| SEPTEMBER 1 - BIRTHS | |
| Karl August Folkers | |
(source) |
 Born 1
Sep 1906; died 9 Dec 1997
U.S. chemist whose research on vitamins resulted in the isolation of vitamin B12, the only effective agent known in countering pernicious anemia. |
| Dirk Brouwer | |
(source) |
Born 1
Sep 1902; died 31 Jan 1966
Dutch-born U.S. astronomer and geophysicist known for his achievements in celestial mechanics, especially for his pioneering application of high-speed digital computers for astronomical computations. While still a student he determined the mass of Titan from its influence on other Saturnian moons. Brouwer developed general methods for finding orbits and computing errors and applied these methods to comets, asteroids, and planets. He computed the orbits of the first artificial satellites and from them obtained increased knowledge of the figure of the earth. His book, Methods of Celestial Mechanics, taught a generation of celestial mechanicians. He also redetermined astronomical constants. |
| Francis William Aston | |
(EB) |
Born 1
Sep 1877; died 20 Nov 1945
British physicist who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1922 for his development of the mass spectrograph, a device that separates atoms or molecular fragments of different mass and measures those masses with remarkable accuracy. Aston used the mass spectograph to discover a large number of nuclides, or nuclear species. |
| Baron Carl Auer von Welsbach | |
(source) |
Born 1
Sep 1858; died 4 Aug 1929
(baron of Welsbach) Austrian chemist and engineer who invented the gas mantle, thus allowing the greatly increased output of light by gas lamps. |
| Sergei Nikolayevich Winogradsky | |
(source) |
Born 1
Sep 1856; died 1953.
Russian microbiologist who helped to establish bacteriology as a major biological science. He was first to isolate the bacteria responsible for nitrification and nitrogen fixation by soil bacteria (1890).Winogradsky also studied bacteria that recycle other vital elements for use by other organisms - including ‘iron bacteria’, and those which metabolize sulfur (1887-9) - deriving metabolic energy from inorganic nutrients. Previously, only organic substrates were considered suitable for microbes. The "Winogradsky column" is still used as an enrichment culture that simulates the muddy habitat of anoxygenic photosynthetic bacteria. |
| Auguste-Henri Forel | |
(source) |
Born 1
Sep 1848; died 27 July 1931.
Swiss neuroanatomist, psychiatrist, and entomologist known for his investigations of brain structure. Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Zürich and director of the world-famous Burghölzli Hospital, Forel was Adolf Meyer's teacher. Interested in ants from childhood, he became engrossed in the psychology of ants and contributed greatly to the study of their social instincts, leading to his magnum opus in 5 volumes of The Social World of the Ants (1921-23). He was the first to describe the phenomena of parabiosis and lestobiosis in ants. |
| Alfred Ely Beach | |
(source) |
Born 1
Sep 1826; died 1 Jan 1896.
American inventor and publisher, whose Scientific American helped stimulate 19th-century technological innovations and became one of the world's most prestigious science magazines. Beach himself invented a tunneling shield and built the pneumatic tube subway (1870). In 1856 he won First Prize and a gold medal at New York's Crystal Palace Exhibition. Beach had invented a typewriter for the blind. It resembled the modern typewriter in the arrangement of its keys and typebars, but embossed its letters on a narrow paper strip instead of a sheet. |
| SEPTEMBER 1 - DEATHS | |
| Luis W. Alvarez | |
(source) |
 Died
1 Sep 1988 (born 13 June 1911)
American experimental physicist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1968 for work that included the discovery of many resonance particles (subatomic particles having extremely short lifetimes and occurring only in high-energy nuclear collisions). Alvarez invented a radio distance and direction indicator. During World War II, he designed a landing system for aircrafts and a radar system for locating planes. He participated in the development of the atomic bomb at the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, Los Alamos, N.M. (1944-45). He suggested the technique for detonating the implosion type of atomic bomb. Later, he helped develop the hydrogen bubble chamber, used to detect subatomic particles. This research led to the discovery of over 70 elementary particles and resulted in a major revision of nuclear theories. |
| Haskell Brooks Curry | |
(source) |
Died
1 Sep 1982 (born 12 Sep 1900)
American mathematician who was a pioneer of modern mathematical logic. His research in the foundations of mathematics led him to the development of combinatory logic. Later, this seminal work found significant application in computer science, especially in the design of programming languages. Curry worked on the first electronic computer, called ENIAC, during WW II. He also formulated a logical calculus using inferential rules. In 1942, he published Curry's paradox, which occurs in naive set theory or naive logics, and allows the derivation of an arbitrary sentence from a self-referring sentence and some apparently innocuous logical deduction rules.«  Foundations
of Mathematical Logic, by Haskell Brooks Curry. |
| Lillian D. Wald | |
(source) |
Died
1 Sep 1940 (born 10 Mar 1867).
Scientist, nurse, influential in establishing a nationwide system of nurses in public schools. Known as "Angel of Henry Street" (New York City) because, for more than 40 years, Wald directed the Henry Street Visiting Nurse Service, while at the same time tirelessly opposing political and social corruption. She helped initiate revision of child labor laws, improved housing conditions in tenement districts, enactment of pure food laws, education for the mentally handicapped, and passage of enlightened immigration regulations. |
| SEPTEMBER 1 - EVENTS | |
| Exotic meson | |
In 1997, the discovery of a new sub-atomic particle was announced, called
the "exotic meson." Scientists speculated that the exotic meson might
comprise four quarks, unlike all other known particles, which have three.
The research team included physicists at Brookhaven National Laboratory,
Upton, N.Y., and other facilities in the U.S. and Russia. eb |
|
| Atomic testing resumed | |
 |
In 1961, the Soviet Union ended a moratorium on atomic bomb testing with
an above-ground nuclear explosion in central Asia. The USSR had ended
speculation the day before in a TASS broadcast that announced it had resumed
atomic testing, and by 5 Sep, had conducted three nuclear weapons tests.
President Kennedy ordered the resumption of U.S. underground weapons testing.
The U.S. response
began on 15 Sep 1961 with a series of nine low yield underground experiments
at Yucca Flat with a further 62 tests there in 1962. The Soviet Union activity
extended to a series of 50 detonations. On 5 Aug 1963 the Limited Test
Ban Treaty was signed in Moscow prohibiting testing in outer space, underwater
or in the atmosphere. |
| Passenger pigeon | |
(source) |
In 1914, the Passenger Pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) became extinct as
the last surviving bird of the colorful native American species
of dove died at the Cincinnati Zoo. The passenger pigeon was hunted to
extinction; the fact that it traveled and nested in large flocks made it
easy to slaughter. The adult male passenger pigeon had grey upper parts,
the tips of the wings and the tail were black; its throat was a dark rust,
while its breast was a lighter rust; its eyes were red. The adult female
was of a duller color, with brownish upper parts and a lighter, brownish
throat and breast; its eyes were black |
| Gramophone patented | |
(source) |
In 1887, Emile Berliner (1851
- 1929) filed for a patent for his invention
of the lateral-cut, flat-disk gramophone on this day. We know it better
as the record
player. Emile got the patent, but Thomas
Edison got the notoriety -- for making it work and making music with
his American invention. Berliner's legacy also lives on in his trademark
(later adopted by RCA): a picture of a dog listening to "his master's voice"
issuing from a gramophone. |
| Sources of all energy | |
|
In 1881, in an address to the British Association, at York, Sir William
Thomson (Lord Kelvin) described the
sources of all energy in nature available to man for the production of
mechanical effect, as tides, food, fuel, wind and rain, all except the
tides derived from the sun.* |
|
| Antiseptic surgery | |
(source) |
In 1865, Joseph Lister performed
the first antiseptic surgery. |
| Solar flare | |
(source) |
In 1859, a solar flare was observed for the first time by astronomer Richard
C. Carrington. He reported
his Description of a Singular Appearance seen in the Sun in the
Monthly
Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (1860), "While engaged in
the ... observation of ... solar spots ... two patches of intensely bright
and white light broke out. ... I therefore noted down the time, ... and
seeing the outburst to be very rapidly on the increase ... I hastily ran
to call some one to witness ... and on returning within 60 seconds,
was mortified to find that it was already much changed and enfeebled. Very
shortly afterwards the last trace was gone. In this lapse of 5 minutes,
the two patches of light traversed a space of about 35,000 miles." |
| First transatlantic cable failure | |
|
In 1858, the first transatlantic cable failed after less than 1 month of
service. |
|
| Asteroid | |
(source) |
In 1854, the first observation made in North America of a previously unknown
asteroid was recorded by Scottish-born American James
Ferguson of the U.S. Naval Observatory. This was the thirty-first of
the series and is now known as 31 Euphrosyne, named after one of the Charites
in Greek mythology. It is one of the largest of the main belt asteroids,
between Mars and Jupiter. Ferguson subsequently discovered two more asteroids:
50 Virginia (4 Oct 1857) and 60 Echo (14 Sep 1860). Within the next two
decades, more asteroids were discovered by American astronomers: one by
Searle, two by Tuttle (1861-62), 16 by Watson (1863-74), and 22 by Peters
(1861-1875), making a total of 44 discovered in a period of about 20 years.« |
| Botanical garden | |
|
In 1801, David Hosack (1769-1835) purchased twenty acres on Manhattan on
which he subsequently developed his Elgin Botanic Garden. From 1809 to
1811, Frederick Pursh (1774-1820) served as gardener. In 1811, the Garden
became the property of the Regents of the State of New York; in 1814, it
was attached to Columbia University but was not maintained. |
|
