| JUNE 6 - BIRTHS | |
| Phillip A. Sharp | |
(source) |
 Born 6
June 1944
Phillip Allen Sharpe is an American molecular biologist, awarded the 1993 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, along with Richard J. Roberts, for his independent discovery that individual genes are often interrupted by long sections of DNA that do not encode protein structure. According to the Nobel citation, their "discovery has changed our view on how genes in higher organisms develop during evolution. The discovery also led to the prediction of a new genetic process, namely that of splicing, which is essential for expressing the genetic information." The discovery of split genes has been of fundamental importance for today's basic research in biology, as well as for research into the development of cancer and other diseases. |
| Richard E. Smalley | |
(source) |
Born 6
June 1943; died 28 Oct 2005.
Richard Errett Smalley is an American chemist and physicist, known as the father of nanotechnology, who shared the 1996 Nobel Prize for Chemistry with Robert F. Curl, Jr., and Sir Harold W. Kroto for their joint 1985 discovery of carbon60 (C60, or buckminsterfullerene, or buckyball) and the fullerenes. |
| Heinrich Rohrer | |
(source) |
Born 6
June 1933
Swiss physicist who, with Gerd Binnig, received half of the 1986 Nobel Prize for Physics for their joint invention of the scanning tunneling microscope. (Ernst Ruska received the other half of the prize.) Ruska's electron microscope of the 1930s was unable to show surface structure at the atomic level. Rohrer and Binnig began work in 1978 on a scanning tunneling microscope in which a fine probe passes within a few angstroms of the surface of the sample. A positive voltage on the probe enables electrons to move from the sample to the probe by the tunnel effect, and the detected current can used to keep the probe at a constant distance from the surface. As the probe moves in parallel lines, a 3D image of the surface can be constructed. |
| David Scott | |
(source) |
Born 6 June 1932
American astronaut who was the first to drive a wheeled vehicle on the moon on 31 Jul 1971. Gemini 8 was launched 16 Mar 1966, with Scott and Neil Armstrong as crew and conducted the first docking in space with an Agena. Scott flew on the Apollo 9 mission, launched 3 Mar 1969, a ten-day earth-orbit test of the first complete set of Apollo hardware. On 26 Jul 1971, Scott was launched on the Apollo 15 mission. He was in command of its Lunar Module which made the fourth lunar landing, became the seventh person to walk on the moon and the first to use the Lunar Rover vehicle on the moon's surface. This was part of a three day scientific investigation, with about 77 kg of rock samples collected, and an ALSEP science station left at the landing site to continue monitoring the lunar environment.« [Image (right):Lunar Rover Vehicle during the first lunar surface extravehicular activity at the Hadley-Apennine landing site.] |
| Edwin Gerhard Krebs | |
(source) |
Born 6
June 1918
American biochemist, winner with Edmond H. Fischer of the 1992 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. They discovered reversible protein phosphorylation, a biochemical process that regulates the activities of proteins in cells and thus governs countless processes that are necessary for life. Malfunctions in protein phosphorylation have been implicated in the causation of diseases such as diabetes, cancer, and Alzheimer's disease.« |
| Manfred J. Sakel | |
(source) |
Born 6
June 1900; died 2 Dec 1957.
Manfred Joshua Sakel was a Polish neurophysiologist and psychiatrist who introduced insulin-shock therapy for schizophrenics and other mental patients in 1927, while a young doctor in Vienna. Insulin-induced coma and convulsions, due to the low level of glucose attained in the blood (hypoglicemic crisis) improved the mental state of drug addicts and psychotics, sometimes dramatically. His findings indicated that up to 88% of his patients improved with insulin shock therapy. His method became widely applied for many years in mental institutions worldwide. He immigrated to the U.S. ahead of WW II. in 1936. "Sakel's Therapy" is still used in Europe, but in the U.S. it has been superceded by electroconvulsive therapy and other means of treatment. |
| James Steele MacKaye | |
(source) |
Born 6 June 1842; died 25 Feb 1894.
American dramatist and inventor in theatrical scene design. After studying in Europe he went to the United States (c.1872). He opened the Madison Square Theatre in 1879, where he created a huge elevator with two stages stacked one on top of the other so that elaborate furnishings could be changed quickly between scenes. He also invented and installed overhead and indirect stage lighting, movable stage wagons, artificial ventilation, and folding seats. MacKaye was the first to light a New York theatre entirely by electricity - the Lyceum - which he founded in 1884. In all, Mackaye patented over a hundred inventions, mostly for the improvement of theatrical equipment, and included the disappearing orchestra pit. [Image (right): MacKaye's two stacked stages.] |
| Ferdinand Braun | |
(source) |
Born 6
June 1850; died 20 Apr 1918.
Karl Ferdinand Braun was a German physicist who shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1909 with Guglielmo Marconi for the development of wireless telegraphy. He published papers on deviations from Ohm's law and on the calculations of the electromotive force of reversible galvanic elements from thermal sources, and discovered (1874) the electrical rectifier effect. He demonstrated the first cathode-ray oscilloscope (Braun tube) in 1897, after work on high-frequency alternating currents. Cathode-ray tubes had previously been characterized by uncontrolled rays; Braun succeeded in producing a narrow stream of electrons, guided by means of alternating voltage, that could trace patterns on a fluorescent screen. |
| Ernst Wilhelm von Brücke | |
(source) |
Born 6
June 1819; died 7 Jan 1892.
German physiologist who helped to introduce physical and chemical methods into medical research. He taught in Vienna (1849-90) where his school for physiologists gained an international reputation. The range of his physiological interests was vast, as shown in his Lectures in Physiology (1873-4). He discovered the ciliary muscle named for him, and his Anatomical Description of the Human Eye (1847) has become the standard histological work for contemporary oculists. He also did work on luminescence, blood coagulation, microscopy and cells. As a student, Sigmund Freud began research work on the central nervous system, guided by Ernst von Brücke (1876), and qualified as doctor of medicine in 1881. |
| Andrea Cesalpino | |
(source) |
Born 6
June 1519; died 23 Feb 1603.
Italian physician, philosopher, and botanist who sought a philosophical and theoretical approach to plant classification based on unified and coherent principles rather than on alphabetical sequence or medicinal properties. He helped establish botany as an independent science. In 1555, he succeeded Luca Ghini as director of the Pisan botanic garden. His book De plantis libri XVI (1583) starts with botanical principles. Following Aristotle's division of plants into trees, shrubs, shrubby herbs, and herbs, Cesalpino's pioneering classification concentrated on fruits and seeds, neglecting broader affinities. The greater part of his book contains descriptions of about 1500 plants, but with less advice on their uses than the herbalists provided. |
| Regiomontanus | |
(source) |
Born 6
June 1436; died 6 Jul 1476.
German astronomer and mathematician who was chiefly responsible for the revival and advancement of trigonometry in Europe. His book De triangulis omnimodis (1464) is a systematic account of methods for solving triangles. In Jan 1472 he made observations of a comet which were accurate enough to allow it to be identified with Halley's comet 210 years later (being three returns of the 70 year period comet). He also observed several eclipses of the Moon. His interest in the motion of the Moon led him to make the important observation that the method of lunar distances could be used to determine longitude at sea. However, instruments of the time lacked the necessary accuracy to use the method at sea. |
|
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| JUNE 6 - DEATHS | |
| Carleton Coon | |
(source) |
 Died
6 June 1981 (born 23 Jun 1904)
Carleton Stevens Coon was an American anthropologist who made notable contributions to cultural and physical anthropology and archaeology, with controversial studies of the origins and contemporary variations of human racial types. His studies ranged from prehistoric communities to modern tribal societies in the Middle East, Patagonia, and the hill country of India. He applied Darwinian adaptation to explain the physical characteristics of race in The Origin of Races (1962), based primarily on human fossil material. In his last book (1982), he was able to include biochemical data to suggest explanations for the physical variations in man. In the 1950's he was a regular panelist on a TV show, in which experts identified museum artifacts. |
| George Davis Snell | |
(source) |
Died
6 June 1996 (born 19 Dec 1903)
American geneticist, known as the "father of immunogenetics," who paved the way for modern organ transplants. He shared the 1980 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his studies of the genetic factors of histocompatibility which govern transplanting tissue from one individual to another. Snell identified the factors responsible as the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) - an assortment of antigens (which cause the production of antibodies) common across the genetic makeup of all vertebrates. Early in his career, Snell had been the first to show that x-rays can cause mutations in mammals, by showing that x-rays induce chromosome translocations in mice.« |
| Carl Jung | |
(source) |
Died
6 June 1961 (born 26 Jul 1875)
Dr. Carl (Gustav) Jung was a Swiss psychologist. He met and collaborated with Freud in Vienna in (1907-13), but then developed his own theories, which he called "analytical psychology" to distinguish them from Freud's psychoanalysis or Adler's individual psychology. Jung proposed and developed the concepts of the extroverted and introverted personality, archetypes, and the collective unconscious. The "father" of Psychoanalysis, his work has been influential in psychiatry and in the study of religion. He held chairs at Basel and Zürich. |
| Hiram Bingham | |
(source) |
Died
6 June 1956 (born 19 Nov 1875)
American archaeologist and politician who in 1911 discovered Machu Picchu in a remote part of the Peruvian Andes. In 1911, while he was a Yale University professor searching for the lost Inca capital of Vilcabamba, he paid a Peruvian guide to lead him to a nearby ruin. The guide took him 2,000 feet (610 meters) up a precipitous slope, and straight into the “lost” city of Machu Picchu. As one of the greatest archaeological sites in the Americas, Machu Picchu remains a mystery. Some scholars believe it to be the birthplace of the Inca Empire; others see it as a ceremonial center or military citadel. Bingham also discovered the Inca city of Viitcos. His work was a catalyst for archaeological study in the Andes and in other parts of South America. |
| Louis Lumière | |
(source) |
Died 6 June 1948 (born 5 Oct 1864)
Louis Jean Lumiere was a French inventor, who worked with his brother Auguste, to make pioneering motion-picture equipment. Louis invented the 25-lb "Cinématographe" twin-function projector and camera, which improved on Edison's Kinetoscope by adding a intermittent film motion mechanism (based on the sewing machine). On 13 Feb 1895, they jointly patented the device (as was their custom). It was first demonstrated to an invited audience on 22 Mar 1895, showing their first film to an invited audience who viewed La Sortie des ouvriers de l'usine Lumière showing workers leaving the Lumière factory. The hugely successful first public screening on 28 Dec 1895 of their films in Paris was the "birth" of the cinema.« [Image right: Frame from La Sortie des ouviers film.] |
| Alan Dower Blumlein | |
(source) |
Died
6 June 1942 (born 29 Jun 1903)
British electronics engineer whose 128 patents contributed greatly in a wide field of electronics, including mono and stereo sound reproduction and sound recording, as well as high-definition radar, telephony and electrical measurements. His profuse creativity was achieved within just 18 years, because he died at age only 38 (while flight-testing a radar project during WW II). He began working in 1924 for International Western Electric Co., and by 1929 was with Columbia Gramophone Co. which became EMI (1931) where he invented the stereophonic recording system. Although a few stereo recordings were made in the 1930's, EMI did not extensively develop the technology until the 1950's, when it built on Blumlein's work.« |
| George Andrew Reisner | |
(source) |
Died
6 June 1942 (born 5 Nov 1867)
U.S. archaeologist who directed many excavations in Egypt and Nubia (Nilotic Sudan) and discovered the subterranean burial chamber of Queen Hetepheres, mother of King Cheops (2606-2583 B.C.), builder of the Great Pyramid at Giza, the painted tomb chapel of Queen Meresankh III, granddaughter of King Cheops; the excavation of the third Giza pyramid and funerary temples of King Mycerinus (2548–2530 B.C.). After directing the Archaeological Survey of Nubia (1907-09) intended to record sites prior to construction of the original Aswan High Dam, he explored the cultures of Nubia (modern Sudan) to the south of Egypt. In his final years despite near total blindness, he continued working. He was buried in the Christian cemetery in Cairo. |
| Robert Stirling | |
(source) |
Died
6 June 1878 (born 25 Oct 1790)
Scottish minister and inventor of the Stirling Cycle engine. Its principles were included in his first British patent, No. 4081 of 1816, which he called the heat economiser as he described methods of regenerating heat from exhaust back into input gases. He continued to refine his idea for years in his home workshop during his spare time. The first practical Stirling engine generated about 2 horsepower, spending two years pumping water out of a quarry. By 1843, he had a modified steam engine producing 37 horsepower. He was assisted in preparing further patents by his brother James, a mechanical engineer who managed a foundry where the engine was manufactured. Robert also made scientific instruments.« |
| JUNE 6 - EVENTS | |
| Heart defect detection | |
In 1961, a system for the detection of heart defects in children was perfected
by the Chicago Heart Association. |
|
| Nylon parachute jump | |
(source) |
In 1942, the first parachute jump in the U.S. using a nylon parachute was
made by Adeline Gray.
Cotton had been superceded by silk cloth as a higher-strength, lower-weight
parachute fabric. Oriental high-volume sources of the silkworm product
were cut off during WWII. Fortunately, nylon, a newly invented synthetic
substitute produced by the DuPont Co was available, as exhibited at the
1939 World's Fair. Nylon parachutes were been tested
with dead weights, but the military needed a live trial to confirm personnel
use. Gray, a parachute rigger at the Pioneer Parachute Company volunteered.
She jumped from an aircraft flying from Brainard Field, Hartford, Conn.
convincing an audience of 50 critical army and navy observers.« |
| Detergent | |
(source) |
In 1907, Persil,
the first household detergent, was marketed by Henkel
& Cie, of Düsseldorf as the first "self-acting" washing powder
in the world. Persil was the combination of both washing and bleaching
agents in one powder. The brand name derived from the beginning syllables
of its two most important chemical components, perborate
(a bleaching agent) and silicate. The first Persil packet was a paper-wrapped
folding box, with much text, decorated in the primary colors green, red
and white. Around 1910 the popular Persil box triggered the beginnings
of brand piracy, as witnessed by innumerable imitation attempts (Pirsil,
Pirsal, Persiehl, O-Hä etc.) In 1917, the Persil brand was registered
as a trademark. |
| Prof. Dewar demonstrates | |
 |
In 1902, Prof James Dewar exhibited air in the solid state and a jet of
liquid air raising above it to about 6-ft., with beautiful effects, before
the Prince and Princess of Wales.* |
| Edison patent | |
|
In 1899, Thomas A. Edison was issued a patent
for his "Filament for And Process of Incandescent Lamps" (U.S. No. 626,460).
"I form a filament of highly-refractory non-conducting material which is
preferably porous, and incorporate therein isolated particles of carbon,
so as to produce spark gaps between the particles, whereby high-tension
currents, either alternating, continuous, or intermittent, will be conducted
from particle to particle of the carbon to raise the filament to incandescence.
... The highly refractory material I prefer to use ... is an oxid or oxids
of the rare earths - such as the oxid of zirconium, thorium and others." |
|
| Horseshoe | |
(USPTO) |
In 1899, black American inventor James Ricks was issued a patent for an
"Overshoe for Horses" (U.S. No. 626,245). The invention was a rubber horseshoe
"to prevent a horse from slipping in sleety weather and to secure noiseless
travel when preferred, and is applied over the horseshoe in common use."
It was formed from rubber and canvas so as to cover the entire bottom of
the foot, and was fastened to the hoof by means of a strap. The rough outer
surface provided traction, but also prevented snow or ice packing against
any part of the foot and pressing the shoe out of place. Ricks held an
earlier patent for the rough-shoeing of horses (30 Mar 1886, No.338,781).
 The
Inventive Spirit of African Americans: Patented Ingenuity,
by Patricia Carter Sluby. |
| Electric flatiron | |
(USPTO) |
In 1882, the first American patent for an electric iron was issued to Henry
Seely of New York City (No. 259,054). In his design, there is placed "within
the iron and close to its face a resistance, preferably of carbon, and
of such size and shape that it will heat the face of the iron sufficiently.
This resistance ... may be connected in an electric circuit, preferably
a multiple-arc circuit of an electricl lighting system." The internal carbon
heating element is mounted to be electrically insulated from the metal
of the iron and heat insulation above, such as plaster-of-paris. An adjustable
resistance may be included in the circuit to regulate the heat, and a "safety-catch
should be provided, preferably within the plug to protect the system in
case of a short circuit."« |
| Vesuvius funicular | |
(source) |
In 1880, the first funicular to transport passengers up an active volcano
was inaugurated
on Mount Vesuvius, Italy. Previously, tourists could ride in sedan chairs
carried by four porters. When opened to the public 10 Jun, visitors could
travel up a steep rail in an 8-seat carriage,
towed by a cable loop along the ground powered by a steam engine at the
lower station. The famous song Funiculi, Funicula was inspired
by this inauguration. The Hungarian engineer, Ernesto Emanuele Oblieght,
had worked since 1870 to make the funicular possible. He formed the Sociètè
Anonyme du Chemin de Fer Funicolaire du Vèsuve, to operate it,
but expenses later forced it to cede the operation to Thomas Cook and Son
Co. (24 Nov 1888).« |
| Prototype metre bar and kilogram mass | |
|
In 1799, the first definitive prototype metre
bars (mètre des Archives) and kilograms were constructed in
platinum. This followed the legal definition of the metric system by the
French National Assembly on 7 Apr 1795, that was itself established during
the famous measurements of the Earth's meridian between Dunkerque and Barcelona.
The use of a metal bar to define the standard meter
continued until replaced in 1960 by a definition based upon a number of
wavelengths of light from a certain spectroscopic light source.« |
|
| First public museum | |
(source) |
In 1683, the general public were admitted for the first time to the Ashmolean
Museum of Art and Archaeology, Oxford. This was the first public museum
to open in Britain, and perhaps in the world. The building
had multiple purposes: the basement contained a chemistry laboratory, the
ground floor was used for lectures and it was the top floor which housed
a collection of curiosities acquired by Elias Ashmole and donated to the
university. A fortnight earlier, the "formal inauguration ceremony" was
attended by the Duke and Duchess of York and the Princess Anne, on 21 May
1683 followed by a private view for members of the University on the afternoon
of 24 May 1683.« [Image:
doorway on the east wall] |
| Gunpowder mill | |
(source) |
In 1639, the first record of the establishment of a gunpowder mill in the
American colonies was an order from the General Court of Massachusetts
granting 500 acres of land at Pecoit, Mass*.
Edward Rawson received the grant, "so as he goes on with the powder if
the saltpeter comes." Since Jamestown was settled (1607) and the Pilgrims
landed at Plymouth (1620), firearms and gunpowder were brought from England
- an uncertain supply. When the colonialists turned to producing gunpowder
for themselves, the General Court encouraged homespun production efforts,
especially for the saltpeter ingredient. The first gunpowder mill of importance
was established in 1675 at Milton, Mass., on the Neponset River.«  |
