| MAY 25 - BIRTHS | |
| John Cocke | |
(source) |
 Born 25
May 1925.
American computer scientist who invented the reduced instruction set computing (RISC) in the 1970's. This innovation boosted computer speed by simplifying instructions for frequently used functions. As an IBM researcher for over 35 years, he developed computer architecture and instruction sets, for which he holds numerous patents. Today RISC is the basic architecture for most workstations. Besides those for RISC technology, his 22 patents cover logic simulation, coding theory, and compiler optimization. |
| Jack Steinberger | |
(source) |
Born 25
May 1921.
German-born American physicist who, along with Leon M. Lederman and Melvin Schwartz, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1988 for their joint discoveries of the neutrino beam method and the demonstration of the doublet structure of the leptons through the discovery of the muon neutrino. In 1951, he met Lederman at Columbia University and, later, Schwarz who became his student. In 1958, they conducted a neutrino experiment at the new Brookhaven Alternating Gradient Synchrotron. The results emerged in a classic 1962 paper, and neutrino beams went on to become one of the standard tools of particle physics. After receiving the Nobel, Steinberger commented, "to get that prize, do your work early!" |
| Carl Wagner | |
| Born 25
May 1901; died 10 Dec 1977.
German physical chemist and metallurgist who was helped shape the field of chemical metallurgy as an exact science. In the late 1920's, with Walter Schottky, he coauthored papers published in German journals that first organized the field of defect structures in solid-state materials. Wagner researched in particular the result of lattice defects in the arrangement of atoms in oxides and sulphides.« |
|
| Igor Sikorsky | |
(source) |
Born 25
May 1889; died 26 Oct 1972.
Igor Ivan Sikorsky was a Russian-born U.S. pioneer in aircraft design who is best known for his successful development of the helicopter. His earliest successes were with fixed-wing aircraft, including his prize-winning S-6-A (1912) which led to a position as head of the aviation subsidiary of the Russian Baltic Railroad Car Works. In this position, as a result of a mosquito-clogged carburetor and subsequent engine failure, he had the radical idea of an aircraft having more than one engine. Thus he produced the first multi-engine airplane, the four-engined "The Grand." This revolutionary aircraft featured such things as an enclosed cabin. a lavatory, upholstered chairs and an exterior catwalk atop the fuselage so passengers could take a turn about in the air. [Image: from U.S. airmail postage stamp] |
| Pieter Zeeman | |
| Born 25
May 1865; died 9 Oct 1943.
Dutch physicist who was an authority on magneto-optics. In 1896, he discoveredthe "Zeeman effect," the "phenomena produced in spectroscopy by the splitting up of spectral lines in a magnetic field." He shared (with Hendrik A. Lorentz) the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1902 for his discovery of the Zeeman effect. |
|
| James McKeen Cattell | |
| Born 25
May 1860; died 20 Jan 1944.
U.S. psychologist who oriented U.S. psychology toward use of objective experimental methods, mental testing, and application of psychology to the fields of education, business, industry, and advertising. He originated two professional directories and published five scientific periodicals. |
|
| Daniel Moreau Barringer | |
| Born 25
May 1860; died 1929.
American mining engineer and geologist who identified the Great Barringer Meteor Crater in Arizona as the result of a meteorite strike, and not as most people then assumed, an extinct volcano. The crater is nearly round, almost a mile in diameter and about 600-ft deep. His theory, first advanced in 1905, was not accepted at first, but closer study revealed no signs of recent volcanic activity in the vicinity, but did a much meteoritic material has been found there. This crater demonstrates that the moon's surface of lunar craters is likely to be the result of meteoric bombardment, as would also be the effect on the earth. However, the earth is shielded by its atmosphere from all but the largest strikes. |
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| MAY 25 - DEATHS | |
| Hans Goldschmidt | |
(source) |
 Died
25 May 1923 (born 18 Jan 1861)
German chemist who invented the thermite (alumino-thermic) process was adopted worldwide for welding railroad and streetcar rails, and is still in use for on-site welding. The first track so welded was laid in Essen. This method evolved from his Goldschmidt reduction process that he began investigating in 1893 for the preparation of carbon-free metals. He used the reactions of oxides of certain metals with aluminum to yield aluminum oxide and the free metal. It has been applied to separate chromium, manganese, and cobalt from their oxide ores. Goldschmidt was also a co-inventor of sodium amalgam. His father, Theodor Goldschmidt, founded Chemische Fabrik Th. Goldschmidt which became the modern company, Degussa.« |
| Rudolf Dreikurs | |
(source) |
Died
25 May 1972 (born 8 Feb 1897)
American psychiatrist and educator who developed the Austrian psychologist Alfred Adler's system of individual psychology into a pragmatic method for understanding the purposes of reprehensible behaviour in children and for stimulating cooperative behaviour without punishment or reward. |
| Sir Frank Dyson | |
(source) |
Died
25 May 1939 (born 8 Jan 1868)
Sir Frank (Watson) Dyson was a Cambridge-educated, British astronomer, who spent his entire career (except for 5 years in Edinburgh) at the Royal Greenwich Observatory, where he was Astronomer Royal from 1910-33. He directed measurements of terrestrial magnetism, latitude, and time, and he initiated the radio broadcast of time. He determined proper motions of northern stars and completed his portion of the international Carte du Ciel project of photographing the entire sky. Dyson is best known for directing (with Eddington) the 1919 eclipse expedition which confirmed the bending of starlight by the sun's gravitational field. This bending of light, predicted by Einstein, was evidence supporting his general theory of relativity. |
| MAY 25 - EVENTS | |
| Moon landing announced | |
(source) |
In 1961, the formal announcement
of an American lunar landing was made by President John F. Kennedy speaking
to the Congress: "I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving
the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning
him safely to the Earth. No single space program in this period will be
more impressive to mankind, or more important in the long-range exploration
of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish." |
| Penicillin | |
In 1948, Andrew Moyer was granted a
patent for a method of mass production of penicillin.
 The
Mold in Dr. Florey's Coat: The Story of the Penicillin Miracle,
by Eric Lax. |
|
| Penicillin test | |
(source) |
In 1940, in one of the most famous animal tests in medical history, eight
mice were inoculated with a lethal dose of streptococci and then four of
them were injected with penicillin.
Next day the four mice given streptococci alone were dead, the four with
penicillin were healthy. Oxford scientists Howard
Florey, Ernst Chain and Norman
Heatley had revived Alexander Fleming's
work. They produced enough antibiotic to test by isolating the active ingredient
from what Fleming had called "mould juice," Ten years before, Fleming's
had interest waned when he found penicillin prduction to be difficult,
that it was very unstable, had no effect on certain bacteria (cholera,
bubonic plague) and didn't work in animals when given by mouth.«
The
Mold in Dr. Florey's Coat: The Story of the Penicillin Miracle,
by Eric Lax. |
| Otis patent | |
|
In 1852, E.G. Otis was issued a patent for a Railroad Car Brake (U.S. No.
8973) |
|
| First U.S. news by telegraph | |
|
In 1844, the first news communicated by telegraph in the U.S. was sent
80 miles to the Baltimore Patriot, Maryland, from Washington, D.C.
giving the information that "One o'clock. There has just been made a motion
in the House to go into committee of the whole on the Oregon question.
Rejected. Ayes 79 - Nays 86." This was just one day after Samuel
Morse transmitted his famous "What hath God wrought!" message
from the U.S. Supreme Court room and opened America's first telegraph line
linking Washington and Baltimore. |
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