| JULY 25 - BIRTHS | |
| Rosalind Franklin | |
(source) |
Born 25 July 1920; died 16 April 1958.
Rosalind Franklin was an English scientist who contributed to the discovery of the molecular structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), a constituent of chromosomes that serves to encode genetic information. Beginning in 1951, she made careful X-ray diffraction photographs of DNA, leading her to suspect the helical form of the molecule, at least under the conditions she had used. When Watson saw her photographs, he had confirmation of the double-helix form that he and Crick then published. She never received the recognition she deserved for her independent work, but had died of cancer four years before the Nobel Prize was awarded to Crick and Watson. |
| Davidson Black | |
(source) |
Born 25 July 1884; died 15 Mar 1934
Canadian physician and physical anthropologist who first postulated the existence of a distinct form of early man, popularly known as Peking man. In 1920 he had a position at a Peking, China, college which gave him opportunity to investigate nearby Chou K'ou-tien. In 1927 he found a single human molar which he took to be an indicator of a small-brained ancestor, dubbed Peking man. Subsequently, more teeth, skulls, bones, tools and campfire remains were found (1929-30). These are now classifieded as examples of Homo erectus. |
| Sergey Vasilyevich Lebedev | |
(source) |
Born 25 July 1874; died 2 May 1934.
Russian chemist who developed a method for industrial production of synthetic rubber. In 1910, while researching processes by which small molecules combine to form large ones, Lebedev made an elastic rubber by polymerizing butadiene (CH2CH-CHCH2), which he obtained from ethyl alcohol. Production of polybutadiene in the Soviet Union using Lebedev's process was begun in 1932-33, using potatoes and limestone as raw materials. By 1940 the Soviet Union had the largest synthetic rubber industry in the world, producing more than 50,000 tons per year. During WW II his process of obtaining butadiene from ethyl alcohol was also used by the German rubber industry. [Image right: butadiene] |
| Andrew Cowper Lawson | |
(source) |
Born 25 July 1861; died 1952
Canadian-U.S. geologist born in Anstruther, Fife, Scotland, who for 38 years, was professor of mineralogy and petrography at the University of California where his courses in that relatively new study of geology brought great prestige to himself and to his department. Lawson made important discoveries of Precambrian rock structures (more than 570,000,000 years old) and published revolutionary interpretations of these strata (1881). He headed the commission appointed to investigate the disastrous California earthquake of 1906. The report was a landmark in its field; the study initiated the theory of the elastic rebound of shock waves. Lawson was the first historical paleoseismologist - the correlation of historical earthquakes to specific faults, specifically those with surface rupture - who in 1908 described surface rupture on the Hayward fault during an earthquake in 1868. |
| Frank Sprague | |
(source) |
Born 25 July 1857; died 1937.
Frank (Julian) Sprague was an engineer, inventor, and a pioneer in electric railway transportation. He started his career at sea in the U.S. Navy (1878). Later, he worked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard making plans for incadescent electric lamps on navy vessels, which led to joining Edison at Menlo Park (1883) He formed the Sprague Electric Railway and Motor Company in 1884, and became known as "the father of electric railway traction." when he installed the first U.S. electric trolley system (Richmond, Va., 1887). Edison took over this company in 1892. Sprague earned many patents, many for railway applications and diverse ideas such as electric toasters, electric signs, electric elevators and naval weaponry. |
|
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| JULY 25 - DEATHS | |
| Vincent Joseph Schaefer | |
 |
Died 25 July 1993; born 4 Jul 1906.
U.S. chemist whose research in meteorology and weather control introduced cloud seeding. He worked on the physics of precipitation at the General Electric (GE) Research Laboratory in Schenectady, New York. Having discovered a method of producing a snowstorm under laboratory conditions, he proved the same was possible outdoors. On 13 Nov 1946, he flew over Mount Greylock in Massachusetts, successfully seeding clouds with pellets of dry ice (solid carbon dioxide) to produce the first snowstorm initiated by man. Later, he became founder and director of Atmospheric Sciences Research Center at State University of New York in Albany.  A
Field Guide to the Atmosphere, by John A. Day, Vincent
J. Schaefer, et al. |
| Charles Stark Draper | |
 |
Died 25 July 1987 (born 2 Oct 1901)
American aeronautical engineer, educator, and science administrator who earned degrees from Stanford, Harvard, and MIT then, in 1939, became head of MIT's Instrumentation Laboratory, which was a centre for the design of navigational and guidance systems for ships, airplanes, and missiles from World War II through the Cold War. He developed gyroscope systems that stabilized and balanced gunsights and bombsights and which were later expanded to an inertial guidance system for launching long-range missiles at supersonic jet targets. He was "the father of inertial navigation." The Project Apollo contract for guiding man and spacecraft to the moon was also placed with the Instrumentation Lab. |
| Herbert Calhoun Reed | |
|
Died 25 July 1940 (born 16 Oct 1873)
American chemist who was noted internationally as an analytical and consulting chemist to the leather industry and allied trades. He was one of nine founding members, and the third president, of the American Leather Chemists Association (22 Nov 1903). It was the outcome of a decade when a small number of chemists with a commercial interest in the product had worked to establish reliable analytical methods for analyzing the tanning extracts used in the industry, and to introduce scientific methods of tannery plant control. They devised a method of measuring the amount of tanning material absorbed by dried, ground hide. However, these formative years were still characterised by bitter disputes and wrangling among the chemists.« |
|
| Charles Macintosh | |
(source) |
Died 25 July 1843 (born 29 Dec 1766)
Scottish chemist and inventor of rubberized waterproof clothing. His father's business supplied textile dyes. Charles also entered the textile industry, with partner Charles Tennant in a cloth bleaching business. In 1799, Tennant patented a dry bleaching powder made from chlorine and slaked lime, though it may have been developed mainly by Macintosh. In the 1820's Macintosh went into partnership with a Manchester cotton manufacturer. Seeking uses for coal gasworks waste products, he utilized naptha as a solvent in his famous method of waterproofing cloth (1823) by pressing together two rubberized layers of cloth. His name remains associated with the raincoat made from such cloth. He also patented a steel-making process (1825).«  [Image
right: U.S. advertisement from the late 1800s. (source)] |
| Dominique-Jean Larrey | |
| Died
25 Jul 1842 (born 8 July 1766)
(Baron) French military surgeon in the service of Napoleon. Larrey was the first to note the contagiousness of trachoma (1802) and published the first description of trench foot (1812). He introduced to the battlefield: field hospitals, ambulance service, first-aid practices and the triage system of treating patients. Larrey introduced properly sprung horse-drawn carts to evacuate casualties quickly into newly established mobile field hospitals. From that moment on, surgeons had a reasonable chance of operating on the worst wounds before it was too late. The success of Larrey's approach earned him the position as Chief Surgeon of the Guard in all Napoleon Bonaparte's major campaigns from 1805 onwards. |
|
| JULY 25 - EVENTS | |
| Stem cells cultured | |
(source) |
In 1997, it was announced
that for the first time human stem cells had been cultured
in a laboratory, using tissue taken from aborted human embryos. Stem cells
are the basic, unspecialized cells from which all other cells in the body
develop during the growth of a baby in the womb. The announcement was made
at an international symposium on the ethics of human cloning and stem cells.
The team of researchers at the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, was
led by Dr. John D. Gearhart, a professor of gynecology and obstetrics.
He issued the "progress report" of his research before it had been published,
he said, to spark discussion about establishing guidelines for the ethical
use of such cells. |
| First woman space walks | |
(source) |
In 1984, 15 years ago, Soviet cosmonaut
Svetlana Savitskaya (sah-VEETS'-kah-yah) became the first woman to walk
in space as she carried out more than three hours of experiments outside
the orbiting space station "Salyut Seven." She was selected as a cosmonaut
in 1980, as part of a female team selected to upstage pending female astronaut
flights on the space shuttle. She became the second woman in space in 1982,
seven months before Sally Ride became the first American female astronaut
in space. On this, her second trip into space, she also became the first
woman to walk in space. |
| Test tube baboon | |
 |
In 1983, a baboon, was the first nonhuman primate conceived in a lab dish,
in San Antonio, Texas. The eggs with attached spermatozoa were transferred
surgically into the oviduct of another baboon, who then gave birth to the
offspring. The chief scientist for the research was Dr. Tom Kuehl. |
| Test tube baby | |
(source) |
In 1978, in England, Louise Joy Brown, the first test tube baby was born
in Oldham. She had been conceived through the technique of in-vitro fertilization.
She weighed 5-lbs 12-ozs, and was delivered by Caesarean section at Oldham
District General Hospital. By 25 Jul 1999, her 21st
birthday, more than 300,000 babies have been born throughout the world
using in vitro fertilisation (IVF), 29,000 of them in Britain. Brown is
now a nursery nurse in Bristol. IVF began with Dr Edwards, of Cambridge,
who was keen to extend work on animals to treat women with blocked Fallopian
tubes, which prevent eggs from travelling from the ovaries to the womb,
where they can be fertilised, "It struck me what we should be trying to
do was pluck the egg from the ovary and fertilise it in the laboratory,"
he said. He collaborated with Patrick Steptoe, a gynaecologist in Oldham,
who he met while lecturing at the Royal Society of Medicine. The Browns
were already patients with Steptoe. |
| Mars 5 | |
(source) |
In 1973, the USSR launched Mars
5, on a Proton SL-12/D-1-e booster. It was one of several
Soviet Mars probes - Mars 4, 5, 6,
and 7 - launched in Jul-Aug 1973.
The Mars 5 mission was to orbit Mars, which was achieved on 12 Feb
1974. Each orbit took about 25-hr. It was designed to return information
on the composition, structure, and properties of the martian atmosphere
and surface. However, after only 22 orbits, the mission ended prematurely
due to loss of pressurization in the transmitter housing. Before the failure,
data for a small portion of the martian southern hemisphere was captured
with about 60 images forwarded over a nine day period. The probe also sent
more measurements made by other instruments.« |
| Veterinary surgery | |
(source) |
In 1965, the first U.S. surgical operation on a bull to correct a sperm
block was performed. The $176,000 Aberdeen-Angus bull, named Linderis Evulse,
was owned by the Black Watch Farms, Wappinger Falls, NY. During the operation
the animal was strapped on a hydraulic operating table. The veterinarians
were Dr. James Hicks and Dr. Donald F. Walker at the Auburn University
School of Veterinary Medicine, Auburn, Alabama. The Aberdeen-Angus
evolved during the early part of the 19th century from the hardy, black,
polled cattle which populated North-East Scotland. George Grant first established
the breed in the U.S. with four Angus bulls imported from Scotland to Kansas
in 1873. |
| Nuclear treaty | |
|
In 1963, the United States, the Soviet Union and Britain initialed a treaty
in Moscow prohibiting the testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere,
in space or underwater. |
|
| Hovercraft | |
(source) |
In 1959, a hovercraft crossed the English Channel for the first time. Having
been shipped to France by tender, the world's first all metal hovercraft,
SR.N1, crossed the Channel between Calais and Dover in 2 hours 3 minutes
on 25th July with Captain Peter Lamb piloting, Mr John Chaplin as navigator
and the inventor, Mr. (later Sir) Christopher Cockerell in his own words
as 'moveable ballast' on board. It was 50 years to the day that Louis Blériot
made the first crossing of the Dover Strait by aeroplane. |
| First underwater nuclear test | |
(source) |
In 1946, the U.S. detonated
the "Baker" atomic bomb during "Operation
Crossroads" at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific. This, the first underwater
nuclear explosion, was to test results on a naval fleet of war-surplus
and captured enemy vessels. The bomb, encased in a watertight steel caisson,
was suspended 90 feet below the landing ship LSM-60 and detonated by radio
signals from a command ship at 8:45 am. The explosion
created a massive column of steam and water, and a series of huge waves.
After second, the first wave struck target ship Carrier Saratoga and swept
it 800 yards away. It sank eight hours later. The 90-foot wave also sank
Battleship Arkansas, three submarines (Pilotfish, Apogon, Shipjack) and
the fuel barge YO-160. [Images:
Top: bomb cloud. Bottom: part of the target fleet before explosion.] |
| Greetings telegram | |
(source) |
In 1935, the first greetings telegram
was sent in Britain. Denmark introduced the first greetings telegraph service
with an ornamental telegram form in 1907. When Britain offered such a service,
it was so successful that when the service was suspended in wartime, 1943,
the greetings service at 9d for 9 words, had an annual traffic flow of
9 million messages with no less than 23 new issues of forms in the space
of 8 years. Greetings telegram forms and colourful envelopes were designed
to catch the eye of the addressee; it was well known for the recipient
of such a greetings telegram to be more likely to preserve that telegram
for a keepsake - but less inclined to do likewise with a greetings card
after the occasion. [Image:
First U.K. St. Valentines Telegram form issued 14 Feb 1936.] |
| First English Channel flight | |
(source) |
In 1909, French aviator Louis Blériot flew across the English Channel
in a monoplane, traveling from Calais, France, to Dover, England, in 37
minutes. This was the world's first international overseas airplane flight.
Blériot made the historic crossing after Lord Northcliffe, the owner
of the Daily Mail, offered £1,000 to the first successful pilot.
On 25 Jul 1999, a Swedish pilot re-enacted the first cross-Channel flight
90 years after Louis Blériot's historic journey. Mikael Carlson,
39, landed the original Blériot XI plane on the cliffs at Dover
33 minutes after taking off from France - seven minutes faster than Bleriot's
time. He said: "This was the first big heroic flight when the century was
young, and I wanted to celebrate the end of this century in the same way
it started." |
| Perforated wrapping paper | |
(source) |
In 1871, the first U.S. patent for perforated wrapping paper was awarded
to Seth Wheeler of Albany, NY (No. 117,355).
The paper was wound into rolls and could easily be torn off at the perforations.
It was claimed that the fibers left between the perforations were sufficient
for holding the sheets together as wound on the roll. In this way, the
cost of cutting, counting and bundling stacks of pre-cut sheets was to
be saved, together with making storage more convenient, and saving the
paper from drying and becoming brittle by exposure to the atmosphere. Paper
was already manufactured in rolls; only the step of perforation was added
in its production, either with a row of holes or short cuts. |
| Carousel | |
(source) |
In 1871, the first U.S. patent for a carousel was issued to Willhelm Schneider
of Davenport, Iowa (117,336).
It was described as a two-story "'carrousel' or rotary pavillion used in
public parks or other places of amusement." A staircase within the central
supporting frame enabled access to the upper story. Radial partitions could
provide separate "apartments" with a sofa, imitation horse or other seats.
It could be turned by a person or other apparatus. However, it was not
very practical or successful*.
Carousels had been popular for a long time. The earliest*
on record was at a fair held at Philippopolis, Turkey on 17 May 1620. The
first* on record in England
was at the St. Bartholomew Fair in 1729. |
| Paper collar | |
(source) |
In 1854, Walter Hunt of New York City was awarded the first U.S. patent
for a paper shirt collar (No.11,376). Very thin white paper was pasted
on both sides of a base of thin white cotton muslin. After being cut out
or stamped out of this material, such collars could be pressed between
heated forms to the shape of the neck. To guard against the effect of perspiration,
the collars were then varnished with a colorless bleached shellac which
also enabled cleaning by wiping with a damp cloth. It was expected the
collar could be made at less than the cost of laundering a linen shirt
collar. Walter Hunt (1796-1859) was a
prolific inventor, best known for the safety
pin and as developer of the first repeating rifle. |
| Five-needle telegraph demonstrated | |
(source) |
In 1837, the five-needle telegraph
was demonstrated
by English inventors,
Charles Wheatstone and William Fothergill Cooke. They ran a six-wire telegraph
line 2.4-km from Euston to Camden Town along the Great Western Railway
Company railway track. They successfully transmitted and received messages.
Wheatstone provided the technological skill and is better remembered in
the history of the telegraph while Cooke had the business acumen. This
first patent (1837) was impractical because the code
used simultaneous combinations of five keys, and so was rather cumbersome,
limited to only twenty letters (J, C, Q, U, X and Z were omitted). By 1845,
they patented the more important single-needle electric telegraph.« |
| Stephenson's locomotive | |
(source) |
In 1814, George Stephenson demonstrated the first successful flanged-wheel
adhesion steam locomotive in England. Evolution
of the steam-powered locomotive: 1803: Richard Trevithick builds the first
steam locomotive in England. 1813: "Puffing Billy," a steam locomotive
built by Englishman William Hedley, becomes the first locomotive to haul
50-ton coal wagons at the Wylam Colliery near Newcastle. George Stephenson,
who lived near this colliery designed his first locomotive - Blucher -
in 1814 for a colliery.1829: A steam-powered locomotive called "Rocket,"
built by Robert Stephenson, was named the best locomotive to run on England's
Liverpool to Manchester railroad in an English contest called the Rainhill
Trials. |
| Savery's steam-driven water pump | |
(source) |
In 1698, Thomas Savery received
a British patent
(No. 356) for a "New Invention for Raiseing of Water and Occassioning Motion
to all sorts of Mill Work by the Impellent Force of Fire." It was the first
to harness steam for pumping water, used in draining mines, serving towns
or supplying water to mills. Steam in a vessel was condensed by an external
spray of cold water. A partial vacuum resulted and raised water from a
lower sump. As high-pressure steam refilled the vessel, the water was forced
to a higher level. His major problem was containing high-pressure steam
since available construction materials were weak. The 14 year term was
extended
to 35 by Parliament in 1699. He also held a patent for ship propulsion
(No. 347, 10 Jan 1696).«
[Image:
diagram of Savery's
Miner's Friend steam powered pump.] |
