| JANUARY 19 - BIRTHS | |
| M. Lee Goff | |
(source) |
 Born 19
Jan 1944
American forensic entomologist who applies a knowledge of the anatomy, physiology, stages of development, and behavior of insects to legal matters, most often to murder investigations. His work in pathology began with a two-year tour of duty in the army, assigned to work in the morgue of the Fort Ord, California, army hospital. Here, he gained expertise in human anatomy, and became accustomed to working with corpses. He analyses the insects, insect eggs and larvae, or evidence of the past presence of insects from decomposing corpses. Knowing the time of year when a particular insect species reproduces, for example, can point to a victim's time of death.  A
Fly for the Prosecution: How Insect Evidence Helps Solve CrimesM.
Lee Goff |
| Leonid Vitalyevich Kantorovich | |
(source) |
Born 19
Jan 1912; died 7 Apr 1986.
Soviet mathematician and economist who shared the 1975 Nobel Prize for Economics with Tjalling Koopmans for their work on the optimal allocation of scarce resources. Kantorovich's background was entirely in mathematics but he showed a considerable feel for the underlying economics to which he applied the mathematical techniques. He was one of the first to use linear programming as a tool in economics and this appeared in a publication Mathematical methods of organising and planning production which he published in 1939. The mathematical formulation of production problems of optimal planning was presented here for the first time and the effective methods of their solution and economic analysis were proposed. |
| Leslie A. White | |
(source) |
Born 19
Jan 1900; died 31 Mar 1975.
Leslie A(lvin) White was an American anthropologist best known for his theories of the evolution of culture and for the scientific study of culture that he called "culturology." Throughout his life, he was interested in general evolution. He strongly supported the ideas of the 19th-century writers Herbert Spencer, Lewis H. Morgan and Edward Tylor. White adopted many of their ideas and gave them a fresh approach. He coined the term "culturology" because he believed that cultures should not be explained in terms of psychology, biology, or physiology, but rather in its own category. He was especially interested by technological advancements pertaining to effects on advancing culture. |
| David Starr Jordan | |
(source) |
Born 19
Jan 1851; died 19 Sep 1931.
American naturalist, educator, and the foremost American ichthyologist of his time. Jordan was a renowned expert in many fields. For example, he served as an expert witness on the validity of the theory of evolution at the Scopes trial in Tennessee. He was known for his work in education, philosophy, and as a peace activist. He often approached the subject of peace from a biological angle, arguing that war was detrimental to the health of the species because it removed the strongest individuals from the gene pool. Although he campaigned vigorously against US involvement in World War I, once war was declared, he advocated aggressive measures to end the conflict quickly. |
| Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn | |
1908 (source) |
Born 19
Jan 1851; died 18 Jun 1922.
Dutch astronomer who used photography and statistical methods in determining the motions and spatial distribution of stars. Such work was the first major step after the works of William and John Herschel. He tried to solve the questions of space density of stars as a function of distance from the sun, and the distribution of starts according to brightness per unit volume. Some of his results had lasting value, but some were superceded because he had failed to account for the interstellar absorption. In studies using proper motion to determine stellar distances, he discovered stellar motions are not random, as previously thought, but that stars move in two "star streams" (1904). He introduced absolute magnitude and colour index as standard concepts. |
| William Williams Keen | |
(source) |
Born 19
Jan 1837; died 7 June 1932.
American physician who was the first brain surgeon in the U.S. In 1887, at St. Mary's Hospital in Philadelphia, Keen performed the first successful removal of a brain tumor in the U.S. He was the first physician to perform a decompression of the skull and also the first physician in Philadelphia to use Lister's antiseptic surgical practices. His interests included focal epilepsy and microcephaly. Keen edited Gray's anatomy in 1883 and wrote numerous articles and monographs. Keen assisted the American surgeon Joseph Bryant in removing the left upper jaw of U.S. president Grover Cleveland (1893) for a malignant tumour. |
| Sir Henry Bessemer | |
(source) |
Born 19
Jan 1813; died 15 Mar 1898.
English inventor and engineer who developed the first process for manufacturing steel inexpensively (1856), leading to the development of the Bessemer converter. Bessemer invented his steel making process to solve a specific problem vexing another of his inventions, the self-spinning artillery shell. The converter removed impurities from molten pig iron by oxidation through air being blown through the molten iron. The oxidation also raised the temperature of the iron mass, keeping it molten. The oxidation process removed impurities such as silicon, manganese, and carbon as oxides, which oxides either escapd as gas or formed a solid slag. He also solved problems about the chemistry of ores, fuels, and steel. He held 110 patents at his death.  Sir
Henry Bessemer: An Autobiography, by Henry Bessemer. |
| Johann Elert Bode | |
(source) |
Born 19
Jan 1747; died 23 Nov 1826.
German astronomer best known for his popularization of Bode's law. In 1766, his compatriot Johann Titius had discovered a curious mathematical relationship in the distances of the planets from the sun. If 4 is added to each number in the series 0, 3, 6, 12, 24,... and the answers divided by 10, the resulting sequence gives the distances of the planets in astronomical units (earth = 1). Also known as the Titius-Bode law, the idea fell into disrepute after the discovery of Neptune, which does not conform with the 'law' - nor does Pluto. Bode was director at the Berlin Observatory, where he published Uranographia (1801), one of the first successful attempts at mapping all stars visible to the naked eye without any artistic interpretation of the stellar constellation figures. |
| James Watt | |
(source) |
Born 19
Jan 1736; died 25 Aug 1819.
Scottish instrument maker and inventor whose steam engine contributed substantially to the Industrial Revolution. In 1763 he repaired the model of Newcomen's steam engine belonging to Glasgow University, and began experiments on properties of steam. The Newcomen engine was simple in design: it acted as a pump and a jet of cold water was used to condense the steam. Watt improved on this design by adding a separate condenser and a system of valves to make the piston return to the top of the cylinder after descending. He took out a patent for the separate condenser in 1769. He later adapted the engine to rotary motion, making it suitable for a variety of industrial purposes, and invented the flywheel and the governor. [Note: Sources vary on the date of death, which is also given as 19 Aug 1819.] |
|
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| JANUARY 19 - DEATHS | |
| George Ledyard Stebbins | |
(source) |
 Died
19 Jan 2000 (born 6 Jan 1906)
American geneticist who was one of the leading evolutionary biologists. Stebbins is considered one of the "architects" of the modern evolutionary synthesis of the 1930-40s (with Dobzhansky, animal systematist Ernst Mayr, and paleontologist George Gaylord Simpson ) Together, their work was a synthesis of research in cytology, genetics, systematics, paleontology. Stebbins created a modern framework for the study of plant evolution. From the 1940s, he artificially created fertile hybrids having more than twice the basic number of chromosomes (and was the first scientist to do so). This technique had value in both taxonomy and plant breeding. |
| Sir Chester Beatty | |
(source) |
Died
19 Jan 1968 (born 7 Feb 1875)
Sir (Alfred) Chester Beatty was an American-born naturalized (1933) British mining engineer and company director. He perfected a method of extracting copper from low grade ore, and was active in developing the copper deposits of central Africa. Beatty had a keen interest in collecting minerals as a child in the U.S. and which grew into a career as a mining engineer. He moved to England in 1911, continuing his career, and eventually owned copper mines all over the world - in Africa, the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Beatty promoted cancer research, and in 1936 he founded the Chester Beatty Research Institute, London. When he died, he donated his significant art collection to Ireland, now the Chester Beatty Library.« |
| Gaetano Arturo Crocco | |
(source) |
Died
19 Jan 1968 (born 26 Oct 1877)
Italian pioneer in aeronautics and space science who designed revolutionary airships and patented an early cyclic pitch design for helicopter rotors (1906). While the design of helicopters was in its infancy, Crocco recognized that a way to change the pitch cyclically on the blades was needed if a helicopter was to work properly in forward flight. He designed a number of airships in the early part of the 20th century and switched to designing rocket engines in the 1920s. Crocco founded the Italian Rocket Society (1951) and made many contributions to the theory of spaceflight. He calculated that a spacecraft could travel from Earth to Mars, perform a reconnaissance Mars flyby (without orbit), and return to Earth in a total time of about one year.« |
| Richard Thurnwald | |
1930 (source) |
Died
19 Jan 1954 (born 18 Sep 1869)
German anthropologist and sociologist whose comparative studies of social institutions, were made based on research expeditions included the Solomon Islands and Micronesia (1906-09, 1932), New Guinea (1912-15), and East Africa (1930). During the first Melanesian expedition (1906-09), he concentrated on South Bougainville (the Buins) and the Bismark Archipelago (Baining and New Ireland). His main objective was collecting objects of museum interest, and making sound and visual recordings. However, he also observed what he regarded as the negative effects of colonization. The plantation policy there was distributing lands to settlers, but Thurwald was particularly concerned that the settlers engaged labour on a more or less forced basis.« [Image: Thurnwald making field recordings in 1930.] Economics
in Primitive Communities, by Richard Thurnwald. |
| Carl Graebe | |
(source) |
Died
19 Jan 1927 (born 24 Feb 1841)
German organic chemist who, assisted by Carl Liebermann, synthesized (1868) the orange-red dye alizarin, which in the textile industry quickly supplanted the natural source of the dye from the madder plant root. Alizarin (dihydroscyanthraquinone) was recognized by Graebe and Liebermann, as a derivative of anthracene, a hydrocarbon contained in coal-tar. Also in 1868, they elaborated a method for preparing it commercially from anthracene. Upon this, one of the early German dyestuff products, arose rapidly a great chemical industry. Graebe also introduced the chemical terms "ortho," "meta," and "para," well known to organic chemistry students, which indicate the position of groups attached to a benzene ring. |
| George Francis Train | |
| Died
19 Jan 1904 (born 24 Mar 1829)
American pioneer in street railways and an eccentric reformer.« |
|
| Heinrich Anton de Bary | |
(source) |
Died
19 Jan 1888 (born 26 Jan 1831)
German botanist, a founder of modern mycology and plant pathology for his research into the roles of fungi and other agents in causing plant diseases. He determined the life cycles of many fungi, for which he developed a classification that has been retained in large part by modern mycologists. Among the first to study host-parasite interactions, and ways in which fungi penetrate host tissues, in 1853, he asserted that fungi cause rust and smut diseases of plants. In 1865 he proved that the life cycle of wheat rust involves two hosts, wheat and barberry. De Bary was the first to show (1866) that lichens consist of a fungus and an alga in intimate association. He coined "symbiosis" (1879) to mean a mutually beneficial partnership between two organisms. |
| Auguste Mariette | |
(source) |
Died
19 Jan 1881 (born 11 Feb 1821)
Auguste (-Ferdinand-François) Mariette was a French archeologist who conducted major excavations throughout Egypt, revealing much about the earlier periods of Egyptian history. Sent by the Louvre, in 1850, to purchase papyruses, at Saqqara he discovered the Serapeum. Its rockcut corridors and burial chambers were excavated for the Apis bulls which were sacred to god Ptah. The corridors form a virtual underground extending for hundreds of metres. The stone sarcophagi weigh as much as 70 tonnes and average some 4 metres long and 3.3 metres high. Twenty chambers still contain sarcophagi. This was the start of French archaeology in Egypt. He won renown too, for his battle against looting and the illicit export of antiquities. |
| Henri-Victor Regnault | |
(EB) |
Died 19 Jan 1878 (born 21 Jul 1810)
French chemist and physicist noted for his work on the properties of gases. His invaluable work was done as a skilful, thorough, patient experimenter in determining the specific heat of solids, liquids, gases, and the vapour-tensions of water and other volatile liquids, as well as their latent heat at different temperatures. He corrected Mariotte's law of gases concerning the variation of the density with the pressure, determined the coefficients of expansion of air and other gases, devised new methods of investigation and invented accurate instruments. Two laws governing the specific heat of gases are named after him. |
| George Julius Poulett Scrope | |
(source) |
Died
19 Jan 1876 (born 10 Mar 1797)
English geologist, political economist and Member of Parliament. He took an early amateur interest in geology and volcanology, and his work helped disprove the Neptunist theory that all Earth's rocks were of oceanic sedimentary origin believed by a number of early 19th century geologists. He studied volcanic features in Italy, Sicily and Germany, and especially in central France and wrote Considerations on Volcanoes (1825) and Memoir on the Geology of Central France. (1827). It was by his observations on the erosion of valleys by rivers, that he was able to extend and confirm the views of Hutton and Playfair. His birth name of Thompson became Scrope in 1821 when he married the daughter of the earl William Scrope.« |
| JANUARY 19 - EVENTS | |
| Black American patent | |
(USPTO) |
In 1954, a patent for "Methods and Means of Defrosting a Cold Diffuser"
was issued to its Black American inventor, F.M. Jones (No. 2,666,298).
It gave a method to defrost using a heating medium when the surface of
the diffuser has accumulated a layer of frost or ice which would otherwise
reduce its heat transfer capacity. He used a compressor, condenser and
evaporator which were interconnected in a manner such that the compressed
refrigerant could also accomplish the defrosting of the evaporator in a
defrosting cycle. He was a prolific inventor, whose first patent was for
a "Ticket Dispensing Machine" in 1939 (No. 2,163,754), accumulating about
20 more patents relating to gas engines and refrigeration devices in 20
years.
The
Inventive Spirit of African Americans: Patented Ingenuity,
by Patricia Carter Sluby. |
| Neon advertising signs | |
 |
In 1915, a U.S. patent was issued to George Claude of Paris titled a "System
of Illuminating by Luminescent Tubes" which led to the neon sign (No.1,125,476).
The patent described the techincal details to be observed in the construction
of a tube well evacuated of other gases before the addition of one of the
rare gases, especially neon. It considered the materials used and size
of the electrodes, diameter of the tube, and suitable operating pressure.
Tube lengths of 5 to 6 metres were discussed, and how it was possible to
maintain the light output for an extensive used life. |
| Zeppelins bomb Britain | |
|
In 1915, the first Zeppelins used in German bombing raids on Britain attacked
Great Yarmouth and King's Lynn.« |
|
| Edison patent | |
|
In 1909, Thomas A. Edison was issued a patent for an improvement related
to Telegraphy (No. 909,877). |
|
| Edison patent | |
 |
In 1904, Thomas A. Edison was issued a patent for an" Electrical Automobile"
(No. 750,102) designed with a driving motor that may be conveniently and
effectively utilized for the purpose of charging the batteries. Thus a
small steam engine, preferable of the turbine type, was connected to the
armature of an electric motor. By reversing the rotation of the motor-armature,
the electric motor converts to a generator for charging the batteries.
A clutch then is used to disconnect the motor from the driving wheels during
charging (or, the wheels could be jacked up during the charging operation).
In usual operation, the motor ran from storage batteries to power the carriage. |
| First transatlantic radio broadcast | |
|
In 1903, King Edward VII and President Theodore Roosevelt exchanged greetings
in a coded radio exchange between Cape Cod and Cornwall, England. |
|
| Solid air | |
 |
In 1894, Professor James Dewar exhibited several properties of liquid air,
and produced solid air, at the Friday meeting of the Royal Institution.
He had previously there exhibited, on 5 Jun 1885, liquid air obtained at
the temperature of -192ºC. By Mar 1893 he had produced solid air in
the form of ice. |
| Edison patent | |
|
In 1875, Thomas A. Edison was issued a patent on a Telegraph Apparatus
(No. 158,787). |
|
| Food cans | |
|
In 1825, the first U.S. patent for food storage in cans - to "preserve
animal substances in tin" - was issued to Ezra Daggett and his nephew Thomas
Kensett of New York City where they canned salmon, oysters and lobsters
since introducing the method in 1819. Tin
cans had been used by the military and explorers in Europe since 1813,
but their development did not start until after the Civil War. |
|
