October 30 - Today in Science History

OCTOBER 30 - BIRTHS
William Paul Thurston
(source)	Born 30 Oct 1946 American mathematician who was awarded the Fields Medal in 1983 for his work in topology. As early as his Ph.D. thesis entitled Foliations of 3-manifolds which are circle bundles (1972) that showed the existence of compact leaves in foliations of 3-manifolds, Thurston had been working in the field of topology. In the following years, Thurston's contributions to the field of foliations were recognized to be of considerable depth, set apart by their originality. This was also true of his subsequent work on Teichmüller space.
Daniel Nathans
(source)	Born 30 Oct 1928; died 16 Nov 1999. American microbiologist, corecipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1978 (with American Hamilton Othanel Smith and Swiss scientist Werner Arber). The winners were cited for their discovery and application of restriction enzymes, which provide the "chemical knives" to cut genes (= DNA) into defined fragments. These may then be used (1) to determine the order of genes on chromosomes, (2) to analyse the chemical structure of genes and of regions of DNA which regulate the function of genes, and (3) to create new combinations of genes. Thus new avenues are opened to study the basic problems in developmental biology; and in medicine, to help the prevention and treatment of malformations, hereditary diseases and cancer.
Robert C. Seamans, Jr.
(source)	Born 30 Oct 1918 Dr. Robert C(hanning) Seamans, Jr was an American aeronautical engineer who pioneered in the development of advanced systems of flight control, fire control, and guidance for modern aircraft. In 1960 Seamans joined NASA as associate administrator with responsibilities for research and development programs, field laboratories, assembling and launching facilities, and a worldwide network of tracking stations. He was the ninth secretary of the Air Force (15 Feb 1969 - May 1973). Aiming at Targets: The Autobiography of Robert C. Seamans, Jr., by Robert Seamans.
Sol Tax
(source)	Born 30 Oct 1907; died 4 Jan 1995. American cultural anthropologist, founder of the Current Anthropology journal and initiator of the Fox Project, a study of the culture of the Fox and Sauk Indians. Soon after receiving his Ph.D (1935), Tax began his study of the Omaha kinship pattern among the Fox. This study was done on the Fox and Sauk Indians in Tama, Iowa. He worked with the Indians from 1948 to 1962. His work led to him to develop a pan-Indian organization and to help native American tribes preserve their cultural identity.
Ragnar Arthur Granit
(source)	Born 30 Oct 1900; died 1991. Finnish-born Swedish physiologist who was a corecipient (with George Wald and Haldan Hartline) of the 1967 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his analysis of the internal electrical changes that take place when the eye is exposed to light. He worked on individual nerve cells of the retina and was the first to show that single nerve fibres could distinguish between different wavelengths of light. His bioelectric studies of vision were possible using the electric measurement method of professor Edgar D. Adrian of Oxford University, who had made the first measurement of the electric impulse in a single nerve fiber. Granit also conducted studies also on the function of muscle spindle, motoneuron, spinal cord and brain.
Gerhard Domagk
(source)	Born 30 Oct 1895; died 24 Apr 1964. German bacteriologist and pathologist who was awarded the 1939 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his discovery (announced in 1932) of the antibacterial effects of Prontosil, the first of the sulfonamide drugs. This prize was awarded despite the fact that the Nazi government intervened and informed the Nobel awarding committee in Sweden that the prize was not wanted. (Hitler had been enraged with the committee's award of the Peace Prize to a German in a concentration camp.) Domagk was arrested twice at gunpoint by his government, interrogated and imprisoned. He then refused to accept the prize, the first refusal in the history of the awards. After the fall of Hitler, in 1947, was able to go to Stockholm and accept the prize.
Dickinson W(oodruff) Richards
(source)	Born 30 Oct 1895; died 23 Feb 1973. American physiologist who was one of three who shared the 1956 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries concerning heart catheterization and pathological changes in the circulatory system". Richards helped develop the technique by which a catheter (a flexible tube) could be threaded through a vein into the heart to withdraw blood samples to determine cardiac abnormalities. In addition, it permits the measurement of blood pressure, blood flow or gas concentrations in various parts of the cardiac circulatory system (atrium, ventricles, or artery). This gives valuable information in the treatment of heart disease, defect or injury. Richards worked with André F. Cournand building on the original work of Werner Forssmann.
Louis Winslow Austin
(source)	Born 30 Oct 1867; died 27 Jun 1932. American physicist known for research on long-range radio transmissions. In 1904 he began work on radio transmissions for the U.S. Bureau of Standards. In 1908 Austin became head of a naval radiotelegraphy laboratory (later to become the Naval Research Laboratory) and became chief of the bureau's laboratory for special radio transmission research (1923-32). His work involved long-range transmission experiments, most notably a study (1910) that tested radio contact between ships travelling between the US and Liberia. Austin and collaborator Louis Cohen developed the Austin-Cohen formula for predicting the strength of radio signals at long distances. Austin's later work centred on the study of radio atmospheric disturbances, i.e., "static."
Hermann Franz Moritz Kopp
(source)	Born 30 Oct 1817; died 20 Feb 1892. German chemist and historian of chemistry whose studies of the relation of physical properties to chemical structure pioneered physical organic chemistry. Through measurement of boiling point, density, specific heat, and thermal expansion, Kopp showed that differences in the physical properties of organic compounds reflected the degree by which their structure differs.

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OCTOBER 30 - DEATHS

Sir Barnes Wallis
At his drawing board. (source)	Died 30 Oct 1979 (born 26 Sep 1887) Sir Barnes (Neville) Wallis was an English aeronautical designer and military engineer whose famous 9000-lb bouncing "dambuster" bombs of WW II destroyed the German Möhne and Eder dams on 16 May 1943. He designed the R100 airship, and the Vickers Wellesley and Wellington bombers. The specially-formed RAF 617 Squadron precisely delivered his innovative cylindrical bombs which were released from low altitude, rotating backwards at high speed that caused them to skip along the surface of the water, right up to the base of the dam. He later designed the 5-ton Tallboy and 10-ton Grand Slam earthquake bombs (which used on many enemy targets in the later years of the war). Postwar, he developed ideas for swing-wing aircraft.« The Dam Busters, by Paul Brickhill.
Gustav Hertz
(source)	Died 30 Oct 1975 (born 22 July 1887) German quantum physicist who, with James Franck, received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1925 for the Franck-Hertz experiment, which confirmed the quantum theory that energy can be absorbed by an atom only in definite amounts and provided an important confirmation of the Bohr atomic model. He was a nephew of Heinrich Hertz. Although he fought on the German side in World War I, being of Jewish descent, he was forced to resign his professorship (1934) when Hitler took power. From 1945 he worked in the Soviet Union, and then in 1955 was a professor of physics in Leipzig, East Germany.
William Henry Webb
	Died 30 Oct 1899 (born 19 June 1816) American naval architect, one of the most versatile and successful shipbuilders of his day, who in 1889 established and endowed the Webb Institute of Naval Architecture at Glen Cove, N.Y. Webb began shipbuilding in 1836 and by 1869 had more tonnage to his credit than any other American builder. He was innovative and varied in his designs.
George Washington De Long
	Died 30 Oct 1881 (born 22 Aug 1844) American explorer whose disastrous Arctic expedition gave evidence of a continuous ocean current across the polar regions.
Sir Thomas Bouch
(source)	Died 30 Oct 1880 (born 25 Feb 1822) English railway engineer who was knighted for building the Tay Railway Bridge that afterwards collapsed in a fierce gale on 28 Dec 1879 killing a trainload of people. His railway engineering career began at age 17. By 1849, he was Engineer and Manager of the Edinburgh and Northern Railway. Realising the value of a bridge to replace ferries across the mile-wide Firth of Tay on the east Scottish coast, he spent 20 years promoting such a project before it was approved. The foundation stone was laid on 22 Jul 1871. The two-mile bridge of lattice girders on ironwork columns was opened 31 May 1878, but failed the next year. He died four months after the Court of Inquiry held him responsible for poor design against wind pressure.« Thomas Bouch: The Builder of the Tay Bridge, by John Rapley.
John Chubb
	Died 30 Oct 1872 (born 1816) English locksmith and safe maker. He succeeded his father, Charles Chubb, who had founded the family firm of Chubb & Son, and patented many improvements to locks, safes and strong rooms and the like. He was elected a member of the Institute of Civil Engineers in 1845, where he delivered an important paper on locks and keys which included a list of all British patents in the field up to the date of the paper as well as of all communications on the same subject to the Royal Society of Arts; for this he was awarded the Telford Medal. John Chubb was had three sons, who followed him into the family business.
Edmund Cartwright
(source)	Died 30 Oct 1823 (born 24 Apr 1743) English inventor of the power loom. In 1784, Cartwright visited a factory owned by Richard Arkwright. Inspired by what he saw, he began working on a machine that would improve the speed and quality of weaving. With the help of a blacksmith and a carpenter, Cartwright produced his power loom, which he patented (1785). The invention revolutionised weaving, changing it from a manual process into a mechanical one. By 1787, he opened a weaving mill in Doncaster. Two years later, he powered his looms with steam engines produced by James Watt and Matthew Boulton. He also invented a machine for combing wool. In 1793 his business failed but parliament recognized his achievements in 1809 with an award of £10,000. Memoir of the Life, Writings and Mechanical Inventions of Edmund Cartwright, by Mary Strickland.



OCTOBER 30 - EVENTS

Channel fibre-optic cable
	In 1986, the first fibre-optic cable across the English Channel began service.
Largest nuclear device
	In 1961, the Soviet Union detonated a 58 megaton yield hydrogen bomb over Novaya Zemlya, which is still the largest nuclear device to ever be detonated.
Close asteroid approach
	In 1937, the closest approach to the earth by an asteroid, Hermes, was measured to be 485,000 miles, which, to an astronomer, is a mere hair's width (asteroid now lost).
First TV transmission in UK
	In 1925, the first television transmission was seen in London, England. John Baird built the transmitter in his attic from a tea chest, cardboard scanning discs, an empty biscuit box, old electric motors, darning needles, motorcycle lamp lenses, piano wire, glue, string, and sealing wax.
Time clock
(source)	In 1894, Daniel M. Cooper of Rochester, N.Y. received the first U.S. patent for a time clock (No. 528,223). Timecards were inserted into the machine, and when a lever was pressed, the time was recorded on specially printed cards divided by horizontal lines into seven equal spaces for days of the week. The time clock was used to record the time employees started and ended work. Known as the Rochester, the machine was manufactured by the Willard and Frick Manufacturing Company.
Ballpoint pen patent
(source)	In 1888, the first U.S. patent for a ballpoint pen was issued to John J. Loud of Weymouth, Mass. (No. 392,046). This patent described a pen having a spheroidal marking point capable of revolving in all directions which was held down by three smaller anti-friction balls, themselves held down by a flaired spring-loaded rod. A threaded cap at the end of the pen could be removed to recharge the pen with ink. The patent described the invention as being especially useful for the marking of rough surfaces such as wooden or paper boxes, coarse wrapping paper and other surfaces where the ordinary nib of a fountain pen could not be used because it would split, spatter or catch.
Ball bearing
(source)	In 1794, the first commercial installation in the U.S. of ball bearings was made on the weather vane on top of the steeple of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Holy Trinity, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The brick portion of the tower rises 86 feet and includes the bell chamber, above which rises the spire from an octagonal base to a height of 195 feet, upon which was mounted the weather vane. The bearings were of an antifriction roller type, with a pin through them.