| APRIL 22 - BIRTHS | |
| Michael Francis Atiyah | |
 Born 22
Apr 1929
British mathematician who was awarded the Fields Medal in 1966 primarily for his work in topology. Atiyah received a knighthood in 1983 and the Order of Merit in 1992. He also served as president of the Royal Society (1990-95). |
|
| Donald J. Cram | |
(source) |
Born 22
Apr 1919; died 17 Jun 2001.
Donald J(ames) Cram was an American chemist who shared the 1987 Nobel Prize for Chemistry (with Charles J. Pedersen and Jean-Marie Lehn) for his creation of molecules that mimic the chemical behaviour of molecules found in living systems. |
| Rita Levi-Montalcini | |
(source) |
Born 22
Apr 1909
Italian-American neurologist who shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1986 (with Stanley Cohen) for her discovery of NGF (nerve growth factor), which stimulates and influences both the normal and abnormal the growth of nerve cells in the body. In Italy, as a Jew, during WW II she was denied an academic career by Mussolini's laws, so she set up a laboratory in her home to study the growth of nerve fibers in chicken embryos. In 1952, while at a cell culture laboratory in Rio de Janeiro, she found effective new ways to detect a chemical exuded by tumors that produced astonishing growth of nerve fibers. This was the discovery of the nerve growth factor that won her the Nobel Prize.« 
 In
Praise of Imperfection: My Life and Work, by Rita Levi-Montalcini. |
| J. Robert Oppenheimer | |
(source) |
Born 22
Apr 1904; died 18 Feb 1967.
J(ulius) Robert Oppenheimer was a U.S. theoretical physicist and science administrator, noted as director of the Los Alamos laboratory during development of the atomic bomb (1943-45) and as director of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton (1947-66). Accusations as to his loyalty and reliability as a security risk led to a government hearing that resulted the loss of his security clearance and of his position as adviser to the highest echelons of the U.S. government. The case became a cause célèbre in the world of science because of its implications concerning political and moral issues relating to the role of scientists in government. |
| Sir Harold Jeffreys | |
(source) |
Born 22
Apr 1891; died 18 Mar 1989.
English geophysicist, astronomer, and mathematician with diverse scientific interests. In astronomy he proposed models for the structures of the outer planets, and studied the origin of the solar system. He calculated the surface temperatures of gas at less than -100°C, contradicting then accepted views of red-hot temperatures, but Jeffreys was shown to be correct when direct observations were made. In geophysics he researched the circulation of the atmosphere and earthquakes. Analyzing earthquake waves (1926), he became the first to claim that the core of the Earth is molten fluid. Jeffreys also contributed to the general theory of dynamics, aerodynamics, relativity theory and plant ecology.« The
earth: Its origin, history and physical constitution,
by Harold Jeffreys. |
| Harald August Bohr | |
| Born 22
Apr 1887; died 22 Jan 1951.
Danish mathematician who devised a theory that concerned generalizations of functions with periodic properties, the theory of almost periodic functions. |
|
| Otto Rank | |
| Born 22
Apr 1884; died 31 Oct 1939.
original name Otto Rosenfeld Austrian psychologist who extended psychoanalytic theory to the study of legend, myth, art, and creativity and who suggested that the basis of anxiety neurosis is a psychological trauma occurring during the birth of the individual. |
|
| Robert Bárány | |
(source) |
Born 22
Apr 1876; died 8 Apr 1936.
Austrian otologist who won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1914 for his work on the physiology and pathology of the vestibular (balancing) apparatus of the inner ear. The news of this award reached Bárány in a Russian prisoner-of-war camp. He had been captured while attached to the Austrian army as a civilian surgeon and had tended soldiers with head injuries, which fact had enabled him to continue his neurological studies on the correlation of the vestibular apparatus, the cerebellum and the muscular apparatus. Following the personal intervention of Prince Carl of Sweden on behalf of the Red Cross, he was released from the prisoner-of-war camp in 1916 and was presented with the Nobel Prize by the King of Sweden at Stockholm.  "The
Road to Stockholm: Nobel Prizes, Science, and Scientists" by
Istvan Hargittai, James D. Watson |
| August Wilhelm Eichler | |
(source) |
Born 22
Apr 1839; died 2 Mar 1887.
German botanist whose natural system of plant classification (1886) was one of the first to become widely adopted. He studied the symmetry of the parts of a flower. His system of plant classification was based on earlier work of de Jussieaus and others. Eichler assumed complexity indicated more advanced development. His plant kingdom had four divisions: Thallophyta: algae, fungi; Bryophyta: liverworts, mosses; Pteridophyta: club mosses, horsetails, ferns; Spermatophyta: seed plants (angiosperms: flowering plants and gymnosperms: pines, spruces, and firs). Eichler wrote a syllabus of pharmaceutical botany and made significant collection on the flora of Brazil.« |
| Gaston Planté | |
| Born 22
Apr 1834; died 21 May 1889.
French physicist who produced the first electric storage battery, or accumulator, in 1859; in improved form, his invention is widely used in automobiles. |
|
| Julius Sterling Morton | |
| Born 22
Apr 1832; died 27 Apr 1902.
American founder of Arbor Day, first observed in Nebraska on 10 Apr 1872, when over a million trees were planted. Morton was a strong supported of forestation. Since 1885, the day has been celebrated in Nebraska as a public holiday on Morton's birthday in his honour, 22 Apr. He conducted agricultural experiments on his estate, Arbor Lodge. He was U.S. secretary of agriculture under President Grover Cleveland (1893-97). |
|
| Luigi Palmieri | |
| Born 22
Apr 1807; died 9 Sep 1896.
Physicist. |
|
| Jean-Louis-Marie Poiseuille | |
(source) |
Born 22
Apr 1799; died 26 Dec 1869.
French physician and physiologist who contributed to knowledge of blood circulation through arteries and experimentally derived an equation describing the laminar flow rate of fluids through narrow tubes (now known as the Hagen- Poiseuille equation because the German engineer Gotthilf Hagen also independently discovered it). It relates the flow rate to the fluid's viscosity, the pressure drop along the tube, and the radius of the tube. His interest in the circulation of the blood led him to conduct experiments on the flow of liquids in narrow tubes. Poiseuille is believed to be the first to have used the mercury manometer to measure blood pressure with his invention, the hemodynamometer, an improved method for measuring blood pressure.« |
| Richard Roberts | |
(source) |
Born 22
Apr 1789; died 16 Mar 1864.
Welsh mechanical engineer and versatile inventor. One of his earliest inventions was the first successful gas meter. His first patent (1822) was for improvements in looms. He was one of the inventors of the first metal planing machines (1817). Roberts also developed a screw-cutting lathe, and machines for gearcutting and slotting. The self-acting spinning mule (1825) he invented was his most important contribution to the textile industry, which he also set up in France. In the 1830s, his firm built railway locomotives in one of the earliest applications of the use of interchangeable parts. In the 1840s he devised machinery for punching patterns of holes in bridge and boiler plate, automated using punched cards similar to the Jacquard loom. |
| Immanuel Kant | |
| Born 22
Apr 1724; died 12 Feb 1804.
German philosopher, trained as a mathematician and physicist, who published his General History of Nature and theory of the Heavens in 1755. This physical view of the universe contained three anticipations of importance to astronomers. 1) He made the nebula hypothesis ahead of Laplace. 2) He described the Milky Way as a lens-shaped collection of stars that represented only one of many "island universes," later shown by Herschel. 3) He suggested that friction from tides slowed the rotation of the earth, which was confirmed a century later. In 1770 he became a professor of mathematics, but turned to metaphysics and logic in 1797, the field in which he is best known. |
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| APRIL 22 - DEATHS | |
| Jack Allen | |
Thm.jpg)
(source) |
 Died
22 Apr 2001 (born 6 May1908)
John Frank (Jack) Allen was a Canadian-born physicist who codiscovered the superfluidity of liquid helium near absolute zero temperature. Working at the Royal Society Mond Laboratory in Cambridge, he and Don Misener discovered (1930's) that below 2.17 kelvin temperature, liquid helium could flow through very small capillaries with practically zero viscosity. Independently, P. L. Kapitza in Moscow produced similar results at about the same time. Their two articles were published together in the 8 Jan 1938 issue of the journal Nature. Superfluidity is a visible manifestation resulting from the quantum mechanics of Bose-Einstein condensation. By 1945, research in Moscow delved into the microscopic aspect, which Allen did not pursue.« |
| Emilio Segrè | |
| Died
22 Apr 1989 (born 1 Feb 1905)
Italian-born American physicist who was cowinner, with Owen Chamberlain of the United States, of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1959 for the discovery of the antiproton, an antiparticle having the same mass as a proton but opposite in electrical charge. |
|
| Ansel Easton Adams | |
(source) |
Died
22 Apr 1984 (born 20 Feb 1902)
American photographer and environmentalist whose compelling images of the American landscape were matched by his dedication to the conservation of those lands. His love began as a child on a family vacation in Yosemite National Park (1916) with the Kodak Box Brownie camera his parents had given him. By 1920 he had joined the Sierra Club and before long was contributing photographs to the Sierra Club Bulletin. On 10 Apr 1927 he created his first masterpiece, Monolith: The Face of Half Dome showing Yosemite's most striking feature. He turned to a career in commercial photography. While on the Sierra Club board of directors (1934-71) he helped lobby to save the great wilderness shown in his photographs.« America's
Wilderness: The Photographs of Ansel Adams With the Writings of John Muir,
by Ansel Adams et al. |
| Fritz Strassmann | |
(source) |
Died
22 Apr 1980 (born 22 Feb 1902)
German physical chemist who, with Otto Hahn and Lise Mietner, discovered neutron-induced nuclear fission in uranium (1938) and thereby opened the field of atomic energy used both in the atomic bomb for war and in nuclear reactors to produce electricity. Strassmann's analytical chemistry techniques showed up the lighter elements produced from neutron bombardment, which were the result of the splitting of the uranium atom into two lighter atoms. Earlier in his career, Strassmann codeveloped the rubidium-strontium technique of radio-dating geological samples. |
| Robert E(lmer) Horton | |
(source) |
Died
22 Apr 1945 (born 18 May 1875)
American hydraulic engineer, who is regarded as the father of modern hydrology, and who developed and refined techniques for systematic separation of rainfall drainage into the components such as infiltration, evaporation, interception, transpiration and overland flow. He recognized that physical characteristics were important for determining runoff and flood discharge, such as drainage density, channel slope, and overland flow length. His studies established a basis for the analysis of soil erosion enabling strategies for soil conservation. One month before he died, he published a 95-page landmark paper that summarized two decades of study giving what are now known as Horton's Laws: the law of stream numbers, the law of stream lengths, limiting infiltration capacity, and the runoff-detention-storage relation.« [Image: from Robert E. Horton Medal awarded by the American Geophysical Union to recognize outstanding contributions to the geophysical aspects of hydrology.] |
| Sir Henry Royce | |
(source) |
Died
22 Apr 1933 (born 27 Mar 1863)
(Baronet) English industrialist who, with Charles Rolls, founded Rolls-Royce Ltd. (1906), a manufacturer of luxury automobiles and airplane engines. Rolls-Royce engines powered the British aircraft of WW II in the "Hurricanes" and "Spitfires." |
| Richard Trevithick | |
 |
Died
22 Apr 1833 (born 13 April 1771)
English mechanical engineer and inventor who successfully harnessed high-pressure steam and constructed the world's first steam railway locomotive (1803). In 1805 he adapted his high-pressure engine to driving an iron-rolling mill and to propelling a barge with the aid of paddle wheels. He also experimented with a steam carriage as a road locomotive. In 1812, he invented the Cornish boiler in which the hot flue gasses could also be used to heat the water, so improving efficiency. Trevithick's combined improvements made the new design of Cornish engine do double or treble the duty of the James Watt type, and so they supplanted them as the Watt type had supplanted the Newcomen styles. Lacking business acumen, he died in poverty. Richard
Trevithick: Giant of Steam, by Anthony Burton. |
| James Hargreaves | |
|
(source) |
Died
22 Apr 1778 (born c. 1720-1)
English inventor of the spinning jenny, the first practical application of multiple spinning by a machine. At the time he devised the machine, he was a poor, uneducated spinner and weaver living at Standhill, near Blackburn, Lancashire. On the machine, carriage pulled away from the raw cotton, emulating the action of a hand spinner. The drawn-out thread was then wound onto a spindle as the carriage returned. The hand- powered jenny produced several threads at once and increased a spinner's output eight fold. The machine did not twist the thread enough to give it sufficient strength for the warp; but it was suitable for weft. By 1767 he had so perfected it that children could work it. |
| Jared Eliot | |
(source) |
Died
22 Apr 1763 (born 7 Nov 1685)
American colonial clergyman, physician, and agronomist, who wrote Essays upon Field Husbandry, about reducing inefficiency and waste in colonial farming methods. He became concerned about soil erosion in the new colonies when he noticed that water running from a vegetated hillside was clear, but water running from a bare hillside was muddy. He believed that the mud in the water was fertile soil washed away from above. He conducted many experiments, and studied the farming methods advocated by English authors. He plowed green crops back into the soil to enrich it, and planted grasses and legumes to make better pastures for livestock. He invented a drill which would open a furrow, plant seed, and drop manure in a single operation. |
| John Tradescant | |
(source) |
Died
22 Apr 1662 (born 4 Aug 1608)
British naturalist. His father, John Tradescant the Elder was Charles I's naturalist and gardener. He succeeded his father in the same post. They introduced to England many of the best known garden plants, fruit trees including apricots, and the horse chestnut. Tradescant the Younger travelled three times to Virginia (1637, 1642 and 1654) to collect plants and "all manner of curiosities" for the botanical garden and the Tradescant "museum" at his house in Lambeth. By 1656, his garden had over 1600 named plants in cultivation. The Tradescant curiosities - fish, weapons, birds, even a stuffed dodo passed into Elias Ashmole's collection that he contributed for the Ashmolian Museum at Oxford University (1683), the first public museum in Britain. |
| APRIL 22 - EVENTS | |
| Genetically modified virus | |
In 1986, the first virus produced with genetic engineering was approved
for use in a vaccine by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The virus was
designed for use in veterinary medicine to fight a form of swine herpes. |
|
| Earth Day | |
|
In 1970, the first nationwide Earth Day was celebrated in the U.S. as an
environmental awareness event celebrated by millions of Americans with
marches, educational programs, and rallies. (A local Earth Day celebration
had occurred on 21 Mar 1970, in San Francisco, Cal.). Later the same year,
President Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, on
2 Dec 1970 to address America's severe pollution problem. Its mission is
to safeguard the nation's water, air and soil from pollution. The agency
conducts research, sets standards, monitors activities and helps to enforce
environmental protection laws. |
|
| Eye transplant | |
|
In 1969, the first human eye transplant was performed. |
|
| Laminated padlock patent | |
(USPTO) |
In 1924, a U.S. patent for a laminated padlock was issued to its inventor
Harry
E. Soref. (No. 1,490,987). As a locksmith, Soref had realized that
the cheaper padlocks, made with stamped metal sheels, were poor security
because they were easily damaged. He applied the idea to his invention
of a laminated padlock
that bank vault doors and battleships were built in laminations of layer
on layer of steel for greater strength. This would also be a low-cost construction
for a padlock. He established Master Lock company in 1921. When he was
unable to sell his invention to any existing manufacturer, he began making
them at his own company. In 1935, he introduced the Master combination
padlock.  |
| Chemical weapons used | |
|
In 1915, modern chemical weapons were first used in a war. German troops
released chlorine gas from several metal cylinders on the front lines at
Ypres, Belgium during WW I. The cloud of yellow-green gas with a strong
odour was blown by wind over the French trenches, painfully killing 5000
soldiers. Chlorine causes suffocation, constriction of the chest, tightness
in the throat, and edema of the lungs. As little as 2.5 mg per litre (approximately
0.085 percent by volume) in the atmosphere causes death in minutes. Under
more controlled conditions, this is the same agent that is used as a germicide
for public water supplies. |
|
| Road maintenace | |
|
In 1913, under the headline Automobilism: the Wear of Roads and Trackways,
the
English newspaper,
The
Times, published an early comment on the expense of the construction
and maintenance of roads as traffic became more mechanical and of greater
volume. The correspondant pointed out that although a reasonable average
width of a main road was 18 feet, the wheels of the vehicles together touched
only about 6 inches of the surface. Thus, to save the expense of renewing
the surface of the whole 18ft width, he offered the solution that roads
be prepared with plateways. These would provide four specially prepared
tracks (two in each direction) to take the wear from the wheels. |
|
| Truck body elevator | |
|
In 1913, Thomas Wright of Jersey City, NJ patented a "body elevating mechanism."
to load ice into refrigerator railway cars. It was a truck with an extension
top that could be adjusted to any position. Thus ice could be loaded by
one man, without help, even in the upper section of the railcar. His company
manufactured these machines, and they were first used by the William Metz
Ice Company of Pittsburgh, Pa. (May 1917). |
|
| First US school of anatomy | |
|
In 1892, the Winstar Institute of Anatomy and Biology was incorporated,
becoming the first anatomy school in the U.S. It took its name from the
benefactor, Gen. Isaac James Wistar in memory of his granduncle, Caspar
Winstar, who was the first American physician to write an anatomy text
book. |
|
| Metal screen patent | |
|
In 1884, expanded metal screen was patented by John Golding (No. 297,383). |
|
| Roller skates | |
|
In 1823, roller skates were patented by Robert John Tyers, a fruiterer
in Picadilly, London. His Volitos were an "apparatus to be attached
to boots ... for the purpose of travelling or pleasure." They used five
small wheels in a single line. Tyers demonstrated them at the tennis court
in windmill Street. The first use of roller skates is believed to be by
Joseph Merlin in Belgium (1760). The first four-wheeled skates, using small
boxwood wheels in pairs, were patented in 1863 by James L. Plimpton of
New York |
|
| Surgery book | |
(source) |
In 1575, printing of Ambroise Paré's
book Oeuvres Complètes ("Complete Works") was finished, but
its publication was opposed
by establishment physicians. His previous texts on surgery had popularized
a new way to treat gunshot wounds without cauterisation, reintroduced the
ligature in amputation, and improved midwifery techniques. These many writings
were gathered together in this one new volume, which spread his teachings
throughout the world. It remained in print for a century and ran to thirteen
editions. He wrote in French instead of Latin with practical, common sense
so that many barber-surgeons, who (like Paré) were unable to interpret
Latin, had access to medical knowledge otherwise unavailable from Latin
texts.
Ambroise
Pare: Surgeon of the Renaissance, by Wallace B. Hamby. |
| Supernova | |
|
In 1056, the supernova in the Crab nebula was last seen by the naked eye. |
|
