September
Important
dates in History
September
30: Sir
Nevill Francis Mott
(Born
September 30, 1905: Died August 8, 1966)
English physicist who shared (with P.W. Anderson and J.H. Van Vleck
of the U.S.) the 1977 Nobel Prize for Physics for his independent researches
on the magnetic and electrical properties of amorphous semiconductors.
Whereas the electric properties of crystals are described by the Band
Theory - which compares the conductivity of metals, semiconductors,
and insulators - a famous exception is provided by nickel oxide. According
to band theory, nickel oxide ought to be a metallic conductor but in
reality is an insulator. Mott refined the theory to include electron-electron
interaction and explained so-called Mott transitions, by which some
metals become insulators as the electron density decreases by separating
the atoms from each other in some convenient way.
September
29: Edison
patent
In 1891, Thomas
A. Edison was issued U.S. patent No. 460122 for a "Process of and
Apparatus for Generating Electricity" and No. 460123 for a "Phonogram-Blank
Carrier."
September
28: Seymour
R. Cray
(Born September
28. 1925: Died October 5, 1996)
American electronics engineer who pioneered the use of transistors in
computers and later developed massive supercomputers to run business
and government information networks. He was the preeminent designer
of the large, high-speed computers known as supercomputers.
September
27: William
Hume-Rothery
(Born
May 15, 1899: Died September 27, 1968)
British metallurgist, internationally known for his work on the formation
of alloys and intermetallic compounds. During WW II, he supervised many
government contracts for work on complex aluminium and magnesium alloys.
He established that the microstructure of an alloy depends on the different
sizes of the component atoms, the valency electron concentration, and
electrochemical differences.
September
26: Edward
Bausch
(Born September
26, 1854)
Inventor and developer of microscopes and optical instruments. In business,
he became chairman Bausch & Lomb Optical Co. His father, John J.
Bausch (1830-1926), was born in Germany, emigrated to America in 1849,
and started a spectacle making business (the Vulcanite Optical Instrument
Co.) with German immigrant Henry Lomb (1828-1908). By 1866, their company
was making a simple microscope. The company name was changed to Bausch
& Lomb Optical Co. in 1874, the year they produced their first compound
microscope. Edward, with brothers William, and Henry all helped in the
design and production of a full product line of microscopes. Edward
held a number of patents related to the design of microscopes.
September
25: Alfred
Lewis Vail
(Born September
25, 1807: Died January 18, 1859)
American telegraph pioneer and an associate and financial backer of
Samuel F.B. Morse in the experimentation that made the telegraph a commercial
reality. The final form of the Morse code was perfected by Vail who
simplified the whole process by introducing the telegraph key. Vail
is responsible for the efficiency of the code, using the principle that
the most frequently sent letters should have the shortest code.
September
24: Georges
Claude
(Born September
24, 1870: Died May 23, 1960)
The French engineer, chemist, and inventor of the neon light, Georges
Claude, was born in Paris. He invented the neon light, which was the
forerunner of the fluorescent light. Claude was the first to apply an
electrical discharge to a sealed tube of neon gas, around 1902 and make
a neon lamp ("Neon" from Greek "neos," meaning "new
gas.") He first publicly displayed the neon lamp on 11 Dec 1910
in Paris. His French company Claude Neon, introduced neon signs to the
U.S. with two "Packard" signs for a Packard car dealership
in Los Angeles, purchased by Earle C. Anthony for $24,000.
September
23: Flashbulb
patented
In 1930, Johann
Ostermeyer of Athegnenber, Germany, patented his "Improvements
in flash lights used for photographic purposes." (UK patent 324,578).
The modern photographic safety flash bulb evolved from this design,
which used aluminium wire or foil in oxygen. Unfortunately, all too
frequently, these versions exploded! The flashbulb was introduced to
the American market in 1930 by General Electric. Flash cubes came along
in 1966, and the percussively ignitable "Magicube" in 1970.
September
22: Michael
Faraday
(Born
September 22, 1791: Died August 25, 1867)
English physicist and chemist whose many experiments contributed greatly
to the understanding of electromagnetism. Although one of the greatest
experimentalists, he was largely self-educated. Appointed by Sir Humphry
Davy as his assistant at the Royal Institution, Faraday initially concentrated
on analytical chemistry, and discovered benzene in 1825. His most important
work was in electromagnetism, in which field he demonstrated electromagnetic
rotation and discovered electromagnetic induction (the key to the development
of the electric dynamo and motor). He also discovered the laws of electrolysis.
He published pioneering papers that led to the practical use of electricity,
and he advocated the use of electric light in lighthouses.
September
21: Heiki
Kamerligh Onnes
(Born
September 21, 1853: Died February 21, 1926)
Dutch winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1913 for his work on
low-temperature physics and his production of liquid helium. He discovered
superconductivity, the almost total lack of electrical resistance in
certain materials when cooled to a temperature near absolute zero.
September
20: Fortran
In 1954, the first
FORTRAN computer program was run. Fortran is the dominating language
for technical and scientific applications. John Backus at IBM supervised
the development of the programming language that would allow uses to
express their problems in commonly understood mathematical formulae
- later to be named FORTRAN. By 1958 the language was expanded to Fortran
II, which included subroutines, functions and common blocks, and in
1962 IBM introduced the extended Fortran IV.
September
19: Chester
F. Carlson
Died 19 Sep 1968
(born 8 Feb 1906) (Born February 8, 1906: Died September 19, 1968)
Chester Floyd Carlson was an American physicist who invented xerography,
an electrostatic dry-copying process that found applications ranging
from office copying to reproducing out-of-print books. The process involved
sensitizing a photoconductive surface to light by giving it an electrostatic
charge Carlson developed it between 1934 and 1938, and initially described
it as electrophotography It was immediately protected by Carlson with
an impenetrable web of patents, though it was not until 1944 that he
was able to obtain funding for further development. In 1947 he sold
the commercial rights for his invention to the Haloid Company, a small
manufacturer of photographic paper (which later became the Xerox Corporation).
September
18: Siegfried
Marcus
(Born
September 18, 1831)
Inventor who built four of the world's earliest gasoline-powered automobiles.
Marcus held about 76 patents in about a dozen countries, including an
electric lamp (1877) and an igniter for explosives. He built and marketed
internal combustion engines. Marcus first started working on a self-propelled
vehicle about 1860, making significant contributions in the course of
further development. Photographs of his first car, built about 1864,
were taken in 1870. The second car - the landmark - was built about
1875 in his Vienna factory. It was first equipped with a two-cycle engine,
and later, a four-cycle engine.
September
17: Mercury
vapor lamp
In 1901, the first
U.S. patents for a mercury vapor lamp were issued to Peter Cooper Hewitt
of New York City, the inventor. These eight patents covered the design
of an elongated vacuum tube fitted with a mercury electrode at one end
and an iron electrode at the other end. Light was produced when an electric
current passed through the mercury vapour, through it. However, it was
a garish blue-green colour, lacking any red light. The lamps were subsequently
manufactured by the Cooper Hewitt Electric Company in New York City,
in Dec 1902.
September
16: Gabriel
Fahrenheit
(Born May 14, 1686:
Died September 16, 1736)
German physicist. Invented the Fahrenheit scale mercury thermometer.
He lived in Holland for most of his life and was involved in the manufacture
of meteorological instruments. In 1714, he created the first thermometer
to use mercury instead of alcohol. He originally took as the zero of
his scale the temperature of an equal ice-salt mixture, 30° for
the freezing point of water and 90° for normal body temperature.
Later, he adjusted to 32° for the freezing point of water and 212°
for the boiling point of water, the interval between the two being divided
into 180 parts. He also invented a hygrometer to measure relative humidity
and experimented with other liquids discovering that each liquid had
a different boiling point that would change with atmospheric pressure.
September
15: William
Seward Burroughs
(Born January 28,
1855: Died September 15, 1898)
American inventor of the first recording adding machine and pioneer
of its manufacture. It was because Burroughs began his career as a bank
clerk that he was inspired to invent such a mechanical device. In 1885,
Burroughs submitted his first patent for his "calculating machine."
In 1886, Burroughs and several St. Louis businessmen formed the American
Arithmometer Co. to market the machine. Burroughs was dissatisfied with
the durability of this first model. His 1892 patent not only improved
the machine but added a printer. The company later became Burroughs
Corporation (1905) and eventually Unisys.
September
14: Charles
Du Fay
(Born September
14, 1698: Died July 16, 1739)
Charles François de Cisternay Du Fay was a French chemist who
made early experiments in electricity. He proposed electrical fluid
existed in two types he designated "vitreous electricity"
and "resinous electricity" depending on the objects that produced
the charge. He learned that objects charged with vitreous electricity
repel each other but attract objects charged with resinous electricity.
These were subsequently given the current names of "positive"
and "negative" by Benjamin Franklin. Du Fay noted that electricity
may be conducted in the gaseous matter adjacent to a red-hot body. (The
charge-carrying gaseous matter is now known as plasma).
September
13: Taconite
In 1956, full production
of taconite began at a the first U.S. plant established for large-scale
commercial production. Taconite is a hard ore containing 25 to 30% iron.
The rock was crushed, ground and magnetically separated to yield small
pellets containing about 62% iron, with an annual prodction of 3,750,000
tons. Preliminary operations had begun in the fall of 1955. The plant,
known as the E.W. Davis Works at Silver Bay, Minn., was built by the
Reserve Mining Company (Duluth, Minn.) and jointly owned by the Armco
Steel and Republican Steel corporations.
September
12: Richard
March Hoe
(Born September
12, 1812: Died June 7, 1886)
American inventor who developed and manufactured the first successful
rotary printing press.
September
11: Deadly
lightning strike
In 1997, lightning
killed 19 persons and injured 6 at Andhra Pradesh, India.
September
10: Waldo
Semon
(Born
September 10, 1898: Died May 26, 1999)
American chemical engineer who invented plasticized PVC (vinyl). In
1926's, he discovered how to convert polyvinyl chloride from a hard,
unworkable substance to a pliable one. It is now used in hundreds of
products such as floor tile, garden hose, imitation leather, shower
curtains, and coatings. It is produced in larger quantities than any
other plastic except polyethylene. Semon also made pioneering contributions
in polymer science, including new rubber antioxidants. His technical
leadership led to discovery of three major new polymer families: thermoplastic
polyurethane, synthetic "natural" rubber, and oil-resistant
synthetic rubbers. Semon held 116 U.S. patents.
September
9: John
Henry Poynting
(Born September 9, 1852)
British physicist who introduced a theorem (1884-85) that assigns a
value to the rate of flow of electromagnetic energy known as the Poynting
vector, introduced in his paper On the Transfer of Energy in the Electromagnetic
Field (1884). In this he showed that the flow of energy at a point can
be expressed by a simple formula in terms of the electric and magnetic
forces at that point. He determined the mean density of the Earth (1891)
and made a determination of the gravitational constant (1893) using
accurate torsion balances. He was also the first to suggest, in 1903,
the existence of the effect of radiation from the Sun that causes smaller
particles in orbit about the Sun to spiral close and eventually plunge
in.
September
8: Hermann
Staudinger
(Born March 23,
1881: Died September 8, 1965)
German chemist who won the 1953 Nobel Prize for Chemistry for demonstrating
that polymers are long-chain molecules. His work laid the foundation
for the great expansion of the plastics industry later in the 20th century.
September
7: David
Pakard
(Born September
7, 1912: Died March 26, 1996)
American electrical engineer and entrepreneur who cofounded the Hewlett-Packard
Company, a manufacturer of computers, computer printers, and analytic
and measuring equipment.
September
6: Johann
Salamo Christoph Schweigger
(Born
April 8, 1779: Died September 6, 1857)
German physicist who invented the galvanometer (1820), a device to measure
the strength of an electric current. He developed the principle from
Oersted's experiment (1819) which showed that current in a wire will
deflect a compass needle. Schweigger realized that suggested a basic
measuring instrument, since a stronger current would produce a larger
deflection, and he increased the effect by winding the wire many times
in a coil around the magnetic needle. He named this instrument a "galvanometer"
in honour of Luigi Galvani, the professor who gave Volta the idea for
the first battery. Seebeck (1770-1831) named the innovative coil, Schweigger's
multiplier. It became the basis of moving coil instruments and loudspeakers.
September
5: Gas
pump
In 1885, Sylvanus
Bowser, inventor of the first U.S. gas pump, made his initial sale to
Jake Gumper, owner of a service station in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The
pump held one barrel of gasoline, and used marble vales and a wooden
plunger. It was built in Bowser's barn, and patented in 1887.
September
4: First
electric central station
In 1882, the first
electric central station to supply light and power was the Edison Electric
Illuminating Company of New York City. It had one generator which produced
power for 800 electric light bulbs. Within 14 months, the service had
508 subscribers and 12,732 bulbs.
September
3: Harold
DeForest Arnold
(Born September
3, 1883: Died July 10, 1933)
American physicist whose research led to the development of long-distance
telephony and radio communication. He worked at Western Electric on
thermionic tubes, which amplified radio and telephone signals, leading
to transcontinental telephony (July 1914). Even before the transcontinental
line was completed, Arnold was directing work on the development of
new higher power tubes to extend telephone service by radio to other
continents. The first transcontinental demonstration of radio telephone
(Sept. 29, 1915) was transmitted from New York City to Arlington, Virginia,
then to San Francisco and Honolulu. Arnold later became the first director
of research at Bell Telephone Labs (1925 to his death in 1933).
September
2: (René-)Maurice
Fréchet
(Born September
2, 1878: Died June 4, 1973)
René-Maurice Fréchet was a French mathematician known
chiefly for his contribution to real analysis. He is credited with being
the founder of the theory of abstract spaces, which generalized the
traditional mathematical definition of space as a locus for the comparison
of figures; in Fréchet's terms, space is defined as a set of
points and the set of relations. In his dissertation of 1906, he investigated
functionals on a metric space and formulated the abstract notion of
compactness. In 1907, he discovered an integral representation theorem
for functionals on the space of quadratic Lebesgue integrable functions.
He also made important contributions to statistics, probability and
calculus.
September
1: Dirk
Brouwer
(Born
September 1, 1902: Died January 31, 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.
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