| JANUARY 18 - BIRTHS | |
| Ray Dolby | |
(source) |
 Born 18
Jan 1933
Physicist, engineer, and inventor of the Dolby Noise Reduction Systems. Dolby is famous for innovations ranging from the high-quality cassettes we use in our car stereos to the latest digital surround sound in movie theaters. As a high school student he went to work part time for Ampex Corporation. While still in college, he joined the small team of Ampex engineers dedicated to inventing the world's first practical video tape recorder, the Ampex VTR (1956). Dolby founded his own company, Dolby Laboratories, in 1965. His first development was Dolby A-type noise reduction, an audio compression and expansion which dramatically reduced background hiss in professional tape recording with no discernible side-effects. |
| Belding H. Scribner | |
(source) |
Born 18
Jan 1921; died 19 Jun 2003.
Dr. Belding Hibbard Scribner was an American physician who invented the Scribner shunt, making long-term kidney dialysis possible. The dialysis machine, which filters the blood of kidney disease patients, as originally developed by Dr. Willem J. Kolff, used glass tubes that were inserted into veins and arteries. These were painful and could not be used indefinitely because of progressive damage to the blood vessels. Scribner's key contribution (1960) was the shunt, a device implanted in a patient that allowed doctors to tap into their blood vessels and keep them on dialysis indefinitely. Scribner also led a team that developed the "artificial gut," a method using a catheter to provide nourishment to patients who have lost their stomachs and intestines. |
| Jacob Bronowski | |
(source) |
Born 18
Jan 1908; died 22 Aug 1974.
Polish-born British mathematician and man of letters who eloquently presented the case for the humanistic aspects of science. He is remembered as writer and presenter of the BBC television series, The Ascent of Man. Bronowski, who had a Ph.D. in algebraic geometry, spent WW II in Operations Research, and was an official observer of the after-effects of the Nagasaki and Hiroshima bombings. After this experience, he turned to biology, to better understand the nature of violence.« 
 The
Ascent of Man, by Jacob Bronowski. |
| Sir Thomas Octave Murdoch Sopwith | |
(source) |
Born 18
Jan 1888; died 27 Jan 1989.
English aircraft pioneer whose firm was famous for British WWI military aircraft. Sopwith's interest in motor racing led in 1910 to flying a monoplane, with which he won the Baron de Forest prize for flying across the English Channel on 18 Dec 1910. In June 1912, Sopwith with Fred Sigrist and others set up The Sopwith Aviation Company and began manufacturing the Sopwith Tabloid biplane. Piloted by Harry Hawker this plane won the British altitude record of 13,000 ft (4000 m) on 16 June 1913. During WWI, the firm manufactured some of the best Allied fighters, including the legendary Sopwith Camel (named after the fuselage shape with a humplike cowl over the guns, in front of the pilot), Sopwith Pup, and Sopwith Snipe. He lived to the age of 101.« Pure
Luck: the authorized biography of Thomas Sopwith, by
Alan Bramson. |
| Hans Goldschmidt | |
(source) |
Born 18
Jan 1861; died 25 May 1923.
German chemist who invented the thermite (alumino-thermic) process was adopted worldwide for welding railroad and streetcar rails, and is still in use for on-site welding. The first track so welded was laid in Essen. This method evolved from his Goldschmidt reduction process that he began investigating in 1893 for the preparation of carbon-free metals. He used the reactions of oxides of certain metals with aluminum to yield aluminum oxide and the free metal. It has been applied to separate chromium, manganese, and cobalt from their oxide ores. Goldschmidt was also a co-inventor of sodium amalgam. His father, Theodor Goldschmidt, founded Chemische Fabrik Th. Goldschmidt which became the modern company, Degussa.« |
| Daniel Hale Williams | |
(source) |
Born 18
Jan 1858; died 4 Aug 1931.
American physician remembered as the first black American to suture the pericardium (the fluid sac surrounding the heart muscle). On 9 Jul 1893, he operated on a 24-yr-old stabbing victim and sutured the wound to the pericardium, but left the heart muscle itself alone, allowing a small (1/10" long) nick to heal on its own. The patient recovered and lived for at least 20 years afterward. (A similar procedure was performed earlier by H.C. Dalton on 6 Sep 1891. The first surgery on heart muscle was done on 10 Sep 1896, by Ludwig Rehn who sutured a myocardial laceration). Williams helped establish the Provident Hospital and Medical Center in Chicago (1891), the oldest free-standing black owned hospital in the U.S.« Daniel
Hale Williams: Negro Surgeon, by Helen Buckler. |
| Thomas Augustus Watson | |
| Born 18
Jan 1854; died 13 Dec 1934.
American telephone pioneer and shipbuilder, one of the original organizers of the Bell Telephone Company, who later turned to shipbuilding and constructed a number of vessels for the United States government. |
|
| Sir Edward Frankland | |
(source) |
Born 18
Jan 1825; died 9 Aug 1899.
English chemist who was one of the first investigators in the field of structural chemistry, invented the chemical bond, and became known as the father of valency. He studied organometallic compounds - hybrid molecules of the familiar organic non-metallic elements (such as carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, sulphur, phosphorus) with true metals. By 1850, he had prepared small organic molecules containing such metals as zinc. Subsequently, he devised the theory of valence (announced 10 May 1852), that each type of atom has a fixed capacity for combination with other atoms. For his investigations on water purification and for his services to the government as water analyst, Frankland was knighted in 1897. |
| Joseph Farwell Glidden | |
(source) |
Born 18 Jan 1813; died 9 Oct 1906.
A native of New Hampshire, Glidden was an Illinois farmer when he developed the design of the first commercial barbed wire, patented 24 Nov 1874, a product that would transform the West. Before this innovation, settlers on the treeless plains had no easy way to fence livestock away from cropland, and ranchers had no way to prevent their herds from roaming far and wide. Glidden’s barbed wire opened the plains to large-scale farming, and closed the open range, bringing the era of the cowboy and the round-up to an end. With his partner, Isaac L. Ellwood, Glidden formed the Barb Fence Company of De Kalb, Illinois, and quickly became one of the wealthiest men in the nation. He died in De Kalb, Illinois. [Image right: detail from patent application diagram. source] Barbs,
Prongs, Points, Prickers, and Stickers... Barbed Wire, by
Robert T. Clifton |
| Joseph Dixon | |
(source) |
Born 18
Jan 1799; died 15 Jun 1869.
American inventor and manufacturer who pioneered the industrial use of graphite and many other innovations. As a printer and a photographer, he designed a mirror into a camera that was the forerunner of the viewfinder, patented a double-crank steam engine, evolved a method of printing banknotes to foil counterfeiters, and patented a new method for tunneling under water. As a manufacturer and entrepreneur, Joseph Dixon produced the first pencil made in the U.S., 2 Apr 1827, and was responsible for the development of the graphite industry there. When he died, the Joseph Dixon Crucible Company was the largest manufacturer of graphite products in the world. His friends included the American inventors Fulton, Morse, and Bell. |
| Peter Mark Roget | |
| Born 18
Jan 1779; died 12 Sep 1869
English physician who, in 1814, invented a "log-log" slide rule for calculating the roots and powers of numbers. After studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh, he helped establish a medical school at Manchester, and practiced in London (1808-40). Upon retirement, from age 61 to 73, he produced his famous Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases (1852). He was a fellow of the Royal Society from 1815, and its secretary from 1827. |
|
| Caspar Friedrich Wolff | |
| Born 18
Jan 1734; died 22 Feb 1794.
German physiologist, known as the "founder of modern embryology." In Theoria Generationis (1759) he first wrote an epigenetic theory of development: that the organs of living things take shape gradually from non-specific tissue. Wolff applied the microscope to the study of animal embryology and remarked that "the particles which constitute all animal organs in their earliest inception are little globules, which may be distinguished under a microscope." The book was ignored for half a century, as the prevailing idea was held that life begins preformed in a small body that grows larger in the same form. His name is found describing parts of the kidneys of embryos: the Wolffian body and the Wolffian ducts. |
|
|
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| JANUARY 18 - DEATHS | |
| Adolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt | |
 Died
18 Jan 1995 (born 24 Mar 1903)
German biochemist who was the co-winner (with Leopold Ruzicka) of the 1939 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for pioneering work (1929-34) on sex hormones, primarily the isolation of estrone (a hormone that influences development of the female reproductive tract.) Although forced by the Nazi government to refuse the prize, he was able to accept the honour in 1949. |
|
| Nora Stanton Blatch Barney | |
| Died
18 Jan 1971 (born 30 Sep 1883)
American civil engineer, architect, and suffragist whose professional and political activities built on her family's tradition of women leaders. In 1905 she became the first woman in the United States to obtain a degree in civil engineering. In 1908, she married Lee De Forest, inventor of the radio vacuum tube, for whom she worked as a laboratory assistant until 1909, when they separated (they divorced in 1912). In 1908, on a honeymoon trip to France, De Forest transmitted voice communication from the Eiffel Tower to receivers 500 miles away. |
|
| Edward Charles Titchmarsh | |
(source) |
Died
18 Jan 1963 (born 1 Jun 1899)
English mathematician whose contributions to analysis placed him in the forefront of his profession. His contributions helped resolve the differences between the general theory of quantum mechanics and the methods used to solve particular problems in quantum theory. All Titchmarsh's work is in analysis. His early studies were on Fourier series, Fourier integrals, functions of a complex variable, integral equations and the Riemann zeta function. From 1939, Titchmarsh concentrated on the theory of series expansions of eigenfunctions of differential equations, work which helped to resolve problems in quantum mechanics. His work on this topic occupied him for the last 25 years of his life.  Theory
of Functions, by Edward Charles Titchmarsh |
| Herman Snellen | |
(source) |
Died 18 Jan 1908 (born 19 Feb 1834)
Dutch ophthalmologist whose Snellen Chart imprinted with lines of black letters is used for testing visual acuity. Test types were invented in 1843 by Heinrich Kuechler (1811-1873) and were improved by the Vienna oculist Eduard Jaeger Ritter von Jaxtthal (1818-1884) in 1854. Shortly after this Snellen invented his chart of square shaped letters. This chart soon gained acceptance in all civilized countries. The Snellen fraction is a ratio, for instance 20/20 or 20/100 (metric equivalent 6/6, 6/30), measuring the acuity of a person's eyesight compared to a standard observer with good normal acuity. 20/20 means he can resolve 2 target features at 20 feet. [Image right: Snellen-type acuity chart (source)] |
| Abram Hewitt | |
(source) |
Died
18 Jan 1903 (born 31 Jul 1822)
American engineer, industrialist, made first Bessemer steel in the US. He was also a philanthropist, and politician who in 1886 defeated Henry George and Theodore Roosevelt to become mayor of New York City. Hewitt was a partner in a company owning several iron works. At the Cheltenham meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in the summer of 1856 he heard the presentation of Henry Bessemer on the production of steel without fuel. Within the same year, Hewitt arranged an experiment with that process at the furnace of Cooper and Hewitt, at Philipsburgh, in New Jersey, with successful results. |
| James Beaumont Neilson | |
(source) |
Died
18 Jan 1865 (born 22 Jun 1792)
Scottish inventor who introduced the use of a hot-air blast instead of a cold-air blast for the smelting of iron. His process reduced the amount of coal needed and increased efficiency to satisfy the demands of the rail and shipbuilding industries. While manager of the Glasgow Gas-works, he had experimented with the effect of heated air on the illuminating power of gas, by bringing up a stream of it in a tube so as to surround the gas burner. He found the combustion of the gas was more intense and brighter. Then, experimenting on a common smith's fire, by blowing the fire with heated air, the effect was the same; the fire was much more brilliant, and accompanied by an unusually intense degree of heat. In 1828, he patented his hot blast method for smelting. [Image: typical layout 1870's hot air blast furnace] |
| John Heathcoat | |
(EB) |
Died
18 Jan 1861 (born 7 Aug 1783)
Pioneering English inventor of lace-making machinery. Image: Heathcoat, detail of an engraving by T.L. Atkinson after a portrait by W. Beetham, mid-19th century. |
| Alfred Lewis Vail | |
| Died
18 Jan 1859 (born 25 Sep 1807)
American telegraph pioneer and an associate and financial backer of Samuel F.B. Morse in the experimentation that made the telegraph a commercial reality. |
|
| Sir John Pringle | |
| Died
18 Jan 1782 (born 10 Apr 1707)
(1st Baronet) British physician, an early exponent of the importance of ordinary putrefactive processes in the production of disease. His application of this principle to the administration of hospitals and army camps has earned him distinction as the founder of modern military medicine. |
|
| JANUARY 18 - EVENTS | |
| Solar cells | |
|
(source) |
In 1994, the U.S. Department of Energy announced production of solar
panels giving nearly twice the efficiency of existing panels. Made by United
Solar Systems of Troy, Mich., these amorphous silicon submodule (1
ft2) panels converted
10.2% of solar energy into electricity, as compared to 6% previously possible.
This was possible by using new thin-film photovoltaic technology. The company
has subsequently produced
flexible solar
shingles based on thin film photovoltaics that can permit the roofs
of ordinary commercial and residential buildings to evolve from simply
providing protection from the weather to becoming a source of much-needed
electric power. |
| Legionnaire's disease | |
(source) |
In 1977, scientists at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta,
Georgia, USA, first announced*
that they had sufficient laboratory evidence to implicate a bacterium as
the cause of Legionnaire's Disease, now named
Legionella pneumophila.
An outbreak of this disease
in Philadelphia in 1976, largely among people attending a state convention
of the American Legion, led to the name "Legionnaires' Disease." After
the bacterium causing the illness was named, the name of the illness was
changed to legionellosis. The scientific paper describing the isolation
of the bacterium as published 1 Dec 1977 in The New England Journal
of Medicine. [Image:
Legionella
pneumophila multiplying inside a cultured human lung fibroblast. Multiple
intracellular bacilli, including dividing bacilli, are visible in longitudinal
and cross section. Transmission electron micrograph.] |
| Pulsars | |
|
In 1969, pulsars were first identified by University of Arizona astronomers. |
|
| Giant panda in U.S. | |
|
In 1936, the first live giant panda outside China was brought, by clothing
designer Ruth Harkness, to the U.S. from China. Named Su-Lin, the male
bear cub arrived in San Francisco, Cal., and was subsequently sold to the
Brookfield Zoo for $8,750, but lived only until April 1938. Harkness' book
The
Lady and the Panda, published in 1938 became a best seller. |
|
| Plane lands on ship | |
 |
In 1911, the first landing of an aircraft on a ship took place as pilot
Lt.
Eugene B. Ely brought his 50-hp Curtiss pusher biplane in for a safe
landing on a 119-ft wooden platform attached the deck of the U.S.S. Pennsylvania
in San Francisco Harbor. To arrest his plane upon landing, its landing
gear was provided with hooks adapted to catch ropes secured by sandbags
stretched across the landing platform. Improved versions of this ingenious
arrangement were to become standard equipment on aircraft carriers. After
spending an hour aboard the ship, he took off and flew back to his hangar
near San Francisco. These flights demonstrated the adaptability of aircraft
to ship-board operations. The previous November he first made a take off
from a ship. |
| Vacuum tubes | |
|
In 1903, vacuum tubes were developed to allow more effective transmission
of radio signals. |
|
| X-ray machine displayed | |
|
In 1896, The first x-ray machine is exhibited in the U.S. at Casino Chambers,
New York City. For an admission charge of 25 cents, patrons could view
the "Parisian sensation," |
|
| Liquid air | |
 |
In 1895, James Dewar demonstrated the intimate connection between phosphorescence
and photographic action of the electric light on bodies cooled to the temperature
of boiling liquid air. Presented at the Royal Institution, these experiments
were reported as "very remarkable." [*
p.30] |
| First automobile | |
|
In 1886, the first automobile is made. |
|
| First white bear in U.S. | |
|
In 1733, a white bear cub, captured in Greenland, was exhibited for the
first time in the U.S. The 9-month-old cub, named "Ursa Major" was shown
in a cage at Clark's Wharf in Boston's north end. |
|
