Vocabulary

1) wells or boreholes – скважина

2) framework – конструкция

3) the derrick – буровая вышка

4) to drill – бурить, сверлить

5) rock – горная порода

6) natural flow – естественное течение

7) liquids – жидкости

8) to contain – содержать

9) obtain – получать

10) fuels – топливо

11) burn – снимать

12) jet – реактивный

13) rigs – снаряжение, оборудование

14) internal combustion engines – двигатель внутреннего сгорания

15) furnaces – печи

16) lubricants – смазки

17) solvents – растворители

18) byproducts – побочные продукты

19) to set up – учреждать

20) extraction – добывание, добыча

21) to contract – приобретать

22) (to) prospect – (исследовать) , разведка

23) deposits – залежи

24) rapid – быстрый

25) despite – несмотря на

26) harness – использовать

27) dozens of – дюжины (чего-либо)

Текст № 14.

Role of automation in technology

Automation plays an important part in the great advances in techno­logy. Automation, properly coordinated with other phases of technology, can substantially contribute to high productive efficiency. In Russia, mechanization of production operations and their automation is one of the most important problems and that is being done in this sphere at present greatly exceeds what has been close in the past,

Advanced automation is impossible without computers. Computer science is a relatively new and exciting field of study and research. It is a broad discipline, covering logic design, hardware, and the theory of computation, numerical analysis, programming and computer application.

There are different kinds of computers. Some do only one job over and over again. These are special — purpose computers. One such compu­ter automatically controls the movements of anti-aircraft cannon. It was built for this purpose alone, and cannot do anything else. But the­re are some computers that can do many different jobs. They are called general-purpose computers. These are the "big brains" that solve the most difficult problems of science. They answer questions about rockets and planes, bridges and ships long before these things are even built.

Today there are computers small enough to carry in one's pocket or about the size of a typewriter. These new computers are called perso­nal computers. Computers help our space programme, our armed forces, our business and industry, sports and medicine. Computers are the most efficient servants man has ever had and there is no limit for their explication in improving our lives and saving time for leisure (rest and recreation).

Computers are capable of doing extremely complicated work in all branches of learning. They can solve the most complicated mathematical problems or put thousands of unrelated facts in order. As computers work accurately and at high speeds, they save research workers years of hard work. This whole process, by which machines can be used to work for used to work for us, is called automation. Automation will have important social consequences.

Robots can perform an almost infinite variety of tasks. ln the research laboratory, the office, and the factory, thousands of robots are already at work.

Now assume that somebody develops a robot to coordinate the activi­ties "of all the robots in a factory. It would be a sort of super-robot, whose special function would be to see that all the lesser robots did their job correctly. If you took a robot like that and put it in charge of a factory, you would have "automation". as a matter of fact, automa­tion is not just a thing of the future. Super robots have already been developed and put into operation in a number of places. The result of the idea to connect all the robots together with one control system is the automated assembly line.

From the automated engine shop.

In the engine shop, rows and rows of machines can be seen. They grind, drill, ream, polish, and perform dozens of other operations. But not a machine operator can be soon.

They can't be seen because there aren't any. These machine tools are all robot-run. A roughcast engine, fresh from the foundry, enters the machine shop on a belt. The belt moves it under one machine. Reamers drop down and clean out the cylinders' holes, cutting and grinding the metal to the exact size. The engine moves on. Drill presses drop down, bore holes where they are needed, and withdraw. As the engine moves down the line, tappets, cylinders, crankshafts and spark plugs are added. Then generator, carburetor, and other parts are added. At the end of the line a robot crane picks up the engine and puts it on a belt for transfer to the main assembly line.

In another part of the factory great sheets of metal are put into giant rollers. The rollers twist, bend doors and bodies. These, too, are automatically assembled, then moved to the main assembly line. Each machine must be set so that it will co-operate with all other machines in the factory.

Automation starts as the result of months and years of planning by engineers (using computers, by the way). Automation begins with a team of highly skilled men, automation experts, programmers. They consult with the people who run a factory about the type of operation desired. They prepare a master plan. After the green light is given on the master plan, there are months of detail planning. A medium or large computer is brought in to help solve some of the complicated problems. One of its tasks will be to keep track of production scheduling and inventory control. When you have hundreds of machines working on thousands of items every day, it becomes impossible for human clerks to keep things under control. In the first place, you would have to have too many clerks. In the second place, even with enough clerks, they could not possibly get together and intergrate - combine their information fast enough to do any good. What is needed is a controller robot. It can receive masses of information in a short time and come up with new requirements - parts, machines, raw materials, and men.