| JUNE 5 - BIRTHS | |
| Dennis Gabor | |
(source) |
 Born 5
June 1900; died 8 Feb 1979.
Hungarian-born British electrical engineer who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1971 for his invention of holography, a system of lensless, three-dimensional photography that has many applications. He first conceived the idea of holography in 1947 using conventional filtered-light sources. Because such sources had limitations of either too little light or too diffuse, holography was not commercially feasible until the invention of the laser (1960), which amplifies the intensity of light waves. He also did research on high-speed oscilloscopes, communication theory, physical optics, and television. Gabor held more than 100 patents. |
| Ruth Benedict | |
(EB) |
Born 5
June 1887; died 17 Sep 1948.
American anthropologist whose theories had a profound influence on cultural anthropology, especially in the area of culture and personality. Her major contribution to anthropology, compares Zuñi, Dobu, and Kwakiutl cultures in order to demonstrate how small a portion of the possible range of human behaviour is incorporated into any one culture; she argues that it is the "personality," the particular complex of traits and attitudes, of a culture that defines the individuals within it as successes, misfits, or outcasts. |
| Warder Clyde Allee | |
| Born 5
June 1885; died 18 Mar 1955.
American zoologist and ecologist who researched the social behaviour, aggregations, and distribution of both land and sea animals. He demonstrated that an unconscious drive existed among many species of animals for their fellow individuals, such that undercrowding was detrimental to some animals. He noted what he called "protocooperation" among animals, unconscious cooperation instead of competition. Allee believed this evolved in the higher animals to become both unconscious and conscious cooperation creating levels of community organization. He investigated the role and function of social hierarchies in nature, and the capacity of animals to maintain internal equilibrium by making physiological adaptations.« 
 Principles
of Animal Ecology, by Warder Clyde Allee. |
|
| Allvar Gullstrand | |
(source) |
Born 5
June 1862; died 28 Jul 1930.
Swedish ophthalmologist, recipient of the 1911 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his research on the eye as a light-refracting apparatus. Hermann von Helmholtz had earlier shown that the eye solves the problem of accommodation (how to focus on both near and distant objects) by changing the surface curvature of the lens - the nearer the object, the more convex the lens becomes; the further the object, the more concave the lens. Gullstrand showed that this could in fact account for only two thirds of the accommodation a normal eye could achieve. The remaining third was produced by what Gullstrand termed the "intracapsular mechanism" and depended on the fact that the eye was not a homogeneous medium. |
| James Carroll | |
(source) |
Born 5
June 1854; died 16 Sep 1907
English-American physician who served on the Yellow fever Commission. Army Surgeon-General Sternberg assigned Carroll to the medical faculty of the Army Medical Museum in Washington, where he and Walter Reed worked together in bacteriology research. In 1899, Sternberg appointed Carroll and Reed to investigate the bacillus icteroides, the microbe that Italian bacteriologist Giuseppe Sanarelli had identified as the cause of yellow fever. Their work helped disprove Sanarelli’s theory and catapulted Carroll and Reed into the yellow fever debate. In 1900, Carroll was promoted to Acting Asst. Surgeon in the Army Medical Corps and placed him second-in-command on the Yellow Fever Commission with Reed as officer-in-charge. |
| John Couch Adams | |
 |
Born 5
June 1819; died 21 Jan 1892.
British mathematician and astronomer, one of two people who independently discovered the planet Neptune. On 3 Jul 1841, Adams had entered in his journal: "Formed a design in the beginning of this week of investigating, as soon as possible after taking my degree, the irregularities in the motion of Uranus ... in order to find out whether they may be attributed to the action of an undiscovered planet beyond it." Adams made many other contributions to astronomy, notably his studies of the Leonid meteor shower (1866) where he showed that the orbit of the meteor shower was very similar to that of a comet. He was able to correctly conclude that the meteor shower was associated with the comet. Adams considered the motion of the Moon, and studied terrestrial magnetism. |
| Edward Daniel Clarke | |
(source) |
Born 5
June 1769; died 9 Mar 1822.
English mineralogist and traveller who amassed a valuable collection of minerals. In 1799, he began a 3-year tour through Asia Minor, Italy, Greece, Scandinavia and Siberia, where he also collected maps, statues and sarcophagi, manuscripts, and Greek coins. He was the first professor of mineralogy at Cambridge University (1808). In 1817 he became librarian there, until his health failed, though he continued to lecture until 1821. He had a significant impact through his teaching of minerology in terms of crystallography and the new chemistry, and through the topological geology and volcanological observations in his widely read Travels (6 vols. 1810-23). His mineral collection was bought by Cambridge at his death for 1,500 pounds. |
| Johan Gadolin | |
(source) |
Born 5
June 1760; died 15 Aug 1852.
Finnish chemist who discovered the element yttrium (1794). This was the first of a family of 15 rare earth elements called the lanthanides. He studied in Uppsala, Sweden, and taught chemistry there (1797-1822) and promoted Antoine Lavoisier's discoveries about combustion and his system of chemical nomenclature. In analysing a new black mineral from Ytterby, Sweden, he isolating from it the rare earth mineral, yttria. This was an important step towards identifying the remaining undiscovered elements. Over the next century yttria was found to contain the oxides of nine new rare earth elements. After Gadolin's death, one discovered by Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac and Paul Emile Lecoq de Boisbaudran, was named gadolinium. |
| Pierre-Jean-Georges Cabanis | |
(source) |
Born 5
June 1757; died 5 May 1808.
French philosopher and physiologist noted for Rapports du physique et du moral de l'homme (1802; "Relations of the Physical and the Moral in Man"), which explained all of reality, including the psychic, mental, and moral aspects of man, in terms of a mechanistic Materialism. He argued that "to have an accurate idea of the operations from which thought results, it is necessary to consider the brain as a special organ designed especially to produce it, as the stomach and the intestines are designed to operate the digestion, (and) the liver to filter bile..." |
| Joseph Pitton de Tournefort | |
(source) |
Born 5 June 1656; died 28 Dec 1708.
French botanist and physician, whose pioneering systematic approach to botany included creating a system of plant classification that used the "genus" in the modern sense. On scientific expeditions, he collected many plant species from Greece, Asia Minor, and the Pyrenees. In Élémens de botanique (1694), he arranged the petal-bearing plants into classes based on the form of the corolla, then into families based on the position of the corolla, and finally into genera as defined by the character of the fruit and seed. His system was used through the 18th century, elaborated by others such as Linnæus, but superceded as research advanced. Tournefort did not use a microscope and did no research on plant structure, function or reproduction.« [Image right: (source)] |
|
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| JUNE 5 - DEATHS | |
| Frederick S. Russell | |
 Died
5 June 1940 (born 3 Nov 1897)
Frederick Stratten Russell was an English marine biologist who linked the depth distribution of planktonic organisms to the intensity of light in the seas off the British Isles. He used photoelectric cells to measure the light, finding that the plankton moved up and down the water column in a daily cycle. Seasonal variations in light intensity also affected the migrations. His work helped explain the long-term changes in the ecosystem of the English Channel. Russell was fascinated by the larval stages of fishes and the life histories of certain types of jellyfish, which he studied in great detail. He wrote and illustrated several books on his findings. |
|
| Augustus Edward Hough Love | |
(source) |
Died
5 June 1940 (born 17 Apr 1863)
British geophysicist and mathematician who discovered a major type of earthquake wave that was subsequently named for him. Love assumed that the Earth consists of concentric layers that differ in density and postulated the occurrence of a seismic wave confined to the surface layer (crust) of the Earth which propagated between the crust and underlying mantle. His prediction was confirmed by recordings of the behaviour of waves in the surface layer of the Earth. He proposed a method, based on measurements of Love waves, to measure the thickness of the Earth's crust. In addition to his work on geophysical theory, Love studied elasticity and wrote A Treatise on the Mathematical Theory of Elasticity, 2 vol. (1892-93).  Treatise
on the Mathematical Theory of Elasticity by Augustus
E. Love |
| Francis James Gillen | |
(source) |
Died
5 June 1912 (born 28 Oct 1855)
Australian anthropologist who did pioneering fieldwork among the Aborigines of central Australia. After working for the South Australian telegraph Department throughout Central Australia (1875-99), he became stationmaster at the Alice Springs Overland Telegraph station. Gillen became very interested in the Aboriginal people. He took a special interest in the Arrentic people who lived near his home. He learned their language, became a friend of the group and was welcomed as a member of their society. He met Baldwin Spencer when, in 1894, the Horn Expedition visited Alice Springs to make an appraisal of the areas geology and the Aboriginal culture. Together, they later made many anthropological expeditions which showed the Aboriginal complex yet subtle culture. |
| Sir John Richardson | |
| Died
5 June 1865 (born 5 Nov 1787)
Scottish naval surgeon and naturalist who made accurate surveys of more of the Canadian Arctic coast than any other explorer, in service with the Royal navy (1807-55). During this time he was surgeon and naturalist to Sir John Franklin's polar expeditions (1819-22, 1825-27). On the second expeditions, he separated from Franklin to explore the coast to the Coppermine River and Great Slave Lake (1826). He conducted a search expedition (1848-49) for Franklin's lost third Arctic expedition that had started in 1845, but was unable to find any trace of Franklin's ships. He wrote Fauna Boreali-Americana (1829-37) which became a standard work on Arctic biology. He also wrote on ichthyology and polar exploration. |
|
| JUNE 5 - EVENTS | |
| AIDS | |
1969 (source) |
In 1981, a epidemic disease,
later to be named as AIDS, was briefly described
by Dr. Michael Gottlieb in the newsletter of the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control. This was the first notice to be published on AIDS, though it had
not yet been given that name. Gottlieb was in his first research position
as assistant professor of medicine at the University of California at Los
Angeles. Despite the medical profession's refusal to acknowledge the AIDS
crisis, he pursued early immune deficiency cases and urged the publication
of his findings. He left UCLA in 1987 to open a private practice, he has
devoted his career to treating AIDS patients and fostering AIDS research.
He was one of the first researchers to test the drug AZT on AIDS patients. |
| Apple II | |
(source) |
In 1977, first personal computer,
the Apple II, went on sale. They were the invention of Steve Wozniak and
Steve Jobs. They have the 6502 microprocessor, ability to do Hi-res and
Lo-res color graphics, sound, joystick input, and casette tape I/O. They
have a total of eight expansion Slots for adding peripherials. Clock speed
is 1MHz and, with Apple's Language Card installed, standard memory size
is 64kB. (The Apple I designation referred to an earlier computer that
was not much more than a board.
You had to supply your own keyboard, monitor and case.) The Apple II was
one of three prominent personal computers that came out in 1977. Despite
its higher price, it quickly pulled ahead of the TRS-80 and the Commodore
Pet. |
| Mechanical speech | |
(source) |
In 1938, the first machine
to produce intelligible speech-like sounds
was exhibited by Bell Telephone scientists. Called "Pedro, the Voder,"
it was put on display to the public at the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia,
Pa. It could also imitate the sound of various farm animals. The inventor
was Homer Dudley with Richard Riesz and Stanley Watkins. It was also demonstrated
at the 1939 World's Fair in New York. It was basically a spectrum-synthesis
device
operated from a finger keyboard and a foot pedal pitch control. It duplicated
an important physiological characteristic of the vocal system, namely,
that the excitation could be voiced or unvoiced. However, its operation
required persons to be well trained in the use of the controls. |
| Colorscope | |
|
In 1930, the Colorscope was first publically demonstrated in New York City.
It used a photocell that reacts to colours of light, and could match colours
more exactly than the human eye. The tiny electrical current generated
was sufficient to operate relays or meters. It was invented by Harold H.
Sheldon and Dr. Walter A Schneider. |
|
| Separable Baggage Ticket | |
(source) |
In 1882, John Mitchell Lyons was issued
a Canadian patent
for his "Improvements in Baggage Checks and Coupon Tickets" (No. 14911).
He was a railway clerk in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada, who devised this
now familiar way to track and identify luggage. As the headquarters of
the Intercolonial Railway of Canada, Moncton was an important railway hub.
To better control the passengers' luggage, Lyons devised a baggage check
which separated along a perforation into two halves. Both pieces were printed
with the same route information and an identifying number. One half was
attached to the bag, and the other was given to the passager to claim his
luggage at his destination.« [Image:
figure from Canadian patent.] |
| Liquid air | |
 |
In 1878, liquid air obtained at a temperature of -192ºC was exhibited
by Professor James Dewar at the Royal Institution, London. His work followed
the small-scale production of liquid air by Raoul Pictet of Geneva (Dec
1877) and Cailletet of Paris (Jan 1878). In March 1893, Dewar produced
solid air. He gave six well-illustrated Christmas Lectures on "Air: gaseous
and liquid " at the Royal Institution on 28 Dec 1893 - 9 Jan 1894. (Some
of the air in the room was liquified in the presence of the audience, and
remained so for some time, when enclosed in a vacuum jacket.) He demonstrated
several physical properties of liquid air, and produced solid air at the
Friday 19 Jan 1894 meeting of the Royal Institution.* |
| Margarine taxed | |
|
In 1877, the state of New York passed a law to tax on "oleomargarine."
When a court voided a ban on margarine in New York, dairy militants turned
their attention to Washington, resulting in Congressional passage of the
Margarine Act of 1886.The purpose was to protect dairymen and their product,
real butter. Margarine had first been created in France (1870) by Hippolyte
Mège-Mouriez in response to an offer by the Emperor Louis Napoleon
III for the production of a satisfactory substitute for butter. To formulate
his entry, Mège-Mouriez used margaric acid, a fatty acid component
isolated in 1813 by Michael Chevreul and named because of the lustrous
pearly drops that reminded him of the Greek word for pearl - "margarites". |
|
| Hot air balloon ascent | |
 |
In 1783, the first hot-air balloon ascent - unmanned - flew for ten minutes.
It was made by the French brothers Joseph-Michel
and
Jacques-Étienne
Montgolfier at their home town of Annonay, France.
The
Montgolfier Brothers and the Invention of Aviation, 1783-1784,
by Charles Coulston Gillispie. |
