| AUGUST 27 - BIRTHS | |
| Norman Foster Ramsey | |
(source) |
 Born 27
Aug 1915
American physicist who shared (with Wolfgang Paul and Hans Georg Dehmelt) the 1989 Nobel Prize for Physics in 1989 for "for the invention of the separated oscillatory fields method and its use in the hydrogen maser and other atomic clocks." His work produced a more precise way to observe the transitions within an atom switching from one specific energy level to another. In the cesium atomic clock, his method enables observing the transitions between two very closely spaced levels (hyperfine levels). The accuracy of such a clock is about one part in ten thousand billion. In 1967, one second was defined as the time during which the cesium atom makes exactly 9,192,631,770 oscillations.« |
| Eduardo Torroja (y Miret) | |
(source) |
Born 27 Aug 1899; died 15 Jun 1961.
Spanish engineer who pioneered the architectural use of concrete-shell structures. With José Maria Aguirre he founded (1934) an institute to "encourage progress in all areas of construction, sponsoring and disseminating scientific research and studying methods to improve construction techniques in whatsoever respect." He developed new uses and building techniques for reinforced concrete. Examples of his designs include the 156-ft (48 m) diameter shell of the Algeciras market (1933), and the 73-ft (22-m) cantilevered roof of the Madrid hippodrome (1935). From the 1920s to the 1960s, he designed some of Spain's finest bridges, aqueducts, churches and stadiums.« [Image right: cantilevered roof of the Madrid hippodrome]  Philosophy
of structures, by Eduardo Torroja Miret. |
| Carl Bosch | |
(source) |
Born 27
Aug 1874; died 26 Apr 1940.
German industrial chemist who at BASF directed development of the industrial scale process for production of ammonia from atmospheric nitrogen. In 1908, Fritz Haber, a professor of chemistry had suggested that nitrogen and hydrogen gases could be combined using high temperatures, high pressure and catalysts that resulted in the Haber-Bosch process. By 1910, Alwin Mittasch (1869-1953), head chemist of the BASF ammonia research laboratory identified activated iron as a suitable catalyst. Bosch supervised creation of new technical solutions for high pressure operations. He shared (with Friedrich Bergius) the 1931 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for devising chemical high-pressure methods.« Enriching
the Earth: Fritz Haber, Carl Bosch, and ... World Food Production,
by
Vaclav Smil. |
| James Henry Breasted | |
(source) |
Born 27
Aug 1865; died 2 Dec 1935.
American Egyptologist, archaeologist, and historian who promoted research on ancient Egypt and the ancient civilizations of western Asia. He was the first scholar in America to hold a professorship in Egyptology when he was appointed at at the University of Chicago in 1905. From 1919 to 1920 he headed the University’s first archaeological survey of Egypt and western Asia. He also led several other later expeditions. The institute, under his leadership, became one of America’s leading centers of archaeological study and Middle Eastern scholarship. Breasted wrote numerous books that include A History of Egypt (1905) and Ancient Times: A History of the Early World (1916, revised in 1944).
A
Brief History of Ancient Times, by James Henry Breasted. |
| Guiseppe Peano | |
(source) |
Born 27
Aug 1858; died 20 Apr 1932.
Italian mathematician who founded symbolic logic. Through the use of symbols, equations are more easily understood by anyone regardless of their language. For example, Peano introduced symbols to represent "belongs to the set of" and "there exists." In Arithmetics principia (1889), a pamphlet he wrote in Latin, Peano published his first version of a system of mathematical logic, giving his Peano axioms defining the natural numbers in terms of sets. In 1903, Peano unsuccessfully proposed an international, artificial language he called "Latino sine flexione." It was based on Latin without grammar. Its vocabulary comprised words from English, French, German and Latin.«  |
|
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| AUGUST 27 - DEATHS | |
| Ernest Orlando Lawrence | |
(source) |
 
Died 27 Aug 1958 (born 8 Aug 1901 )
American physicist who was awarded the 1939 Nobel Prize for Physics for his invention of the cyclotron, the first device for the production of high energy particles. His first device, built in 1930 used a 10-cm magnet. He accelerated particles within a cyclinder at high vacuum between the poles of an electromagnetic to confine the beam to a spiral path, while a high A.C. voltage increased the particle energy. Larger models built later created 8 x 104 eV beams. By colliding particles with atomic nuclei, he produced new elements and artificial radioactivity. By 1940, he had created plutonium and neptunium. He extended the use of atomic radiation into the fields of biology and medicine. Element 103 was named Lawrencium as a tribute to him.« Image: Ernest Lawrence standing with his back to the larger portion of his cyclotron. An
American Genius: The Life of Ernest Orlando Lawrence,
by Childs Herbert. |
| Lionel Walter Rothschild | |
(source) |
Died
27 Aug 1937 (born 8 Feb 1868)
(2nd Baron Rothschild (of Tring)) British zoologist and collector who founded the Walter Rothschild Zoological Museum, Tring, which opened to the public in 1892 and is now part of the Natural History Museum. His interest in natural history began when he was a child, collecting butterflies. Numerous species and sub-species of animals were named after him. From Tring, he issued Novitates Zoologicae, and published scores of scientific papers. He was the eldest son of financier Nathan Mayer Rothschild, 1st Baron Rothschild, whom he disappointed by devoting his life to natural history instead of the family banking business. He received his titles on the death of his father in 1915.« Dear
Lord Rothschild: Birds, Butterflies and History, by Miriam
Rothschild. |
| Sir William Maddock Bayliss | |
(source) |
Died
27 Aug 1924 (born 2 May 1860)
British physiologist who, in 1902 co-discovered the first hormone (with the British physiologist Ernest H. Starling). They found a certain chemical substance is secreted when food comes into contact with part of the small intestine. This chemical substance, which they named secretin, upon being carried by the blood to the pancreas, stimulates the secretion of pancreatic juice, the most important of the digestive juices. They coined the word "hormone" based on a Greek word for "to set in motion." Bayliss also studied the use of saline injections to counteract shock during surgery. He proposed the use of gum-saline injections for wound shock to saved many lives of wounded soldiers in WW I.« |
| John Hopkinson | |
(source) |
Died
27 Aug 1898 (born 27 Jul 1849)
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.« |
| Sir Rowland Hill | |
(source) |
Died
27 Aug 1879 (born 3 Dec 1795 )
English educator and inventor who originated the penny postage system with the first adhesive postage stamp (10 Jan 1840). Interested in inventing, from 1835 he began planning a postal service and by 1846 he became the Secretary to the Postmaster-General. He continued to reform the Post Office until 1864 when he retired. Thus, he developed modern postal service, which was subsequently adopted throughout the world. Earlier in his life, he had taught with his brothers and his father at a North London that was progressive - using new teaching methods and philosophies, with no corporal punishment but reward systems and strong honour and behaviour codes. Ill health led him away from teaching and he turned to modernizing the postal service. |
| Bartolomeo Eustachi | |
(source) |
Died 27 Aug 1574 (born c.1510)
Italian physician and anatomist whose name is given to the Eustachian tube. This narrow canal between the ear and the throat was discovered 2000 years earlier by Alcmaeon, but Eustachi was the first to fully describe it, in a treatise on the auditory organ. He was also first to describe the adrenal glands, and to make detailed studies of the teeth, including the first and second dentitions and tooth anatomy. His series of careful illustrations of abdominal and thorax structures, the nervous and vascular systems, muscles and bones were prepared as 47 copperplate engravings, but only 8 accompanied his Opuscula anatomica (1564) in his lifetime. Sadly for medical science, over a century passed before they were all published, in 1714.« [Image right, a plate from the postumous Romanae archetypae tabulae anatomicae novis... by Bartolomeo Eustachi] A
Little Treatise on the Teeth: The First Authoritative Book on Dentistry
(1563), by Bartolomeo Eustachi |
| AUGUST 27 - EVENTS | |
| World's biggest battery | |
(source) |
In 2003, the world's biggest battery was connected
to provide emergency power to Fairbanks, Alaska's second-largest city.
Without power lines between Alaska and the rest of the U.S., the state
is an "electrical island." Worse, tough environmental conditions cause
a total city blackout every two or three years. The $35 million rechargable
battery contains 13,760 large nickel-cadmium cells that weigh a total of
1,300 tonnes and cover 2,000 square metres, an area greater than a sports
field. The battery can provide 40 megawatts of power, enough for around
12,000 people, for up to seven minutes, while diesel backup
generators are started. This will be an important safeguard, where winter
temperatures can drop as low as -51ºC. |
| Commercial rocket launch | |
(seource) |
In 1989, the first communications satellite, Marcopolo I, for the
first television direct broadcast service in the United Kingdom was launched
from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on the first US commercial satellite rocket,
a Delta booster. A similar satellite, Marcopolo II was launched
on 17 Aug 1990. Each satellite was equipped with three 110-watt channels,
each having enough power to be received by very small (35cm/13.5-in diam.),
low-cost receiving dishes. Their footprint covered the U.K. The satellites
were powered by large area solar cells, and had nickel-cadmium cells as
back-up while the Earth eclipsed the Sun.« |
| Mariner 2 | |
 |
In 1962, the United States launched the Mariner 2 space probe, which
flew past Venus the following December. |
| Calder Hall nuclear power station | |
(source) |
In 1956, Calder
Hall, England, the connection was made - so that Calder Hall became
the world's first
commercial nuclear power station supplying electricity to the national
electricity grid - in preparation for the official opening on 17 Oct 1956
by Queen Elizabeth II. By the time it was closed on 31 Mar 2003, it had
served for nearly 47 years. Its four Magnox reactors were capable of generating
50 MWe of electricity, but with production of weapons-grade plutonium as
its original primary use. Christopher
Hinton (later Lord Hinton) was given the task
in 1952 to design and build Calder Hall. Construction began in 1953. It
is part of the larger Sellafield site, near the village of Seascale on
the coast of the Irish Sea in Cumbria.« |
| TV crosses English Channel | |
(source) |
In 1950, the BBC transmitted
in Britain the first cross-Channel live television programme by microwave
relay links celebrated the centenerary of the first cross-Channel telegraph
by submarine cable. Although the working range for outside broadcast units
of the time had been just 25 miles (40 km), a greater distance was made
possible using a relay of microwave signals between five portable radio-link
stations, able to send and receive microwave signals. Thus the signal was
relayed 95-miles (153 km) for the two-hour programme originating in Calais,
in Northern France, to London. The show presented the town of Calais "en
fete", with a torchlight procession, dancing and a firework display from
the Place de l'Hotel de Ville.« [Image
left: outside broadcast television camera; right:
camera with Hotel de Ville in background.] |
| Jet plane | |
|
In 1939, Sir Frank Whittle and
Hans
J.P. von Ohain invented a craft that became the first jet-powered airplane
to fly. It remained airborne for seven minutes. |
|
| Gallium | |
(source) |
In 1875, the element gallium was discovered by P.E.
Lecoq de Boisbaudran. In an article
in the Annales de Chimie in 1877, he said his search started 15
years earlier, but with inadequate resources. Even with a new laboratory
(1863) he had no success until he realized he was using too little material,
and in Feb 1874 started with 52 kg of a mineral from Pierrefitte mine.
He finally isolated a tiny sample: "On August 27, 1875, between three and
four at night, I perceived the first indications of the existence of a
new element that I named gallium in honor of France (Gallia)." His first
spectroscopic analysis of the tiny amount (he estimated 1/100 mg) of the
prepared sample showed a previously unknown violet line at 417.0 indicating
a new element. |
| Oil well | |
 |
In 1859, Colonel Edwin L. Drake drilled the first successful oil well in
the United States near Titusville, Pennsylvania. The drilling had reached
69 feet, 6 inches when a dark film floating on the water below the derrick
floor was noticed. |
| First balloon ascent in Britain | |
(source) |
In 1784, James Tytler made the first balloon ascent
in Britain in a hot-air balloon
at Ediburgh, Scotland. He exhibited his "Grand Edinburgh Fire Balloon"
in the uncompleted dome of Robert Adam's Register House. It was barrel-shaped,
40-ft tall, 30-ft diameter, with hot air produced by a stove. He wore a
cork jacket for protection, and sat a small wicker packing case below the
balloon. Before a small number of onlookers, the balloon rose to 350 feet
in the air, travelled half a mile, and landed in Restalrig village. Tytler
reported that the flight was "most agreeable with no giddiness" and that
he "amused himself by looking at the spectators below." Four days later,
a large paying audience saw it, but that flight was much less successful.«
 Balloon
Tytler, by James Fergusson. |
| Hydrogen balloon | |
(source) |
In 1783, the first experimental hydrogen-filled balloon
left the Champs de Mars, Paris, unmanned, and reached 900-m altitude. Under
the auspices of the French Academy of Sciences, Jacques
A.C. Charles sent up a 13-ft (4-m) diameter hydrogen- filled balloon
of rubber- coated silk. One of the spectators was the American ambassador
to France, Benjamin Franklin. The gas had been manufactured, beginning
on 23 Aug 1783, by pouring
225-kg of sulphuric acid over half a ton of scrap-iron. Able to lift about
9-kg, it traveled 24-km in about 45 minutes. The balloon descended close
to the little village of Gonesse, where frightened local farmers attacked
it with pick axes and spades, leaving only torn remains. |
| Eclipse | |
(source) |
In 413 BC, a lunar eclipse
caused panic among the sailors of the Athens fleet and thus affected the
outcome of a battle in the Peloponnesian War. The Athenians were ready
to move their forces from Syracuse when the Moon was eclipsed. The soldiers
and sailors were frightened by this celestial omen and were reluctant to
leave. Their commander, Nicias, consulted the soothsayers and postponed
the departure for 27 days. This delay gave an advantage to their enemies,
the Syracusans, who then defeated the entire Athenian fleet and army, and
killed Nicias. |
