| JULY 27 - BIRTHS | |
| Sir Geoffrey De Havilland | |
(source) |
 Born 27
Jul 1882; died 21 May 1965
English aircraft designer, manufacturer, and pioneer in long-distance jet flying. In 1909, he constructed his first machine and through trial and error and taught himself to fly. Since then De Havilland has been carried aloft by more than fifty aircraft. Notable were the DH-2 fighter of World War I, and the DH-4 light bomber. He established the new De Havilland Company at Stag Lane near London in 1920, beginning the long line of DH commercial and sport aircraft. De Havilland's triumph in World War II was the Mosquito light bomber, the fastest aircraft of its time. In 1943, he was one of the first to make jet-propelled aircraft, producing the Vampire jet fighter. De Havilland led the world in entering the era of jet passenger flight with its first turbine powered aircraft, the Comet in 1949. |
| Hans Fischer | |
(source) |
Born 27
Jul 1881; died 31 Mar 1945
Hans Fischer was a German biochemist, born in Höchst, Germany, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1930 for research into the constitution of haemin, the red blood pigment, and chlorophyll, the green pigment in plants and especially for his synthesis of haemin (1929), non-protein part of haemoglobin that gives blood its red colour. He further showed that chlorophylls are porphyrins and that they share a similar structure with haemin, but with subtle differences. Following the destruction of his laboratory during WWII air raids, dispair led to suicide, just one month before Germany surrendered. |
| Bertram Borden Boltwood | |
 |
Born 27
Jul 1870
Bertram Borden Boltwood was an American chemist and physicist whose work on the radioactive decay of uranium and thorium was important in the development of the theory of isotopes. Boltwood studied the "radioactive series" whereby radioactive elements sequentially decay into other isotopes or elements. Since lead was always present in such ores, he concluded (1905) that lead must be the stable end product from their radioactive decay. Each decay proceeds at a characteristic rate. In 1907, he proposed that the ratio of original radioactive material to its decay products measured how long the process had been taking place. Thus the ore in the earth's crust could be dated, and give the age of the earth as 2.2 billion years. |
| John Hopkinson | |
 |
Born 27
Jul 1849; died 27 Aug 1898.
British physicist and electrical engineer who worked on the application of electricity and magnetism in devices like the dynamo and electromagnets. Hopkinson's law (the magnetic equivalent of Ohm's law) bears his name. In 1882, he patented his invention of the three-wire system (three phase) for electricity generation and distribution. He presented the principle the synchronous motors (1883), and designed electric generators with better efficiency. He also studied condensers and the phenomena of residual load. In his earlier career, he became (1872) engineering manager of Chance Brothers and Co., a glass manufacturer in Birmingham, where he studied lighthouse illumination, improving efficiency with flashing groups of lights.« |
| Roland Baron von Eötvös | |
(source) |
Born 27
Jul 1848; died 8 Apr 1919.
Roland Baron von Eötvös was a Hungarian physicist who studied at Heidelberg where he was taught by Kirchhoff, Helmholtz and Bunsen. Eötvös introduced the concept of molecular surface tension and published on capillarity (1876-86). For the rest of his life he concentrated on study of the Earth's gravitational field. He developed the Eötvös torsion balance, long unsurpassed in precision, which gave experimental proof that inertial mass and gravitational mass, to a high degree of accuracy, are equivalent - which later was a major principle of Albert Einstein. |
| Sir Andrew Clarke | |
(source) |
Born 27
Jul 1824
Sir Andrew Clarke was a British engineer, soldier, politician, and civil servant who, as governor of the Straits Settlements (1873-75), negotiated the Pangkor Treaty in 1874 that brought British political control first to Perak and later with the rest of the peninsular Malay States. By this Treaty British indirect rule over the Malay States was established. When the British first became involved in Perak, Sir Andrew Clarke was directed to develop a communication system, hence state roads were constructed between the principal mining towns. In 1885, a 12.8 km stretch of railway line was laid from Taiping, distribution centre for the Larut tin fields, and its port - Port Weld. Thus it can be seen that the pioneering work of developing Malaysia was carried out through tin mining. |
| Sir George Biddell Airy | |
(source) |
Born 27
Jul 1801; died 2 Jan 1892
English astronomer who became the seventh Astronomer Royal (1836-92). In his life he studied interference fringes in optics, made a mathematical study of the rainbow and computed the density of the Earth by swinging a pendulum at the top and bottom of a deep mine, determined the mass of the planet Jupiter and its period rotation, calculated the orbits of comets and cataloged stars. He designed corrective lenses for astigmatism (1825), the first that worked. His motivation was his own astigmatism. Airy had a long-standing battle with Babbage. In 1854, the conflict continued between the two during the battle of the incompatible railway gauges in England. Airy championed the railway narrow gauge and Babbage for the wide gauge. |
|
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| JULY 27 - DEATHS | |
| William J. Hamilton | |
(source) |
 Died
27 Jul 1990 (born 11 Dec 1902)
William J(ohn) Hamilton, Jr. was an American mammalogist and environmentalist who stressed the vital ecological role of predators and the importance of conserving fur-bearing populations. His interest in plants and animals began in childhood, and working while a teenager for three summers for Daniel C. Beard (a naturalist, artist, and cofounder of the Boy Scouts of America). Hamilton's research dealt with mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and horticulture, with a major interest was in life histories and ecology. He wrote books, including American Mammals (1939), and over 200 papers. He also made some pioneering studies of microtine life cycles.« |
| Salim Ali | |
(source) |
Died
27 Jul 1987 (born 12 Nov 1896)
Indian ornithologist, the "birdman of India," who championed conservation of India's biological diversity. His fieldwork provided scientific guidance for the Indian government's conservation efforts. His love of birds began at age 10, when he began writing his observations. Eventually, he undertook professional education in ornithology. In 1930 he began a bird survey of Hyderabad State. By 1976, he had published several popular regional field guides of Indian birds for which he is famous. These surveys were based on extensive travels throughout India and Pakistan. The title of his autobiography "The Fall of a Sparrow" (1987) recalls the first sparrow that drew his interest as a boy.«  The
Book of Indian Birds, by Salim Ali. |
| Garrett Augustus Morgan | |
(source) |
Died
27 Jul 1963 (born 4 Mar 1877)
African American inventor and businessman who established the Cleveland Call newspaper (1920), invented a hair straightening cream, woman's hat fastener, an automobile clutch, a safety hood breathing device (1912) which he improved as a gas mask used by some soldiers in WW I, and a traffic signal. By age 30, he had spent time working as a handyman and taught himself enough about repairing sewing machines to start a repair business. Two years later, he started a tailoring shop with 32 employees. He developed and was successful selling G.A. Morgan Hair Refining Cream to straighten hair. When he invented a traffic signal in 1922 (not the red-yellow-green lights type), several other traffic signals had already been previously patented by other inventors. He was nearly blind from 1943 due to glaucoma.« |
| Conrad Arnold Elvehjem | |
(source) |
Died
27 Jul 1962 (born 27 May 1901)
American biochemist who identified that nicotinic acid was a vitamin which when absent from diet resulted in the disease pellegra. In 1937, working with dogs having the canine equivalent of pellegra (blacktongue), he showed that giving a dog 30 milligrams of nicotinic acid resulted in substantial improvement. Continuing doses to correct the diet deficiency led to complete recovery. It worked as well in humans. Niacin is one of the B vitamins. His later work was on the trace minerals such as zinc and cobalt which are essential to life as component parts of enzymes. |
| Francis Edward Elmore | |
(source) |
Died
27 Jul 1932 (born 9 Nov 1864)
British technologist who, with his brother Alexander Stanley Elmore, jointly developed floatation processes to separate valuable ore, such as copper, from the gangue (worthless rock) with which it is associated when mined. In 1898, they obtained a patent for the first practical equipment (British patent No. 21,948). Oil is frothed with crushed ore in a water tank. Oil coats the crushed grains, making them water repellant. The grains stick to air bubbles, and can be swept with the froth from surface of the tank. They installed their equipment at mines in north Wales, northern England, and at the Broken Hill lead and zinc mines in Australia. Today, floatation methods remain vital in the mining industry, processing millions of tons of ores each year. |
| Raoul Pierre Pictet | |
(source) |
Died
27 Jul 1929 (born 4 Apr 1846)
Swiss chemist who was a pioneer of cryogenics. His original interest in the artificial production of ice (for refrigeration) led him to study the production of extremely low temperatures. He produced liquid oxygen, working independently of the French scientist, Louis Paul Cailletet, who is also credited with its discovery in 1877. However, Pictet used more elaborate equipment and was able to produce greater volumes of liquified gases. Pictet used a cascade method, in which he evaporated liquid sulfur dioxide to liquefy carbon dioxide, which in turn was allowed to evaporate and to cool oxygen to below its critical temperature. The oxygen could then be liquefied by pressure. This was also easier to apply to other gases. |
| Theodor Kocher | |
(source) |
Died
27 Jul 1917 (born 25 Aug 1841)
Theodor Emil Kocher was a Swiss surgeon who did pioneering work on the physiology, pathology and surgery of the thyroid gland for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1909. The gland is of great importance in the general nutrition of the adult, and especially in individuals still undergoing development. The loss of thyroid function results in serious disturbances in this nutrition. Metabolism is significantly diminished; growth ceases; the skin and the subcutaneous tissues are the site of mucous infiltration; degenerative processes occur in internal organs; serious disturbances make their appearance in the functions of the nervous system and muscles. |
| Charles Stewart Rolls | |
(source) |
Died
27 Jul 1910 (born 27 Aug 1877)
Charles Stewart Rolls was the son of Lord Llangattock. Rolls was selling cars in Mayfair, when he met Frederick Royce in Manchester on 4 May 1904, and they founded the manufacturer Rolls-Royce Ltd, registered in March 1906. The Derby factory was opened in 1907 and the 40/50 hp car became the Company's sole product until the outbreak of the First World War. He pioneered every new form of transport and saw the potential for aero engine manufacture. Rolls had founded the Aero Club of the United Kingdom in 1901. As an aviator, he was the first to fly both ways across the English Channel. He died young, as a result of a flying accident at Bournemouth on 27 July 1910. |
| John Dalton | |
1825 (source) |
Died
27 Jul 1844 (born 6 Sep 1766)
English teacher who, from investigating the physical and chemical properties of matter, deduced an Atomic Theory (1803) whereby atoms of the same element are the same, but different from the atoms of any other element. In 1804, he stated his law of multiple proportions by which he related the ratios of the weights of the reactants to the proportions of elements in compounds. He set the atomic weight of hydrogen to be identically equal to one and developed a table of atomic weights for other elements. He was the first to measure the temperature change of air under compression, and in 1801 suggested that all gases could be liquified by high pressure and low temperature. Dalton recognised that the aurora borealis was an electrical phenomenon.«
Memoir
of John Dalton, and History of the Atomic Theory up to His Time,
by Robert Angus Smith. |
| Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis | |
(source) |
Died
27 Jul 1759 (born 28 Sep 1698)
French mathematician, biologist, and astronomer. In 1732 he introduced Newton's theory of gravitation to France. He was a member of an expedition to Lapland in 1736 which set out to measure the length of a degree along the meridian. Maupertuis' measurements both verified Newton's predictions that the Earth would be an oblate speroid, and they corrected earlier results of Cassini. Maupertuis published on many topics including mathematics, geography, astronomy and cosmology. In 1744 he first enunciated the Principle of Least Action and he published it in Essai de cosmologie in 1850. Maupertuis hoped that the principle might unify the laws of the universe and combined it with an attempted proof of the existence of God. |
| JULY 27 - EVENTS | |
| Jet airliner | |
|
In 1949, the British De Havilland Comet,
the world's first jet-propelled airliner, made its maiden flight in England.
Before the time of the Comet. today's speed and comfort standards did not
exist. Commercial transport used piston engines and most planes were akin
to WW2 aircraft. Flying was made difficult by the bad weather of low cruising
levels; the cruising speed was reduced making long trips a tough and exhausting
matter. The development of jet-engines in WW2 led to a new milestone in
commercial air transport. One of them was the De Havilland DH 106 Comet,
a commercial aircraft designed for high cruise speed at high ceilings. |
| Grasshopper plague | |
(source) |
In 1931, a swarm of grasshoppers
descended over Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota, destroying thousands of
acres of crops. Those who experienced
it said it was not an exaggeration to say they were so thick that you could
scoop them up in a scoop shovel. Motor travellers had to roll down the
windshield to keep them from raining in on their feet. The grasshoppers
had eaten the corn down to the ground, leaving not a stalk standing. Because
egg pods are laid in the soil, but susceptible to fungal diseases of wet
soil, survival of eggs is best during dry years. Outbreaks are often related
to periods of drought. |
| Insulin | |
(source) |
In 1921, insulin was isolated at Toronto University by Canadians Sir
Frederick Banting and Charles
Best. It proved an effective treatment for diabetes. While Banting
had an established a surgical practise in London, Ontario, he conceived
a technique which might permit isolation of the anti-diabetic component
of the pancreas. He returned to the University of Toronto in 1921 to conduct
experiments on the pancreas at the labs of Dr. J.J.R. MacLeod. By the time
the summer had ended, he and Charles Best had isolated insulin. Image:
The orginal insulin still designed by Dr. Banting and Best. |
| Concrete barge | |
|
In 1918, Socony 200, the first concrete barge, was launched into
Flushing Bay, N.Y. Its hull was made of steel-reinforced concrete by Fougner
Concrete Shipbuilding Company and was designed to carry oil. The saving
in cost of construction using concrete as a construction material offset
the disadvantage of the increased structural weight of the material. The
Socony name is the acronym of its owner, the Standard Oil
Company
of
New
York.
The barge was 98 feet long, 31 feet wide and 9½ feet deep.« |
|
| First electric auto | |
|
In 1888, the first electric automobile, designed by Philip W. Pratt, was
demonstrated in Boston, a tricycle powered by six Electrical Accumulator
Company cells, weighing 90 pounds. |
|
| Electric cable car | |
|
In 1884, the first electrically propelled street-car line in the U.S. was
begun in direct competition with horse-cars at Cleveland, Ohio, on the
Bentley-Knight system. In the same year, the first practical system in
the U.S. of conveying electricity from overhead wires to a motor on the
car by a trolley, or small groved pulley on the end of a flexible pole
extending above the roof of the car, was made in Kansas City, Mo. Improvements
in the apparatus made by Sprague in 1888 led to the first American installation
of a large scale electrically propelled street-car system at Richmond,
Va. The earliest commercially successful application of electricity to
the traction of street-cars was made at Lichterfelde, near Berlin, by Siemens
and Halske in 1881.*[Vol VII, p.776]« |
|
| Transatlantic cable success | |
(source) |
In 1866, Cyrus W. Field finally
succeeded, after two failures, in laying the first underwater telegraph
cable 1,686 miles long across the Atlantic Ocean between North America
and Europe. Massachusetts merchant and financier Cyrus W. Field first proposed
laying a 2,000-mile copper cable
along the ocean bottom from Newfoundland to Ireland in 1854, but the first
three attempts ended in broken cables and failure. Field's persistence
finally paid off in July 1866, when the Great
Eastern, the largest ship then afloat, successfully laid the cable
along the level, sandy bottom of the North Atlantic. [Image:
Commemorative print Eighth Wonder of the World. (compressed to thumbnail
width)] |
| Coconut oil | |
|
In 1880, African-American inventor A.P. Abourne was awarded a patent for
refining coconut oil. |
|
| Tobacco | |
(source) |
In 1586, Sir Walter Raleigh brought the first tobacco to England from Virginia.
[Image: Store display 12" x 11" Sir Walter Raleigh tobacco tin.] |
