| APRIL 11 - BIRTHS | |
| Masaru Ibuka | |
(source) |
 Born 11
Apr 1908; died 19 Dec 1998.
Japanese electronics pioneer who co-founded a small post-war radio-repair company that grew into the giant Sony Corporation. He changed the Japanese electronics industry from simply copying Western products to innovation with their own electronic products. He introduced transistor technology to Japan. Sony progressed from making the first Japanese transistor radio to manufacturing the world's first transistorized television set. In the 1960's Ibuka pioneered color television. He retired from management in 1976, and turned to research that developed products such as the creative Walkman and the compact disc player. His accomplishments were significant in building consumer confidence in Japanese electronic products and rebuilding Asian economies.« |
| Donald Menzel | |
(source) |
Born 11
Apr 1901; died 14 Dec 1976.
Donald H(oward) Menzel was an American astronomer best known for his arguments against the existance of extraterrestrial UFO's. Menzel was one of the first practitioners of theoretical astrophysics in the United States and pioneered the application of quantum mechanics to astronomical spectroscopy. An authority on the sun's chromosphere, he discovered with J. C. Boyce (1933) that the sun's corona contains oxygen. With W. W. Salisbury he made (1941) the first of the calculations that led to radio contact with the moon in 1946. He supervised the assignment of names to newly discovered lunar features.  "Mathematical
Physics" by Donald H. Menzel |
| Edward Charles Titchmarsh | |
(source) |
Born 11
Apr 1899; died 18 Jan 1963.
English mathematician whose contributions to analysis placed him in the forefront of his profession. His contributions helped resolve the differences between the general theory of quantum mechanics and the methods used to solve particular problems in quantum theory. All Titchmarsh's work is in analysis. His early studies were on Fourier series, Fourier integrals, functions of a complex variable, integral equations and the Riemann zeta function. From 1939, Titchmarsh concentrated on the theory of series expansions of eigenfunctions of differential equations, work which helped to resolve problems in quantum mechanics. His work on this topic occupied him for the last 25 years of his life. "Theory
of Functions" by Edward Charles Titchmarsh |
| Percy L. Julian | |
(source) |
Born 11
Apr 1899; died 19 Apr 1975.
African-American chemist, whose 100 patents include the synthesis of cortisone, hormones, and other products from soybeans. He isolated from plants simple compounds and investigated how they were naturally altered into chemicals essential to life, including vitamins and hormones; then he attempted to create the compounds artificially. Early in his career he synthesized physostigmine, a glaucoma drug. A refined soya protein was the basis of Aero-Foam, a foam fire extinguisher used by the U.S. Navy in WW II. His efforts led to quantity production of the hormones progesterone (female), testosterone (male) and cortisone drugs. In 1950, his home in an all-white suburb was bombed and burned.« |
| Charles Benedict Davenport | |
(source) |
Born 11
Apr 1866; died 18 Feb 1944.
American zoologist who contributed substantially to the study of eugenics (the improvement of populations through breeding) and heredity and who pioneered the use of statistical techniques in biological research. Partly as a result of breeding experiments with chickens and canaries, he was one of the first, soon after 1902, to recognize the validity of the newly discovered Mendelian theory of heredity. In Heredity in Relation to Eugenics (1911), he compiled evidence concerning the inheritance of human traits, on the basis of which he argued that the application of genetic principles would improve the human race. These data were at the heart of his lifelong promotion of eugenics, though he muddled science with social philosophy. |
| Hugo Münsterberg | |
(source) |
Born 11
Apr 1863; died 16 Dec 1916.
German-American psychologist and philosopher who was interested in the applications of psychology to law, business, industry, medicine, teaching, and sociology. He was a forerunner in the field of behaviorism: in theoretical psychology, his "action theory" defined attention in terms of the openness of the nerve paths to the muscles of adjustment. His work in industrial / organizational (I/O) psychology was extremely experimentally based. He looked at problems with monotony, attention and fatigue, physical and social influences on the working power, the effects of advertising, and the future development of economic psychology. He also looked at the reliability of eye witness testimonies. |
| Sir Henry Rawlinson | |
(source) |
Born 11
Apr 1810; died 5 Mar 1895.
English archaeologist who as an army officer became interested in antiquities after his assignment to reorganize the Persian army. He accomplished the translation of the Old Persian portion of the trilingual mutillingual cuneiform inscription of Darius I on the hillside at Bisitun, Iran. This success provided the key to the deciphering, by himself and others, of Mesopotamian cuneiform script. It was soon learned that the cuneiform system had been used by many different groups and for writing a variety of languages. Semetic speaking Babylonians and Assyrians used the cuneiform for hundreds of years. Rawlinson’s work was the result of a breakthrough of many discoveries and provided great insight of human history. |
| Macedonio Melloni | |
(source) |
Born 11
Apr 1798; died 11 Aug 1854.
Italian physicist who was the first to extensively research of infrared radiation. Sir William Frederick Herschel discovered infrared radiation in 1800, but research stalled until the invention of a thermopile in 1830. That instrument was a series of strips of two different metals that produced electric current when one end was heated. Melloni improved the thermopile and used it to detect infrared radiation. In 1846, from an observation point high on Mount Vesuvius, he measured the slight heating effect of moonlight. He showed also that rock salt, being transparent to infrared, made suitable lenses and prisms to demonstrate the reflection, refractioin, polarization and interference of infrared in the same manner as visible light. |
| James Parkinson | |
(source) |
Born 11
Apr 1755; died 21 Dec 1824.
English physician and amateur paleontologist. He took over the practice of general medicine from his father. He wrote a little known monograph Observations on the Nature and Cure of Gout (1805). He was first to recognize a burst appendix as a cause of death, and wrote the first scientific article on appendicitis (1812). In his Essay on the Shaking Palsy (1817), he was the first to describe the neuromuscular disease which is now known by his name as Parkinson's disease, The symptoms of Parkinson's Disease are a generalized slowness of movement, a tremor or slight shaking on one side of the body when at rest, some stiffness of the limbs, and problems of gait or balance.«  [Image:
Shaking Palsy as illustrated in Parkinson's Essay on Shaking Palsy]
"James
Parkinson: His Life and Times (History of Neuroscience)" by
A.D. Morris |
|
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| APRIL 11 - DEATHS | |
| Maurice R. Hilleman | |
|
(source) |
 Died
11 Apr 2005 (born 30 Aug 1919)
American microbiologist who developed vaccines against numerous once-common diseases including mumps, measles and rubella, chickenpox, hepatitis (A and B), pneumonia, meningitis and influenza. In his 40-year career, he developed over three dozen experimental and licensed animal and human vaccines. Although Salk, Sabin and Pasteur received much public recognition, Hilleman's work is probably responsible for saving more lives than those or any other scientist in the 20th century.« |
| Primo Levi | |
(source) |
Died
11 Apr 1987 (born 31 Jul 1919)
A Jewish-Italian novelist, short-story writer and poet, Primo Levi was also a chemist most of his professional life. As a memoirist, he is noted for his restrained and moving autobiographical account of and reflections on survival in the Nazi concentration camps. In his science work, The Periodic Table, he wrote: "...conquering matter is to understand it, and understanding matter is necessary to understanding the universe and ourselves." His gift of writing brought the subject to life. Chemistry, in turn, saved his life. Imprisoned in Auschwitz, the young Italian chemist was granted a tenuous reprieve as a technician in the laboratory of an I. G. Farben rubber factory built by slave laborers on the camp's grounds. He died by suicide in 1987, after a long illness. "The
Periodic Table" by Primo Levi |
| Frederick Orpen Bower | |
(source) |
Died
11 Apr 1948 (born 4 Nov 1855)
English botanist whose study of primitive land plants, especially the ferns, contributed greatly to a modern emphasis on the study of the origins and evolutionary development of these plants. He is best known for his interpolation theory of the evolutionary development of the vegetative, or asexual, sporophyte. From his many years studying liverworts, mosses, and ferns Bower concluded that they had evolved from algal ancestors. He authored Origin of a Land Flora (1908), Ferns (1923-28), Primitive Land Plants (1935). "Botany
of the Living Plant" by Frederick O. Bower |
| Luther Burbank | |
(source) |
Died
11 Apr 1926 (born 7 Mar 1849)
American naturalist and horticulturist who was a pioneer of plant breeding. At age 21, he produced the the Burbank potato. Thus he began a 55 year career, prodigiously producing useful varieties of fruits, flowers, vegetables, grains, and grasses. He had an ability to detect and nurture hybrids which he made from multiple crosses of foreign and native strains under suitable growing conditions. Basing his understanding upon his own observations, he believed in the Lamarckian idea of the inheritance of acquired characteristics. It was for others to develop the modern science of plant breeding based on the genetic theory. He developed more than 800 strains and varieties of plants, including the Freestone peach, and the Burbank potato (1871). "New
Creations in Plant Life: An Authoritative Account of the Life and Work
of Luther Burbank" by W. S. Harwood |
| (Julius) Lothar Meyer | |
(source) |
Died
11 Apr 1895 (born 19 Aug 1830)
(Julius) Lothar Meyer was a German chemist who discovered the Periodic Law, independently of Dmitry Mendeleyev, at about the same time (1869). However, he did not develop the periodic classification of the chemical elements as thoroughly as Mendeleyev. Meyer trained originally in medicine and chemistry. He examined the effect of carbon monoxide on blood. In 1879, Meyer compared atomic volume to atomic weight. Plotted on a graph, the curve showed the periodicity of the elements. He also established the concept of valency by indicating that a given element combined with a characteristic number of hydrogen atoms, and coined the terms like univalent, bivalent, and trivalent, based on that number.« |
| Elephant Man | |
(source) |
Died
11 Apr 1890 (born 5 Aug 1862)
Joseph Carey Merrick (erroneously referred to as John Merrick) was a disfigured person. Born in Leicester, England, in 1862, Merrick began to develop tumours on his face before his second birthday. His condition quickly worsened as bulbous, cauliflower-like growths grew from his head and body, and his right hand and forearm became a useless club. After a brief career as a professional "freak," dubbed the "Elephant Man" because of a tusklike growth on his face, he became the best-known resident patient of London Hospital from 1886 until his death. The modern diagnosis (1979) is the very rare disorder, Proteus Syndrome.
"Elephant
Man" by Christine Sparks. |
| John Macarthur | |
(source) |
Died
11 Apr 1834 (christened 3 Sep 1767)
Australian agriculturist and promoter who helped found the Australian wool industry, now the world's largest. He was one of the first in New South Wales to obtain Spanish Merino sheep from the Cape of Good Hope (1797). He took specimens of their fleeces to England (1802), wrote a Statement of the Improvement and Progress of the Breed of Fine Woolled Sheep in New South Wales (London, 1803) and was granted 5,000 acres of the best pasture land in the colony, to be increased if tangible results were forthcoming. Each time he returned to England (first for four years and later for eight years) his wife, Elizabeth, was left to breed the sheep, produce the wool, manage workers, bushfires and Aboriginal uprisings, and run a profitable farm. |
| Samuel Heinrich Schwabe | |
(source) |
Died
11 Apr 1875 (born 25 Oct 1789)
Amateur German astronomer who discovered the 10-year sunspot activity cycle. Schwabe had been looking for possible intramercurial planets. From 11 Oct 1825, for 42 years, he observed the Sun virtually every day that the weather allowed. In doing so he accumulated volumes of sunspot drawings, the idea being to detect his hypothetical planet as it passed across the solar disk, without confusion with small sunspots. Schwabe did not discover any new planet. Instead, he published his results in 1842 that his 17 years of nearly continuous sunspot observations revealed a 10-year periodicity in the number of sunspots visible on the solar disk. Schwabe also made (1831) the first known detailed drawing of the Great Red Spot on Jupiter. |
| Joseph de Jussieu | |
(source) |
Died
11 Apr 1779 (born 3 Sep 1704)
French botanist who went with French physicist Charles-Marie de la Condamine's expedition to Peru to measure an arc of meridian (1735). Therafter, he remained in South America for 35 years, supporting himself chiefly by the practice of medicine. By sending the seed to his brother Bernard, he introduced the common garden heliotrope (Heliotropium peruvianum) into Europe. His extended and arduous explorations in Peru took place mainly in the years 1747-50. The botanical results of these journeys were large, but the greater part of his manuscripts and collections was lost. He returned to Paris in 1771, in poor health. His brothers Antoine and Bernard were also notable botanists.« [Image: heliotrope flower and leaves] |
| APRIL 11 - EVENTS | |
| Halley's Comet | |
(source) |
In 1986, Halley's Comet made its closest approach to Earth this trip, 63
million kilometers (39 million mi), on its outbound journey. Many observers
were disappointed because the famous comet was barely visible to the naked
eye.
Some years are simply better than others, as in 1066 when the comet was
so bright that it terrified millions of Europeans. Comet Halley isn't officially
scheduled
to visit Earth again until 2061 when it returns on its 76-year orbit. This
comet's closest
known approach to the Earth was 3 million miles on 10 Apr 837 AD). Its
perihelion (the closest point to the Sun) occurred earlier in the year,
on 9 Feb 1986, when it was 88 million km (55 million mi) from the Sun,
between the orbits of Mercury and Venus. [Image:
photo taken from European spacecraft Giotto as it flew by the nucleus of
Comet Halley on 13 Mar 1986 to analyze the material coming off the surface]
"Comet"by
Carl Sagan |
| Space satellite repair | |
(source) |
In 1984, Challenger astronauts completed the first in-space satellite repair.
George Nelson and James Van Hoften retrieved
the ailing Solar Max astronomy satellite. It had originally been
launched in 1980, but had been malfunctioning. The rescued
satellite was brought into the shuttle cargo bay to make the first-ever
in-space satellite repair.
Its attitude control mechanism and the main electronics system of the coronagraph
instrument were serviced, and the Solar Max was released back into
orbit, ready to resume normal operation. (Another mission activity was
a student experiment located in a middeck locker to determine how honeybees
make honeycomb cells in a microgravity environment. They did so successfully,
just as on Earth.) |
| Transglobe expedition | |
(source) |
In 1982, British explorer Ranulph
Fiennes with Charles Burton reached the North Pole during their circumnavigation
of the Earth via the Poles circling the earth on longitude 0, the Greenwich
Meridian. They had reached the South Pole sixteen months earlier during
their journey across Antarctica
- which took 67 days and despite the advantages
of motorised skidoos, it was still an arduous and dangerous challenge.
The ocean voyage was undertaken in a craft named Benjamin Bowring. Beginning
in 1979, the 52,000-mile "Transglobe" expedition took three years and cost
an estimated $18 million, but it became the first circumnavigation of the
world's polar axis, ending on 29 Aug 1982.
"Beyond
the Limits: The Lessons Learned from a Lifetime's Adventures" by
Ranulph Fiennes |
| Smoking deterrent | |
(USPTO) |
In 1972, a smoking deterrent - a pseudo-cigarette package that produces
simulated coughing sounds when the package is picked up - was issued a
US patent to its inventor, Lewis R Toppel of Chicago, Illinois (No. 3,655,325).
According to the patent abstract, "The simulated coughing noises are produced
from a battery-driven disk recording played through a minature loudspeaker
in the package. A unique actuating lever arrangement enables the almost
instantaneous replaying of the record each time the package is moved."
The patent described the production of the sound using a miniaturized record
player - a disk, turntable with electric motor and tone arm to ride in
the grooves of the disk and pick up vibrations from the disk. The invention
was also suggested for use as an advertising novelty.« |
| Apollo 13 launch | |
(source) |
In 1970, Apollo 13, the third manned lunar landing mission, was launched
from Cape Canaveral with crew James Lovell, Fred Haise, and John Swigert.
Two days later, on 13 Apr disaster struck 200,000 miles from earth. A liquid
oxygen tank exploded, disabling the normal supply of oxygen, electricity,
light, and water. Swigert reported: "Houston, we've had a problem." The
lunar landing was aborted. After circling the moon, the crippled spacecraft
began a long, cold journey back to earth with enormous logistical problems
in providing enough energy to the damaged fuel cells to allow a safe
return. On 17 Apr, with the world anxiously watching, tragedy turned to
triumph as the Apollo 13 astronauts touched down safely in the Pacific
Ocean.
"Apollo
13: Anniversary Edition" by Jeffrey Kluger |
| Vertijet | |
(source) |
In 1957, a Ryan X-13 Vertijet became the first jet to take-off and land
vertically. The airplane
made history when it completed a first full-cycle flight at Edwards Air
Force Base, California. It took off vertically from its mobile trailer,
rose into the air, nosed over into a level attitude, and flew for several
minutes. It then reversed the procedure to vertical flight and slowly descended
to its trailer for a safe landing. The X-13 was designed to test the idea
of vertical takeoff, transition to horizontal flight, and return to vertical
flight for landing by jet aircraft. Equipped with a temporary tricycle
landing gear, it was flown conventionally on 10 Dec 1955 to test its overall
aerodynamic characteristics. It was then fitted with a temporary "tail
sitting" rig and on 28 May 1956, flown from the ground in a vertical position
to test its hovering qualities. |
| Parkinson's disease | |
(source) |
In
1952, Parkinson's disease was successfully treated with surgery for the
first time. A team led by Irving Cooper in Islip, N.Y. operated on the
brain of patient Raymond Walker. Before the general availability of L-dopa
in 1968, the treatment of Parkinson's disease stressed surgery.
An early procedure of choice was the pedunculotomy, to reduce tremour.
While performing this procedure in 1952, he inadvertently interrupted the
patient’s anterior choroidal artery (AChA) and was forced to ligate the
artery and abort the pedunculotomy. When the patient awoke from anesthesia,
his tremour and rigidity had disappeared, and his motor and sensory functions
were preserved. Cooper then began to ligate the AChA purposely to reduce
tremor in patients. |
| Helicopter | |
(source) |
In 1943, Frank Piasecki, Philadelphia engineer and Vertol founder,
flew
his first (single-rotor) helicopter, his PV-2
model, the second successful American helicopter to fly. It weighed just
under 500kg and was powered by a 90hp Franklin flat-four engine. It had
a three-blade articulated rotor with folding blades. Frank Piasecki was
the holder of the first Helicopter Pilot's License. He formed the PV Engineering
Forum in 1943 to develop practical rotorcraft. With the PV-3,
Piasecki turned his attention to the more ambitious field of large military
helicopters of a tandem-rotor design. (Igor Sikorsky, a Russian-born engineer
in Bridgeport, Conn., piloted the first successful flight in 1939). |
| Hydrogen-cooled generator | |
|
In 1941, the first hydrogen-cooled electrical generator for outdoor installation
in the U.S. was put into operation. Built by the General Electric Company
for the city of Glendale, Cal., it was rated 20,000 kW and cost $391,669.
It was mounted on an open deck.*
(The first
GE-built, hydrogen-cooled indoor generator started operation started on
12 Oct 1937). In modern hydrogen-cooled turbo-generators, hydrogen is used
as a coolant fluid. The stator core is direct cooled with hydrogen, for
example,
at a pressure of 3-6 bar. The advantage
of hydrogen is a high thermal conductivity and lower friction than air-cooled
generators, thus more efficient operation, lower fuel consumption, highest
output capacity, and lowest operating cost. |
|
| Submarine | |
 |
In 1900, the U.S. Navy acquired its first submarine, a 53-foot craft
designed
by Irish immigrant John P. Holland. Propelled by gasoline while on the
surface and by electricity when submerged, the Holland served as a blueprint
for modern submarine design. By the eve of World War I, Holland and Holland-inspired
vessels were a part of large naval fleets throughout the world.
"John
P. Holland, 1841-1914: Inventor of the Modern Submarine" by
Richard Knowles Morris. |
| Stenotype | |
(source) |
In 1876, the stenotype was patented by John C. Zachos of New York City
(No. 175,892).
This was the first U.S. patent for a device for printing legible text in
the English alphabet at a high reporting speed, which he called a "typewriter
and phonotypic notation." The type was fixed on eighteen shuttle bars,
two or more of which may be simultaneously placed in position. The impression
was given by a plunger common to all bars. He called his new system of
shorthand "stenophonotypy."* |
| Steamboat | |
John Stevens (source) |
In 1803, a patent was issued for the engine used on a twin-screw propeller
steamboat
built by John Stevens
of Hoboken, N.Y. in the same year. The engine was a double direct-acting
noncondensing engine with a 4.5-inch cylinder and 9-inch stroke. The boat
was 25-feet-long and four-feet wide, with two 5-foot screw propellers with
four blades set at an angle of 35º. It successfully navigated in New
York Harbor in 1804. Stevens
also developed the first sea-going steamship, initiated regular ferry service
from New Jersey to New York, and designed and built the first American
steam locomotive. In addition, he proposed a vehicular tunnel under the
Hudson River, and the use of an elevated railroad in New York City.* |
| Electricity lecture | |
(source) |
In 1751, Ebenezer Kinnersley advertised
in the Pennsylvania Gazette that he was to give a lecture on "The
Newly Discovered Electrical Fire." His lectures
were the first of the kind in America or Europe. The announcement
read: "Notice is hereby given to the Curious, that Wednesday next, Mr.
Kinnersley proposes to begin a course of experiments on the newly discovered
Electrical Fire, containing not only the most curious of those that have
been made and published in Europe, but a considerable number of new ones
lately made in this city, to be accompanied with methodical Lectures on
the nature and properties of that wonderful element." Thus, Kinnersley
was one of the earliest popularizers of science.« [Image:
simplified version of Kinnersley's electrical air thermometer in which
colored water in the airtight cylinder pushed water up the capillary tube
when sparking between electrodes heated and expanded the air.]
 Ebenezer
Kinnersley - Franklin's Friend, by J. A. Leo Lemay |
