| SEPTEMBER 27 - BIRTHS | |
| Robert Edwards | |
(source) |
 Born 27
Sep 1925
Robert (Geoffrey) Edwards is a British medical researcher who, with Patrick Steptoe, perfected in-vitro fertilization of the human egg. Their technique made possible the birth of Louise Brown, the world's first "test-tube baby," on 25 Jul 1978. |
| Henry Melson Stommel | |
(source) |
Born 27
Sep 1920; died 17 Jan 1992.
American oceanographer and meteorologist who was an expert on physical oceanography, primarily in the interpretation of data associated with large scale ocean dynamics. He had a long standing interest in the Gulf Stream. He spent most of his career conducting research at the prestigious Oceanographic Institute in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Considered one of the most influential oceanographers of his time, Stommel proposed many theories that were later proven to be correct by other scientists. He applied electromagnetic measurements to oceanic flows, the dynamics of estuaries and the related problem of hydraulic controls, and the interaction of nonlinear eddy-like phenomena (hetons). |
| Sir Martin Ryle | |
(source) |
Born 27
Sep 1918; died 14 Oct 1984.
British radio astronomer who developed revolutionary radio telescope systems and used them for accurate location of weak radio sources. With his aperture synthesis technique of interferometry he and his team located radio-emitting regions on the sun and pinpointed other radio sources so that they could be studied in visible light. Ryle’s 1C - 5C Cambridge catalogues of radio sources led to the discovery of numerous radio galaxies and quasars. Using this technique, eventually radio astronomers surpassed optical astronomers in angular resolution. For his aperture synthesis technique, Ryle shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1974, the first in recognition of astronomical research. He was the 12th Astronomer Royal (1972-82). |
| Sir William Willcocks | |
(source) |
Born 27
Sep 1852; died 29 Jul 1932.
British civil engineer who proposed and designed the first Aswan (Assuan) Dam (1898-1902) on the River Nile and executed major irrigation projects in South Africa and Turkey. He was born studied engineering in India before moving to Egypt in 1883, becoming director-general of reservoirs. On being asked to find a means of storing Nile water to allow the growth of an extra crop of cotton, he found a depression at Wadi Rayan, into which part of the annual flood waters could be diverted, then fed back into the river in the dry season. When persuaded to build a dam, he designed the Aswan Dam to allow the silt-laden waters of the early weeks of the annual flood to pass through, and only capture for storage the clear water that flowed later in the season. |
| Benjamin Apthorp Gould | |
(source) |
Born 27
Sep 1824; died 26 Nov 1896.
American astronomer whose star catalogs helped fix the list of constellations of the Southern Hemisphere Gould's early work was done in Germany, observating the motion of comets and asteroids. In 1861 undertook the enormous task of preparing for publication the records of astronomical observations made at the US Naval Observatory since 1850. But Gould's greatest work was his mapping of the stars of the southern skies, begun in 1870. The four-year endeavor involved the use of the recently developed photometric method, and upon the publication of its results in 1879 it was received as a signicant contribution to science. He was highly active in securing the establishment of the National Academy of Sciences. |
| Hermann Kolbe | |
(source) |
Born 27
Sep 1818; died 25 Nov 1884.
Adolphe Wilhelm Hermann Kolbe was the German chemist who accomplished the first generally accepted synthesis of an organic compound from inorganic materials. While working on his doctorate he also succeeded in producing acetic acid from inorganic compounds, which according to the doctrines of vitalism was impossible. In 1859, he succeeded using phenol and carbon dioxide to produce salicylic acid, which led to the cheaper production of acetylsalicylic acid, or aspirin. The two reactions came to be called Kolbe's synthesis. |
| Guillaume Rondelet | |
(source) |
Born 27
Sep 1507; died 30 July 1566.
French naturalist and physician who contributed substantially to zoology by his descriptions of marine animals, primarily of the Mediterranean Sea. After studying at Montpellier, he later travelling widely through Europe with his patron Cardinal Tournon. Returning to Montpellier in 1545, he taught medicine. His real interest, however, was zoology, and in 1554 he published his massive compendium on aquatic life, Libri de piscibus marinis in quibus verae piscium effigies expressae sunt, which covered far more marine life than any earlier work in the field. This laid the foundation for later ichthyological research and was the standard reference work for over a century. He also published various other works on diagnosis and several pharmacological works. |
|
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| SEPTEMBER 27 - DEATHS | |
| William Hume-Rothery | |
(source) |
 Died
27 Sep 1968 (born 15 May 1899)
British metallurgist, internationally known for his work on the formation of alloys and intermetallic compounds. During WW II, he supervised many government contracts for work on complex aluminium and magnesium alloys. He established that the microstructure of an alloy depends on the different sizes of the component atoms, the valency electron concentration, and electrochemical differences. |
| Julius Wagner-Jauregg | |
(EB) |
Died
27 Sep 1940 (born 7 Mar 1857)
Austrian psychiatrist and neurologist whose made the first use of a shock therapy. He investigated the connections between thyroid function, goitre and cretinism. On his advice the Government, some time later, started selling salt with added iodine, in the areas most affected by goitre. His main life's work built on an earlier observation that certain nervous disorders improved in patients who had caught a fever-inducing illness. He applied this in the treatment of syphilitic meningoencephalitis, or general paresis, by deliberately inducing malaria (chosen because it could be controlled with quinine). The method brought a previously incurable fatal disease under medical control and earned him the 1927 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. |
| Auguste Michel-Levy | |
(source) |
Died
27 Sep 1911 (born 7 Aug 1844)
Auguste Michel-Lévy was a French geologist and mineralogist who was a pioneer in microscopic petrology, the study of the origin, composition, structure, and alteration of rocks. He was particularly interested in rocks of volcanic origin. He was the first scientist in France to examine thin slices of rock with a polarizing microscope to identify the mineral content. In his published papers, he described the granulite group, and dealt with pegmatites, variolites, eurites, the ophites of the Pyrenees, the extinct volcanoes of Central France, gneisses, and the origin of crystalline schists. He became inspector-general of mines, and in 1870 joined the Geological Survey of France, becoming its director in 1887.« |
| Bernard Courtois | |
(source) |
Died
27 Sep 1838 (born 8 Feb 1777)
French chemist who discovered the element iodine. As the son of a saltpeter manufacturer from Dijon, he grew interested in chemistry and was apprenticed to a pharmacist. While in military service as a pharmacist, he became the first to isolate pure morphine from opium (1804). He returned to assist at his father's saltpeter business, where the ashes of kelp seaweed were leached for sodium and potassium salts using sulphuric acid. In 1811, from the mother liquor, he observed rising clouds of purple vapour which condensed on cold surfaces as dark crystals with a metallic lustre. He thought these could be a new element, but lacked ability to fully confirm his suspicion. This was later verified by Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac and Humphry Davy.«  |
| Hubert Gautier | |
(source) |
Died
27 Sep 1737 (born 21 Aug 1660)
French scientist and engineer, who authored the first book on bridge building, Traité des Ponts, in 1716. It covered bridges in masonry and timber, foundations, piers and centering, the velocity of water, and such reference tools as a dictionary of terms and a list of edicts. He had previous written a treatise of roads, published in 1693. Originarily a medical doctor, he became a naval engineer and later on general inspector of the Ponts et Chaussées. He also authored books on fortifications, the antiquities of his native town Nîmes, and a first manual for watercolor practitioners. Watercolor had also some military interest, as it was needed for mapmakers in order to impart the correct hue, and this explains why Gautier choose to write this treatice. |
| SEPTEMBER 27 - EVENTS | |
| First European mission to the Moon | |
(source) |
In 2003, the first European mission
to the Moon was launched
aboard an Ariane-5 rocket. The SMART-1 exploration probe, along with two
commercial satellites, blasted off from the European Space Agency's launch
centre in Kourou, French Guiana. SMART-1 will take 15 months to reach lunar
orbit, covering 62 million miles with only 13 gallons of fuel. The 170-lb
probe will scan the Moon for up to 30 months to try to answer tantalising
questions about the chemical composition of the Moon and whether it contains
water. It is powered by a revolutionary new "ion drive", a solar-powered
engine that could one day be used for long-distance space flight. With
a cost of £70 million, SMART-1 is at a relatively low price for a
space mission. |
| Travelator | |
|
In 1960, Europe's first "moving pavement", the travelator,
opened at Bank Underground station. It links the Waterloo & City line
station at Bank with the main tube station concourse. Just over 300 feet
long, it has a gradient of 8 degrees. |
|
| Answering machine | |
|
In 1950, the answering machine was invented on this day. |
|
| Liner Queen Elizabeth | |
|
In 1938, British ocean liner "Queen Elizabeth," then the largest passenger
liner ever built, was launched at Clydebank in Scotland. |
|
| Radio ship detection | |
|
In 1922, scientists at the Naval Aircraft Radio Laboratory near Washington,
D.C., demonstrated that if a ship passed through a radio wave being broadcast
between two stations, that ship could be detected, the essentials of radar. |
|
| Production of ammonia | |
Fritz Haber (source) |
In 1910, a U.S. patent
for the Production of Ammonia was issued to Fritz
Haber and Robert Le Rossignol (No. 971,501). This process could
produce ammonia on a large scale directly from its component gases, hydrogen
and nitrogen, by passing a mixture of them over heated finely-divided osmium
metal used as a catalyst. A typical pressure of 175 atmospheres and a temperature
of 550ºC could easily give an 8% by volume yield of ammonia. Although
nitrogen makes up 80% of the air, as a gas it is quite unreactive. Despite
its ready availability, nitrogen gas had previously been difficult to combine
in a chemical form. Once nitrogen has been chemically combined in the form
of ammonia, many other nitrogen compounds can be made.«  |
| Book matches | |
(source) |
In 1892, book matches
were patented by Joshua Pusey of Lima, Ohio, No. 483165. He subseqerntly
sold the patent rights to the Diamond
Match Company of Barberton, Ohio. The Diamond Match Company was formulated
as a conglomerate and built by absorbing
a number of smaller match
manufacturing companies. They were also the first company involved in book
match making of any significance. In 1895, production exceeded 150,000
matchbooks a day. Diamond's objective was to produce a quality matchbook
for sale to the public (not given freely as was traditional fifty years
later). The first Diamond matchbooks assembled were a dangerous and flimsy
novelty, but they were improved. Later, they were sold to companies and
carried their advertising. |
| First steamship Atlantic disaster | |
|
In 1854, the first great disaster involving an Atlantic Ocean liner occurred
when the steamship Arctic sank with 300 people aboard. |
|
| British Association for the Advancement of Science | |
|
In 1831, the first annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement
of Science was held in York. The British Association had been established
in the same year by Sir David Brewster, R.I. Murchison and others. One
of the association's main objectives was to "promote the intercourse of
those who cultivate science with each other." The second annual meeting
was held at Oxford (1832), and in following years at Cambridge, Edinburgh,
Dublin, Bristol, Liverpool, Newcastle, Birmingham, Glasgow, Plymouth, Manchester
and Cork respectively, until returning to York in 1844.*
It is incorporated by Royal Charter dated
21 Apr 1928.« |
|
| First passenger train locomotive | |
Locomotion No. 1 (source) |
In 1825, the first locomotive to haul a passenger
train was operated by George Stephenson's Stockton & Darlington's line
in England. The engine "Locomotion No. 1" pulled 34 wagons and 1 solitary
coach on its journey of 21 miles from Shildon, via Darlington to Stockton
in County Durham. This epic journey was the launchpad for the development
of the railways, which was to take the world by storm over the following
years. The Stockton to Darlington line was the first
railway in the world which carried passengers and freight, both largely
using steam locomotives, and to any kind of meaningful timetable. Earlier,
other railways had carried passenger coaches adapted for rails, but only
on an occasional basis. |
| Stirling patent | |
Stirling (source) |
In 1816, Robert Stirling,
age 26, applied
for a patent for his "Heat Economiser" at the Chancery in Edinburgh, Scotland
(No. 4081/1816). The patent
described principles of heat regeneration to reduce fuel consumption in
glass and other furnaces, with elements of what is now called the Stirling
Cycle engine. The regenerative principle was to save fuel by heating the
air required for combustion with the waste heat of the funace. The hot
air or caloric engine design in his 1816 patent "came to nothing."
His regenerative furnace system was crude, but made practical by Siemens
forty years later. By 1 Feb 1827, Stirling took out another patent
for a caloric engine which worked successfully (No. 5456) and again on
1 Oct 1840 (No. 8652).« |
