| AUGUST 31 - BIRTHS | |
| Robert Hanbury Brown | |
(source) |
 Born 31
Aug 1916; died 16 Jan 2002.
British astronomer who was a pioneer in radar and observational astronomy. During and after WW II he worked with R.A. Watson-Watt and then E.G. Bowen to develop radar for uses in aerial combat. In the 1950s he applied this experience to radio astronomy, developing radio-telescope technology at Jodrell Bank Observatory and mapping stellar radio sources. He designed a radio interferometer capable of resolving radio stars while eliminating atmospheric distortion from the image (1952). With R.Q. Twiss, Brown applied this method to measuring the angular size of bright visible stars, thus developing the technique of intensity interferometry. They set up an intensity interferometer at Narrabri in New South Wales, Australia, for measurements of hot stars.«  Boffin:
A Personal Story of the Early Days of Radar, Radio Astronomy... ,
by R. Hanbury Brown. |
| Sir Bernard Lovell | |
(source) |
Born 31 Aug 1913
Sir Alfred Charles Bernard Lovell was an English radio astronomer who established and directed (1951-81) Jodrell Bank Experimental Station, Cheshire, England, with (then) the world's largest steerable radiotelescope, now named after him Prior to WW II, he worked at Manchester University on cosmic ray research. During the war, he helped develop aircraft onboard radar systems. After the war, to escape interference to radar equipment from city trams, he moved his research to the University's more remote Jodrell Bank property. In 1946, he showed that radar echoes could detect optically invisible daytime meteor showers. He gained funding to build the 250-ft-diam. telescope. When completed in 1957, it was able to track the first artificial satellite, Sputnik I.« [Image left: Jodrell Bank radiotelescope.]  The
story of Jodrell Bank, by Bernard Lovell. |
| Robert F. Borkenstein | |
(source) |
Born 31
Aug 1912; died 10 Aug 2002.
American forensic scientist who was most recognized for his contributions to the understanding and control of alcohol impairment in traffic accidents, and who invented the Breathalyser. He collaborated with Professor R.N. Harger of the Indiana University School of Medicine in the introduction of the Drunkometer, the first instrument for accurate measurement of quantities of alcohol in the blood by breath analysis. Subsequently, he invented the Breathalyzer, an instrument that changed the approach of forensic science and police enforcement in response to drinking-and-driving problems. This innovation enabled traffic enforcement authorities to determine and quantify blood alcohol concentrations with sufficient accuracy to meet the demands of legal evidence. |
| Friedrich Adolf Paneth | |
(source) |
Born 31
Aug 1887; died 17 Sep 1958.
Austrian-British chemist who improved methods in the 1920's to isolate and measure the minute amounts of helium (as little as 10-10 cm3) slowly released by traces of radioactive elements in rocks. This enabled determination of both the age of rocks on earth, and also the age of meteorites which implies the age of the solar system, (presently accepted as 4,600 million years). Earlier, he and his friend George Charles de Hevesy introduced radioactive tracer techniques (1912-13). Paneth used radium D as a tracer to measure the solubility of lead salts, then extended the technique to the study of the unstable hydrides of lead and bismuth. He contributed to the study of the stratosphere by determining its composition as a function of altitude up to 45 miles.« Chemistry
and beyond: A selection from the writings of the late F.A. Paneth,
by Fritz Paneth. |
| Herbert Westren Turnbull | |
(source) |
Born 31
Aug 1885; died 4 May 1961.
English mathematician who made extensive and notable contributions to the study of algebraic invariants and concomitants of quadratics. Turnbull was also interested in the history of mathematics, writing The Mathematical Discoveries of Newton (1945), and began work on the Correspondence of Isaac Newton. |
| Edward L. Thorndike | |
(source) |
Born 31
Aug 1874; died 9 Aug 1949.
Edward L(ee) Thorndike was a U.S. psychologist considered to be the father of Educational Psychology who studied the process of learning in animals, children and adults. His theory of connectionism proposed that mental or behavioral responses to specific stimuli are the result of a process of trial and error that produces neural connections linking the stimuli with the most satisfactory response. Thorndike studied how animals learn through trial and error in his "puzzlebox" experiments, such as observing a hungry cat in a box which received food when it escaped. Gradually, the animal learned what it had to do to escape, and the escape time became shorter. He applied such associative learning to humans and to the practice of education.« |
| Mary Putnam Jacobi | |
(source) |
Born 31
Aug 1842; died 10 Jun 1906.
(née Mary Corinna Putnam) American physician, well-respected for her medical abilities, who advocated social reform to expand educational opportunities for women by providing the same training and clinical practice as men. She was awarded Harvard University's Boylston Prize for her 1876 essay, The Question of Rest for Women during Menstruation. In this work, she refuted allegations of the physical limitations of women, such as published by Dr. Edward H. Clarke's in Sex in Education (1873). She supported her position with scientific data including sphygmographic tracings of pulse rate, force, and variations to confirm that a woman maintained vigorous health throughout her monthly cycle. Jacobi became the first female member of the Academy of Medicine.« |
| Hermann von Helmholtz | |
(source) |
Born 31
Aug 1821; died 8 Sep 1894.
Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz was a German scientist who contribed much to physiology, optics, electrodynamics, mathematics, and meteorology, including the law of the conservation of energy (1847). He also developed thermodynamics, in particular introducing concept of free energy. In 1850, he measured the speed of a nerve impulse and, in 1851, invented the ophthalmoscope. He discovered the function of the cochlea in the inner ear and developed Thomas Young's theory of colour vision (published 1856). His study of muscle action led him to formulate a much more accurate theory concerning the conservation of energy than earlier proposed by Julius Mayer and James Joule. Hermann
von Helmholtz and the Foundations of Nineteenth-Century Science,
by David Cahan. |
| James Ferguson | |
/FergusonJames(1797-1867)Thm.jpg)
(source) |
Born 31
Aug 1797; died 26 Sep 1867.
Scottish-American astronomer who discovered the first previously unknown asteroid to be detected from North America. He recorded it on 1 Sep 1854 at the U.S. Naval Observatory, where he worked 1848-67. This was the thirty-first of the series and is now known as 31 Euphrosyne, named after one of the Charites in Greek mythology. It is one of the largest of the main belt asteroids, between Mars and Jupiter. He was involved in some of the earliest work in micrometry was done at the old U.S. Naval Observatory at Foggy Bottom in the midst of the Civil War using a 9.6 inch refractor. He also contributed to double star astronomy. Earlier in his life he was a civil engineer, member of the Northwest Boundary Survey, and an assistant in the U.S. Coast Survey. (Note: Another astronomer and instrument maker by the same name of James Ferguson lived in Scotland 1710-1776.)« |
| Michel-Eugène Chevreul | |
(source) |
Born 31
Aug 1786; died 9 Apr 1889.
French chemist who began the study of the chemistry of fats. He discovered fatty acids, which led to a great improvement in the quality of stearine candles and in the fats used to make soaps. Stearine was first described by Chevreul in 1814 and was produced by heating glycerine with stearic acid. When used in candles it gave a steadier, brighter, odourless light. He was the first to find sugar in urine. He investigated and named margarine. In physics, he introduced (1839) his attempt at producing a systematic approach to seeing colours. In his 90s he turned to the study of the psychology of the elderly. When he died at 102, in his lifespan he had experienced both the French Revolution and the building of the Eiffel Tower. "The
Principles of Harmony and Contrast of Colors and Their Applications to
the Arts" by Faber Birren (Editor), Michel Eugene Chevreul |
| Guillaume Amontons | |
(source) |
Born 31
Aug 1663; died 11 Oct 1705.
French physicist, who developed the air thermometer - which relies on increase in volume of a gas (rather than a liquid) with temperature - and used it (1702) to measure change in temperature in terms of a proportional change in pressure. This observation led to the concept of absolute zero in the19th century. Deaf since childhood, Amontons worked on inventions for the deaf, such as the first telegraph, which relied on a telescope, light, and several stations to transmit information over large distances. Amontons' laws of friction, relied upon by engineers for 300 years, state that the frictional force on a body sliding over a surface is proportional to the load that presses them together and is also independent of the areas of the surfaces. |
| AUGUST 31 - DEATHS | |
| Sir Joseph Rotblat | |
(source) |
 Died
31 Aug 2005 (born 4 Nov 1908)
Polish-born British physicist who is a leading critic of nuclear weaponry. Rotblat and the Pugwash Conferences, "for their efforts to diminish the part played by nuclear arms in international politics and in the longer run to eliminate such arms," received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995. Forty years earlier, he and other scientists, with philosopher Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein, published a manifesto calling on researchers to take responsibility for their work, particularly those working on the atomic bomb. This led to the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, first convened in 1957 in Pugwash, Nova Scotia, Canada. He was secretary-general (1957-73), and president (from 1988) of this London-based worldwide organization. |
| Sir George Porter | |
(source) |
Died
31 Aug 2003 (born 6 Dec 1920)
English chemist, who was awarded a share of the 1967 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, with Englishman Ronald Norrish and German Manfred Eigen, "for their studies of extremely fast chemical reactions, effected by disturbing the equlibrium by means of very short pulses of energy." Porter showed how the flash-photolysis method - a technique for observing the intermediate stages of very fast chemical reactions - can be extended and applied to many diverse problems of physics, chemistry and biology. An example is the examination of photosynthesis. He extended these techniques into the nanosecond and picosecond regions. Porter also made contributions to other techniques, particularly that of radical trapping and matrix stabilisation.« |
| Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet | |
(source) |
Died
31 Aug 1985 (born 3 Sept 1899)
Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet was an Australian physician, virologist, and recipient, with Sir Peter Medawar, of the 1960 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of acquired immunological tolerance to tissue transplants. He studied the nature of antibody formation and immune processes and developed the notion of immunological tolerance to explain why humans do not form antibodies to their own bodily constituents. He also wrote about how mistakes of the immune system might cause obscure forms of blood, liver and kidney disease. He made pioneering use of fertile hen's eggs as hosts for virus multiplication. The concepts he developed are part of the basis for current theories about viruses as cancer-causing agents. |
| Stefan Banach | |
(source) |
Died
31 Aug 1945 (born 30 Mar 1892)
Polish mathematician who founded modern functional analysis and helped develop the theory of topological vector spaces. In addition, he contributed to measure theory, integration, the theory of sets, and orthogonal series. In his dissertation, written in 1920, he defined axiomatically what today is called a Banach space. The idea was introduced by others at about the same time (for example Wiener introduced the notion but did not develop the theory). The name 'Banach space' was coined by Fréchet. Banach algebras were also named after him. The importance of Banach's contribution is that he developed a systematic theory of functional analysis, where before there had only been isolated results which were later seen to fit into the new theory. |
| Albert Heim | |
(source) |
Died
31 Aug 1937 (born 12 Apr 1849)
Swiss geologist whose studies of the Swiss Alps greatly advanced knowledge of the dynamics of mountain building and of glacial effects on topography and geology. He studied the formation of overthrusts and nappes in the Alps. He supported the idea of a contracting Earth. He also studied the mechanics of rock deformation, proposing that rocks can deform plastically under pressure and that the same pressure causes metamorphism. After a near-fatal fall in the Alps during which he had a mystical experience, Heim began the first serious study of near-death experiences. Over a period of several decades he collected observations and accounts from numerous survivors of serious accidents. Heim first presented these findings at the Swiss Alpine Club in 1892. |
| Wilhelm Wundt | |
(source) |
Died
31 Aug 1920 (born 16 Aug 1832)
German physiologist and psychologist who established the first laboratory for experimental psychology (1879). He initiated lectures in scientific psychology, in which he stressed the use of experimental methods drawn from the natural sciences, which he expanded and published as Lectures on the Mind of Humans and Animals (1863). In his important work, Principles of Physiological Psychology (1874) he maintained that psychology should investigate the immediate experiences of consciousness, including sensations, feelings, volitions, apperception, and ideas. His methods are still used in modern psychophysical work, where reactions to external stimuli are measured in some way, such as reaction time, reactions and comparison with graded colors or sounds.« Wilhelm
Wundt in History: The Making of a Scientific Psychology,
by David K. Robinson. |
| Sir John Bennet Lawes | |
(source) |
Died
31 Aug 1900 (born 28 Dec 1814)
(1st Baronet) English agronomist who initiated the artificial fertiliser industry and founded the world's first agricultural research station. While a young man, he studied how manures improved growth of potted plants and crops. In 1842, having patented a method to make superphosphate by treating phosphate rock with sulphuric acid, he started the first artificial fertiliser factory. In 1843, Lawes opened the Rothamsted Experimental Station where he began a 57-yr collaboration with chemist Joseph Henry Gilbert. They developed modern scientific agriculture, researching animal nutrition with different fodders, and the effect on crop yields of inorganic and organic fertilisers. Some of their long-term field experiments continue to this day.« |
| John Keill | |
(source) |
Died
31 Aug 1721 (born 1 Dec 1671)
Scottish mathematician and natural philosopher, who was a major proponent of Newton’s theories. He began his university education at Edinburgh under David Gregory, whom he followed to Oxford, where Keill lectured on Newton's work, and eventually became professor of astronomy. In his book, An Examination of Dr. Burnett's Theory of the Earth (1698), Keill applied Newtonian principles challenging Burnett's unsupportable speculations on Earth's formation. In 1701, Keill published Introductio ad Veram Physicam, which was the first series of experimental lectures and provided a clear and influential introduction to Isaac Newton’s Principia. He supported Newton against priority claims by Leibnitz for the invention of calculus. (James Keill was his younger brother.)« |
| AUGUST 31 - EVENTS | |
| Alzheimer's disease test | |
Alkon (source) |
 
In 1993, a skin test for Alzheimer's disease was announced
from research led by Dr Daniel L. Alkon at the National Institutes of Health.
This disease gradually destroys memory, the ability to function, and is
eventually fatal. The benefit of the skin test, if validated by further
research, would be to differentiate the incurable Alzheimer's disease from
other more treatable forms of mental impairment. If effective, the test
would save hundreds of millions of dollars in diagnostic evaluations, though
several years of work remained before any clinical test would be widely
available. It was previously known that potassium channels closed in brain
cells affected by Alzheimer disease. The new test was designed to detect
if a similar collapse of potassium channels could be detected in skin tissues.«
[Image
right: Cross-section of Alzheimer's diseased brain (left) and normal brain.]
Memory's
Voice: Deciphering the Mind-Brain Code,
by Daniel L. Alkon. |
| Lunar auto | |
(source) |
In 1971, Dave Scott became
the first person to drive a vehicle on the Moon - the battery-powered Lunar
Rover (LRV) - as part of the Apollo 15 mission to the mountainous Hadley-Apennine
region. This LRV, the first to be carried on an Apollo mission, built by
Boeing, weighed 460 lb (209 kg) and folded into a space 5 ft by 20 in (1.5
m by 0.5 m). Each wheel was independently driven by ¼ horsepower
(200 W) electric motor. The astronauts could travel further from their
landing site and sample a wider variety of lunar materials. The car travelled
17.4 miles (28 km) and collected about 168 pounds (76 kg) of lunar materials
to return to Earth. Shepard and Mitchell of the previous Apollo 14 walked
about 2.5 miles (4 km), hauling their scientific gear in a two-wheeled
cart .« |
| Multi-organ transplant | |
(source) |
In 1968, Dr. Michael E. DeBakey
of Houston led the first simultaneous multi-organ transplant from one donor
to four recipients. Two kidneys, one lobe of a lung and the heart were
removed from a 20-yr-old women who died from a gunshot. The organs were
transplanted into four men at Methodist Hospital, Houston, Texas.*
. The surgery, which began within eight hours of the woman's death, was
performed by five teams totalling more than 60 physicians, nurses and support
persons. The heart, lobe of a lung, and two kidneys were transplanted into
men aged 50, 39, 41 and 22 respectively. DeBakey was a pioneer in cardiovascular
surgery, who had invented or perfected many medical devices, techniques
and procedures.« |
| Satellite Act | |
(source) |
In 1962, President Kennedy signed
the Satellite Act. Congress thus stated that it was to be the policy of
the U.S. "to establish, in conjunction and in cooperation with other countries,
as expeditiously as practicable a commercial communications satellite system,
as part of an improved global communications network, which will be responsive
to public needs and national objectives, which will serve the communication
needs of the United States and other countries, and which will contribute
to world peace and understanding." The service was to sensitive to meeting
the needs of economically less developed countries. Control of international
satellite communications was given to a new private corporation
called the Communications Satellite Corporation or Comsat.« [Image:
Communications satellite; inset bottom left: Comsat logo.]
Uncle
Sam's private profitseeking corporations: Comsat, Fannie Mae, Amtrak,
and Conrail, by Lloyd D Musolf. |
| Sun-powered car and Powerama | |
(source) |
In 1955, the first solar-powered car was publicly demonstrated. It was
a 15-inch Sunmobile built by William G. Cobb of the General Motors Corporation.
Light energy falling on 12 selenium photoelectric cells created electric
current to power a tiny electric motor that turned a driveshaft connected
to the car's rear axle by a pulley. It was one of 253 free exhibits of
the General Motors Powerama,
Chicago, Ill. seen by over 2,500,000 visitors during this 28-day, $7,000,000
event spread over 1,000,000 sq ft on the shore of Lake Michigan. It showcased
the company's modern diesel power, including an oil well, cotton gins,
cranes, earth-movers, trucks, tractors, military equipment, a submarine,
a shrimp boat, Aerotrain,
an aluminium foundry and other machinery.« [Image:
the lightweight Aerotrain was displayed at Powerama.] |
| Airplane flight over water | |
(source) |
In 1910, the first U.S. airplane flight over water was made by Glenn Hammond
Curtiss in his biplane over Lake Erie from Euclid Beach Park, Cleveland,
Ohio, to Cedar Point, Sandusky, Ohio. At an altitude between 400 and 500
feet, the 70 mile trip took 78 minutes nonstop. Curtiss reported in the
New York Times that he found that the "lake wind was not so steady as ocean
trade winds. It was puffy the last twenty miles, and the riding then a
little rough. Otherwise the flight was smooth." He delayed his return because
of rain. The next day, flying back to Cleveland, he beat both the Lake
Shore Limited train and homing pigeons, although it took longer than the
first flight because he had to face strong winds. His return to Euclid
Beach was greated by 20,000 people.« [Image:
detail from cover of sheet music for the march "King Of The Air" dedicated
to Glenn Curtis showing the aviator seated in front of the engine of his
biplane with rear-mounted propeller.] |
| Chemotherapy | |
Hata(R)Thm.jpg) |
In 1909, Nobelist Paul Ehrlich began the first chemotherapy (a term he
coined). Some time before, he had given his assistant, Sahachiro Hata,
two organic arsenic compounds to test as a treatment for syphilis caused
by Treponema pallidum. That micro-organism could not be grown on
a culture medium, but Hata became the first to discover
how to infect rabbits to produce syphilis. After many careful experiments,
Hata reported success with "Preparation 606" (the 606th chemical devised
by Ehrlich's team). On 31 Aug 1909, Ehrlich watched Hata inject 606 into
a rabbit with syphilitic ulcers. The next day, no treponeme could be found,
and the ulcers healed within a month. Thus syphilis was the first disease
caused by a microorganism to be cured with a specific drug.«
[Image
left:
Ehrlich; right:
Hata.]
Paul
Ehrlich: Scientist for Life, by Ernest Baumler. |
| Cork baseball | |
(USPTO) |
In 1909, Benjamin Shibe recieved a U.S. patent on the cork center baseball
(No. 932,911). In 1909,
when a baseball stadium, Shibe
Park in Philadelphia was built for the Philadelphia Athletics, it was
named after him as their principal owner. Later, the stadium became Connie
Mack Stadium, the home of the Philadelphia Phillies until 1971. A partner
in the A.J. Reach sporting goods company, Shibe invented the machinery
that made possible the manufacture of standard baseballs. [Image:
patent diagram showing cross-section of core of base-ball made of cork
wound with soft india-rubber strands.] |
| Yellow fever research | |
(source) |
In 1900, Private William Dean became the first volunteer with clear results
that exposed himself to yellow fellow as part of the research
carried out by Walter Reed at Quemados, Cuba. Dean allowed Mosquito No.12
to feed on his arm. Previous volunteers exposed to mosquitoes that had
fed on infected persons had not developed yellow fever. James Carroll,
a member of the Yellow Fever Commission, received the bite
of an infected mosquito (with a longer incubation
period), and on 29 Aug 1900 became severely ill with yellow fever. The
results were not clear in that Carroll may have acquired the disease from
exposure of some other kind. When William Dean, bitten by the same mosquito
as Carroll, developed the disease, the mosquito theory was vaildated. Both
recovered.« |
| British CocaCola | |
|
In 1900, Coca-Cola was first sold
in Britain in the basement restaurant of Spence's department store, a silk
merchant and general goods store at 76-79, St Paul's Churchyard, London
EC4. It later went on regular sale through soda fountain outlets, which
included Selfridges and The London Coliseum. Charles Candler, son of Asa
Candler, the owner of The Coca-Cola Company, had earlier brought a
jug of syrup with him in a visit to London. Coca-Cola was invented on 8
May 1886 by Dr John Styth Pemberton in Jacob's Pharmacy in Atlanta,
Georgia.
"For
God, Country, and Coca-Cola: The Definitive History of the Great American
Soft Drink and the Company That Makes It" by Mark Pendergrast. |
|
| Kinetoscope camera | |
(USPTO) |
In 1897, Thomas A. Edison received a
U.S. patent for his kinetoscope camera, a device for producing moving pictures
(No.589,168). In the patent, he described its purpose was "to produce pictures
representing objects in motion throughout an extended period of time which
may be utilized to exhibit the scene including such moving objects in a
perfect and natural manner by means of a suitable exhibiting apparatus"
using photography to expose a "sensitized tape-like film" with perforated
edges. Edison determined that a speed of 30 pictures per second with the
persistence of vision produced the effect of viewing the subject motion.
For the purpose of captures each image, this rate was sufficient to move
the film, yet allow a period of rest while each picture was exposed.« |
| Zeppelin patent | |
|
In 1895, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin
patented in Germany his invention of the rigid airship, known as the Zeppelin.
The overall cylindrical shape with rounded ends was covered with a cotton
shell, framed with aluminium struts, wire-braced and contained a number
of independent hydrogen balloons used for lift. Two or more seperate engines
were suspended below for propulsion. The patent title, "Lenkbarer Luftfahrzug"
(steerable air-cruising train), referred to a feature whereby additional
cylindrical mid-segments could be connected together for a longer airship
with greater carrying capacity, though none were ever made in this form.
A similar U.S. patent was issued
on 14 Mar 1899 for his "Navigable Balloon."« |
|
| U.S. earthquake | |
(source) |
In 1886, the first U.S. earthquake on record with significant human consequence
- the loss of some 100 lives - hit Charleston, S.C. and its massive effect
spread through many eastern States. The epicenter was 15 miles northwest
of Charleston, where 41 people died, 90 percent of the city's 6,956 brick
buildings were damaged,
and nearly all of its 14,000 chimneys were broken off at the roof. However,
geologically the most severe earthquakes in U.S. history had occurred earlier
in the century (16 Dec 1811). The epicenter then was in a sparsely populated
region and caused no known casualties, so the human consequences were relatively
not significant, although the violent movement of the ground changed the
course of the Mississippi River and created many new lakes.«
City
of Heroes: The Great Charleston Earthquake of 1886,
By Richard N. Côté. |
| Edison patent | |
|
In 1880, Thomas A. Edison was granted a U.S. patent for his invention of
an "Electro-Chemical Receiving-Telephone" (No. 231,704). |
|
| Curved stereotype plates | |
(source) |
In 1861, full pages of the New York Tribune were printed for the
first time in the U.S. using curved stereotype plates. Such plates were
first cast by Charles Craske in 1854 in New York City for a Hoe rotary
press. Stereotyping also enabled the publisher to make duplicate plates
for two presses which could half total production time to run an edition
with no extra costs in typesetting. Flat stereotyping had been used as
early as 1725 when William Ged took metal castings from plaster moulds
made from a frame of type, and in this way introduced a method for book
publishers to reduce wear on their type, and let the type itself be reused
for subsequent pages. Papier maché replaced plaster in the 1830's.
Craske extended the idea to making curved plates for rotary use.«[Image:
section of a flat papier maché flong stereo mould with the impression
obtained in the moulding press. Large raised areas are supported by packing
in hollows of the reverse side.] |
| U.S. Navy bureau of medicine | |
(source) |
In 1842, the first U.S. Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery was authorised
by act of Congress. Dr. William Paul Crillon Barton, served as its first
chief. The reorganization came 48 years after the creation of naval surgeons
and mates in 1794. The bureau was one of five established to replace the
Board of Navy Commissioners with a more efficient organisation with true
division of labor among Navy Department employees. (The other bureaus were:
Naval Yards and Docks; Construction, Equipment, and Repairs; Provisions
and Clothing; and Ordnance and Hydrography.) Much of the impetus
for change was due to several scathing articles (Apr 1840 - Jun 1841) in
the Southern Literary Messenger by Lt. Matthew
Fontaine Maury (under the pen name Harry Bluff).« [Image
left: present seal of BUMED; right:
Wm. Paul Crillon Barton as portrayed in a 1942(?) Ciba Pharmaceutical Products
magazine advertisement.]
A
History of Medicine in the Early U.S. Navy, by Harold
D. Langley. |
| U.S. Naval Observatory | |
(source) |
In 1842, the U.S. Naval Observatory was authorised by an act of Congress,
one of the oldest scientific agencies in the U.S.
James
Melville Gilliss (1811-1865) is considered its founder, who in 1842
he secured the Congressional appropriation for the Depot of Charts and
Instruments (est. 1830) to become the Naval
Observatory. Its primary task was to care for the Navy's charts, navigational
instruments and chronometers, which were calibrated by timing the transit
of stars across the meridian. Initially located at Foggy Bottom, the observatory
moved in 1893 to its present facility in Washington, DC. Gillis
visited Europe to procure instruments, and the books that formed the core
of the Naval Observatory Library. Matthew
Fontaine Maury was the first director, followed by Gillis (1861-65).«
[Image:
domed portion of Foggy Bottom building, showing mast on which a ball dropped
at noon as a visual signalofthe time. The structure had smaller wings on
each side.]
Sky
and Ocean Joined: The U.S. Naval Observatory, 1830-2000,
by Steven Dick. |
| Bolt trimming machine patent | |
(USPTO) |
In 1842, the first U.S. patent for a machine to trim the heads of nuts
and bolts was issued to Micah Rugg (No.
2,766). In 1838, Rugg had a blacksmith shop where with Martin Barnes,
he began making bolts and nuts for the market. Together, in 1840, they
established the first U.S. nuts and bolts factory in Marion, Connecticut.
It was a specially-designed one-story, 30 ft by 20 ft, wooden building
where with six employees, their capacity production was 500 bolts a day.
(Prior to 1838, when they started making bolts commercially, these articles
were hammered out and hand-finished by blacksmiths. An earlier but impractical
machinehad
been patented by David Wilkinson of Rhode Island on 14 Dec 1798.) |
| Black-American patent | |
(USPTO) |
In 1836, a second U.S. patent was granted to one of the earliest African-American
inventors, Henry Blair, a free man of Glenross, Maryland, for a cotton
seed planter (No.
15). His first patent was for a corn planter (14
Oct 1834, No. X8447). Blair was born in Maryland about 1807 and lived
until 1860. He was a successful farmer
whose inventions met a need to increase efficiency in farming. His patents
were signed with a simple "X" because he had not learned to read or write.
Henry Blair was the second African-American to hold a patent. For some
time he had been regarded
as the first, until it became better known that the first African-American
on record to be granted a patent was Thomas Jennings for a "dry-scouring"
cleaning process (3 Mar 1821 No. X3306).« [Image:
drawing from earlier corn planter upon which the cotton planter is a modification.
Top: side view of machine; bottom: detail of section of seed hopper showing
cylinder with holes in the periphery that turns with the wheels to drop
grains of corn.
The
Inventive Spirit of African Americans: Patented Ingenuity,
by Patricia Carter Sluby. |
| Charles Darwin | |
(source) |
In 1831, Charles Darwin was visiting
Maer Hall, home of his uncle Josiah Wedgwood II, whom he told of his father's
(Robert Darwin) opposition to him joining a two-year voyage on H.M.S.
Beagle. Charles was enthusiastic about the opportunity, but his father
objected to it as a waste of time, delaying his expected career in the
clergy, and would not give his permission. His father said, however, he
could be swayed to change his opinion, he said, if Charles found a man
with common sense who would regard the proposed trip as being worthwhile.
Charles found that man in his uncle Josiah, who wrote a letter to Robert,
answering all of the objections in his favour. Josiah was Robert's brother-in-law,
and as a family member was successful in influencing him to change his
mind.« 
From
So Simple a Beginning: Darwin's Four Great Books, by
Charles Darwin, Edward O. Wilson. |
| Antifouling paint patent | |
|
In 1625, the first patent for antifouling paint
was issued in Britain to William Beale (No. 32/1625)*.
He used a mixture of cement, copper compound, and powdered iron that was
intended to impair marine growth of the boreworm on a ship's hull. The
first U.S. patent for a paint against fouling by shells and weeds was issued
on 3 Nov 1863 to James G. Tarr and Augustus H.Wonson of Gloucester, Mass.
(3 Nov 1863 No. 40515)
which used copper oxide powdered from ore in Stockholm tar, and naptha
or benzine. The first patent under Japan's Patent Monopoly Act was for
an antifouling paint, was issued 14
Aug 1885 to Zuisho Hotta for a formula
combining lacquer, powdered iron, red lead, persimmon tannin, and other
ingredients.« |
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