| NOVEMBER 12 - BIRTHS | |
| Jack Ryan | |
(source) |
 
Born 12 Nov 1926; died 13 Aug 1991.
John W. "Jack" Ryan was an American inventor who for 20 years designed best-selling toys for Mattell Inc., including the Barbie doll, Hot Wheels and Chatty Cathy talking doll. His "space-aged savvy" and knowledge of materials came from his earlier employment, working as an engineer for the Raytheon Company designing the Navy's Sparrow III and Hawk guided missiles for the Navy. Ryan's association with Mattell began as a self-employed consultant for several years prior to becoming its vice president for research and design. Ryan invented the joints that allowed Barbie to bend at the waist and the knee. He also introduced the pull-string, talking voice boxes for Mattel's dolls.« [Image right: Barbie doll.] |
| Audouin Dollfus | |
(source) |
Born 12
Nov 1924
French astronomer, successor to Bernard Lyot as the principal French authority on the solar system. Dollfus made several balloon flights for high-altitude observations, including the first stratospheric ascension in France. On the basis of comparative light-polarizing qualities, he concluded that the surface material of Mars consists of pulverized limonite (an iron oxide, Fe2O3) and prepared a map of Venus showing what he believed to be permanent features. On 15 Dec 1966, he discovered Saturn's tenth known satellite, Janus. Subsequently lost, it is now accepted to be satellite 1980S1 orbiting Saturn in an almost circular orbit of radius 151,472 km in a period of 0.69433 days. A small satellite of diameter no more than 220 km, Janus is a co-orbital satellite with Epimetheus. |
| Salim Ali | |
(source) |
Born 12
Nov 1896; died 27 Jul 1987.
Indian ornithologist, the "birdman of India," who championed conservation of India's biological diversity. His fieldwork provided scientific guidance for the Indian government's conservation efforts. His love of birds began at age 10, when he began writing his observations. Eventually, he undertook professional education in ornithology. In 1930 he began a bird survey of Hyderabad State. By 1976, he had published several popular regional field guides of Indian birds for which he is famous. These surveys were based on extensive travels throughout India and Pakistan. The title of his autobiography "The Fall of a Sparrow" (1987) recalls the first sparrow that drew his interest as a boy.«  The
Book of Indian Birds, by Salim Ali. |
| Seth Nicholson | |
(source) |
Born 12
Nov 1891; died 2 Jul 1963.
Seth Barnes Nicholson was an American astronomer best known for discovering four satellites of Jupiter. As a graduate student at the University of California, while photographing the recently-discovered 8th moon of Jupiter with the 36-inch Crossley reflector, he discovered a 9th (1914). During his life career at Mt.Wilson Observatory, he discovered two more Jovian satellites (1938) and the 12th (1951), as well as a Trojan asteroid, and computed orbits of several comets and of Pluto. His main assignment at Mt. Wilson was observing the sun with the 150-foot solar tower telescope, and he produced annual reports on sunspot activity and magnetism for decades. With Edison Pettit, he measured the temperatures of the moon, planets, sunspots, and stars in the early 1920s. |
| Erich von Tschermak-Seysenegg | |
(source) |
Born 12
Nov 1871; died 11 Oct 1962.
Austrian agronomist who was one of three scientists who independently (as did Hugo de Vries and Carl Correns) rediscovered Mendel's work on the laws of genetics of the 1860's. Von Tschermak published his findings in June 1900.« |
| Sir John Rayleigh | |
(source) |
Born 12
Nov 1842; died 30 Jun 1919.
John William Strutt, 3rd Baron of Rayleigh (of Terling Place) was an English physical scientist who made fundamental discoveries in the fields of acoustics and optics that are basic to the theory of wave propagation in fluids. He received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1904 for his investigations into the densities of the most important gases and his successful isolation of argon, an inert atmospheric gas. |
| Gustav Friedrich Klemm | |
| Born 12
Nov 1802; died 25/26 Aug 1867.
German anthropologist who developed the concept of three stages of cultural evolution and is thought to have influenced the prominent English anthropologist Sir Edward Burnett Tylor. Klemm spent most of his life as director of the royal library at Dresden (from 1831). He distinguishing three stages of cultural evolution (which he identified as those of savagery, domestication, and freedom). Klemm divided mankind into active and inactive races and believed that peoples differed in mentality and temperament. He wrote about this 10 volume work, Allgemeine Kulturgeschichte der Menschheit. |
|
| Jacques-Alexandre-César Charles | |
(source) |
Born 12
Nov 1746; died 7 Apr 1823.
French mathematician, physicist, and inventor. When Benjamin Franklin visited France in 1779, Charles was inspired to study physics. He soon became an eloquent speaker to non-scientific audiences. His lectures and demonstrations attracted notable patrons and helped popularize Franklin's theory of electricity and other new scientific concepts. With Nicolas and Anne-Jean Robert, he made several balloon ascents, and was the first to use hydrogen for balloon inflation (1783). Charles invented most of the equipment that is still used in today's balloons. About 1787 he developed Charles's law concerning the thermal expansion of gases that for a gas at constant pressure, its volume is directly proportional to its absolute temperature. |
|
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| NOVEMBER 12 - DEATHS | |
| George David Birkhoff | |
(source) |
 Died
12 Nov 1944 (born 21 Mar 1884)
American mathematician, foremost of the early 20th century, who formulated the ergodic theorem. As the first American dynamicist, Birkhoff picked up where Poincaré left off, gaining distinction in 1913 with his proof of Poincaré's Last Geometric Theorem, a special case of the 3-body problem. Although primarily a geometer, he discovered new symbolic methods. He saw beyond the theory of oscillations, created a rigorous theory of ergodic behavior, and foresaw dynamical models for chaos. His ergodic theorem transformed the Maxwell- Boltzmann ergodic hypothesis of the kinetic theory of gases (to which exceptions are known) into a rigorous principle through use of the Lebesgue measure theory. He also produced a mathematical model of gravity. Dynamical
Systems: A Renewal of Mechanism: Centennial of George David Birkhoff,
by
George David Birkhoff, et al. |
| Clarence Hungerford Mackay | |
(source) |
Died
12 Nov 1938 (born 17 Apr 1874)
American communications executive and philanthropist who supervised the completion of the first transpacific cable between the United States and the Far East in 1904. He laid a cable between New York and Cuba in 1907 and later established cable communication with southern Europe via the Azores and with northern Europe via Ireland. In 1928, he became the first to combine radio, cables, and telegraphs under one management. Unfortunately the Postal Telegraph-Commercial Cable empire he had inherited from his father was shattered in the depression of 1929, going into receivership in 1935. In 1943 the Mackay land lines merged with Western Union. He founded the multinational company International Telephone and Telegraph. |
| Sir Dugald Clerk | |
 |
Died
12 Nov 1932 (born 31 Mar 1854)
Scottish inventor of the two-stroke Clerk cycle motorcycle engine, widely used on light motorcycles and other small machines. In 1881 he patented an engine he built in 1876 to run on hydrocarbon vapour which used an explosion once every two strokes of the piston rather than the once every fourof the more common Otto cycle used by most automobile engines. In another major research direction, he studied the properties of gaseous fuel and its heating and lighting applications. The British Admiralty appointed him director of engineering research in 1916, followed by his knighting in 1917. His work appears in the two volumes of The Gas, Petrol, and Oil Engine. |
| Percival Lowell | |
(source) |
Died
12 Nov 1916 (born 13 Mar 1855)
American astronomer who predicted the existence of the planet Pluto and initiated the search that ended in its discovery. Lowell was also passionately committed to finding proof of intelligent life on Mars. In 1894, he founded the Lowell Observatory, atop Mars Hill, at Flagstaff as Arizona's first astronomical observatory. Studying Mars, Lowell drew in intricate detail, the network of several hundred fine, straight lines and their intersection in a number of "oases." Lowell concluded that the bright areas were deserts and the dark ones were patches of vegetation. He believed further, that water from the melting polar cap flowed down the canals toward the equatorial region to revive the vegetation. |
| William Keith Brooks | |
| Died
12 Nov 1908 (born 25 Mar 1848)
American zoologist known for his research on the anatomy and embryology of marine animals, especially the tunicates, crustaceans (e.g., crayfish), and mollusks (notably the oyster). He was one of the first morphologists to accept Charles Darwin's evolutionary concepts. Brooks advocated the study of marine organisms in their natural habitats. Though remaining in the tradition of 19th-century descriptive morphology, through his more able students, he influenced the transition to an experimental, causal approach to 20th-century biology, particularly in cytology, genetics, and embryology. He founded the Chesapeake Zoological Laboratory (1878) and championed the conservation of the Chesapeake Bay oyster. |
|
| Josef Gottlieb Kolreuter | |
| Died
12 Nov 1806 (born 27 Apr 1733)
German scientist, a botanist who was a pioneer in the study of plant hybrids. He was first to develop a scientific application of the discovery, made in 1694 by the German botanist Rudolph Jacob Camerarius, of sex in plants. In his work with plants he was the first to use artificial fertilization. He was the first to cross plants of different species. |
|
| Jean-Sylvain Bailly | |
| Died
12 Nov 1793 (born 15 Sep 1736)
French astronomer, first Mayor of Paris (1789-91), was guillotined in Paris during the French Revolution. Noted for his computation of an orbit for Halley's Comet (1759) and for his studies of the four satellites of Jupiter then known. |
|
| NOVEMBER 12 - EVENTS | |
| Polypropylene | |
(source) |
In 1999, in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, a plaque was placed on the site
of the laboratory where the polymer polypropylene was invented, designating
it a National Historic Chemical Landmark by the American Chemical Society.
The first commercially successful use
of the new material was in the Hula Hoop®. In 1951, J. Paul Hogan and
Robert L. Banks, research chemists working for Phillips Petroleum Company,
discovered the polymer unexpectedly during experiments with catalysts while
trying to convert the natural gas components ethylene and propylene into
compounds useful for gasoline. Later, they also developed a new catalytic
process for making high-density polyethylene. Phillips soon invested in
new plastic manufacturing plants. |
| Space salvage | |
|
In 1984, astronauts executed the first salvage operation in space when
a Palapa B-2 satellite was retrieved. It was transported back to Earth
in the cargo bay of the space shuttle Discovery.*« |
|
| Saturn space probe | |
|
In 1980, the space probe Voyager I travelled under the rings and
within 77,000 miles of Saturn. |
|
| Salmon return to Thames | |
(source) |
In 1974, a salmon was discovered in the River Thames, England - for the
first time since 1833. The 8lb 4-1/2oz female was discovered
entangled in the protective nets around West Thurrock power station.*
The find was so surprising that the fish was sent to the British Museum
for positive identification. Victorian era sewage and factory waste had
polluted the once thriving salmon river, and by 1849 the fish had disappeared.
In 1855, Michael Faraday wrote
to The Times regarding the putrid state of the Thames. From 1961,
improved
sewage treatment and limits on industrial discharges gradually brought
about a cleaner river. Since the salmon's life cycle requires a high standard
of water quality, the species indicates environmental quality.« |
| Solar eclipse photograph | |
|
In 1966, the first photograph was taken from the atmosphere by the satellite
Gemini
XII. |
|
| Record iceberg | |
(source) |
In 1956, the largest iceberg on record was sighted by the USS Glacier,
a U. S. Navy icebreaker,
about 150 miles west of Scott Island in the Southern Hemisphere. It had
broken from the Ross ice shelf in the Antarctic. Its size was about the
size of Belgium - 208 miles long and 60 miles wide (335 km by 96 km). This
record iceberg was many times larger than any seen in the Northern Hemisphere,
where the largest iceberg on record was encountered near Baffin Island
in 1882. It was 13 km long by 6 km wide, had a freeboard (height above
water) of about 20 m, and a mass in excess of 9 billion tonnes. The USS
Glacier, commissioned in 1955, was at the time of her construction,
the largest icebreaker ever built.« [Image:
Iceberg B-19, a more recent huge iceberg that calved in Mar 2000] |
| Mobile betatron | |
|
In 1948, the first mobile betatron began operation at the U.S. Naval Ordnance
Laboratory, White Oak, Maryland. The betatron acclerated electrons using
10 million volts to produce a sharp beam of high-energy X-rays capable
of penetrating 16 inches of steel. It was built by General Electric Company
of Schenectady, N.Y.* |
|
| Autobank | |
|
In 1946, the first "autobank", The Exchange National Bank (banking by car)
was established in Chicago. |
|
| Female pilot | |
|
In 1941, Alma Heflin, the first American female test pilot for standard
production aircraft made her first test flight for the Piper Aircraft Corporation
of Lock Haven, Pennsylvania. |
|
| Heredity clinic | |
|
In 1941, the first heredity clinic in the U.S. was opened by the University
of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Data on human heredity was collected, and family
counselling was offered. |
|
| Oakland Bay Bridge | |
(source) |
In 1936, the Oakland Bay Bridge, California, U.S., opened
for traffic (six months before the Golden Gate Bridge). Construction of
the Bay Bridge began on 9 Jul 1933 to be a toll bridge across the San Francisco
Bay linking Oakland and San Francisco. It is in effect two bridges
connecting a central island,
Yerba Buena Island, with each shore. From San Francisco, two suspension
bridges end-to-end with a central anchorage reach the island, then traffic
continues to Oakland over a truss causeway of five medium-span truss bridges
and a double-tower cantilever span. The bridges were designed by Ralph
Modjeski. When they opened, they were the longest suspended-deck bridge
in the world and the longest cantilever bridge in the world.« |
| Lobotomy | |
(source) |
In 1935, the first modern surgery
on the frontal lobes for treatment of mental disorders was performed by
Egas Moniz at Santa Marta Hospital in Lisbon, Portugal. Moniz injected
absolute alcohol into the frontal lobes of a mental patient through two
holes drilled in the skull. Moniz later used a technique that severed neurons
and led to the prefrontal lobotomy techniques of the 1940s. Moniz was later
awarded a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 1949. Such radical
surgery fell out of favour
when psychoactive medication became available. [Image:
blue spots show the operation sites] |
| Holland Tunnel | |
|
In 1927, the Holland Tunnel connecting N.Y. and N.J., the world's first
underwater vehicular tunnel, officially opened. |
|
| Air bombing | |
|
In 1926, the first recorded airplane bombing took place in Williamson County,
Illinois, during a feud between rival beer and liquor factions, the Sheltons
and the Birgers. |
|
| Goodyear Zeppelins | |
|
In 1923, in Akron, Ohio Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company announced it had
purchased all patents and rights to manufacture Zeppelin dirigibles. |
|
| Scott's body discovered | |
|
In 1912, the body of Robert F. Scott was discovered in the Antarctic, who
died during an attempt to reach the South Pole |
|
| First Nobel Prize in Physics | |
|
In 1901, the first Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded to Wilhelm Roentgen
for his discovery of X-rays. |
|
| First manned box kite flight | |
(source) |
In 1894, Lawrence Hargrave, the Australian inventor
of the box kite, linked four huge box kites together, added a sling seat,
and flew - attached to the
ground by piano wire. Due to their innate abilities
to carry heavy payloads, steady flight, and capacity for high altitude
flight these kites have had many industrial and military uses in the past.
Box kites were used until the 1930's to carry meteorological equipment
for high altitude weather studies and by the Royal Air Force as sea rescue
equipment to deliver radio aerials. Hargrave also made important studies
of wing surfaces and worked with rotary engines and gliders. |
| Chloroform anesthetic | |
(source) |
In 1847, in Great Britain, Sir James Young Simpson, the father of modern
anesthetics,
employed chloroform ("perchloride of formyle") for the first time as an
anesthetic in an operation. He was not the first
to use chloroform but it was his persistent advocacy
which led to its acceptance. Later, as Queen Victoria was to give birth
to Prince Leopold (1853), she accepted chloroform for help. There was a
great controversy
about the morality of whether women should use such anesthetics in childbirth.
Victoria's leadership broke people free from superstition and fear. Simpson
was a natural inventor,always eager to experiment in new directions: the
fight against puerperal fever, the invention of new types of forceps and
combating cholera. |
| Leonid Meteors | |
(source) |
In 1833, the great shower
of the Leonid Meteors was recorded. Many observers clearly reported that
the meteors seemed to radiate from a spot in Leo and that, as the constellation
moved slowly westward during the night, the radiant point moved with it.
Within weeks a Yale mathematician, Denison Olmsted, showed that this radiant
point was simply an effect of perspective. The millions of meteors that
fell that night had in fact been moving along parallel paths. They appeared
to diverge from a point in Leo for the same reason that parallel lines
on the ground (such as railroad tracks), appear to diverge from a point
on the horizon. Following this realization, the meteors were given the
Latin family name for their apparent place of origin: the Leonids.  [Image:
Photo of the Leonids in 1966.]
The
Heavens On Fire: The Great Leonid Meteor Storms, by Mark
Littmann. |
| First known record of U.S. observation of meteor shower | |
(source) |
In 1799, Andrew Ellicott wrote
the first known record of a meteor shower observed in the U.S. He viewed
the display from a ship off the coast of Florida Keys at full moon. He
wrote:
"In every instant the meteors were as numerous as the stars," and that
the "whole heaven appeared as if illuminated with sky rockets, flying in
an infinity of directions, and I was in constant expectation of some of
them falling on the vessel. They continued until put out by the light of
the sun after day break." His account was read to the American Philosophical
Society on 16 Jan 1801. The Leonids meteor shower is an annual event that
is greatly enhanced every 33 years when accompanied by the appearance of
the comet Tempel-Tuttle.
«
[Image: illustration
from The Midnight Sky by Edward Dunkin (1872)] |
| Pitot tube | |
(source) |
In 1732, Henri Pitot read a paper
to the Royal Academy of Sciences in Paris about an instrument he had invented
to measure the flow velocity at different depths of water in the River
Seine*. It had a scale and two
open vertical glass tubes on a wood frame. The lower end of one pointed
down, the other bent at 90º facing the flow. The belief of the time
was that flow velocity at a given depth was proportional to the mass above
it, meaning increasing velocity at greater depth. Recording the difference
in liquid levels in the two tubes, he showed the opposite was true. Henri
Darcy improved the design, with the support of Henri
Bazin. Today, the Pitot tube has an important application in aerodynamics
for the measurement of the airspeed of aircraft.« [Image:
Book illustration showing a variation on Pitot tube by another practitioner
presented by Fanning,1877.] |
