| JULY 31 - BIRTHS | |
| Stephanie Kwolek | |
(source) |
 Born 31
July 1923
American chemist and inventor of Kevlar. Shortly after graduating with a bachelor's degree in chemistry (1946), she began a career at DuPont's textile fibers department in Buffalo, New York. Kwolek was assigned to search for a new, high-performance fiber that would be acid- and base-resistant and stable at high temperatures. After many long hours of work and much experimentation, she created a liquid polymer that, after being spun, was five times stronger than steel and had half the density of fiberglass. It was named Kevlar. Today, this fiber is used to make bullet-proof vests, aircraft parts, inflatable boats, gloves, rope, and building materials.  Women
Inventors, by Jean F. Blashfield |
| Primo Levi | |
(source) |
Born 31
July 1919; died 1987
A Jewish-Italian novelist, short-story writer and poet, Primo Levi was also a chemist most of his professional life. As a memoirist, he is noted for his restrained and moving autobiographical account of and reflections on survival in the Nazi concentration camps. In his science work, The Periodic Table, he wrote: "...conquering matter is to understand it, and understanding matter is necessary to understanding the universe and ourselves." His gift of writing brought the subject to life. Chemistry, in turn, saved his life. Imprisoned in Auschwitz, the young Italian chemist was granted a tenuous reprieve as a technician in the laboratory of an I. G. Farben rubber factory built by slave laborers on the camp's grounds. He died by suicide in 1987, after a long illness. "The
Periodic Table" by Primo Levi |
| Paul D. Boyer | |
(source) |
Born 31
July 1918
American biochemist who, together with John E. Walker, receive half the 1997 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for their work explaining the enzymatic process involved in the production of the energy-storage molecule adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which fuels the metabolic processes of the cells of all living things and how the enzyme ATP synthase catalyses the formation of ATP. Boyer and his co-workers proposed, on the basis of biochemical data, a mechanism for how ATP is formed from adenosine diphosphate (ADP) and inorganic phosphate. Walker and his co-workers have established the structure of the enzyme and verified the mechanism proposed by Boyer. |
| Baron Anton Freiherr von Eiselsberg | |
| Born 31
July 1860; died 1939.
Austrian surgeon, teacher, and researcher who carried out important studies in the physiology of the thyroid gland (1891) and surgery of the central nervous system. Anton von Eiselsberg introduced neurosurgery to the First Surgical Clinic at the General Hospital in Vienna where he was the first to resect a cerebral tumor (1904). He also published The operative cure of acromegaly by removal of hypophysial tumor, (1908). |
|
| Theobald Smith | |
 |
Born 31
July 1859; died 10 Dec 1934.
American microbiologist and pathologist who discovered the causes of several infectious and parasitic diseases. He is often considered the greatest American bacteriologist. In 1892 he linked Texas cattle fever with a protozoan parasite spread by blood-sucking ticks. At the time, many scientists were skeptical that disease would be spread by bloodsucking arthropods. However, the precedent was established for other scientists to make links in cases of other diseases spread by insects. In 1909, Theobald Smith used toxin/antitoxin as a vaccine for diphtheria. In 1919, Theobald Smith, investigated infectious abortions of U.S. cattle. |
| Richard Dixon Oldham | |
(source) |
Born 31
July 1858; died 15 Jul 1936
Irish geologist and seismologist who discovered evidence for the existence of the Earth's liquid core (1906). In studying seismograms of great 1897 Indian Earthquake he identified P (primary) and S (secondary) waves. It is interesting that he did not get a clue to the presence of the core from the S waves, which are actually incapable of being transmitted through the liquid of the outer core. (The liquid core does not transmit the shear wave energy released during an earthquake.) Rather he noted the existence of a shadow zone in which P waves from an earthquake in the opposite hemisphere of the earth failed to appear. |
| Herbert E. Ives | |
(source) |
Born 31
July 1882; died 13 Nov 1953.
Herbert Eugene Ives was a physicist and inventor of transmission of mechanical video pictures. Research into a television process by the AT&T Co. at Bell Laboratories, New York was under the direction of Dr. Herbert E. Ives. On 7 Apr 1927, live images of Commerce Secretary Hoover were transmitted in the first successful long distance demonstration of television, sent from Washington D.C. to New York, over long distance wires. On 27 June 1929 the first public demonstration of color TV showed images are a bouquet of roses and an American flag using a mechanical system was used to transmit 50-line color television images between New York and Washington. A two-way video telephone was first demonstrated in 1930 by Ives in New York City. |
| Abram Stevens Hewitt | |
(source) |
Born 31
July 1822; died 18 Jan 1903.
American engineer, industrialist, made first Bessemer steel in the US. He was also a philanthropist, and politician who in 1886 defeated Henry George and Theodore Roosevelt to become mayor of New York City. Hewitt was a partner in a company owning several iron works. At the Cheltenham meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in the summer of 1856 he heard the presentation of Henry Bessemer on the production of steel without fuel. Within the same year, Hewitt arranged an experiment with that process at the furnace of Cooper and Hewitt, at Philipsburgh, in New Jersey, with successful results. |
| George Baxter | |
(source) |
Born 31 July 1804; died Jan 1867
English engraver and printer who invented a process (patented 1835) of colour printing that made mass reproductions of paintings. Baxter used wood and metal colour blocks in conjunction with steel key plates and using oil inks. The subject was first engraved onto a steel key plate, impressions of this plate were taken, and colour blocks were cut for it - one for each different colour. The steel key plate printed a monochrome picture and then the colours would be built up by printing from the colour blocks using the relief process. Prints might require only 8 different blocks or as many as 20 different colours, each superimposed after being allowed to dry. Baxter died in Jan 1867 after being struck by a horse omnibus. [Image right: Detail from "Gems of the Great Exhibition, No. 2" showing statue of "The Unhappy Child" from the Belgian Deptartment, patented 26 Apr 1852.] |
| John Ericsson | |
(source) |
Born 31
July 1803; died 8 Mar 1889.
Naval engineer, born Langbanshyttan, Sweden, became an American citizen in 1847. He was the inventor of the screw propeller, built the first armoured turret warship, the USS Monitor. At the age of 14, he participated in the building of the Göta Canal (1817). A locomotive of his design, The Novelty, participated in a competition with Stephenson's Rocket in 1829. Ericsson invented and patented (No.588, on 1 Feb 1836) a double rotation propeller. In Aug 1861, the American Congress authorized ironclad warships and one ship of the Monitor type designed by Ericsson was ordered. By Mar 1862 the Monitor was ready for sea. He also developed a torpedo boat, "The Destroyer," and worked to design his sun-motor engine. 
 Man
of the Monitor, The story of John Ericsson, by Jean Lee
Latham. |
| Friedrich Wöhler | |
(source) |
Born 31
July 1800; died 23 Sep 1882
Friedrich Karl Wöhler was a German chemist who co-discovered vanadium. Having studied first medicine, then mineralogy, it was chemistry that became his primary interest. He found a method in 1827 for the production of metallic aluminum in the form of a grey powder by heating aluminum chloride with potassium. In 1828, he succeeded in the isolation of beryllium as a black-grey powder as well as of yttrium and (1856) crystalline silicon. He is most well-known for the synthesis of urea from ammonium cyanate (1828), which created an organic compound from an inorganic one, showing there was no absolute distinction between the two areas of chemical study. In 1862, he produced acetylene from calcium carbide. |
| John Canton | |
(source) |
Born 31 July 1718; died 22 Mar 1772.
British physicist and teacher, born Stroud, Gloucestershire. He made a number of minor discoveries in physics and chemistry. As a result of preparing artificial magnets in 1749 he was elected to the Royal Society. In 1762, he demonstrated that water was slightly compressible. He invented a number of devices in connection with electricity. His notable work, between 1756 and 1759, was to record that on days when the aurora borealis was particularly bright, a compass needle behaved with more irregularity than usual. Thus he was the first to record this as an electromagnetic phenomenon for what is now known to be a magnetic storm. [Image right (source)] |
| JULY 31 - DEATHS | |
| Hendrik Christoffel van de Hulst | |
(source) |
 Died
31 July 2000 (born 19 Nov 1918)
Dutch astronomer who predicted theoretically (1944) that in interstellar space the amount of neutral atomic hydrogen, which in its hyperfine transition radiates and absorbs at a wavelength of 21 cm, might be expected to occur at such high column densities as to provide a spectral line sufficiently strong as to be measurable. Shortly after the end of the war several groups set about to test this prediction. The 21-cm line of atomic hydrogen was detected in 1951, first at Harvard University followed within a few weeks by others. The discovery demonstrated that astronomical research, which at that time was limited to conventional light, could be complemented with observations at radio wavelengths, revealing a range of new physical processes. |
| Francis Edgar Stanley | |
(source) |
Died 31 July 1918 (born 1 Jun 1849)
American inventor, who with his twin brother Freeman, were the most famous manufacturers of steam-driven automobiles. Francis previously had invented a photographic dry-plate process (1883), and as the Stanley Dry Plate Company the brothers had engaged in the manufacturing of the plates. They sold the company to Eastman Kodak in 1905, as their interest had turned to steam-powered automobiles. They began working on steam powered cars in 1897, and built thousands of them them until the 1920's as the Stanley Motor Company. At racing events, they often competed successfully against gasoline powered cars (1902-09). They set a world record in 1906 for fastest mile in 28.2 seconds (127 mph or 205 kph). [Image right: 1910 Stanley Model 71] The
Stanley Steamer: America's Legendary Steam Car,
by
Kit Foster. |
| Benoît Fourneyron | |
(source) |
Died
31 July 1867 (born 31 Oct 1802)
French engineer and inventor of the water turbine. In 1827, age 25, Fourneyron, introduced a reaction turbine that channeled water through an enclosed chamber fitted with an inner ring of fixed guide blades. These guide blades deflected the water outward against the moving vanes of a "runner." The vanes of this outer runner were curved in the opposite direction from the fixed inner guide blades, reversing the direction of water flow within the device and creating a reactive force. Fourneyron's patent described his invention as "a wheel of universal and continuous pressure or hydraulic turbine." He died in Paris, known as " father of the turbine" |
| JULY 31 - EVENTS | |
| First unpowered flight across English Channel | |
(source) |
 
In 2003, Felix Baumgartner became the first man to cross the English Channel
by unpowered flight.
He jumped from a plane about 9,800-m (30,000-ft) above Dover, England and
glided 36-km (22-mi) across the Channel in a 10-min flight wearing a special
suit with carbon-fibre wings across his back. In sub-zero air, the 34-yr-old
Austrian's
flight began at about 220 mph, slowing to around 135 mph by the time he
landed by parachute at Cap Blanc-Nez, near Calais, in France. He was equipped
with oxygen, cameras and hi-tech data monitors to enable his journey to
be tracked. His wing span of 1.8-m was about 10-cm longer than another
he used a few weeks earlier to win a race against an aeroplane in the U.S.
[Image
right:
Felix Baumgartner gliding above the English Channel.] |
| Gene therapy | |
(source) |
In 1990, experiments in gene therapy by the insertion of new genes into
body cells were approved for the first time by the Recombinant DNA Advisory
Committee of the National Institutes of Health. These first real gene therapies
for humans were for adenosine deaminase deficiency (a genetic disease that
destroys the immune system) and for a form of cancer.*
Dr. McGarrity, chair of the committee
noted that the protocols that they had voted upon were the first approvals
for true gene therapy rather than simple gene insertion. Garrity added
that this is a historic occasion in that now gene therapy can be added
to the repertoire of vaccines, antibiotics, drugs, surgery, and radiation
to fight disease. |
| Lunar auto | |
(source) |
In 1971, Dave Scott became the first
person to drive
a vehicle on the Moon - the battery-powered Lunar Rover (LRV) - as part
of the Apollo 15 mission to the mountainous Hadley-Apennine region.
This LRV, the first to be carried on an Apollo mission, built by Boeing,
weighed 460 lb (209 kg) and folded into a space 5 ft by 20 in (1.5 m by
0.5 m). Each wheel was independently driven by ¼ horsepower (200
W) electric motor. The astronauts could travel further from their landing
site and sample a wider variety of lunar materials. The car travelled 17.4
miles (28 km) and collected about 168 pounds (76 kg) of lunar materials
to return to Earth. Shepard and Mitchell of the previous Apollo 14
mission walked about 2.5 miles (4 km), hauling their scientific gear in
a two-wheeled cart .« [Image:
Lunar Rover Vehicle driven by Dave Scott in the first lunar surface extravehicular
activity at the Hadley-Apennine landing site.] |
| Last cigarette commercial in GB | |
|
In 1965, the last cigarette commercial appeared on British television. |
|
| Moon pictures | |
|
In 1964, the American space probe Ranger
7 transmitted the first close-up images of the moon's surface ever
taken by a U.S. spacecraft, beginning the mapping of the surface in preparation
for a future lunar landing. Ranger spacecraft were designed to fly straight
down towards the Moon and send images back until the moment of impact.
Ranger 7 carried
six slow-scan vidicon TV cameras capable of transmitting high-resolution,
close-up television pictures of the lunar surface. Seventeen minutes before
impact it captured the first image, showing 360-km from top to bottom,
including the large crater Alphonsus (108-km diam). The partial scan image
taken immediately before impact had a resolution of 0.5 meters. A total
of 4308 photographs of excellent quality were returned before Ranger 7
crashed in Mare Cognitum (Sea of Clouds), a mare terrain modified by crater
rays. |
|
| Los Angeles smog | |
(source) |
In 1954, a six year research program
found that Los Angeles smog was caused by the chemical reaction of sunlight
on auto and industrial emissions. The first eye-irritating "smog" in Los
Angeles occurred on 26 Jul 1943 - a "gas
attack" of haze, smoke and exhaust that reduced visibility to under three
blocks. The Los Angeles Times launched an anti-smog campaign on
1 Dec 1946, and brought a smog expert to Los Angeles to study the problem.
On 14 Oct 1947, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors established
the nation's first air pollution control program by creating the Los Angeles
County Air Pollution Control District. Dr Haagen-Smit later reported that
ozone was the primary nuisance ingredient in smog.« [Image:
The first recorded photograph of LA smog, 26 July 1943] |
| Dr Crippen apprehended by radio | |
(source) |
In 1910, Marconi telegraph signals were used in a murder case
for the first time. American-born Dr Hawley Crippen and his mistress, Ethel
Le Neve, disguised as a boy, were arrested for the murder of his wife in
England. Her remains were discovered 13 Jul 1910. She had been poisoned
with hyoscine, an extract of the deadly plant henbane. An arrest warrant
was issued 16 Jul 1910. Crippen was spotted mid-Atlantic as they sailed
from Antwerp to Canada on the SS Montrose, the first ship to be equipped
with radio-telegraph, and police in London were alerted by its skipper,
Captain Kendall. |
| Iron railway bridge collapse | |
|
In 1849, an iron railway bridge near Mast Hope, Pennsylvania, collapsed
as a stock train was crossing. The engineer heard a loud cracking, pulled
the throttle wide open, and succeeded in getting the engine across in safety.
However, the rest of the train fell into the deep ravine of the Westcolang
Creek along with the wrecked bridge. A brakeman and two stockmen lost their
lives. The New York and Erie Railroad had that year experimented by building
three iron bridges, including the one that failed. In 1850, an article
in the Scientific American magazine
reported that the company,
having lost confidence in iron bridges, would tear down the two remaining
and replace them with wooden structures.« |
|
| Centennial of Chemistry | |
Priestley |
In 1874, the Centennial
of Chemistry in the U.S. was celebrated
by chemists meeting at Northumberland, Pa. where Joseph
Priestley was buried after spending the last years of his life in America.
The chemists commemorated the 100th anniversary of Priestley's
discovery
of the element oxygen on 1 Aug 1774, regarded as the most important link
in the chain of events which eventually led to the overthrow of the phlogistic
hypothesis. The memorial exercises were planned to include an address by
Professor Joseph Henry, an Essay
on American Contributions to Chemistry by Benjamin
Silliman, Jr., and a loan exhibition of Priestley's apparatus, books
and manuscripts. The event was initiated
by Henry Bolton.« |
| Cannon | |
|
In 1849, Benjamin
Chambers was issued a U.S. patent for the breech loading cannon (No.
6612). The advantage
of breech loading was to speed up the reloading process, allowing troops
to fire more rounds per minute. Prior to this technology,
troops used musket loading guns and had to run to the front of the gun
to reload - wasting time and risking lives. Breechloading guns required
a mechanism able to withstand the strain of firing and still operate smoothly
and quickly to allow the next round to be fired. This required not only
a superior material but expert machining. Chambers' design used a breech
piece with sectional screws to allow for speedy opening for "swabbing,
depositing the load and readily it closing again." |
|
| First U.S. Patent | |
(source) |
In 1790, the first U.S. patent was granted
to Samuel Hopkins of Vermont for a process for making potash and pearl
ashes. Potash was important as an ingredient in soap and fertilizer. The
patent was granted for a term of 14 years and signed by President George
Washington, who had the previous month signed the first U.S. patent statute
into law on 10 April 1790. Hopkins
did not get Patent with a serial No.1 as thousands of patents were issued
before the Patent Office began to number them. Congress had passed the
Patent Act on 10 Apr 1790. Two other patents were granted that year - one
for a new candle-making process and the other the flour-milling machinery
of Oliver Evans. The next year, 1791, Samuel Hopkins also was granted
the first Canadian patent.« |
