| AUGUST 19 - BIRTHS | |
| Alan Baker | |
(source) |
 Born 19
Aug 1939
British mathematician, born in London, England, who was awarded the Fields Medal in 1970. Awarded every four years for outstanding discoveries in mathematics, the Medal is considered the highest honor in the field and the equivalent of the Nobel Prize. This award was for his work in Transcendental Number Theory. From ancient Greek times, people tried to 'square a circle' (create a square with the same area as a circle using a ruler and compasses only), but it proved impossible last century by showing that pi is a transcendental number (a number which is not a solution of a polynomial equation with integer coefficients). Baker's work here was a breakthrough with diophantine equations. Baker also made substantial contributions to Hilbert's seventh problem. |
| Story Musgrave | |
(source) |
Born 19
Aug 1935
American astronaut and physician who made six flights into space. After being selected as a NASA scientist-astronaut (1967) he completed astronaut academic training, worked on the design and development of the Skylab Program and Space Shuttle extravehicular activity equipment (including spacesuits, life support systems, airlocks, and manned maneuvering units). His first space flight began on 9 Apr 1983 with the maiden voyage of Space Shuttle Challenger, during which he and Don Peterson conducted the first Space Shuttle extravehicular activity to test the new space suits. They also tested the devices and procedures for construction and repair. He flew on five more Space Shuttle flights before retiring from NASA in Aug 1997.« |
| Joseph G(ilbert) Hoffman | |
 |
Born 19
Aug 1909; died 9 Dec 1974.
American physicist and biophysicist who brought atomic isotopes into the battle against cancer. During WW II, he developed a radio proximity fuse and later was a health-physics scientist with "Manhattan Project." Hoffman studied nine accident victims of radiation disease at Los Alamos in Aug 1945 and May 1946. This research revealed for the first time that atoms of living human tissue could be transformed into radioactive atoms. He recognized "a completely new approach to studying the metabolism of atoms in living tissue and a new way of probing the complicated system of gene cells that determine heredity," and such knowledge was indispensable to understanding the mysteries of cancer research in which he engaged for the rest of his life.«  The
life and death of cells, by Joseph G Hoffman. |
| Philo T. Farnsworth | |
 |
Born 19
Aug 1906; died 11 Mar 1971
American pioneer in the development of electronic television, taking all of the moving parts out of television inventions. Farnsworth was a 15-year-old high school student when he designed his first television system. Six years later he obtained his first patent. In 1935 he demonstrated his complete television system. Farnsworth's basic television patents covered scanning, focusing, synchronizing, contrast, controls, and power. He also invented the first cold cathode ray tubes and the first simple electronic microscope. The Philco TV manufacturing was named after him. (Image: Collier's Weekly, 1936) |
| Franz C. Schmelkes | |
(source) |
Born 19
Aug 1899; died 11 Dec 1942.
Franz C(arl) Schmelkes was a chemist who was best known for his discovery of azochloramid, used to sterilize wounds and burns. This compound is also known by the name chlorazodin, but its formal name is 1-(amino-chloroimino-methyl)imino-2-chloro-guanidine. The image of the strucure of this molecule shows nitrogen atoms in blue, hydrogen in grey, chlorine in green, and carbon shown conventionally by the origin of its four bonds near each end of the molecule. The chlorine which has substituted a hydrogen atom of an amino group - which is present as =N-Cl - is active as a germicide.« |
| Leonid Kulik | |
(source) |
Born 19 Aug 1883; died 24 Apr 1942.
Russian minerologist who conducted the first scientific expedition (for which records survive) to study the Tungusta meteor impact site. He began in 1927, and continued to work on the investigation until, while fighting for his country in WW II, he was captured and died of typhus in a Nazi prison camp. The Tungusta event, in a remote region of Russia, was a blast that destroyed 2,200 sq km of forest, believed to have been caused by a meteorite over 50-m diameter. It penetrated the Earth's atmosphere, heated to about 10,000 ºC and detonated 6 to10 km above the ground, leaving no crater. The region was sparsely populated, remote, and hard to reach, so there was little scientific interest until almost 20 years later, when Kulik began his work.« [Image right: a view of charred forest trees blown to the ground show the direction of the blast.] |
| Orville Wright | |
(source) |
Born 19
Aug 1871; died 30 Jan 1948.
American pioneer aviator, who with his brother, Wilbur, invented the first powered airplane, Flyer, capable of sustained, controlled flight (17 Dec 1903). At Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville made the first ever manned powered flight, airborn for 12-sec. By 1905, they had improved the design, built and and made several long flights in Flyer III, which was the first fully practical airplane (1905), able to fly up to 38-min and travel 24 miles (39-km). Their Model A was produced in 1908, capable of flight for over two hours of flight. They sold considerable numbers, but European designers became strong competitors. After Wilbur died of typhoid in 1912, Orville sold his interest in the Wright Company in 1915.« To
Conquer the Air : The Wright Brothers and the Great Race for Flight,
by James Tobin |
| Charles E. Hires | |
(source) |
Born 19
Aug 1851
American manufacturer, the inventor of his brand of root beer, sold by the Hires Co., which then dominated the market. Root beer dates all the way back to colonial settlers. As a Philadelphia pharmacist, he sampled a herb tea while visiting New Jersey. Upon his return, he created a similar drink, "Hires' Herb Tea," with sassafras as the main flavoring ingredient. He sold the mixture at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in tiny packets that contained his mixture of various herbs, barks, and berries, for housewives to brew as "root beer." In 1880, Hires introduced a "new and improved" liquid version which was more convenient. He began advertising in an 1884 issue of Harper's Weekly. By 1892 almost 3 million bottles were sold each year.« |
| Lothar Meyer | |
(source) |
Born 19
Aug 1830; died 12 Apr 1895.
(Julius) Lothar Meyer was a German chemist who discovered the Periodic Law, independently of Dmitry Mendeleyev, at about the same time (1869). However, he did not develop the periodic classification of the chemical elements as thoroughly as Mendeleyev. Meyer trained originally in medicine and chemistry. He examined the effect of carbon monoxide on blood. In 1879, Meyer compared atomic volume to atomic weight. Plotted on a graph, the curve showed the periodicity of the elements. He also established the concept of valency by indicating that a given element combined with a characteristic number of hydrogen atoms, and coined the terms like univalent, bivalent, and trivalent, based on that number.« |
| James Nasmyth | |
(source) |
Born 19
Aug 1808; died 7 May 1890.
Scottish engineer who invented the steam-hammer (24 Nov 1839) which was patented in Britain on 9 Jun 1842 (No. 9382). In his early career, Nasmyth improved the design of machine tools. Power hammers that had previously been driven by steam, but Nasmyth designed his steam-hammer with more precision and control. The steam functioned to lift the hammer which then dropped by gravity, and continued to repeat the cycle. Nasmyth adapted the idea to make a steam pile-driver. With later improvements, the steam-hammer enabled forging very large guns for the British navy. He became wealthy and in 1856 was able to retire at the age of 48. After retirement, Nasmyth pursued his hobby of astronomy, in which he published minor works.« |
| Edward John Dent | |
(source) |
Born 19
Aug 1790; died 8 Mar 1853.
English clockmaker and inventor whose chronometers were noted for high accuracy. His patents in this field included compasses for navigation and surveying. He experimented with springs made of steel, gold and glass, and devices for counteracting the effects of temperature change upon timepiece mechanisms. As clockmaker to Queen Victoria, he was commissioned to build the Great Clock for the clock tower of the Houses of Parliament (known as Big Ben, although that is actually the nickname of its hour bell) which he began in the year he died. His son, Frederick Dent, completed the work the following year and it was installed in the tower in 1859. It continues to be recognised for its great accuracy of 4 seconds in a year.« Edward
John Dent, Chronometer Maker, and his Successors, by
Vaudrey Mercer. |
| Seth Thomas | |
(source) |
Born 19
Aug 1785; died 29 Jan 1859.
American clock manufacturer who was one of the pioneers in the mass production of clocks. After working with Eli Terry and Silas Hoadley in firm of Terry, Thomas & Hoadley, which manufactured clocks by mass production methods (1807), Thomas founded a clock factory of his own at Plymouth Hollow, Conn. (1812). He was not an inventive genius, but he was an excellent mechanic and a keen business man. Two years later he paid Terry for the rights to manufacture the latter's popular shelf clock. Shortly, he was selling as many clocks as Terry. As his business developed Thomas built a mill for rolling brass and making wire at Plymouth Hollow, and operated it in conjunction with the clock factory. Finally, he organized the Seth Thomas Clock Co. (1853). |
| Johan Gottlieb Gahn | |
(source) |
Born 19
Aug 1745; died 8 Dec 1818.
Johan Gottlieb Gahn was a Swedish mineralogist and crystallographer, born in an iron-ming town, who followed mining as a career. At the copper mine in Falun, he improved smelting methods and the use of by-products. He discovered manganese (1774), and also selenium. Gahn assisted his friend Carl Wilhelm Scheele (discoverer of chlorine) in finding phosphoric acid in bones. His limited published work included essays on the balance and use of the blowpipe as a convenient analytical tool. During the American Revolutionary War, one of his companies supplied copper for sheathing ships. |
| John Flamsteed | |
(source) |
Born 19
Aug 1646; died 31 Dec 1719
English astronomer who established the Greenwich Observatory, as one of a group of scientists who convinced King Charles II to build a national observatory. Appointed the first Astronomer Royal (1675-1719), Flamsteed was devoted to astronomical measurement, with the task of accurately providing the positions of stars for use in navigation. He eventually produced the first star catalogue, which gave the positions of nearly 3,000 stars. He also worked on the motions of the sun and moon, tidal tables, and was one of the only astronomers to maintain the comets of 1680-1681 were the same, viewed before and after passing around the sun. A quarrelsome man, he argued with Newton and Halley over their requests for access to his astronomical observations. |
|
Sitewide search within all Today In Science History pages: Custom Quotations Search - custom search within only our quotations pages: Today in Science History Science Store Click here to browse a selection of Bargain Science and Nature Books |
| AUGUST 19 - DEATHS | |
| Linus Pauling | |
 |
 Died
19 Aug 1994 (born 28 Feb 1901)
Linus (Carl) Pauling, born in Portland, Oregon was a physicist, chemist and author. He was twice made a Nobel laureate who charted the chemical underpinnings of life itself, worked for nuclear peace and touted the benefits of vitamin C. |
| George Gamow | |
(source) |
Died
19 Aug 1968 (born 4 Mar 1904)
Russian-born American nuclear physicist, cosmologist and writer who was one of the foremost advocates of the big-bang theory, which desribes the origin of the universe as a colossal explosion that took place billions of years ago. In 1954, he expanded his interests into biochemistry and his work on deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) made a basic contribution to modern genetic theory. |
| Theodore Schneirla | |
(source) |
Died
19 Aug 1968 (born 23 July 1902)
Theodore Christian Schneirla was the foremost American comparative psychologist of the mid-1900's (the American Museum of Natural History) whose empirical work was based on observations on the behaviour patterns of army ants. He went so far in his "biphasic A-W theory" as to reduce all behavior to two simple responses: approach and withdrawal. We approach what causes pleasure, and we withdraw from what causes unpleasure or pain. His Principles of Animal Psychology (1935, with N. R. F. Maier) was the leading text in its field. |
| Hugo Gernsback | |
(source) |
Died
19 Aug 1967 (born 16 Aug 1884)
American inventor (80 patents) and publisher who was largely responsible for the establishment of science fiction as an independent literary form. Hugo founded radio station WRNY, was involved in the first television broadcasts and is considered a pioneer in amateur radio. In 1926, as owner of a magazine, Modern Electrics, he filled a blank spot in his publication by dashing off the first chapter of a series called "Ralph 124C 41+." "Ralph" was an amazing success. The 12-part story was filled with all kinds of wild inventions unheard of in 1926, including television (he is credited with introducing this word), fluorescent lighting, juke boxes, solar energy, television, microfilm, vending machines, and a device we now call radar.« |
| Carl-Gustaf Arvid Rossby | |
(source) |
Died
19 Aug 1957 (born 28 Dec 1898)
Swedish-U.S. meteorologist who first explained the large-scale motions of the atmosphere in terms of fluid mechanics. His work contributed to developing meteorology as a science. Rossby first theorized about the existence of the jet stream in 1939, and that it governs the easterly movement of most weather. U.S. Army Air Corps pilots flying B-29 bombing missions across the Pacific Ocean during World War II proved the jet stream's existence. The pilots found that when they flew from east to west, they experienced slower arrival times and fuel shortage problems. When flying from west to east, however, they found the opposite to be true. Rossby created mathematical models (Rossby equations) for computerized weather prediction (1950).« |
| Spencer Fullerton Baird | |
(source) |
Died
19 Aug 1887 (born 3 Feb 1823)
American naturalist, vertebrate zoologist, and in his time the leading authority on North American birds and mammals. A pioneer in museum collecting and display, he was named the Smithsonian Institution's second Secretary upon the death of the first Secretary, Joseph Henry. Whereas Henry had envisioned the Smithsonian primarily as a research institute, Baird saw Smithson's gift as the means to develop a national museum. By 1878, Congress had formally given responsibility for the U.S. National Museum to the Smithsonian Institution. During the Baird years, the Smithsonian became a showcase for the nation's history, resources, and treasures. By the end of his tenure, the National Museum housed more than 2.5 million specimens and artifacts. |
| Alvan Clark | |
c.1840-45 (source) |
Died 19 Aug 1887 (born 8 Mar 1804)
American astronomer whose family became the first significant manufacturers of astronomical instruments in the U.S. His company manufactured apparatus for most American observatories of the era, including Lick and Pulkovo, and others in Europe. In 1862, while testing a telescope, Clark discovered the companion star to Sirius, which had previously been predicted but until then never sighted. The 18½-in objective telescope he used was subsequently delivered to the Dearborn Observatory, Chicago. His sons, Alvan Graham Clark and George Bassett Clark, continued the business. The unexcelled 40-in refractor telescopes for the 40-in Yerkes observatory was made by Alvan Graham Clark.« [Image: Dearborn telescope, c.1864.] Alvan
Clark & Sons, Artists in Optics, by Warner and Ariail. |
| George Smith | |
(source) |
Died
19 Aug 1876 (born 24 Mar 1840)
English archaeologist and Assyriologist who translated Babylonian cuneiform tablets (1872) describing a great deluge, part of the Gilgamesh epic, and akin to that found in Genesis. Smith, as an apprentice banknote engraver since age 14, spent much his own time teaching himself how to decipher cuneiform, by studying inscriptions available at the British Museum. His skill was recognized, and he worked for the British Museum from 1867. Smith engaged in fieldwork in 1873 at Nineveh (Kuyunjik) finding more tablet fragments of the flood story, and others on the Babylonian dynasties. He published his work in The Chaldean Account of Genesis (1876). He died at age 36 of a fever while excavating more of Assurbanipal's library.« 
Chaldean
Account of Genesis, by George Smith. |
| Charles Gerhardt | |
(source) |
Died
19 Aug 1856 (born 21 Aug 1816)
Charles (-Frédéric) Gerhardt was a French chemist who, with Auguste Laurent, developed a classification of organic compounds. Like most chemists he was aware that the dualistic system of Jöns Berzelius was unsatisfactory and tried to create an alternative. He adopted what became known as type theory in which he thought all organic compounds were based on four main types - hydrogen, hydrogen chloride, ammonia, and water. Organic compounds were referred to these types by replacing a hydrogen atom in one of these compounds by a radical (i.e., by a group of atoms). His idea was opposed by his contemporaries and was later abandoned, but it proved important in the subsequent rationalization of structural organic chemistry. |
| James Geddes | |
Lockport on Erie Canal(source) |
Died
19 Aug 1838 (born 22 July 1763)
Civil engineer, lawyer and politician, born in Pennsylvania but moved to New York state in 1794. The New York State Legislature introduced a bill to fund a feasibility study for a New York State canal, and retained Judge James Geddes (1808) survey routes across the state, east to Lake Erie and Lake Ontario. On 20 Jan 1809, Geddes recommended a Hudson-Erie route to the State legislature. Funding was delayed, but construction on the Erie Canal began on 4 Jul 1817. Taking eight years to complete, it is one of the first great engineering works in North America. Close to 1,000 Erie Canal workers died of malaria in the swamps. Geddes also consulted on canal routes for Ohio. |
| James E. Watt | |
| Died
19 Aug 1819 (born 19 Jan 1736)
Scottish engineer who invented the steam engine. [Note: Sources vary on the date of death, which is also given as 25 Aug 1819.] |
|
| Axel Fredrik Cronstedt | |
(source) |
Died
19 Aug 1765 (born 23 Dec 1722)
Swedish chemist and metallurgist who was the first to isolate nickel (1751) and notice its slight magnetic properties. A new chemical classification of minerals he made was translated to several languages. Patterns he found in the internal structure of minerals enabled him to distinguish between simple one-compound minerals and those comprised of a mixture of several minerals. He discovered zeolite, a water-softening silicate and analysed the high-density mineral calcium tungstate. By adept use of the blowpipe to intensify a flame and burn a small quantity of a mineral he could make an identification of its chemical composition based on the colouring of the flame. He did not invent the instrument, but founded systematic blowpipe analysis technique.« |
| John Wallis | |
(source) |
Died
19 Aug 1703 (born 23 Nov 1616)
British mathematician who introduced the infinity math symbol. Wallis was skilled in cryptography and decoded Royalist messages for the Parliamentarians during the Civil War. Subsequently, he was appointed to the Savilian Chair of geometry at Oxford in 1649, a position he held until his death more than 50 years later. Wallis was part of a group interested in natural and experimental science which became the Royal Society, so Wallis is a founder member of the Royal Society and one of its first Fellows. Wallis contributed substantially to the origins of calculus and was the most influential English mathematician before Newton. |
| Blaise Pascal | |
(source) |
Died
19 Aug 1662 (born 19 June 1623)
French mathematician, physicist, child prodigy. He laid the foundation for the modern theory of probabilities. In hydrodynamics he formulated what came to be known as Pascal's law of pressure, and invented the syringe and hydraulic press. Pascal invented the first digital calculator to help his father with his work collecting taxes. He worked on it for three years (1642-45). The device, called the Pascaline, resembled a mechanical calculator of the 1940s. This, almost certainly, makes Pascal the second person to invent a mechanical calculator for Schickard had manufactured one in 1624. He died at the young age of 39 having been sickly and physically weak through life. Autopsy showed he had been born with a deformed skull. |
| AUGUST 19 - EVENTS | |
| First live animals launched on round trip to Space | |
(source) |
In 1960, Sputnik 5 was launched into Earth orbit, carrying two dogs
named Belka (Squirrel) and Strelka (Little Arrow), along
with 40 mice, 2 rats and a variety of plants, beginning a safe round trip
into Space, after which they become the first living organisms to return
space. After a day in orbit, the sapceship's retrorocket was fired and
the landing capsule returned to Earth on 20
Aug 1960. Earlier,
on 3 Nov 1957, the USSR lauched
Sputnik
2, with a stray Siberian husky, Laika ("Barker"). By design, it
did not return to Earth; Laika
died in space a few days later. On 12
Apr 1961, Russian cosmonaut Yuri
Gagarin became the first man in space.« |
| Commercial atomic energy | |
(source) |
In 1960, the first commercial atomic energy reactor, and the third in the
U.S., achieved a self-sustaining nuclear reaction. It began producing power
for distribution on 10 Nov
1960. This was the $57 million Yankee Atomic Electric Company's plant
at Rowe, Mass., on the Deerfield River. The pressurized light-water reactor
produced 125,000 kilowatts of electricity. The company was formed by twelve
New England utility companies which signed a contract with the Westinghouse
Corporation as the principal contractor. It was permanently shut down on
26 Feb 1992, due to reactor vessel embrittlement, after more than 31 years
of service. Decommissioning
began in 1993. |
| Vitamin A | |
(source) |
In 1947, the first full synthesis route for vitamin A was found by Dutch
chemists, Jozef Ferdinand Arens and David Adriaan van Dorp. Later in 1947,
a team headed by O. Isler also synthesized
vitamin A using a method more suitable to produce commerical quantities.
In 1913, Thomas B. Osborne and Lafayette Mendel had shown experimentally
with rats that butter contained a factor responsible for growth development.
Their work was confirmed
(1913) by Elmer McCullum and Marguerite Davis who also identified a fat-soluble
nutrient in butterfat and cod liver oil. It became known as vitamin A,
and its chemical structure was determined in 1931 by Paul
Karrer.« (Ref Arens and van Dorp, Synthesis of
Vitamin A aldehyde, Nature 160: 187, 1947) |
| Mendeleeff observes eclipse | |
(source) |
In 1887, Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev
(1834-1907) used a balloon to ascend above the cloud cover to an altitude
of 11,500 feet (3.5 km) to observe an eclipse in Russia. He made the solo
ascent above Klin without any prior experience. While his family was rather
concerned,
he paid no attention to controlling the balloon until after he had completed
his observations, at which time he worked out how to land it. Mendeleev
is the Russian chemist known for the ordering of the Periodic Table of
the Elements. Yet, he was interested
in many fields of science. He studied problems associated with Russia's
natural resources, such as coal, salt, metals, and the petroleum industry.
In 1876, he visited the U.S. to observe the Pennsylvania oil fields.
"Dmitry
Ivanovich Mendeleyev: His Life and His Work" by O. N.
Pisarzhevsky |
| Condensed milk | |
(source) |
In 1856, Gail Borden of Brooklyn,
NY, was issued a U.S. patent his process for condensed milk (No. 15,553).
Condensed milk could be preserved for long periods of storage, and in this
form milk became more readily available in large cities than had been possible
before. His company's advertising slogan "The milk from contented cows"
was one of the great American advertising campaigns. The Borden company
is today one of the largest dairy product concerns in the world. The familiar
flat-topped cans of Borden's condensed milk are still available, as are
Borden's ice cream, cheese and other products - all with the seal of approval
by Borden's famous mascot, Elsie, the cow. |
| Daguerreotype | |
|
In 1839, Louis Daguerre announced
the invention of the daguerreotype photographic process, the first process
to allow an image to be chemically fixed as a permanent picture. On 7 Jan
1839 an announcement was made of the discovery, but details were not divulged
until 19 Aug, when the process was announced publicly, and the French government
having bought the rights to the process from him, freely gave them to the
world. However, this process had also been patented in England and Wales
on 14 Aug 1839, only five days previously.«
The
Daguerreotype: Nineteenth-Century Technology and Modern Science,
by Barger and White. |
|
