| NOVEMBER 1 - BIRTHS | |
| Robert B. Laughlin | |
(aource) |
 Born 1
Nov 1950
American physicist who (with Daniel C. Tsui and Horst Störmer) received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1998 for research on the fractional quantum Hall effect. In a current-carrying conductor, the classic Hall effect is the voltage produced at right angles to a magnetic field, as first discovered in 1879. A century later the German physicist Klaus von Klitzing discovered that in a powerful magnetic field at extremely low temperatures the Hall resistance of a semiconductor is quantized in integral "steps". Using even stronger magnetic fields and lower temperatures, Störmer and Tsui discovered fractional steps, explained by Laughlin's theory that the electrons can form a new type of quantum fluid with quasiparticles carrying fractions of an electron's charge. |
| Sir Hermann Bondi | |
(source) |
Born 1
Nov 1919; died 10 Sep 2005.
Austrian-born British mathematician and cosmologist who, with Fred Hoyle and Thomas Gold, formulated the steady-state theory of the universe (1948). Their theory addressed a crucial problem: "How do the stars continually recede without disappearing altogether?" Their explanation was that the universe is ever-expanding, without a beginning and without an end. Further, they said, since the universe must be expanding, new matter must be continually created in order to keep the density constant, by the interchange of matter and energy. The theory was eclipsed in 1965, when Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson discovered a radiation background in microwaves giving convincing support to the "big bang" theory of creation now accepted.  |
| Donald William Kerst | |
(source) |
Born 1
Nov 1911; died 19 Aug 1992.
American physicist who invented the betatron (1940), the first device to accelerate electrons ("beta particles") to speeds high enough to have sufficient momentum to produce nuclear transformations in atoms. The electrons are accelerated by electromagnetic induction in a doughnut-shaped (toroidal) ring from which the air has been removed. This type of particle accelerator can producing high-energy electrons up to 340 MeV for research purposes, including the production of high-energy X-rays. For such high velocities, the magnetic field is increased to match the relativistic increase in mass of the particles. During WW II, Kerst worked at Los Alamos on tue atomic bomb project. He completed the largest betatron in 1950, at the University of Illinois. |
| Sir Gavin de Beer | |
(source) |
Born 1
Nov 1899; died 21 Jun 1972.
Sir Gavin Rylands de Beer was an English zoologist and morphologist who contributed to experimental embryology, anatomy, and evolution. He refuted the germ-layer theory and developed the concept of paedomorphism (the retention of juvenile characteristics of ancestors in mature adults). From examination of the fossil Archaeopteryx, De Beer proposed mosaic evolution with piecemeal evolutionary changes to explain the combination of bird and reptile features. He was director of the British Museum's Natural History section (1950-60). Applying knowledge of biology (plant pollen) and geology (glaciology) to his study of original documents, he proposed the route taken by Hannibal across the Alps for his attack on ancient Rome.  Charles
Darwin : Evolution by Natural Selection (British Men of Science), by
Gavin Rylands De Beer |
| Anton Flettner | |
(source) |
Born 1
Nov 1885; died 29 Dec 1961.
German inventor who produced a practical helicopter for the German navy (1940). He also developed a device that allowed airplane pilots to raise or lower a plane's nose for better control. It evolved into a mechanism called the Flettner trim-tab control which is still used on all airplanes. He designed a rotor ship (1924) on which he replaced sails with unique propulsion - two 50-ft cylinders, electrically rotated, mounted vertically on the deck. A transatlantic voyage was accomplished using the aerodynamic power of the Magnus Effect which builds pressure behind a rotating cylinder. After WW II, he went to the U.S., and conducted helicopter research for the U.S. Army. He also invented a windmill and the Flettner marine rudder.« |
| Alfred L. Wegener | |
(source) |
Born 1
Nov 1880; died c Nov 1930.
Alfred Lothar Wegener was a German meteorologist and geophysicist who first gave a well-developed hypothesis of continental drift. He suggested (1912) that about 250 million yrs ago all the present-day continents came from a single primitive land mass, the supercontinent Pangaea, which eventually broke up and gradually drifted apart. (A similar idea was proposed earlier by F.B. Taylor in 1910.) Others saw the fit of coastlines of South America and Africa, but Wegener added more geologic and paleontologic evidence that these two continents were once joined. From 1906, interested in paleoclimatology, he went on several expeditions to Greenland to study polar air circulation. He died during his fourth expedition. Origin
of Continents and Oceans, by Alfred Wegener. |
| Oskar Barnack | |
(source) |
Born 1
Nov 1879; died 16 Jan 1936.
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. |
| George Parker | |
(source) |
Born 1
Nov 1863; died 19 Jul 1937.
George Safford Parker was an American inventor who perfected the fountain pen and founded the Parker Pen Company to manufacture it. He began in a teaching career which introduced him to the unreliability of existing fountain pens used by his students. Through selling and repairing them, he learned of their construction. He ceased teaching in 1888 to experiment with his own design. By 8 Mar 1892, he incorporated Parker Pen Company. He subsequently patented many improvements, and was particularly successful in creating a reliable ink-flow system. During WW I, his Trench Pen utilized a tablet of pigment to be inserted into the pen and turned to fluid ink by filling the barrel with water. |
| John Joly | |
(source) |
Born 1
Nov 1857; died 8 Dec 1933.
Irish geologist, physicist and inventor whose interests spanned several fields. Using Edmond Halley's method of measuring the degree of salinity of the oceans, and then by examining radioactive decay in rocks, he estimated Earth's age at 80-90 million years (1898). Later, he revised this figure to 100 million years. He published Radioactivity and Geology (1909) in which he demonstrated that the rate of radioactive decay has been more or less constant through time. He also developed a method for extracting radium (1914) and pioneered its use for cancer treatment, and invented a constant- volume gas thermometer, a photometer, and a differential steam calorimeter for measuring the specific heat capacity of gases at constant volume. Radioactivity
and Geology: ...Terrestrial History, by John Joly. |
| Giacomo Doria | |
| Born 1
Nov 1840; died 19 Sep 1913.
Italian naturalist and explorer who conducted important research in systematic zoology. Pursuing his work, he made expeditions to Persia (1862), Borneo (1865-66) and Tunisia (1879). In 1867, he founded the civic museum of natural history in Genoa. The collection he donated became the nucleus of the museum, which he directed for more than 40 years. He was also director of Societa Geografica Italiana (1891-1900). The museum he founded now contains important zoolological, paleontological, botanical, and mineralogical collections from all over the world. These collections are continually growing, now estimated to be more than 3.5 million exhibits. |
|
| Balfour Stewart | |
(source) |
Born 1
Nov 1828; died 19 Dec 1887.
Scottish meteorologist and geophysicist noted for his studies of terrestrial magnetism and radiant heat. His researches on radiant heat contributed to foundation of spectrum analysis. He was the first to discover that bodies radiate and absorb energy of the same wavelength. In meteorology, he pioneered in ionospheric science, making a special study of terrestrial magnetism. He proposed (1882) that the daily variation in the Earth's magnetic field could be due to air currents in the upper atmosphere, which act as conductors and generate electrical currents as they pass through the Earth's magnetic field. He also investigated sunspots. In 1887, he died, age 59, soon after suffering a stroke while crossing to spend Christmas at his estate in Ireland. |
| Dr. Crawford W. Long | |
(source) |
Born 1
Nov 1815; died 16 Jun 1878.
Crawford Williamson Long was an American physician who was the first in the U.S. to use ether as anesthetic in surgery. On 30 Mar 1842, practicing in rural Georgia, he first used ether anesthetic while he removed a tumour from a patient's neck. Although he operated more times with ether before 1846, he was apparently unaware of its full significance and did not publish a description of his procedure until 1849. By that time, W.T.G. Morton of Boston had filed a patent for discovery of ether in 1846 and Long would never get much credit or gain from claim to priority. In 1850, he moved to Athens, Georgia, acquiring a large practice and an apothecary shop. There he used ether in obstetrical cases and did much charitable work for the poor. |
| NOVEMBER 1 - DEATHS | |
| Victor Mills | |
(source) |
 Died
1 Nov 1997 (born 28 Mar 1897)
American chemical engineer who inventedPampers disposable diapers. He joined Proctor& Gamble company in 1926, and soon after developed a continuous process to superheat the liquid soap and spray it in concentrated form through an extruder producing bars of Ivory soap. That cut the production time from seven days to just a couple of hours. He improved Duncan Hines cake mixes by passing ingredients through large milling drums designed to polish aluminum foil but made the finished cake less lumpy. He developed a process for preventing the oil from separating in Jif peanut butter. His invention of disposable diapers as a product was created to utilize the clean, absorbent paper available from a pulp mill acquired by the company. |
| Alexander George McAdie | |
1893 (source) |
Died
1 Nov 1943 (born 4 Aug 1863)
American meteorologist who was a pioneer in employing kites in the exploration of high altitude air conditions. As a college graduate, McAdie in Jan 1882 joined the Army Signal Service, which preceded the civilian U.S. Weather Bureau. He invented and patented devices to protect fruit from frost. He examined the influence of smoke pollution on the atmosphere, McAdie studied the relation between atmospheric electricity and auroral phenomena, and wrote about lightning as a hazard both in the air and on the ground. He believed that the units used in meteorology should be standardized by adoption of the metric system. McAdie was a founder of the Seismological Society of America. Mt. McAdie (13,799 ft.) in the Sierra Nevada was named for him. 
[Image: Cloud and Multiple Flash from Pop. Sci. Monthly, 1893] Making
the Weather, by Alexander G. McAdie. |
| John Lindley | |
(source) |
Died
1 Nov 1865 (born 5 Feb 1799)
British botanist whose attempts to formulate a natural system of plant classification greatly aided the transition from the artificial (considering the characters of single parts) to the natural system (considering all characters of a plant). |
| NOVEMBER 1 - EVENTS | |
| Chiron | |
In 1977, Chiron, the farthest known asteroid was discovered. |
|
| Mackinac Straits Bridge | |
|
In 1957, the world's longest suspension bridge, the Mackinac Straits Bridge
between Michigan's upper and lower peninsulas, opened at five miles long. |
|
| First H-bomb exploded | |
Mike (source) |
In 1952, in the first United States test of a thermonuclear
device, a hydrogen
bomb dubbed "Mike," was exploded
at Eniwetok Atholl in the Pacific, 3,000 miles west of Hawaii. It exploded
with a blinding white fireball more than three miles across, completely
obliterating Elugelab, leaving an underwater crater a 6240-ft wide and
164-ft deep in the atoll where an island had once been. Eighty million
tons of soil were lifted into the air by the blast. The yield was several
million tons of TNT, a force a thousand times more powerful than the bomb
that destroyed Hiroshima, a blast greater than all the explosives used
during World War II. The "mushroom" cloud rose to top out in 5 mins at
135,000 ft (the top of the stratosphere) and eventually spread to 1000
miles wide. |
| Artificial insemination | |
|
In 1939, a rabbit conceived by artificial impregnation, was the first such
animal in the U.S. to be displayed. The event was the 12th Annual Graduate
Fortnight at the New York Academy of Medicine. Dr. Gregory Pincus, an American
biologist,
had removed an egg from the ovary of a female rabbit and fertilized it
with a salt solution. The egg was then transferred to the uterus of a second
rabbit, which functioned an "incubator." The young rabbit was born in Oct
1939. Dr. Pincus, of Clark University conducted his experiments at Harvard
University, Cambridge, Mass. In the same year, Pincus and colleagues were
the first to show
how oocytes of various animals would undergo maturation if released from
their follicle and cultured in vitro. |
|
| German rocket program | |
(source) |
In 1932, the year he received
his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering, Wernher von Braun
was named head of the German liquid-fuel rocket program. He signed
a contract with the Reichswehr to conduct research leading to the development
of rockets as military weapons. By 1934, he was building rockets along
with artillery captain Walter Dornberger and a team of 80 engineers. In
Dec 1934, he had his first successes
with an A2 rocket powered by ethanol and liquid oxygen. When the research
team outgrew their facility outside Berlin, a larger one was built at Peenemunde,
a remote island off the Baltic coast.« |
| U.S. Zeppelins | |
|
In 1923, Goodyear bought the rights to manufacture Zeppelin dirigibles.
When
Giants Roamed the Sky: Karl Arnstein ... Airships from Zeppelin to Goodyear,
by Dale Topping. |
|
| Radio licence fee | |
|
In 1922, the radio licence fee (initially ten shillings) was introduced
in Britain*. |
|
| X-ray treatment | |
|
In 1901, Dr. J.E. Gillman announced an X-ray treatment for breast cancer. |
|
| Greenwich Mean Time | |
(source) |
In 1884, Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) was adopted
universally at a meeting of the International Meridian Conference in Washington,
DC, USA. From then the International Date Line was drawn up and 24 time
zones created.
Seize
the Daylight: The Curious and Contentious Story of Daylight Savings Time,
by David Prerau. |
| Steel railroad bridge | |
(source) |
In 1879, the world's first all-steel railroad bridge was placed in service
over the Missouri River at Glasgow, Missouri, built for the Chicago &
Alton railroad by Gen. William Sooy Smith (1830-1916). It was a 2,700-ft
five-span Whipple through truss. Construction began only the year before,
with the contract for steel dated 12 Oct 1878. Although a milestone accomplishment,
it has been overshadowed
by other bridges of its time: the Eads Bridge across the Mississippi at
St. Louis (1874) and the Brooklyn Bridge in New York (1883). By the 1890's
nearly all new bridges were all-steel. The Glasgow bridge was replaced
for heavier traffic by a new bridge in 1900 reusing some of the substructure,
but with Parker truss spans.« [Image
left: William Sooy Smith; right:
Glasgow Railroad Bridge c.1880]
Landmarks
on the Iron Road: Two Centuries ... Railroad Engineering,
by William D. Middleton. |
| Electric lamp | |
|
In 1879, Edison patented his electric lamp. |
|
| Barbed wire | |
(source) |
In 1873, Joseph
F. Glidden began manufacturing his new invention of barbed wire, having
filed for a patent a few days before, on 27 Oct 1873 which was issued on
24 Nov 1874. The barbs were cut from sheet metal and were inserted between
two wires which were twisted considerably more than with today's common
design. This product would transform
the West. Before this innovation,
settlers on the treeless plains had no easy way to fence livestock away
from cropland, and ranchers had no way to prevent their herds from roaming
far and wide. Glidden’s barbed wire opened the plains to large-scale farming,
and closed the open range, bringing the era of the cowboy and the round-up
to an end. [Image: detail from
patent application diagram.]
Barbs,
Prongs, Points, Prickers, and Stickers; ... Catalogue of Antique Barbed
Wire, by Robert T. Clifton. |
| Women's medical school | |
(source) |
In 1848, the Boston Female Medical School, first medical
school in the world exclusively for women opened
its doors to 12 students. Founded
by Samuel Gregory,
who disapproved
of male doctors attending childbirth, its early curriculum focused on midwifery.
In 1850, renamed
the New England Female Medical College, this was expanded to include a
full medical curriculum, and the college began to grant medical degrees
to women. By 1873, the college had graduated 98 women doctors, including
Rebecca Lee, MD, the first African-American female physician. Shortly after
Geregory's death, it merged with Boston University School of Medicine,
becoming one of the first coed medical colleges in the world.
[Image: from title page of of the Thirteenth Annual Announcement of the
New England Female Medical College, 1860.] |
| Massachusetts Medical Society | |
|
In 1781, the first state medical society, the Massachusetts Medical Society,
was incorporated in Boston. It was chartered by the state, with a document
signed by Samuel Adams as the president of the state Senate, and by John
Hancock, the governor. The organization's membership was limited to 70
Fellows. Although an earlier medical society was founded in Boston prior
to 1735, it was local in nature, somewhat ineffective, and short-lived
as it ceased in 1741. It was not until 5 May 1847 that a permanent national
medical society was formed with the organization of the American
Medical Association.«
History
of the Massachusetts Medical Society...1781-1922, by
Walter L. Burrage. |
|
| Lavoisier | |
(source) |
In 1772, Antoine Lavoisier reported
in a note to the Secretary of the French Academy of Sciences that in the
previous week he had discovered
that sulphur and phosphorus when burned increased in weight because they
absorbed "air," while the metallic lead formed when litharge was heated
with charcoal weighed less than the original litharge because it had lost
"air." The exact nature of the airs concerned in the processes he could
not yet explain, and he proceeded to study
the question extensively. Lavoisier's investigation
of the role of air in combustion would change the way chemists viewed combustion
eb
Lavoisier:
Chemist, Biologist, Economist, by Jean-Pierre Poirier,
Rebecca Balinski. |
