April 9 - Today in Science History

APRIL 9 - BIRTHS
Heisuke Hironaka
(source)	Born 9 Apr 1931 Japanese mathematician who was awarded the Fields Medal in 1970 for his work in algebraic geometry giving a number of technical results, including the resolution of certain singularities and torus imbeddings with implications in the theory of analytic functions, and complex and Kähler manifolds. In simple terms, an algebraic variety is the set of all the solutions of a system of polynomial equations in some number of variables. Nonsingular varieties would be those that may not cross themselves. The problem is whether any variety is equivalent to one that is nonsingular. Oscar Zariski had shown earlier that this was true for varieties with dimension up to three. Hironaka showed that it is true for other dimensions.
J. Presper Eckert, Jr.
(source)	Born 9 Apr 1919; died 3 Jun 1995. J(ohn) Presper Eckert, Jr. was an American engineer and coinventor of the first general-purpose electronic computer, a digital machine that was the prototype for most computers in use today. In 1946, Eckert with John W. Mauchly fulfilled a government contract to build a digital computer to be used by the U.S. Army for military calculations. They named it ENIAC for Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer. By 1949, they had started a manufacturing company for their BINAC computer. This was followed by a business oriented computer, UNIVAC (1951), which was put to many uses and spurred the growth of the computer industry. By 1966 Eckert held 85 patents, mostly for electronic inventions. "ENIAC: The Triumphs and Tragedies of the World's First Computer" by Scott McCartney
Gregory Pincus
(source)	Born 9 Apr 1903; died 22 Aug 1967. Gregory (Goodwin) Pincus was an American endocrinologist whose work on the antifertility properties of steroids led to the development of the first effective oral contraceptive: the birth-control pill. In 1934, Pincus made national headlines by achieving in-vitro fertilization of rabbits. The public was not ready for the vision of test-tube babies; instead of fame, he received notoriety. Consequently, he moved a small independent laboratory. There he did applied research, especially on steroids. In 1953, he was approached about developing a new form of contraception. He focussed on using progesterone as an effective anti-ovulent, and showed it could be a good contraceptive drug. In 1960, a synthetic progesterone drug was approved for contraceptive use. "The Control of Fertility" by Gregory Pincus
Howard A. Rusk
(source)	Born 9 Apr 1901; died 4 Nov 1989. American physician and founder of the science of rehabilitation medicine (also known as physiatry or physical therapy), which he established through efforts to rehabilitate wounded soldiers during and after WW II. He established the Rehabilitation Services in the Air Force for the casualties returning from combat. The program operated in 215 hospitals and 12 rehabilitation centers.Now this specialized medical service is aimed at rehabilitating persons disabled by such diverse problems as fractures, burns, tuberculosis, painful backs, strokes, nerve and spinal cord injuries, diabetes, birth defects, arthritis, and vision and speech impairments. Between 1945 and 1970 he was a weekly columnist for New York Times. "A World to Care For: The Autobiography of Howard A. Rusk, M.D." by Howard A. Rusk
James S. McDonnell
(source)	Born 9 Apr 1899; died 22 Aug 1980. James S. McDonnell was an American manufacturer of aircraft McDonnell started his first company in 1928, to build the single Doodlebug, but since it found no market, he spent the next 10 years working for several aircraft companies. Then he founded the St. Louis based McDonnell Aircraft Co.on 6 Jul 1939. Among his notable achievements were the production of the U.S. Navy's first carrier based jet fighter (1946), the FM-1; Mercury, America's first manned space craft to orbit the earth (1962), and the F-4 Phantom jet. "The Illustrated History of McDonnell Douglas Aircraft : From Cloudster to Boeing"by Mike Badrocke, Bill Gunston
Élie-Joseph Cartan
(source)	Born 9 Apr 1869; died 6 May 1951. French mathematician who greatly developed the theory of Lie groups and contributed to the theory of subalgebras. By 1904 Cartan was turning to papers on differential equations and from 1916 on he published mainly on differential geometry. Cartan also published work on relativity and the theory of spinors. He is certainly one of the most important mathematicians of the first half of the 20th century.
Charles Proteus Steinmetz
1890 (source)	Born 9 Apr 1865; died 26 Oct 1923. German-born American inventor and electrical engineer whose theories and mathematical analysis of alternating current systems helped establish them as the preferred form of electrical energy in the United States, and throughout the world. In 1893, Steinmetz joined the newly organized General Electric Company where he was an engineer then consultant until his death. His early research on hysteresis (loss of power due to magnetic resistance) led him to study alternating current, which could eliminate hysteresis loss in motors. He did extensive new work on the theory of a.c. for electrical engineers to use. His last research was on lightning, and its threat to the new AC power lines. He was responsible for the expansion of the electric power industry in the U.S. "Lectures on Electrical Engineering" by Charles Proteus Stienmetz, Philip Langdon Alger
Sebastian Ziani de Ferranti
(source)	Born 9 Apr 1864; died 13 Jan 1930. English electrical engineer who promoted the installation of large electrical generating stations and alternating current distribution networks in England. He was interested in electrical and mechanical devices as a youth, and in 1881, began such employment while in his late teens. In his 20's, he began planning an ambitious generating station about 8 miles outside London, to use transmission at an unprecedented 10,000 volts - four times greater than previously practical. For this he began designing suitable cables, transformers and generators. His idea of making high voltage flexible cables using wax-impregnated paper for insulation was a landmark development used exclusively until the advent of synthetic materials. His 176 patents cover varied inventions. "Ferranti and the British Electrical Industry, 1864-1930" by J. F. Wilson
Eadweard Muybridge
(source)	Born 9 Apr 1830; died 8 May 1904. English photographer important for his pioneering work in photographic studies of motion and in motion-picture projection. For his work on human and animal motion, he invented a superfast shutter. Leland Stanford, former governor of California, hired Muybridge to settle a hotly debated issue: Is there a moment in a horse’s gait when all four hooves are off the ground at once? In 1972, Muybridge took up the challenge. In 1878, he succeeded in taking a sequence of photographs with 12 cameras that captured the moment when the animal’s hooves were tucked under its belly. Publication of these photographs made Muybridge an international celebrity. Another noteworthy event in his life was that he was tried (but acquitted) for the murder of his wife's lover. [Image right source] Animals in Motion by Eadweard Muybridge, Lewis S. Brown
Charles-Eugène Delaunay
(source)	Born 9 Apr 1816; died 5 Aug 1872. French mathematician and astronomer whose theory of lunar motion advanced the development of planetary-motion theories. After 20 years of work, he published two volumes on lunar theory, La Théorie du mouvement de la lune (1860,1867). This is an important case of the three body problem. Delaunay found the longitude, latitude and parallax of the Moon as infinite series. These gave results correct to 1 second of arc but were not too practical as the series converged slowly. However this work was important in the beginnings of functional analysis. Delaunay succeeded Le Verrier as director of the Paris Observatory in 1870 but two years later he and three companions drowned in a boating accident.
Alphonse(-Eugène) Beau de Rochas
(source)	Born 9 Apr 1815; died 27 Mar 1893. French railway engineer who originated the theoretical principle of the four-stroke internal-combustion engine and provide a theoretical pressure diagram (1862). His achievement lay partly in his emphasizing the previously unappreciated importance of compressing the fuel-air mixture before ignition. (French patent #52,593, 16 Jan 1862). However, he never built such an engine, nor defended his patent when the German Nikolaus August Otto produced a four-stroke engine in 1876. Beau de Rochas proposed other ideas: a rail tunnel beneath the English Channel, a submarine telegraph, a new kind of drive for canal boats, the use of steel for high-pressure boilers, and a method of improving the adhesion of locomotive wheel on Alpine tracks.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
(source)	Born 9 Apr 1806; died 15 Sep 1859. English civil and mechanical engineer of great originality and productivity who designed the first transatlantic steamer, the Great Western. In 1823, he began work with his father, Marc Brunel, on the Thames Tunnel, and later became the resident engineer at the site. In 1829, Brunel designed a suspension bridge to cross the River Avon at Clifton. In 1831, he was appointed chief engineer at the Bristol Docks, and Brunel later designed the Monkwearmouth Docks and others at Plymouth, Cardiff, Brentford and Milford Haven. In 1833, age 27, he was appointed chief engineer of the Great Western Railway, the line that linked London to Bristol. He further built bridges, viaducts, and three steam ships: the Great Western, Great Britain and Great Eastern.« Brunel: The Life and Times of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, by Angus Buchanan
Thomas Johann Seebeck
(source)	Born 9 Apr 1770; died 10 Dec 1831. German physicist who discovered (1821) that an electric current flows between different conductive materials that are kept at different temperatures, known as the Seebeck effect. It is the basis of the thermocouple and is considered the most accurate measurement of temperature. It is also a key component of the semi-conductor, the foundation of the modern computer business. Seebeck's work was the basis of German physicist Georg Simon Ohm (1789-1854) discoveries in electricity and of French physicist Jean Charles Athanase Peltier (1785-1845), whose Peltier effect became well known as a way to use electricity to freeze water (air conditioning, refrigeration). [Image right: (source)]

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APRIL 9 - DEATHS

Vilhelm Bjerknes
(source)	Died 9 Apr 1951 (born 14 Mar 1862) Vilhelm F(riman) K(oren) Bjerknes was a Norwegian meteorologist and physicist, one of the founders of the modern science of weather forecasting. As a young boy, Bjerknes assisted his father, Carl Bjerknes (a professor of mathematics) in carrying out experiments to verify the theoretical predictions that resulted from his father's hydrodynamic research. After graduating from university, Bjerknes moved on to his own work applying hydrodynamic and thermodynamic theories to atmospheric and hydrospheric conditions in order to predict future weather conditions. His work in meteorology and on electric waves was important in the early development of wireless telegraphy. He evolved a theory of cyclones known as the polar front theory with his son Jakob. Appropriating the Weather: Vilhelm Bjerknes and the Construction of a Modern Meteorology, by Robert Marc Friedman
Oskar von Miller
(source)	Died 9 Apr 1934 (born 7 May 1855) Electrical engineer who fostered the electric-power industry in Germany and founded the Deutsches Museum of science and technology in Munich. He made fundamental initial experiments on long-distance energy transmission such as (in 1882) over 57 km from Miesbach to Munich with 1400 volts direct current. In 1891, he organized a 20,000-volt power transmission line over 175 km from Lauffen to Frankfurt, an important advance in the transmission of alternating current. From 1918-24, he was project manager building the power station on Lake Walchen, at that time the largest hydroelectric power station in the world. With an average of 300 million kWh a year, the Lake Walchen power plant is still one of Germany's largest peak load power stations.
Sir Patrick Manson
(source)	Died 9 Apr 1922 (born 3 Oct 1844) Scottish parasitologist, born in Old Meldrum, Aberdeenshire, who was the "father of tropical medicine." He was the first to discover (1877-79) that the mosquito can host a developing parasite worm that causes the human disease, filariasis, which occurs when the worms invade body tissues. He settled in Hong Kong in 1883. He co-founded Dairy Farm there in 1886 to improve the health by supplying cows' milk free of contamination by means of stringent hygiene. Manson also did valuable research on sleeping sickness and beri-beri, and he helped introduce vaccination to the Chinese. His research, together with Alphonse Laveran's discovery of the malarial parasite, were the basis leading to Sir Ronald Ross's elucidation of the transmission of malaria by mosquitoes. "Imperial Medicine: Patrick Manson and the Conquest of Tropical Disease" by Douglas M. Haynes
Friedrich August Johannes Löffler
(source)	Died 9 Apr 1915 (born 24 Jun 1852) German bacteriologist who discovered the organism that causes diphtheria, Corynebacterium diphtheriae, (1884) which had first been observed by the German physiologist Theodor Klebs in the throats of diphtheria patients (the organism became known as the Klebs-Löffler bacillus). The isolation and cultivation of pure cultures involved a number of formidable technical problems; Löffler found it necessary to develop a new medium, thickened serum, as the conventional gelatin used by Koch required temperatures far too low for the diphtheria pathogen. In 1898, with Paul Frosch, he showed that viruses could cause diseases in animals by passing foot-and-mouth disease in cows by inoculation with cell-free filtrates taken from lesions.
Michel-Eugène Chevreul
(source)	Died 9 Apr 1889 (born 31 Aug 1786) French chemist who began the study of the chemistry of fats. He discovered fatty acids, which led to a great improvement in the quality of stearine candles and in the fats used to make soaps. Stearine was first described by Chevreul in 1814 and was produced by heating glycerine with stearic acid. When used in candles it gave a steadier, brighter, odourless light. He was the first to find sugar in urine. He investigated and named margarine. In physics, he introduced (1839) his attempt at producing a systematic approach to seeing colours. In his 90s he turned to the study of the psychology of the elderly. When he died at 102, in his lifespan he had experienced both the French Revolution and the building of the Eiffel Tower. "The Principles of Harmony and Contrast of Colors and Their Applications to the Arts" by Faber Birren (Editor), Michel Eugene Chevreul
William Prout
(source)	Died 9 Apr 1850 (born 15 Jan 1785) English chemist and biochemist noted for his discoveries concerning digestion, metabolic chemistry, and atomic weights. He is best known for formulating Prout's hypothesis (1815) which states that the atomic weights of all elements are exact multiples of the atomic weight of hydrogen. At that time the atomic weight of hydrogen was taken to be 1.0, the hypothesis implied that all atomic weights would be whole numbers. In 1818, he isolated urea and uric acid for the first time. Six years later, he found hydrochloric acid in the digestive juices of the stomach. He was the first scientist (1827) to classify the components of food into the three main divisions of carbohydrates, fats and proteins. In 1920, Rutherford named the proton after Prout. "From Protyle to Proton: William Prout and the Nature of Matter, 1785-1985"by W.H. Brock
Christian von Wolff
(source)	Died 9 Apr 1754 (born 24 Jan 1679) (baron) philosopher, mathematician, and scientist who worked in many subjects but who is best known as the German spokesman of the Enlightenment, the 18th-century philosophical movement characterized by Rationalism. Wolff's first interest was mathematics. Though he made no original contribution to the discipline, he was important in the teaching of mathematics and instrumental in introducing the new mathematics into German universities. Later, as a philosopher, he developed the most impressive coherent system of his century. Thoroughly eclectic, influenced by Leibniz and Descartes, yet he continued fundamental themes of Aristotle. His system was important in making the discoveries of modern science known in Germany.
Sir Francis Bacon
(source)	Died 9 Apr 1626 (born 22 Jan 1561) English philosopher, remembered for his influence promoting a scientific method. He held that the aim of scientific investigation is practical application of the understanding of nature to improve man's condition. He wrote that scientists should concentrate on certain important kinds of experimentally reproducible situations, (which he called "prerogative instances"). After tabulating such phenomena, the investigator should also aim to make a gradual ascent to more and more comprehensive laws, and will acquire greater and greater certainty as he or she moves up the pyramid of laws. At the same time each law that is reached should lead him to new kinds of experiment, that is, to kinds of experiment over and above those that led to the discovery of the law. "Novum Organum: With Other Parts of the Great Instauration" by Francis Bacon, Peter Urbach (Editor), John Gibson (Editor), Translators



APRIL 9 - EVENTS

Longest scientific name
	In 1981, Nature published the longest scientific name in history. With 16,569 nucleotides, the systematic name for human mitochondrial DNA is 207,000 letters long.
Disposable syringe
	In 1974, African American, Phil Brooks was issued a U.S. patent for a disposable syringe (No. 3,802,434).
First astronauts selected
(source)	In 1959, NASA announced the selection of America's first seven astronauts for project Mercury. Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard and Donald Slayton were chosen from 110 applicants. Their training program at Langley, which ranged from a graduate-level course in introductory space science to simulator training and scuba-diving. Project Mercury, NASA’s first high profile program, was an effort to learn if humans could survive in space. NASA required astronaut candidates to be male, not older than 40 years of age, not more than 5' 11" height and in excellent physical condition. On 5 May 1961, Shepard became the first American in space.« [Image: 14 Sep 1959 cover of Life magazine.]
Saturn's rings
(source)	In 1895, a spectrogram made by American astronomer James Keeler proved that the rings of Saturn were indeed composed of meteoric particles, as predicted by Maxwell. If the rings were solid, observations would show uniform rotation. However, Keeler's spectrogram of light reflected from Saturn's rings showed a Doppler shift indicating a variation in radial velocity. Thus, particles in the inner part of a ring, closer to Saturn, move at a different rotational speed from those in more distance parts of a ring, as predicted by Kepler's 3rd law. Keeler publishedA Spectroscopic Proof of the Meteoric Constitution of Saturn's Rings in the May 1895 issue of Astrophysical Journal, vol. 1, p.416, the journal he co-founded with George E. Hale.« [Image: artist's illustration of Saturn's rings]
Cistern cleaners
	In 1895, cistern cleaners were patented by black American inventor, R.H. Gray, (No. 537,151). In Aug 1894, he received a patent for a baling press. The Inventive Spirit of African Americans: Patented Ingenuity, by Patricia Carter Sluby.
Dried milk
	In 1872, dried milk was patented by Samuel R. Percy.