| JANUARY 17 - BIRTHS | |
| Glenn L. Martin | |
(source) |
 Born 17
Jan 1886; died 4 Dec 1955.
Glenn L(uther) Martin was an American airplane inventor whose bombers and flying boats played important roles in WW II. His first planes were built in collaboration with mechanics from his auto shop, working in a disused church building that Martin rented. In 1909, Martin made his first successful flight; by 1911 he numbered among the most famous of the "pioneer birdmen." He incorporated the Glenn L. Martin Aircraft Company in 1912 as a manufacturer, and remained for forty years the senior aircraft manufacturer in the U.S. The vast majority of the more than 11,000 planes built by the company before it ceased producing aircraft in 1960, "Martin Bombers" pioneered the doctrine of airpower in the 1920's and '30's and served in all theaters in World War II. |
| A.R. Radcliffe-Brown | |
| Born 17
Jan 1881; died 24 Oct 1955.
A(lfred) R(eginald) Radcliffe-Brown was an English social anthropologist of the 20th century who developed a systematic framework of concepts and generalizations relating to the social structures of relatively simple societies. |
|
| Charles V. Chapin | |
| Born 17
Jan 1856; died 31 Jan 1941.
American physician and epidemiologist who, with Gardner T. Swarts, established the first municipal bacteriological laboratory in the U.S. (1888) in Providence, Rhode Island. As Superintendent of Health of Providence for 48 years from 1884, he compiled epidemiological data of outstanding accuracy and completeness. He determined from field studies and statistics that infectious diseases were spread in the region's temperate climate by simple personal contact. In 1910, he established Providence City Hospital where infectious disease carriers could be isolated under aseptic nursing conditions. His success pioneered similar health control measures throughout the U.S. He wrote The Sources and Modes of Infection (1910).  |
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| François Lenormant | |
| Born 17
Jan 1837; died 9 Dec 1883.
French Assyriologist and numismatist who recognized, from cuneiform inscriptions, a language now known as Akkadian that proved valuable to the understanding of Mesopotamian civilization 3,000 years before the Christian era. He published his first archaeological paper at 14 and went on to become a scholar of wide achievement. |
|
| August Weismann | |
(source) |
Born 17
Jan 1834; died 5 Nov 1914.
August (Friedrich Leopold) Weismann was a German biologist and one of the founders of the science of genetics, who is best known for his opposition to the doctrine of the inheritance of acquired traits and for his "germ plasm" theory, the forerunner of DNA theory. Weismann conceived the idea, arising out of his early observations on the Hydrozoa, that the germ cells of animals contain "something essential for the species, something which must be carefully preserved and passed on from one generation to another." Weismann envisioned the hereditary substances from the two parents become mixed together in the fertilized egg and a form of nuclear division in which each daughter nucleus receives only half the original ancestral germ plasms. |
| Hayward A. Harvey | |
| Born 17
Jan 1824; died 28 Aug 1893.
Hayward A(ugustus) Harvey was a versatile American inventor who discovered the modern method of strengthening armour plating. |
|
| Eilhardt Mitscherlich | |
| Born 17
Jan 1794; died 28 Aug 1863.
German chemist who promulgated the theory of isomorphism, a relationship between crystalline structure and chemical composition. |
|
| Robert Hare | |
| Born 17
Jan 1781; died 15 May 1858.
American chemist who devised the first oxy-hydrogen blowpipe for the purpose of producing great heat. He wa able to melt sizeable quantities of planium with this blowpipe. Later, it was discovered that when such a blowpipe flame acted on a block of calcium oxide, a brilliant white light resulted - limelight. His device was also the ancestor of the modern welding torches. |
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| Sir James Hall | |
| Born 17
Jan 1761; died 23 Jun 1832.
(4th Baronet) Scottish geologist and physicist who founded experimental geology by artificially producing various rock types in the laboratory. |
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| Benjamin Franklin | |
(source) |
Born 17
Jan 1706; died 17 Apr 1790.
American printer and publisher, author, inventor and scientist, and diplomat. He become widely known in European scientific circles for his reports of electrical experiments and theories. He invented a type of stove, still being manufactured, to give more warmth than open fireplaces; the lightning rod and bifocal eyeglasses also were his ideas. Grasping the fact that by united effort a community may have amenities which only the wealthy few can get for themselves, he helped establish institutions people now take for granted: a fire company (1736), a library (1731), an insurance company (1752), an academy (1751), and a hospital (1751). In some cases these foundations were the first of their kind in North America. |
| Guarino Guarini | |
(source) |
Born 17
Jan 1624; died 6 Mar 1683.
Italian architect and theologian whose study of mathematics led him to a career in architecture in which he created the most fantastic geometric elaboration of all baroque churches. In his Santissima Sindone, Guarini created a diaphanous dome - a geometrical optical illusion in the dome made through the use of the actual structure which creates the illusion that the dome recedes farther up into space than it really does. He wrote two architectural treatises and other works that concentrate on his mathematical knowledge. Therein, Guarini discusses Desargue's projective geometry, which reveal a scientific basis for his daring structures. He worked primarily in Turin and Sicily, with his influence stretching into Germany, Austria and Bohemia.«  Guarino
Guarini and His Architecture, by H. Meek. |
| Gaspard Bauhin | |
(source) |
Born 17
Jan 1560; died 5 Dec 1624.
Swiss physician, anatomist, and botanist who introduced a scientific binomial system of classification to both anatomy and botany. In 1623 Gaspard Bauhin produced the Pinax Theatri Botanici. (Basel, 1623), the first attempt to summarize a confusing array of names. It was a monumental compilation that pulled together uncoordinated plant names and descriptions of 6000 species that had appeared in Theophrastus and Dioscorides, as well as in later herbals and other plant records. By accepting Bauhin's compilation, Linnaeus was able to avoid many of the complications of the ancient literature. |
| Leonhard Fuchs | |
| Born 17
Jan 1501; died 10 May 1566.
German botanist and physician whose botanical work Historia Stirpium (1542) is a landmark in the development of natural history because of its organized presentation, the accuracy of its drawings and descriptions of plants, and its glossary. |
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| JANUARY 17 - DEATHS | |
| Clyde W. Tombaugh | |
(source) |
 Died
17 Jan 1997 (born 4 Feb 1906)
American astronomer who discovered the planet Pluto, which he photographed on 23 Jan 1930, the only planet discovered in the twentieth century, after a systematic search instigated by the predictions of other astronomers. Tombaugh was 24 years of age when he made this discovery at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Ariz. He also discovered several clusters of stars and galaxies, studied the apparent distribution of extragalactic nebulae, and made observations of the surfaces of Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, and the Moon. Born of poor farmers, his first telescope was made of parts from worn-out farming equipment. Out
of the Darkness, the Planet Pluto, by Clyde William Tombaugh. |
| Henry Melson Stommel | |
(source) |
Died
17 Jan 1992 (born 27 Sep 1920)
American oceanographer and meteorologist who was an expert on physical oceanography, primarily in the interpretation of data associated with large scale ocean dynamics. He had a long standing interest in the Gulf Stream. He spent most of his career conducting research at the prestigious Oceanographic Institute in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Considered one of the most influential oceanographers of his time, Stommel proposed many theories that were later proven to be correct by other scientists. He applied electromagnetic measurements to oceanic flows, the dynamics of estuaries and the related problem of hydraulic controls, and the interaction of nonlinear eddy-like phenomena (hetons). |
| Leonard Eugene Dickson | |
(source) |
Died
17 Jan 1954 (born 22 Jan 1874)
American mathematician who made important contributions to the theory of numbers and the theory of groups. He published 18 books including Linear groups with an exposition of the Galois field theory. The 3-volume History of the Theory of Numbers (1919-23) is another famous work still much consulted today. |
| Clarence E. McClung | |
(source) |
Died
17 Jan 1946 (born 6 Apr 1870)
Clarence Erwin McClung was an American geneticist and paleontologist who discovered the role of chromosomes in sex determination in a species of grasshopper. In a key paper, he reported that sperm exist in two forms, each with a different chromosome configuration. Thus, he was one of the first (1901) to deduce that chromosomes determine the sex of offspring. McClung also studied how the behaviour of chromosomes in the sex cells of different organisms affects their heredity. His theory was one of many that inspired scientists to pursue investigations such as the Human Genome Project, an attempt to map the structure and location of all human genes. He also published on Cretaceous fishes. |
| William Henry Pickering | |
(source) |
Died
17 Jan 1938 (born 15 Feb 1858)
American astronomer who discovered Phoebe, the ninth moon of Saturn (1899). This was the first planetary satellite with retrograde motion to be detected, i.e., with orbital motion directed in an opposite sense to that of the planets. He set up a number of observing stations for Harvard. He made extensive observations of Mars and claimed, like Lowell, that he saw signs of life on the planet by observing what he took to be oases in 1892. He went further than Lowell however when in 1903 he claimed to observe signs of life on the Moon. By comparing descriptions of the Moon from Giovanni Riccioli's 1651 chart onward, he thought he had detected changes that could have been due to the growth and decay of vegetation. Image: Voyager Image of Phoebe. |
| William Corless Mills | |
Adena point (source) |
Died
17 Jan 1928 (born 2 Jan 1860)
U.S. museum curator who excavated Indian remains in Ohio, including Adena Mound (1901), a large earthen burial ground near Chillicothe, built c. 50 BC. It became the type site for the study of the North American Adena culture and period. The point shown at left was first described and named by Mills in his1902 book Excavation of the Adena Mound for points he found at the large mound on the Adena Estate of Governor Worthington in Ross County, Ohio. Mills also made the definitive study of Ohio's Flint Ridge "Great Indian Quarry" for the Ohio Archaeological and Historical Society (published 1921). Curator and librarian of the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society (1898-1928). |
| Sir Francis Galton | |
(source) |
Died
17 Jan 1911 (born 16 Feb 1822)
English scientist, founder of eugenics, statistician and investigator of intellectual ability. He explored in south-western Africa. In meteorology, he was first to recognise and name the anticyclone. He interpreted the theory of evolution of (his cousin) Charles Darwin to imply inheritance of talent could be manipulated. Galton had a long-term interest in eugenics - a word he coined for scientifically selected parenthood to enable inheritance of beneficial characteristics. He coined the phrase "nature versus nurture." Galton experimentally verified the uniqueness of fingerprints, and suggested the first classification based on grouping the patterns into arches, loops, and whorls. On 1 Apr 1875, he published the first newspaper weather map - in The Times.« [Image: at age about 50] A
Life of Sir Francis Galton: From African Exploration to the Birth of Eugenics,
by Nicholas Wright Gillham. |
| Friedrich Wilhelm Georg Kohlrausch | |
(source) |
Died
17 Jan 1910 (born 14 Oct 1840)
German physicist who investigated the properties of electrolytes (substances that conduct electricity in solutions by transfer of ions) and contributed to the understanding of their behaviour. Some of Kohlrausch's pioneering achievements include conductivity measurements on electrolytes, his work on the determination of basic magnetic and electrical quantities, and the enhancement of the associated measuring technologies. It was under his direction that the "Physikalisch- Technische Reichsanstalt" (the then Imperial Physical Technical Institute in Germany) created numerous standards and calibration standards which were also used internationally outside Germany. |
| Peter Henderson | |
(source) |
Died
17 Jan 1890 (born 9 June 1822)
Scottish-American scientist, known as the "Father of American Horticulture." He learned methods of gardening in the Old World, then immigrated to the U.S. in 1843. He started market gardening in 1847 with a capital of $500.00. The publication Gardening for Profit (1868) was the first American book devoted entirely to market gardening and it encouraged many to enter the business. His seed business was started in 1865. Few men have done more to simplify the handling of plants for commercial use. His greenhouses were models for his many visitors and his methods were widely copied. He also wrote Practical Floriculture (1868) for commercial floriculture, and later, for the amateur audience he wrote Gardening for Pleasure (1875). |
| John Ray | |
(source) |
Died
17 Jan 1705 (born 29 Nov 1627)
Leading 17th-century English naturalist and botanist who contributed significantly to progress in taxonomy, and is often referred to as the father of natural history in Britain. He toured Europe with Francis Willoughby in search of specimens of flora and fauna. Ray was the first to classify flowering plants into monocotyledons and dicotyledons. Ray established the species as the basic taxonomic unit - his enduring legacy to botany. His major work was the three-volume Historia Plantarum (1686-1704). He also attempted to classify the animal kingdom. In 1693 he published a system based on a number of structural characters, including internal anatomy, which provided a more natural classification than those being produced by his contemporaries. John
Ray: Naturalist: His Life and Works, by Charles E. Raven. |
| Richard Lower | |
| Died
17 Jan 1691 (baptised 29 Jan 1631)
English physician and physiologist who made the first direct transfusion of blood from one animal to the veins of another (in dogs, 1665). In the early 1660s, he had worked as the assistant of Thomas Willis in Oxford, doing anatomical work on the brain and nerves. The idea of injecting blood into a living animal, and of doing this not by syringe or bladder, but from one animal to another, was first mentioned by Lower in a letter to Robert Boyle of Jun 1664. He made his own anatomical and physiological investigation of the structure and action of the heart, on which he published in 1669. He was also involved in the first experimental transfusions of blood into a human subject in 1666. He was one of the most skilled and accomplished vivisectionalists of his time. Later, he became the most celebrated physician in London for a while. Lower published Tractatus de corde (1669). |
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| JANUARY 17 - EVENTS | |
| Synchrotron | |
In 1949, for the first time, full energy was released by the first synchrotron
which was installed at the Radiation Laboratory, University of California,
Berkeley. It was invented by Edwin Mattison of the same university, and
would accelerate electrons by virtue of their negative charges, using a
betatron-type magnet that weighed about 8 tons. The synchrotron was constructed
at the General Electric Research Laboratory at Schnectady, N.Y. by Dr.
Herbert C. Pollock and Willem F. Westendorp. |
|
| Photomaton | |
|
In 1928, the first U.S. patent for a fully automatic photographic film
developing machine was issued to its inventor, Anatol M. Josepho. It was
an apparatus for developing film strips. The first model of the Photomaton
was constructed in a loft building on 125th Street, New York City. It is
said the inventor received one million dollars for the invention. The first
Photomaton studio was opened to the public at 1659 Broadway, New York City,
in Sep 1926. |
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| Punchboards | |
(source) |
In 1905, the first U.S. patent was issued for a punchboard
to Charles A. Brewer and Clinton G. Scannell of Chicago, Illinois, described
as "vending devices." They were manufactured by Charles A. Brewer &
Sons in the same city. (No. 780,086). Even though the equivalent of punchboards
had been around for many years, they had never been available in such a
neat and portable form. The invention of board stuffing machines and ticket
folding and plaiting machines in the late 1910s was probably the key factor
which allowed the punchboard industry to flourish. Once the boards
became cheap to manufacture, they flooded the country. Noted gambling author
John Scarne estimates that 30 million punchboards were sold in 1910-15. |
| Edison patent | |
(source) |
In 1882, Thomas A. Edison was issued a patent for an improvement to the
telephone (No. 252,442).
It described a carbon microphone. Finely divided conducting material, such
as carbon, between metal cups mounted on arms is attached to the mouthpiece
diaphragm. As sound waves directed through the mouthpiece move the diaphragm,
the arms change the pressure on the carbon button which in turn varies
an electric current passing through the carbon button. Changes in the current
correspond to the pitch and amplitude of the sound. One arm conducts the
electrical current to the carbon button, and the the other from it. |
| Telephone switchboard | |
|
In 1882, a telephone switchboard was issued a U.S. patent to Leroy Firman
of Chicago, Illinois (No. 252,576), which was assigned to the Western Electric
Manufacturing Co. also of Chicago. With his invention of a "multiple switchboard
for telephone exchanges," Firman addressed the problem of increasing numbers
of subscribers. Previously, single switchboards, each with an attendant,
served their group of individual lines. A large exchange was thus divided
up into a number of internal exchange switchboards which were worked together
as necessary, with trunk lines between the boards. Firman devised an arrangement
to handle an exchange of a thousand or more subscribers with line status
information exchanged between switchmen. |
|
| Cable car | |
(source) |
In 1871, a U.S. patent was issued for an "endless wire rope way " subsequently used for the first cable car to be put into service in the world for public transport (No.110,971). The invention by Andrew S. Hallidie began service in San Francisco on 1 Aug 1873 on Clay Street Hill. It ran from Kearny Street to the crest of the hill, a distance of 2,800 feet, making a rise of 307 feet, and moved by motor-driven cables under the city street. [An earlier cable car patent was issued for an "improvement in tracks for city railways," being an underground tunnel having a series of pulleys inside housing the cable. That inventor, Eleazer A. Gardner of Philadelphia, Pa. received his patent (No. 19,736) on 23 Mar 1858.] |
