| JANUARY 16 - BIRTHS | |
| Dian Fossey | |
(source) |
 Born 16
Jan 1932; died 26 Dec 1985.
American zoologist who for years made a daily study of the mountain forest gorillas of Rwanda, central Africa. In 1963, she met Louis and Mary Leakey, who encouraged her initial interest. With Jane Goodall's encouragement, she set up anddirected (1967-80) the Karisoke Research Center, Rwanda. Living a solitary life for many years, she observed the gorillas’ habits and gradually gained their acceptance. She wrote Gorillas in the Mist (1983) to acquaint the public with the threats to the gorillas from poachers and loss of habitat. In 1985, Fossey's mutilated body, hacked by machete, was found near the centre. Poachers, whose devastating attacks on the gorillas she had tried to stop, were suspected for her murder, although unproved.«  Gorillas
in the Mist, by Dian Fossey. |
| Sir Arthur Percy Morris Fleming | |
(source) |
Born 16
Jan 1881; died 14 Sep 1960.
English engineer who was a major figure in developing techniques for manufacturing radar components. During WW I, Fleming made important advances in submarine-detection gear. In 1920, as a pioneer in the development of radio, he established in Manchester the second British transmitting station to broadcast programs on a daily basis. His work on demountable, high-power thermionic tubes made it possible to establish radar stations in Great Britain by the time WW II began in 1939. |
| Andre Michelin | |
(source) |
Born 16
Jan 1853; died 4 Apr 1931.
André Michelin was a French industrialist who, with his younger brother Édouard, founded Michelin Tyre Co. in 1888, expanding the rubber company established (1832) by their grandfather, Aristide Barbier, and Nicolas Edouard Daubree. The Michelins made the first pneumatic tyres that could be easily removed for repair, for bicycles (1891) and for automobiles (1895). They introduced tire tread patterns, low-pressure balloon tires, and steel-cord tires. The company created a tourist guide organization which placed milestones on French roads and established a standard road map service for most of Europe. André created Michelin guides to promote tourism by car. The first Red Guide, with restaurant ratings, was published in 1900.« The
Michelin Men: Driving an Empire by Herbert Lottman |
| Ellen Russell Emerson | |
| Born 16
Jan 1837; died 12 Jun 1907.
American ethnologist, noted for her extensive examinations of Native American cultures, especially in comparison with other world cultures. |
|
| Charles Henry Davis | |
(source) |
Born 16
Jan 1807; died 18 Feb 1877.
U.S. naval officer and scientist who published several hydrographic studies, was a superintendent of the Naval Observatory (1865–67, 1874–77) and worked to further scientific progress. Between his naval duties at sea, he studied mathematics at Harvard. He made the first comprehensive survey of the coasts of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Maine, including the intricate Nantucket shoals area. He helped establish and then supervised the preparation of the American Nautical Almanac (1849) for several years. Davis was a co-founder of the National Academy of Sciences (1863), and wrote several scientific books.« |
| Anders Gustav Ekeberg | |
(source) |
Born 16
Jan 1767; died 11 Feb 1813.
Swedish chemist who in 1802 discovered the element tantalum. After graduation from the University of Uppsala (1788) and travels in Germany, Ekeberg returned to Uppsala and began teaching (1794), introducing the chemistry of Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier. Though he was partly deaf from a childhood infection and had been blinded in one eye by an exploding flask (1801), he carried on admirably. Perhaps his greatest contribution to chemistry was the discovery of the talent of his student Jöns Jacob Berzelius. |
| Jean-Baptiste-Gaspard Bochart de Saron | |
| Born 16
Jan 1730; died 20 Apr 1794.
French lawyer and natural scientist who became especially known for his advances in astronomy. He was a patron of the sciences, financing the publication of the marquis de Laplace's Theory of the Movement and Elliptic Figure of the Planets (1784) and developing one of Europe's largest and finest collections of reflecting telescopes and other astronomical instruments for his own use and the use of his scientific friends. Bochart's own studies included calculation of the orbits of comets, using data contributed by his long-time collaborator Charles Messier. His political activities led to his death by guillotine during the French Revolution. |
|
| JANUARY 16 - DEATHS | |
| Robert Hanbury Brown | |
(source) |
 Died
16 Jan 2002 (born 31 Aug 1916)
British astronomer who was a pioneer in radar and observational astronomy. During and after WW II he worked with R.A. Watson-Watt and then E.G. Bowen to develop radar for uses in aerial combat. In the 1950s he applied this experience to radio astronomy, developing radio-telescope technology at Jodrell Bank Observatory and mapping stellar radio sources. He designed a radio interferometer capable of resolving radio stars while eliminating atmospheric distortion from the image (1952). With R.Q. Twiss, Brown applied this technique to measuring the angular size of bright visible stars, thus developing the technique of intensity interferometry. They set up an intensity interferometer at Narrabri in New South Wales, Australia, for measurements of hot stars.« Boffin:
A Personal Story of the Early Days of Radar, Radio Astronomy... ,
by R. Hanbury Brown. |
| Robert Jemison Van de Graaff | |
(source) |
Died
16 Jan 1967 (born 20 Dec 1901)
American physicist and inventor of the Van de Graaff generator, a type of high-voltage electrostatic generator that can be used as a particle accelerator in atomic research. The potential differences achieved in modern Van de Graaff generators can be up to 5 MV. It is a principle of electric fields that charges on a surface can leap off at points where the curvature is great, that is, where the radius is small. Thus, a dome of great radius will inhibit the electric discharge and added charge can reach a high voltage. This generator has been used in medical (such as high-energy X-ray production) and industrial applications (sterilization of food). In the 1950s, Van de Graaff invented the insulating core transformer able to produce high voltage direct current.« |
| Charles Thurstan Holland | |
(source) |
Died
16 Jan 1941 (born March 1863)
English radiologist who pioneered the clinical use of X-rays in the UK, beginning shortly after Roentgen announced their discovery. He was present at the first clinical use of X-rays in England, (7 Feb 1896) in the laboratory of Oliver Lodge, head of the physics department at Liverpool University. The wrist of a 12-year-old boy who had shot himself the previous month was examined. The boy had been brought there by surgeon Sir Robert Jones who with Lodge reported the case in the 22 Feb 1896 of The Lancet. Jones subsequently financed an X-ray apparatus for Holland to pioneer radiology at Royal Southern Hospital, Liverpool. During WWI, he perfected methods of detecting bullets and shell fragments in patients' bodies.« [Image: X-ray from 1896 of hand with buckshot made at Columbia University, USA] |
| Oskar Barnack | |
(source) |
Died
16 Jan 1936 (born 1 Nov 1879)
German engineer who designed the first miniature camera (1913), the Leica I. Its commercial introduction, delayed by WW I, was made in 1924 by the Ernst Leitz optical firm at Wetzlar, Germany where he was employed. Barnack was an enthusiastic photographer from when only heavy plate cameras were available. As early 1905, he conceived using a reduced format negative, to be enlarged after exposure. He adapted his idea from equipment he made to take still exposures on samples of cine film to test their sensitivity and consistency before movie use. For this camera, Barnack established the standard 35-mm film picture size by doubling the standard 18x24mm cine frame. His invention had only 1/250 of the weight of a plate camera. |
| Max (Johann Sigismund) Schultze | |
(source) |
Died
16 Jan 1874 (born 25 Mar 1825)
German zoologist and cytologist, known especially for his researches in microscopic anatomy. He altered the conception of the cell, emphasizing not the membrane, but the living mass of protoplasm with a nucleus (1861). He pointed out that some cells, for example those of the embryo, do not have bounding membranes. He recognized the protoplasm, with its nucleus, as the fundamental substance found in both plants and animals. Schultze also studied protozoa, and demonstrated minute nerve endings in the ear (1858), nose (1863), and retina (1866). He was an outstanding histologist, introducing several new techniques in histology, including the use of osmic acid for staining fine details of cells. His sudden death in 1874 was caused by a perforated ulcer. |
| Nicolas Leblanc | |
(source) |
Died
16 Jan 1806 (born 16 Jan 1742)
French surgeon and chemist who in 1790 developed the process for making soda ash (sodium carbonate) from common salt (sodium chloride). This process, which bears his name, became one of the most important industrial chemical processes of the 19th century. In the Leblanc process, salt was treated with sulphuric acid to obtain salt cake (sodium sulphate). This was then roasted with limestone or chalk and coal to produce black ash, which consisted primarily of sodium carbonate and calcium sulphide. The sodium carbonate was dissolved in water and then crystallized. The Leblanc process was simple, cheap, and direct, but because of the disruption of the French Revolution, he profitted little from it. He died by suicide in 1806. |
| JANUARY 16 - EVENTS | |
| Stardust mission ends | |
In 2006, the Stardust capsule successfully returned
to Earth, carrying dust from a comet, which could shed light on the origins
of our planetary system. It ended its six-year mission by entering the
atmosphere at 28,860mph - faster than any other man-made object before.
Its speed was reduced to 14.8 feet per second as it parachuted back to
the United States, and was retrieved by NASA scientists. It was the first
successful collection of cometary and interstellar material, and the first
rock samples taken from space since the Apollo missions. A prior attempt
by the same team to retrieve solar wind particles - the Genesis return
probe - ended 16 months earlier without properly opening its parachute
and had been badly damaged by hitting the ground at 193mph.« |
|
| Hubble discovery | |
|
In 1991, astronomers report the discovery of two extremely large and hot
stars by the Hubble Space Telescope. |
|
| Interferon | |
|
In 1980, scientists in Boston produce interferon, a natural virus-fighting
substance through genetic engineering. |
|
| Nasa names shuttle astronauts | |
|
In 1978, NASA named 35 candidates to fly on the space shuttle, including
Sally K. Ride, who became America's first woman in space, and Guion S.
Bluford Jr., who became America's first black astronaut in space. |
|
| USSR moon explorer | |
|
In 1973, USSR's Lunakhod 2 begins radio-controlled exploration of the Moon. |
|
| First docking in space | |
|
In 1969, two manned Soviet "Soyuz" spaceships (Soviet Soyuz 4 & Soyuz
5) became the first vehicles to dock in space and transfer personnel. |
|
| Round-the-world jet plane flight | |
|
In 1957, three B-52's took off from Castle Air Force Base in California
on the first nonstop, round-the-world flight by jet planes. The trip lasted
45 hours and 19 minutes. |
|
| Fermium | |
(source) |
In 1953, a sample amounting to about 200 atoms of fermium
(Fm, atomic number 100) was first by ion-exchange chromatography
and identified at the University of California, Berkeley. Like einsteinium,
fermium was first isolated
from the debris
of the Nov 1952 test of the hydrogen-bomb (called the "Mike" event, conducted
at Eniwetok Atoll in the Pacific Ocean). Samples
of debris were collected by drone aircraft flying through the cloud. For
security reasons, it was kept secret until 1955 [See Phys. Rev., 99,1048
(1955)]. Because it is short-lived, scientists doubt that enough fermium
will ever be obtained to be weighed. Fermium was the eighth transuranium
element of the actinide series to be discovered, and was named in honour
of Enrico
Fermi. |
| Photofinish camera | |
|
In 1936, the first photofinish camera was installed at a U.S. racetrack.
The electric eye was used for races at Hialeah, Florida. |
|
| Magnetic south pole | |
|
In 1909, British explorer Ernest Shackleton found the magnetic south pole. |
|
| Caulking gun patent | |
(USPTO) |
In 1894, Canadian inventor Theodore Witte of Chilliwhack, British Columbia,
was issued a U.S. patent for a "Puttying-Tool" to improve the application
"of putty to window sashes and similar things." It incorporated the ratcheted
feed now familiar in the caulking gun (No. 512930). The putty is placed
in a tube fitted with a nozzle at one end, and a ratcheted lever-operated
piston at the other which moves longitudinally through the body in order
to squeeze the compound out through the nozzle. The lever is "manipulated
so as to force the putty outward as fast as is necessary, and the nozzle
is dragged over the surface to be puttied," until the whole mass within
the body is ejected from the nozzle. The method has since been adopted
to apply a variety of construction materials, including caulking and glue.« |
| Color organ | |
|
In 1877, the first U.S. patent for a color organ was issued to Bainbridge
Bishop. |
|
| Carpet loom | |
|
In 1877, a U.S. patent was issued for a carpet power loom to weave Axminster
carpets to Halcyon Skinner and his employer, Alexander Smith, both of Yonkers,
New York (No. 186374). The loom was intended to securely weave tufting
material into the carpet during the operations in the interweaving of the
threads to form the fabric, suitable for the "Moquette" type of fabrics.
Skinner was worked as a master mechanic for the carpet manufacturer Alexander
Smith and Co., which became a leading carpet producer as a result of Skinner's
machines. Skinner's other patents included not only more inventions for
power-looms, but also a Carpenter's Gage (22 Aug 1854, No. 11572), an Apparatus
for Teaching Spelling (2 Feb 1866, No. 52758), and a Motor-Truck for Street-Cars
(11 Oct 1887, No. 371383).« |
|
| Refrigerated railcar | |
|
In 1868, a patent for a refrigerator car, "ice box on wheels," was granted
to William Davis, a fish dealer in Detroit, Mich. (who also designed the
first railroad refrigerated car). |
|
| Skates | |
|
In 1866, Everett Hosmer Barney patented the all-metal screw clamp skates,
which attached to normal shoes and were tightened with a key. Clamp skates
dropped out of popularity with the advent of modern athletic shoes, which
lacked a hard edge where the roller skates
could be clamped. |
|
