engineers to gain an international reputation. He trained as a stone mason in Edinburgh and gained experience on contracts in London and Portsmouth before moving to Shrewsbury to refurbish the medieval castle

in St Petersburg owned by the government. In the early 1850s the young Nobel studied and gained experience of industry in France, Italy, Germany and the United States. He began to develop nitroglycerine

company in partnership with Richard Peacock (1820-89), and Henry Robertson (1816-88), a Scot who had experience in building railways, and had acquired interests in ironworks in the Wrexham area of North Wales

enlarge his understanding of engineering, working on the gas engine of J J Lenoir in Paris, gaining experience in a locomotive works at Strasburg, and at the factory of Joseph Whitworth (1803-87) in Manchester

Christopher Polhem was a polymath whose understanding of the natural world was based on experience gained in many other countries, and who influenced the technological development of industry throughout

to become one of Europe’s principal producers of radio receivers, making a million by 1932. From experience gained in maintaining X-ray apparatus for the combatant armies during the First World War, from

Embrach, Switzerland, and served his apprenticeship at a foundry in Zurich before gaining working experience in France, Germany, Italy and Austria. He moved to Pest in 1841where he was involved with the

as a maker of mathematical instruments in Glasgow, making a visit to London to gain professional experience in 1755-6. He gained the acquaintance of the celebrated Dr Joseph Black (1728-99) of Glasgow University

and produced few cannon. Ignace de Wendel, an artilleryman, and a member of a family with long experience in ironmaking, took direction of the project, and diagnosed that coke-blast iron was needed to

legacy was his influence on a generation of British mechanical engineers. Amongst those who gained experience in his workshop were William Muir (1805-88), James Nasmyth (1808-90), Richard Roberts (1789-1864)

was apprenticed to a shoemaker. About 1832 he left home, ‘on what was called the tramp’, seeking experience in his trade in other towns. He travelled to London by stage coach, then to Margate by steamer

plant, and brewing ceased on the historic site at Stadhouderskade, Amsterdam, in 1988. The Heineken Experience visitor centre, opened in 2001, occupies an Art Deco building of 1910 on the site. Heineken took

in 1894. His academic career was undistinguished, but having gone to Wiesbaden in 1910 to gain experience of mechanical engineering, he became interested in flying. He built a series of small monoplanes

century life. At the age of 15 he went to work for Siemens & Halske in Berlin, and from 1890 gained experience in the United States, before returning to Berlin to form R Burger AG in 1894, which manufactured

1834, like ambitious craftsmen in many European countries, he went on the tramp, seeking to gain experience by plying his trade alongside skilled workers in other towns. He returned to Esqueheries in 1837

Carl Bally entered the family business at the age of 17 but subsequent travelled in order to gain experience in business, and while staying in Paris was inspired to set up a shoemaking business which he did

In 1924 Zino Davidoff travelled in Argentina, Brazil and Cuba, where he spent two years gaining experience of the cigar trade. He returned to Switzerland taking control of the family shop about 1930. He

Geigy (1798-1861). He served an apprenticeship with his father before travelling to gain commercial experience in England, France and India. He returned to Basel to work for the family firm in 1854 and the

tanner but was apprenticed to tool making and on completing his articles went on the tramp to gain experience as a journeyman. At the age 23 he arrived at Chemnitz in Saxony, where he worked for Carl Gottlieb

was able to undertake basic training in engineering at the factory, and used her knowledge and experience to advocate that electric power should be used to enable women to undertake jobs that hitherto