| NOVEMBER 21 - BIRTHS | |
| Alfred Henry Sturtevant | |
(source) |
 Born 21
Nov 1891; died 5 Apr 1970.
American geneticist who in 1913 developed a technique for mapping the location of specific genes of the chromosomes in the fruit fly Drosophila. Sturtevant's method for "chromosome mapping", relies on the analysis of groups of linked genes. In a classic paper in genetics (1913), he described the location of six sex-linked genes as deduced by the way in which they associate with each other. Sturtevant later discovered the so-called 'position effect', in which the expression of a gene depends on its position in relation to other genes. He also demonstrated that crossing over between chromosomes is prevented in regions where a part of the chromosome material is inserted the wrong way round.  History
Of Genetics, by A. H. Sturtevant. |
| Vladimir Nikolayevich Ipatieff | |
(source) |
Born 21
Nov 1867; died 29 Nov 1952.
Russian-born U.S. chemist who was one of the first to investigate high-pressure catalytic reactions of hydrocarbons and who developed a process for manufacturing high-octane gasoline. While studying in Munich (1897) Ipatieff achieved the synthesis of isoprene, the basic unit of the rubber molecule. Upon return to Russia he worked particularly on the use of high-pressure catalysis and of metallic oxides as catalysts. With these techniques, he helped to establish the petrochemical industry in both pre- and post-revolutionary Russia. Before WW I, he had synthesized isooctane, and had polymerized ethylene. After moving to the U.S. (1930), Ipatieff showed how to convert low-octane gasolines into high-octane by 'cracking' hydrocarbons at high temperatures. The
life of a chemist: Memoirs of Vladimir N. Ipatieff, by
Vladimir N. Ipatieff. |
| Johan August Brinell | |
(source) |
Born 21
Nov 1849; died 17 Nov 1925.
Swedish metallurgist who devised the Brinell hardness test, a rapid, nondestructive means of determining the hardness of metals. Brinell studied many aspects of iron and its production. Brinell´s important work on transformations in steel during heating and cooling. His discoveries about the control of the carbon containing phases is the present basis for the knowledge about properties of steel. The Brinell Hardness Test measures the relative hardness of metals and alloys, by forcing a 10mm hard steel ball into a test piece with a 3000kg load for 30 seconds and measuring the surface area of the resulting indentation. The load is reduced to 500kg for very soft materials and the steel ball is replaced with tungsten carbide for very hard materials. |
| Hieronymus Theodor Richter | |
(source) |
Born 21
Nov 1824; died 25 Sep 1898.
German mineralogist who in 1863 was a co-discoverer of the element indium. He was an expert in metallurgy, essaying and an authority on blowpipe analysis. He was assistant to Ferdinand Reich who suspected a new element was present in the samples of zinc ore he had chemically processed. Reich was colourblind and turned over the job of making a spectroscopic analysis to his assistant. When Richter placed some of the sample in a loop of platinum wire and heated it in the flame of a Bunsen burner, he observed a brilliant indigo line characteristic of this as a new element - called indium after the colour of this line. After separating the hydrated oxide of indium, they reduced it to obtain a sample of the new metal. |
| Lewis Henry Morgan | |
(source) |
Born 21
Nov 1818; died 17 Dec 1881.
American ethnologist and a principal founder of scientific anthropology, known especially for establishing the study of kinship systems and for his comprehensive theory of social evolution. Morgan discovered that the Indians in North America had some kinship patterns in common with each other. He was the first person to classify the kinship system of relationship in The Indian Journals (1859-62). Morgan's work was the foundation for the new world view of genetic explanation, cultural evolution or social Darwinism, in Houses and House-life of the American Aborigines (1865). He also brought to the people's attention the organization of the ancient Greeks and Romans was the same as the clan organization of the Indian tribes.  Booklist
for Lewis Henry Morgan |
| William Beaumont | |
(source) |
Born 21
Nov 1785; died 25 Apr 1853.
U.S. army surgeon, the first person to observe and study human digestion as it occurs in the stomach. As a young army surgeon stationed on Mackinac Island in Michigan, Beaumont was asked to treat a shotgun wound. The wound was "more than the size of the palm of a man's hand," Beaumont wrote. The patient, Alexis St. Martin, survived but was left with a permanent opening into his stomach from the outside. Over the next few years, Dr. Beaumont used this crude fistula to sample gastric secretions. He identified hydrochloric acid as the principal agent in gastric juice and recognized its digestive and bacteriostatic functions. Moreover, many of his conclusions about the regulation of secretion and motility remain valid to this day. Booklist
for William Beaumont |
| Voltaire | |
(source) |
Born 21
Nov 1694; died 30 May 1778.
(François Marie Arouet) Voltaire was a French author who popularized Isaac Newton's work in France by arranging a translation of Principia Mathematica to which he added his own commentary (1737). The work of the translation was done by the marquise de Châtelet who was one of his mistresses, but Voltaire's commentary bridged the gap between non-scientists and Newton's ideas at a time in France when the pre-Newtonian views of Descartes were still prevalent. Although a philosopher, Voltaire advocated rational analysis. He died on the eve of the French Revolution. The
attitude of Voltaire to magic and the sciences, by Margaret
Libby. |
| NOVEMBER 21 - DEATHS | |
| Audley Bowdler Williamson | |
(source) |
 Died
21 Nov 2004 (born 28 Feb 1916)
British inventor and manufacturer of skin-care products who invented Swarfega hand cleaner, a green jelly that mechanics, printers and others use to wash grease, grime, and ink from their hands. "AB," as he was known, started his company, Deb Ltd., in 1941, selling a mild detergent to treat silk stocking, a market which collapsed with the arrival of nylons after WW II. However, he knew that mechanics cleaned their hands with petrol, paraffin and sand which was effective at removing oil, but also caused dry skin and dermatitis. He adapted his detergent formula to clean oil from skin without these side effects, and named it by combining "swarf" (term for greasy grit) and "-ega" (eager). By the time he retired, the company had 20 brands.« |
| Abdus Salam | |
(source) |
Died
21 Nov 1996 (born 29 Jan 1926)
Pakistani nuclear physicist who shared the 1979 Nobel Prize for Physics with Steven Weinberg and Sheldon Lee Glashow. Each had independently formulated a theory explaining the underlying unity of the weak nuclear force and the electromagnetic force. His hypothetical equations, which demonstrated an underlying relationship between the electromagnetic force and the weak nuclear force, postulated that the weak force must be transmitted by hitherto-undiscovered particles known as weak vector bosons, or W and Z bosons. Weinberg and Glashow reached a similar conclusion using a different line of reasoning. The existence of the W and Z bosons was eventually verified in 1983 by researchers using particle accelerators at CERN. Booklist
for Adbus Salam |
| Bruno Rossi | |
(source) |
Died
21 Nov 1993 (born 13 Apr 1905)
Italian pioneer in the study of cosmic radiation. In the 1930s, his experimental investigations of cosmic rays and their interactions with matter laid the foundation for high energy particle physics. Cosmic rays are atomic particles that enter earth's atmosphere from outer space at speeds approaching that of light, bombarding atmospheric atoms to produce mesons as well as secondary particles possessing some of the original energy. He was one of the first to use rockets to study cosmic rays above the Earth's atmosphere. Finding X-rays from space he became the grandfather of high energy astrophysics, being largely responsible for starting X-ray astronomy, as well as the study of interplanetary plasma. Moments
in the Life of a Scientist, by Bruno Rossi. |
| Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman | |
(source) |
Died
21 Nov 1970 (born 7 Nov 1888)
Indian physicist whose work was influential in the growth of science in India. He was the recipient of the 1930 Nobel Prize for Physics for the 1928 discovery now called Raman scattering: a change in frequency observed when light is scattered in a transparent material. When monochromatic or laser light is passed through a transparent gas, liquid, or solid and is observed with the spectroscope, the normal spectral line has associated with it lines of longer and of shorter wavelength, called the Raman spectrum. Such lines, caused by photons losing or gaining energy in elastic collisions with the molecules of the substance, vary with the substance. Thus the Raman effect is applied in spectrographic chemical analysis and in the determination of molecular structure. Booklist
for Chandrasekhara Raman |
| Robert (Franklin) Stroud | |
(source) |
Died
21 Nov 1963 (born 1890)
American criminal, known as the Birdman of Alcatraz, a convicted murderer who became a self-taught ornithologist during his 54 years in prison, 42 of them in solitary confinement. In Leavenworth he began raising canaries and other birds, collecting laboratory equipment, and studying the diseases of birds and their breeding and care. Some of his research writings were smuggled out of prison and published; his book, Stroud's Digest on the Diseases of Birds, published in 1943, was an important work in the field. In 1942, however, Stroud was transferred to Alcatraz, where he was allowed to continue his research but denied further right of publication. He spent the last four years of his life at the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners at Springfield, Mo. Booklist
for Robert Stroud |
| Edwin Grant Conklin | |
(source) |
Died 21 Nov 1952 (born 24 Nov 1863)
American biologist and embryologist. In 1905, when working with a small marine creature called a tunicate, Conklin made a striking observation: the contents of the tunicate egg weren’t uniform. Different parts of it were differently colored. When the mother egg began to divide, the new daughter cells that came from different colored areas became, as they split away, different types of tissue. The yellow stuff in the egg produced muscle cells, for instance, and the grayish stuff became the gut. In addition to his work in embryology, he published a number of works on evolution. He estimated he made a thousand public lectures interpreting evolution to religious and lay groups. He was a leading critic of society's response to advanced technology. [Image: embryo] |
| Luigi Palma di Cesnola | |
(source) |
Died
21 Nov 1904 (born 29 Jun 1832)
Italian-born American Army officer, archaeologist, and museum director who amassed one of the largest collections of antiquities from Cyprus. In 1865, having been naturalized, he was appointed U.S. consul to Cyprus, where he remained 11 years, gathering some 35,000 objects from nearly 70,000 tombs. The bulk of his collection was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City (1872), of which he was director from 1879 to 1904. The accuracy of the records that he made of objects from his collection was repeatedly challenged, but modern research has tended to vindicate him. His published works include Cyprus: Its Ancient Cities, Tombs, and Temples (1877). Booklist
for Cyprus Archaeology |
| Ami Boué | |
(source) |
Died
21 Nov 1881 (born 16 Mar 1794)
Austrian geological pioneer who fostered international cooperation in geological research. While studying medicine in Edinburgh, he was influenced by the noted Scottish geologist Robert Jameson and studied the volcanic rocks in various parts of Scotland and the Hebrides. After he received his M.D. (1817) Boué continued his medical studies in Europe, but ultimately decided to devote himself to geology. He settled in Paris in 1830 and was a founder of the Société Géologique de France. For the next four years he published reports on geological progress in other countries. In 1845 he finished his comprehensive overview of geology, Essai de carte géologique du globe terrestre ("Essay on a Geological Map of the World"). |
| Samuel Hall | |
| Died
21 Nov 1863 (born 1781)
English engineer who invented the surface condenser for steam boilers (patented 1834), an important milestone of its era, because it possible to recirculate fresh water instead of using corrosive salt water in the boilers of ocean-going steam ships. Steam passed through a number of small condensing tubes cooled on the outside surfaces by the circulation of cold sea water around them. By keeping the boilers free of salt, a considerable saving of fuel was realized, and repair expenses were reduced. Initial trials were unsuccessful until improved by a patent by Spencer who inserted an indiarubber ring around each end of the tube to keep them properly water tight. Hall held more than 20 patents, mostly relating to steam engines and boilers. Booklist
for Steam Engine History |
|
| Nicholas Clément | |
(source) |
Died
21 Nov 1841 (born end of 1778 or beginning of 1779)
(a.k.a. Nicolas Clement-Desormes) French chemist who collaborated with Charles-Bernard Desormes (later to be his father-in-law) in the exact determination of the composition of carbon monoxide and carbon disulphide (1801-1802) Their analysis of the chemical ractions involved in the manufacture of sulphuric acid, enabled improvements in the commercial process. Clément announced to the French Institute on 29 Nov 1813, that a new substance had been discovered by Bernard Courtois which later was confirmed to be a new element, iodine. After a limited investigation of his discovery of the violet crystals (1811), Courtois had turned to Clément and Desormes to apply their greater talent and laboratory resources to its investigation.« [Image: Apparatus used by Clement and Desormes to determine the density of air.] |
| Jacques de Vaucanson | |
(source) |
Died
21 Nov 1782 (born 24 Feb 1709)
French inventor of automata - robot devices of later significance for modern industry. In 1737-38, he produced a transverse flute player, a pipe and tabor player, and a mechanical duck, which was especially noteworthy, not only imitating the motions of a live duck, but also the motions of drinking, eating, and "digesting." He made improvements in the mechanization of silk weaving, but his most important invention was ignored for several decades - that of automating the loom by means of perforated cards that guided hooks connected to the warp yarns (later reconstructed and improved by J.-M. Jacquard, it became one of the most important inventions of the Industrial Revolution.) He also invented many machine tools of permanent importance. |
| John Hill | |
(EB) |
Died
21 Nov 1775 (born c.1716)
English writer and botanist who compiled the first book on British flora to be based on the Linnaean nomenclature. While an apothecary by trade, he studied botany in his spare time. Employed by the Duke of Richmond and Lord Petre to arrange their collections of plants, he travelled extensively to collect rare plants for them. He also wrote plays, novels, and papers on natural history, medicine, astronomy, and geology. He edited the monthly British Magazine (1746-50) and contributed a daily society-gossip column to The London Advertiser and the Literary Gazette. In 1759, the first of the 26 folio volumes (1759-75) of his Vegetable System was published, containing 1,600 copper plate engravings, represented 26,000 different plants. Booklist
for John Hill Botanist |
| Georgius Agricola | |
(source) |
Died
21 Nov 1555 (born 24 Mar 1494)
German scholar and scientist known as "the father of mineralogy." While a highly educated classicist and humanist, well regarded by scholars of his own and later times, he was yet singularly independent of the theories of ancient authorities. His real name was Georg Bauer, but as was the fashion of his day, he Latinized it. Agricola in Latin and Bauer in German both mean "farmer." Having studied medicine, he became interested in mineralogy through his study of miners' diseases. His most important work De Re Metallica (published a year after his death) summarized all the practical knowledge gained by Saxon miners. He was indeed among the first to found a natural science upon observation. He may have coined the word petroleum ("rock oil"). Booklist
for Agricola Metals |
| NOVEMBER 21 - EVENTS | ||
| Love Canal | ||
(source) |
In 1968, Sheri Schroeder was born the third child to Karen Schroeder, who
lived beside the Love Canal chemical dump in the city of Niagara Falls,
New York. It was the physical problems
of her daughter at birth that prompted her mother to learn about the extent
of the Love Canal environmental problem. A vigorous campaign brought it
to the public's attention. Sheri was born with a heart that beat irregularly
and had a hole in it, bone blockages of the nose, partial deafness, deformed
ear exteriors, and a cleft palate. From about the late 1930s, the Hooker
Company, manufacturer of pesticides, plasticizers, and caustic soda, used
the abandoned canal to dump over 20,000 tons of toxic waste residues which
leaked into local homes.
Booklist
for Environment Love Canal |
|
| Piltdown Man | ||
(source) |
In 1953, the 40-year-long hoax
of the Piltdown Man ended when the British
Museum revealed that it was a "perfectly executed and carefully prepared
fraud." The Piltdown forgery was conceived, planned and executed sometime
between 1907 and 1911. The faux hominid skull was constructed from the
remains of a recent human cranium, later shown to have been thickened by
disease during the subject's lifetime (thus giving the primitive look);
half the lower jaw of an orangutan from which telltale parts had been removed
and whose teeth had been filed to resemble worn human teeth; and a doctored
canine tooth, probably from the same lower jaw. In all, 37 pieces of carefully
selected bone and stone were involved, each altered and stained.
Booklist
for Piltdown |
|
| Cigar lighter | ||
(source) |
In 1871, the first U.S. patent for a cigar lighter was issued to Moses
F. Gale of New York City (No. 121,049)
as an "Improvement in Cigar-Lighters." It described an ornamental mechanical
device to be attached by a flexible tube to a gas supply. The gas for lighting
cigars travelled through a hollow body of a device shaped such as a bird.
The flow of gas was regulated by an internal valve actuated by the action
of the body pivoting on a control screw. |
|
| Edison's phonograph | ||
(source) |
In 1877, Thomas Edison announced his invention of his "talking machine"
- the tin-foil cylinder recorder
that preceeded the phonograph. He appears
to have envisioned it as a business dictation machine. In Sep 1877, he
wrote that its purpose was "to record automatically the speech of a very
rapid speaker upon paper; from which he reproduces the same Speech immediately
or years afterwards preserving the characteristics of the speakers voice
so that persons familiar with it would at once recognize it." The indented
tin foil, however, would survive only a few playings. By the first public
showing of a phonograph, which took place in New York City in early Feb
1878, its practical applications had not yet been realized. [Image:
from Scientific American, 22 Dec 1877]
Booklist
for Thomas Edison |
|
| Anesthesia | ||
 |
In 1846, the word anesthesia was coined by Oliver Wendell Holmes
in a letter to William Thomas Green Morton, the surgeon who gave the first
public demonstration of the pain-killing effects of ether.
Booklist
for Anesthesia History |
|
| Balloon flight | ||
(source) |
In 1783, Jean Francois Pilatre de Rozier,
a professor of physics and chemistry, and the Marquis Francois Laurant
d'Arlandes became the first men to fly. Their hot-air balloon
lifted off from La Muettte, a royal palace in the Bois de Boulogne, Paris.
They flew nearly 6 miles in 25 mins, reaching an altitude of around 300-ft.
Spectators included Ben Franklin and King Louis XVI, who offered to send
two prisoners, but Rozier wanted to deny criminals the glory of being the
first men to go into the atmosphere. The Montgolfier brothers, Étienne
and Joseph, had publicly
demonstrated the first unmanned hot-air balloon a few months earlier, 5
Jun 1783, and a second with animals on 19
Sep 1783 to verify that air travel was safe for living beings. 
The
Montgolfier Brothers and the Invention of Aviation, 1783-1784,by
Charles Coulston Gillispie.
Booklist
for Montgolfier |
|
