| SEPTEMBER 30 - BIRTHS | |
| Johann Deisenhofer | |
(source) |
 Born 30
Sep 1943
German biochemist who, along with Hartmut Michel and Robert Huber, received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1988 for the determination of the three-dimensional structure of certain proteins that are essential to photosynthesis. Using X-ray crystallography (1982-85), they unravelled the full details of how a membrane-bound protein is built up, revealing the structure of the molecule atom by atom. The protein was taken from a bacterium which, like green plants and algae, uses light energy from the sun to build organic substances. Photosynthesis in bacteria is simpler than in algae and higher plants, but the work has led to increased understanding of photosynthesis in those organisms as well. |
| Jean-Marie Lehn | |
(source) |
Born 30
Sep 1939
French chemist who, together with Charles J. Pedersen and Donald J. Cram, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1987 for his contribution to the laboratory synthesis of molecules that mimic the vital chemical functions of molecules in living organisms. Such molecules have a highly selective, structure specific interaction. These molecules can "recognize" each other and choose with which other molecules they will form complexes. Of low molecular weight and with very special properties, the molecules in these compounds bind in a selective manner, like a key fits a lock. |
| Sir Nevill F(rancis) Mott | |
(source) |
Born 30
Sep 1905; died 8 Aug 1996.
English physicist who shared (with P.W. Anderson and J.H. Van Vleck of the U.S.) the 1977 Nobel Prize for Physics for his independent researches on the magnetic and electrical properties of amorphous semiconductors. Whereas the electric properties of crystals are described by the Band Theory - which compares the conductivity of metals, semiconductors, and insulators - a famous exception is provided by nickel oxide. According to band theory, nickel oxide ought to be a metallic conductor but in reality is an insulator. Mott refined the theory to include electron-electron interaction and explained so-called Mott transitions, by which some metals become insulators as the electron density decreases by separating the atoms from each other in some convenient way. |
| Irving B. Kahn | |
(source) |
Born 30
Sep 1917; died 22 Jan 1994.
Inventor of the teleprompter, who headed the TelePrompTer company. In the mid 50's, Kahn designed and built what was perhaps the first remotely controlled, multi-image, rear projection system in the world for the U.S. Army’s facility in Huntsville, Ala., to make persuasive presentations to visiting Congressmen. With five images (one large, 3¼ by 4 slide or film image in the center flanked smaller slides at each side) and random access it could search and select among 500 slides. TelePrompTer also made many technological contributions to the early cable TV industry. In 1961, Kahn and Hub Schlafley demonstrated Key TV, an early pay TV concept, by showing the second Patterson vs. Johansson heavyweight fight, essentially giving birth to pay-per-view. |
| Otto Yulyevich Shmidt | |
(source) |
Born 30
Sep 1891; died 7 Sep 1956.
Soviet scientist and explorer responsible for the Soviet program of exploration and exploitation of Arctic resources; through his many activities he exercised a wide and diverse influence on Soviet life and thought. In 1937, on drifting ice near the North Pole, he established a scientific station notable for its oceanographic researches (1937). In the late 1940's he advanced a theory of the formation of the Earth from a rotating cloud of dust and gas. Schmidt led an expedition on the maiden voyage (1933) of the steamship Chelyuskin, which became ice-bound and went under in the Bering Strait. All the 111 scientists and crew members made it just in time to disembark the doomed vessel and, within a month, they were all ferried safely to the mainland. |
| Nora Stanton Blatch Barney | |
| Born 30
Sep 1883; died 18 Jan 1971.
American civil engineer, architect, and suffragist whose professional and political activities built on her family's tradition of women leaders. In 1905, she was the first woman in the U.S. to obtain a degree in civil engineering and the first junior member of the American Society of Civil Engineers. Fresh from college, she wrote a paper on the water supply of Washington, DC which was a reference for studies on the transport of solids in liquids for over 50 years. In 1908, she married Lee De Forest, inventor of the radio vacuum tube, for whom she worked as a laboratory assistant until 1909, when they separated (they divorced in 1912). In 1908, on a honeymoon trip to France, De Forest transmitted voice communication from the Eiffel Tower to receivers 500 miles away. |
|
| Hans Geiger | |
(source) |
Born 30
Sep 1882; died 24 Sep 1945.
German physicist who introduced the first successful detector (the Geiger counter) of individual alpha particles and other ionizing radiations. He used it in experiments that led to the identification of the alpha particle as the nucleus of the helium atom and to Rutherford's determination (1912) that the nucleus of an occupies a very small volume at the centre. The Geiger-Müller counter (devleoped with Walther Müller) had improved sensitivity, performance, and durability. It detects not only alpha particles but beta particles (electrons) and ionizing electromagnetic photons. Later in life, he investigated cosmic rays, artificial radioactivity, and nuclear fission |
| Charles Lanier Lawrance | |
(source) |
Born 30
Sep 1882; died 24 Jun 1950.
American aeronautical engineer who designed the first successful air-cooled aircraft engine, used on many historic early flights. He also designed a new type of wing section with an exceptionally good lift-to-drag ratio. His wing design was used widely in World War I. By the mid-1920s his improvements in engine power and reliability made a remarkable series of long-distance flights possible, including those of Admiral Byrd, Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart and Clarence Chamberlin. Despite the sensational publicity of the Lindbergh flight, Lawrance remained in relative obscurity - upon which he commented, "Who remembers Paul Revere's horse?" For his J-5 Whirlwind engine, Lawrance was awarded the annual Collier Trophy in 1928. |
| Jean Perrin | |
(source) |
Born 30
Sep 1870; died 17 Apr 1942.
Jean-Baptiste Perrin was a French physicist who, in his studies of the Brownian motion of minute particles suspended in liquids, verified Albert Einstein's explanation of this phenomenon and thereby confirmed the atomic nature of matter. Using a gamboge emulsion, Perrin was able to determine by a new method, one of the most important physical constants, Avogadro's number (the number of molecules of a substance in so many grams as indicated by the molecular weight, for example, the number of molecules in two grams of hydrogen). The value obtained corresponded, within the limits of error, to that given by the kinetic theory of gases. For this achievement he was honoured with the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1926. |
| William Wrigley Jr. | |
(source) |
Born 30
Sep 1861; died 26 Jan 1932
American salesman and manufacturer whose Wrigley's chewing gum company became the largest producer and distributor of chewing gum in the world. He left his father's soap factory in 1891 when he moved to Chicago. There his uncle supplied seed money on the condition Wrigley take a cousin as partner, and they started manufacturing soap, baking powder, and later, chewing gum. When the gum became very popular, they dropped the other products. In 1899 he introduced spearmint gum, which lagged in sales until a major advertising campaign in 1907; within a year spearmint gum sales increased tenfold. In 1911, he bought Zeno Manufacturing Company, previously contracted to make his gum, and the William Wrigley, Jr., Company was founded. |
| Antoine Jerome Balard | |
(source) |
Born 30
Sep 1802; died 30 Mar 1876
French chemist who in 1826 discovered the element bromine, determined its properties, and studied some of its compounds. Later he proved the presence of bromine in sea plants and animals. This discovery was a by-product of a more general chemical investigation of the sea and its life forms. Bromine had an atomic weight that was close to the arithmetic mean of two other known halogens, chlorine and iodine, suggesting they formed a "chemical family." He also researched the inexpensive extraction of salts from seawater. He discovered oxamic acid by using heat to decompose ammonium hydrogen oxylate. He studied and named amyl alcohol. Pasteur and Berthelot were two of his students. |
| Étienne Bonnot de Condillac | |
(source) |
Born 30
Sep 1715; died 2/3 Aug 1780.
French philosopher, psychologist, logician, economist, and the leading advocate in France of the ideas of John Locke (1632-1704). In his works La Logique (1780) and La Langue des calculs (1798), Condillac emphasized the importance of language in logical reasoning, stressing the need for a scientifically designed language and for mathematical calculation as its basis. He combined elements of Locke's theory of knowledge with the scientific methodology of Newton; all knowledge springs from the senses and association of ideas. Condillac devoted careful attention to questions surrounding the origins and nature of language, and enhanced contemporary awareness of the importance of the use of language as a scientific instrument. |
|
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| SEPTEMBER 30 - DEATHS | |
| André Michel Lwoff | |
(source) |
 Died
30 Sep 1994 (born 8 May 1902)
French biologist who contributed to the understanding of lysogeny, in which a bacterial virus, or bacteriophage, infects bacteria and is transmitted to subsequent bacterial generations solely through the cell division of its host. The observation of isolated bacteria led him to the conclusion that lysogenic bacteria did not secrete bacteriophages, that the production of bacteriophages led to the death of the bacterium, and above all that this production must be induced by external factors. It was this hypothesis which, together with Louis Siminovitch and Niels Kjeldgaard, led Lwoff to discover the inductive action of ultraviolet irradiation (1950). His discoveries brought him (with François Jacob and Jacques Monod) the 1965 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. |
| Dr. Charles Richter | |
(source) |
Died
30 Sep 1985 (born 26 Apr 1900)
Dr. Charles Francis Richter was a seismologist and inventor of the Richter Scale that measures earthquake intensity which he developed with his colleague, Beno Gutenberg, in the early 1930's. The scale assigns numerical ratings to the energy released by earthquakes. Richter used a seismograph (an instrument generally consisting of a constantly unwinding roll of paper, anchored to a fixed place, and a pendulum or magnet suspended with a marking device above the roll) to record actual earth motion during an earthquake. The scale takes into account the instrument's distance from the epicenter. Gutenberg suggested that the scale be logarithmic so, for example, a quake of magnitude 7 would be ten times stronger than a 6. |
| Sir Frederic Bartlett | |
(source) |
Died
30 Sep 1969 (born 20 Oct 1886)
Sir Frederic C(harles) Bartlett was a British cognitive psychologist who was Britain's most outstanding psychologist between the World Wars. He wrote on practical (ergonomic) problems in applied psychology, but is best-known for his pioneering cognitive approach to understanding human memory. In forming one of the earliest models of memory, Bartlett observed that in remembering stories or events there is a tendency for distortions to occur. In his most famous experiment, Bartlett had subjects read a folk tale, tested their recall several times, and studied their changing recountings of the story. People tend to remember what they regard as most important and recall what would have been expected rather than what actually occurred.« |
| Lewis Fry Richardson | |
(source) |
Died
30 Sep 1953 (born 11 Oct 1881)
British physicist and psychologist who was the first to apply mathematical techniques to predict the weather accurately. An early drawback to his mathematical technique for systematically forecasting the weather was the time necessary to produce such a forecast. It generally took him three months to predict the weather for the next 24 hours. But after WW II, with the advent of electronic computers, his method of weather prediction, somewhat altered and improved, became practical. The Richardson number, a fundamental quantity involving the gradients (change over a distance) of temperature and wind velocity, is named after him. |
| Sir Robert Abbott Hadfield | |
(source) |
Died
30 Sep 1940 (born 28 Nov 1858)
(Baronet) British metallurgist who developed manganese steel, an alloy of exceptional durability that found uses in the construction of railroad rails and rock-crushing machinery. Hadfield discovered manganese steel in 1882. It was hardened by quenching it in water from a temperature of a thousand degrees centigrade. The hard steel was to be used in the manufacture of tram wheels. He patented his work in 1883-4 but continued to carry out further experiments before publicising his findings in 1888, which were supported by a lecture tour. The first World War provided new markets for manganese steel: spur armour plate and shells, tank treads and soldier's helmets. By 1919, Hadfields Steel Foundry Co. Ltd. were Sheffield's biggest employers. |
| Ross Granville Harrison | |
(EB) |
Died
30 Sep 1959 (born 13 Jan 1870)
American zoologist who developed the first successful animal-tissue cultures and pioneered organ transplantation techniques. He discovered the hanging-drop culture method (1907), a new method of studying cells, which permitted him to keep fragments of living tissue alive in suitable media and watch them multiply. Using this technique, he settled a controversy about the embryonic origins of nerve fibres. The hanging-drop method has been valuable not only in embryology, but also in oncology, genetics, virology and other fields. In an early experiment using tissue grafting techniques, he joined parts of embryos from differently coloured frogs to observe the movement of cells during the subsequent development of the embryos produced in this way. |
| Martha Wollstein | |
| Died
30 Sep 1939 (born 21 Nov 1868)
American physician and investigator in pediatric pathology. Her first experimental work involved infant diarrhea and confirmed earlier studies relating the dysentery bacillus to the disease. At the Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research, she collaborated on the first experimental work on polio in the U.S., worked on an early investigation of pneumonia and developed, with Harold Amoss, a method for preparing antimeningitis serum. She also pioneered in early research on mumps, indicating, though not proving, its viral nature. After 1921, Wollstein investigated pediatric pathology at the Babies Hospital, especially jaundice, congenital anomalies, tuberculosis, meningitis, and leukemia. In 1930, she was the first female member of the American Pediatric Society. |
|
| Wilhelm Adolf Becker | |
| Died
30 Sep 1846 (born 1796)
German classical archaeologist, remembered for his works on the everyday life of the ancient Romans and Greeks. From 1842 he was professor of classical archaeology at Leipzig. His early studies of Plautus' comedies aroused his interest in Roman daily life and led to his publication of Gallus (1838), the story of a Roman youth. Derived from Suetonius' Life of Augustus and embellished to include all aspects of Roman life and customs, the book became a classic in its field, the English translation passing through 10 editions between 1844 and 1891. Charikles (1840), a similar work on Greek life, was also successful. |
|
| James Brindley | |
(source) |
Died
30 Sep 1772 (born 1716)
English pioneer canal builder, who constructed the first English canal of major economic importance. He apprenticed (1733) as a millwright and wheelwright, making mills, dams and sluices. In 1742, he designed and built an engine for draining coalpits at Clifton, Lancashire. On 1 Jul 1759, the Duke of Bridgwater commissioned Brindley to build a canal to move coal from his Worsley mine 16-km (10-mile) to the textile manufacturing centre at Manchester. Completed in 1765, Brindley's solution to the problem included a subterranean channel, extending from the barge basin at the head of the canal into the mines, and the Barton Aqueduct, which carried the canal over the River Irwell. In his lifetime, he was responsible for around 365 miles of inland waterways. |
| SEPTEMBER 30 - EVENTS | |
| Helicopter circumnavigation flight | |
 In
1982, H. Ross Perot and Jay Colburn completed the first circumnavigation
of the world in a helicopter, the Spirit of Texas. Their journey
began 29 days, 3 hours, and 8 minutes earlier on September 1. For their
trip around the world, which began and ended in Fort Worth, Texas, Perot
and Coburn flew a Long Ranger with full navigation equipment, survival
gear, and emergency items. Pop-out floats were added, and a 151-gallon
auxiliary fuel tank in place of the rear seat was used to enable the Spirit
of Texas to fly eight hours without refueling. An Allison 250-C28B turbine
engine performed flawlessly for 246.5 hours of flight, flying more than
10 hours a day, over open ocean, barren desert, and tropical rain forest
with an average ground speed of 117 mph. |
|
| Gerenuk born in U.S. | |
(source) |
In 1963, the first birth of a gerenuk
in the U.S. occurred at the Zoological Park, Bronx Park, New York City.
Gerenuks (Litocranius walleri) are reddish-brown antelopes from
eastern Africa. It is also known as the giraffe gazelle, for its the long
neck. When its neck isn't quite long enough for it to reach certain branches,
a geranuk will sometimes be seen standing on its hind legs to reach them. |
| First nuclear submarine | |
 |
In 1954, the world's first nuclear submarine,
the "USS Nautilus,"
was commissioned at Groton, Conn. Its nuclear reactor eliminated the diesel
engines which had limited a sub’s range and speed. The nuclear reactor
also eliminated the need for diesel fuel storage spaces and the need to
surface periodically to recharge batteries. Nautilus could dive longer,
faster, and deeper than any submarine
before it. It was lauched 17 Jan 1954. Crew: 11 officers, 100 enlisted.
Length: 319 feet, beam (hull diameter): 27 feet. Maximum depth: 400+ feet.
Nautilus continued to break records in 1958 by becoming the first vessel
to travel under the Arctic ice and cross the North Pole. Decommissioned
in 1980, the sub was converted into a museum in 1985. |
| Hoover Dam | |
 |
In 1935, the Boulder Dam, Boulder City, Nev. was dedicated. The concrete-arch
dam, subsequently named Hoover Dam (1947), supplied the first U.S. hydroelectric
plant to produce a million kilowatts. This production peak occurred in
June 1943, though the first of its four generators was placed into operation
on 26 Oct 1936. The power serves the Los Angeles area. |
| First manned rocket flight | |
(source) |
In 1929, an early manned rocket-powered flight
was made by German auto maker Fritz von Opel. His Sander RAK
1 was a glider powered by sixteen 50 pound thrust rockets. In it, Opel
made a successful flight of 75 seconds, covering almost 2 miles near Frankfurt-am-Main,
Germany. This was his final foray as a rocket pioneer, having begun by
making several test runs (some in secret) of rocket propelled vehicles.
He reached a speed of 238 km/h (148 mph) on the Avus track in Berlin on
23 May, 1928, with the RAK 2. Subsequently, riding the RAK
3 on rails, he pushed the world speed record up to 254 km/h (158 mph).
The first glider pilot to fly under rocket power, was another German, Friedrich
Staner, who flew
about 3/4-mile on 11 Jun 1928. (RAK
image source) |
| Speed traps | |
|
In 1907, motor car speed traps were protested in a letter
to The Times, London. Lord Montagu of Beaulieu (whose son founded
the National Motor Museum) wrote to challenge anti-motorist complaints
as opposing progress. To combat dust cloud nuisance from traffic, he called
for more suitable roads: "reserved only for motorists and rubber-tired
non-animal traffic - at least between large centres of population." About
speed traps, he continued, "By all means let police-traps be placed where
there is any reason to think danger may exist, but ... At present, the
police neglect their other duties and look upon trapping as a regular sport"
producing income to local government from the £5 or £10 fines
for speeds of 20 or 30 mph. |
|
| Rayon | |
(source) |
In 1902, the "making of cellulose esters" was jointly patented by William
H. Walker, Arthur D. Little and Harry S. Mork of Massachusetts. (U.S. No.
709922). A month later, on 28 Oct 1902, they also patented artificial silk
(No. 712,200). Viscose was an early name for the product. The term
rayon
was adopted by the textile industry in 1924 to replace "artificial silk"
and similar names. It was said to derive from the French for "shine" -
a reference to its silklike lustre. Unlike most man-made fibers, rayon
is not synthetic. Made from wood pulp, a naturally-occurring, cellulose-based
raw material, rayon's properties are more similar to those of natural cellulosic
fibers, such as cotton or linen, than those of petroleum-based synthetic
fibers such as nylon. |
| Edison patents | |
(USPTO) |
In 1890, Thomas A. Edison was granted U.S. patent No. 437422
for telegraphy, Nos. 437423,-4,-6
for a phonograph; No. 437425
for a phonograph-recorder; No. 437427
for a "Method of Making Phonograph Blanks"; No. 437428
for a "Propelling Device for Electrical Cars"; and No. 437429
for a phonogram blank. [Image:
detail from Patent No. 437422.] |
| The first U.S. hydroelectric power plant | |
(source) |
In 1882, the world's first hydroelectric
power plant in the U.S. was opened on the Fox River, in Appleton, Wisc.
Powered by a water wheel, a single dynamo provided 12.5 kilowatts enough
for 180 lights, of ten candlepower each. Appleton paper manufacturer H.F.
Rogers, had been inspired by Thomas Edison's plans for a steam-powered
electricity production station in New York. He had financial support from
a personal friend of Edison's and two other men, all from Appleton. Rogers
began building the power plant at his riverside paper mill during the summer
of 1882. Later known as the Appleton Edison Light Company, it produced
produced enough electricity to light Rogers' home, the plant itself, and
a nearby building. [Image: Appleton
Dam 1880-1920] |
| Revolving turret patent | |
(USPTO) |
In 1862, U.S. patent No. 36,593 was issued for a revolving turret for battleships
to the inventor, Theodore Ruggles Timby (born Dover, NY, 5 Apr 1822). When
Ericsson built the first turret battleship in the world, the Monitor,
he added a turret based on Timby's design to the ship.« [Image:
detail from Patent No. 36,593] |
| Ether dental anesthetic | |
 |
In 1846, dentist Dr. William Morton
used an experimental anesthetic, ether, for the first time on one of his
patients at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston for tooth extraction. |
| Pin packing machine | |
 |
In 1841, a machine "for sticking pins into paper" was patented by Samuel
Slocum of Poughkeepsie, N.Y. (U.S. No. 2275).
A sliding hopper deposited a number of pins in grooves in a plate, from
where a row of wires pushed them into a folded paper. The operation was
activated by a foot treadle. He had previously invented (1838), but not
patented, a machine to manufacture pins with a solid head. He formed a
company to make what became known as "Poughkeepsie pins" (1839). One man
tending two such machines could produce 100,000 pins in 11 hours. Slocum's
pin was the first with a solid head to be made in the U.S., though John
Ireland Howe had made the first practical pin-making machine (patented
22 Jun 1832, No. 2013). (image
source) |
