| MAY 30 - BIRTHS | |
| Aleksey Arkhipovich Leonov | |
(source) |
 Born 30
May 1934
Soviet cosmonaut, the first man to climb out of a spacecraft in space. On 18 Mar 1965, Voskhod 2 was launched into space carrying Leonov with Pavel Belyayev aboard. On the second orbit Leonov left the spacecraft through the air lock while still tethered to the vessel. He took motion pictures and practiced moving outside of the spacecraft for 10 minutes. Voskhod 2 made 17 orbits at about 110 miles (177 km) above earth. Ten years later, on 17 Jul 1975, Leonov commanded the Soviet Soyuz craft that linked in orbit with a U.S. Apollo craft. |
| Joseph William Kennedy | |
(source) |
Born 30
May 1916; died 5 May 1957
American scientist, one of four co-discoverers of plutonium, (element 94) which was produced from uranium oxide bombarded with deuterons in a cyclotron at the Univ. of California at Berkeley. Subsequently, on 28 Mar 1941, Glenn Seaborg, Emilio Segrè and Joseph Kennedy demonstrated that plutonium, like U235, is fissionable with slow neutrons, thus neutrons of any speed, which implies it's a potential fission bomb material. He was a chemistry instructor while working on the research project led by Glenn Seaborg at the University of California, Berkeley. After working with Seaborg, Kennedy was chosen by J. Robert Oppenheimer to lead the Chemistry Division of the Manhattan Project. Image: plutonium hydroxide, 20 microgram in a capillary tube, Sep 1942. |
| Julius Axelrod | |
1970 (source) |
Born 30
May 1912
American biochemist and pharmacologist who (with British biophysicist Sir Bernard Katz and Swedish physiologist Ulf von Euler) received the 1970 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. Axelrod investigated the mechanism of formation of the hormone noradrenaline, as an important nerve impulse transmitter, specifically his discovery and isolation of the enzyme he called catechol-o-methyl transferase, which degrades chemical neurotransmitters when no longer needed. In effect this resets the nerve to nerve connections ready to transmit the next impulse that arrives. This helped the search for treatment of nervous and mental illnesses. He studied certain psychotropic drugs on the nervous system and the specific route taken by injected drugs. |
| Norris Bradbury | |
(source) |
Born 30
May 1909; died 20 Aug 1997.
Norris E(dwin) Bradbury was an American physicist who succeeded J. Robert Oppenheimer as director of the Los Alamos (New Mexico) Scientific Laboratory (1945-70). He joined Los Alamos in 1944 to head the assembly of the non-nuclear components of the nuclear weapons. He guided the Los Alamos facility in its conversion to peacetime work, in basic nuclear research and nuclear power applications, testing several exploratory reactor designs, including solid and liquid plutonium fuels and gas-cooled uranium reactors. Bradbury also encouraged expansion of the laboratory's research into other areas, such as physics, chemistry, metallurgy, and space technology, as well as establishing programs in biological and medical health research. |
| Hannes Alfvén | |
(source) |
Born 30
May 1908; died 2 Apr 1995.
Hannes Olof Gösta Alfvén was a Swedish astrophysicist, one of the founders of the field of plasma physics (the study of ionized gases) and winner, with Louis Néel of France, of the 1970 Nobel Prize for Physics "for fundamental work in magnetohydrodynamics with fruitful applications in different parts of plasma physics." He was an early supporter of "plasma cosmology," a concept that challenges the big-bang model of the origin of the universe. Those who support the theory of plasma cosmology hold that the universe had no beginning (and has no forseeable end) and that plasma, with its electric and magnetic forces, has done more to organize matter in the universe into star systems and other large observed structures than has the force of gravity. |
| Solly Zuckerman, Zuckerman of Burnham Thorpe | |
(source) |
Born 30
May 1904; died 1 Apr 1993.
(Baron) British scientist (born in South Africa). After completing medical studies in England, his first career was teaching anatomy at University College London and doing research at London Zoo on primate behaviour (1928-32). When WW II began, he became a scientific adviser for the British Defense Ministry, beginning with experimental studies of concussion (the effects that bomb blast shock waves have on the body) and became a military strategist and government adviser (1939-46; 1960-66). He remained busy after retirement, as President of the Zoological Society of London, as a campaigner against the nuclear arms race, and as a promoter of environmental research.  Solly
Zuckerman, a Scientist Out of the Ordinary, by John Peyton. |
| Pierre(-Marie-Félix) Janet | |
(source) |
Born 30
May 1859; died 24 Feb 1947.
French psychopathologist and neurologist influential in bringing about in France and the United States a connection between academic psychology and the clinical treatment of mental illnesses. He stressed psychological factors in hypnosis and contributed to the modern concept of mental and emotional disorders involving anxiety, phobias, and other abnormal behaviour. Janet is remembered for his dissociation theory of hysteria and hypnosis. His first case study, that of a hypnotic subject named Léonie, was published in 1886. He introduced the words dissociation and subconscious into psychological terminology and attributed hysteria and hypnotic susceptibility to inherited dispositions toward imbalances in psychic energy and psychic tension. |
| Georg von Peurbach | |
(source) |
Born 30
May 1423; died 8 Apr 1461.
Austrian mathematician and astronomer who promoted the use of Arabic numerals (introduced 250 years earlier in place of Roman numerals), especially in a table of sines he calculated with unprecedented accuracy. He died before this project was finished, and his pupil, Regiomontanus continued it until his own death. Peurbach was a follower of Ptolomy's astronomy. He insisted on the solid reality of the crystal spheres of the planets, going somewhat further than in Ptolomy's writings. He calculated tables of eclipses in Tabulae Ecclipsium,observed Halley's comet in Jun 1456 and the lunar eclipse of 3 Sep 1457 from a site near Vienna. Peurbach wrote on astronomy, his observations and devised astronomical instruments. Image: from Epitome of the Almagest . |
| MAY 30 - DEATHS | |
| Baron Marcel Bich | |
(source) |
 Died
30 May 1994 (born 29 Jul 1914)
French inventor who built his business empire by creating throwaway Bic pens, razors and lighters. In 1945, Marcel Bich and his friend, Edouard Buffard, acquired an empty factory shell near Paris, France, and soon developed a thriving business, producing parts for fountain pens and mechanical lead pencils. Later, Bich spent two years developing his ballpoint pen design, and in 1949, he was able to produce a reliable, low cost ballpoint pen. In 1973 the Bic Lighter was introduced in the U.S., followed by Bic Shavers, first introduced in 1976 |
| Antoni Zygmund | |
(source) |
Died
30 May 1992 (born 26 Dec 1900)
Polish-born mathematician who created a major analysis research centre at Chicago, and recognized in 1986 for this with the National Medal for Science. In 1940, he escaped with his wife and son from German controlled Poland to the USA. He did much work in harmonic analysis, a statistical method for determining the amplitude and period of certain harmonic or wave components in a set of data with the aid of Fourier series. Such technique can be applied in various fields of science and technology, including natural phenomena such as sea tides. He also did major work in Fourier analysis and its application to partial differential equations. Zygmund's book Trigonometric Series (1935) is a classic, definitive work on the subject.« Trigonometric
Series, by Antoni Zygmund. |
| Leo Szilard | |
(source) |
Died
30 May 1964 (born 11 Feb 1898)
Hungarian-born American physicist who, with Enrico Fermi, designed the first nuclear reactor that sustained nuclear chain reaction (2 Dec 1942). In 1933, Szilard had left Nazi Germany for England. The same year he conceived the neutron chain reaction. Moving to N.Y. City in 1938, he conducted fission experiments at Columbia University. Aware of the danger of nuclear fission in the hands of the German government, he persuaded Albert Einstein to write to President Roosevelt, urging him to commission American development of atomic weapons. In 1943, Major General Leslie Groves, leader of the Manhattan Project designing the atomic bomb, forced Szilard to sell his atomic energy patent rights to the U.S. government. |
| Charles Atwood Kofoid | |
Early 1900's (source) |
Died
30 May 1947 (born 11 Oct 1865)
American zoologist whose classification of many new species of marine protozoans helped establish systematic marine biology. Named director of the University of Illinois Biological Experiment Station in Havana, IL. (1895-1903), Kofoid investigated plankton in the river and backwater lakes. He joined the newly founded Scripps Institution of Oceanography (1903). Kofoid was a member of their scientific staff on the US Fish Commission Steamer Albatross during the Albatross Expedition (l904-5) off the coast of San Diego, CA. Two summers (1908,9), he toured the marine biological stations of Europe, buying instruments and collecting information on buildings and aquaria to help plan the San Diego Marine Biological Station. |
| Wilbur Wright | |
 |
Died
30 May 1912 (born 16 Apr 1867)
American aviation pioneer, who with his brother Orville, invented the first powered airplane, Flyer, capable of sustained, controlled flight (17 Dec 1903). Orville made the first flight, airborn for 12-sec. Wilbur took the second flight, covering 853-ft (260-m) in 59 seconds. By 1905, they had improved the design, built and and made several long flights in Flyer III, which was the first fully practical airplane (1905), able to fly up to 38-min and travel 24 miles (39-km). Their Model A was produced in 1908, capable of flight for over two hours of flight. They sold considerable numbers, but European designers became strong competitors. After Wilbur died of typhoid in 1912, Orville sold his interest in the Wright Company in 1915.« To
Conquer the Air : The Wright Brothers and the Great Race for Flight,
by James Tobin |
| Lewis Morris Rutherfurd | |
16 Sep 1870 (source) |
Died
30 May 1892 (born 25 Nov 1816)
American spectroscopist, astrophysicist and photographer, born in Morrisania, NY, who made the first telescopes designed for celestial photography. He produced a classification scheme of stars based on their spectra as similarly developed by the Italian astronomer. Rutherfurd spent his life working in his own observatory, built in 1856, where he photographed (from 1858) the Moon, Jupiter, Saturn, the Sun, and stars down to the fifth magnitude. While using photography to map star clusters, he devised a new micrometer to measure distances between stars with improved accuracy. When Rutherford began (1862) spectroscopic studies, he devised highly sophisticated diffraction gratings. |
| Johann Georg Bodmer | |
(source) |
Died
30 May 1864 (born 6 Dec 1786)
Swiss mechanic and prolific inventor of machine tools and textile-making machinery. In 1824 he established a small factory at Bolton, Lancashire, to manufacture machinery that made the process from carding to spinning wool continuous. This machinery was widely adopted in England and the U.S. and is said to have revolutionized the industry. He worked on the improvement of the conveyor belt, and contrived new methods so that it could transport heavier material and for a greater variety of uses. He was an exceedingly versatile inventor, and worked on machine tools, a gear-making machine, spinning machines, water wheels, steam engines, locomotives, and a traveling crane. He is credited with inventing the cylinder with opposed pistons for steam engines. |
| Voltaire | |
(source) |
Died
30 May 1778 (born 21 Nov 1694)
(François Marie Arouet) Voltaire was a French author who popularized Isaac Newton's work in France by arranging a translation of Principia Mathematica to which he added his own commentary (1737). The work of the translation was done by the marquise de Châtelet who was one of his mistresses, but Voltaire's commentary bridged the gap between non-scientists and Newton's ideas at a time in France when the pre-Newtonian views of Descartes were still prevalent. Although a philosopher, Voltaire advocated rational analysis. He died on the eve of the French Revolution. |
| MAY 30 - EVENTS | |
| Video CD | |
(source) |
In 1987, North American Philips Company introduced the compact disc video
(CD-V), a 12 cm (4-3/4 inch) CD-sized implementation of the earlier Laser
Vision format (previously available in 20 cm (8") and 30 cm (12") since
1977). The CD-V
discs were gold rather than silver. They used the same full motion
video system (analog, about 5-6 minutes) as LaserVision but with additional
CD digital audio (about 20 minutes). They were marketed as "CD's with pictures",
and most titles released were music. CD-V required a special CD-V drive,
and was used mostly in the music industry and commercial video production
arena. Despite the higher picture quality than possible with videotape,
the CD-V format was never commercially successful. |
| Mars probe | |
(source) |
In 1971, the U.S. Mars space probe Mariner
9 blasted off from Cape Kennedy, Florida. It carried cameras, infrared
spectrometer and radiometer, ultraviolet spectrometer, radio occultation
and celestial mechanics instruments. On 13 Nov 1971, it entered orbit as
the first artificial satellite of Mars. After waiting for a month-long
planet-wide dust storm to clear, it began compiling a global mosaic of
high-quality images for 100% of the Martian surface. The photos showed
gigantic volcanoes, a grand canyon stretching 4,800 kilometers (3,000 miles)
and relics of ancient riverbeds that were carved in the landscape of this
seemingly dry and dusty planet. It also sent the first closeup pictures
of the two Martian moons, Phobos and Deimos. |
| Hovercraft | |
(source) |
In 1959, the first experimental hovercraft,
the SR.N1
made its first trip at Cowes on the Isle of Wight. It was designed by Sir
Christopher Cockerell and built by Saunders-Roe. The invention was considered
initially only for military
use, but was released for civilian use in 1959. On 25 Jul 1959, the prototype
crossed the English Channel. Cockerell first considered the possibility
of travel by hovercraft, a vehicle that can move across land or water on
a cushion of air, in the early 1950s. Using a can of cat food inside a
coffee tin and reversed air-flow from a vacuum cleaner, he proved his theory
on the mud floor of his boatyard. The hovercraft is now used in a variety
of roles, from military transportation to ferrying cars and passengers
across the Channel. |
| Patent | |
(USPTO) |
In 1899, black American inventor George Cook of Louisville, Kentucky, received
a U.S. patent for an "Automatic Fishing Device" (No. 625,829). The device
featured a trip lever activated by tension on the fishing line. This would
release a spring-loaded carriage that slid back on short rails within the
frame of the device immediately and also would also ring an alarm-gong
by releasing a spring-actuated striker. The carriage contained a spring-driven
reel which then takes up the line.
The
Inventive Spirit of African Americans: Patented Ingenuity,
by Patricia Carter Sluby. |
| Krypton | |
Travers (source) |
In 1898, Morris William Travers, an English chemist, while working with
Sir Willam Ramsay in London, discovered the element krypton. The name derives
from the Greek word for "hidden." It was a fraction separated from liquified
air, which when placed in a Plücker tube connected to an induction
coil yielded a spectrum with a bright yellow line with a greener tint than
the known helium line and a brilliant green line that corresponded to nothing
seen before. |
| Edison patent | |
(source) |
In 1893, a patent for a "Roller for Crushing Ore or Other Material" was
issued to Thomas A. Edison (U.S. No. 498,385). Edison had in mind crushing
iron ore. "It is usual in ore crushing machines employing rollers to mount
them in pairs on suitable supporting frames and to provide means for driving
each pair, and for feeding material to be crushed separately to each pair
of rollers and to provide separate means for pressing the rollers of each
pair together. In the machine to be described I employ three or more rollers
supported side by side in a frame and moveable towards or away from each
other, instead of using them in pairs, and a single weight and lever serves
to press all of said rollers together." Image:
drawing of the side elevation of the apparatus. |
| Edison patent | |
178,222 (source) |
In 1876, Thomas A. Edison was issued three patents for "Duplex Telegraphs"
(U.S. No. 178,221; -3). These were for "an Improvement in Duplex Telegraphs"
which enable a transmitted signal be sent on the same wire that could be
receiving a signal. In patent 178,222, Edison describes "A balanced battery
is used for transmitting when the balance is disturbed. An electromagnet
is used, through which both the received and transmitted pulsations pass,
and the connections are made so that the action of the current sent is
balanced, while that coming from the distant station is operative, to work
a balanced relay and local circuit or sounder." |
| Ice cream freezer | |
(USPTO) |
In 1848, an early U.S. patent for an ice cream freezer was issued to William
G. Young of Baltimore, Md. (U.S. No. 5,601). The first freezer patent
was issued to Nancy M Johnson on 9 Sep 1834 (No.
3254), which had a revolving shaft inside with two curved wings to
move the cream in the freezer. Young's idea made the freezer itself turn
rapidly within the ice-tub as well as the cream inside. A piston-rod had
a perforated disk at its end to move the cream. It was designed to be used
while both agitating the cream and turning the freezer using the weighted
top-mounted handle. The beating both moved the cream into better contact
with the cold sides, and the air trapped with its motion serves to make
the cream lighter.« |
| Fire hose | |
(source) |
In 1821, a fire hose of cotton web lined with rubber was patented by James
Boyd of Boston, Mass. He invented it to replace riveted leather hose. Leather
hose
had many drawbacks, including drying out, cracking and bursting from excessive
pressure. The introduction of rivets (1807), to replace stiching, had allowed
higher pressures and greater delivery of water on the fireground. The improved
hose now was 40 to 50 feet in length and weighed more than 85 pounds with
the couplings. Hose oilers were developed to keep the leather supple and
pliable. Various types of oils and other substances were used to keep the
hose in shape. By 1871, the Cincinnati Fire Department was using
the B.F. Goodrich Company's new rubber hose reinforced with cotton ply. |
