| OCTOBER 4 - BIRTHS | |
| Kenichi Fukui | |
(source) |
 Born 4
Oct 1918; died 9 Jan 1998.
Japanese chemist who shared the 1981 Nobel Prize for Chemistry with Roald Hoffmann for investigation of the mechanisms of chemical reactions. In 1952, at Kyoto University, Fukui introduced his "frontier orbital theory of reactions." He proposed that the course of a reaction is determined by geometry and relative energies of molecular orbitals of reactants. The theory explains electrophilic attack, for example, occurs at the carbon atom having the greatest density of frontier (highest energy) electrons. In the mid-1960s, Fukui and Hoffmann discovered - almost simultaneously and independently of each other - that symmetry properties of frontier orbitals could explain certain reaction courses that had previously been difficult to understand. |
| Vitaly Lazarevich Ginzburg | |
(source) |
Born 4
Oct 1916
Soviet physicist and astrophysicist whose research ranged over the theory of superconductivity and to the theory of high-energy processes in astrophysics, theories of radio-wave propagation, radio astronomy, and the origin of cosmic rays. |
| Alice Stewart | |
(source) |
Born 4
Oct 1906; died 23 Jun 2002.
English epidemiologist who demonstrated the connection between foetal X-rays and childhood leukemia. Her research demonstrated greater danger from X-rays and nuclear radiation than was at the time accepted by nuclear and health physics establishments. She insisted that exposure to low-level radiation caused adverse effects greater than accepted was resisted by officials of the British and U.S. governments. Starting in WW II, she investigated the health effects of exposure to TNT in ammunitions factories, of carbon tetrachloride, and a prevalence of tuberculosis among shoe industry workers. After a visit to the U.S. in 1974, she consulted on a major investigation of the health of workers in the nuclear industry there.«  The
Woman Who Knew Too Much: Alice Stewart and the Secrets of Radiation,
by Gayle Jacoba Greene. |
| John Atanasoff | |
(source) |
Born 4
Oct 1903; died 15 June 1995
John Vincent Atanasoff was a U.S. physicist who was belatedly credited (1973) with developing the first electronic digital computer. Built in 1937-42 at Iowa State University by Atanasoff and a graduate student, Clifford Berry, it introduced the ideas of binary arithmetic, regenerative memory, and logic circuits. These ideas were communicated from Atanasoff to John Mauchly, who used them in the design of the better-known ENIAC built and patented several years later. On 19 Oct 1973, a US Federal Judge signed his decision following a lengthy court trial which declared the ENIAC patent invalid and named Atanasoff the original inventor of the electronic digital computer, the Atanasoff- Berry Computer or the ABC. |
| Cyril Stanley Smith | |
(source) |
Born 4
Oct 1903; died 25 Aug 1952.
British-American metallurgist who in 1943-44 determined the properties and technology of plutonium and uranium, the essential materials in the atomic bombs that were first exploded in 1945. Smith already then had 15 years of experience as a research metallurgist with the American Brass Co., during which time he studied properties of alloys and their microstructure. In WW II, he joined the Los Alamos Laboratory at its inception (1943). The properties and technology of plutonium had to be conducted with extremely limited quantities of available material. Smith and his group found it was unique, with five different allotropic forms with huge density differences between them. Postwar, he organized the Institute for the Study of Metal at the Univ. of Chicago. |
| Edward Murray East | |
(source) |
Born 4
Oct 1879; died 9 Nov 1938.
American plant geneticist, botanist, agronomist, and chemist, who contributed to genetic theory and to the development of hybrid corn (maize) by applying inbred strain breeding. This was a revolutionary method of seed production and improved corn crops around the world. He analyzed the protein and fat content of corn to increase its nutritional value as animal feed. East studied the genetics and breeding not only of corn, but also tobacco and potatoes. He independently discovered the phenomenon later called "multiple factors" that gives a Mendelian interpretation for "blending inheritance." He also made important studies of self-and cross-incompatibility, heterosis, cytoplasmic heredity, and hybridization.« |
| Michael Idvorsky Pupin | |
(source) |
Born 4
Oct 1858; died 12 Mar 1935.
Serbian-American physicist who devised a means of greatly extending the range of long-distance telephone communication by placing loading coils (of wire) at predetermined intervals along the transmitting wire. His parents were illiterate, but they encouraged his education. Pupin became an instructor in mathematical physics (1890) at Columbia University, New York City. In 1986, he discovered that atoms struck by X rays emit secondary X-ray radiation. He also invented a means for taking short-exposure X-ray photographs. The Bell Telephone Company, in 1901, acquired the patent for his invention for long-distance telephony. Pupin won a Pulitzer Prize (1924) for his autobiographical work, From Immigrant to Inventor (1923). |
| Thomas Corwin Mendenhall | |
(source) |
Born 4
Oct 1841; died 23 Mar 1924.
American physicist and meteorologist, the first to propose the use of a ring pendulum for measuring absolute gravity. From 1889 to 1894 he served both as Director of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey and also Superintendent of the U.S. Standard Weights and Measures where he oversaw the shift in the fundamental standards of the U.S. from the English yard and pound to the International Meter and Kilogram. Mendenhall devised a quarter second's pendulum for gravity measurements and instituted improvements in the measurement of base lines with wire tapes, in the construction of instruments for precise leveling and in the methods used in triangulation and gravity work, and developed a comprehensive plan for the study of terrestrial magnetism. |
| Christian Longomontanus | |
(source) |
Born 4
Oct 1562; died 8 Oct 1647.
Byname of Christian Severin, a Danish astronomer and astrologer who is best known for his association with, and published support for, Tycho Brahe. He became the first professor of astronomy at the University of Copenhagen, and in 1610 he received funds for instruments and he probably constructed a small observatory at his home. Longomontanus used Tycho's data to compile the Astronomia danica (1622), an exposition of the Tychonic system, which holds that the Sun revolves around the Earth and the other planets revolve around the Sun. He began the construction of the Copenhagen Observatory in 1632, but died before its completion. |
|
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| OCTOBER 4 - DEATHS | |
| Michael Smith | |
(source) |
 Died
4 Oct 2000 (born 26 Apr 1932)
British-born Canadian biochemist who won (with Kary B. Mullis) the 1993 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his development of a technique called oligonucleotide-based site-directed mutagenesis, which enabled researchers to introduce specific mutations into genes and, thus, to the proteins that they encode. The prize recognized his groundbreaking work in reprogramming segments of DNA, the building blocks of life. His work launched a new era in genetics research. |
| Edward H. Lowe | |
(source) |
Died
4 Oct 1995 (born 10 Jul 1920)
American inventor of Kitty Litter. After Navy duty (1941-45), Lowe joined his father's company in Cassopolis, Mich., selling industrial absorbents, including sawdust and an absorbent clay called Fuller's Earth. In 1947, Lowe suggested the use of the clay instead of ashes for his neighbor's cat's box to avoid sooty paw prints. It worked well and Lowe thought other cat owners would use this new cat-box filler. He filled ten brown bags with clay, wrote the name "Kitty Litter" on them and began selling it through the local pet store. By 1990, his marketing effort had grown into a clay mining and consumer product business, the largest U.S. producer of cat-box filler, now improved, 99% dust free, and sanitized against odor-causing bacteria. He held 67 US and foreign patents. |
| Ross Franco Nigrelli | |
| Died
4 Oct 1989 (born 12 Dec 1903)
American marine biologist who made notable discoveries in disease among marine organisms and factors influencing their health, including pollution, changes in salinity, and alterations in water temperature. Among the first to study poisons discharged by marine organisms, he investigated blooms of plankton, such as so-called red tides that decimated fish along Florida's Gulf Coast in the 1940s. He also found marine species could be sources of drugs. For example, a secretion of sea cucumbers while fatal to fish in minute quantities will also slow growth of tumors in mice. He also identified a certain secretion of sea sponges that has antibacterial properties and determined that blood poisoning in man can be detected by using blood of horseshoe crabs. |
|
| Sir Arthur Whitten Brown | |
(source) |
Died
4 Oct 1948 (born 23 Jul 1886)
Scottish aviator, who was navigator with pilot Capt. John W. Alcock on the first nonstop airplane crossing of the Atlantic in a Vickers Vimy, named after a battle in WW I. Brown began his career in engineering before the outbreak of WW I. Like Alcock, Brown also became a prisoner of war, after being shot down over Germany. Once released, Brown continued to develop his aerial navigation skills. While visiting the engineering firm of Vickers he was asked if he would be the navigator for the proposed transatlantic flight. By joining forces with the firm Vickers, Alcock and Brown entered a competition for the first direct transatlantic flight, set up by the Daily Mail newspaper, with a prize of ten thousand pounds. |
| Max Planck | |
(source) |
Died
4 Oct 1947 (born 23 Apr 1858)
Max (Karl Ernst Ludwig) Planck was a German theoretical physicist. He studied at Munich and Berlin, where he studied under Helmholz, Clausius and Kirchoff and subsequently joined the faculty.he became professor of theoretical physics (1889-1926). His work on the law of thermodynamics and the distribution of radiation from a black body led him to abandon classical Newtonian principles and introduce the quantum theory (1900), for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1918. This assumes that energy is not infinitely subdivisible, but ultimately exists as discrete amounts he called quanta (Latin, "how much"). Further, the energy carried by a quantum depends in direct proportion to the frequency of its source radiation. |
| Gifford Pinchot | |
(source) |
Died
4 Oct 1946 (born 11 Aug 1865)
American forester, who as the first chief of the U.S. Forest Service popularized the conservation of natural resources. He became chief of the new Forest Service in 1905 when the management of the forest reserves was transferred to the Dept. of Agriculture from the Dept. of the Interior. At that time, the nation had 60 forest reserves covering 56 million acres. In his five years in office, by 1910 those numbers increased to 150 national forests covering 172 million acres. He is regarded as a father of American conservation because of his great and unrelenting concern for the protection of the American forests. His efforts were supported by President Theodore Roosevelt, but not by his successor, President Taft, who replaced Pinchot in Jan 1910.« Breaking
New Ground, (autobiography) by Gifford Pinchot. |
| John Rennie | |
(source) |
Died
4 Oct 1821 (born 7 Jun 1761)
Scottish engineer and architect who designed London Bridge. After working as a millwright with Andrew Meikle he studied at Edinburgh University (1780-83). He was employed by Boulton & Watt for five years In 1791, he moved to London and started his own engineering company. Over the next few years he became famous as a bridge-builder, including Leeds Bridge, Southwark Bridge and Waterloo Bridge. He was also designed and built docks at Hull, Liverpool, Greenock and Leith and improving the harbours and dockyards at Portsmouth, Chatham and Plymouth. His last project was London Bridge, though he died in 1821 before it was finished. The bridge was completed by his son, Sir John Rennie. |
| OCTOBER 4 - EVENTS | |
| Mole | |
(source) |
In 1971, the mole - the amount of substance (matter) - was adopted as a
chemical measurement added to the six base quantities of the SI (International
System of scientific units). The decision
was made by the Conférence Général des Poids et Mesures
(CGPM), the principal executive organization under the Treaty of the Meter.
IUPAC's participation was led by M.L. McGlashan. The mole is the amount
of substance of a system which contains as many elementary entities as
there are carbon atoms in 0.012 kg of carbon 12. The elementary entities
must be specified and may be atoms, molecules, ions, electrons, other particles,
or specified groups of such particles. The agreed symbol for the unit is
mol, and the symbol for amount of substance is n.« |
| Transatlantic jet passenger service | |
(source) |
In 1958, the first trans-Atlantic passenger jetliner
service was inaugurated by British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC)
with flights between London Heathrow airport and New York Idlewild (now
JFK) airport. G-APDC 'Delta Charlie' set off from London to New York via
Gander under the Command of Capt. R. E. Millichap and G-APDB, Commanded
by Capt. T. B. Stoney, made the east-bound flight. Because of the prevailing
winds the west-bound flight needed to refuel at Gander. The inaugural flight
was completed in 8 hours 53 minutes flying time (including stop-over 10
hrs. 5 min.) at an average ground speed of 404 m.p.h. BOAC previously used
propeller aircraft on the transatlantic route. [Image
top right: 1960 De Haviland Comet 4 at Heathrow airport. (source)] |
| Sputnik | |
(NASA) |
In 1957, the Space Age began as the Soviet Union, to the dismay of the
United States, launched Sputnik,
the first manmade satellite, into orbit around the earth. The craft circled
the earth every 95 minutes at almost 20,000 miles per hour 500 miles above
the Earth. The Sputnik (meaning "companion" or "fellow traveller")
was launched from Kazakhstan. It stayed in orbit for about three months.
Sputnik
fell from the sky on 4 Jan 1958. The 184-lb satellite had transmitted a
radio signal picked up around the world, and instrumentation for temperature
measurement. |
| Invention of navigation by satellite | |
 |
In 1957, two Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory scientists
tracking Sputnik found they could determine its orbit by analyzing the
Doppler shift of its radio signals during a single pass. They conjectured
that if a satellite's position were known and predictable, then the Doppler
shift of its signals could be used to locate a receiver on Earth - thus,
one could navigate by satellite.
A system called Transit,
was developed and from 1964 assisted the security of U.S. nuclear deterrent
submarines. From 1967, this evolved into a navigation system for all nations,
a forerunner of the present Global Positioning System (GPS). Transit also
made key contributions to space science and technology, geodesy and health.*
[Image: Transit 1B satellite] |
| Solar-powered phone call | |
|
In 1955, the world's first solar-powered telephone call was made by Bell
Telephone. |
|
| Neutron measurement | |
|
In 1934, Enrico Fermi measured
the speed of a neutron. |
|
| Powered book printing press patent | |
|
In 1830, the first power printing press capable of fine book work was patented
by Isaac Adams of Boston, Massachusetts. |
|
| Pocket watch patent | |
(source) |
In 1675, Christian Huygens
patented a pocket watch. Huygens was a Dutch astronomer an physicist who
establishing the wave theory of light and making astronomical discoveries.
He also patented the first pendulum clock in 1656, which he has developed
to meet his need for exact time measurement while observing the heavens.
In 1673, he studied the relation of the length of a pendulum to its period
of osciallation.« |
| First printed Bible in English | |
 |
In 1535, the first complete English translation as a printed Bible was
published.
This translation,
made by Miles Coverdale (1488-1569), was printed in Antwerp. |
