| DECEMBER 13 - BIRTHS | |
| Philip W. Anderson | |
(source) |
 Born 13
Dec 1923
Philip Warren Anderson is an American physicist who (with John H. Van Vleck and Sir Nevill F. Mott) received the 1977 Nobel Prize for Physics for his research on semiconductors, superconductivity, and magnetism. He made contributions to the study of solid-state physics, and research on molecular interactions has been facilitated by his work on the spectroscopy of gases. He conceived a model (known as the Anderson model) to describe what happens when an impurity atom is present in a metal. He also investigated magnetism and superconductivity, and his work is of fundamental importance for modern solid-state electronics, making possible the development of inexpensive electronic switching and memory devices in computers. |
| Dallas Lore Sharp | |
 |
Born 13
Dec 1870; died 29 Nov 1929.
American professor of English who was among the most popular nature writers of his time. His essays familiarized his readers with the natural world on their doorstep in the local woods and fields. In 1901 he published his first book, Wild Life Near Home. Rather than expansive vistas of the wilderness, Sharp wrote in the small-scale about flora and fauna of the back yard and pasture, such as the pines, persimmon, bees, chipmunks, muskrat and chick-a-dee. He urged people to take an interest in conservation, as in his bookThe Lay of the Land. Some of his books sold over one hundred thousand copies. He wrote many essays for popular magzines such as Atlantic Monthly. He died of a brain tumour with more than 20 books to his credit.« |
| John Henry Patterson | |
(source) |
Born 13
Dec 1844; died 7 May 1922.
American manufacturer who founded NCR (National Cash Register Co.) and helped popularize the modern cash register by means of aggressive and innovative sales techniques. In the 1870s, when he and his brother Frank established a successful business selling coal and miner's supplies, unrecorded sales were a problem. After reading a description of the cash register designed by James Ritty and sold by the National Manufacturing Company in Dayton, John ordered two, sight unseen. In six months they reduced his debt from $16,000 to $3,000 and the books showed a profit of $5,000. These modern machines had solved the old problems of disorganization and dishonesty. Patterson "was so impressed that he bought the company." |
| Pierre-Marie-Alexis Millardet | |
(source) |
Born 13
Dec 1838; died 15 Dec 1902.
French botanist who developed the first successful fungicide and also saved the vineyards of France from destruction by the greenish yellow grape phylloxera, an aphidlike plant pest introduced into Europe on vines imported from the United States for grafting (1858-63). The insect swiftly spread extensive destruction. Millardet controlled this plague with resistant American vines as grafting stock, but these brought in the downy mildew fungus. In Oct 1882, he saw chemicals used by farmers for other reasons (a mixture of copper sulfate, lime and water) and after three years of testing, he found it acted as a suitable fungicide for the mildew. Known as the Bordeaux mixture, was the first fungicide to receive large-scale use the world over. |
| Werner von Siemens | |
(source) |
Born 13
Dec 1816; died 6 Dec 1892.
German scientist and electrical engineer who played an important role in the development of the telegraph industry. Siemens was not only a successful inventor but also an entrepreneur with a broad and international business vision. Siemens first achieved success in telegraphy. His firm, Siemens & Halske, built Germany's first important telegraph line and went on to build lines elsewhere in Europe and Asia. Siemens then turned his hand to electric technology. He was instrumental in creating the conditions for the advancement of electrical technology from the experimental stage into the modern electrical industry. Siemens combined his engineering brilliance with entrepreneurial skills to develop a multinational business. |
| Johann von Lamont | |
(source) |
Born 13
Dec 1805; died 6 Aug 1879.
Scottish-born German astronomer noted for discovering (1852) that the magnetic field of the Earth fluctuates with a 10.3-year activity cycle, but does not correlate it with the period of the sunspot cycle. From 1 Aug 1840, Johann von Lamont (as director of the Royal Astronomical Observatory in Munich) started regular and permanent observations of the earth's magnetic field. In the 1850's he started making regional magnetic surveys in the kingdom of Bavaria, later extended to other states in south Germany, France, Holland, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Prussia and Denmark. His central European maps with isolines of geomagnetic elements, reduced to 1854, were the first worldwide. |
| Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner | |
(source) |
Born 13
Dec 1780; died 24 Mar 1849.
German chemist whose observation (1829) that when certain triads of elements were arranged in order of increasing atomic mass, the mass of the central member was approximately the average of the other two, and intermediate in chemical properties between the other two elements. The triads are now found as consecutive members of the groups of the periodic table, such as: lithium, sodium, and potassium; calcium, strontium, and barium; and chlorine, bromine, and iodine. Also, he invented a lamp in which hydrogen ignited on contact with a platinum sponge (1823). Although the lamp had limited application, Döbereiner was interested in catalysis in general. He discovered the catalytic action of manganese dioxide in the decomposition of potassium chlorate. |
| Sir William Hamilton | |
(source) |
Born 13
Dec 1730; died 6 Apr 1803.
English diplomat, archaeologist and geologist who spent his years as British envoy to the court of Naples (1764-1800) also conducting archaeological investigations and collecting antiquities. He took a particular interest in the volcanic remains around Vesuvius (Italy) and Etna (Sicily) and published several studies (1772-83) on earthquakes and volcanoes. His excavations included Herculaneum and Pompeii, the towns buried by the eruption of Vesuvius in A.D. 79, where he collected lava samples, ashes and minerals. In 1767, he designed an apparatus to depict an eruption of Vesuvius using a combination of clockwork-driven moving pictures, light and sound effects - the first example of an animated picture with sound..« |
| Franz Maria Ulrich Theodor Hoch Aepinus | |
(source) |
Born 13
Dec 1724; died 10 Aug 1802.
Dutch physicist whose Tentamen theoriae electricitatis et magnetismi (1759; "An Attempt at a Theory of Electricity and Magnetism") was the first work to apply mathematics to the theory of electricity and magnetism. Aepinus' experiments led to the design of the parallel-plate capacitor, a device used to store energy in an electric field. He also discovered the electric properties of the mineral tourmaline and investigated pyroelectricity, the state of electrical polarization produced in tourmaline and various other crystals by a change of temperature. Other achievements of Aepinus include improvements to the microscope, and his demonstration of the effects of parallax in the transit of a planet across the Sun's disk (1764). Image: Aepinus Condenser,1880 |
|
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| DECEMBER 13 - DEATHS | |
| Allen K. Breed | |
(source) |
 Died
13 Dec 1999 (born 1927)
American engineer and inventor of the "ball-in tube" or electromechanical crash sensor (EMS). He formed Breed Corp. in 1961 to develop and manufacture safety and arming devices for the military. Later, he recognized that these safety devices could be applied toward the development of crash sensors for automotive airbag systems. Breed developed his first airbag sensor design in 1968. His persistence within the automotive industry and with Congress helped bring airbags to the forefront of the US automotive market in the early 1980s. In 1984 passive restraint led to the birth of the airbag industry. |
| António Egas Moniz | |
(source) |
Died
13 Dec 1955 (born 29 Nov 1874)
Portuguese neurologist and statesman who was the founder of modern psychosurgery. In the 1920s, he pioneered the technique of cerebral angiography, enabling X-ray examination of arteries in the brain. In the 1930s, he developed the original form of prefrontal leucotomy (lobotomy), an operation for relieving severe symptoms of psychiatric illness. The operation consisted of inserting a sharp knife into the prefrontal lobe of the brain, roughly the area above and between the eyes; it required the minimum of equipment and lasted less than five minutes. For this development, he was awarded a share of the 1949 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Walter Hess. |
| Victor Grignard | |
(source) |
Died
13 Dec 1935 (born 6 May 1871)
(François-Auguste-)Victor Grignard was a French chemist and corecipient (with Paul Sabatier) of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1912, for his development of the Grignard reaction. He discovered the alkyl magnesium halides (1901), which are prepared by reacting magnesium with an organic halide in dry ether, producing compounds of the type RMgX, where X is a halogen (Cl, Br, I) and R an organic group. These Grignard reagents are extremely important in organic syntheses. They are very versatile and permit the synthesis of a large number of different classes of compounds, particularly secondary and tertiary alcohols, hydrocarbons, and carboxylic acids facilitate a number of chemical reactions and Grignard spent much of his life working on them. |
| Thomas Augustus Watson | |
(source) |
Died
13 Dec 1934 (born 18 Jan 1854)
American telephone pioneer and shipbuilder, one of the original organizers of the Bell Telephone Company, who later turned to shipbuilding and constructed a number of vessels for the United States government. In 1872 he got a job in Boston in the electrical shop of Charles Williams, Jr., at 109 Court Street. A number of inventors had their models made at Williams' shop, and in 1874 Watson did some work for Alexander Graham Bell [q.v.], with whom he worked thereafter during all the experimental period of the telephone and the years that followed until it was commercially established. Watson was given an interest in the business (1877) and when Bell went to Europe he became the research and technical head of the Bell Telephone Company. |
| Gustave Le Bon | |
(source) |
Died
13 Dec 1931 (born 7 May 1841)
French social psychologist best known for his study of the psychological characteristics of crowds, The Crowd, Study of Popular Mind. In this early effort to explain group behavior, Lebon's gave two propositions: that people in groups adopt a group mind, and that groups are emotional and irrational. He theorizes that in the right situations, the emotions of one person spread through the group like a cold through a schoolhouse. Control mechanisms such as values, ethics, and learned social rules are broken down and forgotten for the time. He was also the author of a number of works on social psychology, in which he expounded theories of national traits and racial superiority. |
| Fritz Pregl | |
(source) |
Died
13 Dec 1930 (born 3 Sep 1869)
Austrian chemist awarded the 1923 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for developing techniques in the microanalysis of organic compounds. Pregl began research on bile acids in about 1904. With only tiny yields to study, he pioneered techniques of microanalysis. Whereas Justus von Liebig had needed about 1 gram of a substance before he could make an accurate analysis; through his new techniques, Pregl could work with 2.5 milligrams. This was achieved by the careful scaling down of his analytic equipment and the design of a new balance (produced in collaboration with the instrument maker W. Kuhlmann of Hamburg) capable of weighing 20 grams to an accuracy of 0.001 milligram. His techniques are of immense importance in organic chemistry. |
| Karl Friedrich Philipp von Martius | |
(source) |
Died
13 Dec 1868 (born 17 Apr 1794)
German botanist best known for his work on Brazilian flora. He spent three years on expedition with zoologist Johann Baptist von Spix to study the botany, zoology, mineralogy, and ethnology of Brazil, covering 6,500 km of Brazilian territory. Upon returning to Munich, they carried with them numerous examples of mammals, birds, fish, insects and vegetation. They also had written descriptions and etchings of all they had observed. Martius dedicated his life to the study of the material collected during his expedition to Brazil. In this way, such works as Flora Brasiliensis, considered to be one of the most important works on a country’s flora, took form. It took 66 years to complete and the collaboration of 57 botanists from various parts of the world. |
| Conrad Gesner | |
The first known illustration of a lead pencil is found in Gesner's book on fossils (1565) |
Died
13 Dec 1565 (born 26 Mar 1516)
Swiss physician, naturalist, and encyclopedist is best known for his monumental works. Gesner's aim was to survey all the world's recorded knowledge. His books included systematic compilations of information on animals and plants. Elaborately illustrated , Historiae animalium comprised five volumes, the first appearing in 1551, each covering a portion of the animal kingdom. Gesner's pictures made his works both more appealing and less ambiguous. Although he listed all the animals known in Europe, he had no idea of the relationships one animal to another. Yet, in Historica Plantarum (History of Plants), published two centuries after his death, he was the first to recognize that similar species could be grouped to form genera. |
| Seigneur (lord) De La Bigotiere François Viète | |
(source) |
Died
13 Dec 1603 (born 1540)
French mathematician who introduced the first systematic algebraic notation and contributed to the theory of equations. As Henry IV's cryptographer, he broke an elaborate cipher used by Spanish agents. In algebra, he made a number of innovations in the use of symbolism and several technical terms still in use (e.g., coefficient) were introduced by him. By using algebraic rather than geometric methods, Viète was able to solve a number of geometrical problems. In his In artem analyticam isagoge (1591) Viète introduced such basic algebraic conventions as using letters to represent both known and unknown quantities, while improving the notation for the expression of square and cubic numbers. |
| Niccolò Fontana Tartaglia | |
(source) |
Died
13 Dec 1557 (born 1499)
Italian mathematician who originated the science of ballistics. His proper name was Niccolo Fontana although he is always known by his nickname, Tartaglia, which means the "stammerer." When the French sacked Brescia in 1512, soldiers killed his father and left young Tartaglia for dead with a sabre wound that cut his jaw and palate. In 1535, by winning a competition to solve cubic equations, he gained fame as the discoverer of the formula for their algebraic solution (which was published in Cardan's Ars Magna, 1545) Tartaglia wrote Nova Scientia (1537) on the application of mathematics to artillery fire. He described new ballistic methods and instruments, including the first firing tables. He was the first Italian translator and publisher of Euclid's Elements (1543). |
| DECEMBER 13 - EVENTS | |
| Communications satellite | |
(source) |
In 1962, Relay
I, the first U.S. communications earth satellite to transmit
telephone, television, teleprinter and facsimile signals was launched.
The first test patterns were not transmitted until 3 Jan 1963, when the
solar cells had built up sufficient battery charge. It had 8,215 solar
cells, 3 nickel cadmium batteries and 5 external antennas. The signals
were relayed between the U.S. and England, Italy and Brazil. The
satellite payload, which was 33-in high, 29-in diameter and 172-lb weight,
was launched on a Thor-Delta rocket from the Atlantic Missile Range at
Cape Canaveral, Florida, into an orbit with perigee 817.7 miles and apogee
4,610.9 miles. Earlier communications satellites had been launched for
testing purposes, such as the Echo I, on 12 Aug 1960. |
| Casein fibre | |
(source) |
In 1938, the first U.S. patent was issued for casein fibre (No. 2,140,274).
Earl Ovando Whittier and Stephen Philip Gould of Washington, D.C. had first
produced casein fibre in December 1935. They dedicated the patent "to the
free use of the people of the United States of America." Casein is the
main protein found in milk.
Their invention was to produce dispersions of casein (mixed usually with
plasticizers and salts), to be extruded into fibres having the requisite
characteristics of strength, water resistance, flexibility, and softness
necessary to make them suitable as substitutes for wool and other fibres.
Some of the best plasticizers suggested were the fat acids to give the
fibres flexibility, softness and water repellancy. Sodium aluminate improved
the fibre's strength. |
| Measurement of star size | |
(source) |
In 1920, first U.S. measurement of the size of a fixed star was made on
Betelgeuse, the bright red star in the right shoulder of Orion,
which was found to be 260 million miles in diameter - 150 times greater
than the Sun. Dr. Francis G. Pease made the measurement on the 100-inch
telescope at the Mount Wilson Observatory using a beam
interferometer designed by Professor A. A. Michelson. Betelgeuse was
selected as the first test object since theoretical calculations had suggested
that the star was unusually great in size. The apparent angular size of
Betelgeuse was found to average about .044 arcseconds. Direct interferometer
measurements can only be used with large stars. The majority of stars rely
upon more indirect methods of determining stellar sizes. |
| Paved road crosses US | |
(source) |
In 1913, the Lincoln Highway, the first improved coast-to-coast highway
in America, had its first section opened in New Jersey, between Jersey
City and Newark. What had been known as the Jersey City Plank Road for
over 100 years was rededicated as the Essex-Hudson Lincoln Highway after
having been reconstructed as a boulevard 100-ft wide overall at a
cost of $1,250,000. It was bordered by street lights and 10-ft wide sidewalks
on each side. The traffic surfaces were of brick and concrete. Of its cost,
$500,000 had been spend on its bridges. The new name for the road was adopted
at the request of the Associated Automobile Clubs of New Jersey and the
Newark Motor Club.*«  
 The
Lincoln Highway: Coast to Coast from Times Square to the Golden Gate,
by Michael Wallis et al. |
| TB laboratory | |
(source) |
In 1893, the first tuberculosis diagnostic community laboratory in the
U.S. was authorized in New York City and opened by the New York City Dept.
of Health under the direction of Dr. Hermann
Michael Biggs. The laboratory
administered sputum examinations, reporting and registrations (compulsory
by institutions and voluntary by physicians), official supervision of isolation,
terminal disinfection, provision of hospital facilities, and public education.
The first research laboratory in the U.S. was established the following
year, in 1894, by Dr. Edward Livingston Trudeau in a room in his home at
Saranac Lake, N.Y. |
| Aluminium | |
(source) |
In 1856, Charles Dickens, writing
in Household Words, commented on Henri Sainte-Claire Deville's success
in developing the first practical industrial process
for producing aluminium,
predicted: "Aluminium may probably send tin to the right about face, drive
copper saucepans into penal servitude, and blow up German-silver sky-high
into nothing". Aluminium is the third most abundant element, comprising
some 8 percent of the earth's crust. Yet it was only as recently as during
Dicken's lifetime - just a century ago - that a viable production process
was established (1854). Aluminium is the most recently (1808) discovered
metal in common use. |
| Dry dock patent | |
|
In 1816, the first U.S. patent for a dry dock was issued to John Adamson
of Boston, Mass. A floating dry dock was built a few years later in Weehawhen
Cave, Hoboken, N.J. for the dry docking and repair of canal boats. The
patent was extended 14 years by act of Congress, 2 Mar 1831 (6 Stat. L.
458). |
|
| Abdominal surgery | |
(source) |
In 1809, the first U.S. ovariotomy
(an abdominal surgical procedure for the surgical removal of an ovarian
tumour) was decided
upon by Dr. Ephraim McDowell (1771-1830), the "Father of Ovariotomy".
He had been called to the house of Jane Todd Crawford, 45, in Motley's
Glen, Kentucky. She had been previously attended by less skilled practioners
who had first thought she was pregnant with twins. McDowell instead diagnosed
a huge tumour. A few days later, on 25 Dec, and 60 miles away at his Danville
practice, McDowell operated to remove a 22-pound ovarian tumour - in an
era that had no anaesthetic. She quickly recovered, and lived to be 78.
His 1817 published account of the operation created a sensation. He performed
eight more ovariotomies, the last in 1826.« |
