| NOVEMBER 13 - BIRTHS | |
| Edward A. Doisy | |
(source) |
 Born 13
Nov 1893; died 23 Oct 1986.
Edward Adelbert Doisy was an American biochemist who shared the 1943 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (with Henrik Dam) for his isolation and synthesis of vitamin K, a substance that encourages blood clotting (1939), used in medicine and surgery. With the embryologist Edgar Allen (1922-34), he developed assay techniques that facilitated research on sex hormones. Doisy and his associates isolated the sex hormones estrone (theelin, 1929; the first estrogen to be crystallized), estriol (theelol, 1930), and estradiol (dihydrotheelin, 1935). In 1936-39 he isolated two forms of the vitamin, (K1 from lucerne seed and K2 from fish meal, in a pure crystalline form), determined their chemical structures, and synthesized the vitamin.«  Booklist
for Vitamin K |
| Abraham Flexner | |
(source) |
Born 13
Nov 1866; died 21 Sep 1959.
American educator who played a major role in the introduction of modern medical and science education to American colleges and universities. Founder and director of a progressive college- preparatory school in Louisville (1890-1904), Flexner issued an appraisal of American educational institutions (The American College: A Criticism; 1908) that earned him a Carnegie Foundation commission to survey the quality of the 155 medical colleges in the United States and Canada. His report (1910) had an immediate and sensational impact on American medical education. Many of the colleges that were severely criticized by Flexner closed soon after publication of the report; others initiated extensive revisions of their policies and curricula.  Iconoclast:
Abraham Flexner and a Life in Learning, by Thomas Neville
Bonner.
Booklist
for Abraham Flexner |
| John Adolphus Bernard Dahlgren | |
(source) |
Born 13
Nov 1809; died 12 Jul 1870.
American inventor of the smooth-bore cannon that was, from its shape, familiarly known as the "soda-water bottle." The shape resulted from a design in which the thickness of metal was varied to match the differences in internal pressure occurring when the cannon was fired. The pressures were determined by boring holes in the walls of the gun and inserting as gauges such objects as pistons or musket balls. He developed the weapons primarily for use on small boats that patrolled the waterways. His iron smoothbores were adopted in 1850 (9-inch gun) and 1851 (11-inch gun). Although designed for use against wooden ships, the iron-clad Monitor class ships carried two of these guns in their turrets, which were replaced by the 15-inch Dahlgrens in 1862. Booklist
for John Adolphus Bernard Dahlgren |
|
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| NOVEMBER 13 - DEATHS | |
| Helen Herrick Malsed | |
 Died
13 Nov 1998 (born 1910?)
American toy inventor who created a number of games and toys, most notably toys based on the already popular Slinky, such as the Slinky Dog and the Slinky Train. |
|
| Herbert E. Ives | |
(source) |
Died
13 Nov 1953 (born 31 July 1882)
Herbert Eugene Ives was a physicist and inventor of transmission of mechanical video pictures. Research into a television process by the AT&T Co. at Bell Laboratories, New York was under the direction of Dr. Herbert E. Ives. On 7 Apr 1927, live images of Commerce Secretary Hoover were transmitted in the first successful long distance demonstration of television, sent from Washington D.C. to New York, over long distance wires. On 27 June 1929 the first public demonstration of color TV showed images are a bouquet of roses and an American flag using a mechanical system was used to transmit 50-line color television images between New York and Washington. A two-way video telephone was first demonstrated in 1930 by Ives in New York City. |
| André Michaux | |
(source) |
Died
13 Nov 1802 (born 7 Mar 1746)
French explorer, botanist and silviculturist who wrote the first book on the forest trees of America. After studying under Bernard de Jussieu, beginning in 1779, he began a series of explorations searching for and classifying new species of plants in England, France and the Pyrenees. Becoming French Consul in Persia led to full-time botanical explorations there (1782-85). Next, he travelled in North America for the French government to send back tree species suitable to transplant for naval shipbuilding. Jefferson provided him with letters of introduction as a scientist. In 1796, he lost notes and specimens in a shipwreck off Egmont, Holland. In 1801, while exploring Madagascar his health failed from the exertion and he died of a tropical fever. Booklist
for John Adolphus Bernard Dahlgren |
| NOVEMBER 13 - EVENTS | |
| 1000th pulsar | |
(source) |
In 1998, the discovery of the 1,000th pulsar in our galaxy was announced
in a press release
by the Jodrell Bank Observatory, University of Manchester, using the 64-meter
Parkes Radio Telescope in New South Wales, Australia, on which a "multibeam"
receiver was installed on the telescope in early 1997. This allowed the
astronomers from England, Australia, United States, and Italy to find pulsars
much faster than before. On average, they found a new pulsar in every hour
of observing. By this date, the researchers had found more than 200 pulsars
and they expected to find another 600 more before the survey ended. The
"multibeam" receiver used consists of 13 hexagonally arranged receivers
that allow simultaneous observations.
Booklist
for Pulsars Booklist
for Jodrell Bank |
| Mars satellite | |
|
In 1971, Mariner-9, the first man-made object to orbit another planet,
entered Martian orbit. The mission of the unmanned craft was to return
photographs mapping 70% of the surface, and to study the planet's thin
atmosphere, clouds, and hazes, together with its surface chemistry and
seasonal changes. |
|
| Artificial snow | |
|
In 1946, artificial snow from a natural cloud was produced over Mount Greylock,
Mass., for the first time in the U.S. An airplane spread small pellets
of dry-ice (frozen carbon dioxide) for three miles at a height of 14,000
ft. Although the snow fell an estimated 3,000 feet, it evaporated as it
fell through dry air, and never reached the ground. The experiment was
carried out by Vincent J. Schaefer of the General Electric Company. Earlier
the same year, he had produced snow in a cold chamber, on 12 Jul 1946. |
|
| Rotolactor | |
(source) |
In 1930, the Rotolactor, invented by Henry W. Jeffries, was housed in the
lactorium of the Walker Gordon Laboratory Company, Inc., at Plainsboro,
N.J. This was a 50-stall revolving platform
that enabled the milking of 1,680 cows in seven hours by rotating them
into position with the milking machines. A Rotolactor was displayed
at the 1939 New York World's Fair as part of the "Dairy World of Tomorrow,"
exhibit
in the Borden building. The glass-enclosed revolving Rotolactor
platform carried 150 pedigreed cows were washed, dried, and mechanically
milked twice daily. A favorite attraction of the Food Zone, the Rotolactor
epitomized how technology advanced the production of such a widely-used
product as milk.
Booklist
for 1939 New York World's Fair |
| Holland Tunnel opened | |
Toll plaza |
In 1927, the Holland Tunnel opened for vehicular traffic as the first twin
tube subaqueous vehicular tunnel in the U.S. It joined Jersey City, N.J.
and New York City, N.Y. The day before, after an opening ceremony, in the
next hour 20,000 people walked the 9,250 feet length of the tunnel from
shore to shore, of which 5,480-ft runs under the river. Named after its
engineer, Clifford Holland, the tunnel carries 1,900 vehicles per hour.
The air in the tubes is changed 42 times an hour, at the rate of 3,761,000
cubic feet per minute. The first subaqueous highway single tube tunnel
in the U.S. was the 1,520-ft long Washington Street Tunnel beneath the
Chicago River in Chicago, Illinois, which was first authorized 17 Jul 1866,
though it did not carry automobile traffic until 1911.
Booklist
for Holland Tunnel |
| Channel tunnel proposed | |
In 1855, a proposal for a tunnel under the English Channel was reported
in the New York Daily Times, which, according to French engineer
M. Favre, would in five years connect Boulogne to Dover. The 18-1/2 miles
under the Channel would also need about 1-1/2 mile under the shores for
each approach at the ends. Excavated at no less than 27-1/3 yards below
the sea bed, the tunnel would be lined with a double arch: one of granite
and impermeable cement and an inner arch of thin, iron plates with perforations
to reveal even slight leakage. An atmospheric railroad would avoid smoke
and carry passengers and freight such as coal. Ventilation shafts would
rise above the highest water level in islands formed by excavated rock.« 
Booklist
for Channel Tunnel History |
|
| Channel telegraph | |
(source) |
In 1851, the first public message was sent on the submarine telegraph cable
under the English Channel between Dover, England and Calais, France. It
gave
the price of the English funds. It was a project of The English Channel
Submarine Telegraph Company formed in1849 by John Watkins Brett. The first
cable
the company laid
to span the strait of Dover was not sufficiently strongly protected, and
failed within a few days of its first use in Sep 1850. Brett's second attempt
used an armoured cable
insulated with gutta percha. On its public opening day, the Duke of Wellington
attending in Dover was given a salute by a 32 pounder gun loaded with 10-lb
of powder and fired by a transmission of current from Calais.« [Image
left: Cableship HMS Blazer laying off cable over the stern from
its hold; right:
structure of the armoured cable]
Booklist
for Submarine Telegraph Cable |
