| APRIL 7 - BIRTHS | |
| Kenneth (Page) Oakley | |
(source) |
 
Born 7 Apr 1911; died 2 Nov 1981.
English physical anthropologist, geologist, and paleontologist who developed a method to date fossils bones by measuring their fluoride levels, based on a French minerologist's theory that bones would gradually absorb fluoride from surrounding soil. While working for the British Natural History Museum, Oakley become famous in 1953 for exposing a forgery. A "Piltdown Man" skull had been "unearthed" in 1912, in Piltdown, England, and had for decades been said to represent the "missing link" in human evolution. With his fluoride and other tests he proved the true age of the bones to be a modern human braincase and an orangutan jawbone. The bones of the forgery had been chemically stained to appear ancient. [Image right: The Piltdown skull as reconstructed by J. H McGregor]  The
Piltdown Forgery by J. S. Weiner |
| Bronislaw (Kasper) Malinowski | |
(source) |
Born 7
Apr 1884; died 16 May 1942.
Polish-born British anthropologist one of the most important anthropologists of the 20th century who is widely recognized as the founder of social anthropology and principally associated with field studies of the peoples of Oceania. In 1914, on a research assignment to Australia, the outbreak of WW I kept him partially confined to the Trobriand Islands, off the eastern tip of New Guinea. In 1920, he returned to teaching in London, and in 1938 moved to teach in the U.S. He was the pioneer of "participant observation" as a method of fieldwork, used in his works on the Trobriand Islanders, especially Argonauts of the Western Pacific (1922) and Coral Gardens and their Magic (2 vols, 1935), which set new standards for ethnographic description. Magic,
Science and Religion and Other Essays by Bronislaw Malinowski |
| David Grandison Fairchild | |
1889 (source) |
Born 7
Apr 1869; died 6 Aug 1954.
American botanist and plant explorer who supervised the introduction of over 20,000 exotic plants and varieties of established crops into the U.S., including soya beans, mangos, alfalfa, nectarines, horseradish, and flowering cherries. He spent 37 years seeking new and useful plants by travelling the world including the South Sea Islands, Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, Japan, China, the Persian Gulf, Africa, the West Indies, and South America. In 1898 he set up a small plant introduction garden on a six-acre plot near Miami, Florida, especially interested in aesthetically valuable or economically useful exotic fruits and plants. He managed the Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction program of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (1906-28).« David
Fairchild's the World Was My Garden, by David Fairchild |
| (Erik) Ivar Fredholm | |
(source) |
Born 7
Apr 1866; died 17 Aug 1927.
Swedish mathematician who is remembered for Fredholm integral equations with applications in mathematical physics and actuarial science. His first paper (1890) was on a special class of functions inspired by the heat equation. His 1898 doctoral dissertation involved a study of partial differential equations motivated by an equilibrium problem in elasticity. Fredhlom also had a career in actuarial science and from 1902 onwards he studyied various questions in this area, including an elegant formula he proposed to determine the surrender value of a life insurance policy. He built a machine to solve differential equations. David Hilbert extended one of Fredholm's integral equations discoving Hilbert spaces on which would be built the quantum theory.« |
| W.K. Kellogg | |
(source) |
Born 7
Apr 1860; died 6 Oct 1951.
William Keith Kellogg was an American industrialist and philanthropist who founded (1906) the W.K. Kellogg Company to manufacture cereal products as breakfast foods. His cereals have found widespread use throughout the United States. The
Original Has This Signature: W.K. Kellogg, by Horace
B Powell. |
| Jacques Loeb | |
(EB) |
Born 7
Apr 1859; died 11 Feb 1924.
German-born American biologist noted chiefly for his experimental work on artificial parthenogenesis (reproduction without fertilization). Loeb was able to bring the unfertilized eggs of urchins and frogs to maturity by manipulating their environment, which influenced cell division. He also studied the tropisms of plants and simple animals, which means their reflexive responses to environmental stimuli. Before the age of thirty he published the "tropism theory" which was destined to make him famous. Loeb also worked on brain physiology and tissue regeneration. Controlling
Life: Jacques Loeb and the Engineering Ideal in Biology,
by Philip J. Pauly. |
| Francesco Selmi | |
(source) |
Born 7
Apr 1817; died 13 Aug 1881.
Italian chemist and toxicologist who is considered one of the founders of colloid chemistry. He coined (1870) the word ptomaine to denote certain nitrogenous compounds easily detectible by smell. Ptomaines (Greek ptoma, carcass or corpse) are the products of protein decay. Doubtless because they are extremely malodorous, Selmi believed these alkaloids to be the primary cause of food poisoning. Although the term "ptomaine poisoning" is still commonly used in the scientific community to designate food poisoning, it is now known that ptomaines do not themselves cause illness (which instead is caused by microorganisms and their toxins.) |
| James Glaisher | |
(source) |
Born 7
Apr 1809; died 7 Feb 1903.
English meteorologist and aeronaut. Between 1862-66, mostly with Henry Tracey Coxwell, he made balloon ascents, many of which were arranged by a committee of the British Association. The object was to carry out scientific observations such as the variation in temperature and humidity of the atmosphere at high elevations. On 5 Sep 1862, ascending from Wolverhampton, Glaisher and his companion attained the greatest height that had then been reached by a balloon carrying passengers. The precise altitude at the highest point is unknown because Glaisher lost consciousness and was unable to read the barometer, but estimated at 7 miles high. He produced dew-point tables (1847) and wrote several scientific books including Travels in the Air .« Travels
in the air, by James Glaisher. |
| Michel Adanson | |
(source) |
Born 7
Apr 1727; died 3 Aug 1806.
French botanist who established natural classification as a fundamental aim of biology. From 1748 he spent five years exploring Senegal, where he not only described and collected its flora and fauna, but also collected objects of commerce, drew maps, made meteorological and astronomical observations, and studied the languages. He classified the mollusks in an original way: by the anatomical structure of the living animals within the shells. The number and diversity of tropical plants in Senegal led him to consider grouping plants based on all their physical characteristics (rather than a few arbitrarily selected ones), with an emphasis on families. In 1763, he published his sytem in Familles des Plantes. The baobob tree is known by the genus Adansonia.« |
| APRIL 7 - DEATHS | |
| Leonid Vitalyevich Kantorovich | |
(source) |
 Died
7 Apr 1986 (born 19 Jan 1912)
Soviet mathematician and economist who shared the 1975 Nobel Prize for Economics with Tjalling Koopmans for their work on the optimal allocation of scarce resources. Kantorovich's background was entirely in mathematics but he showed a considerable feel for the underlying economics to which he applied the mathematical techniques. He was one of the first to use linear programming as a tool in economics and this appeared in a publication Mathematical methods of organising and planning production which he published in 1939. The mathematical formulation of production problems of optimal planning was presented here for the first time and the effective methods of their solution and economic analysis were proposed. |
| Henry Ford | |
(source) |
Died
7 Apr 1947 (born 30 Jul 1863)
American inventor and car manufacturer, born in Dearborn, Mich. Ford first experimented with internal combustion engines while he was an engineer with the Edison Illuminating Company. He completed his first useful gas motor on 24 Dec 1893. The Quadricycle, he designed made its first road test on 4 Jun 1896. In 1903 the Ford Motor Company was incorporated. By 1908, Ford was manufacturing the low cost, reliable Model T, while continuing to revolutionize his industry. Ford introduced precision manufactured parts designed to be standardized and interchangeable parts. In 1913, production was increased using a continuous moving assembly line. By 1918, half of all cars in America were Model T's. |
| Carl Theodor Ernst von Siebold | |
(source) |
Died
7 Apr 1885 (born 16 Feb 1804)
German zoologist who studied primarily invertebrates (such as jelly fish, intestinal worms, salamanders and freshwater fish) He also investigated life cycles of parasites and discovered the parthenogenesis of the honeybee (the development of an organism from an unfertilized egg). In 1848, with Koelliker, he created Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche Zoologie (“Journal of Scientific Zoology”), which he edited until his death.« |
| Jacques-Alexandre-César Charles | |
(source) |
Died
7 Apr 1823 (born 12 Nov 1746)
French mathematician, physicist, and inventor. When Benjamin Franklin visited France in 1779, Charles was inspired to study physics. He soon became an eloquent speaker to non-scientific audiences. His lectures and demonstrations attracted notable patrons and helped popularize Franklin's theory of electricity and other new scientific concepts. With Nicolas and Anne-Jean Robert, he made several balloon ascents, and was the first to use hydrogen for balloon inflation (1783). Charles invented most of the equipment that is still used in today's balloons. About 1787 he developed Charles's law concerning the thermal expansion of gases that for a gas at constant pressure, its volume is directly proportional to its absolute temperature. |
| Christian Konrad Sprengel | |
(source) |
Died
7 Apr 1816 (born 22 Sep 1750)
German botanist and teacher whose studies of sex in plants led him to a general theory of fertilization which, basically, is accepted today. Although director of a school at Spandau and tutor in Berlin, he devoted himself chiefly to the study of flowering plants. Sprengel's 1793 treatise [illustration at left] on floral structure examines the ways that flower colors, scents, shapes, and markings work harmoniously to attract insects for pollination. A clergyman and botanist, he spent his life researching the role played by the wind and insects in the fertilization of flowers. Although Sprengel's work was neglected by his contemporaries, Charles Darwin later praised Sprengel's work and brought it brought to public attention. |
| APRIL 7 - EVENTS | |
| 2001 Mars Odyssey | |
(source) |
In 2000, NASA launched
the 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft on a Delta 2 rocket. Stunning images
were sent back by the rocket's TV cameras during its fiery ascent. Odyssey
would travel 286 million miles before entering orbit around the red planet
on 24 Oct 2001. Its primary mission was to look for water in the form of
ice under the Martian surface and to create a thermal map of the planet.
From an altitude of about 250 miles, the spacecraft was to search for traces
of hydrogen, which could point out the existence of water. |
| Anthropology | |
|
In 1983, a human skeleton aged 80,000 years old was discovered in Egypt. |
|
| IBM mainframe | |
(source) |
In 1964, IBM launched
System/360, a familyof
six mutually compatible computers and 40 peripherals that could work together.
Many consider
it the biggest business gamble of all time, yet the System/360 helped transform
the government, science and commercial landscape. It introduced
a number of industry standards to the marketplace, including the de facto
worldwide standard of the 8-bit byte. The $5 billion investment by IBM
paid off, and within two years orders for the System/360 reached 1,000
per month. Customers could choose
from small to large, low to high performance, (nearly) all running
the same command set, allowing customers to begin with a low-cost version
of the family, and upgrade later. |
| Sun | |
|
In 1959, the first radar signal was bounced off the sun from Stanford,
California. |
|
| Atomic electricity | |
|
In 1959, the first atomic generated electricity was produced at Los Alamos
Scientific Laboratory, New Mexico. The experimental model used a "plasma
thermocouple" in the reactor instead of a fullscale turbine, and produced
merely enough electrical power for a light bulb. |
|
| Photo-engraving | |
|
In 1959, a patent for "improved photo-engraving" was issued to Sherman
Fairchild, No. 2,881,246. |
|
| TV broadcast | |
(source) |
In 1927, the first
public display of a long distance television transmission was viewed by
a group of newspaper reporters and dignitaries gathered at the AT&T
Bell Telephone Laboratories auditorium in New York. The program was a speech
by the then Secretary of Commerce, Herbert Hoover as his live picture and
voice were transmitted over telephone lines from Washington, D.C. "Today
we have, in a sense, the transmission of sight for the first time in the
world’s history," Hoover said. "Human genius has now destroyed the impediment
of distance in a new respect, and in a manner hitherto unknown." Newspapers
trumpeted AT&T’s achievement. Herbert Ives was the AT&T researcher
who led the television project. [Image:
Before the demonstration began, tells the audience about the photoelectric
cells, which served as the “eyes” of the television.] |
| Brain surgery | |
|
In 1923, the first operation
to remove a brain tumour under local anesthetic (cocaine on the patient's
scalp) was performed at Beth Israel Hospital in New York City by a team
of surgeons led by Dr. Karl Winfield Ney (d. 31 May 1949). The 4"x2"x¾"
tumour was benign, but still life-threatening. The patient's condition
had been deemed too risky for a general anaesthetic. So Henry A. Brown
was fully conscious throughout the operation and able to answer the doctors'
questions. Ney was a one-time chief of surgery for the French Red Cross.
He served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps from 1917 to 1921*.
« |
|
| Mount Vesuvius | |
(source) |
In 1906, an eruption
of Mount Vesuvius reached its climax with lava fountains, earthquakes and
an eruptive column of ash and gas that reached a height of 13,000-m. The
top of Vesuvius was truncated, and formed a crater approx. 500-m diam.
and 250-m deep. It had been active since May 1905 with slow lava effusions,
and from Jan 1906 some intermittent explosive (strombolian) activity. After
its climax, various minor activity occurred until its last eruption in
Mar 1944.« [Image: 1906
eruption photograph by American vulcanologist Frank Perret] |
| Simon Lake submarine patent | |
|
In 1896, inventor Simon Lake was issued
a U.S. patent for his "Submarine Locomotive" (No. 557,835), which he designed
with underwater salvage operations in mind. It was fitted with traction
wheels to travel the water-bed, and a crane hoist at the front. A diver's
compartment with a bottom door could be filled with compressed air at the
same pressure as the surrounding water to enable the diver to exit and
enter the vessel underwater to have "an aperture on one side closed by
means of a vibratory disphragm, and a combined air-supply and speakingtube
connecting ... with a diver's helmet." He improved his design with a later
patent issued 20 Apr 1897 (No. 581,213).
On 16 Dec 1897 he demonstrated
submarine Argonaut.« |
|
| Typesetting | |
|
In 1896, a patent for "justifying lines of type" was issued to Tolbert
Langston, No. 557,994. |
|
| Telegraph | |
(source) |
In 1885, Granville T. Woods, a prolific
black American inventor, patented an "Apparatus for Transmission of Messages
by Electricity," No. 315,368. In the following years he introduced numerous
innovations for use on railroads, applying electricity for telegraphy,
brakes, overhead conductors, controls and an electric railway.
Black
Inventors in the Age of Segregation, by Rayvon Fouche |
| Cotton cultivator | |
|
In 1874, a "cotton cultivator" was patented by its black American inventor,
E.H. Sutton, (No. 149,543).
The
Inventive Spirit of African Americans: Patented Ingenuity,
by Patricia Carter Sluby. |
|
| Match | |
 |
In 1827, John Walker, an English pharmacist, recorded his first sale of
the friction matches he invented the previous year. His discovery had been
accidental while trying to produce a readily combustible material for fowling-pieces.
His first match was the wooden stirring stick he used in a mixture of potash
and antimony. To remove a blob on the end of the stick, he had scraped
it on the stone floor, and it ignited. He never patented the invention,
and his production was limited to a sideline of his pharmacy business. |
| Mount Tombora | |
|
In 1815, the massive volcanic eruption of Mount Tombora, on the Sumbawa
island of Indonesia, made a crater five miles across, lowered the island
by 4,000 feet, and killed 92,000 people. The effect was felt worldwide
since the huge dust cloud ejected into the atmosphere was of such record
amounts that the light of the sun was screened and the world experienced
a drop in temperature. |
|
| Metric system | |
|
In 1795, France adopted by law, the metre as the unit of length and the
base of the metric
system. Since there had been no uniformity of French weights and measures
prior to the Revolution, the Academy of Sciences had been charged on 8
May 1790 to organise a better system. Delambre and Méchain measured
an arc of the meridian from Dunkirk to Barcelona, so that the metre could
be defined as one ten-millionth part of the distance between the poles
and the equator. |
|
| Priestley emigrates | |
(source) |
In 1794, chemist Joseph Priestley
(1733-1804) forever left England and travelled to the United States. The
previous year, on 14 Jul 1791, his laboratory, home and library were burned
to destruction by a mob of people angry at his support of the French Revolution.
His French colleague, Lavoisier,
was executed a week after he left England. Priestley's discovery of oxygen
was 20 years earlier, on 1 Aug 1774. During the last years of his life
in America he spent his time quietly writing, and furthering the cause
of Unitarianism in the new nation. |
