| MARCH 8 - BIRTHS | |
| Tom Blake | |
 Born 8
Mar 1902; died 5 May 1994.
American inventor of the hollow-core surfboard. Following his first experimental hollow surfboard in 1926, his innovative, hollow-core surf/paddle boards dominated the surfing world until the late 1940's. It became standard rescue equipment in California's early lifeguard corps. Early surfboard designs consisted of solid wooden boards dating back to the ancient Hawaiians, these new-concept, lighter boards were an immediate success and became extremely important in the evolution of the modern surfboard. In the 1930's he made the first major design advancement with the invention of fins. Before this, a surfer had to use his back foot to make the board turn. Many early Blake boards are displayed at the Bishop Museum, Honolulu. |
|
| Edward Calvin Kendall | |
(source) |
Born 8
Mar 1886; died 4 May 1972.
Edward Calvin Kendall was an American chemist who, with Philip S. Hench and Tadeus Reichstein, won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1950 for research on the structure and biological effects of adrenal cortex hormones. |
| Otto Hahn | |
(source) |
Born 8
Mar 1879; died 28 Jul 1968.
German chemist who, with the radiochemist Fritz Strassmann, is credited with the discovery of nuclear fission. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1944 and shared the Enrico Fermi Award in 1966 with Strassmann and Lise Meitner. Element 105 carries the name hahnium in recognition of his work. |
| Pyotr Nikolayevich Lebedev | |
| Born 8
Mar 1866; died 14 Mar 1912.
Russian physicist who demonstrated experimentally the minute pressure that light exerts on bodies (1910). |
|
| Karl von Goebel | |
| Born 8
Mar 1855; died 9 Oct 1932.
Karl (Immanuel Eberhard) von Goebel was a German botanist whose Organographie der Pflanzen (1898-1901; Organography of Plants, 1900-05) clarified the principles of the science of plant morphology in relation to form and structure. |
|
| James Mason Crafts | |
(source) |
Born 8
Mar 1839; died 20 June 1917.
American chemist, who with French chemist Charles Friedel, discovered an important organic carbon-chain addition to carbon-ring chemical synthesis techique, the Friedel-Crafts reaction (1877). This was a method of synthesizing hydrocarbons or ketones from aromatic hydrocarbons using aluminum chloride as a catalyst. Friedel and Crafts also did much work on the synthesis of organosilicon compounds. |
| Sir Michael Foster | |
(source) |
Born 8
Mar 1836; died 28 Jan 1907.
English physiologist and educator who introduced modern methods of teaching biology and physiology that emphasize laboratory training. Foster's use of laboratory experimentation and research became standard in the teaching of the biological sciences in English universities. In addition to his leadership in teaching activities, he conducted research to determine if heartbeat is either dependant on nerve impulses, or any degree of independance if the heart muscles have their own capability for rhythmic contraction. |
| John Elder | |
(source) |
Born 8
Mar 1824; died 17 Sep 1869.
Scottish marine engineer who, assisted by W.J.M. Rankine, developed the compound steam marine engine (1854) by dividing the steam expansion into two cylinders, so that each cycled through a smaller range of temperatures and pressures which greatly improved fuel efficiency. The S.S. Brandon sailed in Jul 1854 with their first engine of this type, which used a third less coal than was possible before. Elder continued improve his designs to give even more economy. As a result, his engineering business on the Clyde in Glasgow, Scotland, continued to grow, with over 4,000 workers. Between 1853 and 1867, his firm took out fourteen important patents, including a quadruple-expansion engine (1862). He died at the young age of 45 from liver disease. However, his ship yard remains today as Kvaerner Govan Ltd.« |
| Alvan Clark | |
c.1840-45 (source) |
Born 8 Mar 1804; died 19 Aug 1887
American astronomer whose family became the first significant manufacturers of astronomical instruments in the U.S. His company manufactured apparatus for most American observatories of the era, including the large refractor telescopes for the Lick and Pulkovo observatories, and others in Europe. In 1862, while testing a telescope, Clark discovered the companion star to Sirius, which had previously been predicted but until then never sighted. The 18½-in objective telescope he used was subsequently delivered to the Dearborn Observatory, Chicago. His sons, Alvan Graham Clark and George Bassett Clark, continued the business.« [Image: Dearborn telescope, c.1864.]  Alvan
Clark & Sons, Artists in Optics, by Warner and Ariail. |
| Karl Ferdinand von Gräfe | |
| Born 8
Mar 1787; died 4 Jul 1840.
German surgeon who helped to create modern plastic surgery. A superintendent of German military hospitals during the Napoleonic Wars (1800-15), he also served as professor of surgery and director of the surgical clinic at the University of Berlin (1810-40). He improved the English surgeon Joseph Carpue's adaptation of the "Indian method" which used a skin graft from the forehead for plastic surgery on the nose. He also revived the "Italian method" which similary used a graft from the upper arm. Gräfe contributed techniques for a cleft palate operation, and blood transfusion. Albrecht von Gräfe, his son, followed in the medical profession also, as an eminent eye surgeon. |
|
| John Fothergill | |
(source) |
Born 8
Mar 1712; died 26 Dec 1780.
English physician who was first to describe coronary arteriosclerosis (hardening and thickening of the arterial wall, with a loss of elasticity and reduced blood flow) associated with angina pectoris. He began his medical practise in 1740. He was first to give a substantial description of diphtheria in England in his Account of the Sore Throat Attended With Ulcers (1748), and credited with the first accurate description of migraine. He promoted coffee as a beverage in England, and as a crop in the West Indies. As a Quaker and philanthropist, he maintained a botanical garden in Upton, supported John Howard in his penal reforms and aided Benjamin Franklin (1774) draft a scheme of reconciliation between England and the American colonies.« |
|
Today in Science History Science Store Browse a selection of Bargain Science and Nature Books |
| MARCH 8 - DEATHS | |
| César Lattes | |
(source) |
 Died
8 Mar 2005 (born 11 Jul 1924)
César (Mansueto Giulio) Lattes was the Brazilian physicist who, with American physicist Eugene Gardner at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1948 confirmed the existence of heavy and light mesons formed during the bombardment of carbon nuclei with alpha particles. The experimental discovery of the pi meson was fundamental to explaining the nuclear binding force. Japanese theoretical physicist, Hideki Yukawa, had proposed (1935) a new, unknown particle with 200 times more mass than the electron, that was emitted and absorbed by protons and neutrons. The exchange of those particles between the nucleons would produce a short-range attraction between them. |
| Emory Leon Chaffee | |
| Died
8 Mar 1975 (born 15 Apr 1885)
U.S. physicist known for his work on thermionic vacuum (electron) tubes. |
|
| Franz Alexander | |
| Died
8 Mar 1964 (born 22 Jun 1891)
Franz (Gabriel) Alexander was a Hungarian-American physician and psychoanalyst sometimes referred to as the father of psychosomatic medicine because of his leading role in identifying emotional tension as a significant cause of physical illness. |
|
| Frederick William Lanchester | |
(source) |
Died
8 Mar 1946 (born 23 Oct 1868)
English automobile and aeronautics pioneer who built the first British petrol automobile (1896) and founded the Lanchester Engine Co in 1899. In 1901, Lanchester patented disc brakes. His production cars were scientifically designed and owed little to their competitors. His 1903 car had a balanced 'vibrationless' 2 cylinder horizontal engine with two counter-rotating crankshafts, electric ignition, 3 speed epicyclic gearbox with pre-selector control, tiller steering and a worm drive back axle. In 1907-8, he published an important two-volume work on aerodynamics. Lanchester is recognized as the first to grasp the role of the trailing vortices behind lifting wings and as the initiator of the circulation theory of lift. He also founded mathematical modelling for military gaming. |
| Ferdinand Count von Zeppelin | |
 |
Died
8 Mar 1917 (born 8 Jul 1838)
Ferdinand (Adolf August Heinrich) Count von Zeppelin was a German engineer, the first notable builder of rigid dirigible airships, known then and now by his name. After retiring from a military career (1890), he devoted ten years to the designing and building of his first successful light-than-air craft, the LZ-1. Its initial flight on 2 Jul 1900 stimulated funding from the community. Eventually, he produced more than 100 zeppelins for military uses in WW I. |
| John Ericsson | |
(source) |
Died
8 Mar 1889 (born 31 Jul 1803)
Naval engineer, born Langbanshyttan, Sweden, became an American citizen in 1847. He was the inventor of the screw propeller, built the first armoured turret warship, the USS Monitor. At the age of 14, he participated in the building of the Göta Canal (1817). A locomotive of his design, The Novelty, participated in a competition with Stephenson's Rocket in 1829. Ericsson invented and patented (No.588, on 1 Feb1836) a double rotation propeller. In Aug 1861, the American Congress authorized ironclad warships and one ship of the Monitor type designed by Ericsson was ordered. By Mar 1862 the Monitor was ready for sea. He also developed a torpedo boat, "The Destroyer," and worked to design his sun-motor engine. 
Man
of the Monitor, The story of John Ericsson, by Jean Lee
Latham. |
| James B. Eads | |
(source) |
Died
8 Mar 1887 (born 23 May 1820)
James Buchanan Eads was an American engineer who built the two-tier triple-arch steel bridge over the Mississippi River at St. Louis, Missouri. At the age of 22, he invented a boat and diving bell which enabled walking on the river bottom. In 12 years' time he made a fortune with his salvage boat operation. During the Civil War, he built ironclad warships. After the war, he built the Mississippi River bridge, the first major bridge to use steel and cantilevered construction, which was opened 4 Jul 1874. Each roughly 500-ft span rested on piers built on bedrock about 100 feet beneath the river bottom. He created a year-round navigation channel for New Orleans scoured out with a system of jetties harnessing the river's water flow (1879).« James
B. Eads, by Louis How. |
| James Scott Bowerbank | |
(EB) |
Died
8 Mar 1877 (born 14 Jul 1797)
A British naturalist and paleontologist, Bowerbank at 15 began his initial career was at his father's whisky distillery "Bowerbank & Sons". Educated by the famous Dr. Kelly, he took an early interest in science (mainly microscopy, entomology, palaeontology and the study of sponges). He has been most remembered for A Monograph of the British Spongidae (1864-82). Bowerbank also pursued mathematics, botany, astronomy and paleontology. He was the honorary secretary and president of the Paleontological Society, and also was one of the founding members of the Royal Microscopical Society and of the Zoological Society. |
| Edward John Dent | |
(source) |
Died
8 Mar 1853 (born 19 Aug 1790)
English clockmaker and inventor whose chronometers were noted for high accuracy. His patents in this field included compasses for navigation and surveying. He experimented with springs made of steel, gold and glass, and devices for counteracting the effects of temperature change upon timepiece mechanisms. As clockmaker to Queen Victoria, he was commissioned to build the Great Clock for the clock tower of the Houses of Parliament (known as Big Ben, although that is actually the nickname of its hour bell) which he began in the year he died. His son, Frederick Dent, completed the work the following year and it was installed in the tower in 1859. It continues to be recognised for its great accuracy of 4 seconds in a year.« Edward
John Dent, Chronometer Maker, and his Successors, by
Vaudrey Mercer. |
| Charles De Geer | |
| Died
8 Mar 1778 (born 10 Feb 1720)
Swedish entomologist. Using Leeuwenhoek's and Swammerdam's techniques of microscopy, and Réamur's method of biological observation, he studied the life and metamorphosis of insects, making morphological observations and drawings of their structures. |
|
| Abraham Darby | |
| Died
8 Mar 1717 (born 1678?)
British ironmaster who first successfully smelted iron ore with coke. He had first used coke in smelting copper. By 1709, at Coalbrookdale, he had extended this method to produce satisfactory iron using a coke-fired furnace, with cost savings over charcoal. Improved efficiency was also possible with coke as fuel, which could support heavier charges than the weaker charcoal was able to support. The iron quality permitted thin castings able to compete with brass in making pots. His son and grandson followed after him, in their turn providing iron for the Newcomen steam engines, the world's first cast iron bridge (Ironbridge) and Richard Trevithic's first railway locomotive with its high-pressure boiler (1802). |
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| MARCH 8 - EVENTS | |
| Io volcanoes | |
In 1979, volcanoes on Io were discovered by Voyager 1. |
|
| Monster meteorite | |
|
In 1976, the largest recovered single stony meteorite (1,774 kg) fell in
Jilin, China, during a meteor shower that dropped more than 4,000
kg of extra-terrestrial rock. |
|
| Goodyear blimp | |
|
In 1972, according to a number of web sites, "the Goodyear blimp was first
flown." This is incorrect, however, because the Goodyear Zeppelin Corporation
of Akron Ohio delivered the first dirigible for private commercial operation
decades earlier, on 22 May 1930, to the New England Airship Company of
Bedford, Mass.*
That airship was chartered by Bird & Son, Inc. of East Walpole, Mass.,
and within a five months span of time made 1,380 flights as a goodwill
messenger, carrying more than 6,000 passengers. Goodyear had been in business
before that - since 1925 - when Goodyear
built its first helium-filled public relations airship, the Pilgrim,
which toured the U.S. with the tyre company name painted on the side.« |
|
| Artificial heart | |
|
In 1952, an artificial heart was used for the first time on a 41-year-old
man which kept him alive for 80 minutes. |
|
| Oxygen | |
 |
In 1775, Joseph Priestley, having
discovered oxygen, experimented with mice in his home laboratory on whether
it is necessary to support life. |
| Kepler's third law | |
(source) |
In 1618, Johannes Kepler formulated
his Third Law of Planetary Motion. |
