| DECEMBER 24 - BIRTHS | |
| William Hayward Pickering | |
(source) |
 Born 24
Dec 1910; died 15 Mar 2004.
Engineer and physicist, head of the team that developed Explorer 1, the first U.S. satellite. He collaborated with Neher and Robert Millikan on cosmic ray experiments in the 1930s, taught electronics in the 1930s, and was at Caltech during the war. He spent the rest of his career with the Jet Propusion Laboratory, becoming its Director (1954) with responsibility for the U.S. unmanned exploration of the planets and the solar system. Among these were the Mariner spacecraft to Venus and Mercury, and the Viking mission to Mars. The Voyager spacecraft yielded stunning photographs of the planets Jupiter and Saturn. |
| C.G. Seligman | |
(source) |
Born 24
Dec 1873; died 19 Sep 1940.
C(harles) G(abriel) Seligman was a pioneer in British anthropology who conducted significant field research in Melanesia, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), and, most importantly, the Nilotic Sudan. After his education as a physician he went with the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to the Torres Straits (1898-9). Subsequently, his interests turned from medical research towards anthropology, and revisited New Guinea (1904) to distinguish the characteristic racial, cultural, and social traits of the peoples of the region. In the 1920's, he pioneered a psychoanalytic approach: studying cross-cultural similarity of dreams. He concluded that the psychology of the unconscious could provide an approach to some basic anthropological problems. |
| Charles Hermite | |
(source) |
Born 24
Dec 1822; died 14 Jan 1901.
French mathematician whose work in the theory of functions includes the application of elliptic functions to provide the first solution to the general equation of the fifth degree, the quintic equation. In 1873 he published the first proof that e is a transcendental number. Hermite is known also for a number of mathematical entities that bear his name, Hermite polynomials, Hermite's differential equation, Hermite's formula of interpolation and Hermitian matrices. Poincaré is the best known of Hermite's students. |
| James Prescott Joule | |
(source) |
Born 24
Dec 1818; died 11 Oct 1889.
English physicist who established that the various forms of energy - mechanical, electrical, and heat - are basically the same and can be changed, one into another. Thus he formed the basis of the law of conservation of energy, the first law of thermodynamics. He discovered (1840) the relationship between electric current, resistance, and the amount of heat produced. In 1849 he devised the kinetic theory of gases, and a year later announced the mechanical equivalent of heat. Later, with William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), he discovered the Joule-Thomson effect. The SI unit of energy or work , the joule (symbol J), is named after him. It is defined as the work done when a force of 1 newton moves a distance of 1 metre in the direction of the force. |
| Ferdinand Keller | |
(source) |
Born 24
Dec 1800; died 21 Jun 1881.
Swiss archaeologist and prehistorian who conducted the first systematic excavation of prehistoric Alpine lake dwellings, at Obermeilen on Lake Zürich, Switzerland. In the dry winter of 1853-4, the water-level there dropped to reveal numerous wooden pilings. After farmers found flints, bones, and bronze jewelry under the mud around them. Keller began a thorough examination of the site. His finds included even pieces of cloth, basketry, and netting. Keller declared that the pilings were remaining portions of platforms needed to support dwellings in marshy land about 4000 years ago. He thus initiated the study of similar remains elsewhere in Switzerland and Europe, from which much was learned about Late Stone Age and Bronze Age life. |
| DECEMBER 24 - DEATHS | |
| R. E. Schreiber | |
(source) |
 Died
24 Dec 1998 (born 11 Nov 1910)
R(aemer) E(dgar) Schreiber was an American experimental physicist who during World War II was one of the scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos, N.M., to develop the first atomic bombs. Schreiber started work at Los Alamos on the Water Boiler Reactor, which went critical in May 1944, the first reactor to go critical using enriched uranium. He continued to work on improved reactor models until April 1945, when he became a member of the pit assembly team for the Trinity test. After Trinity, Schreib escorted the plutonium core of the Fat Man device to Tinian Island, where he helped assemble the Nagasaki bomb. After the war he stayed on at Los Alamos in the weapons division and helped develop the hydrogen bomb. |
| Ralph Linton | |
 |
Died
24 Dec 1953 (born 27 Feb 1893)
American anthropologist who had a marked influence on the development of cultural anthropology. After combat in France during World War I, he received a Ph.D. from Harvard (1925). In the early 1920's he did fieldwork in Polynesia. He introduced the terms "status" and "role" to social science and influenced the development of the culture-and-personality school of anthropology. His works, such as The Study of Man (1936) and The Tree of Culture (1955), are regarded more as popularizations of anthropology than as original scholarship. |
| Lev Simonovich Berg | |
(source) |
Died
24 Dec 1950 (born 14 Mar 1876)
Geographer and zoologist who established the foundations of limnology in Russia with his systematic studies on the physical, chemical, and biological conditions of fresh waters, particularly of lakes. Important, too, was his work in ichthyology, which yielded much useful data on the paleontology, anatomy, and embryology of fishes in Russia. |
| William Henry Dines | |
(source) |
Died
24 Dec 1927 (born 5 Aug 1855)
William Henry Dines was an English meterologist (like his father) and inventor of related measurement instruments such as the Dines pressure tube anemometer (the first instrument to measure both the velocity and direction of wind, 1901), a very lightweight meteorograph, and a radiometer (1920). He joined the Royal Meteorological Society study of the cause of the disastrous Tay Bridge collapse of 1879. His measurements of upper air conditions, first with kites and later by balloon ascents (1907), brought an understanding of cyclones from dynamic processes in the lower stratosphere rather than thermal effects nearer to the ground. |
| John Muir | |
Yosemite 1907 (source) |
Died
24 Dec 1914 (born 21 Apr 1838)
Scottish-American naturalist, farmer, explorer, writer, conservationist, who championed the establishment of Sequoia and Yosemite national parks in California. In 1849, the Muir family emigrated to the U.S. As an inventor, he carved clocks and curious but practical mechanisms (like a device that tipped him out of bed before dawn), that won Wisconsin State Fair prizes (1860). He had begun travelling the U.S. by 1867. His later years he wrote extensively: 300 articles and 10 major books that recounted his travels, his beloved Sierra Nevada, and expounded his naturalist philosophy. Muir drew attention to the devastation of mountain meadows and forests by sheep and cattle, leading to his role as "Father of the National Park System."  John
Muir: The Eight Wilderness Discovery Books, by John Muir |
| Clarence King | |
In a mountain camp (source) |
Died
24 Dec 1901 (born 6 Jan 1842)
American geologist and mining engineer who directed the survey of the 40th parallel (1867-78), an intensive study of the mineral resources along the site of the proposed Union Pacific Railroad, recorded in his classic volume, Systematic Geology (1878). This investigative effort included the first discovery of glaciers in the U.S. while studying the extinct volcanoes of Mounts Shasta, Rainier, and Hood. He is credited with introducing the use of contour lines on maps to indicate topographic features. Instrumental in forming the U.S. Geological Survey, he was then appointed its first head (1879-81). He wrote a series of Atlantic Monthly articles on Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada (1872), marking a transition to popularized climbing sport. |
| Robert Parker Parrott | |
(source) |
Died
24 Dec 1877 (born 5 Oct 1804)
U.S. inventor who developed the rifled cannon known as the Parrott gun, the most formidable cannon of its time. He graduated from West Point Military Academy (1824), and spent 12 years with the Army, gaining ordinance experience. He was the army's inspector of ordinance at the private firm, West Point Foundry at Cold Spring when he retired from the army to become its civilian superintendent (31 Oct 1836) for 41 years. He perfected and manufactured a 10 pounder rifled cannon. It used a projectile with an encircling brass ring that expanded upon firing to fit the rifling grooves of the barrel. He patented both in 1861. Production of 20- and 30-pounder designs followed. During the Civil War years, he developed the Parrott sight and fuze. |
| William John Macquorn Rankine | |
(source) |
Died
24 Dec 1872 (born 5 Jul 1820)
Scottish engineer and physicist and one of the founders of the science of thermodynamics, particularly in reference to steam-engine theory. As the chair (1855) of civil engineering and mechanics at Glasgow, he developed methods to solve the force distribution in frame structures. Rankine also wrote on fatigue in the metal of railway axles, on Earth pressures in soil mechanics and the stability of walls. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1853. Among his most important works are Manual of Applied Mechanics (1858), Manual of the Steam Engine and Other Prime Movers (1859) and On the Thermodynamic Theory of Waves of Finite Longitudinal Disturbance. |
| Hugh Miller | |
(source) |
Died
24 Dec 1856 (born 10 Oct 1802)
Scottish geologist and lay theologian, born in Cromarty. As a geological writer, he raised public interest in geologic history. With no formal training in geology, he had great experience in the field, particularly in the local Devonian rocks, for his initial interest in geology was stimulated by his work as a quarryman at a young age. His best known work in science is his description of the Devonian fossil fish of Scotland in his book The Old Red Sandstone (1841). He died at his own hands in 1856, after a long but episodic period of "illness of the brain", apparently aggravated by the stress of writing his final work, The Testimony of the Rocks, in which he tried to reconcile his religious beliefs with the scientific evidence of his studies. (pub. poshumously). |
| Dr. Thomas Beddoes | |
(source) |
Died
24 Dec 1808 (born 1760)
English physician and philosopher. In the late 1780s, he began to explore the potential medical uses of gases. He founded the Pneumatic Medical Institute in Bristol (1798). The institute offered oxygen therapy, but because Beddoes' assumption - that some diseases would naturally respond to a higher or lower oxygen concentration - was incorrect, the treatments offered no real clinical benefit. However, Humphry Davy, launched his chemistry career there, researching nitrous oxide ("diminished nitrous air"). Beddoes published Hygeia: Or Essays Moral and Medical, on the Causes Affecting the Personal State of the Middling and Affluent Classes, 3 vols. (1802), a formal regimen for daily diet, exercise, and sleep for illness prevention. |
| DECEMBER 24 - EVENTS | |
| Cassini released Huygens space probe | |
(source) |
In 2004, the Huygens probe began a 22-day descent
towards Saturn's largest moon, Titan. It had been launched as part of the
Cassini
spacecraft in 1997, and together they entered Saturn's orbit in June 2004.
As the paths of the spacecraft and Titan converged, Cassini ejected the
Huygens probe, sending it on a 22-day coast toward the cloud-covered moon.
It landed 14 Jan 2005, and sent
back photgraphs of the moon's surface. Cassini will remain in orbit around
Saturn until at least July 2008. The Cassini-Huygens mission to study Saturn
and its 33 known moons resulted from an unprecedented cooperative effort
between the NASA of the United States, the European Space Agency and Italy's
space program, at a cost of $3.3 billion.« |
| Solar Heating | |
Maria Telkes (source) |
In 1948, the first U.S. house to be completely solar heated was occupied
in Dover, Mass. The experiments were sponsored by Amelia Peabody. For the
architect,
Eleanor Raymond (1888-1989), the design of the Dover Sun House was one
of her most ambitious works. The heating system, designed by Dr. Maria
Telkes from the MIT Solar Laboratory, used black sheet metal collectors
to capture solar energy, stored by the phase-change of sodium sulphate
decahydrate in "heat bins". Fans distribute the heat as needed. Maria Telkes
(1900-95) was a Hungarian-American physical chemist and biophysicist, dubbed
"the Sun
Queen" for her solar research,
developed solar distillation of sea water for fresh water, solar ovens,
and many other solar projects. |
| Radioactive medicine | |
(source) |
In 1936, the first radioactive isotope medicine
was administered, Berkeley, Cal. When Ernest Lawrence, inventor of the
cyclotron, recognized the possibilities for uses of nuclear isotopes in
medicine, he persuaded his brother John to join the Berkeley Laboratory.
John Lawrence started Donner Laboratory circa 1936. Treating a 28-yr-old
woman with chronic leukemia, he administered a radioactive isotope of phosphorus-32
that had been artificially produced in a 37-in cyclotron. It was the first
time that a radioactive isotope had been used in the treatment of a human
disease as well as the start of a career-long contribution from John Lawrence.
He became known as the father of nuclear medicine and his laboratory is
considered the birthplace of this field. |
| Chimpanzee embargo | |
|
In 1923, Time magazine reported that the French government banned
the capture, detention, sale or exportation of chimpanzees from the French
West Africa to protect the chimpanzees from further exploitation by irresponsible
persons. Permits would be restricted to scientific and medical investigators.
The same issue described a process using extreme heat and pressure could
make granite and jade artificially within a few hours at the geophysical
laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, D.C. The raw ingredients
of the minerals were heated in a small electric furnace to 2,500°F
under a pressure gradually increased up to 200,000-psi. Extreme pressure
could also inject water into rock resulting in a soft, gelatin-like condition..«
[Ref:
Time
24 Dec 1923] |
|
| Helium | |
|
In 1923, Time magazine reported that bills introduced in Congress
would conserve American helium resources as a monopoly for both war and
peace purposes. Up to 500 million cubic feet of helium could be derived
from natural gas wells, enough to maintain 200 airships. This amount
was contrasted with probably not more than 15 cubic feet of isolated helium
held before the World War. The production cost had been reduced to 7 cents
per cubic foot, and helium would be preferred to airships inflated with
hydrogen which could be exploded by anti-aircraft guns or engine accidents.
The article also recognized that helium could be liquefied for easy storage,
and that a laboratory in Toronto was producing liquid helium for military
purposes.« [Ref: Time
24 Dec 1923] |
|
| Index Visible | |
(source) |
In 1912, Irving Fisher (1867-1947), a Yale professor, patented an archiving
system with index cards. On 1 Jul 1925, Fisher's own firm, the Index Visible
Company, merged
with its principal competitor to form Kardex Rand Co., later Remington
Rand, still later Sperry Rand. Fisher earned
about $1 million for the invention, which grew to the princely sum of $9
million before being lost in the stock market crash of 1929. Fisher
is widely regarded as the greatest economist
America has produced, who made much use of mathematics in his work. |
| First radio entertainment | |
 |
In 1906, Reginald A. Fessenden gave what is generally considered to be
the first broadcast
of entertainment by radio, as part of the ongoing promotion of the new
system using his new alternator- transmitter. He had been working since
1898 on being able to transmit audio, not just dots-and-dashes, since 1898.
Three days earlier, he had demonstrated it to invited representatives from
a number of organizations, among them was the American Telephone &
Telegraph Company. Fessenden and his financial backers dearly hoped AT&T
would be so impressed it would buy the rights to the patents which covered
the new system. The AT&T Co. found it was was "admirably adapted to
the transmission of news, music, etc." simultaneously to multiple locations,
but decided that it was not yet refined enough for commercial telephone
service. |
| Ford's first | |
 |
In 1893, Henry Ford completed his
first useful gas motor. He and his wife tested the small one-cylinder engine
in their kitchen. At the time Ford was chief steam engineer at the main
Detroit Edison Company plant with responsibility for maintaining electric
service in the city 24 hours a day. Because he was on call at all times,
he had no regular hours and could
experiment
to his heart's content. His wages barely paid for living expenses and for
tools and materials for his tinkering. But his wife was cooperative and
did not complain but rather, encouraged him. A later version of that engine
with two cylinders powered Ford's first automobile, his Quadricycle, when
it took its inaugural drive on 4 Jun
1896. |
| Bicycle brake | |
(source) |
In 1889, a bicycle with a back-pedal brake was patented by Daniel Stover
and William Hance of Freeport, Ill. (No. 418,142) . |
