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Today in Science History - Quickie Quiz
Who said: “I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, ... finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell ... whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.”
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FEBRUARY 3 – BIRTHS – Scientists born on February 3rd
  George A. Miller
 Born 3 Feb 1920; died 22 Jul 2012 at age 92.   quotes
George Armitage Miller was an American psychologist who was one of the fathers of modern cognitive psychology, and helped to establish psycholinguistics as an independent field of research in psychology. His early studies were in speech production and perception. Later he worked on human memory. In his most famous paper, The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two: Some Limits on our Capacity for Processing Information (1956) he described some limits on the human capacity to process information. Since 1985, Miller oversaw development of WordNet, a lexical database for the English language, funded in part by government agencies interested in machine translation. In 1991 he was awarded the National Medal of Science.[Ref: The Psychological Review (1956), 63, 81-97.]
Language and Speech, by George A. Miller. - book suggestion.
  Jacques Soustelle
 Born 3 Feb 1912; died 7 Aug 1990 at age 78.
Jacques-Émile Soustelle was a French anthropologist and politician who was instrumental in the return to power of General Charles de Gaulle in 1958 but afterward broke with de Gaulle over the issue of Algeria.
  George Adamson
 Born 3 Feb 1906; died 20 Aug 1989 at age 83.
British conservationist who, with his wife Joy, pioneered the movement to preserve African wildlife. He was a British game warden who had worked in Kenya as a gold prospector, goat trader, and safari hunter from 1924 when he married Joy in 1944. She wrote internationally successful books on African wildlife, especially a trilogy describing how the couple raised a lion cub, Elsa, and returned it to its natural habitat. She founded the Elsa Wild Animal Appeal (1961), an international group that financed conservation and education projects. They separated in 1971. Joy was murdered by a disgruntled employee (1980). At her funeral, Adamson promised to carry on her work. George and two of his assistants were killed by animal poachers (1989).
Born Wild: The Extraordinary Story of One Man's Passion for Africa, by Tony Fitzjohn. - book suggestion.
  Paul Scherrer
 Born 3 Feb 1890; died 25 Sep 1969 at age 79.
Swiss physicist whose collaboration with Peter Debye produced a method for X-ray diffraction analysis. The Debye-Scherrer method has the ability to identify materials that are not in the form of large, perfect crystals.«
  William Jackson Humphreys
 Born 3 Feb 1862; died 10 Nov 1949 at age 87.
American atmospheric physicist who applied basic physical laws to explain the optical, electrical, acoustical, and thermal properties and phenomena of the atmosphere. His book, Physics of the Air (1920), covers most of classical physical meteorology.
  Hugo Junkers
 Born 3 Feb 1859; died 3 Feb 1935 at age 76.
German aircraft designer and early proponent of the monoplane and all-metal construction of aircraft. Junkers died on his 76th birthday.
  Wilhelm Ludvig Johannsen
 Born 3 Feb 1857; died 11 Nov 1927 at age 70.   quotes
Danish botanist and geneticist whose experiments in plant heredity offered strong support to the mutation theory of the Dutch botanist Hugo de Vries (that changes in heredity come about through sudden, discrete changes of the heredity units in germ cells). Many geneticists thought Johannsen's ideas dealt a severe blow to Charles Darwin's theory that new species were produced by the slow process of natural selection. In 1909, Johannsen proposed that each portion of a chromosome that controls a phenotype be called a "gene" (Greek: "to give birth to").
  Hudson Maxim
 Born 3 Feb 1853; died 6 May 1927 at age 74.   quotes
American inventor of explosives, much used in WW I. In his early career, a printing business at Pittsfield, Mass. (1883) he invented a method of color printing in newspapers. He turned to improving explosives and made the first smokeless powder in the U.S. It was adopted by the U.S. Army. In 1901, he invented maximite, a high explosive bursting powder 50% more powerful than dynamite. When used in torpedoes, maximite resisted both the shock of firing and the greater shock of piercing armour plate without exploding until it was then set off by a delayed-action detonating fuse, another Maxim invention. Later, he perfected a new smokeless powder, called stabillite because of its high stability, and motorite, a self-combustive substance to propel torpedoes.   more
The Rise of an American Inventor: Hudson Maxim’s Life Story, by Hudson Maxim. - book suggestion.
  Sir William Cornelius Van Horne
 Born 3 Feb 1843; died 11 Sep 1915 at age 72.
U.S.-born Canadian railway official who directed the construction of Canada's first transcontinental railroad.
  Spencer Fullerton Baird
 Born 3 Feb 1823; died 19 Aug 1887 at age 64.   quotes
American naturalist and vertebrate zoologist who in his time was the leading authority on North American birds and mammals. A pioneer in museum collecting and display, he was named the Smithsonian Institution's second Secretary upon the death of the first Secretary, Joseph Henry. Whereas Henry had envisioned the Smithsonian primarily as a research institute, Baird saw Smithson's gift as the means to develop a national museum. By 1878, Congress had formally given responsibility for the U.S. National Museum to the Smithsonian Institution. During the Baird years, the Smithsonian became a showcase for the nation's history, resources, and treasures. By the end of his tenure, the National Museum housed more than 2.5 million specimens and artifacts.
  Elizabeth Blackwell
 Born 3 Feb 1821; died 31 May 1910 at age 89.   quotes
English-American physician who is considered the first female doctor of medicine in modern times. She was the first woman to gain the M.D. degree from a medical school in the United States. Many 19th century physicians, including a few women, practiced without a degree, but Blackwell wished desired professional status. While rejected by all the major medical schools in the nation because of her sex, her application to Geneva Medical School (now Hobart & William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York) was referred to the student body. They accepted with great hilarity thinking it was a spoof from a rival school. Working with quiet determination, she turned aside the hostility of the professors, students, and townspeople. She earned her medical degree in 1849.   more
Elizabeth Blackwell: First Woman Physician, by Tristan Boyer Binns. - book suggestion.
  Gideon Algernon Mantell
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iguanadon
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 Born 3 Feb 1790; died 10 Nov 1852 at age 62.
British physician, geologist, and paleontologist, who discovered 4 of the 5 genera of dinosaurs known during his time. As the son of a shoemaker, to a becoming physician, he began a hobby that became all-consuming. An early identification was of the fossil teeth he found while walking with his wife in 1822. When he saw the connection with teeth of the present lizard, the iguana, in 1825, he named the animal the iguanodon (“iguana tooth”). Subsequently, he made additional finds of fossil bones of other large animals which he described accurately: the hylaeosaurus, pelorosaurus, and regnosaurus. His contemporary, paleontologist Sir Richard Owen, coined the word dinosaur (“terrible lizards”). Mantell's books include Medals of Creation (1844).
  Jean-Étienne-Dominique Esquirol
 Born 3 Feb 1772; died 12 Dec 1840 at age 68.
French psychiatrist who was the first to combine precise clinical descriptions with the statistical analysis of mental illnesses. He was a pioneer of the humane treatment of persons considered insane and was appointed resident physician at the Bedlam of Paris in 1811. He was the Chief physician of Charenton asylum (1826). The book he authored, Des maladies mentales (1838), was the first modern textbook of psychiatry. He gave the the first modern description of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder in 1838, which he called the folie de doute, or doubting madness, and suspected it was rooted in a physical problem in the brain.   more


Nature bears long with those who wrong her. She is patient under abuse. But when abuse has gone too far, when the time of reckoning finally comes, she is equally slow to be appeased and to turn away her wrath. (1882) -- Nathaniel Egleston, who was writing then about deforestation, but speaks equally well about the danger of climate change today.
Carl Sagan Thumbnail Carl Sagan: In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion. (1987) ...(more by Sagan)

Albert Einstein: I used to wonder how it comes about that the electron is negative. Negative-positive—these are perfectly symmetric in physics. There is no reason whatever to prefer one to the other. Then why is the electron negative? I thought about this for a long time and at last all I could think was “It won the fight!” ...(more by Einstein)

Richard Feynman: It is the facts that matter, not the proofs. Physics can progress without the proofs, but we can't go on without the facts ... if the facts are right, then the proofs are a matter of playing around with the algebra correctly. ...(more by Feynman)
Quotations by:Albert EinsteinIsaac NewtonLord KelvinCharles DarwinSrinivasa RamanujanCarl SaganFlorence NightingaleThomas EdisonAristotleMarie CurieBenjamin FranklinWinston ChurchillGalileo GalileiSigmund FreudRobert BunsenLouis PasteurTheodore RooseveltAbraham LincolnRonald ReaganLeonardo DaVinciMichio KakuKarl PopperJohann GoetheRobert OppenheimerCharles Kettering  ... (more people)

Quotations about:Atomic  BombBiologyChemistryDeforestationEngineeringAnatomyAstronomyBacteriaBiochemistryBotanyConservationDinosaurEnvironmentFractalGeneticsGeologyHistory of ScienceInventionJupiterKnowledgeLoveMathematicsMeasurementMedicineNatural ResourceOrganic ChemistryPhysicsPhysicianQuantum TheoryResearchScience and ArtTeacherTechnologyUniverseVolcanoVirusWind PowerWomen ScientistsX-RaysYouthZoology  ... (more topics)
FEBRUARY 3 – DEATHS – Scientists died on February 3rd
  Ernst Mayr
 Died 3 Feb 2005 at age 100 (born 5 Jul 1904).   quotes
Ernst Walter Mayr was a German-American biologist who merged genetics with evolution to explain how new species evolve. As a youth, he enjoyed bird watching, and by age 10, could recognize all the local bird species by sight or call. By age 21, he had earned a Ph.D. in ornithology (Jun 1926). In 1928-30, aged in his 20s, Mayr headed three scientific expeditions to New Guinea and the Solomon Islands to study the effects of geographic distribution among various animal species. He became a leader developing the modern synthetic theory of evolution (in which ideas of gene mutation and their molecular evolution over time are merged with the effects of reproductive isolation and natural selection). In 1940, Mayr presented a definition of species to identify similar but different species.«
Systematics and the Origin of Species, by Ernst Mayr. - book suggestion.
  William Coolidge
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 Died 3 Feb 1975 at age 101 (born 23 Oct 1873).   quotes
William David Coolidge was an American physicist, engineer and physical chemist whose improvement of tungsten filaments (U.S. patent No.1,082,933, issued 30 Dec 1913) was essential in the development of the modern incandescent lamp bulb and the X-ray tube. Coolidge's X-ray tube (1916, U.S. patent No. 1,203,495) completely revolutionized the generation of X-rays and remains to this day the model upon which all X-ray tubes for medical applications are patterned. He worked on many other devices such as high-quality magnetic steel, improved ventilating fans, and the electric blanket. During World War II he contributed research to projects involving radar and radar countermeasures. He was awarded 83 patents during his lifetime.
William David Coolidge: A Centenarian and His Work, by Herman Alfred Liebhafsky. - book suggestion.
  Émile Borel
 Died 3 Feb 1956 at age 85 (born 7 Jan 1871).   quotes
Félix-Édouard-Justin-Émile Borel was a French mathematician who (with René Baire and Henri Lebesgue), was among the pioneers of measure theory and its application to probability theory. In one of his books on probability, he proposed the thought experiment that a monkey hitting keys at random on a typewriter keyboard will - with absolute certainty - eventually type every book in France's Bibliothèque nationale de France (National Library). This is now popularly known as the infinite monkey theorem. He was first to develop (1899) a systematic theory for a divergent series. He also published (1921-27) a number of research papers on game theory and became the first to define games of strategy.
Space and Time, by Emile Borel. - book suggestion.
  Robert M. Yerkes
 Died 3 Feb 1956 at age 79 (born 26 May 1876).
Robert Mearns Yerkes was an American psychologist and a principal developer of comparative (animal) psychology in the U.S. In his book The Dancing Mouse (1908), he helped established the use of mice and rats as standard subjects for experiments in psychology. He also studied primates, publishing his results in 1929 in the classic book The Great Apes.
  Hugo Junkers
 Died 3 Feb 1935 at age 76 (born 3 Feb 1859).
German aircraft designer and early proponent of the monoplane and all-metal construction of aircraft. Junkers died on his 76th birthday.
  Agner Erlang
 Died 3 Feb 1929 at age 51 (born 1 Jan 1878).
Agner Krarup Erlang was a Danish mathematician who was a pioneer in the study of telecommunications traffic. He developed mathematical theories applying the theory of probability, while working for the Copenhagen Telephone Company. He provided significant insights for planning the operation of automatic telephone exchanges that proved so useful that his formulas were used by telephone companies in other countries, including Britain. He died unexpectedly at age 51. Nearly two decades after his early death, an international committee for telephone communications applied his name to the erlang unit to be the International Unit of Telephone Traffic. The Erlang distribution, also known by his name, refers to the statistical probability distribution that he used in his work, a special case of the Gamma distribution, used for traffic models.«
  Oliver Heaviside
 Died 3 Feb 1925 at age 74 (born 18 May 1850).   quotes
English physicist and electrical engineer who predicted the existence of the ionosphere. In 1870, he became a telegrapher, but increasing deafness forced him to retire in 1874. He then devoted himself to investigations of electricity. In 1902, Heaviside and  Arthur Kennelly predicted an ionised layer in the upper atmosphere that would reflect radio waves—useful for long distance communication. Radio signals can travel to distant parts of the earth by bouncing off the underside of this layer, as short-wave radio hams well know. The existence of the Heaviside layer (ionosphere) was demonstrated in the 1920s, when radio pulses were transmitted vertically upward and the pulses returning from the reflecting layer were received.«
Oliver Heaviside: The Life, Work, and Times of an Electrical Genius of the Victorian Age, by Paul J Nahin. - book suggestion.
  Edward Charles Pickering
 Died 3 Feb 1919 at age 72 (born 19 Jul 1846).   quotes
Edward Charles Pickering, was born Boston, Mass., U.S. physicist and astronomer. After graduating from Harvard, he taught physics for ten years at MIT where he built the first instructional physics laboratory in the United States. At age 30, he directed the Harvard College Observatory for 42 years. His observations were assisted by a staff of women, including Annie Jump Cannon. He introduced the use of the meridian photometer to measure the magnitude of stars, and established the Harvard Photometry (1884), the first great photometric catalog. By establishing a station in Peru (1891) to make the southern photographs, he published the first all-sky photographic map (1903).
  Sir Morell Mackenzie
 Died 3 Feb 1892 at age 54 (born 7 Jul 1837).   quotes
English laryngologist, who, as Britain's leading specialist in treatment of diseases of the throat, became embroiled in a bitter international controversy over the death of his patient, German Emperor Frederick III. In his book, The Fatal Illness Of Frederick The Noble (1888), Mackenzie defended his care of the laryngeal cancer of the Crown Prince, later Emperor Frederick the Noble. He had been accused of medical malpractice by jealous attending German physicians following the emperor's death on 15 Jun 1888. The book not only decribes laryngology in the late 19th century, but also offers hidden insight into German history, as well as the soap opera of scheming and attempts at character assassination.   more
  Christophorus Buys Ballot
 Died 3 Feb 1890 at age 72 (born 10 Oct 1817).   quotes
Christophorus Henricus Didericus Buys Ballot was a Dutch meteorologist who is remembered for his observation in 1857 that the wind blows at right angles to the atmospheric pressure gradient. He showed that northern hemisphere winds circulate counter-clockwise around low pressure areas and clockwise around high pressure areas. The reverse is true in the southern hemisphere. Although not the first to make this discovery, his name remains attached to it as Buys Ballot's law. He studied and taught at the University of Utrecht, and founded the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute in 1854. He was the inventor of the aeroklinoscope and of a system of weather signals.
  John Gould
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Dusky Robins (c.1849)
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 Died 3 Feb 1881 at age 76 (born 14 Sep 1804).
English ornithologist whose life work produced 41 lavishly illustrated volumes on birds from all over the world, containing in all about 3,000 plates, all lithographed and hand-painted. Of these, his Birds of Australia was particularly significant (1840-69) as the first comprehensive record of the continent's birds and mammals. With its plates of the birds were descriptions, notes on their distribution and adaptation to the environment. He assisted Charles Darwin with identification of the specimens collected during the voyage of the Beagle. By informing Darwin that the finches belonging to separate species, he provided essential information giving Darwin insight leading to his later development of the theory of evolution.«[Image right: Plate from Vol III of Birds of Australia showing a male and two young Dusky Robins, Petroica Fesca.]
John Gould's Birds, by John Gould and Maureen Lambourne. - book suggestion.
  Maximilian, Prinz (Prince) zu Wied-Neuwied
 Died 3 Feb 1867 at age 84 (born 23 Sep 1782).
German naturalist, ethnographer and explorer whose observations on a trip to the American West in the 1830s provide valuable information about the Plains Indians at that time.
  Jean-Baptiste Biot
 Died 3 Feb 1862 at age 87 (born 21 Apr 1774).   quotes
French physicist and mathematician who, with Felix Savart, developed the Biot-Savart law, that the intensity of the magnetic field produced by current flow through a wire varies inversely with the distance from the wire. He did work in astronomy, elasticity, heat, optics, electricity and magnetism. In pure mathematics, he contibuted to geometry. In 1804 he made a 13,000-feet (5-km) high hot-air balloon ascent with Joseph Gay-Lussac to investigate the atmosphere. In 1806, he accompanied François Arago to Spain to complete earlier work there to measure of the arc of the meridian. Biot discovered optical activity in 1815, the ability of a substance to rotate the plane of polarization of light, which laid the basis for saccharimetry, a useful technique of analyzing sugar solutions.«
  David Wilkinson
 Died 3 Feb 1852 at age 81 (born 5 Jan 1771).   quotes
American inventor and manufacturer who patented a machine for cutting screw threads which incorporated the slide rest (14 Dec 1798). It had a heavy carriage supported on three rollers. With his father and brother, Wilkinson supplied the cotton industry by machining, casting and forging iron parts to build textile manufacturing equipment for such factories as Slater Mill, Pawtucket, Rhode Island. With such business to keep him occupied, Wilkinson did not further develop his screw machine. His business failed in the the financial panic of 1829. However, the slide-rest invention was widely applied by others, especially making firearms for the U.S. government. He petitioned Congress in 1848 for a financial reward for his invention and received $10,000.«   more
  George Claghorn
 Died 3 Feb 1824 at age 75 (born 6 Jul 1748).
American soldier and ship-builder during the Revolutionary War. His most notable vessel was the USS Constitution, one of several 44-gun frigates authorized by Congress in 1794 to protect commerce at sea. He served in the Revolutionary War, rising from first lieutenant to the rank of colonel, then became a well-known ship-builder at New Bedford, Mass. He built the whaler Rebecca there, launched in Mar 1785. It is said to be the first American whaler to round Cape Horn and return with a cargo of sperm oil from the Pacific. In 1794, he moved to Boston to build the USS Constitution ("Old Ironsides"). Its difficult launch began on 20 Sep 1797, but it was not afloat until 21 Oct. It remains the oldest commissioned warship afloat in the world.«
  Johann Beckmann
 Died 3 Feb 1811 at age 71 (born 4 Jun 1739).   quotes
German chemist and economist who established the science of agriculture. He published a prominent textbook (1769) which laid a scientific foundation for practical agriculture, involving natural history, mineralogy, physics, chemistry and mathematics. By 1769, he was using the word “technology,” which he coined for the science of trades. From an educational trip (1765-66), by inspecting factories, mines and foundries he had a good background in the manufacture of natural products and the mining of metals. He published the first advanced textbook (1777) with a systematic approach describing the processing of raw materials in different trades. With his influence, secondary schools introduced a technology curriculum. By researching primary sources, he was also a reliable historian of inventions.«
  Tommaso Ceva
 Died 3 Feb 1737 at age 88 (born 20 Dec 1648).
Italian mathematician, poet, and brother of the mathematician Giovanni Ceva. At the age of fifteen he entered the Society of Jesus. His education was entirely within the Jesuit Order and he obtained a degree in theology. His first scientific work, De natura gravium (1669), dealt with physical subjects, such as gravity and free fall, in a philosophical way. Tommaso Ceva's mathematical work is summed up in Opuscula Mathematica (1699) which examines geometry (geometric-harmonic means, the cycloid, and conic sections), gravity and arithmetic. He also designed an instrument to divide a right angle into a given number of equal parts. He gave the greater part of his time to writing Latin prose. His poem Jesus Puer was translated into many languages.«
  Johannes Gutenberg
 Died 3 Feb 1468 (born c. 1396).   quotes
German inventor and printer who invented movable type. Johann Gensfeisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg, was a German craftsman and inventor of movable type used together with a new type-metal alloy, a new press, and an oil based printing ink. In combination, this was a new method of printing never used before. Gutenberg prepared his type by casting any quantity of precise copies of a letter stamped into the mold. His screw press pressed paper lying on an inked type forme in a manner similar to presses used in winemaking.[Birth year circa 1394-99.]   more

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FEBRUARY 3 – EVENTS – Science events on February 3rd
  Embryo transplant
  In 1984, a Long Beach, Calif., hospital announced the birth of the world's first baby conceived by embryo transplant.
  First soft landing on the moon
  In 1966, three days after its takeoff, the unmanned Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft landed safely on the moon in the Ocean of Storms. It was the first ever soft landing on another celestial body, and opened the way for manned trips to the moon, by removing doubts lest the surface was an unsafe dusty quicksand. On striking the surface, the Soviet probe ejected a 250-lb capsule which then rolled upright and unfolded four spring actuated petals to steady itself. A TV camera with a revolving mirror system enabled Luna 9 to take pictures, including panoramic views of the lunar landscape and closer views of nearby rocks, which were transmitted back to earth until 6 Feb when the batteries ran out and contact with the spacecraft was lost.
  Weather satellite
  In 1966, the U.S. launched its first operational weather satellite, ESSA-1 to provide cloud-cover photography to the U.S. National Meteorological Center for preparation of operational weather analyses and forecasts. The spacecraft was an 18-sided polygon, 42-in. diameter, 22-in. high and weight 305-lb. It was made of aluminum alloy and stainless steel, then covered with 9100 solar cells. The solar cells served to charge the 63 batteries. Its two cameras were mounted 180 degrees opposite each other along the cylindrical side of the craft. A camera could be pointed at some point on Earth every time the satellite rotated along its axis. ESSA-1 was able to view the weather of each area of the globe, photographing a given area at the exact same local time each day.
  The Silent Spring
  In 1958, Rachael Carson wrote to E.B. White, editor of The New Yorker magazine, to urge him to write a book. The environmental content she had in mind became her famous book, The Silent Spring. However, because White replied that although he felt unable to do it himself, he encouraged her to write it herself. So she did.
  Missing link fossil
  In 1925, a report of the first “missing link” fossil, found by Raymond Dart, was published in a newspaper. The Star of Johannesburg, South Africa announced the find, instead of the professional journal Nature, when the editors of the journal changed their mind. In 1924, Dart found the skull that made him famous. Mr. Dart with his students made the find in the Taung limestone works in the Harts Valley of Bechuanaland. When an endocranial cast was found, at first it seemed to be just another primate skull. Then, Dart noticed how amazingly close to human it looked. Dart had discovered the Taung child, who was only three years old at the time of death. He named it Australopithecus africanus. “Australis” meaning south and “pithecus” meaning ape.
  London electric street lights
  In 1891, the city-wide electrical lighting of London streets was marked by a ceremony where the Mayor laid the foundation stone of the principal junction box. This committment came after a dozen years of experiments. Contracts had been awarded to the Brush Electrical Engineering Company and the Laing, Wharton and Down Construction Syndicate for different sections of the city. Each provided their own generating station. The junction box allowed each company to provide back-up power to the other in case either lost production due to any serious accident at a generating station. Every street, lane, court and alley was to be lighted with a total of 400 arc lamps with 2,000 nominal candle power and 1,000 incandescent lamps of varying candle power. Illumination was hoped to be twenty times more than that provided by gas in the past. The cost was expected to be about £20,000 per year.«
  Black American patent
  In 1880, African-American inventor, Joseph W. Waller of Baltimore, Maryland, was issued a U.S. patent for a “Shoemaker’s Cabinet or Bench” (No. 224,253). The design combined a cabinet and a calf-skin seat. The cabinet was designed with compartments and divisions for boxes, jars and bottles; and pockets for holding various tools. It was also provided with a lamp for heating purposes and a groove for stones for sharpening tools. The seat and its back were hinged to make the cabinet lid, and the seat legs were detachable, so the entire assembly could be shipped as a compact box.   more
Great Discoveries and Inventions by African-Americans, by David M. Foy. - book suggestion.
  First incandescent light bulb demonstration
Thumbnail - First incandescent light bulb demonstration
  In 1879, the first practically usable incandescent filament electric light bulb was demonstrated to an audience of 700 by its inventor Joseph Wilson Swan at the Literary and Philosophical Society of Newcastle upon Tyne. Following his successful demonstration, Swan established the world's first electric light bulb factory at Benwell in the western subburbs of Newcastle. Later, Swan's bulbs were used to light up Mosley Street in the Newcastle city centre, the first street in the world to be lit by electric light. By 1881, Swan had introduced his bulbs in London where 1,200 of them were used in the lighting the Savoy Theatre in front of an astonished audience.
  Newspaper-to-go
  In 1862, as a boy almost 15 yrs old, Thomas Edison (1847-1931), became the first publisher of a newspaper produced and sold on a moving train. He had set up a small press in the baggage car of the Grand Trunk Railroad train from Port Huron to Detroit, Mich. Already obsessed with telegraphy, he worked out the logistics of getting advance news. His weekly Grand Trunk Herald, a single sheet measuring 7-in. x 8-in., included local news and advertisements for his father's store. He had been selling candy and newspapers on commission on that train run since age 12. Now, promoting his own newspaper he earned more. Edison became renowned as a pioneering boy journalist. At its peak, he sold about 200 copies a day to train riders.

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- 100 -
Sophie Germain
Gertrude Elion
Ernest Rutherford
James Chadwick
Marcel Proust
William Harvey
Johann Goethe
John Keynes
Carl Gauss
Paul Feyerabend
- 90 -
Antoine Lavoisier
Lise Meitner
Charles Babbage
Ibn Khaldun
Euclid
Ralph Emerson
Robert Bunsen
Frederick Banting
Andre Ampere
Winston Churchill
- 80 -
John Locke
Bronislaw Malinowski
Bible
Thomas Huxley
Alessandro Volta
Erwin Schrodinger
Wilhelm Roentgen
Louis Pasteur
Bertrand Russell
Jean Lamarck
- 70 -
Samuel Morse
John Wheeler
Nicolaus Copernicus
Robert Fulton
Pierre Laplace
Humphry Davy
Thomas Edison
Lord Kelvin
Theodore Roosevelt
Carolus Linnaeus
- 60 -
Francis Galton
Linus Pauling
Immanuel Kant
Martin Fischer
Robert Boyle
Karl Popper
Paul Dirac
Avicenna
James Watson
William Shakespeare
- 50 -
Stephen Hawking
Niels Bohr
Nikola Tesla
Rachel Carson
Max Planck
Henry Adams
Richard Dawkins
Werner Heisenberg
Alfred Wegener
John Dalton
- 40 -
Pierre Fermat
Edward Wilson
Johannes Kepler
Gustave Eiffel
Giordano Bruno
JJ Thomson
Thomas Kuhn
Leonardo DaVinci
Archimedes
David Hume
- 30 -
Andreas Vesalius
Rudolf Virchow
Richard Feynman
James Hutton
Alexander Fleming
Emile Durkheim
Benjamin Franklin
Robert Oppenheimer
Robert Hooke
Charles Kettering
- 20 -
Carl Sagan
James Maxwell
Marie Curie
Rene Descartes
Francis Crick
Hippocrates
Michael Faraday
Srinivasa Ramanujan
Francis Bacon
Galileo Galilei
- 10 -
Aristotle
John Watson
Rosalind Franklin
Michio Kaku
Isaac Asimov
Charles Darwin
Sigmund Freud
Albert Einstein
Florence Nightingale
Isaac Newton


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