| OCTOBER 18 - BIRTHS | |
| Pascual Jordan | |
1927 (source) |
 Born 18
Oct 1902; died 1980.
(Ernst) Pascual Jordan was a German physicist who in the late 1920s founded (with Max Born and later Werner Heisenberg) quantum mechanics using matrix methods, showing how light could be interpreted as composed of discrete quanta of energy. Later, (with Wolfgang Pauli and Eugene Wigner), while it was still in its early stages of development, he contributed to the quantum mechancs of electron-photon interactions, now called quantum electrodynamics. He also originated (concurrently with Robert Dicke) a theory of cosmology that proposed to make the universal constants of nature, (such as the universal gravitational constant G), variable over time. [Image: Heisenberg (L) with Jordan (R)] |
| Paolo Orsi | |
(source) |
Born 18
Oct 1859; died 9 Nov 1935.
Italian archaeologist who pioneered in the excavation and research of sites, from the prehistoric to the Byzantine, in Sicily and southern Italy. He was an expert in the pre-Greek Siculan period he named after the Siculi, or Sikels, a native group or groups which were said to have inhabited southern Italy and eastern Sicily. In 1889-93, he undertook excavations in the Pantalica valley, which has five necropoli with thousands of burial chambers hewn in the steep limestone cliffs. He discovered the Neolithic village of Stentinello. In 1911, he uncovered the doric temple at Punta Stilo, and more excavation revealed the layout of some city walls and some houses. The archaeological museum in Sicily, where he was director 1895-1934, was dedicated to him. |
| Salomon Auguste Andree | |
(source) |
Born 18 Oct 1854
Swedish explorer, balloonist on the ill-fated North Pole expedition of 1897. |
| Christian Friedrich Schönbein | |
(source) |
Born 18
Oct 1799; died 29 Aug 1868
German-Swiss chemist who discovered and named ozone (1840) and was the first to describe guncotton (nitrocellulose). He noted ozone appeared during thunderstorms and named the gas ozone for its peculiar smell (ozo is Greek for smell). Later experiments showed that sending an electric current through pure, dry oxygen (O2) creates ozone (O3). His discovery of the powerful explosive called cellulose nitrate, or gun cotton, was the result of a laboratory accident. One day in 1845 he spilled sulfuric and nitric acids and soaked it with a cotton apron. After the apron dried, it burst into flame - he had created nitrated cellulose. He found that cellulose nitrate could be molded and had some elastic properties. It eventually was used for smokeless gun powder. |
| Robert Livingston Stevens | |
(source) |
Born 18
Oct 1787; died 20 Apr 1856.
U.S. engineer and ship designer who invented the inverted-T railroad rail and the railroad spike. He tested the first steamboat to use screw propellers, invented and built by his father, John Stevens. Robert designed the first concave waterlines on a steamboat (1808), the first supporting iron rods for projecting guard beams on steamboats (1815), the first skeleton walking beams for ferries (1822), the spring pile ferry slip (1822), the placement of boilers on guards outside the paddle wheels of ferries (1822), the hog frame or truss for stiffening ferry boats longitudinally (1827), spring steel bearings of paddle wheel shafts (1828), improved packing for pistons (1840), and was first to successfully burn anthracite coal in a cupola furnace (1818).  |
| Nicholas Culpeper | |
(source) |
Born 18
Oct 1616; died 1654.
English pharmacist, botanist and physician who published the Complete Herbal (1653), a comprehensive listing of English medicinal herbs and their uses. It is still in print. While upper-class physicians withheld medical knowledge from the common people, Culpeper, of lower-class roots, did the opposite by spreading medical knowledge among the people and giving his time generously to charity patients. He wrote or translated a large number of medical works to give people access to a vast amount of health information. He wished that any man using his Herbal could "preserve his Body in Health, or cure himself, being sick, for three pence charge, with such things only as grow in England." Culpeper died of tuberculosis at age 38.«  Heal
Thyself: Nicholas Culpeper, by Benjamin Woolley. |
| OCTOBER 18 - DEATHS | |
| Thomas Alva Edison | |
1931 |
 Died
18 Oct 1931 (born 11 Feb 1847)
Inventor, died in West Orange, NJ. He invented the first phonograph (1877) and the prototype of the practical incandescent electric light bulb (1879). His many inventions led to his being internationally known as "the wizard of Menlo Park", from the name of his first laboratory. By the late 1880s he was contributing to the development of motion pictures. By 1912 he was experimenting with talking pictures. His many inventions include a storage battery, a dictaphone, and a mimeograph. Meanwhile, he had become interested in the development of a system for widespread distribution of electric power from central generating stations. He held over 1,000 patents.In 1962 his second laboratory and home in West Orange, NJ, would be designated a National Historic Site. |
| Alfred Binet | |
 |
Died
18 Oct 1911 (born 11 Jul 1857)
French psychologist who was a pioneer in the field of intelligence testing of the normal mind. He took a different approach than most psychologists of his day: he was interested in the workings of the normal mind rather than the pathology of mental illness. He wanted to find a way to measure the ability to think and reason, apart from education in any particular field. In 1905 he developed a test in which he had children do tasks such as follow commands, copy patterns, name objects, and put things in order or arrange them properly. He gave the test to Paris schoolchildren and created a standard based on his data. From Binet's work, "IQ" (intelligence quotient), entered the vocabulary. The IQ is the ratio of "mental age" to chronological age, with 100 being average. |
| Charles Babbage | |
(source) |
Died
18 Oct 1871 (born 26 Dec 1792)
English mathematician and pioneer of mechanical computation, which he pursued to eliminate inaccuracies in mathematical tables. By 1822, he had a small calculating machine able to compute squares. He produced prototypes of portions of a larger Difference Engine. (Georg and Edvard Schuetz later constructed the first working devices to the same design which were successful in limited applications.) In 1833 he began his programmable Analytical Machine, a forerunner of modern computers. His other inventions include the cowcatcher, dynamometer, standard railroad gauge, uniform postal rates, occulting lights for lighthouses, Greenwich time signals, heliograph opthalmoscope. He also had an interest in cyphers and lock-picking.« Charles
Babbage: Pioneer of the Computer, by Anthony Hyman. |
| OCTOBER 18 - EVENTS | |
| Jupiter orbiter Galileo launched | |
In 1989, the Galileo
space orbiter was released from the STS 34 flight of the Atlantis
orbiter. Then the orbiter's inertial upper stage rocket pushed it
into a course through the inner solar system. The craft gained speed from
gravity assists in encounters with Venus and Earth before heading outward
to Jupiter. During its six year journey to Jupiter, Galileo's instruments
made interplanetary studies, using its dust detector, magnetometer, and
various plasma and particles detectors. It also made close-up studies of
two asteroids, Gaspra and Ida
in the asteroid belt. The Galileo
orbiter's primary mission was to study Jupiter, its satellites, and its
magnetosphere for two years. It released an atmospheric probe into Jupiter's
atmosphere on 7 Dec 1995.« |
|
| Cyclamates banned | |
(source) |
In 1969, cyclamates were banned in the U.S. Cyclamate
is a non-caloric sweetener
discovered in 1937. It has been widely used as a tabletop sweetener,
in sugar-free beverages, in baked goods and other low-calorie foods, particularly
in combination with saccharin. The ban was based on concern raised by one
experiment showing bladder tumors appeared in laboratory rats fed large
doses of cyclamate. Following new experiments, in June 1985, the National
Academy of Sciences affirmed the FDA's Cancer Assessment Committee's latest
conclusion: "the totality of the evidence from studies in animals does
not indicate that cyclamate or its major metabolite cyclohexylamine is
carcinogenic by itself." Cyclamate is approved
for use in more than 50 countries. |
| Nobel Prize for DNA | |
 |
In 1962, Dr. James D. Watson of the U.S., Dr. Francis Crick and Dr. Maurice
Wilkins of Britain won the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology for
their work in determining the double-helix molecular structure of DNA (deoxyribonucleic
acid). |
| Antiproton | |
(source) |
In 1955, a new atomic subparticle called a negative proton (antiproton)
was discovered at U.C. Berkeley. The hunt
for antimatter began in earnest in 1932, with the discovery of the positron,
a particle with the mass of an electron and a positive charge. However,
creating an antiproton would be far more difficult since it needs nearly
2,000 times the energy. In 1955, the most powerful "atom smasher" in the
world, the Bevatron built at Berkeley could provide the required energy.
Detection was accomplished with a maze of magnets and electronic counters
through which only antiprotons could pass. After several hours of bombarding
copper with protons accelerated to 6.2 billion electron volts of energy,
the scientists
counted a total of 60 antiprotons. [Image:
The first annihilation star, Faustina, of an antiproton found in
film exposed by the Berkeley scientists, 1955] |
| BBC | |
John Reith |
In 1922, the British Broadcasting Company was formed,
five years before it received its first Royal Charter and became the British
Broadcasting Corporation. In the 1920's, John Reith, the BBC's founding
father, knew of America's unregulated, commercial radio, and the fledgling
Soviet Union's rigidly controlled state system. Reith's vision was of an
independent British broadcaster able to educate, inform and entertain,
without political or commercial pressure. More than one million ten shilling
(50p) licences had been issued by 14 Nov 1922 when daily transmissions
began. Listening to the wireless in the UK quickly became a social and
cultural phenomenon as the BBC in London (call sign 2LO),
and its regional stations, gave birth to radio mass communication. |
| Flotation process patent | |
(source) |
In 1898, English brothers Alexander
and Francis Elmore applied
for a British patent (No.
21,948) for their flotation process to separate valuable ore, such
as copper, from the gangue (worthless rock) with which it is associated
when mined. It was the first practical equipment to extract metals from
low-content ore. Pulverized ore is mixed with water and brought into contact
with thick oil. The oil entraps the metallic constituents, which are afterwards
separated, and gangue passed away with the water. Today, flotation methods
remain vital in the mining industry, processing millions of tons of ores
each year. |
| Long-distance telephone | |
|
In 1892, the first long-distance telephone line between Chicago and New
York was formally opened as Chicago Mayor Hempstead Washburn greeted his
New York counterpart, Hugh J. Grant. |
|
| Household electricity | |
|
In 1878, Edison made electricity available for household usage. |
|
| Sandblasting | |
(USPTO) |
In 1870, sandblasting was patented by Benjamin Chew Tilghman (26 Oct 1821
- 1901). Compressed air forces sand as an abrasive material through the
nozzle of a sandblasting gun. A popular myth
holds that Tilghman, when a General in the army, had seen the effect of
wind blown sand upon glass windows, in the desert. The sand has etched
the glass where unprotected and revealed the contrast against parts that
were covered by steel mesh. He has been called the "father of shotpeening."
In 1866, he found sulphurous acid would dissolve the intercellular matter
of wood, freeing the fibres for pulp, and became famous as the inventor
of the sulphite process to make wood pulp for paper production. |