| MAY 10 - BIRTHS | |
| Daniel Bell | |
|
(source) |
 Born 10
May 1919
American sociologist who studied how science, technology and politics interact. The books he has authored include The Coming of Post-Industrial Society |
| John Desmond Bernal | |
Born 10
May 1901; died 15 Sep 1971
Irish physicist and X-ray crystallographer who studied the atomic structures of solid compounds. He also performed researched into molecular biology, the origin of life and the structure and composition of the Earth's crust. |
|
| Cecilia Payne | |
(source) |
Born 10
May 1900; died 7 Dec 1979
Cecilia Helena Payne-Gaposchkin was an English-born American astronomer who was the first to apply laws of atomic physics to the study of the temperature and density of stellar bodies, and the first to conclude that hydrogen and helium are the two most common elements in the universe. During the 1920s, the accepted explanation of the Sun's composition was a calculation of around 65% iron and 35% hydrogen. At Harvard University, in her doctoral thesis (1925), Payne claimed that the sun's spectrum was consistent with another solution: 99% hydrogen with helium, and just 1% iron. She had difficulty persuading her superiors to take her work seriously. It was another 20 years before Payne's original claim was confirmed, by Fred Hoyle.  Cecilia
Payne-Gaposchkin: An Autobiography and Other Recollections, by
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin |
| Rudolf Schoenheimer | |
| Born 10
May 1898; died 11 Sep 1941
German-American biochemist whose technique of "tagging" molecules with radioactive isotopes made it possible to trace the paths of organic substances through animals and plants and revolutionized metabolic studies. |
|
| Marcel Mauss | |
| Born 10
May 1872; died 10 Feb 1950
French sociologist and anthropologist whose contributions include a highly original comparative study of the relation between forms of exchange and social structure. His views on the theory and method of ethnology are thought to have influenced many eminent social scientists. |
|
| François-Marie Raoult | |
(source) |
Born 10
May 1830; died 1 Apr 1901
French chemist who formulated a law on solutions (called Raoult's law) that made it possible to determine the molecular weights of dissolved substances. |
| Alexander Carl Heinrich Braun | |
(source) |
Born 10
May 1805; died 29 Mar 1877.
German botanist who was the most highly regarded botanist of the "nature philosophy" school, a doctrine which attempted to explain natural phenomena in terms of the speculative theories that dominated early 19th-century German science. Several species of cryptogams he discovered bear his name, such as Chara braunii. With Karl Schimper, he established the theory of spiral phyllotaxy. In his book Betrachtungern über die Erscheinung der Verjüngung in der Natur (1851) he made some significant contributions to the morphology of plants, to the biology of freshwater algae, and especially to cell theory. He opposed Darwinian selection, and remained a believer of "nature philosophy" when the doctrine was falling out of favour. |
| Charles Knowlton | |
| Born 10
May 1800; died 20 Feb 1850
American physician whose popular treatise on birth control, the object of celebrated court actions in the in the United States and England, initiated the widespread use of contraceptives. Anonymously published, his book The Fruits of Philosophy: or The Private Companion of Young Married People was the first on the subject in the U.S. Despite an otherwise appropriate discussion of the medical, social, and economic aspects of birth control, he so offended the public taste of the times that he was prosecuted in the U.S., fined (1832) and imprisoned for three months. In England he was aquitted in what became a famous test case. Subsequently, the book sales rose from 1,000 to 250,000 a year. |
|
| Augustin Jean Fresnel | |
| Born 10
May 1788; died 14 July 1827
French physicist who first investigated the effect of interference of light, with results known as Fresnel fringes. This decisively work, together with further experiments with polarized light supported Thomas Young's wave theory of light Fresnel advanced the wave theory by identifying light as transverse waves rather than the longitudinal waves previously assumed by Young and Huygens. His pioneering work in optics included showing that white light is composed of a spectrum of innumerable wavelengths ranging from red to shorter violet wavelenths. In 1819, he improved the optical system of lighthouses by replacing metal reflectors with revolutionary stepped lenses of his design.« |
|
| John Strachey | |
| Born 10
May 1671; died 11 June 1743
early geologist who was the first to suggest the theory of stratified rock formations. He wrote Observations on the Different Strata of Earths and Minerals (1727) and stated that there was a relation between surface features and the rock structure, an idea that was not commonly accepted until a century later. |
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| MAY 10 - DEATHS | |
| John Wesley Hyatt | |
(source) |
 Died
10 May 1920 (born 28 Nov 1837)
US inventor and pioneer of the plastics industry who discovered the process for making celluloid. His other inventions included a water-purification system, a sugar-cane mill, a machine for straightening steel rods, a multi-stitch sewing-machine, and a widely used roller bearing. In the 1860s he became interested in finding a substitute for the ivory used to make billiard balls. With his brother Isaac, he improved the techniques of molding pyroxylin (a partially nitrated cellulose) with camphor by dissolving in an alcohol and ether mixture to make it softer and more malleable. This he called "Celluloid," a name trademarked on 14 Jan 1873. It was the first synthetic plastic, for which he took out a patent in 1870.; Later in life he had over 200 patents. |
| Stanislao Cannizzaro | |
(source) |
Died
10 May 1910 (born 13 July 1826)
Italian chemist, teacher, and legislator who recognized the distinction between atomic and molecular weights. He discovered the Cannizzaro reaction in 1853, that treatment of benzaldehyde with a concentrated alcoholic hydroxide produced equal amounts of benzyl alcohol and the salt of benzoic acid. Earlier, in 1851, he helped prepare cyanamide, while at the laboratory of Michel-Eugène Chevreul. In 1858, he showed that the atomic weights of the elements in the molecules of a volatile compound can be calculated using Avogadro's principle. Further, the atomic weights of non-volatile compounds can be calculated by a measurement of specific heat instead of vapour density. Later, 1861-71, he studied aromatic compounds and amines. |
| Clark L. Hull | |
(source) |
Died
10 May 1952 (born 24 May 1884)
Clark Leonard Hull was an American psychologist who developed an influential theory of behaviour in which he identified the variables that intervene between stimulus and response. He made experimental studies on learning, that he presented in his book, Aptitude Testing (1928) and attempted to structure psychological theory following a deductive method of reasoning similar to that used in geometry. He proposed that from a set of postulates about psychology, logical conclusions could be deduced and tested. Hull was the first known psychologist to apply quantitative experimental methods to the investigation of hypnosis. His last books were Essentials of Behavior (1951) and A Behavior System (1952).« Hypnosis
and Suggestibility: An Experimental Approach, by Clark
W. Hull. |
| Karl Wilhelm von Nägeli | |
| Died
10 May 1891 (born 27 Mar 1817)
Swiss botanist famous for his work on plant cells. At the age of 25 he wrote a paper on pollen formation of seed and flowering plants and described cell division with great accuracy. He noted what he called transitory cytoblasts, which later were identified as chromosomes. |
|
| Amos Eaton | |
| Died
10 May 1842 (born 17 May 1776)
American botanist, geologist, and lawyer who aroused widespread interest in science through his public lectures and inspired many students as a teacher and writer of textbooks. |
|
| Thomas Young | |
(source) |
Died
10 May 1829 (born 13 June 1773)
English physician and physicist who reinforced the wave theory of light with his study of interference of light. As a medical student, he had discovered the how the shape of the eye's lens changes to focus. In 1801, he recognized the cause of astigmatism. Young demonstrated the wave nature of light, polarization of light, interference fringes, and explained the colours seen in thin films such as soap bubbles. He associated wavelength with colour of light, and the eye's perception of any colour as a mixture of red, blue and green. Young's modulus is named after his work with elasticity. He also worked measuring the size of molecules, liquid surface tension. He was also an Egyptologist who helped decipher the Rosetta Stone. |
| Paolo Ruffini | |
(source) |
Died
10 May 1822 (born 22 Sep 1765)
Italian mathematician and physician who made studies of equations that anticipated the algebraic theory of groups. He is regarded as the first to make a significant attempt to show that there is no algebraic solution of the general quintic equation (an equation with the variable in one term raised to the fifth power). In 1799 Ruffini published a book on the theory of equations with his claim that quintics could not be solved by radicals, General theory of equations in which it is shown that the algebraic solution of the general equation of degree greater than four is impossible. Ruffini used group theory in his work but he had to invent the subject for himself. He also wrote on probability and the application of probability to evidence in court cases. |
| Leonhard Fuchs | |
| Died
10 May 1566 (born 17 Jan 1501)
German botanist who prepared the first important glossary of botanical terms. This made a definite break from Dioscorides, and helped make the transition to modern botany. Although he was at first a private physician, and then professor of medicine, he actively persued an interest in natural history. He wrote books such as History of Plants (1542), in which he described numerous plant species in detail. His name was honored later by the naming of the fuchsia shrub. The distinctive bluish red colour of the flowers is also now known as fuchsia, eternally perpetuating his name. |
|
| MAY 10 - EVENTS | |
| High voltage | |
(source) |
In 1979, a potential difference of 32.0 million volts*,
the highest ever generated, was produced by the National Electrostatics
Corporation at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Tennessee. Company
personnel were testing the newly installed Pelletron
accelerator model 25 URC, the largest manufacturered by the company. (The
sustained terminal voltage was measured by the current measurement of the
column corona voltage grading system to within an uncertainty of +/-5%
or +/- 1.5 MV). On 7 May 1979, voltage tests had been conducted on the
column structure prior to installation of the acceleration tubes. This
25 MV electrostatic tandem accelerator remains in use at ORNL producing
radioactive ion beams for research.« |
| Planetarium | |
(source) |
In 1949, the first planetarium
in the U.S. owned by a university opened at the University of Chapel Hill,
North Carolina. The Morehead Planetarium, one of the largest in the U.S.,
was the gift
of John Motley Morehead III (1870-1965), class of 1891. The Morehead Building,
erected
at the north end of the campus, included the 68-ft dome, 300-seat Star
Theater with a Zeiss Model II Star Projector. Morehead was an industrialist
and chemist who commercially developed production of calcium carbide, basic
to manufacturing acetylene gas, which led to the founding of Union Carbide
Corporation. As the U.S. space program began, the planetarium provided
important celestial navigation training
for U.S. astronauts in the Mercury program.« |
| Heart-lung machine | |
(source) |
In 1935, American surgeon John Gibbon
successfully maintained the cardiac and respiratory function of a cat using
his invention, a rotating blood-film oxygenator in the first heart-lung
machine. Thus, he had demonstrated that life can be maintained by an external
pump acting as an artificial heart during an operation. After 18 years
of improvements, on 6 May 1953,
Gibbon successfully performed the first open-heart operation on an 18-yr-old
patient, Cecelia Bavolek, demonstrating that an artificial device can temporarily
mimic the functions of the heart. Modern versions allow surgeons today
to perform bypass surgery and heart transplants.« |
| Submarine lung | |
|
In 1929, the first submarine "lung" was tested. |
|
| Scopes hearing | |
 |
In 1925, John T. Scopes was given a preliminary hearing before three judges.
He had been arrested and charged under a new Tennessee's state law, the
Butler act, which prohibited the teaching of Darwin's
theory of evolution in public schools. Scopes had agreed to participate
in a challenge to that law, with the support of local leaders in Dayton,
Tennessee, and the American Civil Liberties Union. A few weeks later, at
what became known as the Scope's Monkey Trial, he was found guilty and
fined $100. Although upon appeal the fine was ruled excessive and over-ruled,
the state law itself was not found unconstitutional. Thereafter, the law
was not enforced, but it was not repealed
until 1967.« |
| Vending machine law | |
|
In 1898, the first vending machine law in the U.S. was enacted in Omaha,
Neb. |
|
| Archaeological society | |
|
In 1879, the first national U.S. archaeological society was formed in Boston
Mass., the Archaeological Institute of America. |
|
| Fair | |
|
In 1876, the first U.S. centennial exhibition, an International exhibition,
opened in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. |
|
| Electric turnstile | |
|
In 1876, the first use of an electric turnstile with ratchet in the U.S.
happened in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. |
|
| Railroad | |
|
In 1869, the first transcontinental railroad to run West out of Chicago
was completed, running to Promontory, Utah. Amidst a crowd of dignitaries
and workers, with the engines
No. 119 and Jupiter practically touching noses, the Central Pacific and
Union Pacific railroads were joined together. Telegraph operators transmitted
to both coasts transmit the blows of the hammer as they fall on a golden
spike. The nation listened as west and east came together in undivided
union.« |
|
| Caesium | |
|
In 1860, the discovery of the element caesium was announced by German chemists,
Robert Bunsen and Gustav Robert Kirchoff to the Berlin Academy of Scientists.
It was first noticed by its characteristic blue spectral lines, for which
colour is was named. |
|
| Valence theory | |
|
In 1852, the theory of valence was announced by English chemist Sir Edward
Frankland (1825-1899). The theory states that any atom can combine with
a certain, limited number of other atoms, which is remains fundamental
to the understanding of chemical structure. |
|
