| FEBRUARY 21 - BIRTHS | |
| Henrik Dam | |
(source) |
 Born 21
Feb 1895; died April 1976.
Carl Peter Henrik Dam was a Danish biochemist who, with Edward A. Doisy, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1943 for research into antihemorrhagic substances and the discovery of vitamin K (1939). |
| Harry Stack Sullivan | |
(source) |
Born 21
Feb 1892; died 14 Jan 1949.
U.S. psychiatrist who developed a theory of psychiatry based on interpersonal relationships. He believed that anxiety and other psychiatric symptoms arise in fundamental conflicts between the individual and his human environment and that personality development also takes place by a series of interactions with other people. |
| August von Wassermann | |
(source) |
Born 21
Feb 1866; died 16 Mar 1925.
German bacteriologist whose discovery of a universal blood-serum test (1906) for syphilis helped extend the basic tenets of immunology to diagnosis. "The Wassermann reaction," in combination with other diagnostic procedures, is still employed as a reliable indicator for the disease. A positive reaction when the blood or spinal fluid of the patient is tested indicates the presence of antibodies formed as a result of infection with syphilis (even though symptoms of the disease may not be observable at the time). A few other diseases, however (such as leprosy), also sometimes produce a positive Wassermann reaction. In addition, he developed inoculations against cholera, typhoid, and tetanus. He was a student of bacteriologist Robert Koch. |
| Édouard Gaston Deville | |
(source) |
Born 21
Feb 1849; died 21 Sep 1924.
Édouard Gaston (Daniel) Deville was a French-born Canadian surveyor of Canadian lands (1875-1924) who perfected the first practical method of photogrammetry, or the making of maps based on photography. His system used projective grids of images taken from photographs made with a camera and theodolite mounted on the same tripod. Photographs were taken from different locations, at precise predetermined angles, with measured elevations. Each photograph slightly overlapped the preceding one. With enough photographs and points of intersection, a map could be prepared, including contour lines. He also invented (1896) the first stereoscopic plotting instrument called the Stereo-Planigraph, though its complexity resulted in little use.« |
| John Mercer | |
(source) |
Born 21
Feb 1791; died 30 Nov 1866
English chemist and industrialist who invented the mercerisation process for treating cotton which is still in use today and was a pioneer in colour photography. From age 16, and throughout his life, he investigated and developed chemical textile dyes. Late in his life, in 1844, he found that when cotton is treated with caustic chemicals, it became thicker and shorter - thereby stronger and shrink-resistant. Further, the cotton was more easily dyed, needed 30% less dye, more absorbant, and could be given an attractive silk-like lustre. He called his process mercerisation and patented it in 1850. Mercerisation was applied to many other materials, such as parchment and woolen fabric, and remains an important part of the cotton finishing process today. |
| FEBRUARY 21 - DEATHS | |
| Gertrude B. Elion | |
(source) |
 Died
21 Feb 1999 (born 23 Jan 1918)
Gertrude Belle Elion was an American pharmacologist who shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1988 (with George H. Hitchings and Sir James W. Black) for the development of drugs used to treat several major diseases. Research by Elion and Hitchings produced the first drugs specifically designed for cancer therapy, as well as drugs to combat rejection of transplanted organs, gout, malaria and bacterial and viral infections. These medications became well-proven in use over many years, and their drugs appeared on the World Health Organizations's list of so-called "Essential Drugs" as medicines which should be available worldwide to promote "Health for All." Elion held 45 patents.« |
| Nathan Pritikin | |
(source) |
Died
21 Feb 1985 (born 29 Aug 1915)
Scientist and nutritionist. Pritikin believed that moderate exercise combined with a diet low in fat and high in unrefined carbohydrates reversed his own heart disease discovered in the late 1950's. He opened the Pritikin Longevity Center in 1976 in Santa Barbara, Cal. to treat others with diet and exercise in a clinical setting. |
| Sir Howard Walter Florey | |
(source) |
Died
21 Feb 1968 (born 24 Sep 1898)
Australian pathologist, who, with Ernst Boris Chain, researched, isolated and purified penicillin for general clinical use. From 1939, he worked with Chain on natural antibacterial agents produced by microorganisms, leading to their isolation, purification and determination of the chemical structure of penicillin. They performed the first clinical trials of the antibiotic.They shared the 1945 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with Sir Alexander Fleming, who had discovered antibiotic penicillin in 1928. Florey was knighted in 1944.  The
Mold in Dr. Florey's Coat: The Story of the Penicillin Miracle,
by Eric Lax. |
| Paul Radin | |
(source) |
Died
21 Feb 1959 (born 2 Apr 1883)
U.S. anthropologist who was influential in advancing a historical model of primitive society based on a synthesis of economic and social structure, religion, philosophy, and psychology. He pioneered in such important fields of anthropology as culture- personality studies and the use of autobiographical documents. An accomplished linguist, he described a number of North American languages and advanced a classification scheme emphasizing their unity. He was particularly interested in the individuals within cultures. He secured, translated, and edited the first American Indian autobiography, Crashing Thunder: The Autobiography of an American Indian (1926), which is considered a landmark in anthropology. |
| Sir Frederick Grant Banting | |
(source) |
Died
21 Feb 1941 (born 14 Nov 1891)
Canadian physician who, assisted by Charles H. Best, was the first to extract (1921) the hormone insulin from the pancreas. Injections of insulin proved to be the first effective treatment for diabetes, a disease in which glucose accumulates in abnormally high quantities in the blood. Banting was awarded a share of the 1923 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for this achievement. Banting:
A Biography, by Michael Bliss. |
| George Ellery Hale | |
(source) |
Died
21 Feb 1938 (born 29 Jun 1868)
American astronomer known for his development of important astronomical instruments. To expand solar observations and promote astrophysical studies he founded Mt. Wilson Observatory (Dec 1904). He discovered that sunspots were regions of relatively low temperatures and high magnetic fields. Hale hired Harlow Shapley and Edwin Hubble as soon as they finished their doctorates, and he encouraged research in galactic and extragalactic astronomy as well as solar and stellar astrophysics. Hale planned and tirelessly raised funds for the 200" reflecting telescope at the Palomar Mountain Observatory completed in 1948, after his death, and named for him - the Hale telescope.
Explorer
of the Universe: A Biography of George Ellery Hale, by
Helen Wright. |
| Heike Kamerlingh Onnes | |
(source) |
Died
21 Feb 1926 (born 21 Sep 1853)
Dutch winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1913 for his work on low-temperature physics and his production of liquid helium. He discovered superconductivity, the almost total lack of electrical resistance in certain materials when cooled to a temperature near absolute zero. |
| Osborne Reynolds | |
(source) |
Died
21 Feb 1912 (born 23 Aug 1842)
British engineer, physicist, and educator best known for his work in hydraulics and hydrodynamics. |
| Emil Holub | |
(source) |
Died
21 Feb 1902 (born 7 Oct 1847)
Naturalist who travelled extensively in south central Africa gathering varied and valuable natural history collections that he distributed to museums and schools throughout Europe. |
| Joaquín Acosta | |
(source) |
Died
21 Feb 1852 (born 29 Dec 1799)
Colombian scientist who in 1834 attempted a scientific survey of his country between Socorro and the Magdalena River. Seven years later he explored western Colombia from Antioquia to Ancerma studying its topography, its natural history and the traces of its aboriginal inhabitants. In 1845, he went to Spain to examine documentary material which led to his publication of Compendio (1848), a work on the discovery and colonization of New Granada (Colombia). He also published Semenario embodying the botanical papers of Caldas, and a work (1847) mapping the Geology of New Granada.« |
| Jethro Tull | |
(source) |
Died 21 Feb 1741 (baptised 30 Mar 1674)
English writer and pioneer agronomist, who invented a horse-drawn drill around 1701. He promoted sowing seeds in rows rather than broadcast (simply casting the seeds around), so that weeds could be controlled by hoeing regularly between the rows. For this purpose, he devised his seed drill, which could planted three rows atthe same time. A blade cut a groove in the ground to receive the seed, and the soil was turned over to cover the sewn seed. A hopper distributed a regulated amount of seed. Because of the internal moving parts, it has been called the first agricultural machinery. Its rotary mechanism became part of all sowing devices that followed. Tull also invented a four-coultered plow to make vertical cuts in the soil before the plowshare.« [Image right: Tull's seed drill] 
Jethro
Tull : A Berkshire Life, by George F. Tull. |
| Hieronymus Bock | |
(source) |
Died
21 Feb 1554 (born 1498)
Hieronymus (Tragus) Bock was a German priest, physician, and botanist who helped lead the transition from the philological scholasticism of medieval botany to the modern science based on observation and description from nature. |
| FEBRUARY 21 - EVENTS | |
| Refrigerator | |
In 1994, the Whirlpool Corporation began production of an energy efficient
refrigerator that did not use freon. It had an efficiency 25% better than
the U.S. law required. By removing freon, the destructive effect on ozone
in the atmosphere by that chemical was eliminated. |
|
| Simplesse | |
|
In 1989, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a low-calorie substitute
for fat, Simplesse. |
|
| Submarine circumnavigation | |
(source) |
In 1958, the first U.S. submarine to circumnavigate the world returned
to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. After leaving the harbour on 8 Jul 1957, the Gudgeon
(SS 567) had spent 228 days travelling about 25,000 miles while visiting
ports in Asia, Africa and Europe. The 269-foot-long submarine and its crew
of 83 were under the command of LCDR John O. Coppedge. It was
first launched on 11 Jun 1952, and commissioned on 21 Nov 1952, at the
Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.* |
| DNA structure | |
 |
In 1953, Francis Crick and J. Watson reached their conclusion about the
double helix structure of the DNA
molecule. They made their first announcement on Feb 28, and their paperA
Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid was published in the 25
Apr 1953 issue of journal Nature. |
| Polaroid camera | |
 |
In 1947, Edwin H. Land first demonstrated his Polaroid Land camera, the
first used self-developing film, at a meeting of the Optical Society of
America at the Hotel Pennsylvania, New York City. It produced a black-and-white
photograph in 60 seconds, using developer and fixer chemicals sandwiched
in pods with the photographic paper and film. After exposure, developing
was initiated by turning a knob that squeezed open the pod of chemicals. |
| Alka Seltzer | |
Beardsley (source) |
In 1931, Alka Seltzer was introduced
in the U.S. - Hub Beardsley, the president of Miles Laboratories,
during a severe flu epidemic in winter 1928, had visited a local newspaper
in Elkhart, Indiana where he learned from the editor, Tom Keene,
that the staff seemed to be resistant to the illness. Keene explained that
at the first sign of illness, he treated staff members with a combination
of aspirin and baking soda. Beardsley asked his chief chemist, Maurice
Treneer, to develop
an effervescent tablet with aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) and sodium bicarbonate
as the main ingredients. The resulting tablet seemed
sufficiently effective to begin production, although Beardsley himself
died in 1929. It was introduced in 1931, with heavy radio promotion. |
| First U.S. brain surgeon | |
(source) |
In 1902, Dr. Harvey Cushing, the first
US brain surgeon,
performed his first brain operation. Born in New Haven, Conn., his clinical
contributions are legendary: the use of x-rays in surgical practice, physiological
saline for irrigation during surgery, the discovery of the pituitary as
the master hormone gland, founding the clinical specialty of endocrinology,
the anesthesia record, the use of blood pressure measurement in surgical
practice, and the physiological consequences of increased intracranial
pressure.
 "Genius
With a Scalpel: Harvey Cushing" by Justin F. Denzel |
| Black American patent | |
|
In 1899, black American E.P. Ray was issued a U.S. patent for a "Chair
Supporting Device" (No. 620,078).
The
Inventive Spirit of African Americans: Patented Ingenuity,
by Patricia Carter Sluby. |
|
| Edison patent | |
|
In 1893, Thomas A. Edison received two U.S. patents. The first was for
a "Cut Out for Incandescent Electric Lamps" and another for a "Stop Device"
(No. 491,992-3). Also No. 492,150 for "Process of Coating Conductors for
Incandescent Lamps." |
|
| Bacteriology laboratory | |
(source) |
In 1887, the first U.S. institutional bacteriology laboratory was incorporated,
the Hoagland Laboratory of Brooklyn, N.Y., founded
by Dr. Cornelius N. Hoagland for original medical research. It was established
at 335 Henry Street at a cost exceeding $100,000 and $50,000 more in an
endowment fund. His wealth came from ownership, with his brother, of the
Royal Baking Powder Company. The laboratory opened in Feb 1889, with special
departments in physiology and bacteriology, the cost, with equipments.
Its first director was Dr George Miller Sternberg, who identified the microbe
of pneumonia in saliva. (Private bacteriological laboratories had been
established earlier by individual physicians.)* |
| First U.S. telephone directory | |
|
In 1878, the first U.S. telephone directory, listing about 50 names, was
issued by the New Haven Telephone Company, in New Haven, Connecticut. |
|
| First U.S. woman dentist graduated | |
(source) |
In 1866, the first woman dentist in the U.S. to obtain a D.D.S. degree
from a dental college graduated. Lucy
B. Hobbs (Mrs. Taylor) was required to attend only one session beginning
in Nov 1865 at the Ohio College of Dental Surgery because of credits allowed
for previous practice.*Being
a woman, Hobbs had been originally turned down by many schools, but instead
she trained
in the office of Dr. Samuel Wardle. When first turned down by the Ohio
Dental College in Mar 1861, since a license was not compulsory at the time,
she successfully practiced dentistry in Cincinnati, Ohio. After the Civil
War she moved to Iowa, and in Jul 1865, became the first woman elected
as a member of a dental society, the Iowa State Dental Society. |
| Universal milling machine | |
(source) |
In 1865, a U.S. patent was issued for the universal
milling machine invented by Joseph Rogers Brown (No. 46,521). With
this four-speed, 1,800-lb machine, Brown could quickly make any size twist
drill, and replace previously tedious handwork in spiral milling or gear-cutting
operations. Adjustments were calibrated with an accuracy of one-thousandth
of an inch. He had already invented a precision gear cutter in 1855 to
produce clock gears, and later patented a universal
grinding machine in 1877. As an inventor,
Brown made numerous advances in the field of fine measurement and machine-tool
production. He co-founded J.R. Brown and Sharpe in 1853 to manufacture
his products. |
| Burglar alarm | |
|
In 1858, the first electrical burglar alarm installation in the U.S. was
made by Edwin T. Holmes in Boston, Mass. When a door or window was
opened, a spring was released that closed an electrical circuit.* |
|
| Sewing machine | |
 |
In 1842, the first U.S. patent (of which there is any record) for a sewing
machine was issued to John J. Greenough of Washington, DC. (No. 2,466)
as "A Machine for Sewing or Stitching all Kinds of Straight Seams." The
needle was gradually tapered to a point at each end, with an eye in the
middle. It used pairs of pinchers, one on each side of the work to alternately
draw the thread back and forth. It did not use thread from a bobbin of
thread. Instead, the lengths of thread were inserted in the needle, similar
in length to those used in hand sewing.* |
| Chlorine | |
Davy (source) |
In 1811, as Humphry Davy read a paper
to the Royal Society, he introduced the name "chlorine" from the Greek
word for "green," for the bright yellow green gas chemists then knew as
oxymuriatic gas. In his paper, On a Combination of Oxymuriatic Gas and
Oxygene Gas, Davy reported on his numerous experiments with oxymuratic
gas, which appeared to have many of the reactive properties of oxygen.
Hydrochloric acid was then known as muriatic acid, and when chlorine was
first obtained from a reaction with the acid, the yellow green gas
had been thought to be a compound containing oxygen. Later, Davy's careful
work would show that the chlorine gas was in fact an element, unable to
be decomposed into any simpler substances. |
| Locomotive | |
Trevithick |
In 1804, the first self-propelling steam engine or steam locomotive
was tested at the Pen-y-Darren
ironworks on its normally horse-drawn tramline. The machine was designed
by Richard Trevithick. He had built
his first road steam locomotive at Camborne in 1801, and another road machine
in 1803, which ran several times in London, before he turned his attention
to railways. The railway engine at Pen-y-Darren was able to pull
a load of 15 tons at a speed of about 5 mph. However, adhesion was a problem
as the iron wheels slipped on the iron rails. Further, the cast-iron rails
of the tramways of those days were not strong enough to support the weight
of his new machine and the experiment was soon abandoned.« [Memorial
reproduction of Trevithivk's locomotive (source)]
Richard
Trevithick: Giant of Steam, by Anthony Burton. |
