.
In 1997, the city lost it's professional sports franchise, the Hartford Whalers, to Raleigh, North Carolina despite an increase in season ticket sales and an offer of a new arena from the state.
Lately, Hartford has been having problems as the population shrunk 11 percent during the 1990s. Only Flint, Michigan; Gary, Indiana; Saint Louis and Baltimore experienced larger population losses during the decade. However, the population has increased since the 2000 Census.
Geography
Baltimore
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 46.5 km² (18.0 mi²). 44.8 km² (17.3 mi²) of it is land and 1.7 km² (0.7 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 3.67% water.
Hartford is bordered by the towns of West Hartford, Newington, Wethersfield, East Hartford, Bloomfield and Windsor.
The Connecticut River separates Hartford from the region's eastern suburbs.
Demographics
As of the census2 of 2000, there are 121,578 people, 44,986 households, and 27,171 families residing in the city. The population density is 2,711.8/km² (7,025.5/mi²). There are 50,644 housing units at an average density of 1,129.6/km² (2,926.5/mi²). The racial makeup of the city is 17.72% White, 38.05% Black or African American, 0.54% Native American, 1.62% Asian, 0.11% Pacific Islander, 26.51% from other races, and 5.44% from two or more races. 40.52% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There are 44,986 households out of which 34.4% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 25.2% are married couples living together, 29.6% have a female householder with no husband present, and 39.6% are non-families. 33.2% of all households are made up of individuals and 9.6% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.58 and the average family size is 3.33.
In the city the population is spread out with 30.1% under the age of 18, 12.6% from 18 to 24, 29.8% from 25 to 44, 18.0% from 45 to 64, and 9.5% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 30 years. For every 100 females there are 91.4 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 86.0 males.
The median income for a household in the city is $24,820, and the median income for a family is $27,051. Males have a median income of $28,444 versus $26,131 for females. The per capita income for the city is $13,428. 30.6% of the population and 28.2% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 41.0% of those under the age of 18 and 23.2% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.
Neighborhoods
poverty line
;Central Business District/Downtown
Downtown is Hartford's primary business district. Downtown is home to St. Paul Travelers, The Hartford Financial Services Incorporated, The Hartford Steam Boiler and Phoenix Insurance.
Downtown is also home to the Hartford City Hall, the Hartford Public Library, the Old State House, the Wadsworth Atheneum, The Travelers Tower, Bushnell Park, and the State Capitol and Legislative Office Complex. Capital Community College and the Hartford Public Schools offices are also located along Main Street in the former G. Fox and Company Building. The newly renovated University of Connecticut School of Business is located at Constitution Plaza.
;Asylum Hill
The Asylum Hill neighborhood was originally known as "Lords Hill". The Asylum Hill neighborhood is home to the Asylum Hill Congregational Church (organized in 1864), The Trinity Episcopal Church, and Saint Joseph's Cathedral (dedicated 1892).
There are also many insurance companies that were or are still located in the Asylum Hill area such as the Hartford Fire Insurance Company (now the Hartford Insurance Group) and Rossia Insurance Company (now Northeastern Insurance Company). AETNA Insurance Company still remains as a major fixture along Farmington Avenue. Also along Farmington Avenue are the homes of Mark Twain and Harriet Beecher Stowe, which are now museums.
;West End
The West End neighborhood, which runs a little bit past from the Mark Twain house to the West Hartford border, was mostly farmland until 1870. During the 1910s, many two and three story homes were built, giving the area more of a suburban feel.
Elizabeth Park in the West End was created in 1895, when Charles N. Pond gave his estate to the Hartford Parks Commission which created the park and named it in honor of his wife. The park boasts a playground, softball field, and other recreational facilities in addition to views of the downtown skyline.
The University of Connecticut School of Law and the Hartford Seminary are located in the West End. Part of Prospect Avenue boasts mansions including the Governor's Mansion. Mansions can also be found along Scarborough Street including the former residence of A. Everett Ausin (Director of Wadsworth Atheneum from 1927-1944).
;Sheldon/Charter Oak
The neighborhood is located just south of downtown with the Connecticut River and I-91 running at the eastern end of the neighborhood. The Charter Oak monument is located at the corner of Charter Oak Place, a historic street, and Charter Oak Avenue.
The area was home to the Colts Firearm Factory which was started by Samuel Colt, who invented the automatic revolver. Along with building a factory, Mr. Colt also made a village with houses, a library, and recreational activities so that his employees could be close to work. Colt's estate, Armsmear, was given to the city as Colt's Park after Mr. and Mrs. Colt's death. A developer is currently in the process of renovating the whole facility to create office space and apartments for completion in 2006/2007.
The Capewell Horesenail Company was also in the area. In 1881, George Capewell invented a machine to make horseshoe nails.
;North End
The neighborhood is a conglomeration of formerly distinct neighborhoods that have been collapsed into a largely impoverished zone. Generally identified as consisting of the vast area north of Albany Avenue leading up to the Bloomfield and Windsor borders, the North End has been wracked by decades of policies such as redlining and racist city planning that transformed a once multi-cultural area of African-American, Jewish, and European immigrants into an underdeveloped zone of housing projects and slums that is nearly entirely African-American and poor. This began in the 1950s with the construction of I-84, which cut off North End from the rest of the city, followed by a high concentration of government-financed housing projects that caused the flight of the working and middle class to the suburbs.
Although many of the housing projects have been demolished in 1990s and 2000s, and were replaced with HUD home constructions designed to increase the proportion of working families in the North End, the area still suffers from underdevelopment and crime. Many of the North End's parks, such as Keney Park, are considered among the city's most dangerous. The schools are among the most segregated and underperforming in the country, with populations of impoverished and African-American students extending into the 90th percentile. Mortality rates in the North End are comparable to those of the South Bronx in New York City.
The North End is home to an active community of West Indian immigrants that provide the area with a cultural and artistic presence: the West Indian Social Club and Scott's Jamaican Bakery are two notable neighborhood institutions. The North End is also home to Weaver High School, which was also the alma mater of ER actor Eriq La Salle.
;South End
This neighborhood is home to the area of Franklin Avenue, known as Little Italy. Although many Italians have moved just over the border to Wethersfield, Newington, and Rocky Hill, there is still a major Italian presence in the city. There are numerous Italian bakeries along Franklin Avenue. In the past few decades, there has been white flight from the South End, with many Puerto Rican families' moving into the neighborhood.
;South Green
South Green is home to Barnard Park in honor of Henry Barnard, whose home is located on Main Street. Congress Street is a historic district with many Greek Revival and Italianate homes. Hartford Hospital and the Connecticut Children's Medical Center are also located in South Green.
;South Meadows
Located at the southeastern corner of the city, the area is home to many industrial and commercial businesses. The neighborhood is home to the Regional Market, a 32 acre (129,000 m²) facility with 185,000 of warehouse space. Brainard Field along I-91 serves small aircraft and offers flight instruction. The Hartford Electric Light Company which started in 1921 is still operational and owned by CT Light and Power. One of the Metropolitan District Water pollution control plants is located in the south meadows. Also, the Mid-Connecticut Resource Recovery Facility, which opened in 1987 and is on 57 acres (231,000 m²), is located in the area.
Economy
Greater Hartford is an international center of the insurance industry, with companies such as AETNA and The Hartford based in the city. The area is also home to Colt Firearms and large corporations like United Technologies (the parent corporation for Pratt & Whitney, Otis Elevator and Sikorsky Aircraft, Carrier Corporation, Hamilton Sundstrand, and UTC Fuel Cells) and others.
Education
Hartford is the home of several institutions such as the Hartford Conservatory, Hartt School of Music, Trinity College, the [http://www.instituteofliving.org/ Institute of Living], [http://www.asd-1817.org/ The American School for the Deaf], [http://ccc.commnet.edu/ Capital Community College], Hartford Seminary, the University of Hartford, the University of Connecticut Law School, and the University of Connecticut School of Business. A branch campus for Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is also located in the city.
Culture
Points of interest
- Bushnell Park - Located below the State Capitol and legislative office complex, this park consists of rolling lawns, fountains, a lake, and a historic carousel.
- Bushnell Center for Performing Arts
- Cathedral of St. Joseph - Located outside of downtown, this Roman Catholic cathedral has stained glass windows and a large ceramic mural.
- Charter Oak Cultural Center
- Connecticut State Capitol - Located at Bushnell Park, this large Gothic-inspired building features many statues on its exterior. It is topped with a gold leafed dome.
- Colt Arms Factory and Park - Topped with a blue and gold dome, the complex is currently being redeveloped and renovated. It will feature office space, apartments, and retail space.
- Armsmear - The Colt family estate.
- Connecticut Center for Science and Exploration - The 150,000 square foot (14,000 m²) facility will be built along the Connecticut River in Columbus Boulevard near the convention center (opening in 2007+).
- Connecticut Convention Center - The 540,000 square foot (42,000 m²) convention center is now open, and overlooks the Connecticut River and the central business district. Attached to the center is a new 409 room 22 story Marriott Hotel (opened in late August 2005).
- Constitution Plaza - Built in the early 1970s, Constitution Plaza is a renowned redevelopment project. The complex is comprised of numerous office buildings, underground parking, a restaurant, and outdoor courtyards along with a broadcasting studio. During the holiday season the area is filled with Christmas lights, and the annual Taste of Hartford celebration is held here. The Plaza passes over the highway and connects the city to the Connecticut River.
- Elizabeth Park & Rose Garden - Located on the Hartford/West Hartford border.
- Harriet Beecher Stowe House & Research Center - The former home of Harriet Beecher Stowe is now a museum located on Farmington Avenue near the Mark Twain House.
- Hartford Civic Center - Built in 1978, the center hosts concerts and shows. It hosted the former NHL Hartford Whalers, and is also the home to the Hartford Wolf Pack AHL hockey team and is a part time home to UCONN basketball team. A new 36 story apartment complex (Hartford 21) is being built directly on top of the Civic Center and will also include retail and entertainment space. It will be the tallest apartment building in New England (completion expected in mid 2006).
- Isham-Terry House- The house was built in 1854 as the residence of a business man. The house is designed in an Italian Villa style.
- The Mark Twain House- Once the home of Samuel Clemens, the house is now a museum located in the city's west end on Farmington Avenue.
- Old State House - The Old State House was the first in the U.S., designed by Charles Bulfinch, and recently restored with a gold-leafed dome rising from its top. The Old State House sits facing the Connecticut River in Downtown.
- Pope Park, Hartford, Connecticut
- Riverfront Recapture and Park - This park connects the downtown with the Connecticut River. It contains bike and walking trails, playing fields, and a white triangle-shaped dome covers one of the performing stages. The boat launch for a Connecticut River tour is also located here. A walkway spanning the Connecticut River leads to East Hartford.
- Saint Thomas Seminary - Located on 80 acres (324,000 m²) in Bloomfield. The seminary is three miles north of Hartford near the University of Hartford. The seminary opened in 1930 and its campus consists of rolling greens and Gothic-inspired buildings.
- Trinity College - The liberal arts college, founded in 1823, has more than 2,100 students. The college is consistently ranked as one of the best liberal arts colleges in America.
- University of Connecticut Business School
- University of Connecticut Law School - located just off Farmington Avenue, the campus includes an extensive, large Gothic-inspired library
- University of Hartford - The University, which was founded in 1877, sits on 340 acres (1.4 km²) with a 13 acre (53,000 m²) campus on Asylum Avenue. There are more then 7,200 students and 86 undergraduate majors.
- Hartt School of Music at University of Hartford
- Wadsworth Atheneum of Art - the oldest art museum in the U.S.
Media
The city is served by the daily Hartford Courant newspaper, which is one of the country's oldest newspapers, founded in 1764. A weekly newspaper, the Hartford Advocate, also serves Hartford and the surrounding area.
Several television and radio stations based in Hartford cover the entire state. These stations serve the Hartford/New Haven market, which is the 28th largest market in the U.S.
Transportation
Bradley International Airport, in Windsor Locks, Connecticut, is twenty minutes north of Hartford and serves Hartford and Springfield.
Other airports serving the Hartford area include:
- Brainard Airport, located in Hartford off of I-91 and close to Wethersfield, serves charter flights and local flights.
- Tweed New Haven Regional Airport, an airport located in New Haven, Connecticut, has two carriers and is looking at attracting a third.
- LaGuardia Airport and JFK Airport, in New York City
During the 1960s and 1970s, Hartford was something of a poster child for highway construction, and has several highways surrounding the downtown area. Still more projects were cancelled, both within the city and the suburbs, due to community opposition.
I-84 runs from Danbury, on the New York border, to Union on the Massachusetts border. I-91 starts in New Haven off of I-95 and continues all the way up into Canada along the Connecticut River. The two highways intersect in downtown Hartford.
Hartford suffers from notoriously heavy traffic as a result of its suburban population, which is proportionally much larger than that of any other nearby city. As a result, thousands of people clog area highways at the start of the workday. I-84 experiences traffic from Farmington through Hartford and into East Hartford and Manchester during the rush hour. Outside of Hartford, there are delays going westbound east of the Connecticut River and delays going eastbound west of the city, while in Hartford there is traffic in both directions. I-91 has significant delays, usually south of the city in Wethersfield and Rocky Hill and north of the city in Windsor and Bloomfield.
Besides the two major interstates, Route 2 runs from Norwich in the southeastern part of the state up to East Hartford where it then intersects with I-84. There are delays through Glastonbury and East Hartford in the morning hours.
Known as the Berlin Turnpike, Route 5 and 15 runs south of the city. Before I-91, the roadway carried people from Hartford to New Haven. Along the Berlin Turnpike is an array of department stores, restaurants, and offices in Berlin, Newington, and Wethersfield. In Wethersfield, it becomes a highway-grade roadway that intersects with I-91 and I-84. Past Berlin, Route 15 becomes the Wilbur Cross Parkway in Meriden, and later, the Merrit Parkway which runs parallel to I-95 to the New York border.
West of Hartford, Route 44 runs from West Hartford up into the hills of Litchfield County and eventually into New York.
Hartford's dependence on the railroad has decreased since the automobile. However, the Hartford train station at One Union Place still operates. Amtrak provides service from Hartford to New Haven, New York, Boston, Providence, and Washington DC. The station is also a major bus station serving numerous bus companies as Hartford is a mid way point between the popular New York to Boston route.
Currently there are preliminary plans to create a New Haven-Hartford-Springfield Commuter Rail Line with stations in communities close to I-91.
Connecticut Transit is owned by the Connecticut Department of Transportation. CTTRANSIT operates local and commuter bus service within the city and the surrounding area. Taxi service is available from the train station at 1 Union Place or by calling one to any location in the area.
Famous Hartford residents
Harriet Beecher Stowe was originally from the Litchfield area, but settled in Hartford during the 1870s. Her house on Forest Street is now open to the public and is right next to that of Mark Twain. Twain moved to Hartford in 1874 and lived in Hartford for a number of years. The Mark Twain House is a national historic site. Twain, whose real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens, wrote many of his most famous works in Hartford, including The Gilded Age, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Roughing It, and his most read and controversial, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Wallace Stevens, the poet, was an insurance executive in Hartford. Katharine Hepburn, Stephen Cole Kleene and Bill Morrissey were born in the area.
Dwight Freeney (NFL Indianapolis Colts) and Nykesha Sales (WNBA Connecticut Sun) were also born in the Hartford area. They resided in the northwest suburb of Bloomfield and grew up within brief walking distance of each other on Farmstead Circle. Both attended Bloomfield High School and were All State(CIAC) varsity athletes in football and basketball respectively.
Sister cities
Because of Hartford's diverse population the city has numerous sister cities. They include:
- Caguas, Puerto Rico
- Floridia, Italy: A small suburb of Siracusa that is located on the southeastern coast of the island of Sicily.
- Freetown, Sierra Leone
- Hertford, England: The town has a population of about 24,000 and serves and has many commuters to London. The town has a country feel but is also only 20 miles north of London.
- Manguallde, Portugal: The small town in northern Portugal is very close to the Serra de Estrela Mountains
- Morant Bay, Jamaica
- New Ross, Ireland
- Ocotal, Nicaragua
- Thessaloniki, Greece
Revitalization
Massive redevelopment projects are now under construction in the city. The largest is Adriaen's Landing along the Connecticut River. It will feature a 540,000 square foot (37,000 m²) convention center, the largest between New York City and Boston, and an attached 22 story Marriott Hotel. The Convention Center is currently open and the attached hotel is scheduled to open in late August 2005. An outdoor boardwalk will connect the convention center with Constitution Plaza and the recently developed Riverfront Recapture on the Connecticut River. The Connecticut Center for Science and Exploration, with approximately 150,000 square feet (14,000 m²), will open at Adriaen's Landing. A master plan has been created by the board of trustees and Cesar Pelli of New Haven has been chosen as the architect for the project.
Another project, Hartford 21, will result in New England's tallest residential tower at 36 stories. It will be connected to the existing Civic Center Arena. The Civic Center, which was built in 1975, is still operating and hosts shows and concerts each year in addition to being the home of the Hartford Wolf Pack AHL hockey team and the part time home to the UCONN women's and men's basketball teams. "Hartford 21" will include 262 luxury condos ranging in price from approximately $250,000 to $500,000, a video screen flashing on Trumbull Street (similar to those in Times Square in New York), retail, office space, restaurants and public spaces. Attached to the other side of the Civic Center the newly renovated, 4-Star Hartford Hilton Hotel, reopened recently with 392 rooms on 22 floors with 15,000 square feet (1,400 m²) of meeting space. The hotel also includes a rooftop pool and two restaurants: Element 15 (bar and lounge) and Morty and Ming's (Combination delicatessen and traditional Chinese cuisine).
In addition to the Hartford 21 apartment complex, there are also many other apartments recently finished, under construction or in the planning stages. The "Trumbull By The Park" apartment complex by Bushnell Park is under construction with 100 apartments and ground floor retail space. The former SNET building, also by Bushnell Park, was recently transformed into luxury apartments. On Main Street the former Sage Allen Department Store will be transformed into loft style apartments that will house students from the University of Hartford and Saint Joseph's College. In addition, there are also many other apartment building, multi-family homes and single family homes being renovated.
In addition to the residential projects planned for the downtown area, a retail and office project is currently in the planning phase. The project, Front Street, will be home to several national and local retailers. Since it is still in the design phase, many details are still unavailable. Although the project is not yet under construction, it is already receiving competition from the "Blue Black Square" in West Hartford. The project is being heavily opposed by the Westfarms Mall in West Hartford and several Hartford advocates.
Also in the works is a major multi-million dollar renovation of the Hartford Public Library and Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. The Atheneum also plans to expand into the Hartford Times Building near the Adrian's Landing site. The Old State House recently underwent a major refurbishing project and had been returned to its original splendor. Talks are also in the works for establishing a major bus route between Hartford and New Britain to further unify the region.
External links
- [http://www.hartford.gov/ Official Hartford website]
- [http://www.cceda.state.ct.us/index.htm/ Capital City Economic Development Authority]
- [http://enjoyhartford.com/index.cfm/ Hartford Convention and Visitor's Bureau]
- [http://hartfordinfo.org/ HartfordInfo.org -- Information and Data about Hartford and its Neighborhoods]
- [http://hartford.omaxfield.com/ Hartford, Connecticut: Landmarks, History, Neighborhoods]
Category:Cities in Connecticut
Category:Hartford County, Connecticut
Category:U.S. state capitals
ja:ハートフォード
Aircraft engines
The term aircraft engine, for the purposes of this article, refers to aircraft reciprocating, or rotary, internal combustion engines as opposed to jet engines or turboprops.
Tradeoffs
Because of the complexities of flight, aircraft engines need to satisfy several requirements to sustain prolonged flights. These engines must be:
- light, Engine "deadweight" only takes away from power the engine creates.
- small/streamlined, Engines that create too much drag waste fuel, and reduce power output.
- powerful, Aircraft engines have to overcome the entire weight of the aircraft.
- reliable, Loss of power to an airplane is a substantially greater problem than an automobile engine seizing. Aircraft engines operate at temperature, pressure, and speed extremes, and therefore need to operate reliably and safely under all these conditions.
- repairable, Replacing aircraft engines is very expensive, unlike small, minor repairs.
Unlike automobile engines, aircraft engines run at high power settings for extended periods of time. In general, the engine runs at maximum power for a few minutes during taking off, then power is slightly reduced for climb, and then spends the majority of its time at a cruise setting—typically 65% to 75% of full power. In contrast, a car engine might spend 20% of its time at 65% power accelerating, followed by 80% of its time at 20% power while cruising.
If a car engine fails you simply pull over to the side of the road. If the same occurs in an single-engine aircraft it will glide but, depending on the circumstances, may result in a fatal accident. For this reason the design of aircraft engines tend to favor reliability over performance. Even with this mindset, it took many years before the reliability was established to fly over the Atlantic or the Pacific Ocean [http://www.allstar.fiu.edu/aero/ksmith.htm].
Long engine operation times and high power settings, combined with the requirement for high-reliability means that engines must have large engine displacement to minimize over-stressing the engine. The engine, as well as the aircraft, needs to be lifted into the air, meaning it has to overcome lots of weight. The power to weight ratio is one of the most important characteristics for an aircraft engine. A typical 250 hp engine weighs just 15% of the total aircraft weight when installed into a 3000 lb (1,400 kg) aircraft.
Aircraft engines also tend to use the simplest parts and include two sets of anything needed for reliability, including ignition system (spark plugs and magnetos) and fuel pumps. Independence of function lessens the likelihood of a single malfunction causing an entire engine to fail. Thus magnetos are used because they do not rely on a battery. Two magnetos were originally installed so a pilot can switch off a faulty magneto and continue the flight on the other—but, later, dual ignition was found to offer some detonation protection too. Similarly, a mechanical engine-driven fuel pump is often backed-up by an electric one.
Two engines are more attractive from a reliability angle than a single one, regardless of the fact that the additional systems decrease the reliability, statistically speaking. Many twin-engined aircraft are designed to be capable of at least a marginal climb on one engine, even carrying the maximum load at take-off. But by doubling the number of engines, the chance of one failing is at least doubled when statistics are considered. However, the chance of both engines failing at the same time is relatively small. Interestingly enough, if one engine DOES fail, the aircraft loses about 80% of its power, not just 50% (remember, one engine would then have to overcome the weight of the aircraft, the dead engine, and itself!) Frequently, the greater economy and simplicity of a single-engine aircraft is preferred over the extra power and speed, as well as finesse needed, to operate a twin engine, especially for private pilots.
Another difference between cars and aircraft is that the aircraft spend the vast majority of their time travelling at high speed. This allows aircraft engines to be air cooled, as opposed to requiring a radiator. In the absence of a radiator aircraft engines can boast lower weight and less complexity.
Aircraft operate at higher altitudes where significantly less air (oxygen) is available than at ground level. As engines need oxygen to burn fuel, an induction-assist mechanism—like a turbocharger or supercharger—is especially appropriate for aircraft use. This does bring along the usual drawbacks of additional cost, weight and complexity.
History
At one time all engine designs were new and there was no particular difference in design between aircraft and automobile engines. This changed by the start of World War I, however, when a particular class of air-cooled rotary engines became popular. These had a short lifespan, but by the 1920s a large number of engine designs were moving to the similar radial engine design. This combined air-cooled simplicity with large displacements and they were among the most powerful small engines in the world.
Both the rotary and radial engine have one drawback however, they both have very large frontal areas (see drag equation). As planes increased in speed and demanded better streamlining, designers turned to water-cooled inline engines. Throughout WWII the two designs were generally similar in terms of power and overall performance but some mature-design radials tended to be more reliable. After the war, in the USA, the water-cooled designs rapidly disappeared.
For the smaller application, notably in general aviation, a hybrid design in the form an air-cooled inline, almost always 4 or 6 cylinders horizontally opposed, is most common. These combine small frontal area with air-cooled simplicity, although they required careful installation in order to be effectively cooled, notably the rearmost cylinders. To make repairs practical, each cylinder is individually replaceable, as are each of the accessories (pumps, generator and magnetos).
Throughout most of the history of aircraft engine design, they tended to be more advanced than their automobile counterparts. High-strength aluminum alloys were used in these engines decades before they became common in cars. Likewise, those engines adopted fuel injection instead of carburetion quite early. Similarly, overhead cams were introduced, while automobile engines continued to use pushrods.
Today the piston-engine aviation market is so small that there is essentially no commercial money for new design work. Almost every engine flying is based on a design from the 1960s, or before, using original materials, tooling and parts. Meanwhile the relentless financial power of the automobile industry has continued improvement. A new car design is likely to use an engine designed in the last three years, build of alloys that did not exist more than five years ago and having ignition and other systems features that did not exist then either. Modern car engines require no maintenance at all (other than adding fuel and oil) for over 100,000 km, aircraft engines are now, in comparison and paradoxically, rather heavy, dirty and unreliable. Accordingly, some hobbyists and experimenters prefer to adapt automotive engines for their home-built aircraft, instead of using certified aircraft engines.
Over the history of the development of aircraft engines, the Otto cycle, that is, conventional gasoline powered engines have been by far the most common type. That is not because they are the best but simply because they were there first and type-certification of new designs is difficult.
Another promising design for aircraft use was the Wankel engine. The Wankel engine is about 1/2 the weight and size of a traditional four stroke cycle piston engine of equal power, and much lower in complexity. In this role the power to weight ratio is king, and the Wankel makes particularly good sense. Furthermore, due to the composition of the engine with an aluminium housing and a steel rotor, unlike a piston engine the engine will not seize when overheated, as the aluminium expands more than the steel; this adds a safety factor for aeronautical use. Considerable thinking on such designs started in the post-war era, but at the same time the entire industry felt that jets, often in the form of turboprops, would power everything from the biggest to smallest designs. In the end little work was actually carried out, much to the chagrin of many.
The diesel engine is another engine design that has been examined for aviation use. In general diesel engines are more reliable and much better suited to running for long periods of time at medium power settings—this is why they are widely used in trucks for instance. Several attempts to produce diesel aircraft engines were made in the 1930s but, at the time, the alloys were not up to the task of handling the much higher compression ratios used in these designs. They generally had poor power-to-weight ratios and were uncommon for that reason. Improvements in diesel technology in automobiles (leading to much better power-weight ratios), the diesel's much better fuel efficiency (particularly compared to the old designs currently being used in light aircraft) and the high relative taxation of gasoline compared to diesel in Europe have all seen a revival of interest in the concept. As of May 2004 one manufacturer, Centurion, is already selling certified diesel aircraft engines for light aircraft, and other companies have alternative designs under development. It remains to be seen whether these new designs will succeed in the marketplace but they potentially represent the biggest change in light aircraft engines in decades.
See also
- Hyper engine
- Air safety
- List of aircraft engines
-
Fuel cells
A fuel cell is an electrochemical device similar to a battery, but differing from the latter in that it is designed for continuous replenishment of the reactants consumed; i.e. it produces electricity from an external fuel supply of hydrogen and oxygen as opposed to the limited internal energy storage capacity of a battery. Additionally, the electrodes within a battery react and change as a battery is charged or discharged, whereas a fuel cell's electrodes are catalytic and relatively stable.
Typical reactants used in a fuel cell are hydrogen on the anode side and oxygen on the cathode side (a hydrogen cell). Typically in fuel cells, reactants flow in and reaction products flow out, and continuous long-term operation is feasible virtually as long as these flows are maintained.
Fuel cells are often considered to be very attractive in modern applications for their high efficiency and ideally emission-free use, in contrast to currently more common fuels such as methane or natural gas that generate carbon dioxide. The only by-product of a hydrogen fuel cell is water vapor. There is concern, however, about the energy-consuming process of manufacturing the hydrogen, which may still generate pollution and still requires either fossil fuel, nuclear power generation, or as yet undeveloped alternative generation. In this regard, hydrogen fuel technology itself cannot be said to reduce fossil fuel dependence.
Science
Fuel cells are not constrained by the maximum Carnot cycle efficiency as combustion engines are. Consequently, they can have very high efficiencies in converting chemical energy to electrical energy.
In the archetypal example of a hydrogen/oxygen proton-exchange membrane (or "polymer electrolyte") fuel cell (PEMFC), a proton-conducting polymer membrane separates the anode and cathode sides. Each side has an electrode, typically carbon paper coated with platinum catalyst.
On the anode side, hydrogen diffuses to the anode catalyst where it dissociates into protons and electrons. The protons are conducted through the membrane to the cathode, but the electrons are forced to travel in an external circuit (supplying power) because the membrane is electrically insulating.
On the cathode catalyst, oxygen molecules react with the electrons (which have travelled through the external circuit) and protons to form water.
In this example, the only waste product is water vapor and/or liquid water.
Fuel cells cannot store energy like a battery, but in some applications, like stand-alone power plants based on discontinuous sources (solar, wind power), they are combined with electrolyzers and storage systems to form an energy storage system. The round-trip efficiency (electricity to hydrogen and back to electricity) of such plants is between 30 and 40%.
Researchers have also managed to use diesel for fuel cells.
Efficiency
A fuel cell typically converts the chemical energy of its fuel into electricity with an efficiency of about 50%. (The rest of the energy is converted into heat.)
If the fuel cell is used to power a vehicle, then it is also important to take losses due to production, transportation and storage into account. Fuel cell vehicles running on compressed hydrogen may have a power plant to wheel efficiency of 22% if the hydrogen is stored as high-pressure gas, and 17% if it is stored as a cryogenic liquid (efficiency of Hydrogen Fuel Cell, Diesel-SOFC-Hybrid and Battery Electric Vehicles, Ulf Bossel, European Fuel Cell Forum).
In "combined heat and power" applications, a fuel cell is placed in a location where heat is also needed. The fuel-to-electricity conversion efficiency need not be very high (typically 15-20%), because the heat is also being utilized. Some heat is lost with the exhaust gas just like in a normal furnace, so the combined heat and power efficiency is still lower than 100%, typically around 80%.
Economy
GM believes that fuel cell vehicles will be available at market prices around the end of this decade. The problem is the investment for the catalyst which was 1000 USD per installed kW electric power output in 2002 (http://www.fuelcellcontrol.com/evs19.html).
History
The principle of the fuel cell was discovered by Swiss scientist Christian Friedrich Schönbein in 1838 and published in the January 1839 edition of the "Philosophical Magazine" [http://www.efcf.com/media/ep010813.shtml]. Based on this work, the first fuel cell was developed by Welsh scientist Sir William Grove. A sketch was published in 1843, but it wasn't until 1959 that British engineer Francis Thomas Bacon developed successfully a 5 kW stationary fuel cell. In 1959, a team led by Harry Ihrig built a 15 kW fuel cell tractor for Allis-Chalmers that was demonstrated across the US at state fairs. This system used potassium hydroxide as the electrolyte and compressed hydrogen and oxygen as the reactants. Later, in 1959, Bacon and his colleagues demonstrated a practical five-kilowatt unit capable of powering a welding machine, which led, in the 1960s to Bacon's patents being licensed by Pratt and Whitney from the U.S. where the concepts were used in the U.S. space program to supply electricity and drinking water (hydrogen and oxygen being readily available from the spacecraft tanks). Extremely expensive materials were used and the fuel cells required very pure hydrogen and oxygen. Early fuel cells tended to require inconveniently high operating temperatures that were a problem in many applications. However, fuel cells were seen to be desirable due to the large amounts of fuel available (hydrogen & oxygen).
Further technological advances in the 1980s and 1990s, like the use of Nafion as the membrane electrolyte, and reductions in the quantity of expensive platinum catalyst required, have made the prospect of fuel cells in consumer applications such as automobiles more or less realistic. (See Hydrogen car)
The fuel cell industry
United Technologies (UTX) was the first company to manufacture fuel cells. In the 1960s the company provided NASA with fuel cells to generate electricity for the Apollo missions. UTX's UTC Power subsidiary [http://www.utcpower.com] was the first company to manufacturer and commercialize a large, stationary fuel cell system for use as a co-generation power plant in hospitals, universities, and large office buildings. UTC Power continues to market this fuel cell as the PureCell 200 [http://www.utcpower.com/fs/com/bin/fs_com_Page/0,5433,03100,00.html], a 200 kW system. UTC Power continues to be the sole supplier of fuel cells to NASA for use in space vehicles, having supplied the Apollo missions and currently the space shuttle, and is developing fuel cells for automobiles, buses, and cell phone towers. UTC Power claims to be "the global leader in the development and production of fuel cell technology" for both transportation and on-site power markets. In the automotive fuel cell market, UTC Power demonstrated the first fuel cell capable of starting under freezing conditions with its proton exchange membrane (PEM) automotive fuel cell. Note: UTC Power also uses the UTC Fuel Cells [http://www.utcfuelcells.com] name when referring to fuel cell products.
proton exchange membrane]
Ballard Power Systems is a major manufacturer of fuel cells and claims to lead the world in automotive fuel cell technology. Ford Motor Company and DaimlerChrysler are major investors in Ballard. In 2003, most automobile companies were customers of Ballard, with only General Motors and Toyota pursuing internal development of fuel cells for automotive use which broke up in 2005; in 2004 Nissan and Honda started similar research programs. GM apparently now teams with DaimlerChrysler and BMW [http://media.gm.com/servlet/GatewayServlet?target=http://image.emerald.gm.com/gmnews/viewpressreldetail.do?domain=137&docid=18107].
Perth in Western Australia is also participating in the trial with three fuel cell powered buses now operating between Perth and the port city of Fremantle. The trial is to be extended to other Australian cities over the next three years.
In late 2004, Mechanical Technology Inc.'s subsidiary, MTI MicroFuel Cells debuted its first Direct Methanol Fuel Cell (DMFC)[http://www.staff.ncl.ac.uk/p.a.christensen/dmfc1.htm] for commercial use. MTI's Mobion™ cord-free rechargeable power pack technology consists of a fuel cell which runs on 100% (neat) Methanol. MTI's Mobion line is being released in industrial, consumer, and military markets as a low-cost replacement for lithium-ion batteries.
Advantages and disadvantages
Environmental effects
A common misconception among the public is that elemental hydrogen is a source of energy, and that there are "mines" or "reservoirs" of hydrogen to find. This is simply not true, hydrogen is not a primary source of energy: it is only an energy storage medium, and must be manufactured using energy from other sources.
The physical laws relating to the conservation of energy unfortunately create a situation where the energy needed to create the fuel in the first place may reduce the ultimate energy efficiency of the system to below that of the most efficient gasoline internal-combustion engines; this is especially true if the hydrogen has to be compressed to high pressures or liquified, as it does in automobile applications (the electrolysis of water is itself a rather inefficient process, usually requiring at least 50 % more electricity than the than the energy stored in the produced hydrogen.). However, even the most efficient internal-combustion engines are not very efficient in absolute terms; furthermore, gasoline is not a primary energy source, because crude oil has to be treated in a refinery to obtain gasoline.
As an alternative to electrolysis, hydrogen can be generated from methane (the primary component of natural gas) with approximately 80% efficiency, or with other hydrocarbons to a varying degree of efficiency. The hydrocarbon-conversion method releases greenhouse gases, but, since the production is concentrated in one facility, and not distributed on every single vehicle or utility, it is possible to separate the gases and dispose of them properly, for example by injecting them in an oil or gas reservoir. A CO2 injection project has been started by Norwegian company Statoil in the North Sea, at the Sleipner field. [http://www.statoil.com/STATOILCOM/SVG00990.NSF?opendatabase&lang=en&artid=01A5A730136900A3412569B90069E947]
Other types of fuel cells do not face these problems, however. For example, biological fuel cells take glucose and methanol from food scraps and convert it into hydrogen and food for the bacteria.
However, another environmental problem faced by all types of hydrogen fuel cells has been pointed out in a paper published in Science magazine by a group of Caltech scientists. They note that if hydrogen fuel cell usage becomes widespread enough to replace gasoline internal-combustion engines, small amounts of hydrogen leaking from storage containers and pipelines will have a detrimental impact on the Earth's ozone layer. However, their findings remain controversial, and their assumptions regarding the amount of hydrogen leaked have been disputed by industry officials.
Finally, roughly 70% of all electricity produced in the United States comes from coal. The problem is that coal is a relatively dirty energy source. If electrolysis (a process that uses electricity) is used to create hydrogen using energy from power plants, it is essentially creating hydrogen fuel from coal. Though the fuel cell itself will only emit heat and water as waste, the problem of pollution is still present at power plants.
Fuel cell design issues
To make fuel cells economically competitive, there are many practical problems to be overcome as well. Water management remains a key problem in Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells or (PEMFCs), where generated water will need to be disposed of. Not enough water and the polymer loses its ability to conduct protons across the cell; too much water in the fuel cell and the electrodes will flood, stopping the reaction. Methods to dispose of the excess water are being developed by fuel cell companies.
At the same time many other variables must be juggled, including temperature throughout the cell (which changes and can sometimes destroy a cell through thermal loading), reactant and product levels at various cells. Materials must be chosen to do various tasks which none fill completely. Durability and lifetime of the cells can be serious issues for some cells, low power densities for others. Putting all of these factors together hasn't been accomplished decisively yet, and remains the challenge.
In vehicle usage, many problems are amplified. For instance, cars must be required to start in any weather conditions a person can reasonably expect to encounter: about 80% of the world's car park is legally subject to the requirement of being able to start from sub-zero temperatures. Fuel cells have no difficulty operating in the hottest locations, but the coldest do present a problem. Honda's FCX was the first fuel cell powered vehicle to do so, but temperatures below -20 degrees Celsius still prohibit the fuel cell stack from starting.
Fuel cell applications
Fuel cells are very useful as power sources in remote locations, such as spacecraft, remote weather stations, large parks, rural locations, and in certain military applications. A fuel cell system running on hydrogen can be compact, lightweight and has no major moving parts.
A near-term application is combined heat and power (CHP) for office buildings and factories. This type of system generates constant electric power (selling excess power back to the grid when it is not consumed), and at the same time produce hot air and water from the waste heat. Phosphoric-acid fuel cells (PAFC) comprise the largest segment of existing CHP products worldwide and can provide combined efficiencies close to 80% (45-50% electric + remainder as thermal). The largest manufacturer of PAFC fuel cells is UTC Power, a division of United Technologies Corporation. Molten-carbonate fuel cells have also been installed in these applications, and Solid-oxide fuel cell prototypes exist.
Because fuel cells have a high cost per kilowatt, and because their efficiency decreases with increasing power density, they are usually not considered for applications with high load variations. In particular, they are not suited for energy storage systems in small and medium scale. An electrolyzer and fuel cell would return less than 50 percent of the input energy (this is known as round-trip efficiency), while a much cheaper lead-acid battery might return about 90 percent.
However, since fuel cell/electrolyzer systems do not store fuel, but rather rely on external storage units, they can be successfully applied in large-scale energy storage, rural areas being one example. In this case, batteries would have to be largely oversized to meet the storage demand, but fuel cells only need a larger storage unit (typically cheaper than an electrochemical device).
The use of fuel cells for cogeneration of electricity and hot water in households is a potential long-term application, with various pilot programs launched in 2005 across the industry.
Hydrogen vehicles and refuelling
The first hydrogen refuelling station was opened in Reykjavík, Iceland on April 2003. This station serves three buses built by DaimlerChrysler that are in service in the public transport net of Reykjavík. The station produces the hydrogen it needs by itself, with an electrolysing unit (produced by Norsk Hydro), and does not need refilling: all that enters is electricity and water. Shell is also a partner in the project. The station has no roof, in order to allow any leaked hydrogen to escape to the atmosphere.
There are numerous prototype or production cars and buses based on fuel cell technology being researched or manufactured. Research is ongoing at companies like BMW, Hyundai, and Nissan, among many others. However, a practical commercial automobile is not expected until at least 2010 according to the industry. There are, however, fuel cell-powered buses currently active or in production, such as a fleet of Thor buses with UTC Power fuel cells in California, operated by SunLine Transit Agency [http://www.utcpower.com/fs/com/bin/fs_com_Page/0,5433,03552,00.html].
Currently, a team of college students called Energy-Quest is planning to take a hydrogen fuel cell powered boat around the world (as well as other projects using efficient or renewable fuels). Their venture is called the Triton.
Sodium boro hydride (NaBH4) a chemical compound may hold future promise due to the ease at which hydrogen can be stored under normal atmospheric pressures in automobiles that have fuel cells.
Suggested applications
- Baseload utility power plants
- Cellular phone power
- Electrically-powered vehicles
- Emergency backup power
- Off-grid power storage
- Portable electronics
See also
Types of fuel cells
- Alkaline fuel cell
- Biological fuel cell
- Direct borohydride fuel cell
- Direct-methanol fuel cell
- Formic acid fuel cell
- Molten-carbonate fuel cell
- Phosphoric-acid fuel cell
- Proton-exchange fuel cell
- Reversible fuel cell
- Solid-oxide fuel cell
- Zinc fuel cell ('Air' fuel cell)
Related Technologies
- Hydrogen reformer
External links
- [http://physicsweb.org/article/world/11/7/2 PhysicsWorld: Fuel cells]
- [http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.04/hydrogen_pr.html How Hydrogen Can Save America (Wired Magazine)]
- [http://science.howstuffworks.com/fuel-cell.htm How Stuff Works: Fuel Cells]
- [http://www.fuelcells.org Fuel-Cells.org]
Category:Energy conversion
-
Category:Electrochemistry
Category:Alternative propulsion
Category:Alternative energy
ja:燃料電池
th:เซลล์เชื้อเพลิง
EscalatorsEscalator
George DavidGeorge David has been the Chief Executive Officer of United Technologies Corporation since 1994.
David was born in 1944 on a 5,000 acre alfalfa farm outside of Madison, Wisconsin. His father, when not tending the farm, was an amateur tax advisor, who frequently prepared returns for his fellow farmers. David's mother was the first woman in the history of Wisconsin to earn a Master's degree in Dutch poetry.
David left home after high school graduation in 1962 and enrolled in Princeton University on a full scholarship for squash. David graduated a year early, in 1965 with a degree in mechanical engineering and French.
Prior to his appointment as CEO of UTC, David served as Vice President of General Motors.
CarrierIn general, a carrier is a system or process with a specific property or is attributed of something
(in physical or in abstract sense).
"Carrier" has several very different meanings:
- an individual or organization engaged in transporting passengers or goods for hire.
- in semiconductor physics, a charge carrier, either a free electron or an electron hole.
- in telecommunication, a carrier wave
- in biology, an asymptomatic carrier or a carrier-protein
- the Dakelh, an indigenous First Nations people in British Columbia, Canada, who were formerly referred to as the Carrier
- the Carrier language, the Athabaskan language of the Dakelh people
- a common carrier, a transport business (shipping or telecom)
- an aircraft carrier
- Willis Carrier, the inventor of air-conditioning
- Carrier, the company which he founded
- Carrier, a video game for the Sega Dreamcast
- Carrier a South Pacific World War II game from Avalon Hill
- the town of Carrier, Oklahoma
- a unit in the computer game StarCraft, the Protoss Carrier.
- the enormous living interdimensional spaceship home to the Authority
- a Lathe carrier is a device that transfers motion to a workpiece.
- in mathematics, the set over which a Boolean algebra is defined is the carrier.
Otis Elevator Company
The Otis Elevator Company is the world's largest manufacturer of vertical transportation systems, principally elevators and escalators.
Founded in Yonkers, New York in the United States in 1853 by Elisha Otis, the company pioneered the development of the safety elevator, which used a special mechanism to lock the elevator car in place should the hoisting ropes fail.
At a stroke, Otis had made skyscrapers possible, as for the first time, there was a safe means of mechanically transporting passengers to upper floors.
Otis has been responsible for installing the elevators in some of the world's most famous tall structures including the Eiffel Tower, Empire State Building and World Trade Center.
Statistically, Otis is the world's most popular transportation company. It is estimated that the equivalent of the world's population travel in Otis elevators, escalators and moving walkways every 3 days.
Otis was acquired by United Technologies in 1975, and now functions as a wholly-owned subsidiary.
Otis has also dabbled in horizontal automated people mover "shuttle" systems, and in 1996 formed a joint venture called Poma-Otis Transportation Sytems with the French company Pomagalski to promote these products.
Otis had a large factory in Harrison, New Jersey.
External links
- [http://www.otis.com Otis official site]
- [http://www.poma-otis.com Poma-Otis official site]
Category:Manufacturing companies of the United States
Pratt & Whitney
:This article is about the U.S. company Pratt & Whitney. For the Canadian company with a similar name see Pratt & Whitney Canada.
Pratt & Whitney is an American owned aircraft engine manufacturer whose products are widely used in both civil and military aircraft. As one of the "big three" aero-engine manufacturers it competes with General Electric and Rolls-Royce although it has also formed joint ventures with both of these companies. In addition to aircraft engines, Pratt & Whitney manufactures fixed gas turbines for industry and power generation, marine turbines, railway locomotive engines, and rocket engines.
History
The Pratt & Whitney Company was founded in 1860 by Francis Pratt and Amos Whitney with headquarters in Hartford, Connecticut. In 1861 they began manufacturing guns and gun making machinery for use by the Union Army during the American Civil War.
In 1925 Frederick Brant Rentschler approached Pratt & Whitney, looking for funds and a location to build his new aircraft engine. Pratt & Whitney loaned him $250,000, the use of the Pratt & Whitney name, and space in their building. This was the beginning of the Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Company. Pratt & Whitney's first engine, the Wasp, was completed on Christmas Eve 1925. The Wasp developed 425 horsepower (317 kW) on its third test run. It easily passed the Navy qualification test in March 1926, and by October the Navy had ordered 200 engines. The Wasp exhibited speed, climb, performance and reliability that revolutionized American aviation.
In 1929 Frederick Rentschler, ended his association with Pratt & Whitney Machine Tool and formed United Aircraft and Transport Corporation, the predecessor to today's United Technologies. His agreement allowed Rentschler to carry the name with him to his new corporation.
Pratt & Whitney is a business unit of industrial conglomerate United Technologies, making it a sister company to Pratt & Whitney Canada (PWC, originally United Aircraft of Canada), Sikorsky Helicopters, Hamilton Sundstrand, Otis Elevator Company and refrigeration giant Carrier Corporation. PWC designs and builds the smaller aircraft engines while P&W manufactures the larger engines.
Pratt & Whitney is headquarted in East Hartford, Connecticut and also has plants in Middletown, CT;
Cheshire, CT; West Palm Beach, FL; and North Berwick, ME.
Civil turbine engines and applications
North Berwick
- JT3C
- JT3D/TF33
- Boeing 707
- JT8D
- Boeing 727
- Boeing 737
- Douglas DC-9
- JT9D
- Airbus A300
- Airbus A310
- Boeing 747
- Boeing 767
- McDonnell Douglas DC-10
- JT15D
- Cessna Citation
- PW2000/F117-PW-100
- Boeing 757
- C-17 Globemaster III
- PW4000
- Airbus A300-600
- Airbus A310-300
- Airbus A330
- Boeing 747-400
- Boeing 767
- Boeing 777
- McDonnell Douglas MD-11
- PW6000
- Airbus A318
- IAE V2500
- Airbus A320 family
- A318
- A319
- A320
- A321
- Airbus Corporate Jet
- Engine Alliance GP7200
- Airbus A380
Military turbine engines and applications
Airbus A380
- J52
- A-4 Skyhawk
- A-6 Intruder
- EA-6 Prowler
- J57
- F-100 Super Sabre
- F-101 Voodoo
- F-102 Delta Dagger
- JT3D/TF33
- USAF and NATO E-3 Sentrys
- E-8 JSTARS
- KC-135
- RC-135 Rivet Joint
- B-52 Stratofortress
- C-141
- J58/JT11D
- Lockheed SR-71
- TF-30
- F-111
- F-14As
- F100
- F-15 Eagle
- F-15E Strike Eagle
- F-16
- F119
- F/A-22 Raptor
- F135
- F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
Turbopump engines
- H-1 - (RP-1/LOX) Used by the Saturn I, Ib, Jupiter, and some Delta rockets
- F-1 - (RP-1/LOX) Used by the Saturn V.
- J-2 - (LH2/LOX) Used by both the Saturn V and Saturn IB.
- SSME - (LH2/LOX) The Space Shuttle Main Engine
- RS-68 - (LH2/LOX) Used by the Delta IV first stage
- RS-27A - (RP-1/LOX) Used by the Delta II/III and Atlas ICBM
- RL10
- RL60
- RLX
- RD-0146
- RD-180
- COBRA
Reciprocating engines
- Wasp
- Hornet
- Wasp Jr.
- Twin Wasp Jr.
- Twin Wasp
- Double Wasp
- Wasp Major - powering many postwar large bombers and transports.
Wasp Major
External links
- [http://www.pratt-whitney.com/ Pratt & Whitney a United Technologies Company website]
- [http://www.prattandwhitney.com/ Pratt & Whitney Measurement Systems website]
- [http://www.pwc.ca/ Pratt & Whitney Canada]
ms:Pratt & Whitney
Category:Manufacturing companies of the United States
Category:Aircraft engine manufacturers
UTC Fire & SecurityUTC Fire & Security is a combination of businesses which United Technologies Corporation acquired in order to enter this particular segment of the building systems market, including:
- Chubb Security, a security company dealing in everything from safes to armoured vehicles and security systems, in 2003
- Kidde, a specialist in fire systems for detection, suppression and fire fighting, in 2005
- Lenel Systems International, a security systems and software developer, in 2005
Elisha Graves OtisElisha Graves Otis (August 3, 1811-April 8, 1861) invented a safety device in 1852 that made elevators much safer by preventing them from falling if the hoisting cable failed.
Otis was born near Halifax, Vermont.
High above the crowd at New York’s Crystal Palace, Elisha Otis thrilled the crowd when he dramatically ordered cut with an axe the only rope suspending the platform on which he was standing. The platform dropped a couple inches, but then came to a stop. His revolutionary new safety brake had worked, stopping the platform from crashing to the ground. “All safe, gentlemen!” he proclaimed.
From those rather dramatic beginnings, he went on to create the Otis Elevator Company, currently a division of United Technologies Corporation and is also the largest elevator company in the world. Mr. Otis sold his first safe elevators in 1853.
The first passenger elevator was installed by Otis in New York in 1857. After Elisha Otis' death in 1861, his sons, Charles and Norton, built on his heritage, creating Otis Brothers & Co. in 1867.
His invention increased public confidence in elevators, which was instrumental in the rise of skyscrapers.
Otis, Elisha
Otis, Elisha
Otis, Elisha
Otis, Elisha
Otis, Elisha
World's FairA World's Fair is any of various large expositions held since the mid 19th century. The official sanctioning body is the Bureau of International Expositions (usually abbreviated BIE, from the organization's name in French, Bureau International des Expositions).
BIE-approved fairs are divided into a number of types: universal, and international or specialized. They usually last for between 3 and 6 months. In addition, countries can hold their own 'fair', 'exposition', or 'exhibition', without BIE endorsement.
French
Universal expositions
Universal Expositions encompass universal themes that affect the full gamut of human experience, usually at a unique period of time for mankind.
These Universal Expos usually have themes based on which pavilions are made to represent the country's opinion on that theme. The theme for the Expo at Lisbon (1998) was "water" and the theme for the 2005 Expo in Japan was "nature's wisdom".
Universal expositions are usually held less frequently than specialized or international expositions because they are more expensive. To distinguish them from lesser fairs, they require total design of pavilion buildings from the ground up. As a result, nations compete for the most outstanding or memorable structure—recent examples include Japan, France, Morocco & Spain at Expo '92. Recent Universal Expositions include Brussels Expo '58, Seattle Expo '62, known as the Century 21 Exposition, Montreal Expo '67, San Antonio HemisFair '68, Osaka Expo '70, Knoxville, Tennessee Expo '82 New Orleans Expo '84, Brisbane Expo '88, Seville Expo '92, Lisbon Expo '98, and Hanover, Germany Expo 2000. The Expo 2005 was | | |
