| DECEMBER 21 - BIRTHS | |
| Tom Bacon | |
(source) |
 
Born 21 Dec 1904; died 24 May 1992.
Francis Thomas Bacon was an English mechanical engineer who pioneered the first modern hydrogen-oxygen fuel cells, which electrochemically convert air and fuel directly into electricity. The principle was first observed by Sir William Grove (1842) when he supplied oxygen and hydrogen to platinum electrodes immersed in sulphuric acid and a current was produced in an external circuit. It remained a curiosity until Bacon began serious research in the early 1940s for proposed application in submarines. By 1959 he developed a successful six-kilowatt fuel cell. When fuel cells were used by U.S. Apollo space vehicles, they could both provide in-flight power and clean drinking water, the by-product of the electrochemical reaction.« [Image: fuel cell schematic (source)] |
| Ira S. Bowen | |
1984 (source) |
Born 21
Dec 1898; died 6 Feb 1973.
Ira Sprague Bowen was an American astrophysicist. His investigation of the ultraviolet spectra of highly ionized atoms led to his explanation of the unidentified strong green spectral lines of gaseous nebulae (clouds of rarefied gas) as forbidden lines of ionized oxygen and nitrogen. This emission, appearing to match no known element, had formerly been suggested to be due to a hypothetical element, "nebulium." Bowen was able to show, that in reality, the emission lines exactly matched those calculated to be the "forbidden lines" of ionized oxygen and nitrogen under extremely low pressure. This made a major advance in the knowledge of celestial composition. He was director of the Mt. Wilson and Palomar Observatories from 1948-64.« |
| Hermann Joseph Muller | |
(source) |
Born 21
Dec 1890; died 5 Apr 1967.
American geneticist who demonstrated that mutations and hereditary changes could be caused by X-rays striking the genes and chromosomes of living cells (first produced in the fruit fly Drosophila in 1927). His first task - to create procedures to exactly measure the mutation frequency - took several years. Then he investigated the effect of different agents on the frequency of mutations. He found that experiments could be arranged, for instance, so that nearly 100 per cent of the offspring of irradiated flies showed mutations. Thus a possibility had been created for the first time of influencing the hereditary mass itself artificially. Muller was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1946.« |
| Sewell Wright | |
1928 (source) |
Born 21
Dec 1889; died 3 Mar 1988.
American geneticist, one of the founders of modern theoretical population genetics. He researched the effects of inbreeding and crossbreeding with guinea pigs, and later on the effects of gene action on inherited characteristics. He adopted statistical techniques to develop evolutionary theory. Wright is best known for his concept of genetic drift, called the Sewell Wright effect - that when small populations of a species are isolated, out of pure chance the few individuals who carry certain relatively rare genes may fail to transmit them. The genes may therefore disappear and their loss may lead to the emergence of new species, although natural selection has played no part in the process.« |
| Laurence Monroe Klauber | |
(source) |
Born 21
Dec 1883; died 8 May 1968
American herpetologist, engineer and inventor whose interest was rattlesnakes, studying their natural history and relationship to humans. He advanced methods of taxonomy, was a tireless innovator, and amassed a personal collection of 36,000 preserved specimens. His studies had an emphasis on venom collection and antivenin. Further, being familiar with statistical treatment of data because of his engineering background, he was the first to apply statistical methods to herpetological taxonomy and to think of species in terms of populations in nature rather than as species in museum jars. His unique compendium, Rattlesnakes: Their Habits, Life Histories and Influence on Mankind, remains the authoritative source for information.« 
"Rattlesnakes"
by
Laurence Monroe Klauber |
| Peter Alekseyevich Kropotkin | |
(source) |
Born 21
Dec 1842; died 8 Feb 1921
Russian geographer and revolutionist, who combined biological and historical fact to arrive at his theory of Mutual Aid (1902). While an army officer in Siberia (1862-67), he studied animal life and engaged in geographic exploration. He presented a theory of the structural lines of mountain ranges that revised the cartography of eastern Asia. He also contributed to knowledge of the glaciation of Asia and Europe during the Ice Age. He wrote a series of articles against social Darwinism and its tenet of the benefits of competition. Kropotkin asserted that sociability characterized animals. Thus, he held, cooperation rather than struggle guided the evolution of man and human intelligence. His greatest renown, though, was as an anarchist.« Mutual
Aid: A Factor of Evolution, by Peter Kropotkin. |
| Sir Joseph Whitworth | |
(source) |
Born 21
Dec 1803; died 22 Jan 1887.
(Baronet) English mechanical engineer, who pioneered precision measurement. He held many patents for machine tools, textile and knitting machinery, and road-sweeping machines. He originated a scraping technique to make a true plane surface (1825). He advocated using the decimal system. In 1841, his standard screw threads were adopted by the Woolwich Arsenal. By 1851 Whitworth's machine tools were internationally known for their accuracy and quality, as well as his screw cutting lathes, his planing, drilling, slotting, and shaping machines, and his millionth-part measuring machine. He also did pioneering work in ordnance, creating a method for casting ductile steel to replace hard steel, which is subject to fracture.« Sir
Joseph Whitworth: The World's Best Mechanician, by Norman
Atkinson. |
| Robert Brown | |
(source) |
Born 21
Dec 1773; died 10 Jun 1858.
Scottish botanist who was an outsatanding authority on plant physiology in his day. improved the natural classification of plants by establishing and defining new families and genera, but is best known for being the first to notice the natural continuous movement of minute particles in colloidal solution (1828), since known as Brownian movement. Later scientists recognized that this gives direct evidence of molecular motion in liquids, and links to the kinetic theory of gases. Brown established the distinction (1826) between what became known as the conifers (gymnosperms) and the flowering plants (angiosperms). He recognized the general occurence in living cells of a structure for which he coined the name nucleus (Latin: "little nut").« |
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| DECEMBER 21 - DEATHS | |
| Kelly Johnson | |
(source) |
 Died
21 Dec 1990 (born 27 Feb 1910)
(Clarence Leonard) "Kelly" Johnson was a American aeronautical engineer who introduced innovative designs. While managing Lockheed's secret project division, known as the "Skunk Works," he contributed to more than 40 airplanes. His early work included the P-38 Lightning fighter (1938) and the Hudson bomber. Later, he developed the fastest supersonic and highest-flying airplanes in the world. The U-2 (1954) was the first plane designed for routine flight above 60,000 feet. The F-104 Starfighter interceptor (1954) was capable of flying at twice the speed of sound, setting world records of 1,400 mph and 103,000 ft altitude.« Kelly:
More Than My Share of It All, by Clarence L. "Kelly"
Johnson. |
| Curt Paul Richter | |
(source) |
Died
21 Dec 1988 (born 20 Feb 1894)
American psychobiologist who discovered the body’s biorhythms and identified the part of the brain that controls daily cycles of sleeping, waking and other activities. He first wrote about this biological clock in a 1927 paper in which he described how internal cycles control an animal's drinking, eating, running, and sexual behaviour. He also studied the great extent to which animal biological processes can be modifed by learned behaviour. Richter connected the discovery of fire by ancient peoples to significant modifications in habits, communication, learning and even resulted in changes in brain structure. He related behaviour and the biochemistry of sleep, stress, and the onset of disease. Altogether Richter wrote over 250 research papers.« Biological
clocks in medicine and psychiatry, by Curt Paul Richter. |
| Nikolaas Tinbergen | |
(source) |
Died
21 Dec 1988 (born 15 Apr 1907)
Dutch-born English ethologist, a zoologist who studies the behavior of animals in their natural habitats, who shared (with Konrad Lorenz and Karl von Frisch) the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1973 for "for their discoveries concerning "organization and elicitation of individual and social behaviour patterns." He is known for his long-term field observations of the social patterns, courtship and mating behaviour of seagulls, made in their natural habitat. Having constructed experiments to test sociobiological responses and animal aggression, he interpreted the results to explain that human violence is rooted in an animal instinct for survival. Though gulls were a primary interest, his diverse studies also encompassed sand wasps and stickleback fish.« Animal
in Its World: Field Studies, by Niko Tinbergen, Nikolaas
Tinbergen. |
| Eric Temple Bell | |
(image) |
Died
21 Dec 1960 (born 7 Feb 1883)
Scottish-American mathematician and writer who contributed to analytic number theory (in which he found several inportant theorems), Diophantine analysis and numerical functions. In addition to about 250 papers on mathematical research, he also wrote for the layman in Men of Mathematics (1937) and Mathematics, Queen and Servant of Science (1951) among others. Under the name of John Taine, he also wrote science fiction.« The
Search for E. T. Bell: Also Known as John Taine, by Constance
Reid, William Watkins. |
| Lewis M. Terman | |
(source) |
Died
21 Dec 1956 (born 15 Jan 1877)
Lewis M(adison) Terman was a U.S. psychologist who pioneered individual intelligence tests. During WW I, he was involved in mass testing of intelligence for the U.S. army. He expanded an English version of the French Binet-Simon intelligence test with which he introduced the IQ (Intelligence Quotient), being a ratio of chronological age to mental age times 100. (Thus an average child has an IQ of 100). He wrote about this metric in The Measurement of Intelligence (1916). He made a long-term study of gifted children (with IQ above 140) examining mental and physical aspect of their lives reported in the multi-volume Genetic Studies of Genius (1926-59).« Lewis
M. Terman: Pioneer in Psychological Testing, by Henry
L. Minton. |
| Knud Johan Victor Rasmussen | |
(source) |
Died
21 Dec 1933 (born 7 Jun 1879)
Danish-Eskimo explorer and ethnologist, who was an expert on the folklore and history of the Greenland Eskimos. In 1912, his first expedition covered 500 miles by dogsled (using more than fifty dogs) across Greenland's ice cap. On this, and seven more expeditions up to 1920, he studied and mapped the geography of northern Greenland, carried out scientific investigations of the ice cap. By spending a few weeks with various tribes, he studied the Eskimo cultures. Rasmussen investigated the theory that the Inuit and the North American Indians were both descended from migratory tribes from Asia, for his own travels showed that using only traditional Inuit technology it was possible to cover the entire distance using only one dog team.« Across
Arctic America: Narrative of the Fifth Thule Expedition,
by Knud Rasmussen, et al. |
| Charles Benjamin Dudley | |
(source) |
Died
21 Dec 1909 (born 14 Jul 1842)
American chemical engineer who was an early supporter of standardisation and material testing in industry. From 1875, as a chemist for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, he researched the metallurgy of steel rail tracks because their breakage was a serious hazard at that time. When he discovered enormous variation in the quality of steel and published his results (1878), the manufacturers were at first uncooperative. However, Dudley insisted on continuing testing, and rigorous standards for fuels, lubricants, paints, lighting devices and various mechanical parts of locomotives and rolling stock. He co-founded (1898) the American Society for Testing and Materials, and was its president from 1902 until his death.« |
| James Parkinson | |
(source) |
Died
21 Dec 1824 (born 11 Apr 1755)
English physician and amateur paleontologist. He took over the practice of general medicine from his father. He wrote a little known monograph Observations on the Nature and Cure of Gout (1805). He was first to recognize a burst appendix as a cause of death, and wrote the first scientific article on appendicitis (1812). In his Essay on the Shaking Palsy (1817), he was the first to describe the neuromuscular disease which is now known by his name as Parkinson's disease, and gained him immortality in the annals of Medicine. Signs of Parkinson's Disease are a generalized slowness of movement, a tremor or slight shaking on one side of the body when at rest, some stiffness of the limbs, and problems of gait or balance.« 
[Image: Shaking Palsy as illustrated in Parkinson's Essay on Shaking
Palsy]
"James
Parkinson: His Life and Times (History of Neuroscience)" by
A.D. Morris |
| DECEMBER 21 - EVENTS | |
| Full-length animated film | |
(source) |
In 1937, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Walt Disney's first full-length
(83 minutes), animated film
opened in Los Angeles, California. Using the story adapted from Brothers
Grimms' Fairy Tales, it was the first commercially successful film of its
kind. This pioneering film made use of the multi-plane camera to achieve
an effect of depth, introduced human characters modeled on live actors,
and used larger painted cels. After two years and a then astronomical $1.5
million to create, it was released for its premiere during Christmas of
1937. Disney had to mortgage his house to pay for the film's production.
This followed within a span of just 12 years since the first black and
white talking Mickey Mouse in Steamboat Willie (1928). |
| Dried blood serum | |
(source) |
In 1933, dried human blood serum was prepared for the first time in the
U.S. at the school of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia,
Pa. It was prepared by Drs. Earl W. Flosdorf, an experienced refrigeration
engineer, and Stuart Mudd who created a glass apparatus to freeze-dry serum,
the clear fluid in the blood that contains the proteins and antibodies
formed by the body's immune system to protect against infection. The powdered,
dried blood serum was used successfully for transfusions for the prevention
of childhood diseases. The method was first described in April of the following
year at a meeting of the American Chemical Society at St. Petersburg, Florida.
Dried blood serum was used during WW II. [Image:
detail from a photograph taken at an exhibit of the equipment. Shell-freezing
unit far left, vacuum pump next to it, and next to it refrigeration trap
to remove moisture from drying plasma. Metal cylinder in foreground serves
as a drying chamber.] |
| US stone railway bridge | |
(source) |
In 1829, first stone arch railroad bridge
in US was dedicated at Baltimore. The Carrollton Viaduct crosses a wooded
stretch of Gwynn's Falls. The viaduct was named for Charles Carroll
of Carrollton, signer of the Declaration of Independence, who laid the
first stone of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad on 4 Jul 1828. Construction
took over 9 months. Some 1,500 tons of granite were supported on huge wooden
frameworks. until the keystones were in place and the massive 80 ft arch
over the stream became self-supporting. Overall, the bridge is about 62-ft
tall, and 300-ft long. On New Year's Day, 1830, it became America's first
railroad destination, using
a horse
until the locomotive
"Tom Thumb" came later in 1830. Trains have used it ever since. |
| Fourier series | |
(source) |
In 1807, Fourier's memoir On the Propagation of Heat in Solid Bodies,
was
read to the Paris Institute, an important mathematical
work, containing what we now call Fourier series, which he had worked upon
since around 1804. A committee consisting of Lagrange, Laplace, Monge and
Lacroix was set up to report on the work. Although now highly regarded,
at the time, this memoir caused controversy. Lagrange and Laplace objected
to Fourier's expansions of functions as trigonometrical series (the Fourier
series). It was not until 1822 that his prize winning essay Théorie
analytique de la chaleur was published by the Académie des Sciences.
Delambre, Secretary to the mathematical section, had arranged for the printing
before he died. |
| John Mayow | |
(source) |
In 1641, John Mayow, an English chemist
and physiologist, was baptized. His birth date is uncertain. Mayow is known
for his studies
of the relationships of atmospheric composition, combustion, and respiration.
He noted both combustion and respiration use up only a small proportion
of the available air. This he called spiritus nitro-aerous, which
supported life and combustion (sometimes considered as discovery of oxygen.)
The remainder of the air, he showed, does not support life, extinguishes
a lighted candle and is insoluble in water. Mayow suggested that respiration
is the source of animal heat, and that the foetus breathes through the
placenta. He described the muscular actions around the chest cavity that
are involved in respiration. |
