| SEPTEMBER 3 - BIRTHS | |
| Dixy Lee Ray | |
(source) |
 Born 3
Sep 1914; died 2 Jan 1994
(Margaret Ray) American marine biologist whose interests extended to the environment and the need for greater public understanding of science. A year after appointment to the Atomic Energy Commission, she became its first female chair (1973-75) and championed nuclear power plant construction. On 2 Nov 1976, Ray won election as the first woman to be governor of Washington state. In her single term as governor, Ray generated more controversy than accomplishments, advocating reductions in environmental protections, and supporting nuclear power. She feuded with aides and refused to close the Hanford nuclear dump. She was featured on the cover of Time issue of 12 Dec 1977.  Is
it true what they say about Dixy?: A biography of Dixy Lee Ray, by
Louis R Guzzo |
| Loren Eiseley | |
(source) |
Born 3
Sep 1907; died 9 Jul 1977.
Loren (Corey) Eiseley was a U.S. anthropologist, educator, and was one of the preeminent literary naturalists of our time. He wrote for the lay person in eloquent, poetic style about anthropology, the history of the civilatization and our relationship with the natural world. Scientific American published Loren Eisleys' first popular essay, The Folsum Mystery (1942). Eiseley's best-known book, The Immense Journey, combines science and humanism in a collection of essays, many with origins to his own early Nebraska experiences. Eiseley became known internationally, winning major prizes and honorary degrees for his unique work. |
| Carl David Anderson | |
(source) |
Born 3
Sep 1905; died 11 Jan 1991.
American physicist who, with Victor Francis Hess of Austria, won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1936 for his discovery of the positron, or positive electron, the first known particle of antimatter. He examined the photographs of cosmic rays taken as they passed through a Wilson cloud chamber in a strong magnetic field. Besides the curved paths of negative electrons, he found also paths deviating in the opposite direction, corresponding to positively charged particles - yet having the the same mass as an electron! Previously, Dirac had predicted such particles by theoretical solution to electromagnetic field equations. Anderson has now found the existance of positron. |
| Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet | |
(source) |
Born 3
Sep 1899; died 31 Aug 1985.
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. |
| Thomas Milton Rivers | |
(source) |
Born 3
Sep 1888; died 12 May 1962.
American virologist who, as chairman of the virus research committee of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis (now the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation; 1938-55), organized the long-range research program that led to development of the Salk and Sabin anti-poliomyelitis vaccines. His interest in medical research was awakened while with the Army medical corps (1918). He worked from 1922-55 at the Rockefeller Institute as a bacteriologis, and as its Director (after1937). Rivers addressed a range of topics relating to some of the most devastating viral diseases, including smallpox, Rift Valley Fever, and epidemic encephalitis. He also discovered the parainfluenzae bacillus and cultivated vaccine virus for human use. |
| Harold DeForest Arnold | |
1914 (source) |
Born 3
Sep 1883; died 10 Jul 1933.
American physicist whose research led to the development of long-distance telephony and radio communication. He worked at Western Electric on thermionic tubes, which amplified radio and telephone signals, leading to transcontinental telephony (July 1914). Even before the transcontinental line was completed, Arnold was directing work on the development of new higher power tubes to extend telephone service by radio to other continents. The first transcontinental demonstration of radio telephone (29 Sep 1915) was transmitted from New York City to Arlington, Virginia, then to San Francisco and Honolulu. Arnold later became the first director of research at Bell Telephone Labs (1925 to his death in 1933). |
| Ferdinand Porsche | |
(source) |
Born 3
Sep 1875; died 30 Jan 1951
Austrian automotive engineer who designed the popular Volkswagen car. In 1900, as a young engineer and test driver, Porsche had devised the wheel hub motors on the Lohner-Porsche Electric Car exhibited at the Paris Exposition, making the name Porsche famous worldwide. In 1935, the brainchild of Adolph Hitler - the VW Beetle - was designed by Porsche. Hitler wanted a car built for the masses. By 1938 the first Beetle was completed - just before the outbreak of World War II. The car offered innovative technology, including an air-cooled motor, an atypical shape, no front grill and a rear motor. It was not until 1946 that the Volkswagen (which name means "people’s car") went into series production. His son, Ferdinand, continued the business. |
| Fredrik Størmer | |
(source) |
Born 3
Sep 1874; died 13 Aug 1957.
Fredrik (Carl Mülertz) Størmer was a geophysicist and mathematician who developed a mathematical theory of auroral phenomena. An aurora is the light emitted by energetic protons and electrons at the top of Earth's atmosphere when they come in contact with solar wind particles. He also contributed both important photographic observations and mathematical data to the understanding of the polar aurora, of stratospheric and mesospheric clouds, and of the structure of the ionosphere. The discovery of the Van Allen Radiation Belts by James Van Allen confirmed with surprising accuracy Størmer's theoretical analysis of solar charged particle trajectories in Earth's magnetic field. |
| Fritz Pregl | |
(source) |
Born 3
Sep 1869; died 13 Dec 1930.
Austrian chemist awarded the 1923 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for developing techniques in the microanalysis of organic compounds. Pregl began research on bile acids in about 1904. With only tiny yields to study, he pioneered techniques of microanalysis. Whereas Justus von Liebig had needed about 1 gram of a substance before he could make an accurate analysis; through his new techniques, Pregl could work with 2.5 milligrams. This was achieved by the careful scaling down of his analytic equipment and the design of a new balance (produced in collaboration with the instrument maker W. Kuhlmann of Hamburg) capable of weighing 20 grams to an accuracy of 0.001 milligram. His techniques are of immense importance in organic chemistry. |
| Christian Archibald Herter | |
1905 (source) |
Born 3
Sep 1866; died 5 Dec 1910
American physician who investigated the role of bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract and developed techniques for measuring their products such as indol. Herter's early research interests culminated in the publication of The Diagnosis of Diseases of the Nervous System (1892). He then shifted his attention to the biochemical study of disease. In 1893 had the upper floor of his house remodelled so that he could carry out laboratory work. Examining the biochemistry of metabolic disorders and the formation of gallstones and glycosuria. He was commissioned by President Theodore Roosevelt to examine the possible effects of sodium benzoate in its use in food preservatives and from the investigation concluded that it was perfectly safe. |
| Louis Sullivan | |
(source) |
Born 3
Sep 1856; died 14 Apr 1924.
Louis (Henry) Sullivan was an American architect, who is identified with the aesthetics and innovation of early skyscraper design. Called the "Father of Modernism," he was greatly influenced Frank Lloyd Wright and others. He was one of the first to design skyscrapers, such as the Wainwright building in St Louis (1890-91) and the Carson store in Chicago (1899-1904). His experimental, functional skeleton constructions of skyscrapers and office blocks included the Gage building and Stock Exchange, Chicago. His more than 100 works in collaboration (1879-95) with Dankmar Adler include the Auditorium Building, Chicago (1866-89) and the Guaranty Building, Buffalo.  Sullivan:
His Life and Work by Robert Twombly |
| Alfred Brandt | |
(source) |
Born 3
Sep 1846; died 29 Nov 1899.
German civil engineer who was primarily responsible for the successful driving of the 12.5 mile (20-km) Simplon Tunnel, largest of the great Alpine tunnels. He first saw the difficulties of tunnel construction as a young railroad engineer during the construction of the St. Gotthard Tunnel (Italy-Switzerland). That work used a pneumatic drill and blasting. Brandt designed an hydraulic drill which was used successfully to build the Arlberg Tunnel (Austria-Switzerland). Commissioned to dig the Simplon Tunnel, he innovated by driving two separate tunnels 55-ft (17-m) apart, connected by crosshatches to provide for ventilation, temperature control and a circuit for debris-removal trains. He died early in the project, from the strain of overworking himself. [Image: Simplon Tunnel during construction, model] |
| John E. W. Keely | |
(source) |
Born 3
Sep 1827; died 18 Nov 1898.
John Ernst Worrell Keely was a fraudulent American inventor. In 1873 he announced that he had discovered a new physical force that, if harnessed, would produce unheard-of power. He claimed, for example, to be able to produce from a quart of water enough fuel to move a 30-car train from Philadelphia to New York City. He began construction of an engine to perform this feat and by 1874 was able to give preliminary demonstrations of his machine. He made a great show of guarding the secret of the motor he was developing to obtain power "from intermolecular vibrations of ether," and scientists and engineers scoffed at his unverified claims. |
| James Joseph Sylvester | |
(source) |
Born 3
Sep 1814; died 15 Mar 1897.
British mathematician who, with Arthur Cayley, founded the theory of algebraic invariants, algebraic-equation coefficients that are unaltered when the coordinate axes are translated or rotated. Beginning in 1833, he studied at St John's College, Cambridge. However, at this time signing a religious oath to the Church of England was required to graduate. Being Jewish, he refused and so he did not graduate. He taught physics at the University of London (1838-41), one of the few places which did not bar him because of his religion. Sylvester did important work on matrix theory, in particular, to study higher dimensional geometry. In 1851 he discovered the discriminant of a cubic equation. Earlier in his life, he tutored Florence Nightingale. |
| Matthew Boulton | |
(source) |
Born 3
Sep 1728; died 17 Aug 1809
British manufacturer and engineer who financed and introduced James Watt's steam engine. On inheriting his father's silver-stamping business he produced buttons and buckles, and later, other goods of silver and ormolu (a sort of gilded bronze) for the up and coming mercantile classes. After meeting James Watt he became fascinated by the development of steam power and produced steam engines which sold all over the world. In 1786, Boulton established the first steam powered coining presses at his mint at Soho, Birmingham. In 1786 Boulton applied steam power to his coining presses in the Soho works. This replaced hand processes in which workers placed blanks into a hand operated screw-press. |
| Abraham Trembley | |
(source) |
Born 3
Sep 1710; died 12 May 1784.
Swiss naturalist, is best known for his studies of the freshwater hydra, mainly Chlorohydra viridissima. He discovered the freshwater hydra in 1740. His extensive systematic experiments foreshadowed modern research on tissue regeneration and grafting. In 1744, Trembley published that he found that a complete hydra would be regenerated from as little as 1/8th of the parent body. He also succeeded in turning these animals inside out, a remarkably delicate operation which he performed by threading them on horse hairs. Trembley showed that the hydras would survive even this drastic operation. A thorough researcher, Trembley studied three species of hydra and published his findings in 1744. |
| Joseph de Jussieu | |
(source) |
Born 3
Sep 1704; died 11 Apr 1779.
French botanist who went with French physicist Charles-Marie de la Condamine's expedition to Peru to measure an arc of meridian (1735). Therafter, he remained in South America for 35 years, supporting himself chiefly by the practice of medicine. By sending the seed to his brother Bernard, he introduced the common garden heliotrope (Heliotropium peruvianum) into Europe. His extended and arduous explorations in Peru took place mainly in the years 1747-50. The botanical results of these journeys were large, but the greater part of his manuscripts and collections was lost. He returned to Paris in 1771, in poor health. His brothers Antoine and Bernard were also notable botanists.« [Image: heliotrope flower and leaves] |
| Lorenzo Bellini | |
(source) |
Born 3
Sep 1643; died 8 Jan 1704.
Physician and anatomist who described the collecting, or excretory, tubules of the kidney, known as Bellini's ducts (tubules). Bellini is considered a founder of Italian iatromechanism, applying mechanical philosophy to the functions of the human body. His first publication, Exercitatio anatomica de usu renum (1662), contains his anatomical discovery that in the supposedly unorganized parenchyma there is a complicated structure composed of fibers, open spaces, and densely packed tubules opening into the pelvis of the kidney. He extended his effort to explain physiological phenomena using the law of mechanics. (Several discoveries previously ascribed to Lorenzo Bellini were made earlier by Bartolomeo Eustachi.) |
|
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| SEPTEMBER 3 - DEATHS | |
| Barbara McClintock | |
(source) |
 Died
3 Sep 1992 (born 16 Jun 1902)
American scientist regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of genetics. In the 1940s and 1950s McClintock's work on the cytogenetics of maize led her to theorize that genes are transposable - they can move around - on and between chromosomes. McClintock drew this inference by observing changing patterns of coloration in maize kernels over generations of controlled crosses. The idea that genes could move did not seem to fit with what was then known about genes, but improved molecular techniques of the late 1970s and early 1980s allowed other scientists to confirm her discovery. She was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the first American woman to win an unshared Nobel Prize. |
| Sir John Rennie | |
(image) |
Died
3 Sep 1874 (born 1794)
English civil engineer, Sir John Rennie was knighted for his work in completing London Bridge, from the design of his father John Rennie (1761-1821). Like his father he was a distinguished engineer of ports and land drainage works. He was consulted about several important early railway schemes. The Royal William Yard, Plymouth was purpose built in 1835 by Sir John Rennie as a naval victualling yard. Around 70 Martello towers were build around the south east shores of England under his direction as defensive positions to protect English shores from French invaders. Sir John Rennie died in Bengeo, Hertfordshire. |
| Martin Heinrich Rathke | |
(source) |
Died
3 Sep 1860 (born 25 Aug 1793)
German physiologist and pathologist who was one of the founders of modern embryology. He was the first to describe the embryonic precursors of gill slits and gill arches in the embryos of higher animals - mammals and birds - which have none when fully grown. Rathke compared the development of the air sacs in birds and the larynx in birds and mammals. In 1839, he traced the origin of the anterior pituitary gland from a depression in the roof of the mouth, which embryonic structure is now known as Rathke's pouch. Rathke also did pioneering work in marine zoology, as being first to describe lancet fish.« |
| Henry Fourdrinier | |
| Died
3 Sep 1854 (born 11 Feb 1766)
English inventor of paper-making machinery known by his name. He and his brother Sealy (d. 1847) spent a fortune over their lifetime perfecting a machine capable of producing paper of unlimited length, beginning with pulp fed at the beginning, to finished paper rolled on a drum at the other end. The pulp was carried on a wire-mesh belt and squeezed between rollers to remove the water. They were assisted by mechanic Bryan Donkin. Despite holding patents, the cost and effort involved to defend them left the brothers without any substantial return on their investment, and they died having obtained a small grant of compensation from Parliament. The principles developed in their machine are still in use in modern paper-making.«  |
|
| SEPTEMBER 3 - EVENTS | |
| Ozone hole | |
(NASA) |
In 2000, NASA data showed the hole at just under 11 million square miles
- the biggest it had ever been. Record low temperatures in the stratosphere
are believed to have helped the expansion of the ozone hole during the
southern hemisphere’s spring season. Antarctic ozone depletion starts in
July, when sunlight triggers chemical reactions in cold air trapped over
the South Pole during the Antarctic winter. It intensifies during August
and September before tailing off as temperatures rise in late November
of early December. Depletion of the ozone layer over Antarctica and the
Arctic is being monitored because ozone protects Earth from harmful ultraviolet
radiation. By 9 Sep 2000, the hole had
grown over Chile, exposing
a populated city for the first time. Image,
compiled from NASA's Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer instrument onboard
the Earth Probe satellite, reveals how the ozone hole (in deep blue) has
extended as far as southern Chile. |
| Mersenne prime | |
|
In 1996, Slowinski & Gage discovered 2^1257787-1 (34th known Mersenne
prime). |
|
| Mars | |
(source) |
In 1976, the unmanned spacecraft Viking
II landed on Mars and took the first pictures of the surface of Mars.
Its twin, Viking I was the first to arrive on the surface of Mars on 20
Jul 1976. Each lander housed instruments that examined the physical and
magnetic properties of the soil; analyzed the atmosphere and weather patterns
of Mars; and determined any evidence of past or present life. Each Viking
spacecraft, as launched inside the nose cone of a Titan Centaur rocket,
was made of two parts: an orbiter and a lander. The orbiter's initial job
was to survey the planet for a suitable landing site. Later the orbiter's
instruments studied the planet and its atmosphere, while the orbiter acted
as a radio relay station for transmitting lander data. |
| Edison electric passenger train | |
(source) |
In 1931, the Lackawanna railroad inaugurated
electric suburban service from Hoboken to Montclair, NJ, in an effort to
keep smoke down around New York. Thomas Edison himself was at the controls
of the first multiple-unit train to leave Hoboken Terminal. The "wickerliners"
were so named for their early wicker seats. To supply electricity, the
railroads erected bare overhead
wires, called a "catenary." Locomotives have a special, cage-like contact
on the roof that touched the catenary. Electricty flows through the contact
to a large electric motor. Short-run commuter electric trains do not need
large engine power because they carry passengers. The locomotive looks
like a passenger car, but with an engineer's compartment in front. [Image:
unidentified train.] |
| Dalton's atomic symbols | |
 |
In 1803, John Dalton recorded
in his notebook "Observations on the Ultimate Particles of Bodies and their
Combinations," in which his atomic symbols were introduced and which he
continued to use. |
| Gregorian Calendar | |
|
In 1752, the day of 3rd of September never happened - nor next 10. England
and the American Colonies dropped the Roman era Julian Calendar, which
had become 10 days out of synchrony with the solar cycle, and adopted
the Gregorian Calendar. People rioted in the streets thinking the government
stole 11 days of their lives. Instituted by Pope
Gregory XIII in 1582, the calendar has 365 days with an extra day every
four years (the leap year) except in years divisible by 100 but not divisible
by 400. Thus, the calendar year has an average length of 365.2422 days.
It moved the day's date up from September 3rd to September 14th. Some other
countries, including Russia, did not change until the twentieth century. |
|
