| MARCH 22 - BIRTHS | |
| Burton Richter | |
(source) |
 Born 22
Mar 1931
American physicist who was jointly awarded the 1976 Nobel Prize for Physics with Samuel C.C. Ting for the discovery of a new subatomic particle, the J/psi particle. |
| Nathan Kline | |
(source) |
Born 22
Mar 1916; died 11 Feb 1983
Nathan Schellenberg Kline was an American psychiatrist who is credited with founding the field of psychopharmacology. In 1953, he began investigating the use of a new drug, reserpine, to treat schizophrenia. He continued to pioneer in the biochemical treatment of mentally ill patients by introducing the use of such drugs as the antidepressants lithium and iproniazid and the tranquilizer resperine. Because these drugs so successfully drugs treated two of the major categories of psychiatric illness, thousands of patients - formerly considered untreatable - were able to leave institutions and to rejoin society. By 1957, iproniazid, first in the class of monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitors, was treating an estimated 400,000 people in the U.S.« |
| Robert Andrews Millikan | |
(source) |
Born 22
Mar 1868; died 19 Dec 1953.
American physicist who was awarded the 1923 Nobel Prize for Physics for "his work on the elementary charge of electricity and on the photoelectric effect." Millikan's famous oil-drop experiment (1911) was far superior to previous determinations of the charge of an electron, and further showed that the electron was a fundamental, discrete particle. When its value was substituted in Niels Bohr's theoretical formula for the hydrogen spectrum, that theory was validated by the experimental results. Thus Millikan's work also convincingly provided the first proof of Bohr's quantum theory of the atom. In later work, Millikan coined the term "cosmic rays" in 1925 during his study of the radiation from outer space.«  The
electron: Its isolation and measurement and the determination of some of
its properties, by Robert Andrews Millikan. |
| Friedrich Wilhelm August Argelander | |
(source) |
Born 22
Mar 1799; died 17 Feb 1875.
German astronomer who established the study of variable stars as an independent branch of astronomy and is renowned for his great catalog listing the positions and brightness of 324,188 stars of the northern hemisphere above the ninth magnitude. He studied at the University of Königsberg, Prussia, where he was a pupil and later the successor of Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel. In 1837, Argelander published the first major investigation of the Sun's motion through space. In 1844 he began studies of variable stars. |
| Pierre-Joseph Pelletier | |
(source) |
Born 22
Mar 1788; died 19 Jul 1842.
French chemist who is known for his research into vegetable bases and the resulting contributions of alkaloid chemistry to the field of medicine. Working with Joseph-Bienaimé Caventou (1795-1877), he helped found the chemistry of vegetable alkaloids. Pelletier and Caventou isolated chlorophyll (1817), and discovered strychnine (1818), brucine(1819), quinine (1820), caffeine (1821), cinchonine, and other alkaloids. In 1823, using elementary closed-tube analyses in which the alkaloids were combusted, they discovered nitrogen was present in the compounds. Alkaloids are organic compounds which form water-soluble salts that perform various functions in medicine. For example, some are analgesics (pain-killers), and others are respiratory stimulants. |
| Adam Sedgwick | |
(source) |
Born 22
Mar 1785; died 27 Jan 1873.
English geologist who first applied the name Cambrian to the geologic period of time, now dated at 570 to 505 million years ago. |
| Bryan Donkin | |
(source) |
Born 22 Mar 1768; died 27 Feb 1855.
English mechanical engineer and inventor. After the Fourdrinier brothers imported from France a prototype machine for making paper in continuous lengths (1802), Donkin assisted with design improvements and to establish a factory. By 1808, Donkin acquired the works and a license to manufacture the paper-making machines. He also developed printing machinery and invented the composition roller used in printing. Donkin held other patents on gearing, steel pens, paper-making and railway wheels. He also worked on the preservation of food in airtight containers (1813), revolution counters and improved accurate screw threads for graduating mathematical scales. Three more generations of his family included engineers.«  [Image
right:
Donkin/Fourdrinier paper-making machine 1820.] |
| Ulugh Beg | |
(source) |
Born 22
Mar 1394; died 27 Oct 1449.
The only important Mongol scientist, mathematician, and the greatest astronomer of his time. His greatest interest was astronomy, and he built an observatory (begun in 1428) at Samarkand. In his observations he discovered a number of errors in the computations of the 2nd-century Alexandrian astronomer Ptolemy, whose figures were still being used. His star map of 994 stars was the first new one since Hipparchus. After Ulugh Beg was assassinated by his son, the observatory fell to ruins by 1500, rediscovered only in 1908. Written in Arabic, his work went unread by the world's next generation of astronomers. When his tables were translated into Latin in 1665, telescopic observations had surpassed them. |
|
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| MARCH 22 - DEATHS | |
| Agnes Arber | |
(source) |
 Died
22 Mar 1960 (born 23 Feb 1879)
(née Robertson) British botanist noted chiefly for her studies in comparative anatomy of plants, especially monocotyledons. Her interest in botany began in her schooldays in London. Her first book, Herbals: Their Origin and Evolution, published in 1912 and rewritten in 1938, became a standard textbook of the period. She was the first woman botanist to be made a fellow of the Royal Society, Britain's oldest and most important scientific society. Her later works were Water Plants: A Study of Aquatic Angiosperms (1920), Monocotyledons (1925), and The Gramineae: A Study of Cereal, Bamboo and Grass (1934). Arber also wrote, between 1902 and 1957, numerous articles on comparative anatomy. |
| Johann Wolfgang von Goethe | |
(source) |
Died
22 Mar 1832 (born 28 Aug 1749)
German poet and natural philosopher, who while famous in world literature, was an intellectual with an interest in science. He coined the term "morphology" to describe the systematic study of the structure of living things. He wrote ably, though mostly wrongly, on matters of science. His Zur Farbenlehre (On the Theory of Colour, 1810), parted radically from Newton's interpretation of white light as a mixture of colours. Goethe took the position of a neptunist in geology. In biology, he saw all plant structures as modifications of leaf forms. However, he agreed with evolution whereby he viewed the origin of plants and animals as having followed specialization and differentiation throughout time to their present forms.« Goethe's
Way of Science, by David Seamon. |
| William Symington | |
(source) |
Died
22 Mar 1831 (born Oct 1763)
British mining engineer who developed (1801) a successful steam-driven paddle wheel and used it the following year to propel one of the first practical steamboats, the Charlotte Dundas, commissioned by Lord Dundas and designed for the Forth and Clyde canal. Symington used a piston rod coupled to a crankshaft by a connecting rod, a design that was to become standard for steam ships. The 56-ft craft successfully underwent trials on the canal proving herself capable of towing two barges of 70 tons along a 19.5 mile stretch in 1801. The boat was abandoned shortly thereafter at the canal company's Tophill depot at Camelon near Falkirk, because of concern that the wake from her stern paddle wheel would damage the banks. |
| John Canton | |
(source) |
Died 22 Mar 1772 (born 31 Jul 1718)
British physicist and teacher. After educating himself about science, he developed a new method of preparing artificial magnets and won election to the Royal Society (1749). In July 1752, he was the first Englishman to repeat French experiments verifying Franklin’s hypothesis that lightning was just a huge electric spark, (as seen from charged Leyden jars). Following this, he studied the polarity of the charge on a cloud. He invented a portable electroscope to detect charge present in a system, and he remains well-known for electrostatic induction experiments. Canton proved that water is slightly compressible (1762). Noting compass needle irregularities during a prominent aurora borealis he made the first observations of magnetic storms (1756-9). [Image right (source)] |
| MARCH 22 - EVENTS | |
| International ozone agreement | |
(source) |
In 1985, the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer was
adopted and opened for signature. It entered into force on 22 Sep 1988
and established that secretariat functions would be carried
out by the United Nations Environment Programme. Control of ozone-depleting
substances was needed because ecological and health damage results from
a depleted ozone layer due to more UV-B radiation reaching the Earth’s
surface. Results include increased rates of skin cancers and eye cataracts,
reduced plant and fishing yields from adverse effects on terrestrial and
ocean ecosystems, weakened immune systems, and more damage to plastics.
The subsequent Montreal Protocol established specific limits to production
« [Image: the largest
ozone hole ever recorded, Sep 2000, exposed all the Antartic and reached
the southern tip of Argentina.] |
| VideoDisc | |
RCA model SFT100 (source) |
In 1981, RCA first put on sale the SelectaVision VideoDisc, exactly 10
years after RCA applied for the first patents.
Based on electronic
capacitance
technology, RCA VideoDiscs contained a groove of varying depth which was
played with a stylus sensitive to the depth of the groove immediately underneath
it. The system emerged as a marvel of mass-production research and development,
able to play a two-hour movie on a twelve-inch, fifteen-dollar record on
a $500 player. However, SelectaVision failed in the marketplace, since
VCR's had dropped in price during its development phase, and the VideoDisc
arrived on the market too late to compete. Manufacturing was abandoned
in April 1984. |
| Laser | |
|
In 1960, the first laser was patented (No. 2,929,922) by Arthur Schawlow
and Charles Hard Townes, assigned to the Bell Telephone Laboratories, where
they had done the research. |
|
| U.S. Rocket | |
|
In 1946, the first rocket
built in the United States left the Earth's atmosphere, whereas Germany
had launched a rocket the year before. The U.S. rocket was launched from
White Sands, New Mexico, and attained an altitude of 50 miles. |
|
| Early German TV | |
|
In 1935, television broadcasts begin in Berlin, Germany, with a low definition,
180 lines system. |
|
| Taximeter | |
(source) |
In 1907, the first internal combustion-powered cabs in London with taximeters
began operating. The taximeter gave the cab its modern name. Its purpose
was to indicate to both driver and passenger the distance travelled and
so avoid arguments about payment due. The word derives from French (taxe
= price) and Greek (metron = measure). The taximeter was invented
by Wilhelm Bruhn in 1891. |
| Lumieres' first movie | |
(source) |
In 1895, the first motion
picture shown on a screen was presented by Auguste
and Louis Lumière. An
invited audience at 44 Rue de Rennes in Paris, France, viewed the film
La
Sortie des ouvriers de l'usine Lumière. The film
they shot specially for the occasion shows workers leaving the Lumières'
own factory in Lyon, which made all kinds of photographic products. The
workers streamed out, most on foot and some on bicycles. Several more
such screenings followed before the first public performance, at the Salon
Indien of the Grand Café, 14 Boulevard des Capucines in Paris on
28th Dec 1895. The Lumières
soon began opening cinemas in London, Brussels, Berlin and New York.« |
| Elevator | |
(source) |
In 1857, the first department store elevator for passengers was installed
at E.V. Haughwout & Co. in New York City. Elisha
Graves Otis was the inventor, who had sold his first safety elevator
machine for freight only four years earlier, on 20 Sep 1853, the year in
which he started in that business. Shortly thereafter, in May 1954, at
the Crystal Palace in New York City, he created public interest with a
daring demonstration. He was hoisted high in the air on a platform fitted
with his safety feature. When he called for the rope to be cut, the safety
device stopped his fall. As he continued to collect orders, he continued
to invent ways to improve the elevators he manufactured. By 1889 he used
the electric motor to power elevators.« |
