| OCTOBER 14 - BIRTHS | |
| J. Craig Venter | |
(source) |
 Born 14
Oct 1946
American molecular geneticist who pioneered the use of automated gene sequencers. In 1990, he developed "expressed sequence tags" (ESTs), a new strategy for gene discovery and tagging that revolutionized the biological sciences. In 1995, Venter, in collaboration with Hamilton Smith, determined the DNA sequence of the entire genome (all the genetic material of an organism) of Hemophilus influenzae, a bacterium that causes earaches and meningitis in humans. The achievement marked the first time that the complete sequence of a free-living organism had been deciphered, and it was accomplished in less than a year. He founded the Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR). By 2000, his company Celera Genomics sequenced the human genome.  The
Genome War: How Craig Venter Tried to Capture the Code of Life and Save
the World, by James Shreeve. |
| George Harold Brown | |
(source) |
Born 14
Oct 1908; died 11 Dec 1987.
American electrical engineer, a pioneer in radio-thermics, who made major contributions to the development of radio and television broadcast antennas. In 1936, Brown invented the so-called turnstyle antenna for television broadcasting. Because of this, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted a TV system of 441 lines. In 1938, Brown developed the vestigial sideband filter for use in television transmission, doubling the horizontal resolution of television pictures at any given bandwith. During WW II, with RCA’s researchers, George Brown’s group used radio-frequency heating in the bulk dehydration of penicillin at E.R. Squibb, a "sewing machine" for thermoplastics, and more consistent riveting and welding techniques. Image: Modern weather satellite receiving turnstyle antenna. |
| W. Edwards Deming | |
c. 1980 (source) |
Born 14
Oct 1900; died 20 Dec 1993.
W(illiam) Edwards Deming was an American statistician, the father of "Total Quality Management." After WW II, he contributed to Japan's economic recovery by recommending statistical methods of quality control in industrial production. His method embraced carefully tallying product defects, examining their causes, correcting the problems, and then tracking the results of these changes on subsequent product quality. In his career before the war, he had developed statistical sampling techniques that were first used in the 1940 U.S. census. From the 1980's in the U.S. Deming taught quality control through the statistical control of manufacturing processes for companies such as Ford, Xerox, and GM.« The
Man Who Discovered Quality, by Andrea Gabor. |
| Sir James Gray | |
(source) |
Born 14
Oct 1891; died 14 Dec 1975
English zoologist who played a leading part in changing the main objective of 20th-century zoological research from evolutionary comparative anatomy to the functional analysis of living cells and living animals, particularly through his editorship (1925-54) of the Journal of Experimental Biology. He authored How Animals Move (1953), and Animal Locomotion (1968). Gray applied mechanical principles to the analysis of animal movement. In 1936, his calculations started a controversy, called Gray's paradox, concerning comparisons of swimming efficiency in fish and in submarines. Energetics calculations suggest that fish and other ocean denizens are much more efficient swimmers than subs, while theoretical hydrodynamic calculations suggest they are not. |
| Johan Herman Lie Vogt | |
(source) |
Born 14
Oct 1858; died 3 Jan 1932
Norwegian geologist and petrologist who pioneered in the use of physical-chemical methods in the study of the origin of igneous rocks and ores. He did important work on the chemistry of silicates as the basis for igneous rock petrology, and on differentiation in cooling magmas. Vogt is often called the father of modern physiochemical petrology. He also made studies of ore geology, especially magmatic ores. Petrology is a branch of geology that deals with the origin, composition, structure, and alteration of rocks. |
| John Ferguson McLennan | |
| Born 14
Oct 1827; died 16 Jun 1881.
British lawyer and anthropologistwho undertook a vast comparative research of the ceremonies of marriage. His theory of social evolution, in which he first used the terms exogamy (marriage outside the group) and endogamy (marriage within the group), stemmed from his interest in the survival of primitive cultures. He did much to stimulate and guide anthropological research. He developed influential theories on cultural evolution, kinship and the origin of religion. McLennan's pioneering work on totems (as survivals of primitive worship of fetishes, plants, animals and anthropomorphic gods) had a great influence upon contemporary social scientists, including Sigmund Freud. McLennan was influenced strongly by Darwin's theory of evolution. |
|
| Elwood Haynes | |
1894 (source) |
Born 14
Oct 1857; died 13 Apr 1925.
American inventor who built one of the first successful gasoline-powered automobiles. In 1886, when natural gas was found in his hometown of Portland, Indiana, Haynes organized a company to supply it to the town. He devised a method to dehydrate the gas prior to its being pumped through the lines. Also in 1886, he invented a small vapor thermostat used on natural gas. In 1893, he purchased a gasoline engine and designed a "horseless carriage." When Haynes was searching for an alloy that would make a durable spark plug electrode, he invented stellite alloy, which invention is still contributing to society today. Harder than steel and resistant to corrosion, this metal now plays an important part in fabrication of aeronautical materials suitable for exploration of outer space. |
| Friedrich Wilhelm Georg Kohlrausch | |
(source) |
Born 14
Oct 1840; died 17 Jan 1910.
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. |
| Sir Edward Sabine | |
 |
Born 14 Oct 1788; died 26 Jun 1883.
Physicist, astronomer, and explorer, born in Dublin. He was commissioned in the Royal Artillery, and reached the rank of major-general before retiring in 1877. As an explorer, the party's astronomer, he joined the expedition of John Ross to find the Northwest Passage (1818). He also went with Parry on an Arctic expedition (1819-20). Through experiments using a pendulum at different global locations, he determined the shape of the Earth (1821-3). Sabine also studied the earth's magnetic field, and discovered that irregular variations of the sunspots and Earth's magnetism fluctuate together (1852) which was the first link known between the sun and the earth other than the sun's radiation and its gravity.  |
|
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| OCTOBER 14 - DEATHS | |
| Walter M. Elsasser | |
(source) |
 Died
14 Oct 1991 (born 20 Mar 1904)
German-born American physicist notable for a variety of contributions to science. He is known for his explanation of the origin and properties of the Earth's magnetic field using a "dynamo model." Trained as a theoretical physicist, he made several important contributions to fundamental problems of atomic physics, including interpretation of the experiments on electron scattering by Davisson and Germer as an effect of de Broglie's electron waves and recognition of the shell structure of atomic nuclei. Circumstances later turned his interests to geophysics, where he had important insights about the radiative transfer of heat in the atmosphere and fathered the generally accepted dynamo theory of the earth's magnetism. |
| Sir Martin Ryle | |
(source) |
Died
14 Oct 1984 (born 27 Sep 1918)
British radio astronomer who developed revolutionary radio telescope systems and used them for accurate location of weak radio sources. With improved equipment, he observed the most distant known galaxies of the universe. Ryle and Antony Hewish shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1974, the first Nobel prize in the field of astronomy. Ryle helped develop radar for British defense during WW II. Afterward, he was a leader in the development of radio astronomy. Using interferometry he and his team located radio-emitting regions on the sun and pinpointed other radio sources so that they could be studied in visible light. Ryle’s catalogues of radio sources led to the discovery of numerous radio galaxies and quasars. He was Astronomer Royal 1972 to 1982. |
| Sir Douglas Mawson | |
| Died
14 Oct 1958 (born 5 May 1882)
Australian geologist and explorer whose travels in the Antarctic earned him worldwide acclaim. |
|
| Heinrich Kayser | |
(source) |
Died
14 Oct 1940 (born 16 Mar 1853)
Heinrich (Gustav Johannes) Kayser was a German physicist who discovered the presence of helium in the Earth's atmosphere. Prior to that scientists had detected helium only in the sun and in some minerals. Kayser's early research work was on the properties of sound. In collaboration with the physicist and mathematician Carl D.T. Runge, Kayser carefully mapped the spectra of a large number of elements. He wrote a handbook of spectroscopy (1901–12) and a treatise on the electron theory (1905). [Image: helium spectrum] |
| Thomas Davidson | |
(source) |
Died 14 Oct 1885 (born 17 May 1817)
Scottish naturalist and paleontologist who became known as an authority on brachiopods, known as "lamp shells" because some varieties resemble a Roman oil lamp, a phylum of bottom-dwelling marine invertebrates (Brachiopoda). Some of these fossils are among the oldest found. His major work, Monograph of British Fossil Brachziopoda, was published by the Palaeontographical Society (1850-1886). Together with supplements, this comprised six quarto volumes with more than 200 plates drawn on stone by the author. Upon his death, he bequeathed his fine collection of recent and fossil brachiopoda to the British Museum. |
| OCTOBER 14 - EVENTS | |
| Gene therapy | |
In 1993, Dr. Michael J. Walsh of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute announced
that cystic fibrosis can be corrected by gene therapy. |
|
| Outer-space telecast | |
(source) |
In 1968, the first outer-space live telecast was beamed from Apollo
VII in orbit. Captain Walter Schirra, Jr., Major Donn Eisele and Major
Walt Cunningham showed views of the satellite and views through the windows.
The primary objectives
for the Apollo VII engineering test flight, were simple: "Demonstrate
Command/Service Module (CSM) and crew performance; demonstrate crew/space
vehicle and mission support facilities performance during a manned CSM
mission; demonstrate CSM rendezvous capability." The
Apollo VII
was launched 11 Oct 1968. For nearly 11 days, the Command Module was run
through numerous tests. and was recovered after a 260-hour flight and 163
orbits. |
| Metre | |
|
In 1960, the 4th legal definition of the metre
was made to be 1,650,763.73 wavelengths in vacuum of the orange-red light
radiation of the krypton-86 atom (transition between levels 2p10 and 5d5).
This was now 100 times more accurate than the previous 3rd legal definition
adopted in 1889. |
|
| First supersonic flight | |
(source) |
In 1947, Chuck Yeager, a WW II fighter pilot, became the first human to
fly
faster than the speed of sound, breaking
through the sound barrier in a rocket powered Bell XS-1 airplane over Murac
Dry Lake, California. The four rocket motors of this tiny needle-nosed
research craft could gulp an entire supply of fuel in 2-1/2 minutes. To
save fuel, the Bell XS-1 was carried aloft by a B-29 then released, and
Yeager fired its rockets. At 37,000 feet the X-1 flew
nicely, but began to buffet as it approached the sound barrier. When an
airplane travels at the speed of sound the air particles ahead are compressed
into an invisible "wall of thick air." Others flying with less powerful
engines could not push through this wall, with hazardous and deadly results.
Yeager succeeded. |
| Air pollution control district | |
(source) |
In 1947, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors established
the nation's first air pollution control program by creating the Los Angeles
County Air Pollution Control District. It was a response to the serious
smog in the city on 26 Jul 1943 when
a noxious haze of smoke and exhaust fumes reduced visibility to under three
blocks. From Oct 1943, the Smoke and Fumes Commission appointed by the
city studied the problem. The causes it named were many: locomotive smoke,
diesel truck fumes, back-yard rubbish burning plus the mountain topography,
stagnant winds and atmospheric temperature inversions. On 31
Jul 1954, a six-year research program reported that the smog was caused
by the chemical reaction of sunlight on auto and industrial emissions.«
[Image:
The first recorded photograph of LA smog, 26 July 1943] |
| Telephone exchange | |
|
In 1922, the first automated telephones, the Pennsylvania exchange in N.Y.
City, become operational. |
|
| Pasteur's rabies vaccine | |
(source) |
In 1885, after 15-year-old Jean Baptiste Jupille was severely bitten
while with his bare hands he killed an attacking rabid dog to protect five
other young shepherds in Villers-Farley, France. He shortly became the
second person treated
by Louis Pasteur's experimental vaccine
for rabies. He was fortunate to be taken to Pasteur's laboratory. Pasteur's
collaborator Emile Roux had thought of attenuating the power of the infection
by exposing strips of fresh spinal marrow taken from a rabbit that had
died of rabies to dry, sterile air for various lengths of time. The vaccine
was a small piece of marrow ground up and suspended in sterilized broth.
It had first been used on Joseph Meister on 6 Jul 1885. By 12 Apr 1886,
726 people had been treated. |
| Eastman patent | |
1915 (source) |
In 1884, the first U.S. patent for transparent paper-strip photographic
film on a temporary paper backing was issued to George
Eastman of Rochester, N.Y. (No. 306,594). The film consisted of a layer
of paper and a coating of insoluble sensitized gelatin emulsion, separated
by a layer of soluble gelatin to enable separation after developing the
exposed film. He invented this film in Feb 1884 and applied for the patent
the next month. It was flexible, could be wrapped compactly on a roller
and used within a roll-holder instead of the glass plate photographic materials
then in use. It offered greater convenience, less weight and freedom from
breakage. He began commercial manufacturing of the product on 26
Mar 1885 « |
| Nobel's first patent | |
 |
In 1863, Alfred Nobel was granted his first patent, a Swedish patent for
the preparation of nitroglycerin. The end of the Crimean War (1856) brought
bankruptcy for his father, Immanuel Nobel, whose factory manufactured war
materiel. Studying chemistry, Alfred learned
of the powerful new explosive, nitroclycerine. Around 1860, Alfred conducted
repeated experiments involving great risks. He succeeded in manufacturing
sufficient quantities of nitroglycerine without any mishaps. His father
had been making similar experiments, but with less success. When his father
realized his son's greater discoveries, he assisted Alfred patent the explosive
that he aptly called "blasting oil." Later, in 1868, Nobel patented dynamite
as a form for safer handling. |
| Black-American patent | |
(USPTO) |
In 1834, Henry Blair of Glenross, Maryland, received a U.S. patent on a
corn planter (No.
X8447). Two years later, on 31
Aug 1836, he was also issued a patent on a cotton seed planter (No.
15). Blair was born in Maryland about 1807 and lived until 1860. He was
a successful farmer
whose inventions met a need to increase efficiency in farming. His patents
were signed with a simple "X" because he had not learned to read or write.
Henry Blair was the second African-American to hold a patent. For some
time he had been regarded
as the first, until it became better known that the first African-American
on record to be granted a patent was Thomas Jennings for a "dry-scouring"
cleaning process (3 Mar 1821, No. X3306).« [Image
top: side view of machine; bottom: detail of section of seed hopper showing
cylinder with holes in the periphery that turns with the wheels to drop
grains of corn.]
The
Inventive Spirit of African Americans: Patented Ingenuity,
by Patricia Carter Sluby. |
