| DECEMBER 5 - BIRTHS | |
| Sheldon Lee Glashow | |
1983 (EB) |
 Born 5
Dec 1932
American theoretical physicist who, with Steven Weinberg and Abdus Salam, received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1979 for their complementary efforts in formulating the electroweak theory, which explains the unity of electromagnetism and the weak force. |
| Hilary Koprowski | |
(source) |
Born 5
Dec 1916
Polish virologist and immunologist who discovered the first vaccine against poliomyelitis which was based on oral administration of attenuated polio virus. In researching a polio vaccine, he decided to focus on the use of live viruses that were attenuated (rendered non-virulent) instead of the killed viruses that became the basis for the injections created by Jonas Salk. Koprowski viewed the live vaccine as more powerful since it entered the intestinal tract directly and could provide lifelong immunity, whereas the Salk vaccine required boosters. Also, taking a vaccine by mouth is easy, whereas an injection is more expensive and needs medical facilities. It was taken by the first child on 27 Feb 1950 and within 10 years was used for immunization on four continents. |
| Eldon W. Lyle | |
(source) |
Born 5
Dec 1908; died 28 Dec 1997.
American plant pathologist who was an expert on the diseases of roses. He lived in Tyler, Texas, and greatly assisted the city's rose-growing industry. His interest stretched over 50 years; his doctorate dissertation in 1937 was his first study on the control of black spot disease. He found that the chief source of black spot spores is from lesions on the canes, and not the black-spotted leaflets. When spraying for black spot, he found it was important to wet all the woody parts of the plant on a weekly basis. Affected leaflets, when left in place, in fact contributed to the food production of the rose plant. He also helped breed various rose varieties, investigated hybrids, genetic composition, cultural adaptation and the best use of fertilizers.« |
| Cecil Frank Powell | |
(source) |
Born 5
Dec 1903; died 9 Aug 1969.
British physicist and winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1950 for his development of the photographic method of studying nuclear processes and for the resulting discovery of the pion (pi-meson), a heavy subatomic particle. The pion proved to be the hypothetical particle proposed in 1935 by Yukawa Hideki of Japan in his theory. |
| Werner Heisenberg | |
(source) |
Born 5
Dec 1901; died 1 Feb 1976.
Werner Karl Heisenberg was the German physicist and philosopher who discovered a way to formulate quantum mechanics in terms of matrices (1925). For that discovery, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for 1932. In 1927 he published his indeterminacy, or uncertainty, principle, upon which he built his philosophy and for which he is best known. He also made important contributions to the theories of the hydrodynamics of turbulence, the atomic nucleus, ferromagnetism, cosmic rays, and elementary particles, and he planned the first post-World War II German nuclear reactor, at Karlsruhe, then in West Germany.  Booklist
for Werner Heisenberg |
| Carl Cori | |
(source) |
Born 5
Dec 1896; died 20 Oct 1984.
Carl Ferdinand Cori was an American biochemist who, teamed with his wife Gerty Cori, discovered a phosphate-containing form of the simple sugar glucose, and its universal importance to carbohydrate metabolism, led to an understanding of hormonal influence on the interconversion of sugars and starches in the animal organism. Their discoveries earned them (with Bernardo Houssay) the Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology in 1947. |
| Carl Richard Moore | |
(source) |
Born 5
Dec 1892; died 16 Oct 1955.
American zoologist noted for his research on animal reproductive organs and internal secretions. Moore systematically studied the gonads and associated ducts and glands of vertebrates. Collaborating with T.F. Gallagher and F.C. Koch at the University of Chicago, he became the first to isolate testicular secretion containing the male sex hormones androsterone and testosterone; the former primarily influences the growth and development of the male reproductive system, whereas the latter is responsible for inducing and maintaining secondary male sex characteristics. This discovery (c. 1929) paved the way for research into the chemical makeup of such androgens and their production. |
| Clyde Vernon Cessna | |
(source) |
Born 5
Dec 1879; died 20 Nov 1954.
Aviator, aircraft manufacturer who invented the cantilever wing and a V-shaped tail configuration and a simple, flexible monoplane design |
| Arnold Sommerfeld | |
(source) |
Born 5
Dec 1868; died 26 April 1951.
Arnold (Johannes Wilhelm) Sommerfeld was a German physicist whose atomic model permitted the explanation of fine-structure spectral lines. His first work was on the theory of the gyroscope (with Klein), and then on wave spreading in wireless telegraphy. More significant was his major contribution to the development of quantum theory, generally, and in its application to spectral lines and the Bohr atomic model. He evolved also a theory of the electron in the metallic state valuable to the study of thermo-electricity. |
| Lewis Ralph Jones | |
c. 1940(EB) |
Born 5
Dec 1864; died 31 Mar 1945.
U.S. botanist and agricultural biologist, one of the first and most distinguished of American plant pathologists. Jones pioneered in the use of Bordeaux mixture in the United States. He began what became a twenty-year experimental program of spraying various mixtures on different varieties of potatoes. His studies made possible a much greater control of potato diseases and a resulting increase in yield. For the Department of Agriculture he searched in Europe for disease-resistant potatoes. He also carried out fundamental studies on the bacterial soft rot of carrots and other vegetables. Although his work tended to focus on the diseases of economically important plants, the results were also contributions to basic science. |
| Paul Painlevé | |
(source) |
Born 5
Dec 1863; died 29 Oct 1933.
French politician, mathematician, and patron of aviation. Painlevé received a doctorate in mathematics from Paris in 1887. In his work on differential equations and mechanics, he solved, using Painlevé functions, differential equations which Poincaré and Picard had failed to solve. He took a special interest in aviation, applying his theoretical skills to study the theory of flight. He was Wilbur Wright's first passenger making a record 1 hr 10 min flight, then within a year he created the first university course in aeronautical mechanics. Although less skilled in politics than mathematics he began a political career in 1906 leading to two periods as French Prime Minister at a crucial period of World War I and again during the 1925 financial crisis. |
| Clinton Hart Merriam | |
(source) |
Born 5
Dec 1855; died 19 Mar 1942
Biologist and ethnologist who helped found the National Geographic Society (1888) In 1885, the Division of Economic Ornithology and Mammalogy was established in the Department of Agriculture, with Merriam appointed as its first Chief. Much of the Division's early work focused on studying the positive effects of birds in controlling agricultural pests and defining the geographical distribution of animals and plants throughout the country. The Division eventually expands what is now the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. |
| Elizabeth Cabot Agassiz | |
(source) |
Born 5
Dec 1822; died 27 Jun 1907.
(née Cary) U.S. naturalist and educator who was the first president of Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Mass. She married the Swiss naturalist, Louis Agassiz, in 1850. They traveled together on scientific expeditions, and founded the Anderson school of Natural History, a Marine laboratory, located on Penikese Island in Buzzard's Bay, Mass. When her husband died in1873, Elizabeth became interested in the idea of college for women to be taught by the "Harvard Annex" in Cambridge. In 1894 the Annex became Radcliffe College. She served as president until 1899, then honorary president until 1903. Her books include A First Lesson in Natural History (1859), A Journey in Brazil (1867) |
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| DECEMBER 5 - DEATHS | |
| Stanley Keith Runcorn | |
(source) |
 Died
5 Dec 1995 (born 19 Nov 1922)
British geophysicist Southport, Lancashire, who was the first to discover evidence of the periodic polar reversals of the Earth's magnetic field. In the 1950s he was a pioneer in the fledgling discipline of paleomagnetism, or remanent magnetism, the study of the residual magnetism. He also made substantial contributions to various fields, including convection in the Earth and Moon, the shape and magnetic fields of the Moon and planets, magnetohydrodynamics of the Earth’s core, earth currents, changes in the length of the day and polar wandering, continental drift and plate tectonics. He was murdered, aged 73, when he disturbed a thief in his motel room in San Diego, while on a US lecture tour. |
| Clair Cameron Patterson | |
(source) |
Died
5 Dec 1995 (born 2 Jun 1922)
U.S. geochemist who in 1953 made the first precise measurement of the Earth's age, 4.55 billion years. Patterson pioneered in three major areas of geochemical research. (1) He provided the first reliable ages of the earth and meteorites (1962), using analysis of the isotopic compositions and concentrations of lead in terrestrial materials and meteorites. This has been a benchmark for researchers. (2) He established the patterns of isotopic evolution of lead on earth, by analysis of critical rocks, sediments and waters of the planet. Thus he created a powerful tool for identifying, tracing and evaluating the nature of the major geochemical reservoirs in the crust, mantle, and oceans. (3) He studied environmental lead pollution. |
| Emil W. Haury | |
(source) |
Died
5 Dec 1992 (born 2 May 1904)
American anthropologist and archaeologist who investigated the ancient Indian civilizations of the southwestern United States and South America. His main concerns were the preceramic and ceramic archaeology of the southwestern United States and Mexico; the archaeology of the Hohokam, Mogollon, and Anasazi Indians of the southwestern U.S. He assembled one of the first prehistoric-to-historic archaeological records of the Southwestern U.S. |
| Sir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt | |
(source) |
Died 5 Dec 1973 (born 13 Apr 1892)
Scottish physicist who is credited with the development of radar location of aircraft, in England. He studied at St Andrews University, taught at Dundee University, and in 1917 worked in the Meteorological Office, designing devices to locate thunderstorms, and investigating the ionosphere (a term he invented in 1926). He became head of the radio section of the National Physical Laboratory (1935), where he began work on locating aircraft. His work led to the development of radar (RAdio Detection And Ranging) which played a vital role in the defence of Britain against German air raids in 1940. He was knighted in 1942. |
| Joseph Erlanger | |
(source) |
Died
5 Dec 1965 (born 5 Jan 1874)
American physiologist, who discovered that fibres within the same nerve cord possess different functions. In 1910 he accepted the chair of physiology at Washington University in St. Louis, which he held until his retirement in 1946. While his department became one of the major research centers in physiology in America. Erlanger continued his work on cardiovascular physiology. During WW I, he carried out research on the problem of shock. In 1921 he shifted his interests to neurophysiology, and began joint work, with colleague Herbert Gasser, on the amplification and recording of nerve action potentials with the cathode ray oscilloscope, for which they were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1944. |
| William I. Thomas | |
(source) |
Died
5 Dec 1947 (born 13 Aug 1863)
William I(saac) Thomas was an American sociologist and social psychologist whose fields of study included cultural change and personality development and who made important contributions to methodology. He earned his PhD in sociology at the University of Chicago where he joined the faculty in 1894. After he was dismissed from there after a sex scandal in 1918, his career was was limited to obtaining research funding and visiting professorships. An empiricist, he helped to make sociology a scientific discipline; he also pioneered the study of social psychology. His most important books were Source Book for Social Origins (1909) and coauthor The Polish Peasant in Europe and America (ed, 5 vols 1918-20). |
| Benjamin Holt | |
(source) |
Died
5 Dec 1920 (born 1 Jan 1849)
American inventor of the crawler track (1904) in the form of an endless chain tread for his steam traction engine. The Caterpillar name resulted when a man photographing one of Holt's track-laying vehicles viewed the motion of the track as it travelled and said it reminded him of a caterpillar. Holt liked it as a nickname, and began using the name for his crawler track. Some years later, when his company merged with another manufacturer, Caterpillar was first used in the company name. |
| Christian Archibald Herter | |
1905 (source) |
Died
5 Dec 1910 (born 3 Sep 1866)
American physician who investigated the role of bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract and developed techniques for measuring their products such as indol. Herter's early research interests culminated in the publication of The Diagnosis of Diseases of the Nervous System (1892). He then shifted his attention to the biochemical study of disease. In 1893 had the upper floor of his house remodelled so that he could carry out laboratory work. Examining the biochemistry of metabolic disorders and the formation of gallstones and glycosuria. He was commissioned by President Theodore Roosevelt to examine the possible effects of sodium benzoate in its use in food preservatives and from the investigation concluded that it was perfectly safe. |
| Johannes Wislicenus | |
(source) |
Died
5 Dec 1902 (born 24 Jun 1835)
Johannes (Adolph) Wislicenus was a German chemist whose pioneering work led to the recognition of the importance of the spatial arrangement of atoms within a molecule. He is noted for his work on the lactic acids, and in particular for his discoveries in the study of the geometrical isomerism (the existance of identical formulae with differing chemical properties) of organic compounds. |
| Giovanni Battista Morgagni | |
(source) |
Died
5 Dec 1771 (born 25 Feb 1682)
Italian anatomist and pathologist whose works helped make anatomy an exact science. His early studies of particularly the throat, and the sinus and hydatid of Morgagni in this region perpetuate his name. Morgagni wrote his major work De sedibus et causis morborum per anatomen indigatis ("On the Seats and Causes of Disease," Venice, 1771, trans. French, English, and German) which laid the foundation of modern pathology. He thought tuberculosis contagious and refused to make autopsies on tuberculous subjects; his teaching led to laws requiring upon the death of tuberculosis patients that their rooms be disinfected and their clothing burned. For cancer, Morgagni insisted that the knife was the only remedy that gave fruitful results. |
| James Stirling | |
 |
Died
5 Dec 1770 (born 1692)
Scottish mathematician who contributed important advances to the theory of infinite series and infinitesimal calculus. His most important book, Methodus Differentialis (1730), was written while in London. It is a treatise on infinite series, summation, interpolation and quadrature, and the text includes the asymptotic formula for n! for which Stirling is best known. In 1735 he returned to Scotland where he became manager of the 'Scotch mining company, Leadhills'. In 1745 Stirling published a paper on the ventilation of mine shafts. |
| Gaspard Bauhin | |
(source) |
Died
5 Dec 1624 (born 17 Jan 1560)
Swiss physician, anatomist, and botanist who introduced a scientific binomial system of classification to both anatomy and botany. In 1623 Gaspard Bauhin produced the Pinax Theatri Botanici. (Basel, 1623), the first attempt to summarize a confusing array of names. It was a monumental compilation that pulled together uncoordinated plant names and descriptions of 6000 species that had appeared in Theophrastus and Dioscorides, as well as in later herbals and other plant records. By accepting Bauhin's compilation, Linnaeus was able to avoid many of the complications of the ancient literature. |
| Georg Joachim Rheticus | |
(source) |
Died
5 Dec 1576 (born 16 Feb 1514)
Austrian-born astronomer and mathematician who was among the first to adopt and spread the heliocentric theory of Nicolaus Copernicus. He was first taught by his father, a physician, who was beheaded for sorcery in 1528, while Rheticus was still a teenager. He is best known as the first disciple of Copernicus. In 1540, Rheticus published the first account of the heliocentric hypothesis which had been elaborated by Copernicus, entitled Narratio prima. The Narratio was explicitly authorised by Copernicus, who also asked for his friend's aid in editing the edition of his De revolutionibus orbium coelestium ("On the revolutions of the heavenly spheres"). |
| DECEMBER 5 - EVENTS | |
| Britain's first motorway | |
(source) |
In 1958, Britain's first stretch of motorway,
the 8 mile Preston bypass was officially opened by the Prime Minister,
Harold MacMillan. The path of the by-pass was designed as part of a North-South
Motorway, other lengths of which were under construction. The original
bypass started in Walton-le-Dale at a roundabout on the Manchester-Preston
Trunk Road a short distance south of the A49 junction, travelled by
viaduct over the River Darwen and ended at a roundabout on the A6 a short
distance south of Broughton. As a model for all other British motorways
it drew such a very large number of visits of inspection by Engineering
Institutions and Associations that the County Council appointed a panel
of retired engineers to act as guides. |
| Automatic garage | |
USPTO |
In 1951, the first push button-controlled Park-O-Mat garage opened
in Washington, DC by Parking Services Inc. It had no ramps, no aisles and
no lanes. Instead a single attendant, without entering a car, could automatically
park or return an auto in less than a minute. It used a "vehicle parking
apparatus" (patented 14 Oct 1947, No. 2,428,856). Two elevators parked
72 cars on a lot 25 by 40 feet. The garage was an open building with 16
floors and 2 basement levels.* |
| Soilless culture of plants | |
(source) |
In 1935, the first large hydroponicum was established in Montebello, Cal.,
by Ernest W. Brundin and Frank F. Lyon, who installed a circulating system.
They were issued a U.S. patent on 1 Dec 1936 for a "system of water culture."
They incorporated on 19 Oct 1937 as the Chemi-Culture Company.*Benefits
of chemiculture include higher yields in less space, can be used even in
desert gardening, quicker growth and attracts least diseases. The word
hydroponics
was coined in the early 1930s, by Professor Gericke at U.C.L.A. to describe
the growing of plants with their roots suspended in water containing mineral
nutrients. It comes from two Greek words: "hydro" (water) and "ponos" (to
work, labor). |
| Telephone switching | |
USPTO |
In 1879, the first U.S. patent was issued for an automatic telephone switching
system to Daniel Connolly of Philadelphia, Thomas A. Connolly of Washington,
D.C. and Thomas J. McTighe of Pittsburgh (No. 222,458). The system consisted
of a single-line wire, a battery of cells located at each telephone. and
a dial switching mechanism for each line.*
Although this first system was crude in design and limited to a small number
of subscribers, it introduced the general principle of later dial systems.
The system, with
eight stations connected, was exhibited at the Paris Exposition in 1881.
The inventors made various modifications in subsequent patents. The system
served a limited number of lines and was not introduced commercially. |
| Stillson wrench | |
USPTO |
In 1876, a U.S. patent for the first practical pipe wrench - the Stillson
wrench - was issued to Daniel C. Stillson of Somerville, Mass. (No.
184,993)*.
In 1869, he had whittled a model out of wood, which he showed to his boss
at the Walworth Company. He recognised the wooden pattern showed a new
type of pipe wrench, superior to anything else in use at that time, and
badly needed in the growing pipe industry. Stillson was instructed to test
one built in steel. The test convinced the company owner that the concept
was sound. Stillson obtained a patent, and offered to sell the patent for
a small outright payment. Instead, the owner graciously advised Stillson
accept royalties instead. Stillson thus earned far more in his lifetime.  |
| Chair patent | |
USPTO |
In 1854, Aaron H. Allen of Boston, Mass. was issued a U.S. patent for a
folding chair as an "Improvement in Self-Adjusting Opera-Seat" for theatres
or other public buildings. (No. 12,017)*
The pivoted seat was constructed with weights or springs to assume and
retain a vertical position when pressure upon it is relieved as the occupant
rises from it. |
| Guncotton patent | |
(source) |
In 1846, Christian Frederick Schönbein
of Basle, Switzerland, was issued a U.S. Patent for guncotton titled "Improvement
in Preparation of Cotton-Wool and Other Substances as Substitutes for Gunpowder"
(No. 4874).
The process uses
a mixture of concentrated acids to convert the cellulose present in well-cleaned
cotton-wool, C6H10O5 into cellulose nitrate
C6H8(NO2)2O5 (nitrocellulose).
In 1891, James Dewar and Frederick
Abel incorporated nitrocellulose
in a mixture that could be handled more safely. Until WW II, this invention
replaced gunpower on the battlefield, where it had been used for five centuries.
It was also useful for blasting because it generates about six times the
gas of an equal volume of gunpowder and produces less smoke and heat. |
