| APRIL 4 - BIRTHS | |
| Shing-Tung Yau | |
(source) |
 Born 4
Apr 1949
Chinese-born mathematician who was awarded the Fields Medal in 1983 for his work in partial differential equations and differential geometry. His work also has applications in topology, algebraic geometry, representation theory and general relativity. Working collaboratively with Richard M. Schoen, Yau solved a long-standing open problem in relativity theory, by showing the positivity of mass for space-time. As a consequence, Schoen and Yau were able to give the first rigorous demonstration of how black holes can be formed because of the condensation of matter. A black hole possesses a gravitational field so intense that no matter or radiation can escape from it. Yau was the 1997 National Medal of Science winner. |
| Ananda Chakrabarty | |
(source) |
Born 4
Apr 1938
Indian-American biochemist who patented the first genetically engineered life-form (U.S. No. 4,259,444) which he created while working on the research and development staff of General Electric (1971-79). The new single cell life form was the Pseudomonas bacterium, now called Burkholderia cepacia, which had the potential to clean up toxic spills because of its ability to break down crude oil into simpler substances that could even become food for aquatic life. This ability is possessed by no naturally occurring bacteria. His original patent application was rejected. Eventually, by appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, on 16 Jun 1980 it was decided that new forms of life could be patented if they are the outcome of human ingenuity.« |
| William Cumming Rose | |
(source) |
Born 4
Apr 1887; died 25 Sep 1985.
American biochemist who researched the role of amino acids in nutrition determining which were essential, and calculated the minimum daily requirement for each of them. Having found that the milk protein, casein, was essential in a healthy rat's diet, he discovered (1936) the threonine in the casein was an essential amino acid. Over several years he manipulated the rodent diet and finally established the primary importance of nine more amino acids: lysine, tryptophan, histidine, phenylalanine, leucine, isoleucine, methionine, valine, and arginine. In 1942, Rose began a ten-year research project on human diet. By persuading students to restrict their diet in various ways Rose eventually established that 8 of the above are essential amino acids for adults. |
| Raoul Pierre Pictet | |
(source) |
Born 4
Apr 1846; died 27 Jul 1929.
Swiss chemist who was a pioneer of cryogenics. His original interest in the artificial production of ice (for refrigeration) led him to study the production of extremely low temperatures. He produced liquid oxygen, working independently of the French scientist, Louis Paul Cailletet, who is also credited with its discovery in 1877. However, Pictet used more elaborate equipment and was able to produce greater volumes of liquified gases. Pictet used a cascade method, in which he evaporated liquid sulfur dioxide to liquefy carbon dioxide, which in turn was allowed to evaporate and to cool oxygen to below its critical temperature. The oxygen could then be liquefied by pressure. This was also easier to apply to other gases. |
| John Hughlings Jackson | |
(source) |
Born 4
Apr 1835; died 7 Oct 1911.
English neurologist whose studies of epilepsy, speech defects, and nervous-system disorders arising from injury to the brain and spinal cord remain among the most useful and highly documented in the field. He was one of the first to state that abnormal mental states may result from structural brain damage. Jackson's epilepsy studies initiated the development of modern methods of clinical localization of brain lesions and the investigation of localized brain functions. His definition (1873) of epilepsy as "a sudden, excessive, and rapid discharge" of brain cells has been confirmed by electroencephalography, a method of recording electric currents generated in the brain. |
| Zénobe-Théophile Gramme | |
(source) |
Born 4
Apr 1826; died 20 Jan 1901.
Belgian-born French electrical engineer and inventor (1869) of the Gramme dynamo, a continuous-current electrical generator that gave principal impetus to the development of electric power. In 1870 he invented a continuous-current dynamo with a ring armature (a ring of soft iron around which were placed insulated copper coils). This produced much higher voltages than other dynamos of the time and was the first high-voltage direct-current generator practical for mass production and distribution. Driven by steam-engines, they were immediately successful and were used for a variety of purposes, including factory lighting, electroplating, and lighthouses. With these dynamos, the era of large-scale electrical engineering began. |
| Sir William Siemens | |
(source) |
Born 4
Apr 1823; died 19 Nov 1883.
German-born English engineer and inventor, pioneer in undersea cable, important in the development of the steel and telegraph industries. Originally his name was Carl Wilhelm Siemens. After visiting England to introduce an electroplating device (which he had devised with his brother Ernst) he returned in 1844 and became (1859) a naturalized British subject. He developed the "regenerative system" which used waste gases to preheat fuel gases. This became part of the open-hearth furnace which he used to purify steel. In 1869, he helped design and build the London-Calcutta telegraph line, which was a milestone in the history of communications engineering. |
| Linus Yale | |
(source) |
Born 4 Apr 1821; died 25 Dec 1868.
American inventor and manufacturer of locks, including the cylinder or pin-tumbler lock known by his name. His first lock business, established at Shelburne Falls, Mass. (early 1840s) began by producing bank locks such as his Yale Infallible Bank Lock (1851). He introduced the combination lock (c.1862). His expert knowledge gained him celebrity for being able to open his competitors' "unpickable" locks. He first patented the pin tumbler cylinder door lock in 1861. His improved model of 1865 remains a secure design used in the Yale locks of today. He began mass-production of this lock, and with partners, founded Yale Lock Manufacturing Co. in the last year of his life (1868).« |
| Benjamin Peirce | |
(source) |
Born 4
Apr 1809; died 6 Oct 1880.
American astronomer, mathematician and educator who computed the general perturbations of the planets Uranus and Neptune. He was Harvard's Perkins Professor of Astronomy and Mathematics for nearly 40 years, and was largely responsible for introducing mathematics as a subject for research in American institutions. He is known especially for his contributions to analytic mechanics and linear associative algebra, but he is also remembered for his early work in astronomy and for playing a role in the discovery of Neptune. |
| Joseph-Nicolas Delisle | |
| Born 4
Apr 1688; died 11 Sep 1768.
French astronomer who proposed that the series of coloured rings sometimes observed around the Sun is caused by diffraction of sunlight through water droplets in a cloud. He also worked to find the distance of the Sun from the Earth by observing transits of Venus and Mercury across the face of the Sun. |
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| APRIL 4 - DEATHS | |
| Alfred Mosher Butts | |
(source) |
 Died
4 Apr 1993 (born 13 Apr 1899)
Architect, artist and photographer, who invented the board game Scrabble. He carefully analyzed how often each letter is used (that's how he decided how many of each letter to include and how many points each one would earn), then drew a board and glued letters on some balsa tiles. Originally called Criss Cross (1931), the game, which was based on the crossword puzzle and anagrams, was redesigned, renamed as Scrabble, and marketed by James Brunot in 1948. |
| Mary Jane Rathbun | |
(source) |
Died
4 Apr 1943 (born 11 Jun 1860)
American marine zoologist known for establishing the basic taxonomic information on Crustacea. For many years she was the Smithsonian's complete department of marine invertebrates where she studied, cataloged, and preserved specimens. Through her basic studies and published works, she fixed the nomenclature of Crustacea and was the recognized, and the much sought after, authority in zoology and carcinology (thestudy of crustacea). When the department needed an assistant, she resigned as superintendent and used her salary to hire someone. She continued to work without pay as a dedicated volunteer carcinologist. She published over 160 papers on a wide variety of scientific subjects. Image: Blue crab, Callinectes sapidus, named by Rathbun. |
| Wilhelm Ostwald | |
(source) |
Died
4 Apr 1932 (born 2 Sep 1853)
German chemist who almost single-handedly organized physical chemistry into a nearly independent branch of chemistry. He won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1909 for his work on catalysis, chemical equilibrium, and reaction velocities. |
| Andre Michelin | |
(source) |
Died
4 Apr 1931 (born 16 Jan 1853)
André Michelin was a French industrialist who, with his younger brother Édouard, founded Michelin Tyre Co. in 1888, expanding the rubber company established (1832) by their grandfather, Aristide Barbier, and Nicolas Edouard Daubree. The Michelins made the first pneumatic tyres that could be easily removed for repair, for bicycles (1891) and for automobiles (1895). They introduced tire tread patterns, low-pressure balloon tires, and steel-cord tires. The company created a tourist guide organization which placed milestones on French roads and established a standard road map service for most of Europe. André created Michelin guides to promote tourism by car. The first Red Guide, with restaurant ratings, was published in 1900.«  The
Michelin Men: Driving an Empire by Herbert Lottman |
| Karl Benz | |
(source) |
Died
4 Apr 1929 (born 25 Nov 1844)
Karl (Friedrich) Benz was a German mechanical engineer who designed and in 1885 built the world's first practical automobile to be powered by an internal-combustion engine. The earliest engine he built was a two-stroke engine, which after two years' work first ran on 31 Dec 1879. He took out various patents on this machine, and opened a factory. After developing financial backing, Benz designed a "motor carriage", with an engine based on the Otto fourstroke cycle. Unlike Daimler, who installed his engine in an ordinary carriage, Benz designed not only his engine, but the whole vehicle as well. On 29 Jan 1886, he was granted a patent on it and on 3rd Jul 1886, he introduced the first automobile in the world, produced for public sale from 1888. |
| Milan Stefánik | |
Czechoslovakia |
Died
4 Apr 1919 (born 21 Jul 1880)
Milan (Rastislav) Stefánik Slovakian astronomer and general who, with Tomás Masaryk and Edvard Benes, from abroad, helped found the new nation of Czechoslovakia by winning much-needed support from the Allied powers for its creation as a post-WWI republic, (1918-19). Before the war, the famous observatory in Meudon near Paris sent a scientific expedition to the 4810m high Mont Blanc. He joined the expedition, which was paid for by the French government to go to the roof of Europe. |
| Sir William Crookes | |
(source) |
Died 4 Apr 1919 (born 17 Jun 1832)
British chemist and physicist who discovered the element thallium and showed that cathode-rays were fast-moving, negatively-charged particles. The Crookes dark space is the dark region around a cathode making electrical discharges at low pressure. He invented the radiometer (1875) in which four vanes suspended on a needle in a vacuum with one side black and the other side white are observed to rotate by the effect of incident light. He also invented the spinthariscope (1903) which reveals alpha particles emitted by radium as light flashes when they impact a zinc sulphide screen viewed under magnification. His interests included spiritualism, but provided more practical guidance for improving sanitation and artifical fertilizers.« [Image right: radiometer] |
| Alphonse Pyrame de Candolle | |
(source) |
Died
4 Apr 1893 (born 27/28 Oct 1806)
Alphonse(-Louis-Pierre) Pyrame de Candolle was a Swiss botanist who began new methods of investigation and analysis in phytogeography (the geographic distribution of plants). His father, Augustin Pyrame de Candolle had developed a general scheme of plant classification, for which he coined the word taxonomy (1813). This was to dominate plant classification for 50 years. Augustin used his scheme in a major series of volumes on botany. Alphonse de Candolle, completed this series, and is mainly responsible for continuing the great work Prodromus Systematis Naturalis regni vegetablis, published over a number of years, following the original lines laid down by his father. His own Origin of Cultivated Plants was published in 1882.« Origin
Of Cultivated Plants, by Alphonse De Candolle. |
| Peter Cooper | |
| Died
4 Apr 1883 (born 12 Feb 1791)
American inventor, manufacturer, and philanthropist who built the "Tom Thumb" locomotive and founded The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, New York City. |
|
| Karl Mauch | |
(source) |
Died
4 Apr 1875 (born 7 May 1837)
Karl (Gottlieb) Mauch was a German explorer who made geological and archaeological discoveries in southern Africa, notably the Tati goldfields in Hartley Hills (1867) and the Great Zimbabwe ruins of an ancient city (1871), both in modern Zimbabwe. He was the first European to investigate the massive and extensive walls of the Great Zimbabe ruins, the biggest and most significant structures erected before the modern era. He wrongly held that they could not have been constructed by black Africans. He thought it was the palace of Queen Sheeba and he called it "the city of gold." However, he did make a detailed floor plan of monuments, describe building techniques and the religious acitivies conducted around the monument. [Image: aerial view of the Great Zimbabwe ruins.] Karl
Mauch: African explorer, by Karl Mauch. |
| Heinrich Gustav Magnus | |
(source) |
Died
4 Apr 1870 (born 2 May 1802)
German chemist and physicist who discovered the Magnus effect (the lift force produced by a rotating cylinder, which for example, gives the curve to a curve ball). In chemical research, he discovered the first of the platino-ammonium compounds compounds. Magnus's green salt is [Pt(NH3)4][PtCl4]). With diverse interests in science, he also worked on the absorption of gases by blood, expansion of gases when heated, vapour pressures of water and various solutions, electrolysis, induced and thermoelectric currents, optics, magnetism and hydrodynamics. In 1865, he represented Prussia at a conference called to introduce a uniform metric system of weights and measures into Germany. |
| Ludwig Leichhardt | |
| Died
4 Apr 1848 (born 23 Oct 1813)
(Friedrich Wilhelm) Ludwig Leichhardt was an explorer and naturalist who became one of Australia's earliest national heroes and whose mysterious disappearance aroused efforts to find him for nearly a century. |
|
| Jérôme Lalande | |
(source) |
Died
4 Apr 1807 (born 11 Jul 1732)
Joseph Jérôme Le Français de Lalande, was a an astronomer, born in Bourg-en-Bresse, France. He determined the Moon's parallax from Berlin for the French Academy (1751). He was appointed professor of Astronomy, Collège de France (1762), and subsequently, director of the Paris Observatory. He published his Traité d'astronomie in 1764 - tables of the planetary positions that were considered the best available for the rest of the century. In 1801 he also published a comprehensive star catalogue. He died in 1807, apparently of tuberculosis. |
| Jeremias B. Richter | |
(source) |
Died
4 Apr 1807 (born 10 Mar 1762)
Jeremias Benjamin Richter was a German chemist who discovered law of equivalent proportions. He studied chemistry in his spare time while in the Prussian army (1778-1785) and afterwards while earning a Ph.D. in mathematics (1789). Richter was much influenced by Kant, whose lectures he may have attended, in the contention that science is applied mathematics. Richter looked for mathematical relationships in chemisty, convinced that substances reacted with each other in fixed proportions. He showed such a relationship when acids and bases neutralize to produce salts (1791). Thus he was the first to establish stoichiometry, which became the basis of quantiative chemical analysis. He died of tuberculosis at age 45 years. |
| John Napier | |
| Died
4 Apr 1617 (born 1550)
Scottish mathematician and theological writer who originated the concept of logarithms as a mathematical device to aid in calculations. |
|
| Charles de L'Écluse | |
(source) |
Died
4 Apr 1609 (born 19 Feb 1526)
(a.k.a. Carolus Clusius) French botanist who introduced the tulip to Holland. He travelled and collected botanical information throughout Europe, and introduced new plants from outside Europe. Leaving France to escape religious perscution as a Protestant, he spent time in Prague and Vienna. Late in life, in 1593, he succeeded Dodoens as the chair of botany at the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. He established the botanical garden there and grew a collection of flowering bulbs, including the tulip which initiated the Dutch bulb industry. He is also attributed with cultivating the peony, hyacinth, potato and chestnut.« |
| Alfonso X of Castile | |
(source) |
Died
4 Apr 1284 (born 23 Nov 1221)
Spanish monarch and astronomer who encouraged the preparation of revised planetary tables (1252), published on the day of his accession to the throne as king of Castile and León. These "Alfonsine Tables," a revisionand improvement of the Ptolemaic tables, were the best available during the Middle Ages; they were not replaced by better ones for over three centuries. The astronomical data tabulating the positions and movements of the planets was compiled by about 50 astronomers he had assembled for this purpose. He questioned the complexity of the Ptolemaic model centuries before Copernicus. "If the Lord Almighty had consulted me before embarking on the Creation, I would have recommended something simpler." He also wrote a commentary on alchemy. |
| APRIL 4 - EVENTS | |
| Challenger | |
(NASA) |
In 1983, the space shuttle Challenger roared into orbit on its maiden
voyage. It was named after the British Naval research vessel HMS Challenger
that sailed the Atlantic and Pacific oceans during the 1870's. Challenger
joined
the NASA fleet of reusable winged spaceships and flew nine successful Space
Shuttle missions. But on 28 Jan 1986, its tenth launch, the Challenger
and its crew of seven were lost 73 seconds after launch when a booster
failure resulted in the breakup of the vehicle. |
| Dental pliers | |
(USPTO) |
In 1978, Francisco Garcia was granted
patent No. 4,081,909 for "orthodontic pliers." The pliers are especially
useful for bending the alignment wire end during all phases of the Begg
orthodontic technique. The pliers comprise a pair of pivoted jaw members
from the ends of which extend a male and female beak at right angles to
the jaws. The male beak is cylindrical and mates with the semi-tubular
female beak. Thus the pliers enable quick and easy bending of the arch
wire ends without deforming the main arch wire. This leaves the end of
the wire away from the cheek and gum of the patient, who is saved the discomfort
of scraped cheeks or gums. |
| Garbage power | |
(source) |
In 1972, the first electric power generated
in the U.S. fueled by municipal solid waste was produced at the Meramec
Plant of the Union Electric Company, St. Louis, Missouri. The venture was
a cooperative effort with the city of St. Louis, with financial support
from the Environmental Protection Agency. The power plant coal-fired boiler
was supplemented with a small percentage of shredded refuse. In the following
month, the plant generated 200,000 kW-hr of electricity, and wastes were
consumed at the reate of 12.5 tons/hour or 300 tons/day. The benefits of
the project included the environmentally acceptable way to dispose of solid
waste, reduced fossil fuel consumption, and cost savings to both the utility
and the city.« |
| Artificial heart | |
(source) |
In 1969, Dr. Denton
Cooley 
implanted the first total artificial
heart. It was used as a bridge to heart transplantation
at the Texas Heart Institute, Houston, Texas. Haskell Karp had advanced
terminal heart and his own heart was completely removed and replaced with
a two-chambered artificial heart powered by large external air pumps with
hoses to passing through the body wall and into the circulatory system.
This device kept him alive for three days until a donor heart was found
to give Karp a human heart transplant. However, he died 30 hours later
when infection and tissue rejection set in.« [Image
left: Dr .Denton Cooley; right:
Haskell Karp] |
| Vitamin C | |
(source) |
In 1932, Professor C. Glen King of the University of Pittsburgh isolated
vitamin C, a medical and scientific breakthrough, after five years of effort.
By painstaking
research
extracting components from lemon juice - requiring untold thousands of
lemons - King and his colleagues isolated a crystalline substance, identified,
and later synthesized vitamin C. Their discovery meant prevention of the
disease of scurvy, long a source of human suffering. During WW II, King
was named chairman of the Nutrition Foundation, which funded research into
the nutritional problems facing a country and an army at war. He continued
his innovative work with vitamin C until his retirement from Columbia University
in 1964. |
| American Rocket Society | |
|
In 1930, the American Interplanetary Society was founded
by G. Edward Pendray, David Lasser, Laurence Manning and others. Its was
known as the American Rocket Society from 6 Apr 1934. Through the 1930s,
the group
designed an experimental test stand and tested liquid-fuelled rockets.
Their pioneering work
led the way to the United States space program. Their ARS-4 rocket, was
the first launched in America to break the sound barrier (9 Sep 1934).
It was fired from from Marine Park, Staten Island, N.Y., reached a top
speed of 700 mph, travelled to a maxium height of 400-ft and a horizontal
range of 1,600-ft. In early 1963, it merged with the American Institute
of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).«
Blazing
The Trail: The Early History Of Spacecraft And Rocketry, by
Mike Gruntman. |
|
| Gas burner patent | |
(USPTO) |
In 1899, a gas burner was patented by Benjamin F. Jackson, a black American
inventor (No. 622,482). His design improved the equal distribution of air
under pressure to ensure more complete combusion of the fuel gas. He assigned
the patent to Robert Hoe, Theodore Mead and Charles Carpenter of New York
City. The previous year, he took out patents on a "Heating Apparatus" and
a "Matrix Drying Apparatus." [Image:
gas burner vertical section and plan views]
The
Inventive Spirit of African Americans: Patented Ingenuity,
by Patricia Carter Sluby. |
| Telephone demonstration | |
|
In 1877, a pianist performed in Philadelphia, and an audience heard the
performance in New York. It was an important early demonstration of Alexander
Graham Bell's new invention, the telephone. |
|
| Mrs Potts sad iron | |
(source) |
In 1871, Mary Florence Potts of Ottumwa, Iowa patented
the "Mrs. Potts' sad iron (No.113,448). The invention
is a detachable handle for pressing irons. Thus a person could heat a number
of iron bodies on a stove, using each in turn with one handle. It was widely
manufactured and licensed in the U.S. and Europe with advertising featuring
her picture. The body of the iron was cast hollow and was later filled
with an insulating material, such as plaster of Paris, cement or clay.
Mrs. Potts claimed in her patent that this material held the heat longer
so that more garments could be ironed without reheating the iron. Three
irons, one handle and one stand were sold as a set. Mrs. Potts' iron is
well known by antique dealers and collectors. |
| Chocolate milk powder | |
|
In 1828, Casparus van Wooden patented chocolate milk powder (Amsterdam). |
|
