| JUNE 13 - BIRTHS | |
| Jerome Lejeune | |
(source) |
 Born 13
Jun 1926; died 3 Apr 1994.
French geneticist who discovered the first human chromosomal anomaly, the trisomy 21, the chromosome that causes Down syndrome. In July 1958, while examining the chromosomes of a so called "Mongol" child, Lejeune discovered the existence of an extra chromosome on the 21st pair. On 26 Jan 1959, Jérôme Lejeune with Marthe Gauthier and Raymond Turpin presented their discovery to the Académie des Sciences. This began to shed light on the existence of diseases by chromosomal aberration, unsuspected until then. Lejeune continued to make more connections between specific disorders and chromosomel anomalies. |
| Luis W. Alvarez | |
(source) |
Born 13
Jun 1911; died 1 Sep 1988.
American experimental physicist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1968 for work that included the discovery of many resonance particles (subatomic particles having extremely short lifetimes and occurring only in high-energy nuclear collisions). Alvarez invented a radio distance and direction indicator. During World War II, he designed a landing system for aircrafts and a radar system for locating planes. He participated in the development of the atomic bomb at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, Los Alamos, N.M. (1944-45). He suggested the technique for detonating the implosion type of atomic bomb. Later, he helped develop the hydrogen bubble chamber, used to detect subatomic particles. This research led to the discovery of over 70 elementary particles and resulted in a major revision ofnuclear theories. |
| Erwin Wilhelm Müller | |
(source) |
Born 13
Jun 1911; died 17 May 1977.
German-U.S. physicist who invented the field emission microscope (FIM), which provided magnifications in excess of one million. For the first time made it possible to take pictures of individual atoms. Images of the atomic structures of tungsten were first published in 1951 in the journal Zeitschrift für Physik. In FIM, a voltage of about 10kV is applied to a sharp metal tip, cooled to below 50 kelvin in a low-pressure helium gas atmosphere. Gas atoms are ionized by the strong electric field in the vicinity of the tip and repelled perpendicular to the tip surface. A detector images the spatial distribution of these ions giving a magnification of the curvature of the surface. |
| Willard Harrison Bennett | |
(source) |
Born 13
Jun 1903; died 28 Sep 1987.
American physicist who discovered (1934) the pinch effect, an electromagnetic process that may offer a way to magnetically confine a plasma at temperatures high enough for controlled nuclear fusion reactions to occur. He proposed (1936) the tandem Van de Graaff accelerator, which later became widely used in nuclear research. He invented a radio-frequency mass spectrometer, developed in 1950. Since it required no heavy magnet, it was the first launched into space to measure the masses of atoms. Sputnik III carried the first R-F mass spectrometer into space. It was the only space instrument used by the Russians and credited to an American inventor in their own Russian-language publications. |
| A.A. Griffith | |
(source) |
Born 13
Jun 1893; died 13 Oct 1963.
Alan Arnold Griffith was a British aeronautical engineer. During the late 1920s, A.A. Griffith and F. Whittle independently made the first practical proposals for the use of gas turbine engines in aircraft. Griffith concentrated on developing an axial flow compressor, and in 1929 he proposed a gas turbine engine driving a propeller, the so called turbo-prop engine. Earlier, in 1917, with G.I.Taylor, he published a pioneering article on the use of soap films in solving torsion problems. In 1920, he published a seminal article on the theory of the brittle fracture. At Rolls Royce (1939-60) he designed turbojet engines, and in the 1950s, vertical take-off aircraft. He developed the remarkable "flying bedstead" which first flew in 1954. |
| Jules Bordet | |
(EB) |
Born 13
Jun 1870; died 6 Apr 1961.
Jules Jean Baptiste Vincent Bordet was a Belgian bacteriologist and immunologist who discovered (1895) the complement, a complex of proteins in the blood that causes the destruction of foreign cells in an immune response. In 1906, he isolated the bacterium responsible for whooping cough, which is named after him - Bordetella (Haemophilus) pertussis- for which he developed a vaccine. He also isolated a number of other pathogenic bacteria. For his discovery of immunity factors in blood serum, he received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1919. This development was vital to the diagnosis and treatment of many dangerous contagious bacterial diseases. For example, it is the basis of the Wassermann test for syphilis. |
| Wallace Clement Sabine | |
(source) |
Born 13
Jun 1868; died 10 Jan 1919.
Wallace Clement Ware Sabine was a U.S. physicist who founded the science of architectural acoustics. After experimenting in the Fogg lecture room at Harvard, to investigate the effect of absorption on the reverberation time, on 29 of October 1898 he discovered the type of relation between these quantities. The duration T of the residual sound to decay below the audible intensity, starting from a 1,000,000 times higher initial intensity is given by: T = 0.161 V/A (V=room volume in m3, A=total absorption in m2). The first auditorium Sabine designed applying his new insight in acoustics, was the new Boston Music Hall, formally opened on 15 Oct 1900. Now known as the Symphony Hall, and still considered one of the world's three finest concert halls. |
| Bradley Allen Fiske | |
1912(EB) |
Born 13
Jun 1854; died 6 Apr 1942.
U.S. naval officer and inventor whose new instruments greatly improved the efficiency and effectiveness of late 19th-century warships. In 1898, while the navigator of the gunboat Petrel during the Battle of Manila Bay, he determined the ranges of enemy ships for use by the gunners by using his own invention, a stadimeter range finder. Fiske's prolific activity as an inventor began in the mid-1870s with some applications in each World War. His major inventions in electrical and gun-control systems included range finding, ammunition hoists and gun-turret motors and torpedo radio control. |
| Sir Charles Algernon Parsons | |
(source) |
Born 13 Jun 1854; died 11 Feb 1931.
British engineer whose invention of a multi-stage steam turbine revolutionized marine propulsion (1884). Each stage was designed to control and maximize the power delivered. By 1891, he had designed his turbine with a condenser for powering dynamos in electric generating stations. In 1897, using his turbine to power his 100-ft ship Turbinia, he reached 35 knots. The first vessel to be propelled by turbines, with its amazing speed led to the construction of many turbine propelled warships for the British navy. He further improved efficiency with a mechanical reducing gear to link the engine to the propellers.Parsons also invented a device for improving phonographs, pioneered in aviation, and produced a nonskid device for automobile tires. [Image right: Straight blading of the first Parsons turbine made, 1884.] |
| James Clerk Maxwell | |
(source) |
Born 13
Jun 1831; died 5 Nov 1879.
Scottish physicist and mathematician. Maxwell's researches united electricity and magnetism into the concept of the electro-magnetic field. In London, around 1862, Maxwell calculated that the speed of propagation of an electromagnetic field is approximately that of the speed of light. He proposed that the phenomenon of light is therefore an electromagnetic phenomenon. The four partial differential equations, now known as Maxwell's equations, first appeared in fully developed form in Electricity and Magnetism (1873). He died relatively young; some of the theories he advanced in physics were only conclusively proved long after his death. Maxwell's ideas also paved the way for Einstein's special theory of relativity and the quantum theory.  The
Man Who Changed Everything : The Life of James Clerk Maxwell,
by Basil Mahon |
| Thomas Young | |
(source) |
Born 13
Jun 1773; died 10 May 1829.
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. |
|
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| JUNE 13 - DEATHS | |
| Robert A. Good | |
(source) |
 Died
13 Jun 2003 (born 21 May 1922)
American surgeon, a pioneer of modern immunology who performed the world's first successful human bone marrow transplant (1968) from his sister to a 4-month-old baby boy with an inherited immune disorder. From age 6, Good wished to become a doctor because his father died of cancer. While a junior undergraduate he suffered but recovered from a poliolike disease. He identified the thymus and the tonsils as crucial organs of the immune system in humans. He helped establish that problems with the body's immune response were more common than had been thought and were actually a frequent basis of serious diseases. His research also led to the identification of T-cells and B-cells. In 1987 he helped establish the National Bone Marrow Registry.« |
| James B. Pollack | |
(source) |
Died
13 Jun 1994
American scientist who was a NASA researcher and who helped develop the theory that atomic war would result in a "nuclear winter" as a world-renowned expert in the study of planetary atmospheres and particulates using nongrey radiative transfer techniques. In other work, he examined evolutionary climate change on all the terrestrial planets and detailed models of the early evolution of the giant gas planets. He made fundamental contributions to the design of numerous NASA missions. Pollack discovered the first real evidence that the clouds of Venus are composed of sulphuric acid. He explained the reason for the paradox that Saturn's rings showed low microwave emissivity but high radar reflectivity. |
| Tor Bergeron | |
| Died
13 Jun 1977 (born 15 Aug 1891)
Tor Harold Percival Bergeron was a Swedish meteorologist best known for his work on cloud physics. He was the first meteorologist to take into account the upper atmospheric phenomena and their effect on climate. He demonstrated that raindrops can form in the upper parts of clouds, which contain little liquid water, through the growth of ice crystals. This happens at temperatures between -10°C and -30°C (14°F and -22°F) and is known as the Bergeron process. Work done in the 1930s by Tor Bergeron and W. Findeisen led to the concept that clouds may contain both supercooled water and ice crystals. This led further to the concepts of "warm rain" and "cold rain." |
|
| Georg von Békésy | |
(source) |
Died
13 Jun 1972 (born 3 Jun 1899)
American physicist and physiologist who received the 1961 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the physical mechanism of stimulation within the cochlea by which sound is analyzed and communicated in the cochlea, a portion of the inner ear. Békésy developed anatomical techniques that allowed rapid, nondestructive dissection of the cochlea. Békésy was able to observe the traveling waves along the basilar membrane that were produced by sound. He observed the shape of these waves by stroboscopic examination of the motion of particles of silver which he sprinkled on the nearly transparent basilar membrane. |
| Charles Édouard Guillaume | |
(source) |
Died
13 Jun 1938 (born 15 Feb 1861)
French physicist who studied ferronickel alloys and discoveredinvar (a nickel-steel alloy) which gained him the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1920. In 1883, Guillaume became an assistant at the newly established International Bureau of Weights and Measures at Sèvres, near Paris, and became director (1915-36). He was concerned with thermometry; and developing the international standards for the meter, kilogram, and liter. From 1890, he investigated various alloys. After a study of nickel-steel alloys he devised the alloy invar, having a very small expansion with temperature rise, and adopted in springs of clocks and watches. He also produced elinvar, with an elasticity that remains nearly constant over a wide range of temperatures. |
| Kitasato Shibasaburo | |
(source) |
Died
13 Jun 1931 (born 20 Dec 1852)
Japanese bacteriologist who, with Alexandre Yersin, co-discovered the infectious agent of bubonic plague, Pasteurella pestis (now called Yersinia pestis), during an epidemic in Hong Kong (1894). During 1885-91, as a bacteriologist at Robert Koch's laboratory in Germany, he worked with Emil von Behring on tetanus and diphtheria, demonstrating the value of antitoxin in conferring passive immunity. They showed that nonimmune animals, injected with increasing sublethal doses of tetanus toxin, became resistant to the disease. Their milestone paper laid the basis for all future treatment with antitoxins and founded the new field of serology. In 1898, he isolated the microorganism that causes dysentery.« Plague:
A Story of Rivalry, Science, and the Scourge That Won't Go Away,
by Edward Marriott. |
| Jesse Boot | |
 |
Died
13 Jun 1931 (born 2 Jun 1850)
(1st Baron Trent) English chemist who founded Boots Company, Ltd. At 13 he inherited his father's herbalist shop, and in 1877 opened his first chemist's shop in Nottingham. In 1880, under the ‘Boots Cash Chemists’ slogan, Boot advertised herbal preparations, household products and basic remedies at reduced prices. That year, the business extended to Lincoln and Sheffield. Boots Pure Drug Company Limited began production in 1888 of simple pharmaceuticals. He began large-scale drug manufacture (1892), and soon after the turn of the century was controlling the largest pharmaceutical retail trade in the world, with over a thousand branches by 1931. As a philanthropist, he donated land and development support for Nottingham University. |
| Freidrich Ernst Dorn | |
| Died
13 Jun 1916 (born 27 Jul 1848)
German physicist who followed Madame Curie's discoveries with his own study of radioactivity and discovered that radium not only emitted radiation, but released a colourless gas that was also itself radioactive. At first called radium emanation or niton. Since 1923, this element is named radon, and found to be the heaviest so-called inert gas. The experiment provided the first clearly demonstrated example of one element transmuting to another through the process of releasing radiation. This work was continued by Boltwood and Soddy. Although radon was originally believed to be chemically inert, since 1962, chemists have been able to make radon compounds. |
|
| Richard Lovell Edgeworth | |
(source) |
Died
13 Jun 1817 (born 31 May 1744)
Anglo-Irish inventor of mechanical innovations including an attempt at telegraphic communication (possibly the first), the creation of various sailing carriages, a velocipede (cycle), a "perambulator" (landmeasuring machine), a turnip cutter, improved agricultural machinery, and made discoveries in the field of electricity. In the late 1790s, he proposed the tellograph for "conveying secret and swift intelligence" using 30 tall towers spaced between Dublin and Galway (130 miles). Relayed from tower to tower using large triangular pointers, encoded messages could reach Dublin in just eight minutes. Unfortunately, poor visibility due to the weather doomed the idea. Edgeworth was also an educationalist. |
| JUNE 13 - EVENTS | |
| Pioneer 10 | |
(NASA) |
In 1983, space probe vehicle Pioneer
10 crossed the orbit of Neptune and became the first man-made object
to leave our Solar System. It was launched 2 Mar 1972. It is moving in
a straight line away from the Sun at a constant velocity of about 12 km/sec.
Some 30 years after its launch, on 27 Apr 2002, NASA made successful contact
with telemetry received from Pioneer 10 when it was at a distance
from Earth of 7.57 billion miles, and the round-trip time for the signal
(at the speed of light) was 22-hr 35-min. The probe sent information from
the one scientific instrument that was still working, the Geiger Tube Telescope.
The spacecraft is heading generally towards the red star Aldebaran, which
forms the eye of Taurus (The Bull). |
| V1 bomb | |
(source) |
In 1944, the first German V1
flying bomb hit London, England. A V-1 flying bomb resembled a 25-ft aircraft,
with a wingspan of 17-ft. Ordinary truck fuel kept its pulse-jet engine
running, which was mounted above the bomb fuselage carrrying a 1,870-pound
warhead. It was simple, inexpensive to build, but it was inaccurate, unable
to target even a village. However, it was accurate enough to hit a target
the size of London, and that was all that was expected - a way to hit London
with flying bombs launched from ramps in Europe without risking the depleted
reserves of the Luftwaffe's bomber fleet. It had a maximum speed of about
400 mph. The engine's pulsing combustion process gave the flying bomb a
distinctive sound in flight. |
| Wire recorder | |
|
In 1944, several patents for the wire recorder were issued to Marvin Camras
(U.S. No. 2,351,004; -11). Wire recorders were the precursor of much easier
touse magnetic tape recorders. |
|
| Sodium lights | |
|
In 1933, the first sodium vapour lamps in the U.S. were installed on Balltown
Road, in Schenectady, N.Y. |
|
| Mechanical TV | |
|
In 1925, the first telecast in the U.S. of objects in motion was invented
by Charles Jenkins. He called it "visions by radio." The first mechanical
TV system broadcast used 48 scanning lines and showed a model of
Dutch windmill with its blades turning. |
|
| Moseley | |
 |
In 1915, physicist Henry Moseley at age 27 departed with the military from
England to fight in Turkey. He died at Gallipoli two months later. Britain
lost a brilliant young scientist who had developed X-ray analysis of elements
and the concept of atomic number. |
| Parachutist | |
|
In 1912, the first successful parachute jump from an airplane in the U.S.
was made by Captain Albert Berry in Jefferson, Miss. |
|
| Patent | |
|
In 1899, black american inventor F.W. Griffin obtained a patent for a "Pool
Table Attachment" (U.S. No. 626,902).
The
Inventive Spirit of African Americans: Patented Ingenuity,
by Patricia Carter Sluby. |
|
| Mop patent | |
|
In 1893, black American inventor T.W. Stewart was granted a patent for
a mop (U.S. No. 499,402). |
|
| Antrax | |
|
In 1877, Louis Pasteur began his quest to develop an anthrax vaccine by
visiting the slaughterhouses of Chartres to take blood samples from corpses
of farm animals that have died of anthrax. |
|
| Morse code | |
|
In 1848, Samuel F. B. Morse obtained
a reissued patent for Morse code (U.S. Re. 117).
Lightning
Man: The Accursed Life of Samuel F. B. Morse, by Kenneth
Silverman. |
|
| Yale lock | |
|
In 1844, a door lock was patented by Linus Yale (U.S. No. 3,630). |
|
| Queen Victoria's first train journey | |
(source) |
In 1842, Queen Victoria took her first train journey, lasting 25 minutes.
The high-funnelled engine Phlegethon,
pulling the royal saloon, travelled from Slough to Paddington on
the Great Western Railway (GWR) with Daniel
Gooch in charge. She was returning, by rail in secret, from Windsor
Castle. Isambard Kingdom Brunel,
builder of the GWR accompanied Queen Victoria on her inaugural journey.
The royal saloon was in the centre of two other saloon carriages, preceded
by a second-class carriage and followed by three carriage trucks. The Queen
became
a regular user of the rail network, for speed and convenience and because
it gave her ample opportunity to show herself and her family to her subjects.«  [Click
images to enlarge. Image left: Interior of the Royal Carriage; right: Phlegethon,
tender and Royal Carriage. Both images
from The English Illustrated Magazine.] |
| Peale Museum gas lights | |
(source) |
In 1816, the first
U.S public building to use gas lighting
was the Peale Museum in Baltimore, Md. It was built (1813) by artist Rembrandt
Peale to be "Peale's Baltimore Museum and Gallery of Fine Arts," similar
to the Philadelphia museum
opened by his father (painter Charles Willson Peale). Exhibits included
portraits by Rembrandt Peale and other artists, of famous Americans and
a prehistoric mastodon skeleton unearthed by his father in 1801. Rembrandt
Peale installed gaslights for their publicity value. Rembrandt purchased
the patent for Dr. Kugler's coal gas manufacturing, and organized a group
of men to charter the Gas Light Company of Baltimore.«  |
| Sunspots | |
(source) |
In 1611, a publication on the newly discovered phenomenon of sunspots was
dedicated. Narratio de maculis in sole observatis et apparente earum
cum sole conversione. ("Narration on Spots Observed on the Sun and
their Apparent Rotation with the Sun"). This first publication on such
observations, was the work of Johannes Fabricius, a Dutch astronomer
who was perhaps the first ever to observe sunspots.
On 9 Mar 1611, at dawn, Johannes had used his telescope to view the rising
sun and had seen several dark spots on it. He called his father to investigatethis
new phenomenon with him. The brightness of the Sun's center was very painful,
and the two quickly switched to a projection method by means of a camera
obscura. |
