| MAY 23 - BIRTHS | |
| Keith Campbell | |
|
(soource) |
 Born 23
May 1954
British embryologist who was the key member of a team of scientists at Roslin Institute, Edinburgh, Scotland that produced the first mammal clone, a lamb called Dolly, by nuclear transfer from an adult's cell. The reproduced DNA material came from a donor sheep's udder cell. Dolly's birth, on 5 Jul 1996, was announced on 23 Feb 1997. The team was supervised by Ian Wilmut.« |
| Joshua Lederberg | |
| Born 23
May 1925
American geneticist, pioneer in the field of bacterial genetics, who shared the 1958 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (with George W. Beadle and Edward L. Tatum) for discovering the mechanisms of genetic recombination in bacteria. |
|
| Edward Lorentz | |
(source) |
Born 23
May 1917; died 16 April 2008
American mathematician and meteorologist known for pointing out the "butterfly effect" whereby chaos theory predicts that "slightly differing initial states can evolve into considerably different states." In his 1963 paper in the Journal of Atmospheric Sciences, he cited the flapping of a seagull's wings as changing the state of the atmosphere in even such a trivial way can result in huge changes in outcome in weather patterns. Thus very long range weather forecasting becomes almost impossible. He determined this unexpected result in 1961 while running a computer weather simulation that gave wildly different results from even tiny changes in the input data.« |
| William R. Bascom | |
| Born 23
May 1912; died 11 Sep 1981.
American anthropologist who served as chairman (1956-57) of the anthropology department and acting director of African studies (1953, 1957) at Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill. |
|
| John Bardeen | |
(source) |
Born 23
May 1908; died 30 Jan 1991.
American physicist who was cowinner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in both 1956 and 1972. He shared the 1956 prize with William B. Shockley and Walter H. Brattain for their joint invention of the transistor. With Leon N. Cooper and John R. Schrieffer he was awarded the 1972 prize for development of the theory of superconductors, usually called the BCS-theory.  True
Genius: The Life And Science Of John Bardeen, by Lillian
Hoddeson. |
| David George Hogarth | |
(source) |
Born 23
May 1862; died 6 Nov 1927.
English archaeologist who explored and excavated (1887–1907) in Cyprus, Crete, Egypt, Syria, and Melos. From 1908 until his death in 1927, he was Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. When Hogarth reopened the British Museum’s excavation at Carchemish in northern Syria, he arranged for T. E. Lawrence to join the expedition. Later, Lawrence supported the Ashmolean as a buyer of antiquities in Syria. During WW I, Hogarth prepared reference works on the Middle East for the Geographical Section of Naval Intelligence, and also spent some time organizing the Arab Bureau in Cairo. After the war Hogarth and Lawrence were both involved in official deliberations about the political settlement of the Middle East.« 
Philip
and Alexander of Macedon: Two Essays in biography, by
David George Hogarth. |
| Otto Lilienthal | |
(source) |
Born 23 May 1848; died 10 Aug 1896.
German inventor and aeronautical pioneer on whose studies formed a foundation for Octave Chanute and the Wright brothers. His prior inventions, such as a small steam engine that worked on a system of tubular boilers designed for safety, brought him financial success. In 1891, he built and flew in the Derwitzer Glider. Within the next five years (before he died in a crash), assisted by his brother, Gustav, he designed other gliders and made 2000 flights. He carefully studied the aerodynamics of rigid wings, inspired by the gliding flight of storks made without flapping their wings. Although his aircraft achieved only low speed and altitudes, and he had survived other crashes, he broke his spine and died the day following a crash, falling from about 56-feet.« [Image (right): 1986 biplane design of the type he used on his last flight. He crashed when the upper wing fractured] 
Birdflight
As The Basis Of Aviation, by Otto Lilienthal. |
| James B. Eads | |
(source) |
Born 23
May 1820; died 8 Mar 1887.
James Buchanan Eads was an American engineer who built the two-tier triple-arch steel bridge over the Mississippi River at St. Louis, Missouri. At the age of 22, he invented a boat and diving bell which enabled walking on the river bottom. In 12 years' time he made a fortune with his salvage boat operation. During the Civil War, he built ironclad warships. After the war, he built the Mississippi River bridge, the first major bridge to use steel and cantilevered construction, which was opened 4 Jul 1874. Each roughly 500-ft span rested on piers built on bedrock about 100 feet beneath the river bottom. He created a year-round navigation channel for New Orleans scoured out with a system of jetties harnessing the river's water flow (1879).« James
B. Eads, by Louis How. |
| Franz Anton Mesmer | |
| Born 23
May 1734; died 5 Mar 1815.
German physician whose system of therapeutics, known as mesmerism, was the forerunner of the modern practice of hypnotism. He spent his career offering this controversial therapy to wealthy aristocratic clients in several European capitals. The
wizard from Vienna: Franz Anton Mesmer, by Vincent Buranelli. |
|
| William Hunter | |
(source) |
Born 23
May 1718; died 30 Mar 1783.
British obstetrician, educator, and medical writer whose high standards of teaching and medical practice took obstetrics from the hands of the midwives and established it as an accepted branch of medicine. He built up a distinguished clientèle (including members of the Royal Family) and made a collection of anatomical and pathological specimens related to his medical work. Hunter began public lectures on anatomy in 1746 and became a member of the corporation of surgeons in 1746. With the lack of training spaces in hospitals, the demand for private anatomy schools increased rapidly. He became one of the most successful anatomy teachers of his time. Hunter was still teaching anatomy in his Great Windmill Street Institute until his death. |
| Carolus Linnaeus | |
(source) |
Born 23
May 1707; died 10 Jan 1778.
Swedish botanist and explorer who was the first to frame principles for defining genera and species of organisms and to create a uniform system for naming them. |
| John Bartram | |
(source) |
Born 23
May 1699; died 22 Sep 1777.
American explorer who is also regarded as the father of American botany, a subject he self-taught from the age of ten. He made a systematic study of healing plants. In 1728, Bartram bought land beside the Schuylkill River at Kingsessing, outside Philadelphia, created Bartram's Garden, and began likely the first experiments in hybridizing in America. (His Garden now forms part of Philadelphia's small park system - the oldest living botanical garden in the U.S. - where many giant trees may still be seen that he planted.) He travelled widely to gather ripe seeds, roots and bulbs in proper condition for transplanting. Shipping many species to introduce in Europe developed into a business. His son William Bartram followed him as a naturalist.« The
Life and Travels of John Bartram, Edmund Berkeley. |
|
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| MAY 23 - DEATHS | |
| W. Lloyd Warner | |
(source) |
 Died
23 May 1970 (born 26 Oct 1898)
W(illiam) Lloyd Warner was an American sociologist and anthropologist who is remembered for authoring studies of social class structure. He pioneered in applying anthropology research methods in the field of the contemporary urban social community. In his Yankee City (5 vols.), he merged an ethnographic perspective gained from fieldwork among Australian aborigines with information gathered from formal interviews for his social study of a New England city, Yankee City. He was the first sociologist to use a six-fold classification. In studying the old town, Warner recognised three distinct groups - upper, middle and lower classes - each sub-divided into upper and lower sections. The topmost, or upper-upper class, was composed of the wealthy old families; the lower-lower class represented the poorest.« Yankee
City, edited by W. Lloyd Warner. |
| Georges Claude | |
 |
Died
23 May 1960 (born 24 Sep 1870)
The French engineer, chemist, and inventor of the neon light, Georges Claude, was born in Paris. He invented the neon light, which was the forerunner of the fluorescent light. Claude was the first to apply an electrical discharge to a sealed tube of neon gas, around 1902 and make a neon lamp ("Neon" from Greek "neos," meaning "new gas.") He first publicly displayed the neon lamp on 11 Dec 1910 in Paris. His French company Claude Neon, introduced neon signs to the U.S. with two "Packard" signs for a Packard car dealership in Los Angeles, purchased by Earle C. Anthony for $24,000. |
| William Webster Hansen | |
(source) |
Died
23 May 1949 (born 27 May 1909)
American physicist who contributed to the development of radar and is regarded as the founder of microwave technology. He developed the klystron, a vacuum tube essential to radar technology (1937). Based on amplitude modulation of an electron beam, rather than on resonant circuits of coils and condensers, it permits the generation of powerful and stable high-frequency oscillations. It revolutionized high-energy physics and microwave research and led to airborne radar. The klystron also has been used in satellite communications, airplane and missile guidance systems, and telephone and television transmission. After WW II, working with three graduate students, Hansen demonstrated the first 4.5 MeV linear accelerator in 1947. |
| Pierre-Émile Martin | |
| Died
23 May 1915 (born 18 Aug 1824)
French engineer who was one of the developers of the open-hearth steelmaking known as the Siemens- Martin process. The original open-hearth method was invented by Charles William and Friedrich Siemens (1856). Martin improved this as a blast furnace that made the production of steel more efficient by using regenerated heat captured in chambers on either side of the furnace. Such furnaces produced most of the world's steel until the development of the basic oxygen process. |
|
| Augustin-Louis Cauchy | |
| Died
23 May 1857 (born 21 Aug 1789)
(Baron) French mathematician who pioneered in analysis and the theory of substitution groups (groups whose elements are ordered sequences of a set of things). He was one of the greatest of modern mathematicians. |
|
| MAY 23 - EVENTS | |
| Flesh-eating bug | |
In 1994, an explanation for a "deadly flesh-eating bug" outbreak in England
was offered by British doctors. The disease was attributed to a cluster
of unusually intense infections by the common Steptococcus bacterium.
The people in Gloucestershire had been injured by a toxin that dissolved
flesh and fat which came from the excessive bacteria's attack. Normally,
Steptococcus
is associated with simple and common sore throats and fever. |
|
| Arm transplant | |
|
In 1962, In a first transplant of a human limb, a 12-year-old boy's right
arm was replaced by Drs. Donald A. Malt and J. McKhann at the Massachusetts
General Hospital. |
|
| Refrigeration patent | |
|
In 1950, black American inventor F.M. Jones was issued a patent for a "System
for Controlling Operation of Refrigeration Units" (No. 2,509,099).
The
Inventive Spirit of African Americans: Patented Ingenuity,
by Patricia Carter Sluby. |
|
| Radio navigation | |
|
In 1940, R.V. Jones, a scientist with air intelligence, tells the government
that intersecting radio beams could guide Luftwaffe bombers to their targets. |
|
| Patents | |
|
In 1933, Gertrude Ederle and C. Kelsey were granted a patent for a "paddle-driven
swimming device" (U.S. No. 1,911,129). On the same date, Max Wasserberg
received a patent for a "beach and lawn chair" (U.S. No. 1,911,127). |
|
| Plant patents | |
|
In 1930, a new U.S. Plant Patent Act provided,
for the first time, allowed patent
protection for new and distinct varieties of asexually reproduced plants.
This legislation resulted from the growing awareness that plant breeders
had no financial incentive to enter plant breeding because they could not
exercise control over their discoveries. In supporting this legislation,
Thomas A. Edison testified: "This (bill) will, I feel sure, give us many
Burbanks." He was referring to Luther Burbank (7 Mar 1849 - 11 Apr 1926)
who during a lifetime devoted to plant breeding developed
more than 800 strains and varieties of plants. Burbank was issued 16 plant
patents posthumously. Plant patent No. 10,000 was issued
12 Aug 1997 for
a "Geranium plant named Lois." |
|
| Edison patent | |
|
In 1922, Thomas A. Edison was issued a patent for "Production of Thin Metal
Sheets or Foils" (U.S. No. 1,417,464). |
|
| Edison patent | |
|
In 1916, Thomas A. Edison was finally issued three patents for his "Phonograph
or Talking Machine." The original patent applications were made 7 Dec 1910,
17 Feb 1911, and 12 Aug 1912. (U.S. Nos. 1,184,332 ; -3 and -4). |
|
| Edison patent | |
|
In 1911, Thomas A. Edison was issued a patent for "Device for Feeding Pulverulent
Material" (U.S. No. 993,294). Pulverulent refers to a consistency of fine
powder. |
|
| First U.S. airship disaster | |
|
In 1908, the first airship disaster in the U.S. took place in Berkeley,
Cal. A 450-foot long balloon collapsed and exploded, injuring 15 passengers
and the inventor, John A. Morrell. The widest part of the cigar-shaped
craft was 46 feet in diameter. It was fitted with six 200-h.p. gasoline
engines. This was about 30 years before the better-known disaster of the
Hindenburg,
which ignited and burned on 6 May 1937, killing 36 people. Yet the death
toll of the Hindenburg did not eclipse the death toll of 73 people
in an earlier airship disaster on 4 Apr 1933, when the Akron crashed
at sea during a storm. |
|
| Edison patent | |
|
In 1905, Thomas A. Edison was issued a patent for a "Process of Duplicating
Phonographic Records" (U.S. 790351). |
|
| Paris phone Rome | |
|
In 1903, the European capital cities of Paris and Rome were linked by telephone
for first time. |
|
| Black American patent | |
|
In 1871, a "Locomotive Smoke Stack" was patented by black American inventor
L. Bell (No. 115,153)
Great
Discoveries and Inventions by African-Americans, by David
M. Foy. |
|
| Electromagnet first exhibited | |
(source) |
In 1825, the electromagnet in a practical form was first exhibited
by its inventor, William Sturgeon, on the occasion of reading a paper,
recorded in the Transactions of the Society of Arts for 1825 (Vol
xliii, p.38). The publication showed pictures of his set of improved apparatus
for electromagnetic experiments, including two electromagnets, one of horse-shoe
shape and one a straight bar. The formed was bent from a rod about
1 foot (30 cm) long and one-half inch (1.3 cm) in diameter, varnished for
insulation, then coiled with a single spiral of 18 turns of stout copper
wire. In return for the Society's medal and premium, Sturgeon deposited
the apparatus in the museum of the Society. Sadly, this was lost after
the society's museum was dispersed.« |
| First bifocal spectacles | |
|
In 1785, a letter from Benjamin Franklin documented his invention of his
new bifocal glasses. He was writing from France to a friend describing
the solution to carrying around two pairs of glasses to see objects at
different distances, with the comment that "I have only to move my eyes
up and down as I want to see far or near." Franklin incorporated a two
part lens for each eye, each parts having a different focussing power.
The invention had limited acceptance at a time when even ordinary spectacles
in the colonies already cost as much as $100 per pair. |
|
